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#18 – Ra Ra Riot: The Rhumb Line

Part of what makes The Rhumb Line so engaging is that it’s ultimately life-affirming: It’s not only a requiem for a lost friend, it’s a tribute to the ones who stuck around through the worst times. – Rolling Stone

The Rhumb Line–defined as a straight-shot line across all meridians, for the geospatially uninitiated–mostly just thrums with an uncommon sort of pop radiance. – Boston Globe

Anchored by four tracks from a previous EP that were re-recorded with the hooks highlighted, this nimble full-length wrings catharsis from pop with no lapses into pretension. – Spin


19. The Week That Was: s/t

Executed with serious flair, it manages the rare feat of being both mentally stimulating and musically satisfying. It is, in every regard, one of the most daring albums you’ll hear this year. – Drowned in Sound

It’s heady, bleak stuff, certainly, but the sheer ambition and, bizarrely, hint of liberation with which it’s performed make it one of the year’s most perplexingly life-affirming releases. – No Ripcord

The results are unsurprisingly focused: From beginning to end, The Week That Was is executed with mathematical precision. – PopMatters


3.22.09: a.c. newman + the broken west, blueberry hill

  • Author: Brad
  • Filed under: music
  • Date: Dec 18,2008

I just got Holly and I tickets to a killer concert next March with a one of my favorite singer-songwriters + one of my new favorite bands.


The opening act is Los Angeles’ The Broken West, who, imho, are THE breakout indie band of 2008. Watch for their 2008 release on my year-end best of list.


The main act is Canadian A.C. Newman of The New P***agraphers [man, I hate that name!]. I’m pumped because A.C.’s new album, Get Guilty, comes out January 2009 so we’ll be hearing his new tunes. It will have been five years since his last solo release, Slow Wonder, which is one of my all-time favorite records.
——————–
I forgot to mention back in November that Holly and I saw Coldplay at the Sprint Center in KC. It was a pretty good concert, but I was a bit underwhelmed. Especially for the money we shelled. Yikes! The greatness of their music can’t be denied. Their performance of “Violet Hill” was unforgettable…


transformission’s top 20 albums of ’08: #20

  • Author: Brad
  • Filed under: music
  • Date: Dec 18,2008

Here is the first installment of my annual ritual to list my favorite albums of the year. As for commentary, I’ll let the reviewers tell you about these albums. If I’ve reprinted it, I agree with them.

Today, we begin the countdown at #20…



20. The French Kicks: Swimming

Trading layers of mood and melody and meaning for layers of Pro Tooled artifice, French Kicks have razored off the bull****, leaving a core of beguilingly honest tunes. – Pitchfork

To save themselves from the sneaking accusation that they were fizzling out, the quartet self-produced and -mixed “Swimming,” and the result is an album notably more laid-back and truer to their wistful personalities than 2006′s “Two Thousand.” – Billboard

By recycling and loosening up ‘Two Thousand’s” best elements–inventive instrumental passages, rich harmonies, across-the-board emoting–French Kicks get both poppier and deeper. – Spin


the sound of hope

  • Author: Brad
  • Filed under: music
  • Date: Dec 8,2008

After doing some research, I found out this is the PS22 Choir, an elementary school choir of about 70 students from Staten Island, NY led by their teacher, Greg Breinberg. They have a website with all of their covers, including some real “duets” with Tori Amos and Crowded House, to name a few. Very cool!

Also, here is a great story about the choir. Inspiring! Glee Club: How an Elementary School Teacher

[HT: Tim Keel]


the 7

The 7 is very ‘friendly’ today. Heavy on thoughts for leaders. Enjoy…

1. Ryan Wiksell waxes eloquent on the ‘edifice’ complex in ministry. Is bigger better?

2. Propaganda vs. art. My good friend, Randy Elrod, parses out the debacle known as the MTV Music Video Awards.

3. Leading people does not a leader make. Brant Hansen, in his typical irenic way, shows us the heart of a true leader always comes back to service.

4. Speaking of leadership, another good friend, Sally Morgenthaler, has written an intriguing article for Catalyst on “Leadership in a Flattened World.” If you follow Sally’s stuff, you know this is one of her growing passions: returning ministry to the people.

5. My good buddy, Clint Carter, shares with us the underpinnings of “No – Go – No Ego” from Steve Andrews’ presentation at this year’s Exponential Conference. Great stuff…

6. Beautiful post from my new friend, Mark Riddle, on the “wonderous, dangerous, messy, uncontrollable, subversive, holy, and painful way of Jesus.”

7. And finally, from my new friend, Ed Stetzer: The Temptation of Disconnection. Reminding us all to make sure theory is lived out in practice…


extract’d

Will the real indie stand up?

At this point, most people acknowledge that there’s indie rock– music produced without corporate financial backing– and Indie Rock, a corporately funded mainstream genre that’s defined by normative musical aesthetics, not ideology or actual practice. The same idea carries over to indie film. There’s a festival and art-house circuit that’s essentially Hollywood’s shadow, governed not by artistic and financial freedom but by its own internal hierarchies and genre trappings. A number of tiresome trends have infected this circuit in recent years, including a cynical approach to ethnic and identity politics to garner perfunctory acclaim, condescending caricatures of rural types, and the accumulation of quirks and non-sequiturs in lieu of credible characterization.

-Brian Howe, music critic for Pitchfork Media, from his review of the soundtrack of the indie film Woodpecker

Photo by PUM Clothing by Mr. B. Covered by Creative Commons License.


5 “electronica” artists you need to know

This is music week, I guess. The title speaks for itself. Here we go:

Tunng

Tunng are an experimental folk band from the United Kingdom. They are often associated with the folktronica genre due to the electronic influences evident in some of their work.

Check out: Good Arrows.

Ratatat

Ratatat is a New York City electronic music duo consisting of guitarist Mike Stroud and synthesizer driver and producer Evan Mast.

Check out: LP3 // Classics // self-titled Ratat.

Lali Puna

Lali Puna is a band from Weilheim, Germany formed in 1998 who have released 3 studio albums, a compilation album and several EPs, all published by the Berlin-based independent label Morr Music. The band is currently on hold while the various members attend to other musical projects.

Check out: I Thought It Was Over… // Faking the Books // Scary World Theory

Hammock

My friend B.J. turned me on to these guys. An interesting note is this band is headed by Marc Byrd, known in Christian music circles for co-writing “God of Wonders” with Steve Hindalong. Hammock is a two-member post-rock band from Nashville, Tennessee, a collaboration between Byrd and Andrew Thompson.

Hammock combines live instrumentation, electronic beats, and droning guitar into atmospheric music similar in style to the work of Boards of Canada, Explosions in the Sky, and Stars of the Lid.

Check out: Raising Your Voice…Trying to Stop an Echo.

Subtle

Subtle is an avant-garde hip-hop group who utilizes instruments such as autoharp and an electronic cello. They have strong ties to the anticon. music collective, but is not on the Anticon roster.

Check out: Yell & Ice // For Hero: For Fool // Wishingbone.


relevintage.com’s overlooked albums of 2008

  • Author: Brad
  • Filed under: music
  • Date: Jul 22,2008

This week, Pitchfork released their 2008 edition of the more underappreciated records from the first half of the calender year. The editorial brass put their collective heads together and compiled a list of 20 albums that they’re still spinning from artists that most wouldn’t know.

I looked through their list – and it’s a good one – but I would make some different choices. So in keeping with this theme, I thought I’d share with you my top 5 ‘under the radar’ albums of the first half of 2008. Some of these will probably find their way to my year-end ‘best of’ list. Here we go:


1. The Helio Sequence: Keep Your Eyes Ahead

Hands down my favorite record of the year.

2. Earlimart: Hymn & Her

Could sneak into my #1 year-end ‘best of’ list. #1a right now…

3. The Republic Tigers: Keep Color

Kansas City peeps. Missouri can produce some good tuneage.

4. The Submarines: Honeysuckle Weeks

Pop for the thinking man. And woman…

5. Grand Archives: s/t

Heavy on the reverb. Light on the ears.


the 7

This is a special edition of The 7 on issues of worship in the church

1. Dan Kimball uncovers our hidden assumptions about some long-held traditions in worship: the choir and the organ.

2. Speaking of choirs, Bob Kauflin ruminates on the pros and cons of choirs in worship.

3. Westwinds Church in Jackson, MI is one of the most innovative places in the country and J-Vo is one of the most creative worship pastors around. Here and here he unpacks their thoughts on what interactive worship looks like. Great stuff…

4. I love seeing the underpinnings of what drives a ministry’s worship philosophy, especially when I resonate with them. Check these from The Good Shepherd Band…

5. Worship as an event. It’s an oxymoron, right? Sadly, the oxymoron happens every week in churches all across North America:

6. Kauflin on why we sing:

7. And finally, N.T. Wright on art and mission:


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