NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Between their debut album  Destination: Beautiful  and their fan-favorite sophomore record  The Everglow ,   Mae  released  Destination: B-Sides , which includes live and acoustic renderings of some of the standout tracks, songs that didn’t make it to the record, and demos that would make it onto  The Everglow.  The chorus of “Sun” contains the the lyrics  “Destination Beautiful,” making “Sun” like the title track of the album, and one of the the most memorable tracks in the middle of the album, and it has one of the finest melodies on the album after " Embers and Envelops " and  "All Deliberate Speed." IF YOU’RE WILLING, LET IT GO . In a 2018 two-part episode of  Labeled   (now available only to  Patreon  subscribers), Mae's lead singer  Dave Elkins  talked about the inspiration for the songs on  Destination: Beautiful . Many of the tracks had to do with a disagreement between Elkins and members at his church. Elkins wrote many of the songs, including the first

  In 2009, Mae embarked upon an novel musical project for the time. After being dropped by Capitol Records , the band decided to make music independently, releasing a new song every month on their website . Fans could donate as little as a dollar to receive each song with the profits from the songs going to a different charity each month. In addition, Mae compiled the songs in three EPs, (m)orning , (a)fternoon , and (e)vening .   WHEN YOU SING, DO YOU SLIP AWAY? The EPs  (m)orning ,  (a)fternoon,  and  (e)vening  cleverly created an acrostic with the band’s name with the three main divisions of a day’s time. All of Mae’s records have been conceptual in their pursuit of a multi-sensory aesthetic experience . Songs and records themselves evoke connections between phenomena. In terms of (m)orning,  the band posted on the message board of their   website :         Morning represents the beginning to the day, the beginning of the year, the           beginning of life . . . [January - Apri

  While Mae has emphasized that they "are not a Christian band," the second full-length original record, The Everglow ,  on  Tooth & Nail debuted atop Billboard 's Christian albums charts in 2005. For many Mae fans, The Everglow is the album on which the band best demonstrates their vision of being a Multi-sensory Aesthetic Experience, engaging listeners with artwork accompanying the album as a "read along booklet." The album's " Prologue " invites listeners to view the album artwork insert in a similar way that children may listen to books on tape from the library.  LOVE, IT'S THE WAVE I RIDE THAT WON'T EVER REACH THE SHORE. Musically, Mae treats listeners to sappy melodies that bring us along on a range of sad-to-happy emotions on The Everglow. The album starts a little slow with the piano-vocal composition " We're So Far Away ," which feels a bit Broadway for the Virginia Beach-based band. But then The Everglow turns

  I've talked about Eisley , the named-for- Star-Wars  sister/cousin band from Tyler, Texas. Their major-label debut garnered indie cred, but due to some issues in the music industry, the band's label de-prioritized their sophomore release, delaying it almost a year from its recording and mastering. As for promotion, the record label pulled radio support as they weren't sure which format to market the band and canceled plans for a second music video to the band's only non-radio single " Invasions "  and never released the video for today's song, " Many Funerals ." Eisely can be added to the list of Christian-adjacent bands that were failed by major labels. Some of these groups saw initial success, whether radio, video, or touring, but ultimately they were left abandoned by the major label. Although  RadioU  plays some of their latest singles, by the end the  Room Noises   cycle, Eisley's creative path didn't have them marketed to the Chri

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

Someone once compared releasing an album on a major label to giving birth. They say it takes about nine months. There’s the actual making of the album, which in most cases, takes longer than the making of a baby, with preproduction, songwriting, and recording. The process before and in the studio is only half to two-thirds of the process. Then there's the mixing, mastering, and promotion. But a lot of the process is waiting; waiting for the record label to pick the right day to release the record--to make sure Adele isn't going to release a record the same day. And the promotion--making sure that the singles are evenly spaced for maximum effect on radio--something that major labels have failed at in the mid-'00s as we've talked about Mae , Acceptance , Copeland , and others. MEET ME B EHIND THE MALL. Taylor Swift certainly had been bullied by the music industry for much of her career. But with a fanbase of avid music buyers--millions of buyers at that--Taylor's pre

Mae 's sophomore record, The Everglow , is to this day their most beloved record. The band released the album in 2005 and rereleased it the next year as a deluxe edition with bonus tracks and a read-along booklet designed to enhance the listener's Multi-sensory Aesthetic Experience in 2006. With the band's releases of demos and two full-length records, Mae fulfilled their contract with Tooth & Nail Records . Later that year, the band signed with Capitol Records and began recording with legendary producer Howard Benson . Singularity was released in the summer of 2007 and was the only Mae record to be released on Capitol. SMOKE-FILLED CASINOS, BUT WHAT DO WE KNOW WE'LL TAKE A CHANCE.   Singularity  is a unique album for Mae as it features a rock and New Wave sound not featured on the prior records. Drummer Jacob Marshall and keyboardist Rob Sweitzer named the album Singularity based on their discussions from a book by physicist Paul Davies. Marshall said of these

In 2021, Dave Elkins and Zach Gehring of Mae talked with The BlackSheep Podcast: Presented by HM Magazine about the Mae's career and the future of the band. The interview took place nearly three years after Mae's technically second self-titled album Multisensory Aesthetic Experience   was released. Elkins and Gehring give insight into the making of Mae's latest project on the podcast, and it's certainly worth a listen for anyone who has any fondness for Mae. And, I realize that this is two Mae songs in a row, though by a technicality I'm not breaking the rules. Dave Elkins was the chief artist yesterday, although he was singing one of Mae's most famous songs. SO OPEN UP UNTIL YOU KNOW THERE'S MORE THAN EITHER/OR. One of the podcasters admitted that it took several listens for him to appreciate Multisensory as an album, and the podcaster claimed that, perhaps even compared to all the musical experimentations in the band's discography and 7+ minute son

The members of Emery work hard both on their side hustles and their main gig, and sometimes it's hard to distinguish between their side hustles and their main gig. Lead singer Toby Morrell and guitarist Matt Carter started a blog with their friend Joey Svendsen , which later became The BadChristian Podcast. They started a record label, BadChristian Music and released Emery records and other artists--mostly Tooth & Nail associated bands--who shared a vision of Christian music that pushes the envelope. And while Emery only has about 172,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, the band has actually migrated their most loyal fans to their own Patreon -style music subscription service. This service used to be under the name Emeryland, but recently the band has merged its production of BadChristian Podcast and Emery's music and their work with the Labeled Podcast to one subscription-based plan under the moniker Knuckle Breakers .    MAYBE NOT TO AGREE, BUT TO PROCLAIM LOVE. I'

Last Wednesday, Tooth & Nail Records posted a teaser on social media listing " Gasoline Heart , Anberlin , Blenderhead , Dogwood , Spoken in Tongues , Freeto Boat , Relient K , Noise Ratchet " along with the title "Love Is the Answer" and Japanese characters. Then on Friday, they announced that there would be a new Watashi Wa album, People! Like People! coming in May, the first new album since their  Eager Seas   project. IT WAS WRITTEN IN A LETTER TO ME. Watashi Wa  was a band signed to Tooth & Nail Records in the early '00s. The band was formed in 2000 when the members were still in high school. After releasing two albums on Betty Rocket, a small label, the band signed to Tooth & Nail in 2002. The next year, they released their LP  The Love of Life .  The band broke up two years later and singer Seth Roberts went on to form the band  Eager Seas . Roberts negotiated with the label to fulfill Watashi Wa's contract with his new band; however,

In 1954, when the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional, Chief Justice Earl Warren declared that American schools be integrated "with all deliberate speed." What does that mean? I think that if you are trying to speed something up, being deliberate about it, you press your foot on the execrator and the car gains speed. You go as fast as you can go, looking out for cops and and pedestrians, but your intention is to go quickly to your destination. Apparently, I'm wrong. Chief Justice Warren's meaning was that the change be gradual as not to stir the anger of the states. Don't let change happen too quickly. WHAT BROUGHT YOU HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?   Now is this even related to  Mae 's song? The lyrics without considering the quote by Chief Justice Warren, made me think about the band's dreams. Perhaps internal band strife with management, particularly as they are almost making it. In fact, in an earlier season of  Labele