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Review: John Mark McMillan – “The Medicine”

Kyle — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:33:23 +0000

UPDATE: Re-published today for the re-release

I’ve been listening to The Medicine for a couple weeks solid. I don’t like doing first impression reviews because most of the time my favorite songs end up being those that took a while to grow on me. My ears start hearing things on the 10th listen that I didn’t hear the 9 times previous. So what did I hear?

The album starts off with Reckoning Day and I’m blown away by John Mark’s vocals. His voice sounds better than I’ve ever heard it, not only in presence but tonally I think his voice is just spot on. You can also hear exactly what John Mark was talking about in the natural reverb recording techniques they were experimenting with. The warmth of the verb is a tone carried throughout the album and really ties each song together and I think creates a great atmosphere for the heart of the album which is a story resurrection.

John Mark tells the story of Christ’ resurrection with intense language and vivid imagery, fitting for the story that’s told. This is demonstrated in songs like Skeleton Bones,

Skeleton bones stand at the sound of eternity on the lips of the found
Graves stones roll to the rhythm of the sound of you
Skeleton bones stand at the sound of eternity on the lips of the found
Yeah so separate those doors and let the sun of resurrection in

One of the greatest songs on the album, and one I can’t wait to do on Easter, is Death In His Grave. The imagery and phrasing used in that song is so incredibly moving, the chorus says:

On Friday a thief, on Sunday a King, laid down in grief
But awoke with the keys, of hell on that day
The first born of the slain
The Man Jesus Christ laid death in his grave

The resurrection theme not only deals with the historic moment but also addresses our own personal death to sin and resurrection in Christ as shown in songs like Carbon Ribs, Dress Us Up, Out of the Ground and Ten Thousand. In our previous interview I asked John Mark if there were any he could see being used in corporate worship, and I think there are quite a few here that will be used. Dress Us Up is one that jumps out as something an entire congregation could get behind and sing without trouble. The song proclaims the power of God’s love over death.

Dress us up in the blood of a son
Who opened up His veins so that we would overcome
Hell and the grave and the power of his love
After 3 dark days he showed us how it’s done
and he still does

I don’t think there can be any question this is John Mark’s finest work. This is certainly a step forward musically, lyrically and in his songwriting. The songwriting still has the exposed emotions John Mark is known for but this record comes across as a more matured presentation, not quite as raw as before. It’s truly a storyteller album and the story is captivating and beautiful. Go buy this album now!

originally posted 10/7/08

Review: “All the Bright Lights” album

Kyle — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:04:42 +0000

I don’t often get excited for instrumental/ambient records, but then again I don’t often(ever) hear those records made by guys with this kind of creative rock sensibility. This southern ambi-rock band dubbed All The Bright Lights consists of James Duke, Jon Duke and Jacob Arnold, two brothers and a good friend.

The self titled album opens with a short track called I saw You Running which threw me into the tumbler of what to expect with the rest of the record, a good teaser. But the next track, The Chest of Drawers, really made me come to attention by somehow beautifully combining dark, rich guitars and church bells with this alt-country riff. The song is really an incredible sonic journey and gets you really excited about what’s possible with the rest of the tracks by letting you know loud and clear, this isn’t going to be a let down.

To say it’s a completely instrumental or ambient album is not entirely correct, there are some beautifully haunting vocals in The Door which leaves you hanging onto the line “you came and made a way.” That line introduces the core concept of the album, redemption, that is echoed by some other tracks with vocals, The One That Gave It All, Walls and Shadow of the King. These are simple songs of redemption woven through and exposed through the rich sounds of redemption.

Each song sets the plate emotionally, they are each moving and beautiful, not incomplete but yet allow room for the listener to reinterpret. I find myself singing new songs over each listen and that makes for an incredibly enjoyable album. One that I suspect will remain so for quite some time.

Close Your Eyes is a perfect closing crescendo for the album, the longest song, full of surprises and twists that introduce some new elements but also wrap up what was really a sonic journey. All the Bright Lights combines remarkably rich textures with a driving tension and soaring guitar melodies that resonate just right. If you’re looking for a soundtrack to life, then buy All the Bright Lights. or Amazon.

Also make sure to checkout my interview with James Duke from All the Bright Lights.

All the Bright Lights on myspace.

Review: Megafaun and Bon Iver at Mesa Arts Center

Kyle — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:28:46 +0000

Wow. I’ve been to a lot of shows, but for many reasons this show was one of the best I’ve seen. First off we should talk about the venue. Mesa Arts Center is absolutely beautiful and the room sounds incredible…no I mean it, incredible! Not to mention the fact that we were right in front, as in our seats, then the stage, then Bon Iver. The room had all wood floors, wood paneling on the walls, it was just a musician’s dream of a venue. Both bands were extremely grateful for the chance to play there which was cool to hear as they mentioned it several times throughout their respective sets.

I had never heard of Megafaun previous to the show but as soon as they hit the first line of the verse on song 1 I knew I was gonna dig em. 3 piece band which usually stuck to a lineup of drums/percussion, guitar and banjo, but each member played multiple instruments so you had a mix of bass, electric, synths, piano and other goodies. Their 3 part harmonies were rich, on point and almost as majestic as their beards. Their sound is very eclectic, always containing a strong front porch folk element reminiscent of The Avett Brothers, their harmonies would remind you of the Fleet Foxes but then there’s also a subtle rock/experimental element that comes across very Wilco‘ish at times. I don’t think they are confused as much as excited about music and they seem to follow their inspiration no matter what musical alley it leads them. Kudos for that, it was thoroughly enjoyable listening to them take those journeys. Their latest record is “Gather, Form & Fly” and I’m giving it a spin now and loving it.

Then out comes Bon Iver and opens up with Flume, one of my favorites. The band is killing the harmonies, and I mean killing as in nailing them. The textures they create with the keys, guitars and percussion are really incredible. I was afraid they’d come off disorganized and lazy in a live environment but the arrangements are complex and the instrumentation and vocals are layered so richly. I can’t say enough about the quality of the vocals, especially Justin Vernon’s voice. I didn’t know how his falsetto would hold up for an entire show, but wow, I was blown away. He was singing his guts out and sounded incredible all night.

Now for my favorite moments of the night, first was his electrified version of Blood Bank. They rocked that song out and I really hope they consider releasing a live album cause that arrangement was incredible. Second was the insane epic ending, again with an electrified version of The Wolves. Justin had the entire crowd singing “what might have been lost” at the top of their lungs and then all hell broke loose as then entire place just started yelling as they washed out the ending in a giant indie, feedback filled rock fest. Certainly a concert memory I won’t soon forget.

Then as a sweet nightcap, Megafaun came out and joined Bon Iver for an acoustic, gather around the campfire(or a small condenser mic), family song. It was a great way to end the show.

Thank you Bon Iver and Megafaun for one of the best shows I’ve ever been to, you guys were amazing.

Can Christians honestly critique each other’s music?

Kyle — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:01:31 +0000

I was flipping through some music reviews of some worship albums and I just had to laugh because there’s no such thing as a bad review. Well actually there is, if the review is out of 10 stars, 10 is great and 9.5 is awful, they just don’t get any lower. This same attitude exists in worship bands and church leadership as a whole. Leaders many times have to walk on egg shells cause they feel if they critique the persons gifting or execution that person will get offended and leave.

As leaders we can’t be paralyzed by a fear to critique. The root of this fear is really idolatry in that our gifting is our value in the kingdom and when someone critiques it we feel devalued in the kingdom. I’m not trying to go Dr. Phil on you, but seriously why can’t I love my Christian brother and critique what he’s trying to sell me? How far does this go, am I offending someone because I didn’t buy their album?

On a twitter conversation I was having Fred McKinnon mentioned that many people’s policy is:

“If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”

I agree with his assessment and know that to be the case, but it’s way off in my estimation. What a bunch of babied, insecure in the gospel, little musicians we are if we have a policy of, “hey if you don’t like every single aspect of my music and aren’t prepared to just rave over it all, then don’t say anything“.

I’d like to point out an example of a honest review I did of a Sovereign Grace Christmas cd. I was worried how it would be received, but I thought it would be a disservice to Bob Kauflin if I didn’t review it honestly. I tried to give encouragement on what I thought was done well and honest, specific critique where I thought it was not done well. I was probably insensitive on some points and could have phrased things better. But even with that, Bob responded incredibly well, responded with grace. I don’t think Bob started questioning his value to the kingdom or thought I should live in eternal damnation. Bob correct me if I’m wrong

Do you feel like you’re sinning against God or injuring your brother if you critique their music/gifting? Are you afraid to do so? Do you think that’s healthy? Am I an insensitive jerk?

Propellerhead “Record” Review: Reason + audio

Kyle — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:30:15 +0000

Record is Propellerhead’s latest software release that finally addresses the much requested feature of audio recording inside of Reason. But instead of adding it to Reason they created a new product. The price sounds right at $299 for all the features they’ve thrown in. Create Digital Music has a wonderful in depth review of Record and this video below gives a nice intro to the product as well. You can sign up for beta testing at www.record-you.com

Album Review: The Rep “Say No More”

Brett — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:49:34 +0000

Fresh out of the Valley of the Sun, comes Brandon Kagel a.k.a. “The Rep” with his sophomore project- Say No More courtesy of Blood Marked Entertainment. This album is a definite banger with beats by Mustafas Beats and guest appearances by lyrical monster Lee Green as well as vocals by Suzie K and L Sol. This masterpiece contains incredible diversity, tracks that will make you bang ya head till ya neck hurts on tracks like Say No Names, as well as melodious heart hitting tearjerkers on Dear baby which is a letter to his son, and Unborn Child which is a rhyme from the inside of the womb of a pregnant woman.

The Rep is definitely a Phoenix Son and his music reflects the essence of the inner city and cries out for the redemption of our blackout generation. “He was age 5 when the movie Goonies came out, and put 5 on a doobie when the Looniz came out..” If you can relate to that, then this album is definitely for you.

I definitely admire and respect the boldness that is brought forth on this album with straight up no BS truth about struggles that our generation faces today. With hard knock punchlines and similes that you don’t catch until 8 bars later. The Rep is a BEAST on this one and it is a must. Go pick this one up, you can thank me later.

Review: ‘Tempo’ iPhone App – portable click track

Kyle — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:00:03 +0000

I recently downloaded the Tempo iPhone App for $0.99. It has quite a few features for a little 99 cent app. When you first launch the app you see this screen:

First impression is not that pretty of a UI. Color scheme isn’t my favorite, not soft on the eyes. But they do present you with all the basic functionality you’d expect out of a click generator. You can set your time signature, beat type, volume controls and setting the tempo either through tapping or explicitly setting the BPM. The tapping feature seems a little sensitive, but after a while you can get the tempo average to mellow out and give you a decently accurate setting.

The only other screen available is the settings screen:

The Animate Meter Change is kind of a worthless setting. Just turns off a very brief animation when switching time signatures. Play mode is pretty cool. Overlay mode allows you to play a song from your iTunes library and run the App on top of it. So you can tap out a time to a song in your library. That’s pretty darn handy. Sound set just changes the audio that’s played for the click. Digital is the best sound they have I think. The bummer with the drum kit sound set is they don’t offset high-hat and snare based on the time sig. Both high hat and snare just play together on every beat. That’s not really what you want when using a drum kit click track. Tuner feature is kind of nice, just plays the note tone. Maybe in a pinch it could be handy. Would be much better if it read tones from the mic of course.

The biggest annoyance with the app is stability. You can make it crash every time if you start the click track, then navigate into settings and change some setting. So they have some work to do on bugs. Practically I think the best uses I see for it now is tapping out tempos in your library and having a portable click track for rehearsals and laying down scratch ideas. Here’s the final score based on a 5 point score, 5 being the best and 1 being the worst.

Appearance: 3

Features: 4

Usability: 4

Price: 4

Stability: 2

Overall: 3.4 / 5

Review: Ryan Delmore “The Spirit, the Water and the Blood”

Kyle — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 15:59:12 +0000

This album has been out for a few months and I’m glad I’ve waited to review until I was really able to dig into it. I’ve known about Ryan for many years, we were both leading worship in the Vineyard in our youth, Ryan was about an hour north of me in the 5 Cities area on the coast of California. We shared many of the same friends but our paths never crossed until recently when I sat down to interview him upon the release of this album.

His music, voice, songwriting has all matured so much from The Burn days. I can’t tell you how blown away I am by this album. Songs like Jesus Name, Sing Like Mary Sang and The World Can’t Take It Away immediately grab you, you don’t need any more listens than 1 to love. Then songs like Sacred, True Religion and Love of God grow in your heart on each listen, the depth to these songs deserves and calls for repeated listens.

Ryan has all the sensibility of Tom Waits and Petty with the grit and country hooks of Ryan Adams. The absolute worst thing about much of the Christian contemporary music is the cheap, cheesy melody hooks. You won’t find any of those here. The richness and sincerity of these songs and production can’t help but make you feel like you just wandered into a basement worship session to hear Ryan’s love songs to Jesus.

If you’re wondering how many of these could be done in church, I pretty much plan on doing every one of them, I’ve never said or done that with any other album. This truly is one of the greatest worship albums I’ve heard. Period. If you don’t like alt-country-folk-rock and are looking for another Hillsong album, well move along, but if you love some twang and soul then by all means this is the album for you. You can and should buy the entire album at Vineyard Music or on iTunes.

If you want to hear Ryan in the flesh, he’s playing with my band at Anthropology Men’s Conference at Life Connection Church this weekend, starting tonight. Get there!

Listen, download, comment and now RATE loops

Kyle — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:19:05 +0000

The loops area of this site keeps on growing. I’ve seen a lot of interest from more and more worship leaders, so in an effort to bring more organization and to keep it fresh I’ve added a rating feature. So if you would be so kind as to browse the current catalogue of loops (note there are 2 pages worth) and rate the loops with your honest opinion. I have no guidelines as to your criteria for rating, just look it up in your gut (and ears). Your rating is completely anonymous, so if you think the loop sucks I won’t chase you down, rate with confidence. You can see what it looks like below and no you don’t have to rate 5 out of 5, this is just an example

Once a good number of rating come through I’ll add a widget to the sidebar that shows the Top 5 user rated loops so visitors can quickly see what’s hot, excuse me, hawt…and what’s not. Thank you for your feedback and if you contact me and let me know you rated every loop maybe I’ll give you a prize, like a nice e-card or something.

FanBand sells your digital music directly to fans…poorly

Kyle — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:36:01 +0000

Fanband aims to allow bands to sell digital copies of their music directly to fans at gigs. Fans enter their email address and myspace user name, select the songs they ‘d like to purchase, pay and the songs are sent to their email address. An additional benefit for the band is now they have collected an email address and myspace account to build their fan base with. No internet access or credit card terminal is required. I see that as a benefit in some situations but it would be much better if it was able to work with card terminals so you could accept credit cards as well as cash.

I think this is a great idea but unfortunately it looks like a bit of a hack. First off it only works on Windows and the design, at least aesthetically, is pretty poor. It looks like a crappy modified Myspace page quite honestly. So while I think it’s a good idea and something a lot of bands would find useful, including mine, it needs a lot of work. The fact that they are charging $39.00 for this is laughable. Spend 5 minutes and you can capture an email database with someone’s desired songs in Zoho and distribute the songs yourself for free.

Anyone used this and disagree?

Album Review: Lecrae’s Rebel

Brett — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:00:42 +0000

Ahhhh… Finally something so fresh and clean from the durty south. This album is by far Lecrae’s best work yet. Rebel is a fresh work of art painted with vicious beats mixed with theology and flat out gut checks. I love how he is capable of taking redeemable qualities of secular rap/hip hop and transferring them to a positive tip in Christian hip hop. He definitely has some feel good Friday night beats on this album with tracks like “Don’t Waste Your Life” feat. Dwayne Tryumf & Cam and “Live Free” feat. Sho Baraka and Jai. This track has received the biggest responses from listeners so far.

Lyrically, he is a beast on this album. The whole theme “Rebel” is lead with an Intro featuring Pastor Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill Church in Seattle, preaching about true rebellion in this sin-soaked society. He goes on to attest to Jesus being a true rebel in a society of religious law and sin. He also goes on ripping cigarette smoking, lustful drinkers on motorcycles, thinking that they are rebels, when in fact that has all been done before, and the only true rebellion left in this society is reading your Bible and following Jesus. AMEN! that sets the tone for this entire album

Notable tracks:

My stage setup, instruments, software, etc…

Kyle — Mon, 26 May 2008 22:09:42 +0000

Took a shot of my live setup with my iPhone this past Sunday. Thought it might be fun to diagram exactly what I play with.

Apple MacBook Pro (GR) – this is my workhorse. In addition to running Guitar Rig I use this for most all my personal work. It’s an older MBP but it gets the job done. 2.33 Ghz Intel Core Duo, 2GB RAM, 120GB HD
Guitar Rig 3 – After leading worship and playing lead guitar in a lot of worship bands in smaller venues I was sick of dealing with stage volume issues. I was having to turn my amp down so low amp didn’t have the chance to get to the warm part of the tubes. Literally I was having to have my amp down at 1 so the FOH guys would stop complaining. So I was really limited in my tone and sound. All direct options whether software or multi effects had such poor quality and weren’t an option until I found Guitar Rig. I experimented with it on some recording projects, then tried it live and was very happy with the flexibility and sound quality. So this is my rig for small venues and I highly recommend it for congregations 300 or smaller.
Behringer FCB 1010 Midi Foot Controller – I don’t particularly like the foot controller that comes with Guitar Rig, so I just got the software edition and got my own midi foot controller. 2 foot pedals is a must, dedicated volume pedal then the other for trem speed, wah, what have you.
Presonus FireBox – “2 out of 3 musicians recommend Presonus for their firewire audio interface needs.” I’m one of the 2.
Apple Macbook Pro (Reason) -My newer machine. 2.4Ghz Intel Core Duo, 4GB Ram, 150GB HD
Reason 4 – I talked a bit about how this came to be in an earlier post. Slowly been integrating more synth tracks, live and recorded.
M-Audio Oxygen8 v2 – wanted something small and ultra portable with a decent amount of assignable controls and transport. This fit the bill. Great controller for Reason.

Guitars

Fender American Standard Strat 3-tone sunburst – not old enough to say the year yet. Over 10yrs old, less than 30.
Gibson Super Jumbo Acoustic, J100 Xtra – I love jumbo acoustics, I like them to sound full, deep and rich. Not a fan of bright acoustics.

Some other time I’ll diagram my amp and stomp box setup. So that’s what I play regularly, comment with your setup.

Daughtry & Bon Jovi Concert – Shot to the Heart!

Kendra — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 22:14:50 +0000

Mark and I attended a very interesting and entertaining concert last night, Bon Jovi with Chris Daughtry as the opening act. Mind you, we would never have purchased tickets for this show as I think Bon Jovi is one of the cheesiest rockers out there but we were not going to turn down free tickets and a suite with free food and drinks. We went with the mindset that it was probably going to be pretty bad but a chance for some great people watching and another opportunity to see what we can receive, redeem and reject from the experience. So with that being said here is some feedback on the show:

Daughtry’s music was good, not great, in the words of Randy Jackson, “it was just alright for me dog”. The songs were clean and rockin but I realized after each one of them ended I had no interest in hearing them ever again so that’s never a good sign. The thing I liked the most about them was their humility and their camaraderie as a band. It seemed like they were just a group of close friends getting to live out a dream playing in front of a packed crowd of 18,000 and loving every moment of it. They were fun to watch and their sound was tight so all in all I give their entertainment factor a C+.

Now, onto the main event, Jon Bon Jovi. I can honestly say that he is a true entertainer and gave his fans exactly what they were looking for. The show was high energy from start to finish and I’m pretty sure that Richard Simmons does all of Bon Jovi’s choreography. There were moments when it looked like the whole crowd was being led in a Jazzercise exercise of Sweatin to the Oldies but at least there was crowd participation taking place. Richie Sambora was amazing, a guitar legend who was giving it all he had and still had a lot to give which was fun to watch. An unexpected an interesting addition to the band was a female violinist who was awesome and did some fun backing vocals to boot. Bon Jovi sounded great and looked good considering his age and lifestyle and the ladies go bananas over him which is always fascinating to watch. There were moments between him and Richie where you could see how much they truly love what they do and that they are desperate to hang on to the glory days which is a little sad to watch. On that note, there seemed to be this running theme through all of the songs like; live every moment to the fullest, you can sleep when your dead, were not old just older (literally that was a line in the song), you only have today, make the most of this life etc, etc. He seems to be fixated on the time he has left and what he is doing with it. It made me wonder if he was saved, he referenced God in some of his songs but I didn’t get the feeling that it was coming from a place of assured salvation but more of a keep my fingers crossed and hope I get there sort of thing. It made me start to think of all the things I still want to do with my life and all the plans that I have made for myself and how sometimes time seems to be slipping away faster than I would like it to and then it hit me that all of that means nothing if God isn’t calling me to those plans I have laid out for my life. If I have some big dream of my own separate from God it is a fruitless effort that will leave me unfulfilled and frustrated so again, it all comes back to; what is He asking me to do with my life, the gifts He has given me and this time He has given me here on earth? Isn’t that the question we are all asking to some degree even if we aren’t asking our Creator? I think Jon Bon Jovi is dying to know if he is fulfilling his purpose here on earth and at the core of it all just wants to know that he has made the most of his life and has made a difference.

Well, I apologize for the lengthy post but there were so many interesting aspects to the evening. In summary…what can I receive, reject and redeem from the experience? Be great at what you do whether that is hard rock or power ballads, don’t keep hanging on to the past and your glory days, seek the Father’s will for your life because that is where true fulfillment is found and everything else is spinning your wheels in desperation to find purpose.

Delirious and Hillsong United release new albums

Kyle — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:34:07 +0000

On April 1st Delirious released Kingdom of Comfort and Hillsong United released their 2 disc live album The I Heart Revolution: With Hearts as One. Both of these bands are in my “buy first think later” category, they’ve earned it. Delirious continues to pour out songs from their ministry in Africa. I’m almost surprised Bono didn’t appear on this album, it would have made a lot of sense given both of their missional work there. 2 songs immediately jump out at me on the cd, All God’s Children and My Soul Sings. I heard them play this live in Phoenix and man, incredibly anointed, powerful, worship.

Hillsong United does their usual praise and worship destruction. I’ve heard some complain about the concert/performance atmosphere and “emotional” songs. Here’s my take. These guys love God, no doubt about it. They seek to honor God, they’ve devoted their lives to it and are anointed leaders. I think people equate professionalism to selfish performance and that’s too bad. They play to God in excellence they sacrifice and offer first fruits. This is their authentic pouring out of themselves. I love the anticipation people have of God’s presence at their “concerts”. I’ve been in lines that wrapped around buildings as people wait to experience God. I think that’s great, this should be the atmosphere every Sunday morning. We serve the King of Kings, I think there is something wrong with us if we don’t have tremendous anticipation of the Holy Spirit moving in power. Where this turns to worship of art or the artist, we’ve gone astray, but I don’t believe just because Hillsong plays in excellence and people are excited to be apart of it, that is misdirected worship.

BTW I just saw on Amazon they run a deal if you buy both albums…stinky…I bought it on iTunes before I saw this.

Review: Helio Sequence at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix

Kyle — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 15:36:08 +0000

Helio Sequence headlined a show at the Rhythm Room in Phoenix last Tuesday (Mar 18th). Our Rising Sound band attended and was tasked with a homework assignment. Observe, enjoy, taken in the experience but more importantly assess. See what we as a church can receive, what can be redeemed and what we must reject. I’ll try and summarize the observations of ORS and inject some of my own.

It was absolutely one of the best small venue shows I’ve ever attended. Helio just destroyed the place, they were flawless and they left many of us from ORS inspired. Those of you in religious bondage may be asking, “How could you possibly be inspired by a secular band”. I’ll get into the redemptive aspects of the show, but first lets take a look at what we can out right receive as the church.

Receive:

arrangement philosophy – Helio plays to pre-recorded tracks as you may know, so their arrangement is pretty much set in stone. Usually a live show is the band’s opportunity to mix things up, I usually find it a mistake and wish they stuck to the record. So I was looking forward to hearing what I like. Josh noticed he was fearful or getting stuck in arrangements in worship. But upon seeing Helio realized that an expected arrangement can actually be liberating. Too much mucking about with the arrangement can be really distracting for a congregation even though it might be exciting for the band. Find an arrangement that serves the song well and stand by it.
musicianship – both members of the band, Brandon Summer (vocals, guitar) and Benjamin Weikel (drums, synth work), are incredible musicians. The creativity they display is unbelievable but it always, always serves the song. Very rarely do you hear something out of left field that seems indulgent. Brandon’s guitar work is so unique and he’s certainly carved out a signature sound. I thought for sure with the amount of delay and reverb he plays with it would muddy up the room, but he’s able to cut through and knows how to manage it, let’s it get crazy sometimes but mostly does a lot of single string work. Benjamin’s drumming is phenomenal. His drum patterns are so uniquely crafted and memorable, they become almost melodic. His time is perfect and with the patterns he plays it’s even more impressive how spot on he is.

Redeem:

passion – Nearly everyone on ORS responded noticing the band’s passion. They were 100% devoted to their music, having a blast, being creative. You could tell there wasn’t anyplace else they wanted to be, it’s what they’d given their life to, given the best of themselves to, their first fruits. Passion can be a huge problem in church bands in a number of areas but it usually comes down to a single reason. Being passionately in love with God and doing what you’re called to do. One without the other leaves us a shell of a musician who feels his presence is required not desired. I can’t stand seeing 5 robots lead worship, completely stiff and completely unmoved by the presence of God. If we are ushering in the presence of the Almighty, I’d think we should make sure our bodies recognize that and respond accordingly. God can redeem the passion in this concert for music, fame, and turn our hearts to passion for Christ.
worshipful presence – Kendra noticed the worshipful presence in the place and how people there were enthralled, consumed, in awe of the music being played. Everyone was certainly focused and in a certain meditative state. It is a real simple view of how the enemy is crafty in not having creation reject it’s purpose, but just distorting it enough to have us forsake the true purpose and replace it with a selfish one. The arts have always been a battleground in this because it’s the outpouring of ourselves we can’t just turn that off. Since we are a fallen people, our art is fallen as well. Praise be to God that by his grace he can redeem that and purpose, hope, love can be restored in that. This band who gauges their success on the worship they receive could be redeemed and success given to God based on Kingdom effectiveness

Reject:

pride – plenty of this to go around and I don’t mean this just in relation to the band and venue. Certainly plenty of pride in the church to deal with. The only authority I feel I have in this is knowing just how screwed up I am in pride and how desperately I need Jesus.

This was a fantastic learning experience for me and for ORS. I’ve been to a lot of concerts, but not many local ones. It was a great chance to see what kind of music the community is into, what the local scene is and start getting plugged into it. As the worship leader I have to know what is moving the community musically. Otherwise I shouldn’t be surprised when the community is disconnected, uninterested and dispassionate for the music in the church. I think we’ve made some good strides in this area. We have a big concert coming up and I look forward to continuing to press into the local community more and more musically.

Review: Ryan Adams concert at Rialto Theatre in Tucson AZ

Kyle — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:05:15 +0000

I had the pleasure of attending my first Ryan Adams concert this last Friday night in Tucson. I’m a huge Ryan Adams fan and have never had the chance to catch him live. He doesn’t tour out west all that often so when I saw he was playing a couple hours away I jumped on it. His latest album “Easy Tiger” is a great album and spotlights everything great about Ryan Adams. He has incredible flexibility and range in his songwriting, vocals and instrumentation. He can arrange pretty hard rocking tunes, to acoustic country and usually settles in some sort of rock-alt-country club, of which I’m a card carrying member.

His band, the Cardinals, are outstanding and I think he’s really found a groove with these guys. On stage Ryan seemed so comfortable and it’s evident in the music. There now seems to be 3 phases to his career. Whiskeytown days, solo period, and now the Cardinals. I love all 3 but am really excited about the current incarnation.

The concert started without any opening band which was cool. Their set was a very understated, just a white background with backlighting colors/patterns and a few cactus props in front of it. Their lighting was very interesting, they chose not to use the theatre’s lighting, instead went with what they brought. They just had some up lighting off the floor and some back/side lighting that hit the background as well. They were perfectly happy to be dark for extended periods of time. It created a very homey feel, there was rarely any motion lighting happening in the middle of songs. At least nothing very prominent. I’ve included a few shots from my iPhone, not the best quality but you get the idea.

Audio wise it was incredible sounding, the mix was fantastic. So much better than the Minus the Bear/Helio Sequence concert I blogged about in Nov. Vocally they were phenomenal. I love Ryan Adams voice, but thought he might fly off the handle a bit live. He definitely stretched himself but he was near flawless. The tone to his voice is just incredible live and he can do so much with it. Neal Casal was amazing on backing vocals, his harmonies were perfect. Everyone played with passion and some songs like “The Sun Also Sets” were incredibly powerful.

The overall vibe of the concert had a “come into our living room” type of feel. There was a lot of banter between songs, there were long downtimes, fun and games. It wasn’t a very tight ship, depending on your taste I guess that could be a good thing or a bad thing. I enjoyed the show but wish there was less down time between songs, I don’t think they ever stringed a few songs together.

With this laid back atmosphere I was increasingly worried Ryan might have one of his “freakouts” and walk off stage. He was throwing em back at a good pace. But he seemed happy and he was enjoying himself, so thankfully the concert wasn’t cut short. I’m stoked I got to see him, it really was musically inspiring and just plain fun. Great show boys, keep it up!

Review: Sovereign Grace Music: Savior

Kyle — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:49:42 +0000

I was sent Sovereign Grace’s latest Christmas Album, Savior, to review by Worship Matters blog. I’ll be honest, my expectations were not that high considering the genre. Christmas music is most often a broad road of lyrical cliche surrounded by cheesy instrumentation and bad group vocals. There are a few exceptions to that terrible generalization and thank God for those exceptions. So I tried to clear my head of any expectation and listen with an open mind and heart. I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard. I’ll give a song by song blow, and then my overall summary. I go with a 5 star system, 5 stars being great, 1 star being not so great.

1. Christ the Lord is Born Today – Pleased to hear a good acoustic guitar mix, recorded very well. Production on this song is really spot on, the Christmas bells weren’t over used, I think they really helped the song. Vocals are great, harmonies are well placed and the melody is interesting while remaining singable. Lyrics are a traditional rejoicing in our Savior’s birth, glad there’s only 3 verses and didn’t go way traditional with 8-9 verses. Mission accomplished on this song, glad to start this record off on a good note, let’s hope it continues. (4 stars)

2. Hope Has Come – Dang, why did they use that drum sample. It sounds straight out of a Casio keyboard Radio Shack gives away in their business card drawings each month. And not in a cool, retro, “yeah we were trying to get that sound” sort of way. Really any sample but that would have done. Mercifully they stop it at verse 2, now I can get back to seeing if the song is good. The chorus is nice, it’s not terribly interesting, but it’s pleasant and engaging. Here come the group vocals, sounding pretty good at first, wish they would have only sung on the “Alleluia” lines, got a little over bearing there for a bit. The ending to the song is very strange, doesn’t seem to fit the progression or vibe of the song, a little out of left field. (2 stars)

3. Emmanuel, Emmanuel – 3rd song in a row with an acoustic guitar into. Hoping this pattern breaks soon. Like the pianos on this song, strings are borderline over used. Not quite ready to say they are yet, but dangerously close. But overall the production is good. This is quite lyrically jam packed, a lot to get out in the verses. Chorus gives a nice change of pace. I like the melody on the final “Emmanuel”, wish that would have been more of a centerpiece in the chorus. (3 stars)

4. How Sweet the Day – A little disappointed on yet another acoustic guitar intro, but at the same time, the drum sample used is much much better. Verses are nice, lyrics are great and the melody got me interested. Chorus is awesome, great hook. So happy to hear it. Chorus melody isn’t a wild departure in adventurous melodies, but just a good settled hook that isn’t cheesy or straight out of the adult contempo hand book. I’ll listen to this song again happily. My only regret is that there is a bit more let loose on the tag. Would have been nice to get a bit more dynamic and let the song open up. It begged for it. (4.5 stars)

5. Salvation Is Born – Pretty arrangement, good acoustic work, angelic voice. The first song that’s hit you over the face Christmas. I was instantly transported back to my house as a kid hearing my mom listen to Amy Grant Christmas. Just waiting for Take 6 to spin up next. I can’t see this being sung in any setting other than Christmas and as a “special presentation”. Not something a congregation could really enter in to. Not saying that’s a bad thing, it’s a beautiful song. (3 stars)

6. Glory Be to God – Sleigh bells finally! I love me some sleigh bells, seriously. I have no room to critique any Charles Wesley lyrics, so I’ll just say, great lyrics. Viewed through the eyes of a hymnal I say the song is a success. (3.5 stars)

7. Rejoice – Good melody, I appreciate the non-repeating verse sans chorus format. A true Christmas song indeed. Some of the lyrics seem shoe-horned in, especially, “For His heel will bruise the serpent’s head”. Hard to put a poetic polish on that, but that certainly sits in line with a lot of traditional Christmas songs. (3 stars)

8. We Will Seek You – Showing improvement on the drum loop, good work guys. Great change on the chorus, and the leslie is used on the chorus to great effect. Nice job switching up the arrangement on verse 2. I feel like this chorus could have had a really interesting set of harmonies on it, instead they opted for a pretty straight forward harmony. Straight forward makes sense stylistically for the record, just my more adventurous side crying out for something a bit more colorful. Great song though. (4 stars)

9. Glory to God in the Highest – Everything is too predictable for me, not much of any vocal dynamic and that’s due in part to a pedestrian melody on the chorus. Vocally the entire song is a half whisper. There’s just not a hook here to hold onto. (2 stars)

10. Wonderful Counselor – A nice hook to build around, just wish instrumentally they would have built the chorus more. It’s all very subdued. But overall a good song with a nice simple, powerful hook. (3 stars)

11. The Son of God Came Down – Beautiful song, lyrically brilliant. Love the verses on this song, this is creative response to God’s truth and love. I love seeing a writer’s passion through wrestling of words, I can see it here. (4 stars)

Messiah born so small, asleep in cattle stall

Come to redeem our fall, nailed to a tree

This tiny, helpless child through death would reconcile

The holy God and vile, His grace so free

O come, let us adore

12. Sleep, Jesus, Sleep – A sweet (I mean sweet in the literal sense, not slang) song, that brings in focus and contrast the fragility of baby Jesus in the flesh with his divine authority and purpose to deliver us. A truly amazing song, not sure I’ve heard this perspective so well communicated in song. Just an amazing song of worship. (5 stars)

Overall: First let me say, I find it a struggle to lay my personal musical taste aside and critique inside the genre it fits in. So I’m sure some of the things I said were from my personal taste and are just a matter of personal opinion. I tried to avoid it, but it’s hard to avoid completely.

I was really pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this record. I’m sure it will continue to grow on me as well. But almost immediately I could identify a song or two that I’m excited to do for our Christmas service and then a few more that will be in regular rotation just in listening. The production was done at a very high level, only a few things I found to be mis-steps. One thing that wasn’t a problem was over production which is a common problem with this type of worship, so that’s great. I’ll give this record a solid 3.75 stars out of 5. That means go and buy it, you won’t regret it. Certainly one of the best Christmas worship albums I’ve heard recently. It’s worth it just for the last song alone..still blown away by Sleep, Jesus, Sleep…wow.

Helio Sequence overshadows Minus the Bear

Kyle — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 21:52:20 +0000

Last Thursday evening Minus the Bear was playing a show at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe AZ. My brother and myself are big Minus the Bear fans so we weren’t going to miss this show. They were touring with a band called Helio Sequence, a fellow Northwest band. I’d never heard of them but I hear a tune on their myspace page and was quite impressed. It was shaping up to be one heck of a show.

The opening band was pretty terrible. They had 3 acoustic guitar players, one of which sat down behind a piano, which would have been cool had he played a single note on the piano. As it stands I have no idea why the piano was up there or why he was sitting behind it. The third acoustic guitar player was obviously one of their dear friends and they didn’t have the heart to tell him they don’t need him anymore. They did a lot of folksy counter melodies, and it sound cool the first couple songs. But eventually they lost steam and their harmonies were not in key and the wheels started to come off. Also there was just so many harmonies all the time it got less interesting each song and just annoying, no space at all.

Then Helio Sequence stepped on stage. They consist of a drummer(Benjamin Weikel) who looks like he had to take a day of at Microsoft to be here and a very unassuming, understated lead singer/guitar player(Brandon Summers). Certainly not a pair you’d see on the street and think, musicians. They begin the first song as they did most all their songs, drummer coming in right on time with a synth track. Drummer is absolutely nails, dude has near perfect time (playing to a click is not easy) and he lays down just amazing rhythms. Benjamin used to be the drummer for Modest Mouse. Very unorthodox playing style, you can tell he is having a blast, I was having a blast just watching him play. Brandon has an amazing voice, reminds me a lot of John Lennon, especially when he does half yell/growl. He used a ton of reverb on his voice with some delay and at first I was hesitant that it was called for. But it really worked over the entire set. He’s an amazing song writer, vocalist, guitar player. I was blown away how good they sounded, I thought for sure there would be empty spots with just 2 guys up there, but I never got that sense. They completely rocked and it made me want to go buy all their music. To me that’s a successful show.

The same can’t be said for Minus the Bear, whom I love. Their mix was terrible first off. None of the cool guitar parts cut through, it was just a wall of mush. Their set lacked a story as well, meaning it didn’t take you on any journey. I just wish their was a little more unexpectedness to it, some pauses for us to catch our breath. But it was just fast fast fast, loud loud loud. I like fast and loud, but there has to be some dynamic. So I came in expecting to see Minus the Bear rock and nothing else, what I got was Helio Sequence stealing the show, making me a huge fan and Minus the Bear leaving me wanting.

Go buy their latest album Love and Distance, thank me later. Here’s a video for “Don’t Look Away” that Fred Armisen (SNL) directed for Helio Sequence.

Review: Radiohead – In Rainbows

Kyle — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 15:52:03 +0000

Radiohead released their latest album In Rainbows last week. You can set your own price and download it from their website. I pre-ordered my download and it all went very seamlessly. I don’t like to give an opinion of an album until after I’ve had the opportunity to listen to it multiple times through. So I’ve been listening to it the last week and my overall impression is positive. I’m a HUGE fan of The Bends and OK Computer, 2 of the best albums ever released. But once they went down the more experimental avenue I started to get less excited about their stuff. I could cherry pick songs I liked from each of their latest cd’s, but I thought they weren’t end to end solid records. But In Rainbows is a terrific blend of their more experimental rhythms and melodies with straight up guitar driven rock.

Now for the guts….First off Jonny Greenwood again shows why he is one of the greatest guitar players of all time. His ear is just incredible, he is able to hear the most incredibly unique guitar parts that just elevate the song to an entirely different level. I’ve never heard him overplay, I’ve never heard him play some cookie cutter lead…he’s incredible. He makes a comeback on this album and creates some beautiful, complex, deep progressions. Ed Obrien(second guitarist) is no slouch either BTW. Let’s take a look song by song:

15 Step – uh oh…here we go again with semi-interesting drum loops and a floating melody…what’s this??? Jonny to the rescue at 0:40, woohoo!

Bodysnatchers – Radiohead always has the coolest song titles. I dig this song from the get go, slick riff. Thom Yorke seems enthused as well, sometimes it seems like he’s sleeping through his melodies. The bridge around 2 minutes is awesome, Jonny’s work coming out of the bridge at 3 minutes in makes me smile, he then drives this song home to daddy. Unbelievable work.

Nude – Not a big fan of this so far. It could grow on me. Very moody, not much to hold onto musically or lyrically for the listener.

Weird Fishes/Arpeggi – love the layering of the guitars on this tune. I know why Thom took so long to come in, it’s just so pretty to listen too. If I had written that progression I probably wouldn’t have sung either. Glad to hear some live drums too. I notice again how well Colin Greenwood(bass) plays the space(or doesn’t play the space more accurately). His bass lines hit me as genius just as often for where he doesn’t play as where he does.

All I Need – I can hear this on about 30 soundtracks. But the truth is I’ll probably skip every time it comes on iTunes. Wish they would brought the instrumental in earlier and hit the hook earlier as well.

Faust Arp – One of my favorites on the album. Thom amazes me how he is able to find these relatively simple melodies over really complex progressions.

Reckoner – Love the drums on this. Haven’t heard too much of Thom’s falsetto up until this point, he’s on top of his game on this one. The piano, bass and harmony get introduced perfectly. The verse melody is so cool I’m not disappointed there’s no real change until 2:25.

House of Cards – You really have to be patient with all these songs. Radiohead takes their time building their tunes, they aren’t in any rush(hook in 45 secs) to impress A&R reps anymore. But this one never really takes off in my mind. Too bad.

Jigsaw Falling Into Place – Again, a song title doesn’t get any better than this and neither does the guitar riff on this tune, wow. They are gonna kill this song live, can’t wait to hear a live version of this entire album. I think this is my favorite tune, love everything about it, yes yes yes…good good good. 5 star rating on iTunes, that means it makes the iPhone.

Videotape – Phil Selway(drummer) pulls the most unpredictable rhythm of the album here. It’s pretty sweet, gotta love the creativity there. The reverse delay gets a bit distracting however. Last song on the album goes out with a whisper.

So what’s to be learned from this album for worship. I love the blend of really complex progressions, time signatures, but with floating simple melodies. Radiohead is the best at that and it’s something that worship songs rarely if ever try and incorporate. Odd rhythms, odd timing, simple melody. Also I think we can take away some pointers on their patience with songs, they show a lot of restraint, too much at times, and when they finally do get to the big part of the song there’s so much tension there it really creates great song dynamics.

Our Rising Sound» review

Review: John Mark McMillan – “The Medicine”

UPDATE: Re-published today for the re-release

originally posted 10/7/08

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