NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Solid State Records released Dead Poetic's debut album, Four Wall Blackmail with producers Barry Poynter and Jason Magnussen. The songs on FWB were rough. Poynter worked with Zao, Living Sacrifice, Embodyment, and Haste the Day to make some seriously heavy music. And with fresh, young signees with a hardcore name based on the 1989 Robin Williams classic, grungy screaming with intermittent singing worked in a certain scene of Christian Rock at that time. The problem was that none of the melodies were particularly catchy. The band turned to Aaron Sprinkle to produce their sophomore record, New Medicines. Sprinkle's production transformed the band into one that listeners could sing along to. Rather than singing with intermittent screaming, New Medicines was the opposite. New Medicines was supposed to be the start of another Tooth & Nail success story. Yet, today, the band's three studio records are hardly remembered because of lead singer Brandon Rike's decision to wal

Watching Alan Walker's performance at the Parookaville Festival in Germany makes me wonder if you have to be there in order to enjoy a DJ set. Unlike watching a band or a solo artist who performs with a band, a DJ set is all about hype. When I watch a band, I see chords and leads. When I watch a DJ perform, I have no clue what I'm watching. There's a lot I don't get about "kids these days and their music," but when I found out that in 2016 "Faded" was one of the most searched songs on Shazam, I realized that I was probably in that number at the gym listening to melodic EDM songs over and over again until I started to like them. An Alan Walker concert seems to consist of dancing 20-somethings, lots of smoke and screen production, flawless sounds of what could be a studio version, and a not-particularly charismatic hype-man in a black hoodie and a mask covering half his face, before it was cool. ETERNAL SILENCE OF THE SEA. I remember a couple of years

A few Saturday afternoons circa 2015-17, I went down a rabbit-hole, looking for the best Paper Route , Anberlin , and Copeland covers on YouTube. This was long after finding artists like Tyler Ward who covered pop music. I wondered if anyone had recorded high quality covers of my favorite bands. It turns out that there were a few . These artists weren't on the level of popularity of Kurt Hugo Schneider or Boyce Avenue . I had hoped to created a cover playlist of a Copeland album, but there weren't enough high-quality covers on YouTube at the time. Charles Angell's YouTube account has 7 videos, 77 subscribers, and the singer hasn't posted anything in 3 years. From a quick Facebook search, it turns out that Angell is still active as a musician, with a new haircut and some designer rims, now under the moniker of Snarly  (link to his social media presence).  YOU'RE STILL A BREEZE UPON MY SKIN.  Of the Copeland covers, Charles Angell's version of " Erase &q

Chris Ayer has been playing guitar since he was 18 years old. A graduate of Stanford where he studied music and philosophy, Ayer also was a part of an all-male a capella group during his time in college. Moving to Brooklyn after graduating, he hosted a series of podcasts in which shared experiences during his time at Stanford that ended up in his songs. Ayer recorded his first full-length album in Nashville in 2006. His song "Evaporate" won the John Lennon Songwriting Folk category that year as well. In 2013, he released his second album, The Noise , which is his earliest recording available on AppleMusic. "The Infinite Abyss of Space" is the final track on The Noise. From a cursory look into Ayer's music, it seems that the final track on The Noise  fits into the space that Ayer grew into; whereas most tracks on The Noise sound a bit coffee shop, folk singer-songwriter, rather than a polished pop singer-songwriter.  I'LL FILL UP THE SPACE WITH SOMETHING. I w

  Flyleaf was one of the most diversely connected bands from their debut album cycle. The band started by opening for bands like Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace, and Seether as well as Christian Active Rock bands like P.O.D. and Skillet. Songs like "I'm So Sick" and "Fully Alive" were played frequently on the radio, and the band even had a Top 40 pop hit with "All Around Me." But if you happened to catch a Flyleaf show, headlining, or opening for a band like Korn, you'd hear lead singer Lacy Mosley (later Sturm after marrying Joshua Sturm in 2008)  preach charismatically. She'd throw her hands into the air, nervously talking about her relationship with Jesus, gaining confidence as she spoke. Lacy turned the darkest concert venue into a church service for the high and intoxicated who, in any other context, would go nowhere near a church. LET ME LIVE WITHOUT THIS. I first saw Flyleaf in September of '06 or '07 in Spartanburg's Gr

When Neon Horse appeared on Tooth & Nail's roster in 2007, the label gave no information about the band. The concept of the band was like The Gorillaz: a studio band that had no intention of touring. Also like The Gorillaz, Neon Horse's aesthetic was cartoon drawings. However, keen listeners quickly recognized the vocal talents of Mark Salomon, who had been the vocalist for metal group The Crucified in '80s and of the Active Rock band Stavesacre in the '90s. Salomon shot a video for the band's first single, "Cuckoo!" and it was also confirmed that Jason Martin, vocalist and guitarist of Starflyer 59 and Steven Dail bassist of Project 86 were involved. There have also been rumors that Martin's brother Ronnie of Joy Electric played the keys and synths on the record. Neon Horse had two eerie albums, and today's song was the lead single from the band's sophomore album, Haunted Horse: Songs of Love, Defiance, and Delusion. PLAYING IN THE MIDDLE

We usually like it when people and institutions keep their promises. But in 2014 when Anberlin vowed never to tour or record new music again, fans were hoping that the crossed fingers on the Lowborn album cover was an indication of an artistic fib. Four years after the breakup, though, the band played a one-off show, supporting their friends in Underoath who followed a similar career trajectory: burn out with the music industry, internal quarrels, a reunion, and a new album. After that final night of Underoath's Erase Me tour, Anberlin started playing more and more shows throughout 2019 and were set to hit the road in 2020. When COVID canceled the tour, the band decided to start playing their albums live, selling tickets to their livestreams. During one of the livestreams, the band announced that they were quietly working on new songs, and by the final livestream, the event ended with the band premiering "Two Graves." NO DOWN FROM ZERO. "Two Graves" is a heavil