Haven't been blogging regularly. Been going through a bunch of personal issues lately. Honestly, been watching a lot of Blockbuster movies - sometimes with my daughter (Happy Feet 2: Electric Bungalow; Yo Gabba Gabba: Live and Trippin' Your Preschoolers!), sometimes without (Mission Impossible 4: Everything's Broken! and the painfully embarrassing Transformers: Dark Side of Depression*). But I wanted to at least touch base.
I was walking home yesterday and started thinking - randomly, as I'm wont to do - about the necessity of the separation of Church and State. To me, as a Christian, it's a no-brainer. Religious organizations should be separate from the functions of the state to have a pure voice, and to be that pure voice as one for and with the marginalized and oppressed. It's impossible to do that when the Church/Synagogue/Mosque is defiled by political power - as we see happen time and time again. Which is not to say that the CSM shouldn't be involved in political and social issues, but not so much in regulating it. No spiritual movement should aligning itself to a particular party. Nor should a religious body have symbolic power over the vestiges of political power, bestowing upon the charade of politics a sacramental veneer.
So, no, I think that swearing an elected official into office on a Bible is a travesty which ties the Christian God to supporting the aggressive and violent acts of men (and women). It's nothing new, being the province of the West since Emperor Constantine saw a vision of a huge cross (a torture device, of course) declaring military victory for him and destruction for them.
So, I was wondering what should be used to swear on for an elected official? Surely the US Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights are more appropriate? But then what else? Robert's Rules of Order? A law text book? Justice John Marshall's corpse?
But then I started thinking about some pretty cool artifacts that one could swear on. Just as essentially meaningless as using the Bible is for a good many officials, but perhaps more revelatory. And I came up with this poster.
------------------------------------------------------------ *I'm a strong believer in Truth in Advertising. And deep, abiding depression must possibly be the ONLY reason someone would put themselves through the near-aneurysm of watching more than twelve minutes of this embarrassing tripe (let alone four times as I did. Also, Michael Bay needs a consistency editor). One look at this movie and a chronic saddy like me thinks, "Oh, there is so much more to life than this!" And we have a new mission in life: To make sure robot porn is never unleashed on the public again. Who is with me?
It has a certain healing energy for me that little else matches.
Even images of dancing have a certain evocative effect.
My daughter is taking dance now. I admit to feeling more excited about that than about her taking piano. But maybe because she's more ready for the discipline.
Did I mention the evocative effects of dance? Released endorphins and all...
Hey, did I mention the evocative effects of dance?
"I get so tired of listening to the Black Eyed Peas. It's rock music for those who don't like rock, rap for those who don't like rap, and pop music for those who don't like music."
- Robert California, The Office
Often, I feel the same way about Christmas music. Don't get me wrong. I love the festivities. I love much of the happiness. I love the sacred and profane songs that celebrate (or intimate) this time of the year. But there are so many songs that we hear pumped through the loudspeakers and car radios while going about our business (especially if our business consisted of going through retail businesses). So much of the songs and the interpretations of the songs (and the spoofs of those songs, or the novelty songs) are so bad, I just don't want to hear them again. They actually make Christmas a bit less joyous for me.
But I know that I'm not alone in this feeling. So I conducted in an informal survey via Facebook. Of roughly eighty responses (most people voted for more than one song), these were the Top Tiring Songs of the Christmas Season:
Grandma Got Ran Over by a Reindeer (17 hits)
Please Daddy Don't Get Drunk this Christmas
Rocking Around the Christmas Tree
I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Claus
Santa Baby
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause
Little Drummer Boy
Jingle Bell Rock
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
Happy Holidays
Christmas Shoes (Edit. Overlooked this purportedly awful song)
Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire
12 Pains of Christmas
The Little Christmas Stocking with the Hole in the Toe (1 hit)
Baby It's Cold Outside (ditto)
Now, let's follow that up with two questions.
First: What Christmas or holiday songs aggravate you? You just want to stuff them back into the closet of mediocrity or drown them in the pool of horrible dreams and forget about them. Let their names never be spoken of again.
Second: What Christmas or holiday season songs still send shivers down your spine - in a good way, that is? It could be a song or an album, or a particular version of a song.
An example for me, despite the obvious - Vince Guaraldi's theme music for the Charlie Brown Christmas special - I would have to say is Sufjan Steven's "O Come, O Come Emanuel."
One of my good friends posted a video by TV on the Radio the other night. Which made me want to go through my iTunes and play my favorite post-illegal war record of all time (topping Dylan? Perhaps), Return to Cookie Mountain.
Being the generous person that I am, I wanted to share with y'all. It was then that I found that the bass player, Gerard Smith, had just recently passed. He's the one you can't really see, with his back turned toward us. No, the other one.
Alpha Male - Mars Ill (I have to admit that I prefer the remix version on Backwaterprophets to the original. But, period, how many songs, rap or otherwise, address male chauvinism - especially from a male - in such a direct way?)
Always Active - CookBook & Uno Mas (ft. DJ Activ8)
Am I in Sync? - Steve Taylor (fortunately, the novelty desynched synthesizer works with the outdated cheesy new wave here) (also, the homemade video is just more proof that ST fans are always nerds)
Amazing Grace / Nearer My Lord to Thee - Ladysmith Black Mambazo (There are no words to describe what a sad cliche these powerful songs have become to my ears. "Hey, I can do gospel! I can pretend to be soulful or spiritual!" It's sad. But then, there's versions like this wonderful South African gospel choir's rendition. Or, The Five Blind Boys of Alabama's "House of the Rising Son" version. They reinstate hope.)
Amsterdam - Peter Bjorn & John (Wow. The crowds in the live versions are a big part of the reason I rarely go out to catch an act. Morons.)
Amy's Song - Switchfoot (For those keeping score at home: That's three Switchfoot songs b/t Al-Am, one of which I skipped over b/c it didn't quite grab me.)
Airbag- Radiohead (live version from one of my favoritey albums of the 90's)
Airport Surroundings - Loney, Dear (could've been a soundtrack for any manner of teen rom-coms in the 80's. One of those rare discoveries you find while forcing yourself to listen to the music in your computer. Thanks, Paste Mag!)
Alanson, Crooked River - Sufjan Stevens (actually makes handbell choirs sound interesting and pastoral)
Alarma! - Daniel Amos (the audio in this video - which is from the same show I have this song from - sounds pretty darned good. I don't know who was playing in this incarnation of DA, but apparently Jennwith2ns's uncle Phil Madeira was swirling the keys. Nice.)
All Down the Line - Rolling Stones (makes me wanna hike up my pants leg and do the Jagger. Every. Freakin'. Time.)
All Good Naysayers Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace! - Sufjan Stevens (Hmm... Two songs from Michigan already...)
All I Ever Get for Christmas Is Blue - Over the Rhine (OtR came out with an album chockful of sexy and/or fun Christmas songs a couple years ago. Life just hasn't been the same since.)
Paste Magazine has been asking your favorite albums of the decade (in whatever it's being called these days: the Aughts? The Rockin' Aughties? the "Double" "O's"?) and it got me to straight-up thinkin... Hmmm...
Okay, this is not my definitive list. It's more of a working-edit list - a preparation for the big event that is the roar of the Big Teens. Nothing is set in stone here.
Bare in mind that I haven't bought too much music recently and that only occasionally have I really been able to delve into the latest and greatest (only to be reminded once again that just because something plays good on the radio doesn't mean it lasts. I'm looking at you, just about every band). I still have a lot of music recently that I'd like to play a few more times, loudly, to see if they make the cut or fake the dump (do you think that phrase will make the cut... or fake the dump?). Even ones listed on here should get another couple spins before I
A further complication is that either rock music is spending less time composing the full-length album and going back to the singles format, only still selling 50-70 minute records, or I'm just too lazy to listen to a full album anymore.
Oh Brother Where Art Thou? - Various, Music from the Motion Soundtrack
The Ringing Bell - Derek Webb
Note, I deliberately tried not to double-up on artists.
Others that are in consideration include U2, Joe Henry, Metric, Mars Ill, Jay-Z (for Fade to Black, which I'd have to consider apart from his post-retirement drizzle), Hold Steady (I'm still torn on them...), and Radiohead.
another random shuffle, sukas! Set your iPods (or comparable player, in my case, my iTunes player) to shuffle and transcribe the first 25 that come up. You're on the honor code, so no skipping over those teenage girls that you pretend you only have for your nieced and no skipping ahead to some no-name band that quit after its first show thereby granting it instant twirps-in-tight-jeans cred.
Ready? Let's rock!!
Beverly Blvd. - Pigeon John Ghost of the Heart - Daniel Amos Droned - Starflyer 59 Jesus Be a Fence Around Me - Fred Hammond I'm Cool [Interlude] - Stankonia Presence of the Lord - Blind Faith Noah: Me and You, Lord - Bill Cosby One and the Same - Deepspace 5 Axe to Grind - Deepspace 5 I'll Be Around - Duvall Everything's Just Wonderful - Lily Allen Can't Stand Losing You - The Police Theo's Logic - Daniel Amos I Get a Kick out of You - Frank Sinatra Thought Managerie - Sixpence None the Richer Freedom's Child - Billy Joe Shaver Blank - Violent Femmes Whitey on the Moon - Gil Scott-Heron New Way to Be Human - Switchfoot Rock You - The Roots Blank - Violent Femmes (yes, that came up twice. What am I supposed to do about that?) Boplicity - Miles Davis Blue Monday - New Order Greater Is He in Me - The Crabb Family (Get your minds outta the gutters, folks. And no, I'm not a fan of Southern Gospel)
Good ness! There is a whole lotta music by Christians on this. Even one of the 'secular' songs is a Gospel song. Fortunately, nothing embarrassing showed up (wouldn't want y'all to believe that I'm still listening to 'Luv Is a Verb' or 'The Champion' now) - at least nothing that I'm embarrassed by - until the end.
But I got caught up in just how naive this couple is. Parents of a 2 1/2 year old child are being purposefully ambiguous about the sex of their child. They dress "Pop" up in both boys' and girls' clothing (jeans and dresses, which, incidentally, my 2 year old girl wears) and have sported the child in traditional hairstyles of both genders.
“We want Pop to grow up more freely and avoid being forced into a specific gender mould from the outset,” Pop’s mother said. “It's cruel to bring a child into the world with a blue or pink stamp on their forehead.”
The child's parents said so long as they keep Pop’s gender a secret, he or she will be able to avoid preconceived notions of how people should be treated if male or female.
I will not argue that gender is not a social construct, just that it isn't fully. Nobody forces a boy to like a Tonka truck or to be more aggressive in his pursuits -- sometimes ostracizing girls - like my infinitely curious child- in the process of protecting their GI Joes, as I noticed at a Reading for Tots on Monday morn. Or ostracizing nearly everybody else in declaring their Alpha-ness as I noticed in my childhood - being quite the Zed kid. Neither my wife nor I are crazy about phones, so it strikes me as a bit odd on first view to see how much Joss loves to take just about anything (including plates, cups, stuffed monkeys and the loose cell phone) to pretend talking on it. As curious as she is about objects, she's much more interested in people and in social circumstances. It wasn't our expectations -- or others' -- that forced that on her.
What is it? I'm not sure. It doesn't sound like anybody's exactly sure. Some very heterosexual girls prefer playing with cars and straight boys would prefer to wear dresses if they get the chance (as many married men have been caught doing while the wife's away).
Psychologists differ on the overall effect of this experiment, but I'm left wondering why the same people who believe that gender is primarily 'learned' do not believe also that sexual identity is learned, but rather primarily biological.
I bought maybe three or four records this year. Two of them from this year. I did get a few freebies and all, but most were ep's or downloads that I only listened to a few times before I lost the copies (which is easy to do in a year when you lose two computers and gain another two...). And although I enjoyed GirlTalk, I'm not drawn into it.
1) Al Green Lay It Down The Good Rev's return to Stax-sounding soul could be seen as a gimmick, like when modern divas "collaborated" with old dead men or when old classics made "duets" records with present day B-grade stars. But, for the time being, it just feels so right, it's got to be good:
(FWIW, these vids suck - sorry. In this case, the recent concert vids featuring Al suck even more, so I decided not to give my readers a case of motion-sickness and opt for max audio q)
2) She & Him Volume One After awhile, I think I grew weary of the neo-hipster country ("More slide guitar!" can never replace "More cowbell!"), but there are some wonderful songs on this disc that made me smile. I'm a definite sucker for that wall-of-sound pure pop that made a brief appearance in Arcade Fire's Funeral but then overcame some bighaired girl's record. Here, there is just the right amount and plenty of variety (at least the first several songs, including the Roy Orbison-esque "I Was Made for You"):
Honorable mentions: I don't have these records... ladies. Or, yet. But I will soon; and when I do, it's over... Ladies.
Sam Phillips Don't Do Anything I love her leathery voice. And her penchant for writing poetic yet acidic verse on top of sparse but Beatles-esque pop melodies is unmatched. So, why haven't I bought anything new from her since that Martinis and Bikinis cassette in the mid-90's? Because this album wasn't released until this year, that's why. And here, her skills seem to be in top form.
TV on the Radio Dear Science I loved the last album so much that I named it my favorite record of the year (actually, it was top 6. But looking back, it may be top 2 or so). And that's when I was able to buy music and a lot of wonderful stuff came out. This one seems to add hip-hop as well as hip-hop optimism. It's like their angry, muted Stax horns are being shared by PM Dawn. And I ain't complainin':
Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago This is the type of quiet, introspective music that I could probably only listen to after some intense TVotR, but nevertheless, I'm getting old and this is just sounding more and more palatable to my ears. But then again, I can stand some falsettos occasionally. It's been rated high enough by enough trusted ears where I'm giving it some more listens and may take the plunge soon enough.
and, yes, it's very similar to the wonderful First and Second Semester Spanish Spanish Love Songs. Which is why it's so wonderful.
2) Thanks to astute (Micah's World) reader Reg, I now know that my high school students did not have the most interesting names in the world - but they just might if backers of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez get their way. There was a bill being sent through the National Assembly earlier this month, according to the Times, that would make a list of registered children's names and pare that list down to one hundred. So, no more Tutankamen del Sol, Kleiderman Jesús, Yureimi Klaymar, Yusneidi Alicia, Yusmary Shuain, Kleiderson Klarth and Yusmery Sailing.
So long, Hengelberth, Maolenin, Kerbert Krishnamerk, Githanjaly, Yornaichel, Nixon and Yurbiladyberth.
Was that kid's name Mao Lenin? And another was named Nixon? What's next, a Ronald Reagan, maybe a few Hitlers? ohh, nevermind...
3) OK, this is transcendent wonderment. The octogenarian rock & roll choir Young@Heart performing "Purple Haze." The performers seem to take these songs to be both tongue-in-cheek and fun, but yet it's all so touching and real. Really real. Every. Last. Word. Of it.
fwiw, in honor of the couple who came by for dinner last night, I wanted to play one of the two musical geniuses that came out of Seattle. And out of those two, Hendrix beats Cobain in my book most nights. But I just saw this clip the other day and thought it to be a wonderful confluence of art and life. So, there you go.
We have a friend who spent years in a supermax prison. They say it doesn't fit the legal requirement of what cruel and unusual punishment is, but if altering a person's psychological state drastically by keeping them in solitary confinement for years at a time isn't cruel and unusual (or at least cruel. It should be unusual), then what is?
I always feel a bit squeamish about telling my kids that they can do anything that they set their minds to. Partly because the truth is that no one can. Everyone faces several limitations. Another reason is that it builds a sense of uber-competition and narcissism. We need to, in some ways, have our children and youth appreciate their own sense of uniqueness and giftedness and what they can give out into the world and their communities. This video is an example of what happens when, say, those kids grow up and become - say- the executive branch of the United States government.
I'm not into bootlegs, copywrite violations, file-sharing, etc. I do think, that to an extent, they qualify as stealing, or some participation in it. Overall, though, my take is this: support the artist. The music industry business itself, especially as it is not supporting the development of the artists so much anymore, and are making artists pay for their own recordings, are paying them back a small percentage of what they make, don't cover touring and the heavy promotional stuff (except for traditional radio, something they've been good at for well over 50 years and the occasional big artist/band/American Idol), and now they're going after the fans.
One music fan (and certainly the type of music fan that the industry wants on their side, judging by her music selection), as many are well aware, was ordered to pay a sum of [edit] $220,000 (US) to the industry for sharing a total of 24 songs. That breaks down to about $9,250 each song - far above the going rate for pop music. The shocking thing, however, wasn't that she was charged, the shocking thing is that she didn't back down to the Goliath that is the RIAA and is going through the court system. And fighting against their expensive (and ludicrous) lawyers.
(Another charge against the music industry: Twenty-four songs along the likes of Richard Marx, Journey and Destiny's Child. Apparently, despite her high-tech means, she couldn't find any music made within this century.)
According to this article in the Washington Post, the RIAA views "the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer."
RIAA, you suck.
And furthermore, I haven't watched your joke of an award show (nor cared for the outcomes) in years.
Grow up or die.
Edit:
Radiohead got more from its near give-away of its record InRainbows online than the record company prior to this had given them for all of their sales online - including iTunes (before the actual physical copy even debuted).
"We’ve made more money out of this record than out of all the other Radiohead albums put together, forever [in terms of anything put out on the net]... It’s partly due to the fact that EMI wasn’t giving us any money for digital sales." This according to their frontman Thom Yorke in Wired Magazine. (h/t to paidContent.org via Ypulse)
In case you aren't aware (say... you're my wife) Radiohead decided to post its last record for download at whatever flippin' price the customer deemed it worthy to pay. Most, of course, paid nothing or close to nothing (not because it wasn't worth it. Many claim this to be their best album since Kid A. But because people can be wipes. Cheap wipes.), but Radiohead still got the better end of the bargain.
From the Wired intro:
Roughly 40 percent of [the downloaders] paid for it, according to comScore, at an average of $6 each, netting the band nearly $3 million. Plus, since it owns the master recording (a first for the band), Radiohead was also able to license the album for a record label to distribute the old-fashioned way — on CD.
$3,000,000? That's more than all of their combined records sold made them?
And if that's not enough to get your heart fluttering...
Part of the reason for this blog-a-thon is that I have seen way too much good music of the last two decades + go unheralded because it was in the Christian ghetto of the music recording industry - CCM. Now that the music industry is dying a slow-death and artists are able to self-produce and release their own CD's with the ease of pushing a few buttons and opening a MySpce account, the sad poetry of this underground and embattled music legacy is lost. What's even sadder is that, with the exception of eBay, most of the recordings are long gone. Here's to hoping for a resurgence, of sorts.
The irony, of course, is that the underground CCM movement may be understood better today than ever before, even the previous DIY time, the late '70s.
Note: This essay is actually a revision of a previous and longer essay on Adam Again. Dig, by Adam Again
Whereas their previous and more jamming funk-rock band album Homeboys focused on the street level, Dig dug "Deep" into the recesses of the soul to produce a treasure worth treasuring. Although ostensibly about the divorce that frontman, singer, organist, guitarist, co-songwriter, lyricist, engineer, producer, studio owner, co-label owner and all-around profound artist Gene Eugene and bandmate, dancing dervish, vocal harmonizer Riki Michele were heading towards, the music was primarily about the emotional toll taken in the wake of their ongoing separation and the search for meaning in those dark times, not le divorce itself (which isn't atypical in the underground music scene these days). The disc is filled with enough archetypal images - digging, card playing (fate and relationships interplayed in fate and loss), water, dirt and earth - to make Carl Jung blush. It also helps to make the album universal - even though it itself is ironically hidden. It's a work of pure staggering everyman's art, taking specific, personal experiences and expressing them in an accessible language so that many can claim these opuses as their own.
And then there's the music. Gene had had plenty of experience in nearly every field of non-mainstream music as far as CCM was considered - working with hip hop, hardcore, punk, industrial (such as Mortal), post-punk, shoe-gazer, college rock, new wave, etc., etc. Gene also was deeply influenced by the great singer-songwriters: Dylan, Van Zandt, Cohen (who he referenced in their next album), and was influenced by such disparate figures as Stevie Wonder, Social Distortion, X, the Beatles and 70's rock radio.
But, at heart, I think that Gene wanted to rock and roll in a band that played the funkiest Fender Rhodes you've heard since 1976 (adapted from Homeboys). Yet the love for hard rock and punk (and even Americana) was there and pulsing through the backbeat of this band. It was a funk-rock fusion that, as said here, the Red Hot Chili Peppers would die to have - if they weren't so lazy. The main guitar was done by Greg Lawless, a monster, who could spit out tasty and crunchy riffs like Chester Cheeta with an axe and kick crazy asphalt of your chin like a face-melting Jackie Chan. The bass, as I'm told by the daughter of an avid bass-player, was laid down by Paul Valadez and is the shiz-bit, the ground you flippin' walk on. And then there's the welcome funky and foundational addition of John Knox, drummer extraordinaire, who's day job was to pound the skins for mainstream Christian rock act Whiteheart. Thank God he did extracurricular activities. The combo was unlike many others. Too bad for others.
The disc starts with a barn-stormer. "Deep" begins the theme of this album with stream-of-conscience poetry and a funky start/stop second guitar, mediating the Author into the mystery of the story. It's a story about mystery, about things not being as they seem or as we want them to be. It may also be about things not being what we envision them to be. "Girl ghost is in the stairway / She likes it when I rub my eyes... I don't want to / you don't want to / we don't want to know / And dying on the cross / for the sick and the loss / is the Lover that I long to know." Halfway in there, Jon Knox's drumming comes alive unto its own and threatens to devour through sheer force of high-hat cymbal-banging. And certainly those lyrics testify that it is also about revelation, an eye-opener that Jesus is not passive, but actively participating in our suffering through his own sacrifice of his own life. The title given to the one on the cross (you would note that not once do they refer to Jesus by name, part of the reason why they never made it big, or even moderately, in the Christian music ghetto) adds extra dimensions and says that this is not just a God or man who distances himself from us or our humanity, but loves us and yet somehow remains mysterious. Note other burning lyrics:
My days of wishful thinking Soldiers of sorrow sinking words dance beginnings riddle and in the end and in the middle deep will i dig I... see a shovel in the hand of a wild-eyed man with a mission and a goal below... I've learned of this religion but I've lost my peaceful vision
Notice also that Gene stretches out his I's. They become part and parcel of his personal vision, a sad self-reflection of a man trapped within himself, trying hard to shake himself free by self-discovery.
"It Is What It Is (What It Is)" presaged the most common answer by NBA stars, maybe in an attempt to avoid questions a la Dylan (probably about the indie rock and artistry that they would attempt within the realm of the bloated and convellent Contemporary Christian Music scene and the Christian bookstores they sold through.). "Ask a stupid question / you get a sideways quote / The reasonable would demand it." Indeed.
Sense to be made I am afraid I need to understand it. The audience is baited I got it by the throat That monumental big decision It is what it is what it is
"Dig" begins with a pulsing Fender and slowly burns. Riki adds her sweetly melancholy melody on the second verse, Gene adds another vocal harmony slightly later and towards the end they fill in with guitars, drums, and bass.
Consult the cards to measure time the earth is hard, the treasure fine... Will the eagle fly if the sky's untrue do the faithful sigh because they are so few At the sea, I'll wait on my knees
Gene Eugene has a nasal voice often though unfairly compared to REM's Michael Stipe. On this album, however, he wraps his vocals around the lyrics like a down blanket on a cold night and the additional harmonics of the Rhodes and background singer and spurned lover Riki Michele put him in a warm atmosphere, certainly in songs like "Dig." On "Hopeless, Etc." Gene stretches his vocals - some would say unconvincingly - to add dimension to the lyrics. "Hopeless, Etc." is ego-focused. Each verse begins with and expands on an elongated "I'm," holding at times for several bars and filling-out with 'hopeless,' 'useless,' and 'worthless' with a coda on the '-less.' It's a twisted worship song for the Me Generation. And it's a rocker, albeit one that also carries those song-building effects, this time starting fresh with every verse.
The oh-so meta (before meta went haywire and mainstream) "Songwork" is about the difficulty of writing that perfect song, or sometimes any song. But it is also about the difficulty of art, of - here's that theme again - the toil and sheer luck of discovering. He asks the difficult questions: which voices do I listen to, and to what end is all of this coming to? It's also one of the heavier songs musically, plodding along as if stuck in the mud. And apparently that is what happened to Gene until he decided to try a stream-of-conscience approach - which in turn greatly influenced my own writing (well, poetry. This prose stuff me no so good at).
Am I learning Patience Is my spirit restored Do I listen to the beggar Or the woman at the door
"Worldwide" & "Walk Between the Raindrops," apparently, are about the social and global ills that face us as a brother- and sisterhood. The murder of Headman Shabalala (of Ladysmith Black Mozambo) and the plight of the homeless are raised to question our incapacity to compassionately act, suggesting that if we can merely explain the situation without grieving alongside the Holy Spirit on this, we are as likely to walk between raindrops. And the jump-kick on "Worldwide" kicks butt. "Keep your holy hair in place / the wind is gonna blow / the humble and the poor keep breathing." The guitars are psychadelic wha-wha's that Lenny Kravitz wishes he could borrow with any sense of credibility. Adam Again is truly urban rock. 100% urban, 100% rock.
Rumored to be a big influence on Over the Rhine (who's brilliant Drunkard's Prayer is a beautiful counter-point to the themes on this album and who played the screeching and haunting guitar coda from this song that was in itself stolen from Hendrix) "River on Fire" is the only song that seems to speak of the ensuing separation between husband and wife - indirectly or not. The burning of the over-polluted Cuyahoga River in Cleveland serves as the self-referential metaphor. The cello plays its part to leave the song drudging slowly along, methodically pulling us to gaze at the inevitable crash and slow burn of a feral mass of water, moodily created by the Hendrix-ian coda of the guitar at the end - wailing its way to a fiery death.
After the guitar chord drops a chill in the spine, we are treated with a rollicking "That Hill." Lyrically, it's about the failure of success, but musically it's a funky, hard-rocking blast with an engaging melody and riffs galore. Gene sings dispassionately behind the driving funk-load, "I climbed that hill... I wanted to be on the top / I wanted to be on the top / Big deal." Turn that into a motivational poster!
Adam Again would release one more album (Perfecta, which was pretty darned good in its own right) before Gene Eugene passed in 2000. He was busy making other people's music. I wanted more Digs.
Further reading: http://www.phileasphogg.net/reviews/adamagain_chrono.html Music and myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/adamagain
I've had this wonderful little idea for a series of posts that's been stuck in the back of my head for the last few weeks. It really stems from a complete frustration that it's the end of the year and I've neither seen enough movies or bought enough music to make my typical end of the year lists. It also stems from being disappointed in the lack of coverage of some of my favorite Christian recording artists, even by those who know something about Christian recording artists (of course, the word 'artist' is only tenuously applied here).
For a while I was thinking about doing a series of essays highlighting what I believe to be the best Albums by Christians that Rock (More on that phrasing later). I would soon follow that up by a best Albums by Christians that Folk (and Country) series and a best Albums by Christians that are Heads series. There would also probably be a miscellany thrown in there too (Black/White Gospel, Pop, Soundtrack, Veggie Tales cover, etc.), but you get the point.
But then an epiphany: Why not allow others to join in on the fun? So, if you're reading this, you've probably been invited. If you haven't, consider yourself invited. And if you don't have a blog by now, you might as well open one up just for this momentous occasion.
Now for the best part, the guidelines (not to be strictly enforced. But be aware that I do have ties to the mob):
1) It has to be an album (vinyl, cassette, CD, 8-track, whatever, the medium's not so important in this case - unless you want it to be) not just a song, and one that you do or did own and preferably listened to several times and can probably quote from memory.
2) It's an album put out by a self-professed Christian, or group of self-professed Christians, or from a band headed by a self-professed Christians. You do not have to agree with their particular worldview or brand of Christianity. They may never have been a believing Christian, they may have back-slidden, they may be arch-conservative or ultra-liberal, but they need to be a Christian by their own proclamations and their Christianity should, in some way, influence their music in much the same way that me being a Chicagoan affects my attitude and outlook (I'm so cold). (Note, the qualification is not if the group or performer is a Contemporary Christian Music artist or even remotely aligned with that tag.) So, although U2 and King's X and Danielson qualify, George Harrison and Bruce Springsteen and Evenescence do not.
3) That would mean, of course, that Carman and Stryper qualify. So, that brings us to our third guideline: It has to be of interest to you. You may do one on your favorite. You may do one on fond memories. You may do an expose. You may tell-all. In any case, it should inspire you to write something fairly original, something worth reading and writing.
4) And oh-so-important: It has to flippin' R.O.C.K.! Talkin' Led Zeppelin/Nirvana/Sex Pistols rock. Ok, maybe not necessarily. But save the other types of music (anything from Mark Heard to Sufjan Stevens to Michael W. Smith to Sam Cooke to M.C. Hammer) for another time. We're looking for face-melters / *alls-to-the-walls / Air-guitar-strumming / Butt-Head-tested, Beavis-approved / Let-your-Hendrix-Freak-Flag-Fly-All-Out / AC/DC Salute-worthy / Mosh Pit-ready rock. Roll is optional.
5) It should be an essay. Not a five paragraph essay, mind you. Not necessarily a one-pager, but a fair jaunt. Definitely not a blurb.
I think that's it. Blogger, WordPress, MySpace, your Space, it's all good FaceSpace. Yeah, you would need to post it next on something that goes up over that there internet contraption what's so popular these days.
Posts are going up next week to coincide with this whole end of the year thing (I hear that's the talk of the town). If you want to join in, hit me up and I'll link you in a round-up post.
The gauntlet has been thrown down, ladies. Who will bite the apple?
