NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

In Chinese, the word 小心 (xiǎo xīn) translates to careful. Anthony Green proposed the name to a band he was fronting, choosing to spell the Chinese as Saosin instead. But the band wouldn’t record their first record with Green, though, who stepped down due to a battle with depression and feeling homesick. Anthony would later form the band Circa Survive and would rejoin Saosin for their third album. In the meantime, Saosin hired 19-year-old Cove Reber , who would sing on Saosin’s Capitol Records eponymous debut and their Virgin Records sophomore record, In Search of Solid Ground .     CONFUSED BY THE LIES SHE’S BEEN FED. When Cove Reber submitted his demo to sing for Saosin, guitarist Beau Burchell thought that Anthony Green had submitted his own demo as a prank due to the similarities in Reber and Green’s voices. With a similar-sounding lead singer, Saosin headed out on the Taste of Chaos Tour with The Used, My Chemical Romance, Senses Fail, and Killswitch Engage, among others. The

Ontario-based Christian rapper Manafest signed to BEC Recordings and Tooth & Nail’s Hip-Hop imprint Uprok Records in 2005. In 2008, Mananfest released his third album, Citizens Activ , which was surprisingly successful in Japan. His fifth album, 2010’s The Chase , saw the rapper fully embracing rap-rock. The album was preceded by Avalanche - No Plan B EP . The two songs “ Avalanche ” and “ No Plan B ” contained remixes and alternate versions, including a version of “No Plan B” featuring Japanese metal vocalist of Crossfaith , Kenta Koie contributing a verse to the song. The video for the song also features Koie. FACE MYSELF OR GET TAKEN OUT. Christopher Scott Greenwood , the future Christian rapper Manafest suffered many setbacks in his early life. When he was five, his father committed suicide. He became a Christian after attending a summer camp. When he was about 14, he dreamed of becoming a professional skateboarder, but in 1998, he suffered an injury that stopped that dream

  When Aaron Gillespie announced his solo project would be the band The Almost , it began with the Underoath drummer recording demos and uploading them to MySpace under the moniker The Almost. In 2006, while recording Define the Great Line , Gillespie started writing the album Southern Weather , which he would then take to Aaron Sprinkle and record in ten days, releasing the album in 2007. Gillespie played most of the instruments on the album. Before the release of Southern Weather, Gillespie formed a band to tour and promote the album, including Dusty Redmon and  Jay Vilardi   on guitars, Alex Aponte   on bass, and Kenny Bozisch on drums. I GET IT, I NEED TO FALL. The Almost’s Southern Weather was a successful record released on both Tooth & Nail and Virgin Records. The lead single, “ Say This Sooner ” peaked at number 7 on the Alternative Airplay chart. The band’s second album, Monster Monster , was also jointly released through Tooth & Nail and Virgin Records.  Gillespi

  Last year, I ranked The Weeknd ’s Dawn FM as my fourth-best album of the year, right behind Underoath ’s Voyeurist . While I’d probably re-rank the list and add a few albums I missed like Lizzy McAlpine ’s five seconds flat , I still admire my fifth and fourth-placed records. Although I ranked The Weeknd and Underoath highly last year, I didn’t listen to either artist’s album very much for similar reasons. Voyeurist was a dark album dealing with drug addiction, suicide, and hopelessness. Unlike Underoath’s Christian albums, the darkness had the reprieve of light somewhere within a song or the album. However, the post-Christian Underoath offered an album so dark that I couldn’t listen to it, especially with some of the stuff that I was going through last year. Similarly, The Weeknd's Dawn FM was a beautifully crafted album, but it was too dark for me to enjoy for my mental state last year. I REMEMBER WHEN I HELD YOU. On paper, Dawn FM should have been my album of the year last ye

On October 25, 2005, Falling Up released their sophomore record, Dawn Escapes . The album, produced by Michael “Elvis” Baskette , varies from the band’s Hybrid-Theory - inspired debut Crashings . Rather than maintaining the momentum of the synth-driven rock on Crashings, the band’s sophomore effort focuses on a dreamy ambiance enhanced with hard rock guitars. The first single from the album, “ Exit Calypsan ” (Only in My Dreams)--released earlier in 2005 on the Christian Rock compilation X2005 -- is slower than the singles from Crashings. The chorus brings heavy guitars in to keep Falling Up a rock band. Dawn Escape ’s second single, “ Moonlit ”; however, broke the band’s electronic formula and gave them a riff-heavy rocker. With the two singles preceding the album, listeners were treated to a dreamy experience that perfectly wrapped the dichotomous songs.   THIS PLACE I PASS. The album cover of Crashings showed a fresh-faced six-peace band. According to their cover artwork, Falling