Pitchfork

Eight years ago, Superdrag's John Davis briefly snuck on MTV by wailing "Who sucked out the feeeelin'?" Evidently, as his upcoming solo album will make plain, the feeeeeelin' has now returned. "I didn't set out to make a 'Christian Rock' record or a 'CCM' record," Davis writes to Pitchfork. "I had a profound, first-hand experience with Christ that changed my whole life and my whole way of looking at the world, and I wanted to write a record about that. So I did!"

Davis' self-titled solo debut arrives via Rambler Records March 5 and was cut in Nashville and co-produced by Davis and R.S. Field, who's worked with Buddy Guy and Billy Joe Shaver. If that pedigree and Davis' recent EP, Jesus Gonna Build Me a Home, are any indication, expect a blues/gospel spin to the usual power-pop chicanery. The lyrics, meanwhile, aren't likely to beat around the burning bush. Davis pinpoints his spiritual awakening to a specific date: November 11, 2001.

"I didn't hear a voice, but I felt the voice in my heart and I just knew in an instant that God was there," says Davis. "Bitterness, cynicism, skepticism, any doubts I had, fears I had, all that just-- melted. I asked God to tell me something, show me something, and He did. As human beings we've all got a void inside us, by nature; He let me know right away that mine would never be filled with liquor, or drugs, or anything else that put distance between He and myself. I asked for peace, and through the Holy Spirit God sent peace to me. Since that day, I haven't been the same." Tracklist:

01 I Hear Your Voice
02 Salvation
03 Me & My Girl
04 Nothing Gets Me Down
05 Jesus Gonna Build Me a Home
06 The Kind of Heart
07 Have Mercy
08 Tear Me Apart
09 Stained Glass Window
10 Too Far Out
11 Lay Your Burden Down
12 Do You Know How Much You've Been Loved

Superdrag, meanwhile, has been dormant since 2002's apparently very well-titled Last Call for Vitriol, but in early 2005, 'Drag label Arena Rock will grace us with a b-sides/rarities comp-- even previously released tracks like "Keep It Close to Me" will be alternate versions, first-takes, you know the drill. Tracklist:

01 Here We Come
02 She Says
03 My Day (Will Come)
04 Sleeping Beauty
05 Doctors Are Dead
06 Comfortably Bummed
07 No Inspiration
08 Keep It Close To Me
09 Extra-Sensory
10 I Am Incinerator
11 Relocate My Satellites
12 While the Rest of the World Was Busy Changing
12 Lighting The Way (live)
13 True Beliver (live)

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