NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  Fireflight became a massive Christian Rock band in 2006 when their video for the single “ You Decide ,” which featured Josh Brown of the band Day of Fire , became the most-requested video on TVU that year. The band debuted on Flicker Records after touring for years after being founded by husband and wife Glenn and Wendy Drennen in 1999. Glenn was the guitarist and Wendy the bassist of the band, and she would become the backing vocalist when the band added Dawn Michele as the group’s lead singer. The band followed up the runaway success of their debut album The Healing of Harms with Unbreakable . While Unbreakable was a success for the band, the members talked about the difficulty of making their follow-up album. Dawn Michele told Stars & Stripes making the record was “one of the most difficult times in our lives.” IT STARTS TONIGHT. Just as ForeFront Records was in search of the “more Christian” alternative to successful Christian-adjacent acts, Flicker Records signed a

I n Western North Carolina, we had two modern rock radio stations. From upstate South Carolina there was  93.3 “ The Planet,”  an Active Rock radio station that played lots of ‘90s rock and neo-90s rock. They loved grunge and post-grunge. They played  Nickelback ,  Seether ,  P.O.D. ,  Flyleaf ,  Puddle of Mudd , and that kind of music. Then there was Charlotte’s  106.5 “The End ,” an Alternative rock station. While playing much of the same music, they also featured some newer groups, such as  Silversun Pickups ,  Thirty Seconds to Mars , and the occasional  The Almost  or  Saosin  song. The Starting Line was one of those emerging bands that was starting to be picked up on radio. The first single, “ Island ,” from the band’s third and final (latest) LP,  Direction ,  was a kind of break out for the band to mainstream alternative rock. The band had toured on their two previous albums and built up a fan base thanks to venues like the  Vans Warped Tour , but some band members grew tired o

Last year, the Hit Parade podcast highlighted one of the most consistent voices in pop music in the previous twenty years. Yet, Alecia Beth Moore , a.k.a. P!nk ’s career has been underrated perhaps because it is so M!ssundaztood . First marketed as an R&B act by her record company, P!nk’s debut album, Can’t Take Me Home , introduced the star as racially ambiguous. P!nk’s second album began to bridge the singer into guitar-based rock ballads, which would be the meat of her career. Following the album’s first single, “ Get This Party Started ,” M!ssundaztood ’s second single and second track “ Don’t Let Me Get Me ” displays Moore’s desire to be a singer on her own terms: a rock-influenced pop star who would sing about what she wanted to. I CAN’T STAY ON YOUR MORPHINE ‘CAUSE IT’S MAKING ME ITCH. P!nk was signed by Atlanta-based R&B and Hip-Hop label LaFace Records whose president, L.A. Reid tried to market Moore as an R&B/teen-pop crossover act. But rock would become P!nk’s

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 releasing t

While the rock music was falling out of favor in the 2010s,   All Time Low 's career continued to gain momentum. Formed in 2003 and heavily influenced by   NoFx   and   Blink -182   the band became a force in the emo phase of the   Warped Tour   scene. The band became famous for their jocular onstage banter and their mock-turned serious feud with   Metro Station . And in that jocular nature, the skinny, nerdy bandmates clad in only their   tighty-whities   appeared on MySpace's home page the week before their sophomore album   So Wrong, It's Right  dropped in 2007. I DON'T MIND IF YOU FUCK UP (RUIN) MY LIFE.  Fast forward thirteen years. I have deleted a lot of music I acquired in college if I didn't like the songs. I enjoyed laughing at  Blink- 182 videos  in middle and high school just as much as any white boy, but joke pop-punk got old when emo bands dug into deeper subjects. It turns out that All Time Low was digging a bit deeper in the 2010s, flying under my ra

My generation has had a few sobering news days, but in 1999 very little struck more fear into the hearts of American students and parents than turning on the news on April 20, seeing the horrifying scenes of the massacre at Columbine High School. In the way that September 11 changed aviation forever, Columbine changed education. There had been school shootings in the U.S. before, but none had the scope of planning of Columbine. So much information came out about the victims and perpetrators after the shooting for years to come. There were several distinct responses I remember growing up immersed in the evangelical South. First, it was that shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were into the gothic scene, wearing all black, keeping nihilistic journals, and listening to music like   Marylin Manson , Korn , and Insane Clown Posse . This music was clearly satanic and could lead teens to commit mass shootings. Second, the testimony of Cassie Burnell, the girl whom, years later, was misrepo

  Today our representative song is Wham!' s " Last Christmas ." Maybe it's overplayed, but it's a synth-pop classic. It's the kind of song that gets stuck in your head for days, and it's okay because it's Christmastime. It's one of the signature songs of Wham!  and one of the most played songs of Christmas. It's been covered by many artists from Jimmy Eat World to Carly Rae Jepsen to Hawk Nelson and each cover has its merit. But today, my Christmas mix begins with the original. Enjoy the mix! 1. "Last Christmas" by Wham! 2. " (Christmas) Baby, Please Come Home " by Anberlin 3. " Wish " by Paper Route  (The band has a bigger Christmas catalogue, just not on Spotify). 4. " Amy, I " by Jack's Mannequin   5. "The Winter Song" by Eisley 6. "Happy Christmas" (War Is Over) by Sent by Ravens 7. " O Holy Night " by Stacie Orrico 8. " I Celebrate the Day " by Relient K