Archive for the 'Music' Category

Yeah. I know.

Sunday, December 23rd, 2007

I haven’t posted.

For a very. Very. Very.

Very.

Long.

Very.

Long.

Time.

Ah, well.

I promise to post more in the near future.

Whilst I’m actually posting, I should point out that six of my seven favourite artists/bands are releasing/have released a deluge of albums in the six months between October 2007 and March 2008.

So, if it’s a deluge, why is it opening in Rainbows? ;-)

For those who are interested, the albums and artists are, by order of release date:

  1. Radiohead’s In Rainbows (release date 10th October 2007)
  2. Sigur Rós’s Hvarf-Heim (release date 5th November 2007)
  3. RPM’s Give My All (release date 16th November 2007)
  4. [dweeb]’s It Came From Outer Space (release date 10th December 2007)
  5. Kevin Max’s The Blood (release date 26th December 2007)
  6. Delirious?’s Kingdom of Comfort (release date 31st March 2008)

Yeah. I have some buying to do. ;-)

Sing A New Song…

Saturday, November 11th, 2006

Remember, remember, the 11th of November,
Those who for our country once fought,
At the end of their wits, but they held back the Blitz:
Make sure they are never forgot.

REMEMBER.

“Wipe the tears away, wipe the tears from your eyes… the real battle yet begun to claim the victory Jesus won… how long to sing this song?” - U2.

“I’ve walked down roads where the devil’s been, where the kids are seeing things that we never have seen… and the ancient stone knows a deeper tale about a bloody King who won the Holy war… Heaven is my home, and there’ll be no shame to bear… Heaven is my home, and there’ll be no refugees…” - Delirious?.

How To Rock Nations

Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006

Yes, it's a church. With a half-pipe.Well, RN06 was incredible. And utterly astounding. And… just… wow. Each day, I got up at 6.30am and fell asleep at 12.30am… in between, helping to park cars, welcoming people, meeting people, singing, screaming, listening, laughing, moshing, talking, getting myself exhausted… and I still absolutely loved it!

And did I mention that it was utterly life-changing?

And, above all, it made God famous.

I can’t really point to one thing that made it excellent. Maybe it was Mal Fletcher’s brilliant Pythonesque impressions and parodies. For example, on death metal:

 I love how our songs are getting more aggressive. I bet you that by 2020, this will be a Christian song: [very quickly & guttural] “God God God God God God God!” And the second verse will be: “Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus!

Or on fashion:

And Paul came into Antioch wearing a very nice pair of jeans and an extremely fashionable T-Shirt; well done, Paul!

Or how about this?

[in a very high-pitched British accent with elongated vowels] You see, Eve, when God says, “Don’t eat the fruit”, He doesn’t actually mean, “Don’t eat the fruit”. You see, you must take the context in which God says it! Do you understand me, Eve? Nod your head if you do. He means don’t eat too much, Eve; don’t make a pig of yourself, woman! That’s what He means!

And that’s not all! What about Matthew Barnett’s brilliant parodical music videos for the “Frontstreet Boys”, or “Weezing”? Elmo playing guitar in a spoof music video for “Beverly Hills“… just pure genius… (that song’s been stuck in my head for the past few weeks, by the way :-P ).

 And what about the bands? Tree63 weren’t bad at all (although I had to leave about six songs into the concert), and Onehundredhours impressed me far more than I thought they would, especially with “I Believe In Love” and “Come Take Me Home”. thebandwithnoname were as aggressive as ever, although I wish that they’d put their lyrics up so that we can rap along. :-P

Electralyte were excellent, although, again, I heard their gig from a distance. I was expecting Titus to be my favourite of the guest bands, and they didn’t disappoint. I don’t think one of their songs dropped below 160bpm. Then again, what can you expect from a Geordie Chinese Christian punk rock band?

But the real stars of the show - conference, even - were RPM, even if I do say so myself. ;-) I mean, watching Alex jump off a ten-foot half-pipe skate ramp and accidentally kick a guest dancer in the head (no injury incurred) was fantastic! ;-)   Then there was the new RN06 theme song/opener,  ”Remember You”, which was pumping. “Fire In Me” was an especially powerful rock epic…

…but the whole choir coming down onto the stage and jumping around with the band members in the final song of the conference - ”Live God Loud” - was just incredible.

And then there were the skate competitions, basketball competitions, obstacle courses, caged football competitions, and the Battle Of The Bands…

…but I’ve gone on for quite long enough already, so let me leave you with a few videos… visit here, enter “colourorcountry” as the password, and click on “RockNations 06″ to view some videos of RPM and Titus performing, plus a brilliantly funny “Please Turn Off All Mobile Phones” advert (spoofing Orange in several ways).

Next post expected, ooh, sometime later today. Maybe.

More Switchbell

Monday, July 10th, 2006

Speaking of Switchfoot, they seem to be caught up in the fad of more cowbell

Next post expected in a few seconds.

Dry Eyes in the Pouring Rain

Monday, July 10th, 2006

I thought that this was pretty related to the last two posts, but I’m going to keep it simple…

“A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of what a straight line is.” - C. S. Lewis, paraphrased.

There cannot be a concept of evil without a concept of good.

There cannot be a concept of wrong without a concept of right.

There cannot be a shadow when there is no sunshine.

Switchfoot, are, once again, right on the mark.

And, once again, this reinforces the idea that postmodernists should be slapped really hard

Next post expected in a few seconds.