On the Cover II Review

I remember when the first On the Cover came out and it was one of my favorite MxPx CDs. There were some great tracks on that one—Take on Me, Summer of 69, Drum Machine Joy, along with a Keith Green cover, a Buddy Holly cover and a song that introduced us to the Cootees. Other than the artwork and the fact that it is a cover album, the two EPs have nothing in common.

The music is more sophisticated with guitar solos and a plethora of guest stars. There is a wide variety of artists covered such as: Poison, the Descendents, the Ramones, Queen, U2 and a Japanese punk band. I haven’t heard most of the originals and I don’t know if their younger fans have either, so it’s hard to say how they stack up against the other bands.

Don’t get me wrong—this is a nice little cover album, but if I had to rate my favorite MxPx covers they would be: O Donna, Take on Me, Summer of 69, KKK Took My Baby Away, Seventeen, Rock and Roll All Nite by Kiss, No Action, Blue Moon, Zombie by the Cranberries and Sick Boy. Obviously none of these songs are on there, so I’m an impartial observer.

If you are one of those fans who buy everything the guys put out, then you should snatch this up. Otherwise wait till next year for the next album or pick up anything before Panic.

The Slow Death of Christian Rock

I was thinking about the Christian music scene that I grew up with and what exists today, and I came to the conclusion that most of my favorite music is in the past. I’m not saying there aren’t great bands out there now or new music that will be enjoyable, but most of my favorite music has been out for several years.  (Do a test yourself. Sit down with a pen and paper and try to think of how many of your favorite albums were released within the last year.)

The Christian scene I grew up with is mostly non-existent. True Tunes closed, the Heart and Soul Cafe doesn’t do shows that I know of and the ska scene is mostly dead. I went into a Family Bookstore the other day and asked if they had a “Christian Happenings” Magazine and they looked at me like I was from another planet. I also feel old every time I look at the Cornerstone lineup and I don’t know who most of the bands are. Thankfully the North Central College Union has saved a good part of the scene for me.

I get nostalgic thinking about bands like MxPx, Starflyer, the Huntingtons, Five Iron Frenzy and Poor Old Lu. It was a time where there were tons of cool bands and every band that Tooth and Nail signed was awesome, even the hardcore bands like Strongarm.

It seems to me that the Christian industry has become more polarized with bands either totally playing Christian venues or not playing Christian venues at all, which means it’s CCM or the bar. Sure I understand that a lot of Christian musicians are not youth pastors, but historically speaking bands in the Christian market have talked a lot during shows (i.e. Keith Green, Steven Curtis Chapman, etc…). The essence of their music was the message before the music.

I know that Christian stigma exists and that bands want to be taken seriously by non-Christians—probably mostly for their egos or record sales. But I just wonder why some bands have such a hard time talking about God. It seems like either Jesus is the product the band is selling or he has no place on the stage. I know that talking about God on a stage is awkward, but we shouldn’t ever have to feel like we’re ashamed of his name.

So I realize that I can’t go back in time, but I still like to listen to the old albums and reflect on a time when we weren’t looking at the death of the CD or the corporate ownership of human expression. Maybe there are bands that don’t tour any more, but I can still listen to their music and I can still watch them perform live thanks to YouTube and you can too.

Imeem Playlists vs. MySpace Playlists

MySpace is still the most popular place for free music and to maintain that marketshare the site has banned other sites from embedding their players on MySpace. It is true that MySpace inked a deal, which enables you to listen to lots of full albums and create playlists. However, I’ve noticed that songs have disappeared from my MySpace playlists and it also takes much longer to create a playlist on MySpace than on Imeem.

The best feature of Imeem is the playlists, which you can easily create and embed. I think some people are stopped from hearing music on Imeem because they don’t want to sign up. But if you have the direct link to a song or the embeddable link to a playlist you don’t need to sign in.

Here is a direct link to a playlist with all the songs I’ve added. If you click on the column headings you can organize the playlist by artist, album or other categories.

Tooth and Nail Albums Streaming on MySpace

Something I just noticed the other day was that you can stream the entire albums from current Tooth and Nail artists. For example go to www.myspace.com/joyelectric and click on “Choose a Playlist,” it’s beneath where it says, “Downloads” on the music player. You can make your own personal playlists for your myspace profile too. Also there are links to the Amazon music store, which has non-DRM tracks.

Starflyer 59 – Dial M

I started listening to Jason Martin’s music about 13 years ago and I still enjoy it as much now as I did in the beginning. Even though the band is mostly a solo project these days Jason keeps trucking with a new recording just about every year.

The latest album is entitled: “Dial M” and the title is a takeoff off of a Hitchcock movie title. The CD is scheduled to be released this upcoming Tuesday. The songs are remade versions of the “Ghosts of the Future” demos that were released as an vinyl box set.

Overall, I enjoy the new CD because the years have taught Jason Martin how to write songs that are tried, tested and true. My favorite song “Magic” is a bonus track that is also available on Amazon. Currently you can stream the album here and I encourage you to check out my Brothers Martin YouTube page here.

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

Dogwood is one of the Christian punk bands I grew up listening to and the song “1983″ is one of my favorites. It says:

When we were young, our whole lives ahead of us,
And it was well understood we’d all become astronauts,
And firemen,

Let’s not pretend, we all become famous,
Let’s not pretend, there’s more to this then we hoped for,

When you reach a certain point in life you realize that you’re probably not going to be famous and you have to accept that. A person’s occupation is a big part of what typically defines him/her. In the midst of all the people moving to California and trying to get on TV to become famous, we have to accept that we’re regular people and we need to be content with that regardless of our jobs. Sure it’s cool to have goals and want to make money, but the things that bring fulfillment in life have little to do with fame and fortune.

Your parents are proud,
You’ve got everything,
No passion at hand,
You’ll be Ivy League,
It’s more probable,
We all become salesmen,
You know it,
You fear it,
Mediocrity.

It’s well on it’s way, well understood,
And this is your life,
Don’t apologize for what you are,
Because you’re a star.

Delirious is Breaking Up

The band released a press release a couple days ago that Delirious will be breaking up at the end of 2009 when the band’s commitments will be finished. Delirious started in 1993 playing at church events, but the band did not become a full-time gig until a few years later after a serious car accident involving the singer, his wife and the bass player.

Delirious is a prolific band that regularly releases studio albums and live CDs. The British band tours extensively throughout the world including Christian festivals in the United States. The breakup was likely due in part to the drummer’s decision to quit the band in April for family reasons.

I got to do an interview with Delirious? in 2002, which you can find on this site. I didn’t have any way to set up an interview in advance, so I talked to a guy who was running the stage crew the morning before their set at Northwestern College in Minnesota. I waited around for a while until the band’s road manager agreed to give me a 20-minute interview. Of all the band interviews I’ve done it was probably one of my favorites because I interviewed Martin Smith, Stu Garrard and Tim Jupp. I think it’s great when you can interview the people who play the music that you listen to on your stereo.

It’s sad to see the band breakup, but it’s probably time. The thing that impressed me the most about the band members was their humility and their absolute musical perfection. I have rarely seen a band that sounds better live than on a CD. Delirious? was a terrific band and their music will be missed.

My First MP3 Player

I guess I’m years behind the trends in music because I don’t own an iPod and I just got my first ever mp3 player this week. I bought a 1 GB Philips mp3 player for $25 at Office Depot. I know to some it’s probably a cheap piece of junk that will probably fall apart in a year, but for the first time in a long time I’m excited about music again.

My favorite place to listen to music is my car. In the past I listened to tapes, but that required a considerable amount of time to record a proper mix tape and I get a little sick of listening to the same tapes over and over again. So for a while I tried a CD player that plays CDs and mp3 discs. That was nice except for the fact that it used 2 AA batteries and it’s difficult to operate while driving since it requires constant restarting every time you get in and out of the car.

My Philips mp3 player is great because I can use it with my car stereo with the Sony Discman cassette adapter. What I also like about the player is that I can skip songs easily with the buttons. In fact the device was so easy to use that I didn’t even read the instructions. The player is light weight, it operates as a USB flash drive, it can record audio as wave files and it is great for working out. I especially like how fast and easy I can drag and drop the songs onto the player without dealing with DRM or iTunes. If someone steals it then I’m only out $25 and the mp3 player runs on 1 AAA battery for every 8 hours of use. I know it’s no iPod, but I don’t care because I’m happy with what I’ve got.

Lala.com is Music to My Ears

I just discovered this site the other day and you can stream full songs online for free. When you sign up you get 50 credits for web songs, which means basically the songs are selected in your profile and you can listen to them online anytime you want. Song downloads are $0.80 and there are discounts on some of the albums. You can also buy physical CDs on the site and trade CDs for a small fee.

The beauty of Lala that separates it from the iTunes, Amazon, E-music, Napster and Rhapsodys of the net is that it’s free to sign up and listen to full songs. You could listen for hours on end and never buy anything. Of course the site is hoping they can get you to buy some stuff.

As I’ve mentioned before there are some great sites to listen to free music: freenapster.com, imeem.com, last.fm, myspace.com, virb.com and purevolume.com. Lala.com should be added to that list because there are songs on there that aren’t available on any of the other sites. Basically if a band has any distribution whatsoever you will find the songs on one of the above sites. What’s also nice is that the streaming quality on Lala.com is mostly near 128 kbps.

Bon Voyage “Lies” Out Today

Bon Voyage, the Starflyer 59 side project featuring Jason and Julie Martin comes out today. The band’s first self-titled album came out in 1998 and the follow-up “The Right Amount” was released in 2002. To my knowledge the band does not tour and has rarely performed live.

Bon Voyage is basically Starflyer 59 with a woman singing. It’s funny because as you listen to the songs you can hear Jason’s voice singing the songs. Jason doesn’t consider himself a singer, so it’s interesting to hear someone else sing his songs.

As a long-time Bon Voyage fan I’ve always wanted to see a live show or even just a video of one. Sadly, California is a long way from Chicago and the Martins won’t be coming this way together anytime soon. But I can dream can’t I?