NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

The eponymous album by Flyleaf opens with a dirty, distorted bass on the song “ I’m So Sick .” Then 19 seconds into the song, after lead singer Lacey Mosley (now  Lacey Strum) sings in an eerie, childlike voice, she erupts into a growl. While there isn’t a song on Flyleaf that quite matches the intensity of “I’m So Sick,” the grungy debut album from the Texas-based band proves that a female-led rock band has a place in the then male-dominated genre. The album was released in 2005. Christian Rock radio station RadioU had been playing the band’s demos before Flyleaf’s debut album was released.  The band toured relentlessly on their first album cycle between 2005 and 2008 before returning with their sophomore record, Memento Mori , in 2009. These tours with bands like Stone Sour , Three Days Grace , and Christian bands like Skillet solidified the band's place in both the Christian and active rock scenes. I BEGIN TO FADE INTO OUR SECRET PLACE. In 2007, two years after releas...

On October 25, 2005, Falling Up released their sophomore record, Dawn Escapes . The album, produced by Michael “Elvis” Baskette , varies from the band’s Hybrid-Theory - inspired debut Crashings . Rather than maintaining the momentum of the synth-driven rock on Crashings, the band’s sophomore effort focuses on a dreamy ambiance enhanced with hard rock guitars. The first single from the album, “ Exit Calypsan ” (Only in My Dreams)--released earlier in 2005 on the Christian Rock compilation X2005 -- is slower than the singles from Crashings. The chorus brings heavy guitars in to keep Falling Up a rock band. Dawn Escape ’s second single, “ Moonlit ”; however, broke the band’s electronic formula and gave them a riff-heavy rocker. With the two singles preceding the album, listeners were treated to a dreamy experience that perfectly wrapped the dichotomous songs. THIS PLACE I PASS. The album cover of Crashings showed a fresh-faced six-peace band. According to their cover artwork, Falling Up...

No '80s New Wave playlist is complete without a song from Tears for Fears . The band was a huge hit producer on a few of their albums; however, like Third Eye Blind in the late '90s, Tears for Fears peaked early in their career in the mid-‘80s. Their second #1 hit , "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," is their "grocery store classic," meaning it's so popular they play it in the grocery store. "Head Over Heels" is a song about falling in love getting older and not meeting the expectations others set out for you. Singer Roland Orzabel said of the song "It is a romance song that goes a bit perverse at the end." One does wonder why there's a gun and who the second verse is about. Is it him or her? Two memories are strongly connected to this song. First was the cover by the Christian band Kids in the Way . Second was the opening montage of 2001's  Donnie Darko . ONE LITTLE BOY, ONE LITTLE MAN, FUNNY HOW TIME FLIES. Roland Orzabe...

Last Tuesday I posted my Optimism Mix . But I think we need another dose of optimism today, at the start of the week after Thanksgiving, to boost our productivity until Christmas! Today’s song, Mat Kearney ’s “ Better Than I Used to Be ” is a reminder for of where I came from. And although life is hard now, I can handle it a lot better than before. So as bleak November enters the holiday season and life gets overwhelming, I try to remember how I’ve proven myself before. Today’s challenge seems big, but it was nothing compared to how it was back then.  Listen to the Playlist on AppleMusic.

  Following up their 2020  album,  Dreamland , COIN  dropped three EPs in early 2021, leading up to their full album,  Rainbow Mixtape ,  released in April. The band wrote and recorded their follow-up album after their 2020 supporting tour  for  Dreamland  was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Singer  Chase Lawerence  sold his house at the beginning of the pandemic and moved back to his childhood home in Virginia where he began writing music for the next record. The band recorded many songs, yet the songs didn't seem to have a theme. “We broke it down to its elementary form and felt like colors represented the lyrical and sonic themes,” Lawerence told  American Songwriter.   Each song corresponded with a color and was released on three EPs.  Red-Orange, Blue-Green,  and  Indigo-Violet  make up the three sections of the band's fourth studio album. SUNRISE IN ORBIT . Rather than telling a ...

This Is All I Know is the final album by Number One Gun . The band from Chico, California, became one member-- Jeff Schneeweis —in 2007 on the band’s The North Pole Project . The other members went on to form the band Surrogate and work with other bands such as Emery .  There was a lot of controversy surrounding Number One Gun's last album, related to the late fulfillment of crowdfunding. Some backers for the 2014 album claimed as of 2021 they hadn’t received what they had been promised. After releasing This Is All I Know, Schneeweis declared that Number One Gun finished and started releasing music under the moniker Lael . This Is All I Know is the end of a Christian Rock era: a band that stuck around even though they never particularly stood out as anyone’s favorite band. HEAVY IS UPON US. Just as Anberlin had announced their farewell in 2014, several other bands called it quits. In 2017 the band Yellowcard , along with Anberlin drummer Nathan Young, recorded their final albu...