A place called Vertigo

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So, apparently my decision not to shell out the big bucks to see U2 in Seattle (or was it Tacoma? somewhere in Washington) was a good one. Jeffrey Overstreet's review claims that there were some major technical problems and that Bono botched "One", which is one of my favorite songs from them. I'm happy that the setlist included a whopping four songs from Achtung Baby, my favorite album from them, but it's a bit odd that they skipped a few big hits from The Joshua Tree. If I had gone I would have dragged along a family member who really only knows the big hits like "With Or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", and neither one was in the set. I'm not sure if I find the "worshipful" second encore cute or cheesy. Oh well, at least the older fans who still remember Boy had a great time. I can't say that I'm in that category (the oldest U2 album I have is War), but I can appreciate a band that knows how to rotate the older songs to make the fans happy. OK, so now for what you guys really want - free music. Thanks to U2 Exit, we can hear the entire second night of the Vertigo Tour for free. It's in WMA format and a few of my favorites didn't make the cut - but hey, it's free live U2. You really can't go wrong there, can you? Don't answer that.

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Ooops I did it again!

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I hate to post in the middle of the night again, but I cannot sleep knowing that this song has not been recommended to my readers. It's a farsical Louis Armstrong impersonation, covering the Britney Spears hit "Oops I Did It Again!". You need to hear it, it's a good laugh, yet strangely enjoyable.

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So I wound up talking to a member of Jump5 for Acaza.com yesterday. I still need to type up the transcript for them, but that should be fun. My recording of the interview sounds like crap but I actually enjoyed talking to Brittany. I probably risk losing all my credibility in music for saying this, but there's more to J5 than meets the ear. I'm not sure if I should feel happy or insulted that she's indier than I am. Whatever - if you're into that kind of thing, watch Acaza.com for the transcript. I might post a link to it here when it goes up (don't look for it on the 'Bloom proper, it won't be on there).

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Um....yeah....

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Maybe I'm cheating on you guys, but I'll be interviewing a member of Jump5 next week for Acaza.com next week. No, I'm not a fan of them.

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Dale Baker is selling a piece of equipment that I have an urge to buy even though I don't know how to use it. Did I mention it's been used for albums and live shows with Sixpence None the Richer, Over the Rhine, The Basics, and The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers, among others? Check by his blog if you're interested, or if you're like me and just want to drool.

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I might just be insane, but I can't figure out why Ashley Cleveland's audience is mostly "older" people. I don't get why kids and teens don't dig her too. OK, so she does do some gospel-y stuff sometimes, but that doesn't really divide people by age. Anyway, if anyone can figure it out, let me know. For all of you who have no idea who she is...you can download her first album free on her website. It's good stuff, I have that one and her live album (and a few songs she's done with Jars of Clay too). Anyway, I'm tired, and now I can say I've updated this week. Goodnight.

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Dove Awards, Michael Gungor, new review format

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I really shouldn’t care about the Dove awards. I have this weird feeling that some of my readers actually think that the Doves are given to artists who are good, or at least recent. The artist of the year for 2005 last released in album in 2003. A number of the awards are almost exact repeats of last year. To be short, the awards are a ton of crap. Switchfoot won some, even though no mentally sane person would do an awards show for 2005 covering 2004 that rewards stuff a band did in 2003. Ha, mental sanity – we are talking about the GMA here. Phantom Tollbooth reports and also has a list of people who shouldn’t admit to having won anything.

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Anyway, I’ve been meaning to post about Michael Gungor for a while now. I was given his CD back at the Creation West Festival in 2004 and I’ve been dreading reviewing it ever since. You can hear clips of him here, sorry, they don’t have any full mp3s up now. I’ve decided to try a new format of review for his album, and give it a test run here. Let me know what you think of the format…I might put this on the site proper soon.

Michael Gungor – Bigger Than My Imagination

Sorry if this review seems a bit dicey, but we’re trying a new format so we can review albums in our queue faster. We received this album at Creation West in 2004 after the press conference with Michael Gungor, and we’re sorry that it’s taken so long to get to reviewing it.

To be honest, this is a tough album to review. Michael Gungor’s a talented guitarist, and he has quite a heart for worship – but the songs on this album range from fairly good to just plain boring. An irritating, repetitive chorus of “I am a friend of God” is the bulk of two of the album’s 15 songs. Actually, make that 12 songs – three of the “songs” are more accurately described as “short interludes”, coming in at less than a minute each. A rather dull cover of “Here I Am To Worship” quickly proves to be another low point of the album. However, balancing those off are some fairly solid numbers. “Doxology” is played beautifully as an acoustic instrumental, and is one of the best examples of an artist offering up their raw talent to God that I’ve ever heard. “Move Me” features some clever interplay of acoustic and electric guitars, and some great drums, bass, and keys flesh out the song well to make it another album highlight. While the album is largely acoustic, the backing instruments do a great job of accenting Michael Gungor’s sound. Some of the best session musicians in the business appear, including David Davidson (violinist who’s worked with everybody, including big-names like Sixpence None the Richer and Switchfoot) and Mark Townsend (who plays keys on this album but is known for producing artists like Relient K and for playing guitar in a number of popular CCM bands, including dc Talk and Zilch). Strings, guitars, keys, percussion – the album has a fresh and folksy feel that might make fans of groups like FFH and Bethany Dillon feel at home. The lyrics are mostly fresh and while they’re not exactly the best out there, they’re pretty decent for a praise-and-worship album. Let’s face it, everybody in Christian music wants to do a worship album these days, and it’s not easy for a new face from Michigan to release a decent worship album on his first try.

All that said, I’m really not sure what to think of this album. It’s not bad, certainly, but it doesn’t really do much to stick out as being great either. I think it was Nicole Nordeman that said that sometimes some of the most profound spiritual ideas are found in some of the simplest of utterances, and Michael Gungor seems to understand that fairly well. None of these songs are particularly great, but as contemporary worship goes, this is actually rather good. The songwriting is above average for that genre (not that that’s all that amazing, but Michael Gungor certainly deserves points for that) and the backing musicians do a great job of changing the sound enough to keep the album from being overly dull or clichéd. A few songs start to rock a little, while others are more folksy. Nothing really shatters the stereotype of what modern worship music should sound like, but the album doesn’t stick to the exact same sound in every song either. There’s an odd balance of highlights and low points on this album, and while I wouldn’t call this bad at all, I don’t think it really comes together as an album enough to deserve the label of “solid album” either.

Overall, I’d say if you’re into “worship music”, as people in the Christian subculture tend to think of it, you’d probably love this album. Otherwise, you’ll probably only like some of the songs. This is a great attempt for a debut album from a new praise-and-worship artist, but I don’t think it’s good enough to recommend it to everybody.

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The Arcade Fire, Threefold, April Davenny, Sarah Masen

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Sorry I haven’t updated much lately. Anyway, I have a brief update on Second Guess the Critic, and some reactions (but not a full review) from a concert I went to Saturday night.

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For this week’s Second Guess the Critic at the phorum, you can guess what my opinion on the latest from The Arcade Fire is. I’m already planning on surprising people with what I have to say about the album, but I do think many of my readers would like them. You can listen to a few songs from the album Funeral at their record label’s site.

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So this past Saturday I went to see Threefold and April Davenny at Club Cristo. OK, so technically it was a fluffy young Christian acoustic pop singer and one of the region’s best Christian rock bands in the back of a church. Still, it was a good show. For a cleaned up church hall, Club Cristo is a smooth and intimate venue. It’s like a coffeehouse, but with a few more chairs and a few less types of coffee. After I’d gotten comfortable I found out that that cute girl sitting next to me was opening act April Davenny. She wasn’t bad, per se, but I was having a really hard time getting into most of her stuff. Am I the only one who finds it irritating when ministry-oriented Christian singers decide to stop and preach on topics that not all Christians agree on? I mean, I can respect some preaching at concerts, but it gets a bit annoying when it’s stuff that has nothing to do with the singer’s faith. OK, so you want to promote sexual purity with kids – sure. Is it really a good idea to stop an acoustic pop show with an audience of 15 people so you can tell everyone that God doesn’t leave anyone single their whole life? I'd have to disagree with April there.

Anyway, enough whining about that. Threefold was awesome. This was my first time seeing them do a full show (compared to the Christmas show I saw last year), and they didn’t disappoint. They played a most of the songs from Through the Torn Curtain, as well as "Why Don’t You?" and "Sinking" from their debut, Sinking. Other highlights included the hymn "Amazing Grace" to the tune of Nirvana’s "Smells Like Teen Spirit". To be honest, I didn’t even know you could flesh out that song well without electric guitars and bass. They also covered "I Need You" by Jars of Clay, and it was a good cover even though it’s one of my least favorite songs by them. A few funky "Sunday school songs" and a cover of "Blackbird" by The Beatles were also pretty fun. Since it was such a small show, I think just about everyone in the audience had a chance to talk to both bands for a few minutes.

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Also, I splurged on a copy of Sarah Masen’s Carry Us Through for $3 earlier today. You can get a brief taste of her stuff at her site if you’re not familiar with her. I forget what the details are but she’s some kind of relative of the lead singer of Switchfoot, and she was on Charlie Peacock’s re:think label back when this album came out. I wonder if I’ll like it.

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Festivals and Concert Videos

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I wish I had been able to go to FFM. I think it’s refreshing to see talented musicians and authors get together and discuss faith in music. Sadly, I’m worried that was the best of the Christianity/music fests this year. I’ll admit it, I find CCM festivals to be fun, I enjoyed covering Creation West last year. Deep down though, I really feel like people within the Christian subculture don’t put enough thought or artistry into their music. I think that’s part of what I’ve been trying to focus on with this site – trying to find artists that put a bit more into it. I mean, I still love the fun “Christian rock” stuff even though I don’t think it’s all that amazing, but I like exploring what’s beyond that subculture more.

I generally find that there are four different kinds of bands in Christian music. There are "artists", that try to stretch things and be creative; there are "musicians", who play music to back up pop singers and what not (those first two are in the mainstream of music as well); there are "worship leaders", who sing to try to engage people in praising God; and there are "ministries" that aim to convert people with their music. I like artists the most, and I wish that more of Christian music was based on that kind of stuff than on ministries.

Cornerstone festival used to be pretty good about balancing the more popular "ministries" and booking some bizarre "artists" and even some harder music that’s kind of hard to categorize. Now I’m pissed with them – they have an awesome artist lineup this year, but the schedule is rather pitiful. I know, technically Anberlin opening for Relient K and Switchfoot is an amazing show – but they put it up against Bill Mallonee, Ester Drang, and Over the Rhine. The first two days of the festival don’t really have any exciting headliners, but then the last two days have a number of head-scratchers. Why the heck is Ashley Cleveland performing at the same time as Jars of Clay? They both released hymns albums recently, with many of the same hymns. They also collaborated for a few stellar songs on the Who We Are Instead album. They’re catering to almost the exact same demographic now that they’re both singing hymns – so why the hell are they on competing stages? That makes no sense.

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Sorry for the rant. Anyway, it looks like that Low concert I saw last week was one of the last they played before feeling a bit under the weather, according to the band’s message board. That stinks.

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I do have a cool link for people to check out today. I know, all my whining about CCM and all of the "Christian" stuff we cover makes this look like some kind of "Christian" music site, but to be honest, I dig lots of independent music too. I found out about this cool site earlier today that has live concert videos in the Windows Media Format. Anyway, the site is http://www.fabchannel.com/ , and they have some sweet stuff on there. Well, some interesting bands anyway – I can’t say I’ve actually had a chance to watch any of these videos yet. Artists they have videos of include The Arcade Fire, Bright Eyes, Low, Damien Rice, Sonic Youth, Snow Patrol, and Paul Oakenfold.

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Drunkard's Prayer

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A few entries back I plugged some mp3s of Over the Rhine's new album, and I think I mentioned preordering the album too. Well, the album's not here, and they haven't even shipped it yet. They might not ship it for a while. Apparently a few of the other albums I ordered at the same time (Namely The Hot Stuff by Frank Lenz and Fan Dance by Sam Phillips) are out of stock and backordered. Nevermind that I preordered nearly a month ago now....but anyway, the OtR album won't be here until those are back in stock to send. *whines*

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The Rest of that Washington state thing

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Sorry, it's late here and I'm feeling a bit rushed. I'll post Thursday's band and Friday's band now. You've probably heard one of these and never heard of the other. For Thursday: There's this band, Broken Image. It's kind of hard to explain them....it's like Jars of Clay's sound on steroids, with a dash of Switchfoot. They claim Coldplay as an influence too, but I don't hear it when I listen to them. I know I'm biased on this group (I went to their church for a while), but I think they're pretty good. Personally, I think that the stuff they've recorded doesn't capture their live sound well, but you can stream (sorry, no downloads) their songs from their purevolume page. Oh, and they are mostly a praise-and-worship outfit lyrically, so if you're not into that stuff, you might want to pass on these guys. They're actually quite good lyrically as worship music goes, so if you're into that kind of thing - you'll love them.

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Friday - I'm going to take the easy way out to finish this one up. I'm sure most people reading this have already heard Death Cab For Cutie. I know, all of you who are in bands from Washington that I haven't plugged yet ought to be sending me hate mail for plugging someone well known instead of supporting someone more underground from around here. These guys are pretty good though. I can't say I'm a huge fan, but I can link you to their purevolume page, and yes, they do have downloads. I don't recall if you can see what time it is for me when I post these or not, but it's 2 AM here. I'm going to bed. Enjoy the music.

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