NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  If you play by the rules, you can win the game. At least that's what kids are told when they're growing up. But somewhere along the way, the tales of how it's supposed to be don't seem to match what's actually happening. The prophets who have gone before you have foretold of a golden age when life was easy. Just follow the formula. Of course, there is no formula for being in a rock band, and success is never a guarantee. But in the mid-'00s it seemed that being signed to Tooth & Nail Records was a guarantee into both Christian and mainstream markets. Tooth & Nail was a sure-shot, until it wasn't. WE’LL START A FIRE SO BIG THE HEAVENS CAN SEE IT. Search the City in 2004 formed when two Michigan high school friends decided to make a band. Guitarist Alex Sheldon and drummer Adam McMillion were eventually joined by singer Josh Frost , guitarist James Czech, and bassist Eli Clark. After recording the EP Ghosts in 2008, the band signed to Tooth &

The lead single and opening song from Shape & Color 's sophomore EP, Love / Sex / War , " Drifting " sets the tone of the mid-teens power pop quintet. Fronted by the former lead sing of Search the City , Travis Bobier , the band shows their penchant for pop melodies in many of their songs, but "Drifting" is an excellent point of entry into the band's short discography. Almost foregoing a chorus with a " millennial whoop " in its place for the first verse, the song serves as a kind of unguent for a dull or bad day, giving energy as it addresses the mid-twenties crisis the lyrics suggest.  WE'VE BEEN LIVING IN A TECHNICOLOR BLUR. The lyrics of "Drifting" talk about getting off course from where you thought your life was supposed to go. Singer Travis Bobier was about 24 when this song was released. At the age of 21, Bobier had been recruited to sing in the band Search the City after their original lead singer Josh Frost had left the

New Order formed in 1980 after the three remaining members of the post-punk band Joy Division lost their lead singer Ian Curtis to suicide. Success wasn't instant for New Order with the start of the new band. New Order's sound was distinct from Joy Division's with the inclusion of keyboardist Gillian Gilbert and a growing penchant for synthesizers and electronic dance music. The band's breakthrough success came prior to the release of their second record, Power, Lies & Corruption with the release of their long-play (12") single " Blue Monday ," which took dance clubs around the world by storm, and even helped to fund the band's own dance club in Manchester called The Haçienda, a dance club named after the word for a Spanish plantation.   I SEE A SHIP IN THE HARBOUR. New Order spent time in the clubs in New York listening to the latest disco prior to recording their Power, Lies & Corruption. According to lead singer Bernard Sumner , the mu

  After a hugely successful album cycle with X , Ed Sheeran began writing his follow up. On X, many of Sheeran's lyrics focused on the lifestyle a pop star falls into when he comes to fame. Personal songs about life on the road, drugs and alcohol, and relationships and flings with other stars were mostly absent on the singer's story-centric first record + . As far as relationships, X offers us an insight into his long-distance relationship with Nina Nesbitt in " Photograph " and heartbreak with who is rumored to be Ellie Goulding in " Don't ." Then there was the ballad " Thinking Out Loud ," a song about his girlfriend at the time, Athina Andrelos. The song shows a Sheeran thinking about the days after his youthful fame and the person he would share that post-fame world with. WE WERE JUST KIDS WHEN WE FELL IN LOVE. But when Ed Sheeran found love, it wasn't with a movie star or a fellow singer-songwriter. The first track that Sheeran wrot

Stephen Christian  under the appellation of  Anchor & Braille  released their third record,  in February of 2016. Stephen Christian said in an interview that he imagines a movie scene for his Anchor & Braille projects, and the title  Songs for the Late Night Drive Home is descriptive of that movie scene. The electronic sounds imagine an urban setting--New York's " Lower East Side ," Los Angelo’s’ Silver Lake, Orlando--anywhere that, during the day cars would fill the streets. But the late night drive home is peaceful. You're in your car driving past the empty office buildings for 34:23 seconds past midnight. KISS ME LIKE YOU STILL BELIEVE.   Songs for the Late Night Drive Home is a kind of closing of the Stephen Christian electronic era, which started with Anberlin 's Vital   in 2012. In some ways, Vital was like the band had just discovered synthesizers. The band had scarcely used keys or synthesizers on their five records prior to Vital. Christian cite

Formed when the lead singer of Korean rock band Eastern Sidekick 's lead singer Oh Ju Hwan (오주환) started working with Zee (지) of From the Airport to produce a synth-based solo project, ADOY the project quickly turned into band with drummer Zozo (조조 or Cho Sang Yeon/ 조상연) and Ju Hwan's high school friend Jang Da Young (장다영) joining the band. In an interview with Arirang  (see below), Ju Hwan explains that the band got the name for the band by reversing the letters of his cat Yoda's name, hence ADOY is simply Yoda backwards. He goes on to explain that Yoda played a pivotal role in determining the band's sound.   ALL THE COLORS LOOK BACK. ADOY formed in 2016 and their  debut EP  Catnip   was released in 2017. The album's name relates to the role that Yoda played in helping the band determine their sound. When the band wrote their first songs, they determined which songs would go on the album by how Ju Hwan's cat Yoda responded to those songs. If Yoda liked the s

  If you namedrop   Jimmy Eat World   in a casual conversation, people might look at you funny. The name sounds like its origins: two little kids teasing each other. Though fronted by   Jim Atkins,   he is not the "Jimmy" who "eat[s the] world," but rather it was an insulting picture guitarist Tom Linton 's little brother, Ed, who drew a picture of his slightly older brother  Jimmy looking so fat that he was "eat[ing]the world." Jimmy Eat World is a band's band. They are responsible for influencing everyone in punk, pop punk and even hardcore punk in the last 20 years. Best known for their song " The Middle ," a top 40 pop hit, the band spun several singles throughout the years, even today. Their most commercially successful albums have been   Bleed American   (2001),   Futures  (2004), and   Chase This Light   (2007). ARE YOU DIZZY YET?    I've talked about the burnout I've experienced as a teacher. Burnout is very common with te