You are currently browsing the monthly archive for December, 2007.
Running an MP3 blog, I get people sending me music to review and promote all the time. Some of it is great. A lot of it is OK. And some of it is really bad.
Today’s band, EPO-555, is none of those. They’re a step or two above “OK,” but not quite at the “great” level yet.
The people in charge of their US marketing sent me their latest album, Mafia, to review and give my opinion of. I never heard of the band before this album, so I can’t offer a very wide perspective, but I’ll give my humble opinions and you all can see what you think on your own by downloading the sample MP3s below.
Polls are still open for Group 4, but if you’re done with all that, vote on Group 5 below.
Official rules are here if you need them. Otherwise, here are your four artists for today:
Page France - Chariot
Third Day - Consuming Fire
The Myriad - Forget What You Came For
Jeremy Casella - The Space Between Living and Dying
Download the MP3s if you need them, but judge the artists, not just the songs above.
Here are your six matches to vote on:
1) Page France vs. Third Day
2) Page France vs. The Myriad
3) Page France vs. Jeremy Casella
4) Third Day vs. The Myriad
5) Third Day vs. Jeremy Casella
6) The Myriad vs. Jeremy Casella
And let the voting begin! All votes must be received by 7:00 am CST on Wednesday, January 2, 2008.
Official Links
Page France MySpace Page
Buy Page France MP3s on iTunes
Buy Page France CDs on Amazon.com
Third Day MySpace Page
Buy Third Day MP3s on iTunes
Buy Third Day CDs on Amazon.com
The Myriad MySpace Page
Buy The Myriad MP3s on iTunes
Buy The Myriad CDs on Amazon.com
Jeremy Casella MySpace Page
Buy Jeremy Casella MP3s on iTunes
Buy Jeremy Casella CDs on Amazon.com
Note: All MP3s will be removed after one week
Continuing on with my series on Defining Christian Music, today, I want to look at what’s wrong with the term “Christian musician.” This will be a short post, mostly questions, so be prepared to make up for its shortness by lots of comments.
This is something that really annoys me. I get it that the term “Christian Music” is problematic, but why do so many artists have a problem with being called “Christian musicians?”
And I’m not just ranting either. I really want to know why people have a problem with it.
I doubt a Buddhist who plays music for a living would be offended if I called them a Buddhist musician, yet many Christians who do the same react strongly against being called Christian musicians. Why? I honestly don’t get it. If you’re a Christian and you’re making music, aren’t you a Christian musician?
Why are people so freaked out to be called “Christian musicians” or “Christian artists?” I worked at a hotel in college and I wouldn’t have been offended to be labelled a Christian housekeeper. However, I would have been pretty ticked if you called me a Christian maid. Totally different territory there.
Please share your thoughts. Does the term “Christian musician” need to be revised as well? Are there good, logical reasons that people don’t like that label?
Keep voting on Group 3 until 7:00 am CST Wednesday, December 26, but when you’re done, Group 4 is below for your voting pleasure. If you need them, the official rules are here, but things are pretty simple. Just listen to the MP3s below if you’re unfamiliar with the artists, then vote on who you think is better for each of the one-on-one matches.
Anyway, here’s today’s four artists:
Lifehouse - The Joke
Waterdeep - And I Can’t Sleep
Colour Revolt - A New Family
The Listening - Be in Your Eyes
Download the MP3s if you need them, but judge the artist based on their entire work, not just the one MP3 here. And here are your six matches:
1) Lifehouse vs. Waterdeep
2) Lifehouse vs. Colour Revolt
3) Lifehouse vs. The Listening
4) Waterdeep vs. Colour Revolt
5) Waterdeep vs. The Listening
6) Colour Revolt vs. The Listening
Vote away, and feel free to leave any comments on your reasoning!
All votes must be received by 7:00 am CST on Monday, December 31, 2007.
Official Links
Lifehouse MySpace Page
Buy Lifehouse MP3s on iTunes
Buy Lifehouse CDs on Amazon.com
Waterdeep MySpace Page
Buy Waterdeep MP3s on iTunes
Buy Waterdeep CDs on Amazon.com
Colour Revolt MySpace Page
Buy Colour Revolt MP3s on iTunes
Buy Colour Revolt CDs on Amazon.com
The Listening MySpace Page
Buy The Listening MP3s on iTunes
Buy The Listening CDs on Amazon.com
Note: All MP3s will be removed after one week
I thought this would make a great Christmas Eve post! Todd Fadel of Agents of Future sent me an e-mail the other day with a compilation he made up with some of the best tracks from 1996’s It Never Snows on Christmas, an album from way back in 1996 of some of the best Portland, Oregon, bands at the time.
Why the name It Never Snows on Christmas? Because, says Todd, it never has snowed on Christmas day in Portland, for as long as he can remember.
Here’s what Todd says about the mix: “The songs are fun. Stereo Crush’s singer now leads a project called Boy Eats Drum Machine (which includes looped drums from Danny Seim of Menomena and Kevin Robinson of Viva Voce). Pep Squad is a band that was on Tooth and Nail for a couple of releases in 1997-1998. My band, Sappo, was on Organic Records in 1997, and the All*Stars featured singers from local bands Yum Yum Children, Gifty, Brothers and Sisters of Righteousness, and Jimi Dorsey and the Lime Rickies.”
Click here for a zip file of Todd’s best-of compilation, or for the full album, go here. You can listen on-line or to download the songs, just create a free account.
Don’t worry - you can still vote on Group 2 until 7:30 am CST Monday, December 24.
I just wanted to get things rolling again, so you can also vote on this, Group 3. For a quick rundown of the rules, in case this is your first time around, see here. It’s pretty simple, though. One vote per each one-on-one match. There will be 6 matches between 4 artists. Put your e-mail or WordPress ID in when you vote in the comments, or I’ll be forced to throw your vote out. That’s about it. Now, let’s vote!
Here are your four artists, with sample songs to help if you don’t know them that well:
Synthar - Small Coastal Towns
Leonard Jones - Oh, Jah! (file is 25 MB and 18 minutes long)
Woven Hand - Bleary-Eyed Duty
Jars of Clay - Jealous Kind
Back again with another post on Defining Christian Music!
Check out my previous posts to get up-to-date, but basically I’ve decided that I don’t like the term “Christian Music.” There are a lot of things that bother me about it, but my main reason for not liking it is that it implies the music is not only by Christians (which I’m fine with) but also exclusively for Christians (which I’m not fine with). So, I don’t like the term as it is, and this post is about what to do about it.
I know it’s sort of dumb to be deciding I don’t want to use the term “Christian Music” anymore right in the midst of Christian Music Superbowl I, but, like I said, I don’t like it but I need to figure out what to do about that.
Thanks, everyone, for voting on Group 1 last week. Doug Burr was the obvious winner far and above all the competion. Way to go Doug!
Now on to Group 2! But first, a recap of the rules, in case you forgot any:
You are allowed only one vote per one-on-one match. No unfairly voting numerous times for the person you want to win.
To vote, leave a comment with who you think should win each of the six face-offs below. Put in a valid e-mail when you leave your comment (or your WordPress ID). I won’t keep your e-mail or anything, but I need to do this in order to keep it a little more kosher.
You have 5 days (120 hours) to vote on the bands. So if I put up a match on Friday at 7 am, then I will count the votes on the following Wednesday at 7 am. You have until that time to send in your vote. All votes after that time will not be counted.
If there are no questions, here are your bands for this group, along with a sample song to help in voting:
Josh Clubb - Even There
Agents of Future - You Can Change My Mind
Robbie Seay Band - Jesus Garden of My Rest
Brooke Waggoner - listen at MySpace (she doesn’t like illegal downloading. Weird…)
In the spirit of the holiday season, today I offer to you the first ever mix CD at The Blah Blah - Have a Blah Christmas, 2007. I’ve never been a huge fan of Christmas music, but I like it a lot better in December than in October, and I like all the songs in this mix a lot. To download the album art, just right-click on the picture to the left and select “Save Target As.” To download the songs, do the same with the links below.
1. Jars of Clay - Love Came Down at Christmas
2. Destroy Nate Allen - Holiday
3. Sufjan Stevens - Come on! Let’s Boogey to the Elf Dance!
4. Phantasmic - Come On Ring Those Bells
5. Half-Handed Cloud - Plant a Little Fir Tree
6. Don Peris - Silent Night
7. Friction Bailey - Angels We Have Heard on High
8. The Lighthouse Band - O Holy Night
9. Poor Old Lu - What Child is This
10. Soul-Junk - Dayspring from On High
Hope you like these! Head to the artists’ MySpace for more.
MySpace Pages:
Jars of Clay
Destroy Nate Allen
Sufjan Stevens
Half-Handed Cloud
Don Peris
Friction Bailey
The Lighthouse Band
Poor Old Lu
Soul-Junk
The Blah Blah - serving up the best in Christian music MP3s.
I apologize for the tiny photo of Steve and Joy Guiles to the left. I’m not positive, but I think that, in real life, they are actually taller.
Anyway, I heard about Steve Guiles just recently, and I wanted to pass him along to you guys. Steve has been recording music for a while now, with various groups and under various names. As Friction Bailey, it’s Steve and his wife Joy pulling off some folky, acoustic pop stuff. As Pushstart Wagon, it’s Steve, Eric Shouse, and Ben Eggehorn doing power pop, college rock kind of songs. As The Vegas Nerve, it’s Steve and a bunch of his college friends. As Steven Wesley Guiles, it’s… uh… Steve.
Alright, ladies and gents, welcome to Christian Music Superbowl I. Before the polls open, let’s review the rules:
Every match in the Superbowl (until the final pair-off on February 3) will consist of four opponents all competing head-to-head in six one-on-one matches of pure, solid, music mayhem. You, the reader, will get to decide who wins. I humbly suggest you judge the artists based principally on their music, but use whatever characteristics you want - looks, attitude, best useage of the word “sweater” (Go, mewithoutYou, go!).
After gathering all the submissions from fans and fellow Christian music enthusiasts, I have the final lineup for Christian Music Superbowl I.
Tomorrow the voting begins, but first, a word from your sponsor…
I got way too many recommendations of people and bands to include. Everybody had great nominations, and I wanted to include them all (plus about 50 of my own), but I had to limit the total lineup to 64 so I could pull off the Superbowl in time, so I had to make some cuts. I got hundreds of submissions, so chances are, not all the bands you asked to have included were included.
Another band which started with much more humble roots is the band Mute Math, which started life with a little different line-up and quite different sound under the name Earthsuit.
Back in 2000, I first heard of the band because a friend at church got me the CD for Christmas. I had been going through a reggae phase in my musical life,and he felt I needed a little more diversity. He told me, “I know you’re into reggae, so I got you this band - they’re kind of reggae.”
Yes, Earthsuit is kind of reggae. They’re also kind of jazz, kind of rock, kind of rapcore, kind of funk, kind of electronica… kind of hard to describe.
I asked Drop7, Colossians Three Sixteen, The Bored-Again Christian, and Ears to Hear to give me around 10 “official” submissions for Christian Music Superbowl I and now, with most of the submissions winding down and getting collected, I thought it was high time The Blah Blah give its own “official” ones.
Here are my 10 nominations:
1. Synthar
2. Ester Drang
3. The Listening
4. This Beautiful Mess
5. Robbie Seay Band
6. Ponoka
7. The Cold Comfort Band
8. Destroy Nate Allen
9. mewithoutYou
10. Psalters
It was hard to choose only 10, but I think I have a good mix of music here, so I hope to see one of these win the championship.
Remember, polls open this Friday!
Before the year is over, make sure you pop over here to check out the top albums of 2007. There’s a good mix there of mainstream and more independent stuff.
Jill over at Ears to Hear has just sent in her “official” Supwerbowl I submissions!
I know very little about Jill’s podcast, but from the looks of it, it sounds incredible. She takes her time, sifts through a lot of junk, and puts up only her favorite Christian artists, so you know you’re getting the best stuff and not a lot of filler.
I haven’t listened to any episodes yet, but since it was recommended to me by The Bored-Again Christian and Jill seems to really know what she’s talking about when it comes to music, I think I’ll become a regular listener, and I think you should too.
Here are Jill’s ”official” submissions, most of them so obscure I don’t even know about them:
1. Lovedrug
2. Paper Route
3. Sleeping At Last
4. Jars of Clay
5. Brooke Waggoner
6. Lorien
7. Sufjan Stevens
8. Homer Hiccolm and the Rocketboys
9. Brooke Fraser
10. The Myriad
11. Edison Glass
12. Deas Vail
Keep the submissions coming in (here)! Polls open this Friday!
More photos are showing up for the Bucket Brigade! Today’s winner is a bit of a cheater. Rather than sending in a photo of himself with a bucket on his head, Brent at Colossians Three Sixteen sent in a photo of legendary guitarist Buckethead.
Anybody want KFC?
I’ve still got one more Josh Clubb CD to give away, so click here if you want to get your hands on it!
Going along in the same vein as our look at Blyss, which has become the Lifehouse of today, another band that formed in 1996 was the little-known Milwaukee, Wisconsin-area band Jacobstone.
Though the entire band has changed other than AJ Fink and Tony Olla, you probably know them now as Northern Room.
In 2002, Jacobstone released their latest album Regions and shortly afterward, many members felt led to focus on family or ministry, so AJ started a new band and has been going ever since.
More submissions have arrived for the first ever Christian Music Superbowl!
In the world of podcasts, there are few as good as The Bored-Again Christian. Just Pete knows way more than you will ever know about music and has probably heard almost every artist you or I could name. OK, that may not be true, but you owe it to yourself (because you’ve been such a good boy this year), to check his podcast out and hear some of the great music. You’ve probably heard of some of the bands, but some will be totally new to you.
Anyway, Just Pete sent in these “official” submissions:
1. Tyler James
2. Page France
3. Half-Handed Cloud
4. Agents of Future
5. Brent Cashell
6. Anathallo
7. Menomena
8. Pushstart Wagon
9. Bodies of Water
10. Ecstatic Sunshine
Keep the submissions coming in (over here), and get ready for the face-offs to begin December 14th!
In 1996, Jason Wade of Lifehouse got a rock band together by the name of Blyss (or Bliss according to some). Within three years they had recorded an official EP, Diff’s Lucky Day (rumored to be getting a reissue in 2008), a mysterious album called Fuse which nobody seems to know anything about, and a bunch of unreleased songs.
According to isound.com here:
Wade had a traumatic childhood. His family moved a lot. He began his life in California, went to Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Portland in Oregon; all before Junior High. After his parents got divorced, he moved to Seattle, Washington with his mother. When he was fifteen he and his mother moved to Los Angeles. Blyss played in Seattle and Portland. The group then changed their name to Lifehouse and re-located to L.A.
There you have it, the relatively unknown beginning of the band Lifehouse.
I’m back with another post on Defining Christian Music. I’m starting to get overloaded / bored with the whole idea, but I still have a few articles I want to put up for discussion, including this one.
Whether you like the term or hate it, you’ve gotta admit that “Christian Music” is a loaded term. It carries a lot of baggage. It’s sort of like, back in the day, when you’d say “jazz music” and it meant loose morals, drinking, smoking, and sex before marriage. The term “Christian Music” has it’s own set of stereotypes that go along with it that are, honestly, damaging to the musicians.
More photos are showing up for the Bucket Brigade! Today’s winner of a Josh Clubb CD is Santiago Pauli of Teirra del Fuego (in Argentina), just barely north of Antarctica. Check it out on Google Maps here. Tierra del Fuego is, from my knowledge, as far south as you can get without being in Antarctica. I’ve always wanted to visit the place.
Anyway, nice bucket!
I’ve still got a few more Josh Clubb CDs to give away, so click here to see how you can get one!
With a name like Agents of Future, you’ve gotta sound unique. You can’t go on stage sounding like Johnny Cash, The Beatles, Shania Twain, Brittney Spears, or anybody else who’s ever been around.
And unique is one thing they are.
A few weeks ago, I got an e-mail from Todd, one of the leaders of the group, pointing me toward their music and asking me to take a look. I checked out their MySpace, downloaded a few songs, and loved it right away.
Agents of Future are real and passionate about what they’re doing. They’re creative. They’re unique. They’re inclusive. And they love God with all their hearts, from what I can tell anyway.
Drop7 was the site that first inspired me about doing an MP3 blog, but Colossians Three Sixteen has taken that inspiration and run with it.
Colossians Three Sixteen is not an MP3 blog, but every Friday, Brent posts poetry, photography, and music. The poetry is good (I’m not much of a poem guy), the photography is excellent, and the music is always intriguing. Brent has posted about a lot of amazing post-rock, neo-classical, instrumental groups you should check out, as well as a number of Christian musicians who use words. It was at Colossians Three Sixteen that I first heard about Doug Burr, The Innocence Mission, Vigilantes of Love, As the Poets Affirm, Below the Sea, Explosions in the Sky, and Paavoharju, among others.
Like my first visits to Drop7, when I first went to Colossians Three Sixteen, I binged on the archived posts of neo-classical and instrumental bands, and I’m a regular visitor at least every Friday for the art and music, as well as irregular stops mid-week for the reviews, interviews, theology, history, and Bible discussions.
Head over to Colossians Three Sixteen for some good stuff every day of the week.
Here are Brent’s submissions:
1. Doug Burr
2. Jeremy Casella
3. Waterdeep
4. John Davis
5. Sufjan Stevens
6. Over the Rhine
7. Vigilantes of Love/Bill Mallonee
8. Danielson
9. Woven Hand/16 Horsepower/David Eugene Edwards
10. Derek Webb
11. Steven Delopoulos
Keep the rest of your suggestions coming for the Christian Music Superbowl I. I’m planning to kick off the matches on Friday the 14th.
To garner support for the Christian Music Superbowl I, I asked a few people with a voice in the on-line world of Christian music to give me some submissions.
The first of these suggestions have arrived, from Jeff at Drop7. I asked Jeff to give me some suggestions for artists to include because he, above anybody else, is the one who inspired me to start an MP3 blog of my own. It was at Jeff’s blog that I first heard about Sufjan Stevens, Eisley, Aaron Sprinkle, Starflyer 59, and other groups I listen to all the time now.
When I first went to his website, I downloaded about a year of songs, and then everytime I went back, I delved further and further into his archive.
If you haven’t checked out Drop7 yet, do yourself a favor and pop over. Jeff hasn’t done the whole MP3 blogging thing for a while now, but he’s got a lot of really great stuff in his archives, even some Christian disco from the 70’s.
Anyway, here are Jeff’s submissions:
1. Starflyer 59
2. Eisley
3. Aaron Sprinkle
4. The David Crowder Band
5. The Danielson Famile
6. Sufjan Stevens
7. The Brothers Martin
8. Fine China
9. MuteMath
10. Derek Webb
For the rest of you, keep leaving your own suggestions here, email theblahblah8007@yahoo.com, or do a post with your suggestions on your own blog and linking to me. I’ll include as many of them as I can.
The first bucket photos are already showing up! Congrats, Tom and Ben! You guys have won yourselves a Josh Clubb CD that truly is worthy of your sacrifice.
If you want your very own Josh Clubb CD, click here to see how I can make that a reality!
I found this at drivebymedia and wanted to pass it on. Jars of Clay has posted three songs from their new Christmas Songs album free for download here. I’ve never been a huge Jars fan, but these are pretty good.
While on the topic of Jars of Clay, if you haven’t checked out their album Redemption Songs from 2005, do it. That’s the album that made me like the band. I suppose I should check out Good Monsters from 2006 then, since I might like that too.
Has anybody listened to Good Monsters? What’d you think?
Long-time readers of The Blah Blah will remember a post from a while ago about Josh Clubb (here). I found him randomly one day on the internet and I liked his music. It wasn’t my favorite worship music I had ever heard, but I liked it. Good, solid stuff.
Well, this is the story of one worship leader’s journey from “pretty good” to “favorite ever.” Josh Clubb is my all-time favorite worship leader now, and here is the story. I’ll try to keep it short, because later in the post I’ve got an interview with Josh and a Christmas give-away worthy of Santa Claus himself.
A friend of mine (Sandwiches There) gave me a brilliant idea the other day for The Blah Blah - host a Christian Music Superbowl, where the top Christian bands and artists would face off against each other until only one remained standing on February 3, 2006 - Superbowl Sunday.
So, in the next couple weeks, I’ll be putting up the first few bands to face off against each other, and you can all vote on the winners. Use whatever criteria you want. If you want to vote according to musical expertise, feel free. If you want to vote by looks, go for it. Wanna vote randomly? I don’t care.
Anyway, to begin the Christian Music Superbowl I, I’m gathering suggestions for bands and musicians to include. I’m sure you all have ideas, so e-mail me at theblahblah8007@yahoo.com, leave a comment below, or (the best option) leave a post on your own blog linking here, thereby improving my Technorati score. I’m using the term “Christian Music” to mean music made by Christians, not necessarily music marketed as “Christan Music.”
I hope to have the first face-off in the next couple of weeks, so tell your friends to come by and vote.
