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I posted yesterday about musical genius Don Chaffer. Today, I thought it’d be fun to pass on to you some live recordings I’ve found of Waterdeep that show off Don’s skills.
I don’t remember where I found these, but there’s a zillion live recordings out there - I’m sure you can find your own easy enough.
All Along the Watchtower - Download - Stream
The Razor Light - Download - Stream
Note: all MP3s will be removed after one week.
I’m sure many of you have heard of Don Chaffer, but for those of you who haven’t, I hope you’ll read on and get hooked on one of the greatest musician story-tellers out there. Don is perhaps best known for his part, along with wife Lori Chaffer, in the awesome folksy, hippy, bluesy, jam band Waterdeep.
Waterdeep is great. Lori’s incredibly unique yet powerful voice carries the group out of the realm of normalcy and into the legendary. For years, I ignored Don’s additions to the group, focusing on how much I loved Lori’s voice, but after downloading some solo songs by Don, and listening to what he did on the Waterdeep albums, I’ve come to a renewed appreciation for his musical prowess.
(Side note: When you use words like “prowess,” it makes you sound smart. If, however, you use words like “prowess” in sentences like “The tigress had great prowess” it makes you sound less smart and more like a chidren’s author.)
Enough of his prowess… Don is a story-telling artist who’s medium happens to be music and tapestry happens to be your ears. If you can’t appreciate his acoustic/folk/blues/funk style, I understand, but look beyond the style of music and watch an artist at work.
Geology. It was one of those subjects I hated in High School and will probably never really get.
It also happens to be the solo project of Greg Jehanian, the totally wickedly sweet bassist from mewithoutYou. If you know me or have read much of this blog, you know that I consider mewithoutYou to be one of the few nearly-perfect bands out there. I say that half-facetiously, but one of the main reasons I really dig mewithoutYou is Greg’s ability to craft powerful bass lines that can carry a song. If you don’t get what I’m saying, just listen to “In a Sweater Poorly Knit” or “A Glass Can Only Spill What It Contains” from their latest album Brother, Sister. I could go on and on about how great his bass lines are, but I’ll try to contain myself. If you’re into jazz, just think of him as a Louis Armstrong as opposed to a Dizzy Gillespie. Dizzy may get more notes in, but Louis hits the few he hits at exactly the right time.
Anyway, Greg is awesome on bass, so it came as no surprise to me that his solo stuff was just as good.
Or maybe you don’t.
We’ve been doing some of his songs for worship at church, so I just tend to assume that means everyone else is doing his songs too.
But if not, let me introduce you all to Kristian Stanfill, another worship leader to… uh… lead you in worship.
About six months ago, we started doing the song “Jesus Paid It All” by this mysterious guy named Kristian Stanfill during worship at church. It’s a really powerful song, so powerful that it made me think, “Hey, I should get more of this guy’s stuff.”
But then Monday rolled around and I forgot all about him. That is, until I had my “Too Many Free Downloads” crisis with emusic (read about it here and sign up for a similar experience here). It was during that crisis, where I was forced to download a few hundred free MP3s within a few weeks, that I remembered Kristian Stanfill and downloaded his EP Hello.
When I created this blog, I never planned on offering the latest up-to-date album reviews or news releases. I just wanted to get the word out on some of the music I like, emphasizing artists I listen to who have a Christian faith but wouldn’t necessarily fall into the CCM category.
Today, I offer another not-so-timely review of an album I got about a month ago, though it feels like I’ve been waiting on doing a review for a few months. Why have I waited so long? Plain and simple laziness mixed with a little feeling of being overwhelmed with the blog.
So today, I introduce to you Amy Courts and her new album These Cold and Rusted Lungs, set to be released in July. It’s not a perfect album but it’s definitely worth your listening.
If you’re like me, one of your favorite bands of all time was Five Iron Frenzy. And if you’re even more like me, you find yourself waking up in a sweat most nights yelling out at the top of your voice, “Whatever happened to this oh-so-sweet band that I once loved?!” Then you collapse in a quivering, shaking heap.
I’ve often wondered what happened to the guys of Five Iron. Well, I don’t know what happened to all the guys, but Jeff the Girl (Leanor Ortega Till) is currently playing with the denver-based band Hearts of Palm. Described as “eclectic and anthemic indie-pop,” I feel bad but I almost like them more than FIF.
Look up the word “awesome” in the dictionary, and you’ll find a picture of Aaron Sprinkle. Look up “totally sweet” and you’ll find his brother Jesse.
What the heck did the Sprinkles feed their kids? These guys are incredible.
I’ve been a fan of Aaron’s music for years, so I didn’t let myself really start getting into Jesse’s music until maybe 6 months ago. I don’t know, I didn’t want to create a situation for sibling rivalry I guess.
Whatever reason I had, now I’m a fan of Jesse too. His style is different from Aaron’s but great nonetheless. His solo stuff is very chill. Aaron’s music can be a little overly introspective, sort of moody, and while Jesse’s isn’t fluff, it’s got a happier tone overall.
Way back here, I wrote a post about the Australian-based band the Sons of Korah. They’ve become one of my favorite bands as of late for the creativity and artistry of what they’re doing.
The Sons of Korah take the Psalms and turn them into contemporary music that draws on folk and world music traditions. And they do an excellent job of it. Musically-speaking, the guys are great musicians in their own right, but when it comes to capturing the Psalms in music form, they’re just brilliant.
I’ve heard a lot of Psalms turned into songs, and the Sons of Korah create some of the best. So, if you will, read on for my recent over-email interview with Matt Jacoby, lead singer and guitarist of the group.
Dumb title for the post. I know. It’s hard coming up with genius every time.
Anyway, Alli Rogers is an artist who is easy to like on one level or another (just like Mr. Rogers - see?). She’s not my all-time favorite ever, but she’s got a great voice, a sweet and simple folk sound, and some really well-written, catchy lyrics. Her music isn’t weird, artsy, ecclectic, bizarre, or any of the other adjectives that often describe music I like.
But I dig it. It’s easy to get into and appreciate - you don’t have to work hard when you listen.
When I was in college, I started following God shortly into my freshman year. Somewhere between then and the summer of that year, I discovered Christian reggae. So all summer long, on Frances Street in Madison, Wisconsin, my room mates and I blasted the sounds of Christafari, Nothing to Dread, and Temple Yard toward the crowds on State Street. And when we had listened to the few reggae albums we had so much that our ears couldn’t take even one more song, we popped ‘em back in and listened some more.
I fell in love with the bass-driven reggae sounds - a perfect mixture of challenging, almost politically-charged lyrics and island grooves. Unfortunately, though, my budget was limited and my connections were few, so the handful of reggae CDs I owned received a lot of airtime in our little apartment.
Solomon Jabby is one of those reggae guys I wish I had known about back that summer. Read the rest of this entry »
Cold War Kids have been one of my favorite new bands of recent days. I first heard of them from wanchanken in a comment he made on the blog here. He said, “What about some info on Cold War Kids?” I responded “Yeah, that’s a good idea,” and then I went to Google and tried to figure out who the Cold War Kids were.
Despite the fact that I have a lot of bands here, and I have even more in my library that haven’t made it up yet, people are always coming up to me and introducing new and amazing bands I’ve never heard of. And they talk about them in a way that sounds like I ought to have heard of them.
Cold War Kids is one of those groups that I really should have known about sooner. But once I did find them, I quickly grew to love their bluesy soul-rock sound. Read the rest of this entry »
I got the band Hello Kelly sent to me recently and I’ve been promising to offer my opinions on The Blah Blah. Let me start off by saying that, as a part-time music snob (yes, I admit it…), it’s my duty to give you all the reasons why this band shouldn’t be in your playlist. They don’t sound indie enough… They aren’t introspective enough… They aren’t folk-influenced in any way… Their songs are too catchy… Their lyrics are a little over-used and simplistic… They’re too optimistic… They sound a lot like all the other pop-rock bands out there…
But I’m really liking them, despite my attempts to remain aloof and snobbish toward the pop-punk ways of this band often dubbed “the hardest working in Ontario.”
A guest post from Ben Stimpson, who admits he actually likes screamo…
Take the hard-edged riffs and activist lyrics of punk music, combine that with the emotive chords of a Scottish bagpipe and the energy of Celtic dance, and then top it all off with a desire to honor and lift up Jesus… and you get Flatfoot 56, a christian Celtic punk band. In a genre populated by the likes of the Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly (and really nothing else), Flatfoot 56 offers something musically unique, spiritually uplifting, and well worth the time. Whether you’re headbanging, moshing, or dancing a jig, crank Flatfoot’s music to 11, and your feet will be moving in no time.
I first stumbled onto Flatfoot 56 during the fall of 2007 when browsing through the new music covered by my most recent HM magazine. Celtic punk?! I thought, Could it be so good? Yes, it could, and is.
Since I posted about Jon Abel a few days ago, I thought it was only fitting to do another worship group today, but a group that’s doing things completely differently.
Meet Aradhna.
They’re from India.
And they’re completely awesome.
Aradhna is one of my favorite bands that I’ve learned of from Brent over at Colossians Three Sixteen. Not only do they seem to love God and really be worshiping Him, but they do it without using Western-leaning music or classic Western worship songs or hymns redone Hindu style.
When it comes to music, most people think I have weird taste. Well, maybe not you nice guys and gals who read my blog. People have described my musical tastes as “bizarre,” “eccentric,” “eclectic,” “weird,” “crazy,” “boring,” and “dumb.”
Contrary to what they may think, though, I do like some “normal” music once in a while too. I really do enjoy quite a few songs by Delirous?, Shane and Shane, Lifehouse, and even Newsboys. I try not to be a total music snob, though I fear I’m becoming somewhat of one, and I try to come to all music I hear with an open mind.
Jon Abel is one of those “normal” guys I’m starting to like. He sounds a lot like Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, Tim Hughes, and other worship leader guys (this despite his incredibly cool suitcase). His lyrics are a little cliched, the music is a little boring, and the themes are a little over-used, but for those times that you really do just want some simple good Chris Tomlin-styled worship music, he’s perfect.
If Stevie Wonder and Jack Johnson had a baby, not only would it be a completely disturbing set of circumstances, but that baby would probably sound a lot like Trevor Davis.
Who is this Trevor Davis? Read on, my wayward son. (Dumb song reference I know…)
I get music sent to me all the time at The Blah Blah, and while I like some of it, others I don’t care for. I get really awful music sent my way once in a while, but it’s pretty rare. Usually if I don’t like it, I can find someone who does.
Anyway, I recently received Trevor Davis’s new album Nothing Ringing True in the mail, and while it took me a while to like it, I think I’m won over now.
After a long time of not being able to post MP3s to The Blah Blah, I’ve finally got my own hosting service at www.theblahblah.net set up to at least let me upload MP3s for your downloading pleasure.
Sometime, I’ll transfer the whole blog over there, but for now, just to have files hosted somewhere stable is a good thing.
But enough of that. You want to hear about John Mark McMillan. I know you do. I can tell.
John Mark McMillan, who has a name every Catholic grandmother in the world should fall in love with, is one of the new artists I found recently on emusic. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - sign up for emusic. It’s the smartest thing you can do for downloading cool music. Not only can you get 50 free downloads for just trying, but if you sign up for a monthly subscription, I get 50 free downloads and you get downloads at 30 cents a piece. Beat that, iTunes. And when you have a subscription, you can get your friends to sign up under you and earn you 50 downloads too. In the past month, I’ve probably gotten 300 free MP3s from people signing up under me. Don’t be dumb. Just sign up for emusic so I can stop talking about it.
Yeah, I know - the post title is dumb. Let’s just all agree on that so we can move on from there to other things.
Other things like the new album from Eugene Francis Jnr.
I know I’ve had a lot about Eugene on here lately, but that’s just because I really dig his music, and his publicity peeps keep sending me great new stuff. So… I’ve become a servant of The Man now I guess, putting up whatever comes my way. But at least I get to score free stuff.
Well, now that I’ve confessed that I’m a sellout, let me move on to the album itself. I scored a pre-release copy of The Golden Beatle last week from the nice folks at Legion Presents, and it’s almost everything I hoped it would be.
As you probably know, the Village Thrift series of re-mixed worship music put out mainly by Ben and Robin Pasley of 1000 Portraits and Enter the Worship Circle depends on you to make the remixes. Ben and Robin and the other artists involved provide a framework, and then the rough recordings are given out to the community to be re-mixed and edited.
The guys have finished the rough recordings (or 8-packs) for the new Village Thrift: Circa 2008 album, and the best remixes and edits will make it to the final recording. They’ll be releasing 2 8-packs a week for the next 10 weeks, for free download, so start editing now. Get what you need right here.
Or, if you’re like me, just download the rough recordings and enjoy the songs for their own sakes. If I had the right software, I’d love to see if I could make a cool mix… but until then the songs are pretty sweet in and of themselves.
Well, my upload service, HotLinkFiles seems to be having problems. All the MP3s that should be hosted there are not accessible, and it won’t let me upload any new ones. What the heck’s going on? A lot of the pages don’t seem to be working anymore on their site either.
Anybody have any ideas on what’s going on?
I had a pretty sweet new single from Eugene Francis JNR (who I’ve posted on here and here) to send your way, but since I can’t do that, I’ll just tell you to get on over here to listen to the song ”Beginners” and keep an eye out for The Golden Beatle to be released on April 28th.
When I figure out what’s going on with HotLinkFiles, I’ll be sure to put up the MP3 for you to download. Until then, just envision the most awesome, inspiring, emotionally-moving song you’ve ever heard and take it down maybe one or two notches. Seriously, the song is great, as all of EFJ’s stuff is, and I can’t wait to get the whole album.
To pre-order the new album go here and check out the trailer here.
Way back in January (here), I did a post about Chicago grunge / alternative rock band Overhang and their new album Another Hole for You to Crawl Into. I asked the guys if they’d be into doing an e-mail interview for The Blah Blah, and Grant, Joel, Jeff, and Nate were all into it. They sent their responses back to me over a month ago, but it wasn’t until today that I had a free slot to get a post up.
If you haven’t heard Overhang yet, head over to their MySpace and listen to a few songs. This is hard and driving rock, without any frills or technological bells and whistles to get in the way. They describe themselves as, “four instruments hurling musical 18-wheelers, hurricanes, and holy books into the crowd. Moody rock’n’roll on marching feet, a band of four beating drums of sonic war, following the fire in their eyes to the promised land.” It’s loud, intense, in-your-face kind of rock.
So, without any further ado, today I give you Part One of the Overhang interview.
Well, life is still extremely busy with all the normal work / church / family stuff, and we’re still remodeling the church building, so that’s taking up extra time… but I just had to get a post in.
I’ve been wanting to post about the band PinStripe for a while, but I had so many other bands I’d committed to first that I’ve finally got an opening now. These guys are pretty sweet. Coming from Racine, Wisconsin, they’ve got a raw, edgy sound that brings back memories of early Talking Heads or other punk / grunge bands from back in the day.
I’ve been a half-hearted fan of Justin McRoberts for a few years, but it wasn’t until I received his new album Deconstruction in the mail that I really started to appreciate him.
Man, his other stuff was really good, but this album is incredible. Or maybe it’s just that I’m finally realizing how good of an artist and writer McRoberts is.
The album is pretty stripped down indie folk rock. There’s not a lot of extra instruments and synthesized noises to get in the way of the words and message of the songs. In this stripped down environment, songs like “On the Night You Were Betrayed,” “America and the Soul,” and “Done Living” stand up on the power of the words and images more than anything else.
All in all, this is a great album, from the country-tinged folk sound to the message of justice and compassion to the interesting, well-written lyrics. This is the album that brought Justin McRoberts permanently onto my playlist.
Sorry for the missed posts lately. We’ve been remodeling our church building the past few months, and the last couple of weeks have meant quite a bit of extra work. We’re transforming the building from being a late 19th century Lutheran church into a hip modern-looking coffeehouse. It’ll be pretty cool when it’s all done, but it sure is a lot of extra work. And for a guy who usually sits at a computer half the day, crawling up and down a ladder painting all day is a pretty intense physical workout. So I’ve been getting up later and haven’t had as much time to post.
But enough excuses. Today, I’d like to introduce you to the Chicago-area band Common Shiner. I’ve had a few bands from Chicago on here lately (Anathallo, The Sapiens, and Overhang), so why not add another to the mix?
I love finding new bands around the Milwaukee / Chicago area. I live in Oconomowoc, which doesn’t have a lot happen - other than church explosions. See here. But with Milwaukee only a short drive away and Chicago just a little beyond that, there’s never a shortage of great local bands to pursue.
The Sapiens are one of those. Coming from Chicago, they’re producing some high-energy, frenetic, pop music that’s a mixture of early punk and 80s electronic music. Their recordings sound great, but I’m even more excited for the chance to see them live sometime.
One of my favorite bands in the entire universe is Ponoka, coming from the Netherlands. I found them because of a reader tip one day a while back and after downloading all the free songs they had up on their website I had to head over and buy the whole album at YouMakeMusic because I was hooked.
The songs are sweet pop melodies with great vocals and really tight music. The first time I listened to a Ponoka song, I loved it, which is rare for me. Usually it takes a while before a band grows on me, but these guys from Holland won me over right away.
I did a post on the band way back in October (here), and today I finally have a free slot so I can post an interview that lead singer and lyricist Rick de Gier was kind enough to do for me.
Like most of my interviews, it’s probably way too long, but I think you’ll enjoy Rick’s responses on starting a band, life in the Netherlands, and Christian music.
With the Worship Wars over, now it’s time for something completely different.
Lately I’ve had a strange fascination with music from the UK area. Whether it’s The Twilight Sad, Glen Hansard, Eugene Francis Jnr, or the topic of today’s post, Broken Records, I can’t get enough of a heavy Scottish, British, or Irish accent over modern indie music.
Since I post mostly artists who have a Christian faith, I should probably make the disclaimer that as far as I’m aware, the members of Broken Records make no claims to being Christians. They are in fact blood-sucking head-hunting zombie worshipers from Scotland. Well, that’s not entirely true. Everything in between “They are in fact” and “from Scotland” is debatable.
I’ve been doing the Worship Wars since way back in mid-February, and I think I’ve gotten tired of it, so this will be my last post in the series, at least for now.
And what better way to end the Worship Wars than with Enter the Worship Circle?
I’m not a huge fan of the primary Enter the Worship Circle series of albums, but I respect Ben and Robin Pasley as musicians and I love their heart to worship. Besides, when it comes to hippy, gypsy acoustic worship music, no one does it better than the original Worship Circle crew.
A friend of mine introduced me to the Australia-based Sons of Korah about a year ago.
With an alt-folk sound influenced by world beats, the Sons of Korah are Matt Jacoby (lead vocals, guitar), Jayden Lee (resonator, mandolin, nylon guitar, glissentar, harmony vocals and some lead vocals), Mike Avery (bass), and Rod Wilson (percussion and drums). well, that’s who they used to be, but Jayden Lee has left the group to pursue ministry in different areas. Click here for a string quartet piece, Caroline’s Processional, which he composed for his wife.
Welcome back to the Worship Wars! Sorry for missing my usual Friday post. Being in the ministry, last week was crazy. We’ve been remodeling our church building, so we really pushed it the past few days to get things as ready as we could before Easter.
Our plan is to convert the whole church into a coffeehouse / concert venue / bookstore by the beginning of summer. It’s been a lot of work, but it’ll be awesome when it’s done.
But enough of that - on with the Rock N Roll Worship Circus!
Here we are with another post for the Worship Wars!
I’m not gonna be able to do justice to Keith Green with this post. I was up working late last night and accidently slept in this morning, so I’m running late. I’ll have to do a quick little post, when I should do something much bigger and better.
If you don’t know Keith Green, then read up on him here at Wikipedia, but I assume that most of you have heard of him.
In case you were wondering, Keith’s awesome hair is not the only reason I decided to name The Blah Blah after the coffeehouse where Keith Green first began playing music, but it is an important one (see here). Just feel the Bob Ross influence. Mmmm… happy little trees.
I’m finally back from a week off from blogging. As I explained here, part of my inability to blog for a while was busy-ness, part was computer problems, and part was burn-out from blogging every weekday for over half a year.
I’m thinking of taking a break for a couple weeks, once the Worship Wars are over, so I can get back into regular life, but today… let’s look at Red Mountain Church!
Red Mountain Church is a church based in Birmingham, Alabama, that places an emphasis on worship, particularly through hymns reworked to modern music. Read over their website to see their vision for their church and their city. It’s pretty cool stuff.
Anyway, they’ve got a pretty large body of musicians at the church who have collaborated to release five albums of those reworked hymns, and I think you should check them out.
Since I’ve been doing this blog for a while now, I’ve already posted about a number of noteworthy worship groups. Rather than revisit all of them individually, I thought today would be a great day to put up a couple of songs by each of them. Get it all done in one day, you know?
These guys each deserve a whole post of their own, but I want to get this thing moving along with the Worship Wars so I can go on to other things.
If you think of hippy drum circles and acoustic guitar when you think of Enter the Worship Circle, you’ll be surprised with their Village Thrift side of things.
Village Thrift is Ben and Robin Pasley, Todd Berger, and Ryan Lott taking songs that Enter the Worship Circle could easily have done, but stripping them of all that makes you think ETWC and filling them in with techno samples, DJ mixes, and funky electronic sounds.
It’s not the best electronic / techno I’ve heard, but it’s some of the most original and most anointed for worship.
Today in the Worship Wars I’m bringing in one of CCM’s favorite worship groups - Shane and Shane.
I know, it’s pretty shameful to have so much CCM stuff on this blog lately, but the indie worship scene really is pretty slim. I’ve still got more indie guys to pull in, but some of the CCM worship stuff deserves your attention.
I first heard of Shane and Shane years ago, but it took until last November before I finally gave in and listened to them. I figured that since they were CCM they had to be lame.
Well, they’re definitely not making “cool” or “artsy” or “indie” worship, but the songs they’re doing are amazing all the same.
Delirious? fans should be getting excited - their new album Kingdom of Comfort is due in stores on April 14th, and it sounds really good.
Talking about the album, their MySpace says:
It’s here. Well, almost. The tenth, the boldest, the most personal and least comfortable Delirious album you’ve ever heard. Kingdom of Comfort is the album that bands like this never really make. By now it should be business as usual - working the formula and churning out the classics. But not for Delirious. Kingdom of Comfort is the result of two years of hard times and challenging experiences; of trips to the homes of those whose entire possessions can be packed into a shoebox; of finding life and hope in the darkest of places; of the morning after the five-star dream; of waking up and knowing that life can never be the same again.
The songs I’ve heard so far are really good, getting back to some of the passion and energy that made the band great back in the day. They really do seem to be born out of deep soul-searching and challenging experiences.
…In other news, Delirious? fans can get 2 free downloads off the new album - God is Smiling and We Praise You - by signing up for free membership with The Living Room. I’m sure you’ll get spammed a little, but I think it’s worth it. Delirious? promises to keep putting more free stuff up all the time, too - MP3s, videos, photos, and hopefully small Kenyan monkeys.
Taking a complete worship turn-around from the last band I posted about (Delirious?), today I give you one of my favorite musical groups of all time, the Psalters. They’re crazy worshipers, insanely talented musicians, and radically devoted Christians. If you haven’t given them a listen yet, I think you’ll really dig ‘em.
I try to put a lot of independent artists up here on The Blah Blah, but today’s group is just about as far from that as you can get.
The problem is that I really do like a lot of mainstream bands as well as independent stuff. And when it comes to worship, there are a few really good independent worship groups that I know of, but there’s a lot more mainstream worship out there.
And when it comes to mainstream worship bands, Delirious? really needs to be included in a series called Worship Wars. As original innovators of the worship rock genre, they began what all worship bands after have tried to emulate in one form or another.
Sorry for the tiny photo to the left. It’s the only one I could find of Leonard Jones on-line.
Anyway… Leonard Jones is a worship leader from MorningStar Ministries (Rick Joyner’s church), and whether you really get into worship music or not, you gotta check him out.
Jones is an amazing musician, but what sets him apart is his ability to lead his group to jam on a song, changing tempos and rhythms, exploring all possible directions, and then coming back to the foundation, all going wherever God seems to be leading. When Leonard Jones does worship music, you can’t just sit back and think, “Oh, what a nice song.” You get ministered to, whether there’s singing going on or it’s just music.
Sorry for the late post today. I was up early this morning (1 am) filling in for a friend of mine on his paper route, so my life is a little off-kilter now. I&#