NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

When Relient K had been together for ten years, they decided to treat their avid fans with some of their best scrapped tracks on 2008's The Birds and the Bee Sides . But the album wasn't exactly a straight b-sides project, but rather called a "double EP"--a combination of new tracks recorded for a project called the Nashville Tennis EP and their b sides spanning from their the time of their second record, The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek ;   tracks from out-of-print EPs; and rarities from special editions of their commercial second era, Mmhmm   and Five Score and Seven Years Ago . While a release like The Birds and the Bee Sides certainly plays into boyish Relient K wit that made the band famous, the experimental songs on the  Nashville Tennis EP show a notable shift in the band's musical output.  I FOUND MY NEW BLACK SHOES WHILE CLEANING OUT THE BONES LEFT IN MY CLOSET.  Relient K started out as three small-town friends who signed a record deal. The band had

  Kicking off Matt Thiessen ’s break up record, the title track of Forget and Not Slow Down introduces listeners to the themes of the record. I’ve talked about how Forget and Not Slow Down has a shadow story , one in which the Relient K frontman ends his engagement with radio DJ Shannon Murphy . While I have not seen any statements from Thiessen about the meanings behind the tracks on the album, I’ve referenced Murphy’s story that seemed pretty damning toward Thiessen, and it doesn’t seem that there were any libel lawsuits. Forget and Not Slow Down was a record that helped me through a difficult time in life, so I will be forever grateful to Relient K, but I’ve also had to think critically as to whether or not the album is too problematic to enjoy. So today I’d like to talk through my judgement of the band’s 2009 record. HOW MANY TIMES CAN I PUSH IT ASIDE? “Forget and Not Slow Down” shows a youthful resilience toward the ending of a relationship. The songs on the album deal with a r

  Starting out as a three-piece band, expanding to four members, and five members, and finally reducing to back to core members Matt Thiessen and Matt Hoopes , Relient K has been through many changes both sonically and thematically in their discography from their All Work & No Play EP in 1998 to their latest record, 2016's Air for Free . The band's maturity on their later releases certainly goes unappreciated by the majority of youth group kids whose parents just wanted their kids to listen to the Christian version of Green Day and Blink-182. Air for Free is mature in that it is nostalgic for childhood and not obsessed with adolescence like the band's earlier catalogue.   GRAB ANOTHER DIRTY TAMBOURINE AND SHAKE IT . The spiritual sequel to 2009's  Forget and Not Slow Down , Relient K's eighth studio record Air for Free has a similar approach to production. After Relient K had released tons of EPs, K ... Is for Karaoke , and a panned attempt at a pop career on

Amala Ratana Zandile Dlamini was b orn to a Jewish mother and a Zulu father, who, according to him returned to South Africa in hopes of his family following him, but according to Dlamini, a.k.a Doja Cat , he abandoned his family. Doja Cat produced music on Soundcloud at the beginning of her career. In 2019, her single " Say So ," today's representative song topped the Billboard Hot 100 . What the hell is a doja cat? I thought. I certainly was getting too old to keep up with pop music. Turns out, three years later, "Say So," is hella catchy. And with an interesting Wikipedia page full of lived experience, I wonder if there's a little treasure in a discography that, to me, originally just sounded like music for cats in heat. Time will tell. YOU AIN'T COMIN' OUT YOUR SHELL. We're entering another playlist-heavy month, and to kick it off, I'm sharing my AppleMusic playlist I created several years ago about cats. Why cats? It was kind of a gift

Born south of the Erie Canal in Canton, Ohio, Matt Thiessen , wrote a tribute to his home state on Relient K 's 8th studio album, Air for Free . Relient K started in Ohio, with three friends--Thiessen, guitarist Matt Hoopes , and bassist Brian Pittman . Relient K has seen many phases and had many member change ups; however, the glue of the band has been Thiessen and Hoopes, who are the only remaining members of the band and who are pictured on the cover of Air for Free. Released six years ago, Air for Free  explores existential themes from an aging former teenage band. Then in his mid-thirties, Thiessen touches on themes of love, growing up, and faith. While the songs on Air for Free are mostly light-hearted (a notable exception is " Man ") and sometimes silly, the songs are certainly more mature than anything the band has done before. And while it might not be the rock out anthems of youth group church vans, it's lyrically nostalgic of those days at times while pushi