NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

A fan of the funk/disco band Chic , producer Bob Ezrin convinced Pink Floyd to include a disco beat backing what would become their only number 1 hit in their career. Ezrin also convinced the band to release the song as a radio single, something the band had been against on previous albums as they wanted their songs to be understood in the context of their greater work. The band had been a psychedelic pop act in the '60s and had done radio, but they felt their artistic concepts were too big for the casual listeners. Classic Rock radio remembers a Floyd that never was, playing tracks from Dark Side of the Moon until The Wall , but perhaps without the commercial success of " Another Brick in the Wall ," radio would have forgotten the band.   TEACHERS LEAVE THEM KIDS ALONE. Recorded with school children singing "We don't need no education" and despised by British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, "Another Brick" is the ultimate protest song of sch

Sandwiched between two metal bands, Anberlin played the show that kickstarted their career in Atlanta, Georgia. Brandon Ebel , Tooth & Nail Records ' founder, and owner loved the band's hits, but Chad Johnson , Tooth & Nail's A&R wasn't impressed with the live show. For starters, the band was playing pop-punk in between heavy, pre- They're Only Chasing Safety Underoath and chaos metal act Norma Jean headlining.  Anberlin sounded a bit more like Jimmy Eat World and Third Eye Blind. Nobody at the show knew Anberlin and were only there to most to the bands that they knew. What was worse was if the band was melodic, they had to have a singer who could hold a tune. Stephen Christian was off-pitch. Eventually, Ebel was able to convince Johnson to sign Anberlin. Their demo of " Ready Fuels " recorded by Matt Goldman , an Atlanta musician-turned producer, helped to solidify the decision. Ebel agreed to sign Anberlin as long as Stephen Christian t

Turn off the Stars was a short-lived Canadian pop-rock band. The band was often compared to Coldplay or Keane, but their often wall-of-sound guitars liken them more to Oasis or The Verve. In 2006, their self-titled debut album had one RadioU/Christian Rock hit "Please," the second track from the record. Released in the fall of 2006, this was the soundtrack to freshman year in college, which meant driving on frosty mornings to McDowell Technical Community College to obtain an Associate's Degree that (maybe) saved me $20,000. It was also the year that my family moved to Nebo, buying their first house. But this album took on a new life as it was one of my few albums I could listen to in the car without my mom complaining. So it was an album we listened to several times when we took the long drive up to New York to visit my dad's side of the family, seeing family members we hadn't seen in nearly 10 years. I'VE BEEN RUNNING WITH MY SOUL SO TIRED ABOUT YOU. "G

Ten years ago, Deas Vail released their self-titled album , and with the exception of a Christmas EP, For Shepherds & Kings ,  and a B-sides album, this has been their last full-length project. Composed of husband and wife Wesley and Laura Blaylock and three other musicians, Deas Vail is Latin and Old French, meaning "humble servant of God." As a lighter indie rock band they gained momentum in the Christian Rock and Warped Tour scenes before stopping touring and ultimately disappearing from the scene. Their final, self-titled album is a beautiful collection of songs, produced by Relient K guitarist and self-proclaimed minimalist, Matt Hoopes . Minimalism seems to be a consideration as there is nothing particularly florid in the album or packaging, from the lyrics that don't stick out at first, to the cover art, to the subdued tones throughout the album. Listening to  Deas Vail reminds me that it's not the grand days that make a lifetime great, but the cumulat

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? Yesterday, I talked about the burnout I've been experiencing lately. Burnout is very common with t

In 2010, Far East Movement was the first Asian-American group to top the Billboard Hot 100 with the dance/hip-hop hit "Like a G6," a fun track about getting so drunk in the club that you feel like a private plane. The group's follow up hit, "Rocketeer" stuck with the flying theme. "Rocketeer" peaked at number  7 both on the Top 40 radio charts and the Hot 100, and the group hasn't released music topping their success. However, the 2010 success of FEM brought light to a hip-hop scene many Americans didn't even know existed. Far East Movement's rise to the top of the Hot 100 was a culmination of the career they built in LA's Koreatown and the Asian-American music scene, collaborations in various areas of the music industry, and the luck of being in the middle of dance/EDM Hip-hop when the wave swept. WITH YOU RIGHT HERE, I'M A ROCKETEER. LET'S FLY. This song picks me up out of a slump. It's be nine years since I came to Kor

Yellowcard belongs on a soundtrack for my teenage summer, but today's track is not a typical sounding Yellowcard song. In 2004 one of my summer songs was "Ocean Avenue" from the band's major label debut of the same name. They became known as the pop-punk band with the crazy electric violin, especially in their first three records. The band was a massively successful Florida punk band that impacted pop and rock radio, following in the footsteps of bands like Good Charolette, Simple Plan, and New Found Glory. The band's success with mainstream radio and MTV faded and they started to lack originality by their third record. However, the band's second act saw more complex lyricism and instrumentality. The band remained in the scene until breaking up in in 2018, releasing their self-titled record in 2016. " Savior's Robes " is track 9 of 10 on the album whose artwork seems to be anti-sun/summer and good times music found in the early days of Yellowca