NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

After releasing Ten Months in 2001, a punk album under the name No Tagbacks, House of Heroes signed to Vanishing Point Records and rebranded to the name House of Heroes with the release of their first album, What You Want Is Now in 2003 under the new moniker. They signed with Gotee Records and released House of Heroes in 2005. The band recorded three more albums with Gotee and its rock imprint Mono Vs. Stereo became one of the biggest bands in Christian Rock with their 2008 record The End Is Not the End . In 2014, the band released their first independent release since 2003, the EP Smoke . Then in 2016, the band released Colors on BadChristian Music . WHEN I TURN MY EAT TO AUGUST WIND, I CAN STILL HEAR THE MAGIC. The lead singer of House of Heroes, Tim Skipper ,  has described their association with Christian Rock as a kind of “straddling the line” between the Christian industry and the general market. Christian rock critics such as Jesusfreakhideout.com , highly regarded t...

Brothers " Bear " and  "Bo" Rineheart  were born in Possum Kingdom, South Carolina, and raised in a church camp that their father, a pastor, managed. Forming  NEEDTOBREATHE   with  friends  Seth Bolt  and  Joe Stillwell , the band signed to  Atlantic Records  and released their sophomore record in 2007.  Opening for  Taylor Swift  on her  Speak Now Tour  in 2011, winning many  Gospel Music Association's Dove Awards , and receiving a Grammy nomination, NEEEDTOBREATHE   has gained acclaim both in the Christian Rock and secular markets. The band's 2016 record,  H A R D  L O V E , debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart list and is the band's bestselling record. The folksy lyrics of NEEDTOBREATHE speak of faith, love, and family. YOU'RE THE CATALYST OF HIGH HOPES.  The theme of the band's 2016 record comes from a long-seeded rivalry between brothers Bear and Bo, which escalated...

  In 2001, Mat Kearney and his friend Robert Marvin arrived in Nashville, Tennessee. Since college, Kearney wanted to pursue a musical career as a singer-songwriter. Marvin’s dream was to become a music producer and Nashville was the place to be. Kearney and Marvin had worked on music before they arrived in Nashville. Marvin got right to work in the Christian music industry, producing and working on albums by ZOEgirl , Stacie Orrico , TobyMac , and Newsboys . In 2004, Kearney released his debut album Bullet on the Christian label Inpop Records . Several of the songs on Bullet were reworkings of Kearney’s hip-hop EP West in November , which he had released independently in 2003. The co-writing team of Kearney and Marvin and Marvin’s production introduced Christian music to the genre-bending artistry of Mat Kearney. I CAN STILL SMELL THE POMEGRANATES GROW. Today, Bullet is not available on streaming services. Mat Kearney was a success with Christian Hit Radio and Christian Rock R...

Last year,  Lau ren Daigle  returned with her first record since 2018’s blockbuster sophomore record,  Look Up Child .  Daigle’s music has been featured in movies and television shows from  Blade Runner 2049  to  Grey’s Anatomy ,  which makes the singer stand out from other artists in her genre, Contemporary Christian Music, a genre she dominated with the number-one Christian song for  sixty weeks  for the crossover hit, “ You Say .”  WE KNOW THE FUTURE’S BURNIN’ BRIGHT.  Maybe like me, you spent a part of the ‘10s backsliding from your evangelical upbringing. Don’t worry, I’m not here to tell on you. You probably stopped listening to  DC Talk  and  Michael W. Smith , and maybe became a “ Bad Christian ” with  Emery , followed  Michael Gungor ’s journey, or went full-out atheist like  Underoath . Somewhere along the way, what was playing on Christian Radio sounded like a bad version of what was pop...

" Take Cover " is the opening track to  Acceptance 's debut and almost final album,  Phantoms .  It starts with a piano loop and adds momentum with the drums.  Jason Vena 's smooth vocals hit a high register which puts the band on good emo footing for the time, as a singer who could whine a few lines was essential for a band that makes it. Listening to  Phantoms  again today--as I've talked about this album at least three times before--I thought about one of the fatal flaws of the record: the track order. Even though, I think that this album is a perfect artifact of my last two years in high school, I can kind of see why this band wasn't huge, and it has to do with the track listing of this album. SHE MAKES THE CITY SEEM LIKE HOME.  Today, I'm going to do a track-by-track analysis of this album, and I'll probably add to this analysis as I choose more songs to be song of the day. I may not have a lot to say about the tracks individually as I've alr...

In 2018,  Taylor Swift  did the unthinkable. Country music stars had been expected to be either right-leaning or a-political. Although Swift wasn't a country music star in 2018, she was still associated with the genre. But as a resident of Tennessee, Swift came out publicly in support of two Democratic candidates in a midterm race. While Swift hasn't been active with political endorsements for the upcoming November election as of today-- only A.I. generated images from the Trump camp --, i t took a Trump presidency and the callousness towards women's and minority issues to make   Miss Americana  speak up.  SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.  On the opening night of Taylor Swift's Era's tour in Scottsdale, Arizona, another band of somewhat reluctant activists opened the show,  Paramore . Most of the opening acts on the Eras tour include indie rockers or singer-songwriters, mostly female, feminist, and LGBTQ+ or allies. As my readers already know, Paramore is a ba...

  Before his record-setting 333 (and counting) Billboard Hot 100 entries and his record-tying number 13 #1 hits--tied with Michael Jackson --, Drake released his 2016 album Views . First, he scored a number 2 hit in 2015 with “ Hotline Bling ” before the album was released, and then he reached the top position on the chart with the single “ One Dance .” Drake released his first mixtape in 2006, but his 2009 single “ Best I Ever Had ” from his third mixtape was the breakout event for the Canadian rapper. Perceptions about Drake may have changed over the years, particularly earlier this year when he and Kendrick Lamar were involved in a nasty highly-publicized feud. “Hotline Bling” harkens back to a time when the perception of the Canadian rapper was mostly positive, even if the lyrics to the song have been criticized as sexist. EVER SINCE I LEFT THE CITY… The summer vacation sounds of “Hotline Bling” partly come from the song’s sample of Timmy Thomas ’s " Why Can't We Live T...