NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

After listening to the guys at Church Jams Now reviewing Spoken 's 2005 record, Last Chance to Breathe , I revisited their Tooth & Nai l catalogue today. I think that the podcasters gave a fair read to the album, and I talked about it last September when discussing the song " September ." I decided to make my Apple Music Spiritual playlist public today, so my blogging time is mostly cleaning it up. On this playlist, I tried to include Christian and non-Christian songs that I can still listen to today even though my faith has changed from when I started. Some of the songs are guilty pleasures. Others are just good. I'll be updating this playlist a bit, so stay tuned! Read the lyrics on Genius.

  In 2011, Thousand Foot Krutch announced that they would be leaving Tooth & Nail Records , releasing music independently. The band had released three LPs and re-released a reworked version of their breakthrough record Set It Off on the iconic label. Thousand Foot Krutch certainly wasn't the first band to leave the Tooth & Nail fold to become an independent artist, but doing so often was career suicide because before the 2010s, record labels served bands in marketing their music, pushing songs to radio, funding music videos, as well as a number of other promotional means of making a band as big as possible.  I DON'T THINK I NEED YOU ANYMORE. In 2008, the website Indiegogo launched. A year later Kickstarter was launched.  These websites, while not the first of their kind, helped to popularize crowdsourcing, a business venture directly funded by patrons who promise funds in exchange for a product and often recognition for funding a new product. Bands started using cro

In the story of  Tooth & Nail Records , which became the definitive Christian Rock label in the early ‘00s,  Aaron Sprinkle  became the main producer for record after record for the label. Sprinkle is not only responsible for producing records, but he also stylized bands and artists who would have otherwise been nothing alike. So, when he wasn’t busy launching successful bands into the scene, what was he doing in his free time? Sprinkle recorded a number of solo records and two with his band, Fair . Sprinkle’s solo efforts were never as successful as the bands he recorded, and life in the studio took a toll on the musical genius.   WHERE IS IT THAT YOUR PEACE COMES FROM?  " Disappearing World " was the only hit from  this 2010 album  named after the title track. Whenever Fair--three of Sprinkle's friends from his previous band, Poor Old Lu --put out a project, it was a limited release. One single to Christian radio, a video, and a couple of local shows. And then it

There are some general rules about music that gets consumed by Evangelical audiences in the United States. Except for the very conservative fundamentalist Christians, Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) can take any genre from Doo Wop to Hip Hop, from Folk to Death Metal. As for the content, though, Christian music usually refrains from using profanity and tends to shy away from anything that is grotesque, though metal albums certainly pushed the envelop in the ‘90s and ‘00s. While releases from progressive bands on Tooth & Nail and competing record labels started including less theology in lyrics, for the most part, the theology on a CCM record was in line with the dreaded televangelist on every cable channel on Sunday mornings.  I’M STILL FUCKING CHRISTIAN. Every blanket statement I wrote in the introductory paragraph has been challenged by one band or another in the ‘90s or ‘00s Christian bookstore, and when the evangelical gatekeepers of the Christian bookstore closed in the ‘1

  We haven’t talked about the latest Anberlin EP, Silverline . Last summer, the band released their first project since 2014’s supposed-to-be swan song, Lowborn . This time, Anberlin has partnered with Equal Vision Records , rather than with their old family at Tooth & Nail . Rather than releasing a full-length record, the band decided to release it in two parts, Silverline and Convicted , which will arrive at the end of this month. On an episode of Lead Singer Syndrome , Stephen Christian said that the band had decided to release the album in two parts because he “didn’t understand the music industry these days.”  YOU KEEP GETTING CLOSER BUT YOU’RE SO DISTANT INSIDE. Anberlin isn’t the first band to release their albums as a series of EPs. When Mae became an independent artist, they released their ( m)orning , ( a)fternoon , and ( e)vening , which later combined into ( m)(a)(e) . Relient K released their K…Is for Karaoke record in two parts. Acceptance ’s latest record was re

We all have to pay the bills, and musicians are certainly no exception.  Randy Torres  formerly of  Project 86  works in sound design.  Dan Koch  of  Sherwood  writes music for adverting.  Stephen Christian  is a music pastor. All of these examples, though, have kept the band separate.  The Fold  released two records on  Tooth & Nail Records , but never achieved the greatness of their label-mates, save a Grammy nomination for the packaging of their sophomore record. Though having a smaller fanbase than other Tooth & Nail bands, The Fold started partnering with brands, writing theme songs, most notably Lego's  Ninjago ,  for which they performed exclusively for seven years.  I SPENT A LONG TIME BUILDING LADDERS TO THE STARS. Today’s song comes from The Fold’s 2013 independent record,  Moving Past.   “ Live Forever ” is the album’s fourth track. The themes on the album are somewhat humanist and somewhat Christian. The subject of “Live Forever” is not about one’s eternal resti

The best music doesn't happen in isolation but rather comes out of a community movement. I would define community, when it comes to music, as a mixing of artists who bring different ideas together ideas from various genres. The result of a musical community is stronger musicianship by all those involved. Collaboration, the meeting of minds, happens naturally. Throughout the course of my blog, I've talked about various communities.  Tooth & Nail , Christian Rock, and evangelical communities are definitely the biggest themes. Tegan and Sara grew out of the Northwestern Canadian/American Indie Rock community in the late '90s, and by 2013 became pop stars.   HERE COMES THE RUSH BEFORE WE TOUCH.  Many fans may have been introduced to  Tegan and Sara  when Meredith Grey and Christina Yang danced to their early acoustic,  angry girl music in  Grey's Anatomy ' s earlier seasons.  The musical duo of Calgary-born identical  twins  Tegan  and  Sara Quin  started on the aco

  Like Search the City , Ivoryline was one of Tooth & Nail Records potential “next Anberlin ” projects. Ivoryline was one of the many “two-album wonders” of the late ‘00s and early ‘10s, releasing their debut There Came a Lion in 2008 and Vessels in 2010. Last year, the Labeled podcast featured an interview with Ivoryline’s lead singer Jeremy Gray , breaking down the band’s successes and untimely demise. Ivoryline was a casualty to the dying record-selling industry and never saw the success of some of their scene- and tour-mates, but their story is worth checking out. THIS SEATLE LIFE HAS CHANGED ME FROM THE INSIDE.  In 2003, Dead End Driveway formed in Tyler, Texas, and changed their name to Ivoryline in 2005. The next year they were scouted by Tooth & Nail Records after playing on the Vans Warped Tour . After signing to the label in 2007, the band released There Came a Lion in February of 2008. The album sold well, charting at number 25 on Billboard’s Christian Albums an

Kicking off the criminally catchy debut record, A Fire So Big the Heavens Can See It ,  from Search the City , " Son of a Gun " sets the tone of the pop-punk band's two-disc discography, which can be best summed up as tongue-in-cheek, cliché-ridden lyrics and tight upbeat, emotional, well-produced melodies. The band seemed to be both a product of Tooth & Nail Records ' push in the late '00s for duplicating the success of their early '00s roster and a victim of when that strategy didn't work due to the collapse of the music industry when record sales were plummeting. In 2009, the band quietly left the label. SO LET ME GET THIS STORY STRAIGHT. I attended Cornerstone Festival in Bushnell, Illinois for the second time in 2008. The group I traveled with aimed to be up there for at least one of the pre-festival days, but sometimes car troubles or something else unexpected would delay the arrival. In 2008, though, we made it up for half of the day before the

In 2011, San Antonio-based Christian Rock band Abandon released their third record, Control . This was the band's second release on ForeFront Records , a label that had been forefront in the Christian music scene in the '90s, releasing albums by dc talk , Audio Adrenaline , and Rebecca St. James . But after the label's success with Stacie Orrico , it seemed that the success of other Christian labels like Tooth & Nail Records  was eclipsing the once legendary record label. I'M LIKE EVERYONE LIVING IN A QUICK-FIX NATION. Before   ForeFront Records was absorbed completely by its parent label, Capitol Christian Music Group , the label had a few last-ditch efforts to produce rock in the '00s. The early '00s gave them the "two-album wonder" The Benjamin Gate and a few head-scratching hip-hop projects. In 2007, the label released the debut record from This Beautiful Republic , a band that seemed to be the label's answer to Anberlin and the success

  Closing 2019's heart-wrenching  When We Were in Love ,  " Swamp " perhaps sums up   Mike Mains & the Branches ' third album in a single song: love, depression, and religion. Like the songs " Breathing Underwater " and " Around the Corner ,"    Mike Mains   gave an intimate insight into his writing process on   Labeled . Mains talked about earlier   Tooth & Nail   releases from   mewithoutYou   and   As Cities Burn ,     which helped to inspire him to write darker Christian songs and push the genre of Christian Rock lyrically to open an honest conversation about mental health, depression, and questioning one's faith. YOU HAD ME AT MERLOT.  "Swamp" is the conclusion and the title-bearer of the album. Mike Mains asks his wife, bandmate Shannon Briggs Bolanowski -Mains, "Do you remember when we were in love?" On the  Labeled  podcast interview, Mains talks about "Swamp" being about a fear that his wife were

Like  Further Seems Forever ,  The Juliana Theory  was legendary in the early pop-punk/emo scene. Also like FSF, The Juliana Theory has ties to hardcore. Lead singer  Brett Detar  started as the guitarist for Christian metal pioneers  Zao , however,  as he explains on Theory's episode of Labeled,   the band was perfectly content listening to  Third Eye Blind  on the radio in the van while out on tour. When Theory formed, they signed with  Tooth & Nail Records  but opted not to be marketed to the Christian Rock format. This decision both helped and hurt their career. On the one hand, they toured with other Tooth & Nail artists and performed at Cornerstone, on the other hand, their initial record sales were quite low.  IT IS GETTING BETTER NOW.  Unlike Further Seems Forever, I don't have a deep-seated nostalgia for The Juliana Theory. I heard they were a band name, but I wasn't exposed to their music until college after the band had broken up. While some of their musi

  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

One of the often forgotten  RadioU  minor groups,  Furthermore   was another group that only released two records, 1999's  Fluorescent Jellyfish   and 2003's  She and I .  Furthermore was a trio consisting of vocalists Daniel Fisher and Lee Jester and DJ Jason Jester . The group arrived on  the  precipice of Tooth & Nail Records '  golden age and left the roster shortly after releasing She and I. Fisher went on to play in several bands, and apparently released several other projects under Furthermore after the group's Tooth & Nail run, including a single in 2020 and several singles earlier this year.   BEFORE YOU SAY GOODBYE.  Furthermore is a vestige of when Tooth & Nail signed artists without thinking about the financial consequences. Christian Rap was a burgeoning market for Christian audiences, but rock, punk, and hard music eventually became much of the label's focus. Christian Rap tended to be more evangelistic, whereas many of the rock bands ten

  Waking Ashland was a band signed first to Tooth & Nail Records then Immortal Records . The band release two records, Composure in 2005 and The Well in 2007 before disbanding. Lead singer Jonathan Jones went on to form the band We Shot the Moon with two members from Sherwood , Dan Koch and Joe Greenetz , who also played in Waking Ashland. As for Waking Ashland, Composure was a sleeper hit on Tooth & Nail Records similar to Watashi Wa 's music. The two bands both relied on calmer, often organic sounds that failed to garner the audience to compete with the harder bands the label steered toward in the mid-'00s.  TO PROVE WE'RE SOMETHING, BUT WE'RE STARVING. Another comparison between Waking Ashland and Watashi Wa is that both bands went on to form other bands, moving from Tooth & Nail Records to the now defunct, often calmer emo label The Militia Group . In Watashi Wa's case, the band formed first Eager Seas and then Lakes . Interestingly Tooth &am

  " Wonderful Christmastime " was rated as the worst Christmas song by   Ultimate Classic Rock . Recorded when 37-year-old rock legend   Paul McCartney   was recording his polarizing second solo record, just before the disbanding of his second band,   Wings ,   McCartney II  was a synth-pop, new wave record in a time when former   Beatles   fans were yelling, "stick to the classics." Recently, critics have come to understand and even praise   McCartney II  for its pioneering in electronic music. The intentionally simple lyrics help to draw attention to the synths and the overall Christmasy atmosphere of the song. THE CHILDREN'S CHOIR SINGS A SONG.  "Wonderful Christmastime" has been covered by many artists, including Diana Ross , Demi Lovato , Hillary Duff , Jump5 , Chicago and Dolly Parton , Pentatonix ,  Family Force 5 ,  Jars of Clay , Eleventyseven , and so many other artists. In 2000, the Christian Rock band Earthsuit recorded the track for Tooth