NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Shura 's 2016 debut, Nothing's Real made a splash in the U.K. and Europe, but the electro-pop singer-songwriter didn't make a huge impact on the American charts, which is a shame. Hits like " What's It Gonna Be? " and " What Happened to Us? " were perfect hits for the mid-summer of the album's release, and I find that I come back to to it every spring to early fall. But while her contemporaries like Ellie Goulding and Carly Rae Jepsen keep songs pretty light and upbeat, there's a sadness and introversion that hides the lyrics beneath even the most dance-floor worthy tracks. SMALL CHANGE IN THE UNIVERSE . The daughter of a British documentary filmmaker, Shura uses a documentary style motif throughout  Nothing's Real,  featuring audio of the Shura as a child speaking and singing. Also in the vein of a documentary, Shura sings about her break up in third person "Make It Up." Other songs, like "Indecision" and "Kidz

I 'm not going to go on and on again about how much I admire Ryan Clark 's talent. I talked about in January and February . I think I've touched on the talent of former Project 86 guitarist Randy Torres. Torres left Project 86 to work as an engineer with Aaron Sprinkle making legendary Tooth & Nail albums, then went to work as A & R for the label, toured with Anberlin on their New Surrender tour, and finally landed a job with Microsoft, then doing sound design for films and video games.  Somewhere between their busy schedules, Ryan Clark and Randy Torres crowdfunded an album and an EP as a new project, unrelated to Demon Hunter, called Nyves . Rather than being heavy on the guitars and screaming lyrics, the project takes on a dark electronic-meets '80s progressive metal sound perfect for a gloomy day like today. A FIRE OUT OF BREATH. Spring in Korea is both blessed with beautiful flowers and warmer days and cursed with terrible air quality. The 벚꽃 (Cherry bloss

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 , 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. The songs this weekend are whimsical stories. Yesterday , the canon story, and today climbing to the stars, meeting a "friendly meteor beside the moon" who tells the speaker to "be yourself and watch the stars come to you." This fun pop-punk song along

When I think of progressive rock, I think of music that hasn't been refined enough to make it to radio. The lyrics are a little too strange. The instrumentals go off on tangents. Don't get me wrong, I like long guitar solos, but prog. rock gets a bit pedantic. Then I heard Hidden Hospitals' 2016 album Liars. The band calls themselves a progressive rock band, and honestly, I haven't heard anything like it before. Like progressive rock albums, it took me a few listens to get into Liars . But track after track reveals intricate song structures met by lyrics that could be easily passed over, but when they sink in, pack a punch. According to an episode with lead singer Dave Raymond on Matt Carter's Break It Down podcast, Raymond grew up listening to Hip-Hop, but it was rock shows by bands like Emery and Anberlin that got him interested in performing music that would become Hidden Hospitals. FINDING REAL'S LIKE PULLING TEETH. Today's song tells the whimsical st

  If you're driving through Columbus, Ohio you can tune your radio to 88.7 and find out where music is going. First hitting the airwaves in 1996, the radio station went worldwide via SkyAngel satellite network. RadioU plays Christian Rock and has been home to artists who would otherwise never hit the radio waves. However, bands often disappear from the playlist over time. This can because the band changed their sound or their message. Artists like the Newsboys , Audio Adrenaline , dc talk , Jars of Clay, and Jennifer Knapp were played in the '90s and first few years of the '00s, but the listeners didn't like the direction that those artists took in their later careers. Other groups like Copeland, Mae, and MuteMath started out with RadioU and "got too big," or at least that was the story. Sometimes they will pick up groups like Thrice, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and Paper Route, in the middle of a successful career. But is it where music is going? Maybe not thes

The atmosphere is a casual restaurant. You're enjoying your time with your friends. The food just comes out and everyone is in conversation. The background music was something pop, like  Ariana Grande , or something you didn't notice, but all of a sudden,  Thousand Foot Krutch 's " Welcome to the Masquerade " starts blaring on the speaker overhead. Just when you think you'd never hear your college Christian rock in a foreign country, it comes up at a rather inappropriate time, between talking about something that happened to you at work and the second bite of your taco.  IF WE CAN HANG ON WE CAN CROSS THIS OCEAN.  Thousand Foot Krutch has an album formula that they used especially from their fourth album to their sixth. The albums start heavy and have a few poppier songs in the middle. " Forward Motion " is one of the poppier moments on this album, almost as if it's a preview for some of lead singer  Trevor McNevan 's pop-punk project,  FM St

Last week I taught a lesson on Irish music to my students. I played examples of Celtic instrumental music. I showed videos of River Dance . I played sad songs like " The Parting Glass " and " Danny Boy ." Then I played some famous Irish artists like Enya ,  U2 , and  T he Cranberries . Then I played  Kodaline 's " High Hopes ."  When I asked my students which they like the best, they said Kodaline. Well, that's kind of a stupid question. There are times when I want to listen to Celtic bagpipes and jigs. There are times I want to go out and have fun an Irish pub and hear Celtic-punk rock. There are times I want to listen to U2, and it's certainly not the same day I want to listen to Enya, but those days happen too. But like my students, I think Kodaline's first album fits more into my everyday listening habits. BROKEN BOTTLES IN THE HOTEL LOBBY. While In A Perfect World  is a great everyday listen, you have to be careful watching the music