"Seven" by East West, Saturday, September 28, 2024 (repost)
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East West was a Christian hard rock band that released two albums in the early 2000s. The most successful single from their debut album The Light in Guinevere's Gardenwas the guitar ballad "She Cries," in which the band didn't scream the lyrics. East West's two releases are between two very important releases in Hard Christian Rock: P.O.D.'s Satellite and Underoath's They're Only Chasing Safety. The band's follow up, Hope in Anguish was produced much better than TLiGG. The grungy sounds of slow songs and the gut-punching screams of the heavy songs met the drums, effects petals, and truly depressing lyrics--dealing with addiction, child abuse, and the music business. Four of the songs--three of the non-screaming tracks--made their way to Christian Rock radio. East West was a band that showed that they could write a hit and have a heavy album.
I COULD NEVER REALLY FIND THE ANSWERS. Three years after the release of Hope in Anguish, East West dissolved. Lead singer, Mike Tubbs had become disillusioned with modern evangelical Christianity as witnessed both in and outside of the Christian music scene. By 2008, Tubbs converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, rejecting contemporary Christian practices in favor of tradition. In an interview with Ancient Faith Radio, Tubbs talked about how modern Christianity led him to the point nihilism. Hope in Anguish seems to be talking about that faith journey to some extent. In the song "Seven," the speaker "could never really find the answers" which were "always locked in something so close." Tubbs sings about "the ones who consume" whom he is "becoming just like them." When I was growing up, I assumed this song was about drug or alcohol addiction; however, this consumption could be anything from fashion to faith. But the biggest question of the song is: who is you? The speaker can't find the answer and "just assumed it was you," but he also fears that this hellish state he is in "will find its way to you." Is it salvation? Is it nihilism? Is it just utter frustration at failing to solve the mysteries of the universe? Either way, this song encapsulates an inability to see beyond one's prison cell, a truly relatable topic--but not one that's left so raw in Christian music.
AND I CAN READ THE STAINS INSIDE YOUR MIND. Joseph Campbell writes this truly horrifying line in his magnum opus, The Hero with a Thousand Faceswhen talking about the difference between comedy and tragedy: "The happy ending is justly scorned as misrepresentation; for the world, as we know it, as we have seen it, yields but one ending: death, disintegration, dismemberment, and the crucifixion of our heart with the passing of the forms that we have loved" (19). Every fiber of my Christian upbringing wants to shout that Campbell is wrong. And yet, he states: "the world, as we know it, as we have seen it." We have not seen anyone transcend death with our own eyes. We may hold a faith that death is not the end, but on earth, everything ends. At sixteen years old, I felt I had the answer. I could listen to nihilistic music and say, with a childlike faith, "You just need to pray harder and get your mind on other things." Still, listening to Hope in Anguish in my car on the rare occasion when a girl from school invited him to see a movie with a bunch of people, wasn't great for my social anxiety. Somehow I believed that this blind faith in God would make him popular among the Christian kids. But as every good tragedy ends with the crucifixion of our hearts, the tragedy of kids who haven't been socialized and reinforce weird religious piety with nihilistic emo songs is they don't naturally make friends.
In the summer of 2003, a rock station in LA started playing an inside cut from The Ataris ' So Long, Astoria , an album built on the late '70s and early '80s nostalgia. The band's first single, " In This Diary " reached number 11 on the Modern Rock chart. They were set to release the second single, " My Reply ," but the accidental hit " The Boys of Summer " overshadowed anything the band would produce in their twenty-five-year career. A cover of Don Henley 's 1984 number 1 hit, The Ataris' punk-rock reworking took the single to number 20 on the Hot 100 and number 2 on the Modern Rock chart, unable to beat Linkin Park 's " Faint ." Eighteen or thirty-seven summers later, "The Boys of Summer" remains a melancholy reminder that summer is over and that we all are getting older. I SAW A BLACK FLAG STICKER ON A CADILLAC. Written by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers ' guitarist, Mike Campbell , ...
"I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I. Don't want a lot for Christmas." *struggles to change the radio dial amid gridlocked holiday traffic* "There's just one thing I need" *hurry up with my damn latte! I think I'm going to die. Why the hell is Starbucks playing Christmas music in mid-October?* "I don't care about the presents" *internal Elaine monologue 'I think I'm going to die in this department store. Ma'am, why must you spray the perfume so close to my face. I can't breathe! What if the earth begins to shake and we're stuck in here forever underneath mannequins and holiday shoppers and that damn Mariah Carey song stuck on repeat?'* "Underneath the Christmas tree" "No" *raising a strict finger to students who should be studying in the back* "Not before Thanksgiving." "I just want you for my own/ More than you could ever know." Every year, Christmas music gets earlier and earli...
It was Superbowl Sunday of 2005 when I bought Anberlin ’s Never Take Friendship Personal . It was the perfect album for high school. The band’s style took a turn on their sophomore album from a classic or '90s rock sound to a more emotional, mid-2000s sound. The band would redefine themselves with this album, becoming a lesser-known emo staple. Stephen Christian ’s vocals meeting Joseph Milligan ’s riffs, Deon Rexroat ’s heavy bass, and Nathan Young ’s reliance on the cymbals make this one of the band’s heaviest records. The band released two recordings of this song on two different albums and many fans debate which one is better. THIS WAS OVER BEFORE IT EVER BEGAN. The original version of "The Feel Good Drag" feels grungier and Stephen’s scream on the bridge was perfectly aligned with the musical trends of the day. The New Surrender version , renamed "Feel Good Drag," beefs up t he guitar intro, and the solo has a quite satisfying bend. However, having ...
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