NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

One rainy day in March 2005, I saw Acceptance 's Phantoms in Walmart's Pop/Rock section. I picked up the album and wondered who this band was. I looked at the back and saw the track listing. There was a song titled "This Conversation Is Over," which was the same name as one of the songs on The Sims 2 University  expansion pack. Could it be the same group? I rarely bought albums without listening to them first. That's why I have so many Christian Rock albums. The Family Christian Store had a sample CD for almost every album sold in their stores. However, albums sold in major retailers might let you preview a few of the songs. I don't think the preview was available for this album. Nevertheless, I bought this album and put it into the fickle CD player in my 1991 Toyota Corolla. Immediately it became one of the most played albums of the next two years along with Anberlin's Never Take Friendship Personal, Falling Up's Crashings and Dawn Escapes , Day of F...

  Back to Cornerstone, either 2007 or 2008. One dusty afternoon we found ourselves in a tent to see a surprise competition. Like most music festivals, there were different tiers of bands bands playing. At Cornerstone there were groups like Skillet , Flyleaf , Switchfoot, and Relient K who would frequent the main stage. However, small groups like The Wedding played in tents. Every year friends attending made their schedules--the must bands, the bands you may have heard on the radio, the ones with cool names or pictures or bios. So one of The Wedding's shows made our list. I had heard their songs from their first self-titled album on RadioU. Songs like "Morning Air, "Wake the Regiment," and "Move This City." I thought of them as the Fall Out Boy of Christian music. I'M BEGGING YOU TO STAY. It was quite interesting to say the least. The Wedding and another band Wavorly, had been on the schedule at least three times each. The two bands decided to hold a com...

2017's After Laughter is arguably the best Paramore record both lyrically and musically. Musically, it's a pop album borrowing synths from the '80s, interesting drum arrangement, and some pensive guitars here and there. And although most songs are in major keys, lead singer and lyricist Haley Williams masterfully disguises some of the band's most difficult with smiles and summer vibes. The most telling track is "Fake Happy," but also songs like "Pool" and "Rose-Colored Boy" show this beautiful confusion of being the life of the party and dealing with other things inside. The name of the album itself is telling. Williams explains that the meaning is the expression the faces of a room full of people stop laughing. Smiles start to fade, maybe some tears are wiped away. While you may debate whether this band fits into their emo punk rock sound, the lyrics are an unadulterated emotional roller coaster. I CAN'T CALL YOU A STRANGER, BUT ...

Apple Music now has endless music after the album, song, or playlist you were listening to has ended, the algorithm will suggest songs you might like. After a Shawn Mendes single, Apple suggested a track from Taylor Swift's  Folklore  and then this song. I had never heard of James Arthur, but the song reminded me of moments in my long distance relationship and about a time early in my relationship when we got food poisoning from some bad chicken. The song had a sweet, This Is Us kind of feeling to it, so I thought that might be a nice thing to write about today. But, as another part of my project is research, I wanted to know about the artist, and what I found didn't feel so touchy feely, but something nonetheless that I have wanted to process since I've started writing again. WE'RE FALLIN' LIKE THE STARS. I've been wondering these days about cancel culture. What causes a stumble and what causes a fall? How can we know the difference? And finally, how do we deal...

  There is little that my parents agree on musically, but one thing they DO agree on is that whenever Bruce Springsteen comes on the radio, they change the station. For years, all I knew from Springsteen was “Born in the USA,” and the song didn’t resonate with me, so I too passed on The Boss. But when I watched Philadelphia , I heard a different side of Springsteen. Yes, the smokey voice was slightly off-putting in other songs, but how it met with the keys and faint lead guitar, and coalescing with the lyrics to created an emotional and spiritual experience. Last year, I listened to his song "I'm on Fire," a lot. Though somewhat problematic, Springsteen masterfully uses imagery to transport the listener into the experience. Last year when I was returning to Korea just before the pandemic, I watched several movies on the plane. Two of them stuck out. The first was Where's My Roy Cohn , the story of Trump's villainous lawyer who died in the mid-80s of AIDS. The othe...

  At 17, Tyler Burkum joined one of the most successful Christian Rock bands of the '90s, Audio Adrenaline on their Some Kind of Zombie album cycle. Guitarist, Bob Herdman was getting busy with his venture, Flicker Records (Pillar, Fireflight, Kids in the Way). In addition to the need for a new guitarist, lead singer Mark Stuart's vocal problems were getting worse, often losing his voice on stage. The band needed someone to step in on vocal duties. The band's 2001 album Lift  featured songs with Burkum and Stuart sharing vocal duties. The song "Ocean Floor" was the single that introduced Burkum as a prominent member of the band. The band's follow up, Worldwide featured Burkum singing lead on more songs, taking the band in a poppier and CCM-radio friendly direction. But the days of Audio A were numbered. The band called it quits in 2007, mostly due to Stuart's worsening vocal problems. And although the band reunited with Kevin Max on lead vocals, Burkum d...

Since I’m on the subject of family, I thought I would share another memory. Buried under twenty years of dust in my parents garage lies an old Yamaha keyboard. It was my dad's Christmas present to my mom in the mid-90s. This model came with 100 recorded instruments, 100 styles of drum beats, everything from foxtrot to metal, and 25 or so recorded songs. It was a pretty typical family keyboard, but it kept me entertained for years . Although I started playing guitar at the age of 12, I had spent a long time messing around on that keyboard trying to make music. I loved playing the keyboard but hated how fake the instruments sounded. Strings, brass, woodwinds--all sounded like the vegetarian version served at camp meeting tasted. Still, that keyboard played such a crucial role for music in my life.     WHEN I WAS A VERY SMALL BOY. I got my first taste of synthesizers from my keyboard. I learned about the Orchestra Hit . It was the sound used in the hits by Britney Spears , Backs...

  I remember the first time I saw Coldplay 's video for " Trouble " on MTV. That was my introduction to the band. I thought that this interesting Radiohead -like pop band could be an interesting addition to music scene. The band grew out of the dreary piano ballads and has cultivated a diverse sound. Their sophomore album, A Rush of Blood to the Head was much more inclined to pop music. What the band started to perfect after ARoBttH  was the use of the recording studio. X & Y  wasn't so much about the talent of the live music, but what kinds of sounds could be produced in the studio. Their follow-up Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends  extended those ideas with string sessions.  Mylo Xyloto  saw the band collaborate with Rhianna, and next month I'll talk about this album's collaboration with Beyonce.  By the band's seventh album A Head Full of Dreams, listeners should be aware Coldplay isn't recording songs to get back to stadium tours. They...

February 20, 2007, Anberlin released the album that defined their career. Most fans don't remember the release dates of their favorite albums. As for me, I only remember two album releases off the top of my head. The first is P.O.D. 's Satellite  because it was released on September 11, 2001. The other album release I know by heart, as do the fans of Anberlin, is Cities . Anberlin fans call February 20th "Cities Day," still to this day. In the three years that I've been doing this playlist project, I've celebrated Cities with a different track. In 2019, it was " A Whisper & A Clamour ." Last year it was " Hello Alone ," as I dealt with the depression of what looked like Armageddon. This year, I'm choosing the closing track, "(* Fin )," but I'll choose the livestream More to Living Than Being Alive  version released yesterday on AppleMusic and Spotify. WE'RE NOT QUESTIONING GOD, JUST THOSE HE CHOSE TO CARRY HIS CR...

Today was on course to be a perfect day. Solved a banking problem, tried a new Starbucks beverage, got a new shield for my new MacBook Air, tried Shake Shack for the first time (so far the only place in Korea to get beef hotdogs as far as I know), shopping in the department store, bought soft tofu covered sushi for dinner and took it to go. But in the middle of this rare Covid shopping trip, I get an upsetting Kakao text from a coworker about work. So in the middle of vacation, my mind has been corrupted with work. And it's not like it was anything urgent. Like a text from work on a perfect vacation day, the hopeful message of this song is about the struggle through adversity. I heard this song today in Shake Shack, and it seems to fit the mood best. DON'T YOU PUT ME ON THE BACK BURNER. "Somebody Told Me" was my first introduction to this band. You couldn't miss the song, even if you only listened to the radio occasionally. Brandon Flowers sounded so much like The...

Let me be clear this song is awful. It feels a little Westboro Baptist of me to speak ill of the dead. Last night (Korea time), I read that CCM artist Carmelo Dominic  Licciardello , better known by his first name Carman  (like Madonna or Cher), died of complications of hernia surgery. I wasn't convinced to post a song as tribute. He was a singer that was all kinds of problematic. A kind of Adam Sandler opera man singing at the marriage of the evangelical church and politics. He was CCM's greatest showman and gayest homophobe. He appropriated gay culture and left "the homosexual in San Fransisco... trapped in vile bondage."  But it's not Carman's death that inspires today's song. It's another death, the other husband of the evangelical church is politics. Today, conservative talk radio host, Rush Limbaugh also died. I'm not actually influenced directly by either of these men, but they are both carry a torch that has influenced my upbringing and a...

I have to be in a certain mood to listen to tracks from Copeland 's Eat, Sleep, Repeat . Today is the day. Artistically, Copeland's third record serves as a bridge between their rock/emo days and the band's future experimental days. Singer/lyricist Aaron Marsh tests out abstract lyricism on this record. While their latest album Blushing deals with some difficult subject matter, ESR  is arguably Copeland's darkest record. This album was their only record on a major label, and "Control Freak" was the lead single. After this record, the band released a B-Side record and stopped touring for a while, and I feared we had seen the last of Copeland. Fortunately, the band returned in 2008 with the ear-candy record You Are My Sunshine, which I talked about last month.  Copeland is a band that could have easily made it to the "love song" section of the month, as Marsh knows how to write an interesting love song. But as the song that I chose yesterday reminds us...

In 2008 a gothic emo band appeared on Tooth & Nail Records called The Becoming . Their album produced a few singles and halfway through their short album cycle the DJ on RadioU informed the listeners that the band was now called "We Are the Becoming" for legal reasons. Later the band's video "I Cry" premiered on TVU . My sister said, "These guys look ridiculous." Pretty much. Their music kind of sounded like Hinder and they tried to look like Mötley Crüe . After the confusing name change, the band faded into Tooth & Nail record obscurity. The story of the strange band may have come to an end, but lead singer Caleb " Bones" Owens , has just begun.  I'M A CIGARETTE ROLLING DOWN A EMPTY ROAD IN THE NIGH LIKE A SHOOTING STAR. I heard this story and checked out this record thanks to Ethan Luck . If his name doesn't ring a bell, it's not surprising. Luck is a working musician who plays mostly in the studio these days. He has ...

  I've only been to the Honolulu International airport, but from the hour and a half I was there, I will tell the critics they are wrong. Hawaii is NOT overrated in the least. You can see the clearest water and the white sandy beaches from the airport. However, if you chew gum to make your ears pop on a flight, make sure that you bring it with you as the airport doesn't sell it. So to escape the dreariness of a winter's day, let's listen to a track from Colbie Caillat 's Malibu Sessions LP. I realize that the rest of the month, I've been freed from the obligation to write about love songs; however, who doesn't love listening to Colbie Caillat? Listening to her reminds me of college when I first discovered this amazing musician in my dorm room when I needed calm music to drown out my roommate talking to his girl friend while I was trying to finish my literature class homework. THE SHADOWS OF YESTERDAY. It was Easter morning when I got a call from a friend. S...

  I have a few confessions to make before getting into this post. First, I have only listened to folklore once or twice, and I've only listened to a few songs from evermore . As a music blogger, I have to do better. However, I'm waiting for the albums to hit me. I'm sure they will. Most music that sticks with me hits me at just the right minute. And there's a lot of music to be impactful from decades of classic rock to thousands of pop records over the last few decades. Second confession, I've liked Taylor Swift since her Fearless days. I had heard of her from " Tear Drops on My Guitar ," but I got into her when I heard she had covered Luna Halo 's " Untouchable ."  Taylor Swift became Nashville and the music industry's darling and it seemed that everyone had some love for the teenage star. But teenagers grow up.  James Dean in Rebel without a  Cause, 1955   Photo by Laura Loveday, Flicker . YOU COME TO PICK ME UP, NO HEADLIGHTS.  In ...

I’d like to imagine Ryan Clark sitting in freshman English class passing a love letter to some gothic girl, only to have the note intercepted. Perhaps the teacher had been lecturing on a short story by Edgar Allen Poe, and was rudely interrupted by the rustling of paper passed through the aisles of desks. The teacher resembles the late Alan Rickman and he reads the letter, muttering in his gravelly Severus Snape voice. "You see class," he speaks up, "if you want the opposite sex to fall for you, a writer doesn't merely say, 'I will love you to death.' The writer uses more vivid language to express the intentions of his heart." Young Ryan Clark took this as a challenge and wrote the gothic love song that appears in my 2021 February Playlist. IT'S BURIED DEEP WITHIN THE PAST. In early April of my Junior year, my school went on a mission trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee. We did a lot of driving and listened to a lot of music during that time. Many of m...

  Before The Fray and OneRepublic , Lifehouse was the pop-rock band that appeared with their song " Hanging by a Moment " and then crossed over to the Christian market. Their debut album, No Name Face  garnered a lot of love both in the Christian and pop markets. Songs like "Hanging By a Moment" and " Breathing " were huge Top 40 hits, while the song "Sick Cycle Carousel" was a hit on the Christian radio stations. The band signed a deal with Sparrow Records for their second album, Stanley Climbfall, and solidified their hold in the Christian market and lessened their hold on mainstream radio. However, their third and self-titled album produced their biggest pop hit "You and Me" and their fourth album Who We Are, lessened their grip on the Christian market. And by their fifth through seventh albums the band's pop appeal had diminished as their post-grunge sound fell out of favor with pop radio.  HOW COULD ANYTHING BE BETTER THAN T...

  Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot--the legendary folk singers of North America have interesting stories to tell, but only if you listen closely. Tooth & Nail Records signed Tyson Motsenbocker as a solo artist back in 2016 beginning a new direction for the label. I first checked out Motsenbocker after hearing his story on The BadChristian Podcast   where he talked about how his foot journey between San Diego and San Francisco informed the lyrics to his first LP, Letters to Lost Loves . Motsenbocker followed up his full length with two EPs the next year.  The song I chose for today comes from the EP Almira, which is a perfect winter's day record.  I SAW THE SUN COMING UP. I promised a break-up song at the beginning of the month. And although technically "This Love" could count, we're still calling it a love song. This song is dedicated to 2020. Today is the first of a three-day holiday in South Korea and other countries in the Sinosphere (East Asian...

Ryan Tedder might be the most successful pop musician to have graduated from Oral Roberts University , an Evangelical college founded by the evangelist of the same name and which spawned preachers such as Kenneth Copeland , Joel Osteen , and Ted Haggard . I remember when OneRepublic debuted in 2007 with their song " Apologize ." Tedder talked about his religious background in interviews and how he was influenced by CCM music when he was growing up. Another group, The Fray , had debuted two years before OneRepublic with a similar story and hometown in Colorado. Christian radio fell hard for The Fray, playing songs like " How to Save a Life " and " You Found Me " on Christian radio stations. They didn't fall in love with OneRepublic quite as much. Both bands were multi-platinum bands, but OneRepublic stuck around longer than The Fray whose third and fourth albums failed to achieve the greatness of their first two albums.  YESTERDAY'S GONE. I disco...