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

  My Christian school took an annual mission trip in the spring to Chattanooga, Tennessee. The school had partnered with a church in the inner city that had a Habitat-for-Humanity sort of outreach. It was one of those "I feel more ministered to" type mission trips. We ended up doing a lot of grunt work for ongoing projects, but we were made to believe that we were of some use. Of course, this was before I learned that most of the churches built on mission trips overseas have to be torn down the minute the  missionaries  step on the plane because of course unskilled builders don't know how to build--but I digress. DO YOU HAVE THE TIME TO WASTE AWAY THE DAY?  One of the rules of the mission trip was that we were only allowed to listen to Christian music. It could be any genre, but it became a time for some of us to show off our CDs of the hard rock, metal, punk, and Emo-Christian records that made their way to the Family Christian bookstores. Sometimes we'd listen to Gr

The Classic Crime released their debut album Albatross in 2006 on Tooth & Nail Records . The album charted on Billboard’ s Heatseekers Albums charts, and the band quickly became connected with both the Christian and the pop-punk scene, touring with fellow Tooth & Nail acts, joining the Warped Tour , and forming friendships with the likes of Relient K and Emery . The band filmed a music video for the first track on the album, “ The Fight ,” which appeared on TVU . In 2006, Tooth & Nail was in the middle of its golden age. Albums were selling and bands were bridging the divide between Cornerstone and Warped Tour. The Classic Crime was supposed to be the label’s next big band, but Albatross didn’t meet the label or the band’s sales expectations.  OUT ON THIS LONELY LANDSCAPE I AM FINALLY FREE. The Classic Crime’s debut album, Albatross, was produced by Michael "Elvis" Baskette . The band would work with the Baskette on most of their albums until 2017’s How to Be

My Christian school took an annual mission trip in the spring to Chattanooga, Tennessee. The school had partnered with a church in the inner-city that had a Habitat-for-Humanity sort of outreach. It was one of those "I feel more ministered to" type mission trips. We end up doing a lot of grunt-work for ongoing projects, but we were made to believe that we were of some use. Of course, this was before I learned that most of the churches built on mission trips overseas have to be torn down the minute the missionaries step on the plane because of course unskilled builders don't know how to build--but I digress. DO YOU HAVE THE TIME TO WASTE AWAY THE DAY?  One of the rules of the mission trip was that we were only allowed to listen to Christian music. It could be any genre, but it became a time for some of us to show off our CDs of the hard rock, metal, punk, and Emo Christian records that made their way to the Family Christian bookstores. Sometimes we'd listen to Grits be

Everyday Sunday was a Christian Rock band from Ohio that grew in popularity thanks to RadioU and TVU , which aired their played their independent music alongside other major Christian rock acts. The band signed to Flicker Records in 2002 before the label folded and then signed to Peter Furler 's Inpop Records before going independent in 2013. The band was mostly forgotten with the countless Christian Rock bands of the early '00s, until lead singer Trey Pearson made headlines in May 2016. Pearson had recently divorced his wife of seven and half years. The couple had two children and the divorce was amicable, but Pearson came out to his wife and his family as gay. In May 2016, he came out publicly--career suicide for almost everyone hoping to stay in the Christian music industry. But with a changing music climate in which independent artists have a larger platform and with a broader LGBTQ community and allies both in and out of the church and in and out of the ex-vengelical

In 2008 a gothic emo band appeared on Tooth & Nail Records called The Becoming . Their album produced a few singles and halfway through their short album cycle the DJ on RadioU informed the listeners that the band was now called "We Are the Becoming" for legal reasons. Later the band's video "I Cry" premiered on TVU . My sister said, "These guys look ridiculous." Pretty much. Their music kind of sounded like Hinder and they tried to look like Mötley Crüe . After the confusing name change, the band faded into Tooth & Nail record obscurity. The story of the strange band may have come to an end, but lead singer Caleb " Bones" Owens , has just begun.  I'M A CIGARETTE ROLLING DOWN A EMPTY ROAD IN THE NIGH LIKE A SHOOTING STAR. I heard this story and checked out this record thanks to Ethan Luck . If his name doesn't ring a bell, it's not surprising. Luck is a working musician who plays mostly in the studio these days. He has

  2019 had its share of dark moments. I struggled with the questions about what to do with my life. I wondered if I was wasting my time collecting just enough money for a job that I would one day grow out of. I was in love with someone who was struggling to achieve a very hard to reach goal. The future looked so uncertain. I really started to deconstruct my faith at this time, too, giving myself permission to think through dogmatic statements I had always held to be true, mostly because I was afraid of the consequences of if they weren’t true. Mike Mains & the Branches ' When We Were in Love   was an album I listened to on long walks when I was trying to clear my head. WITH HEAVEN’S MANSION OUT OF REACH. I saw Mike Mains and the Branches perform at the second to last Cornerstone. Around that time they played the video for “Stereo” on TVU (new RadioU TV ). The son g   had some interesting lyrics, but the message was pretty orthodox. But in 2019, the band released their third