NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  This week, Copeland announced that they would be touring to celebrate the twentieth anniversary for their debut record, Beneath Medicine Tree . Copeland's sound has changed a lot from the indie nineties-rock inspired band to digging deeper music school band mates (particularly frontman Aaron Marsh 's) classical, jazz, and broadway influences. Before all of that, though, we have a song cycle about a young man affected by his grandmother's death, pinning over a girlfriend--Paula--even named on the record. Some consider Beneath Medicine Tree an indie classic, while others consider it an immature effort for a band with much greater potential.  THERE ARE BIRDS SINGING ON LAMPPOSTS. My sister and I fall on different sides of this debate. Back when I was going through my Copeland binge on their first three records, I liked their first two records best, while my sister liked their second two better. She admired the musical theater experimentation on Eat, Sleep, Repeat , while I

  This fall was when I got into folklore . Is this winter the one that I get into evermore ? Today, I made the jump into the record again after more cursory listens in 2020. I have a few thoughts from this afternoon's listen, but remember that I am by no means a Taylor Swift export the president of a local chapter of her fan club. I am merely offering my opinions on some damn good music. I'm hoping to have some deeper insights next year when I will probably dig deeper into this record.  THE WARMEST BED I'VE EVER KNOWN. A initial thought from when I listened to evermore,   I found that the record was even less cohesive than folklore. In my time with folklore, I began to realize that there was a cohesion to it, and I think the same is true with evermore. The next thing I noticed is that many of the tracks felt like b-sides to folklore, although the record was written and produced quickly after releasing folklore.   I first listened to evermore with my AirPods Pro when they w

Today we take another dive into Aaron Sprinkle 's 2017 record, Real Life . In a sense, Real Life was a farewell record. Sprinkle had scaled back his productions in the early '10s, only working with bands he really wanted to. Real Life is also his final record on Tooth & Nail Records . Since moving to Nashville in the ‘10s, Sprinkle began working on other musical projects outside of the Tooth & Nail world. Real Life blends trendy late ‘10s pop hooks and ‘80s/‘90s electronic sounds. MEET ME WHERE THE LIGHT GETS IN YOUR EYES. Today, I'm updating the hideous album artwork for my Aaron Sprinkle Essentials playlist on Spotify and creating an Apple Music edition. After all, it is Apple Music playlists I'm basing the Aaron Sprinkle list on-- Max Martin , Jack Antonoff , Greg Kurtsin , etc. I think Aaron Sprinkle deserves his own playlist, so here it is: 1. " Step Here " by Aaron Sprinkle. The penultimate track on Real Life feels like a '90s video game

Anchor & Braille has been Anberlin 's lead singer Stephen Christian 's side project for a while. Some of Anberlin's songs started out as Anchor & Braille songs. In 2009, Christian collaborated with Aaron Marsh and a few other hometown musicians including Louis DeFabrizio of Gasoline Heart , and released A&B's debut record Felt , an album that feels as if Christian were the lead singer of Copeland somewhere between their In Motion and Eat, Sleep, Repeat releases. Anchor and Braille's sound would vary greatly over their occasional four albums as well and the makeup of the 'band' would just become Stephen Christian collaborating in the studio with other musicians. You can tell that it's the same singer of Cities and Never Take Friendship Personal struggling relationships. SHE MAKES THREATS I HOPE THAT SHE SEES THROUGH .  Felt  was an album that appeared in my Junior year of college (one of them :) around a month or so before  New Surre

Stephen Christian talked about each Anchor & Braille record on the Taco Boys podcast  when he was promoting his most recent project, Tension . He said that each record was made with different musicians, and his debut side project record Felt was made with local musicians in mind from around his hometown in Central Florida. Christian looked to friend and Copeland frontman Aaron Marsh to record the record, Copeland's drummer at the time  Johnathan Bucklew and Gasoline Heart 's Louis DiFabrizio on bass. When Christian debuted his LP, it seemed he had every intention of maintaining this small town sound. But then he moved to Nashville and started associating with other musicians. TEAR OFF YOUR SKIN. The   bonus DVD  release with the   Cities special edition shows the portrait of Stephen Christian as a lyricist, jotting down lines in notebooks as he sips coffee in Seattle. Then, in the studio, he'd drink herbal tea and at night inhale vapor for his falsetto notes on

The Beautiful Letdown was the peak of Switchfoot 's career. When lead singer Jon Foreman was reflecting on his career on The Load Out Music Podcast last year, he said that the band decided to follow up their most successful pop record with one that critiques the American Dream, a somewhat controversial topic with Christian listeners. The opening track, " Lonely Nation ," warns listeners about consumerism and how it just creates social fragmentation and a desire for more. "Lonely Nation" is the representative song for my Independence Day mix called American Dreams: Hope for a Better Future. This playlist is far from perfect. Certainly it needs more diversity in style and artists' voices. But I hope that the songs on this playlist offer an alternative to blind patriotism. After all, patriotism shouldn't be blind nationalism, but rather a peaceful discourse between conflicting ideals. In a world where everything seems to be falling apart, it's so mu

  In the welter of the ever-changing music industry, Anberlin decided to call it quits in 2013, but not before a final record, Lowborn ,  and a farewell tour. The band started to feel that they were hitting the glass ceiling of what a rock band could achieve in the 2010s. On the Your Favorite Band podcast, lead singer Stephen Christian revealed that after Universal Republic Records failed to promote radio singles from Vital , the band was able to take their record to an indie label, Big3 Records , re-releasing Vital as Devotion , a massive three-disc deluxe edition of Vital . The band formed a radio team to promote the opening track, " Self-Starter ," as a rock radio hit. But the song didn't catch on. SHUT UP AND ACTUALLY TRY. Stephen Christian   often attributes the success that the band had and that he has had in his solo career as a daily "hustle." I've written about band who debut and experience success, but Anberlin worked steadily and experienced g

On Valentine's Day 2019 Copeland dropped their latest record, Blushing . Following up 2014's Ixora and 2015's Ixora Twin record the band built anticipation from their small but powerful fanbase over their 4+ year absence. Like Copeland's albums since You Are My Sunshine , Blushing was released on Tooth & Nail Records and received the promotions of a major Tooth & Nail release including podcast appearances by lead singer Aaron Marsh on the Tooth & Nail podcast Labeled:The Stories, Rumors, & Legends of Tooth & Nail Records and ads on the BadChristian Podcast , where the host said that Copeland's music was like "ear candy." BRIGHT WHITE PUFFS ON THE BLUEST PAGES. But Blushing was an entirely different Copeland experience, at least for me. Today is probably the fourth or fifth attempt I've made to listen to and just enjoy this record. In the Labeled episode, Marsh talks about how he had a some mental health issues between Ixora an

Linkin Park 's fourth studio album, A Thousand Suns underperformed compared to the band's massive first three albums. The album produced two singles, " The Catalyst " and today's song, " Waiting for the End ," but ultimately listeners didn't like the album as most of the songs were not catchy. I always want to dig deeper into this album and its themes, but today, I wanted to introduce my AAPI Heritage Playlist, so I chose the most pop-oriented song on A Thousand Suns. If you want more information on the music theory behind this album, I'll link to The Discographers ,  an excellent podcast that explores the discography of Linkin Park in one of their seasons.  MY MOUTH KEPT MOVING AND MY MIND WENT DEAD.   May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the United States, and I wanted to make a playlist that recognized some of the amazing talent by AAPI musicians. As with my other lists, I realize that making lists like this can be pr