blog fast. live slow.

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: blogging, books, family, fatherhood, review, vacation
• Date: Jun 16,2008

After this blog post, I’ll be taking one of my annual blog fasts for the next seven days…

My family is on vacation this week. We are staying in St. Louis and just chillin’ here. We’ve lived here for almost ten years – in total; Holly and I lived here in college – so we are going to do some things we’ve never done and visit some of our old favorite spots here in the Lou. Here is the plan:

Monday: Take the kids to the Boeing Store. This is the official source for authentic Boeing merchandise and collectibles, including apparel, travel gear, and gifts; aviation posters, etc. It’s right next to the airport. I’ve promised the kids this for way too long…

Tuesday: The ever-popular and free Science Center. The St. Louis Science Center is a science museum is among the largest of its type and my two oldest will really enjoy this place of informal science education for all ages.

Wednesday: The Butterfly House, a public natural habitat dedicated to the education of butterflies in Chesterfield. We were trying to go as a family when the kids studied butterflies in homeschooling, so better late than never.

Thursday: I’m really excited about this: The City Museum. Housed in the 600,000 square-foot former International Shoe Company, the museum is an eclectic mixture of children’s playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects. Artisans have constructed the museum from the very stuff of the city; and, as a result, it has urban roots deeper than any other institutions.

Friday: The Magic House. I haven’t been here in over 15 years. I’m going to get in touch with my inner child here. The Magic House is one of the best children’s museums in the country, engaging in hands-on learning experiences that encourage experimentation and creativity.

Saturday: The Children’s Garden at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. This summer, the fine folks @ The Children’s Garden are pretending to blaze a trail with Daniel Boone! There will be hands-on learning and family fun to be had here!

After The Children’s Garden, we’ll have a picnic and then head off to…..the famous Crown Candy Kitchen. Need I say more?

Sunday: Cardinals Party here at the ranch. We’ll watch St. Louis take on the BoSox on the tube. Dogs, chips, Cracker Jacks, etc. Tons ‘o fun…

Of course, mixed in with all of this is a bunch of goofing off, sprinkler time, movie-watching, sports-playing, resting, and reading.

Speaking of reading, I am going to try to tackle a few books this week. I have three chapters left on the first book. Here is what is on my ‘docket’:

On the other side of the blog fast:

-Continuing the “Re-engineering” series that is slowly getting off the ground – okay that is an understatement…
-My top 10 worship blogs
-Continuing “My Favorite Songs” series that has taken quite the hiatus…
-Some new blogs finds that highlight the ‘missional’ of everyday life…
-Ten artists you’ve probably never heard of but i like and you should too :)
-My top 10 Lost episodes…so far
-Music reviews of Jon Foreman’s Summer EP and Starfield’s I Will Go
-Book reviews of Steve Timmis/Tim Chester’s Total Church, Matt Smay/Hugh Halter’s The Tangible Kingdom, Dan Kimball’s They Like Jesus But Not the Church, Bill Hybels’ A Holy Discontent, Earl Creps’ Off-Road Disciplines.

music review: kingdom of comfort by delirious?

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: music, review
• Date: May 22,2008

Young rock n’ rollers rollicking in the basement isn’t just an age thing. It’s actually, um, Biblical. As in the Good Book. Ever noticed King David pontificating in the Psalms on the matter of volume?

On April 1st, CCM uber-band Delirious? released their seventh full-length studio album – Kingdom of Comfort – and the volume is cranked. Really earsplitting. Like really – and Biblically – rowdy. And amidst the newfound edge, Delirious? is still at their paramount when they don’t drift too far from the pop format – though Kingdom is not as brawny as their prior effort, The Mission Bell – and only a delicate deviation from its most recent entries in their discography.

The album instigates with the its namesake, “Kingdom of Comfort.” The retro acoustic stylings and loop, marrying Kansas and Radiohead, lull us into their compassion for justice and the trappings of materialism. The chorus is taut with swirling guitars and pads and the outro – in your face.

“God is Smiling” uncovers Delirious? channeling their inner but edgier Keane through the lens of John 15:5 – apart from Him, we can do nothing. “So who is my neighbor, where’s the love/That speaks for those our world has lost?/It’s every heart now, every soul.”

The missteps are found in “Give It What You’ve Got.” Though it starts with a Flaming Lips-tinged intro, the chorus disappointingly smacks of vintage Michael W. Smith. Even more substandard was “Stare the Monster Down” with tiresome hooks from Stu Garrard.

“Love Will Find a Way” reveals a beguiling chorus that harkens back to a heavier Yes and gets us back to the heart of things: love covers a multitude of everything.

Worship songs ready-made for Sunday morning, like “We Give You Praise,” “How Sweet the Name,” and “All God’s Children,” go from good to average with “We Give You Praise” standing above the rest with its lilting minor chords in chorus, echoing that a life lived worshipping bonds the bitter and the sweet.

“Every Soul Needs a Savior” pulsates with a bridge that would make even Thom Yorke proud. The love song, “Wonder,” finds Delirious? showing their hand of what the future may hold. It speaks with a very innovative and vociferous chorus, unlike anything I’ve heard them do.

Kingdom concludes with the rock-solid “My Soul Sings,” with its eighth note downstroke a la Coldplay. The choir affixes soul to the roll.

If you’ve followed the contemporary worship resurgence in the last 10 years or so, you know the conversation would not be complete without including this West Sussex band. Though they’ve straddled the line between the mainstream and Christian music industry – see Audio Lessonover? – they have maintained a position as one of the most relevant and important bands in Christian music history.

Their humble beginnings as a worship band for a youth outreach event called “Cutting Edge” in England has been the true catalyst and heart behind the humble longevity of their career. And this heart for worship, as well as an emerging voice for social justice, shines through on Kingdom of Comfort.

concert review: radiohead @ verizon wireless amphitheater – st. louis, mo

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: music, review
• Date: May 15,2008

I was going to write a review, but this pretty much sums up the night. And man, was it bloody good…

Concert Review: Radiohead in St. Louis
May 14, 2008
Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, St. Louis
By JASON HARPER, The Pitch Music Editor
Wayward Blog

“This is one from Kid A that we kind of lost sight of,” Thom Yorke told a nearly sold-out crowd (18,000 is my guess) last night in St. Louis. “It seems very pertinent now to us,” he continued, and his band, Radiohead, launched into “Optimistic.”

Pertinent, indeed. In addition to this massive-selling tour, Radiohead oughta feel pretty good about the millions it raked in after offering its latest album for sale online for as much as fans wanted to pay for it, even if that meant absolutely zero quid. I paid £10 pounds for In Rainbows and $61 plus travel expenses to see ‘em last night, and I regret nary a pence.

Read the rest of this entry »

book review: four views on hell 2

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: books, eschatology, review
• Date: May 6,2008

Part 1

John Walvoord advocates the conventional view, which embraces that Hell is literally a place of smoke and fire, where nonbelievers undergo physical and emotional agony throughout eternity. Verse upon verse is utilized to establish that the vengeance of God is more than sheer physical death. Words such as “olam” and “neash,” generally translated “ever”, are in some contexts limited as to duration in time (e.g. Ex. 27:21), but says Walvoord, “such termination is never once mentioned in either the Old or New Testament as relating to the punishment of the wicked… there is no intimation that this punishment should not be taken literally and continue eternally.”

William Crockett asserts that the Biblical representation of hell as fire is metaphor, symbolizing separation from God. While Crockett concurs with Walvoord that hell is a place of everlasting cognizant chastisement, he advocates that New Testament portrayals of both heaven and hell are fundamentally figurative and not an exact depiction of the worlds to come. He contends that ancient teachers used hyperbole to underscore the overwhelming dreadfulness of the judgment of God.

Zachary Hayes gives the purgatorial view of customary Roman Catholicism: that eternal fate is set irreversibly at the instant of death; that the majority of people are not corrupt enough to be relegated to a perpetual hell, nor are they good enough for heaven; therefore, some sort of “purification” process needs to take place between death and access into heaven. Roman Catholic theology affixes to this theory the likelihood of being aided in the cleansing method by those alive on earth.

Finally, Clark Pinnock offers the conditionalist view, oftentimes known as annihilationism, in which nonbelievers are eradicated entirely out of existence or after some period of conscious punishment. He acknowledges that this controversial view is extremely rare amongst early Christians, but rightly claims that tradition is not infallible, and thus the arguments for eternal conscious punishment must be considered on their own rights. Pinnock claims the innocent acceptance of the concept of the immortality of the soul, which is placed behind the conventional understanding of hell, direct traditionalists to ignore the literal meaning of many Scriptures. Pinnock then provides a good account of those key Scriptures that shore up the conditionalist view.
__________

Photo by aslakr

book review: four views on hell, ed. by stanley gundry 1

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: books, eschatology, review
• Date: May 6,2008

Part 1

The majority of modern Christianity accepts the dogma of hell, but what exactly constitutes this place of torment has been debated throughout the history of the Church…

As a part of the Zondervan Counterpoints series, Four Views on Hell takes four authors – John Walvoord, William Crockett, Friar Zachary Hayes, and Clark Pinnock – and asks them to present their views and counterviews on hell. What follows is four, essentially evangelical, analyses on hell – the hellliteral, metaphorical, conditional, and purgatorialin doctrines – and the author’s interaction with each other on the issue. And though the authors display an admirable attempt to illustrate their observations, only one view exhibits a sound argument and sensible scrutiny when laid beside the others.

Photo by aslakr

sent for review

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: books, music, review
• Date: May 5,2008

I hope to get reviews up on these soon…

Books:

Music:

Starfield I Will Go

Delirious Kingdom of Comfort

music review: ampersand ep by derek webb and sandra mccracken

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: independent music, music, review
• Date: Apr 8,2008

Ike and Tina. The White Stripes. Conway and Loretta. Eh?

Add to that list: Derek and Sandra. Webb and McCracken, that is. And from the husband and wife duo, a duet album that no one saw coming. Including the aforementioned twosome.

Their forthcoming Ampersand EP, to hit on April 22, was actually a divine accident. Caedmon’s Call, of which Webb is back as a member of, had invited him and his wife separately to write for their latest record. During the songwriting process, Webb and McCracken were eating breakfast one morning and they were talking about ideas and those ideas became songs. But they weren’t trying to write together. “Which is probably why it worked,” says Webb.

And so it goes. Those songs became an EP. And it does work, Derek. Very well.

The confessional “Valentine” begins with an AM radio-mixed, soulful loop, with a xylophone overcast. Throw in some banjo and Rhodes, the duo waxes about the joys of engagement and marriage. The song showcases Webb’s vintage falsetto and the left-of-center harmonies of McCracken.

“When the Summer’s Gone” channels The Cardigans and Nina Persson via Long Gone Before Daylight. This alt-country gem bespeaks of rediscovering the innocence of romance. “You are the one to whom my heart belongs…” bellows McCracken.

“You know I’d rather fight with you/If that’s the only way/The way to be close to you/Oh, I’m not lying” opens the third song on the EP, “Watch Your Mouth,” which could have easily been a tune that missed the cut for Webb’s third solo album, Mockingbird. Dealing with the weighty issue of conflict and how we miss the mark in doing it decorously, the song is replete with quirky chord progressions, a clunky upright, and that xylophone again – thanks Andrew Bird for making it so cool!

The haunting “When the Lights Go Out,” might very well be the highlight of the EP. Not to mention, the banjo and piano-tinged duet with McCracken’s alto croon is custom fitted for a Grey’s Anatomy closing minutes montage. McCracken pontificates, “If life is full of living/And love is for the strong/I don’t know how I got here/But I know that he belongs.”

“If Not For You” is your undisguised, unfettered anthem of love. In the vein of the Indigo Girls, this single acoustic ditty takes stays away from the esoteric and pulls a page out of the “Keep It Simple Stupid” songbook. Transparent descriptions of affection for the one you love. Including the idea of sleeping soundly by the one you prize, “If not for you/I would lie awake at night.”

The EP closes with the minimalist and poppy “My Finest Misfortune.”

This is just a melodically smart, sophisticated and intimate affair. It’s a natural extension for Webb and McCracken, every bit as personal as anything they’ve ever recorded.

So here’s to hoping that Webb and McCracken accidentally record a full-length album together in the near future.

On purpose.

inking reviews for kansas city metro voice

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: music, news, review
• Date: Mar 31,2008

Beginning this month, I will be a regular music reviewer for Metro Voice, Kansas City’s local newspaper serving the Christian community. Unfortunately, the reviews won’t be on the online edition, but most of them will be reprinted here on relevintage.

The editor has given me freedom to: 1) review artists that are left-of-center in the CCM industry or believers in the mainstream industry who write positive, “real-life” music and 2) be honest.

Though not as critically brash as the guys at Patrol Magazine – which, btw, are so refreshing – they will not tow the party line. More along the lines of what you see in Christianity Today music review section.

The April 2008 edition of the Metro Voice featured these reviews:

Switchfoot: Oh! Gravity.
Todd Agnew: Better Questions

music review: better questions by todd agnew

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: CCM, music, review
• Date: Mar 16,2008

“I’ve got better questions than I have answers…”

This first line of Todd Agnew’s prelude to his Better Questions album is the coal-and-ice of his fourth Ardent studio release. Answers are only as good as the questions are better. And sometimes answers are seemingly the more elusive the better the questions are.

In his 17-song opus, Agnew ventures into parabolic territory, raising inquest after inquest, hoping to find resolution to the paradoxes of life. Especially, the paradoxes of life in Christ. And musically, Agnew leaves no stone unturned in his most eclectic album to date.

The albums first full track, “Still Has a Hold,” kicks off with a nod to St. Benadictine. Straight from the monastery, the chant of monks eases us into a nu-gospel country, replete with a double-time outro that could be heard in any downtown Memphis church – Agnew’s hometown. And lyrically, “Still” could have been written by any of the great gospel writers of the last centuries. “Sometimes I’m in the valley/I let go long ago/My hand is weak and tired/But Your hand still has a hold.” This is the kind of song Johnny Cash would be recording if he were still alive.

“Last of These” find Agnew channeling his inner Soundgarden. This is the first of one of Agnew’s musical themes on “Better Questions”: modern 90′s grunge a la Alice in Chains and Stone Temple Pilots and focuses us in on the unnoticed in our society who God says to heed. “If You Wanted Me” brings us to a more subdued Agnew with an Edge-flavored guitar and a djembe loop. In one of his most poignant lines of the album, Agnew asks, “And if You wanted me to be like You/Why’d You make me like me?”

The 6/8 lilter “Our Great God” is one of the peaks of Better Questions. Originally recorded by Fernando Ortega and Mac Powell of Third Day, the violin and acoustic guitar worship song finds its vim and vigor in a duet w/Rebecca St. James “When the Lord of all is the Lord of each/And I love you like He loves me/There might be…” is one of the closing lines of “Peace On Earth,” the Bob Marley/Stone Temple Pilots-infused sermonette.

It is hard not to hear Brad Roberts booming baritione of the Crash Test Dummies when Agnew sings, “So before you spout out your most recent thoughts/Just remember who you’re speaking for/Or don’t say anything at all” on “Don’t Say a Word.” There is a slight Beatles sophistication on this tune, but the immediate context is to preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words. Lyrically hearkening back to the Apostle Paul and his conundrum of not doing what he knows he should and doing what he knows he shouldn’t, the downtuned “War Inside” recalls Hinder with its huge electric guitar hooks.

“On a Corner in Memphis” paints a picture of how church can be anywhere, even in the midst of pain on the Mississippi river town’s Beale Street. The bluesy tune, teeming with B-3 and upright piano sings “What if their heart-breaking cries of pain/Are the first hymns of tomorrow’s saints?” The Rich Mullins, “Can I Be With You,” features a simplistic grunge guitar and gravelly vocals. This isn’t your mother’s Rich.

The bonus track on Better Questions, “Glorious Day” is actually its highlight. This repackaged hymn soars with a great melody, instrumentation, and space. In many ways, it showcases the best of Agnew and the deficit in some of his other songs – lackluster hooks and esoteric instrumentation.

Lurking beneath the surface of each of Agnew’s anthems is the reality that we aren’t asking the right questions. Or better, we’re afraid to ask them at all. And as Agnew shows, Better questions begat better answers. And questions never asked leave answers never unearthed.

ben + vesper

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: independent music, music, parenting, review
• Date: Jan 30,2008

Vesper, of the married musical duo Ben + Vesper, stopped by relevintage, to let me know their daughter’s middle name was the same as ours: Evangeline. Small world the blogosphere is…

Check out all things Ben + Vesper at benandvesper.com and their music at myspace.com/benandvesper and on iTunes here. There are on the sister label to the Asthmatic Kitty brand – see Sufjan Stevens – called Sounds Familyre Records. Sounds Familyre is also home to quirkyDanielson and freak folkers Feathers.

Their newest album, All This Could Kill You, is stellar. Think a wispier, more lyrically accessible Low. Here are what a few music publishers are saying about the record:

Drowned in Sound

It’s only after repeated listens that the magic of All This Could Kill You begins to make itself known. Ben & Vesper’s trade appears initially to be in slightly woozy, sub-Smog acoustic balladry, but after you’ve hit those magic repetitions a sprawling world of exploration and subtle innovation becomes visible on the horizon. There are untapped lines of wobbling accordion, oddly punctuated percussion phrases that out-shape any normal parameters and frankly home-honed lyrics that speak of domesticity and destruction in equal measure.

…When the finished article is one so imbued with these positive elements, it seems only to add spice to include the lyrical and thematic difficulties that the songs do so effortlessly. This record will probably not set the world and its heart ablaze with acclaim and adoration, but it certainly should do. If everyone could express themselves so clearly and with such dignity, this high a watermark would seem somewhat redundant. As things stand, Ben & Vesper are a rare talent with a record full of rare qualities.

Pitchfork

If the name Ben + Vesper sounds familyre, that’s because this artsy-fartsy husband/wife duo runs with the notorious Suf-gang.

All This Could Kill You (which follows a seven-song EP, More Questions, released earlier this year) is boosted into distinction by Danielson/Danielson Famile mastermind Daniel Smith’s rich, cuddly production: All 13 songs here are impeccably recorded, tender, balanced, and gorgeously organic. All This Could Kill You features multi-instrumental action from the one and only Sufjan Stevens (who tackles banjo, woodwinds, vocals, and piano here) and the production wizardry/wackery of Smith

…While the record’s melodies are, for the most part, uniformly sweet and memorable, Ben’s big, booming vocals (offset, naturally, by Vesper’s breathy murmur) provide a welcome shot of weird.

…All This Could Kill You is packed with grim observations and impressive sonic flourishes– enough to make you wish you had more talented friends.

Paste

From the slippers and bathtub on the cover to the themes of domesticity woven through their softly malted harmonies, Ben and Vesper Stamper want nothing more than to draw you into their inner world. Because the couple deals in such intimate gestures, the moments where they break from the tinkling din of electric guitars and brushed drums stand out most clearly, from the sing-along melodies and prancing piano lines…

…The album certainly isn’t without its quirks, though, as Sufjan Stevens and co-producer Daniel Smith fill out the backing band, adding extra textural color to what often feels more like an overheard conversation than a pop album.