NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  First appearing in 2001,   Lovedrug   released their   eponymous EP   in 2002 and their    Rocknroll   EP in 2004 before releasing their debut record,   Pretend You're Alive ,  in June 2004. Selling over 20,000 records soon after the record was released, the band was signed to   Columbia Records ,   and their song " Spiders " was intended to be marketed as a radio hit. But rock star grandeur was never really in Lovedrug's reach, as the label dropped the band in the middle of restructuring. Lovedrug was a hard-working band, touring with acts such as   The Killers ,   Robert Plant ,   Sam Phillips ,   Switchfoot , and   Copeland . They would enjoy some success with their follow-up record,   Everything Starts Where It Ends ,  but would continue making music until 2020, although they are probably best remembered for their first two records.   SEARCHING ON A WIRE FOR A WIRE .  The Militia Group  was a record label founded by former  Tooth & Nail Records  employee  Ch

  Working with family can be difficult. Starting a band is like starting a business. You need to have the right people to work with to do the best at their jobs. Chemistry, mastery of an instrument, and stage presence is also important for band members. Family members as bandmates makes sense for young bands. Tim and Jonathan Foreman in Switchfoot are an example of a brotherhood creating a lasting band. There are other bands like Kings of Leon and NEEDTOBREATHE in which family is a source of strife. There are many examples of when family members don’t work out in the band, sometimes it’s clear from the early days like when the Hype ’s second guitarist Dik Evans —brother of David “The Edge” Evans —was dropped by the group that became U2 and the bass player of The Fray , Caleb “Cable Car” Slade —brother of former lead singer Isaac Slade —was kicked out of the band. I NEVER KNEW THAT EVERYTHING WAS FALLING THROUGH. The Fray’s debut single, “ Over My Head ” (Cable Car) gained radio

Every band tackled the Covid-19 pandemic in different ways. Many bands are selling live-stream tickets. Some have decided to give free concerts on social networking. Cleared from the time-consuming task of driving across the country, setting up equipment, and tearing down only to drive to the next city, musicians have been able to produce music in new ways. It doesn't hurt that all of their equipment and professional microphones are in their basements. Two years ago,  Emery  produced a show on their   Twitch channel , in which they played their songs. They often had guest vocalists from other bands, such as  Hawthorne Heights ,  Silverstein , and  Dave Elkins   of  Mae . Emery reimagined some of their songs and the guest vocalist's band's songs too. The collaboration of " Embers and Envelopes " was a beautifully updated take on Mae's first single.  TO WRITE THIS DOWN AS MEANS TO RECONCILE . The word "reconcile" is an awkward term to put in a song. Bu

Everything  Switchfoot  has done musically rests in the shadows of their 2003 album,  The Beautiful Letdown .  While  Letdown  was sonically superior to their prior albums, the once surf-rock band still needed to finish evolving after their commercial blockbuster record. I'm biased to think that  Nothing Is Sound   is lyrically and musically superior to  Letdown,  but that may be because of how  Letdown  lost its novelty over the countless plays on youth group trips, on Christian radio, then on rock and alternative radio, and finally on pop radio and in some TV shows. Subsequent Switchfoot releases garnered less attention. LAST WEEK SAW ME LIVING FOR NOTHING BUT DEADLINES.  Two albums after  Letdown,  Oh! Gravity.   attempted to bring Switchfoot back; this time with an experimental album with a flair for the avant-garde. The poppy second single stalled on the adult contemporary chart and was never released to pop and alternative radio as planned. But Switchfoot's fidelity to th

  Jon Foreman became the liberal long-haired surfboard philosopher to millions of youth group kids in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s. The San Diego-based band Switchfoot, firmly based in the West Coast faith-based music tradition, often challenged the ideas of capitalism in Christianity and the over-politicization of Christianity, while never seeming to have found all parts of the solution in organized religion. And yet, lead singer Jonathan Foreman, offered that while the “faith of our fathers” isn’t perfect, he has not found a better solution. The Beautiful Letdown was the band’s thesis statement-- Foreman had been rewriting this thesis statement for three albums, and after their fourth record, he would expound upon that statement. I WILL CARRY MY CROSS TO WHERE I DON’T BELONG. Whereas my mom could tell me every track on Fleetwood Mac ’s Rumors or The Rolling Stones ’ Some Girls , many youth group kids my age know every track on Switchfoot’s Beautiful Letdown. Five of the 12 songs f

Hawk Nelson released two Christmas EPs in the earlier part of their career, starting with 2005’s Gloria . The four-song EP featured two original songs with familiar choruses and two covers--the sacred “ I Heard the Bells ” and the secular “ Last Chrismas .” The original songs, “ Alleluia ” and “ Gloria ” were also divided into sacred and secular. While all of the songs on the EP are interpreted with a mid-'00s emotion, the two original songs are especially emotionally charged. “Alleluia” is a song about the nativity that uses the tune of a liturgical chant for the chorus. “Gloria,” on the other hand is a cheesy Christmas love song that talks about Santa giving the speaker a girl for Christmas named Gloria. Singer Jason Dunn adds a lot of emotion into the first verse, which feels strange given that the song can’t be that serious. The song ultimately interpolates the chorus of the French carol, “ Angels We Have Heard on High ,” because the girl that the speaker wants for Christmas