“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding”

-Albert Einstein

“Of course I’d find someone carrying a pocketknife in Tennessee,” vocalist Caleb Cordes jokes as I hand over a short blade that quickly proves effective in opening a fresh case of CDs. Although a copy of Sinai Vessel’s most recent release, Brokenlegged, sits on my turntable at home and occupies space in the memory of my phone, I am determined to have a physical copy available in my car as well. Officially released under the genre of “Sissy Punk”, Brokenlegged is not just another punk album; it is a narrative full of tender moments and honesty laced between shouts of fervor stemming from perceived injustice. These aren’t just cries for attention, they are a plea for empathy, a lunge for a deeper level of understanding.

Like all records, Brokenlegged is an invitation to listen. However, its uniqueness comes from not just being an invitation to listen, but as a call to action that demands a response. American actor Max Carver once said, “Empathy is the starting point for creating a community and taking action. It’s the impetus for creating change”.[i] As soon as Brokenlegged begins, the listener is challenged to think differently about their existence, actions, choices, and to be present in moments of true significance that are often overlooked.

On the cover of Brokenlegged’s packaging, a photograph by Canadian artist Nathan Cyprys shows a body lying in front of a field of grain, alone and contorted between the weeds. Cyprys’ image recalls the Parable of the Sower in Matthew chapter thirteen, verses seven through eight, where it is recorded that Jesus said, “Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop…”[ii] Even before the record begins playing, it offers us a glimpse of the provocative, suggesting that humankind is isolated and struggling to grow in a place of despair instead of thriving in a community that lies just a short distance away.

The first song on the record, “Looseleaf,” is a very strong opening track and does a great job setting this album’s tone in its first three lines. Flourishing from a subtle, pulsing guitar line at the start, drums and bass soon join Cordes when he asserts, “Here I stand, like a tree/Nervous on the edge of a clearing/Limbs afraid to be cut looseleaf/to be cut down/so I’ll cut myself out”.[iii] Dealing with self-inflicted wounds, possibly stemming from early experiences with predominately white Evangelical zealots, Cordes distances himself from the immersive culture of his formative years. In an interview with Shawn Cooke from TrackRecord magazine, Cordes remarks on Christianity, “If it’s my ethical center, it just helps me love better, it helps me be more empathetic [and] meditate on those principles… by which I live my life”.[iv]

The second verse of “Looseleaf” presents a glimpse of Eden, a leveling of the playing field: “You’re on fifth/And I’m on three/But it makes no difference to gravity/We’ll land just the same: Brokenlegged”.[v] Possibly a comment on wealth disparity or racial tensions in the United States, “Looseleaf” reminds followers of most biblical traditions that in the end, all actions will be accounted for and balanced out. One day we will experience true justice.

For the listener to get closer to completely understanding Brokenlegged, it is necessary to compare emo-rock staple track and lead single “Dogs” to its predecessor “Cats” on Sinai Vessel’s Profanity EP. With a clever use of titles, the band suggests a similar influence for both tracks. With short, quick stabs, Cordes offers commentary on images seemingly common in the southern region of the United States with lines like “a garage full of guns and dirty magazines” and “race-consuming tongues and shallow reveling”.[vi] Cordes’ straightforward writing comes out full-force in the bridge as he croons,

“‘cause you are just a Sunday morning/you’re a bullhorn in the street/you’re a protest on the asphalt/politician on tv/you’re a bell rung by the hour/a curse when we cut our feet/you’re a five-word liar’s chorus: “you mean everything to me”’.[vii]

Offering commentary on his experiences with hypocrisy, Cordes becomes even more brazen in “Dogs” with lines like “that old spirit embodies the least/and the least are readily seen in photographs taken overseas”.[viii] Touching on many subjects such as gender norms, sexual identity, police brutality, and a general numbness towards injustice, “Dogs” juxtaposes weighty themes to a dancey tune . Pitchfork contributor Ian Cohen writes that “Dogs” is, “…a loftily-worded worded indictment of religious zealots. The general theme is familiar, exposing the hypocrisy of fundamentalists “othering” those who live in their same community in the name of love”.[ix] At the end of the heady track, Cordes offers us another look at what is usually given to “the least of these” with his final blow when he sings, “there’s a good book paved in all the missing mortar/and an overpass of gold above the meek/let not the trodden tread the apse’s light in mire/build a shower on the porch to rinse them clean”.[x] These lines may seem brash, but one must determine if they are not necessary to bring light to the judgment that those of a lower social status may encounter when entering a place of organized worship. To confirm our suspicions, Cordes offers us a Facebook post in which he writes, ‘“This song is explicitly about Evangelical Christians”. He chastises the group for rejecting ‘the people their faith explicitly calls them to love and advocate for” and choosing to ignore “those desperately suffering in their immediate vicinity”’.[xi] Cordes offers concerned followers of the Christian tradition a look at his experience of the Evangelical ceiling presented throughout congregations in the southern region of the United States and gives listeners an opportunity to create a new floor.

Opposite Brokenlegged’s opening confidence, an air of uncertainty surrounds its closing track, “Cork of Worry”, sends the listener off with a list of questions that they and all of humankind have to answer on a personal level. Continued allusions to experiences in the white Evangelical church open this song with a reference to verse twenty-two in the eighteenth chapter of Matthew: “I heard a choir boy say outright/good men stumble seven times/and seven times again they rise/But that’s his abacus, not mine”.[xii] Corde’s expands his thoughts on the subject of forgiveness…

“‘Cause when the berth between what is/and what’s deserved is this absurd/I can’t be blamed for waking up expecting the worst/There are no landings on this staircase/no banisters to hold/just a steep and constant gradient/that I keep falling from/and a spine that’s getting softer til I can’t stand on my own”. [xiii]

With this stark presentation of biblical literature and what it can do when delivered in an overbearing and aggressive manner, we can see why Cordes and his followers may harbor a sense of hard-heartedness towards some of the talking heads that grace our television screens. The second verse of “Cork of Worry” offers an admission: “I’m afraid I’ve spent the life I could have had in truth/on cheaper thrills and placebo pills and quicker substitutes/hoping for scope of heart that’s massive/arms of welcome spread obtuse”. [xiv] Is this referencing one’s ability to lash out in anger before thinking in a moment of tension? Or is it the revelation that we need to offer grace to all that we meet?

It may be possible that not even the author knows the answers to these questions, as he continues: “so I will wait for answers to rise out of the carpet/and believe the point will come to me in dreams/and I won’t get up for anything/I’ll sleep on the floor for weeks/ears pressed to the ground, just listening”.[xv] With this image, those who lead others to believe they practice Christianity are inspired to be uncomfortable, to ignore the rhetoric we hear from misguided individuals and take in the “otherness” that we are allowed to experience in our daily lives. In an album review on Brokenlegged, Tom Johnson writes for GoldFlakePaint,

“ ‘Just listening’. Just listening. Not tearing up the pieces, not fitting them back together to try and make these words and worlds our own, but taking a step back, watching the light rise and fade again, allowing the sentiments of others to take centre-stage, to tell their own story, because they exist and because they do. Just them, telling. Just you, listening. And so, so much more besides”.[xvi]

With a synopsis like this, it is hard to imagine that Brokenlegged hasn’t received much attention in the commercial sense of the word. One hopes that the album and its spirit are just getting started, moving towards the open field, breaking away from a space occupied by thorns and weeds.

Notes

[i] “Max Carver Quotes.” BrainyQuote. Accessed November 08, 2017.

[ii] “BibleGateway.” Matthew 13 — — Bible Gateway. Accessed November 08, 2017.

[iii] Cordes, Caleb C. Looseleaf. Sinai Vessel. Sinai Vessel/David Wimbish, 2017, CD.

[iv] Cooke, Shawn. “Sinai Vessel Get Closer to Eden on Brokenlegged.” TrackRecord. February 19, 2017. Accessed November 08, 2017.

[v] Cordes, Caleb C. Looseleaf. Sinai Vessel. Sinai Vessel/David Wimbish, 2017, CD.

[vi] Cordes, Caleb C. Cats. Sinai Vessel. Sinai Vessel/David Wimbish, 2014, CD.

[vii] Ibid.

[viii] Cordes, Caleb C. Dogs. Sinai Vessel. Sinai Vessel/David Wimbish, 2017, CD.

[ix] Cohen, Ian. “Sinai Vessel: Brokenlegged.” Sinai Vessel: Brokenlegged Album Review | Pitchfork. January 25, 2017. Accessed November 08, 2017.

[x] Cordes, Caleb C. Dogs. Sinai Vessel. Sinai Vessel/David Wimbish, 2017, CD.

[xi] Cooke, Shawn. “Sinai Vessel Get Closer to Eden on Brokenlegged.” TrackRecord. February 19, 2017. Accessed November 08, 2017.

[xii] Cordes, Caleb C. Cork of Worry. Sinai Vessel. Sinai Vessel/David Wimbish, 2017, CD.

[xiii] Ibid.

[xiv] Ibid.

[xv] Ibid.

[xvi] Johnson, Tom. “Album: Sinai Vessel — ‘Brokenlegged’.” GoldFlakePaint. March 14, 2017. Accessed November 08, 2017.