NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  I n Western North Carolina, we had two modern rock radio stations. From upstate South Carolina there was 93.3 “ The Planet,” an Active Rock radio station that played lots of ‘90s rock and neo-90s rock. They loved grunge and post-grunge. They played Nickelback , Seether , P.O.D. , Flyleaf , Puddle of Mudd , and that kind of music. Then there was Charlotte’s 106.5 “The End ,” an Alternative rock station. While playing much of the same music, they also featured some newer groups, such as Silversun Pickups , Thirty Seconds to Mars , and the occasional The Almost or Saosin song. The Starting Line was one of those emerging bands that was starting to be picked up on radio. The first single, “ Island ,” from the band’s third and final (latest) LP, Direction , was a kind of break out for the band to mainstream alternative rock. The band had toured on their two previous albums and built up a fan base thanks to venues like the Vans Warped Tour , but some band members grew tired of touring,

  The Internet has launched many music careers, particularly over the last twenty years. Plug in the DSL and log on to the MySpace page, check MP3.com , visit the band's Pure Volume account, see the latest video on YouTube , watch the singer get big on TikTok , and maybe get featured on a Podcast--it's a brave new world only limited by Comcast (and certain regions of North Carolina where they refuse to lay the cable). While platforms have come and gone, YouTube has been a consistent place where singers have gotten their start. Justin Bieber, Charlie Puth , and  Rebecca Black  are some of the big-name acts that started out as YouTube stars. However, sometime in college, I started going down the rabbit hole of YouTube cover artists, starting with Tyler Ward . However, one cover has another in the sidebar, and you have to click on it. What does an acoustic version of " Like a G6 " sound like anyway? SO TIRED OF TEARS . I can now say that I love many kinds of music. W

  When I first heard of The All-American Rejects and their single " Swing, Swing ," I thought they would just be one of the many garage bands that would continue to make cheap videos on Fuse for a few albums before quitting the music industry. I was wrong. The band’s sophomore album Move Along blew up, hitting the Top 40. The band’s major label follow-up to Move Along , When the World Comes Down, had their biggest hit “ Gives You Hell ,” and the other two singles “ I Wanna ” and today’s choice “ The Wind Blows ” were moderately successful, but the band’s fourth record was mostly overlooked. While the TV show appearances ( Smallville Season 6 ) and the tours with Taking Back Sunday and Anberlin may be over, the band's legacy tells of a time when power pop, punk rock, and pop rock impacted the Top 40. I'LL LEAVE WHEN THE WIND BLOWS. Originally written for Gwen Stefani , "The Wind Blows" is one of The Rejects' most poppy songs. The production is inter

  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. There has been much bad blood between the band and the record label, especially when the label made money on selling their song " We're at the Top of the World" (To the Simple Two) to Disney to be featured in a Disney channel original, Motorcrossed , an

I've talked about Labeled podcast quite a bit. Their tagline: "The stories, rumors, and legends of Tooth & Nail Records," certainly applied to their pilot episode: "Further Seems Forever: A Tale of Three Singers." Further Seems Forever is a band that is seen as a landmark band in '00s emo and Christian Rock, paving the way for the bands that have stuck around, such as Anberlin, Emery , and The Classic Crime, to name a few. However, FSF's turbulent relationships with lead singers kept the band a bit of a legend for hipster music fans and a bit of a bands' band, rather than a prolific force. The musicians of a Christian hardcore band, Strongarm, formed with emotional singer-songwriter Chris Carrabba, who left after the release of the band's first release to release music under the moniker of Dashboard Confessional. The band found singer Jason Gleason to replace Carrabba, but Gleason left the band by the recording of the band's third album.

  Cruel to Be Young was one of my college albums. I wrote a bit about the two Jonezetta albums back in January.   Rather than being an '80s/ Killers sounding album, the band went '70s/laid back, hippy sounding music. According to Randy Torres episode of Labeled, the inspiration behind this album was The Shins , which was another college favorite of mine. While Aaron Sprinkle and Randy Torres may have had a great time making this record, it may have been the demise of Jonezetta as fans were expecting something catchy and dancy. Interestingly my college friends liked this album, but not their debut, but my hometown friends, loved Popularity and couldn't get into Cruel to Be Young. Jonezetta's follow up album reminds me of my youth--being 21 years old at its release, and how cruel it was to be a young Seventh-day Adventist. ALL THE DIFFERENT REASONS WHY YOU SLEEP ALONE . I’ve railed on purity culture so much without giving any person anecdotes. I speak from experienc

  In case you missed it, the summer of 2009 was called the summer of chillwave. Chillwave is a kind of electronic music that borrows from ‘80s nostalgia to produce a mellow, psychedelic music that aims to relax the listener. The genre uses lo-fi, a musical technique that takes what sounds like musical or sound mistakes and incorporates it into the sound, kind of like noise pop, but in a more subliminal, relaxing way. If you were to search for Chillwave, you'd definitely come across Washed Out . Their song " Feel It All Around " was released in July 2009, before the EP Life of Leisure  in September 2009. The song and EP are said to be the best example of Chillwave. "Feel It All Around" was used as the opening theme for the show Portlandia, and when family members started watching Portlandia, the entire family was turned on to Washed Out, which is very rare for my family. Even my mom was listening to Life of Leisure.  JUST UNWIND. In the fashion of a true millenni