NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Listening to the songs on Acceptance's 2020 album, Wild, Free, I really like them in playlists. Of course, " Cold Air " is the best track on the record. However, this album now ties with Acceptance's Phantoms for the most songs chosen for my blog, and Acceptance follows Anberlin (11 entries) and Copeland (7 entries) with six entries for "Song of the Day," tying with Sufjan Stevens. Getting to the end of the year, there are so many songs I still want to write about, but there are only thirty-four days left in the year. I haven't even had a chance to talk about Acceptance's 2017 Colliding by Design , which is a far superior album to Wild, Free. YOU'RE MY ONLY FAILURE. "Dark Age" encapsulates the mood that Wild, Free  gives. The album's cover art and darker-toned songs offer a much less hopeful tone than the band's previous effort,  Colliding by Design,  an upbeat, colorful album. Some fans rejected Colliding by Design  for its lat

Unlike 2008 , 2003 was a pretty busy year in Tooth & Nail. It was coming to the end of the '90s legendary acts, like Slick Shoes, Dogwood, Ghoti Hook, Bleach, Hangnail, and Side Walk Slam. It was the beginning of the journey for Mae, Anberlin, and FM Static. It was the rebranding of Thousand Foot Krutch, Spoken, and Further Seems Forever, the former bands transitioning out of rap-rock and the latter reappearing without the now-Dashboard Confessional frontman. Throughout the year, though, there were many underrated gems. Furthermore released their melodic hip hop second record, She and I. Beloved released their only record on Solid State. Lucerin Blue released four singles from their Tales of the Knife before disbanding. Watashi Wa released their first album, but it's not well remembered.  FELL LOVE, PUNCH YOU IN THE GUT. Holland's Photographs and Tidal Waves was released on February 11, 2003. If memory serves me, RadioU promoted two singles from the album, but the the

Aaron Sprinkle is a musician's musician. And I've talked about him so much that any readers I have would be sick of reading about him. I talked about his solo career when I talked about Fair . Throughout this year, I've talked about how prolific Sprinkle has been as a producer, but I've rarely talked about his personal music. In his various podcast appearances, Sprinkle talks about how he came to realize that his musical career was about making other musicians sound incredible, as his bands and solo projects under performed in comparison to the records he produced. But when Sprinkle releases his own music, listeners get a look into the genius behind the hit records. Sprinkle's 2017 record  Real Life   is perhaps his most accessible work and has received the most critical love due to its keen sense of the contemporary music scene and its ability to link the new to the past. WITHOUT A LIGHT TO SHINE OR A ROOM TO GRACE. Ugh. It's photo day at school. I'm crin

In 2008, Tooth & Nail Records was looking for their next big band after their mid-'00 lineup had signed to major labels. In several episodes of Labeled, Brandon Ebel talks about this time, without specifically naming a band, as a time when the label signed acts that no one on staff particularly liked, but in hopes that there would be a band that could generate the income of the label's heyday. Capital Lights was one of the bands to release their debut during an eclectic year for the label. Formed in 2002 under the name afterEight, the Tulsa, Oklahoma natives who would become Capital Lights started out as a screamo band with lead singer Jacob Dement. But when Dement left the band, bassist Bryce Phillips took over vocal duties, and the band's sound changed into a power pop-punk sound. With big dreams to follow in the footsteps the Golden Age of Tooth & Nail bands from just three years prior to them, they hoped to build a Warped-Tour career, but that never happened. RO

A few Saturday afternoons circa 2015-17, I went down a rabbit-hole, looking for the best Paper Route , Anberlin , and Copeland covers on YouTube. This was long after finding artists like Tyler Ward who covered pop music. I wondered if anyone had recorded high quality covers of my favorite bands. It turns out that there were a few . These artists weren't on the level of popularity of Kurt Hugo Schneider or Boyce Avenue . I had hoped to created a cover playlist of a Copeland album, but there weren't enough high-quality covers on YouTube at the time. Charles Angell's YouTube account has 7 videos, 77 subscribers, and the singer hasn't posted anything in 3 years. From a quick Facebook search, it turns out that Angell is still active as a musician, with a new haircut and some designer rims, now under the moniker of Snarly  (link to his social media presence).  YOU'RE STILL A BREEZE UPON MY SKIN.  Of the Copeland covers, Charles Angell's version of " Erase &q

In 2007, Falling Up released their third studio record, Captiva , returning to the production of Aaron Sprinkle . Unlike their debut album Crashings , also recorded with Sprinkle, on Captiva, Sprinkle plays the role as songwriter alongside lead singer Jessy Ribordy . Captiva also marked the end of four years of a daunting release schedule. Their debut album and follow-up Dawn Escapes were released within just 20 months of each other. They then released their remix album, Exit Lights a year later. Captiva attempted to keep hype in the Christian Rock and pop market, releasing four singles, the first of which is today's song, " Hotel Aquarium ." ALL THE LONELINESS IS FILLED BY YOU INSIDE . In April, I wrote about the band's first hit, "Broken Heart."  By the band's third album, musicians started shuffling to other, more successful, more overtly Christian bands. Falling Up's lyrics started mentioning Greek gods and space. Frankly, Ribordy's lyrics

  Cruel to Be Young was one of my college albums. I wrote a bit about the two Jonezetta albums back in January.   Rather than being an '80s/ Killers sounding album, the band went '70s/laid back, hippy sounding music. According to Randy Torres episode of Labeled, the inspiration behind this album was The Shins , which was another college favorite of mine. While Aaron Sprinkle and Randy Torres may have had a great time making this record, it may have been the demise of Jonezetta as fans were expecting something catchy and dancy. Interestingly my college friends liked this album, but not their debut, but my hometown friends, loved Popularity and couldn't get into Cruel to Be Young. Jonezetta's follow up album reminds me of my youth--being 21 years old at its release, and how cruel it was to be a young Seventh-day Adventist. ALL THE DIFFERENT REASONS WHY YOU SLEEP ALONE . I’ve railed on purity culture so much without giving any person anecdotes. I speak from experienc

  In the story of Tooth & Nail Records , which became the definitive Christian Rock label in the early ‘00s, Aaron Sprinkle became the main producer for record after record for the label. Sprinkle is not only responsible for producing records, he also stylized bands and artists who would have otherwise been nothing alike. So, when he we wasn’t busy launching successful bands into the scene, what was he doing in his free time? Sprinkle recorded a number of solo records and two with his band, Fair . Sprinkle’s solo efforts were never as successful as the bands he recorded, and life in the studio took a toll on the musical genius. WHERE IS IT THAT YOUR PEACE COMES FROM? " Disappearing World " was the only hit from this 2010 album named after the title track.. Whenever Fair--three of Sprinkle's friends from his previous band, Poor Old Lu--put out a project, it was a limited release. One single to Christian radio, maybe a video, maybe a couple of local shows. And then

Last summer, Acceptance announced their comeback. The band released this song on June 18th and the video on July 2nd. It quickly became one of my most played songs of the year. I didn't know what the song was about, but it was full of '80s ambience. The lyrics were repetitive, but passionate. Then they released the video on July 2nd. The video shows four friends of different races standing around a bonfire, but as the video goes on we see that the friends burn old furniture including a map of the United States, on which is painted the words: "We Don't Belong Here," words that are part of the song's chorus. After watching the video, I immediately thought about the Black Lives Matter riots that had been taking place at the time. Jason Vena released this statement to Spin magazine about the song: "'The lyrics in ‘Cold Air’ present a snapshot of a community that is being broken apart by prejudice, indignation, and division. . . [i]t’s about having the str