Copious Notes

Relient K is Jon Schneck, Ethan Luck, Matthew Thiessen, Matt Hoopes, John Warne.

Review: Relient K, Forget and Not Slow Down

Direct comparisons between bands can seem a bit disrespectful, and maybe easy. But the parallels between the Beach Boys and Relient K are a bit too hard to avoid in light of the Canton, Ohio band’s recent offerings.

It’s not that Matthew Thiessen and Co. sound like the California boys, though their last album, Fivescore and Seven Years Ago (2007), did include some familiar harmonies. It’s more that this is a band that bowed with numbers like Sadie Hawkins Dance and other tunes that made them seem like a sonic confection — appealing as a cupcake, but not much to it.

And that’s a sound that has never gone away. But what has been growing in each ReK album, particularly since mmhmm (2004) is a musicianship and thoughfulness that make each album a richer experience. Occasionally it’s gone wrong — I was one who found Fivescore’s Deathbed a bit much — but each album has been a growth spurt, and little to nothing is wrong with Forget and Not Slow Down.

The immediate impression is this is a meditation on loss, but more about regrouping than moping. Therapy is the linchpin track, describing Thiessen’s very real experience of self isolation during the time he wrote the album — “You won’t take my calls, and that makes God the only one who’s left here listening.”

Thiessen has developed a knack for taking the spiritual and putting it in temporal terms without diminishing its gravity. He can also take a well-worn cliche and give it new meaning such as Part of It, where he invokes the phrase, “It’s not the end of the world,” and adds, “When a nightmare finally does unfold, perspective is a lovely hand to hold.”

The notes hold equal “Ah” moments like Candlelight where the jumpy pop melts into into a lilting, swirling finale evocative of the lyric, “A solar flare shines through her hair.”

It’s one of numerous moments that could make a listener wonder how long Thiessen will find the pop band format sufficient for conveying his ideas.

One way that Relient K does not mirror the Beach Boys is in popularity. While they are one of the biggest bands in Christian rock and a significant player in the modern rock scene, sales of one Beach Boys hit probably equal ReK’s entire catalog. Forget and Not Slow Down will not change that. Despite its excellence, it may be the band’s least radio-friendly effort ever. But it is an effort that should make serious pop music listeners, Christian and otherwise, take notice.

David Crowder*Band CHURCH MUSIC Intro from sixstepsrecords on Vimeo.

Review: David Crowder Band - Church Music

If this album were coming from any other artist, the title would rightfully lead you to believe this was a worship or hymns album.

But this is David Crowder Band, a group where nothing easily fits into a category.

The group comes across as very rootsy, but the music often sweeps over us with an electronic wash. Crowder has this idiosyncratic sense of humor, but his music and the message are delivered with incredible seriousness — he’s the artist who can take a stage with a keytar or Guitar Hero controller, joke about it, and by the chorus make you completely forget he’s playing a silly instrument.

Church Music is neither a collection of old hymns or easily digestible choruses. It is, in the tradition of Crowder’s Collision albums, a complete experience. There are songs that will ride on their own, but it is an album that is best experienced as a complete package and will take you in some interesting places like late in the album when steer into Church Music - Dance, a song that could have been played in Studio 54 in its heyday, and the blistering rock of God Almighty, None Compares. The album makes a progression from contemplation to celebration, like a well-planned church service.

David Crowder Band has a lot of great hits like No One Like You and Foreverandever Etc. But complete packages like this count as the Crowdster’s most satisfying work. Just revel in the contradictions.

Wondering how Crowder will handle this album live? Well, you can find out when Crowder plays Southland Christian Church with Seabird and Danyew at 8 p.m. Nov. 6.

Two concerts that we mentioned in recent posts have been cancelled.
■ Derek Webb, whom we profiled in the last rc talk, will not play Lexington next week. The Dame, where he was scheduled to play, has closed, and he has not secured another venue. Webb’s publicist said he hopes to schedule a Lexington concert later.

■ Starlit Platoon, which was scheduled to play South Elkhorn Baptist Church on Oct. 10 has broken up, so that show is scrubbed.

Harlan County native Phil Stacey. Photo courtesy of Reunion Records.

Listening to Phil Stacey’s Into the Light, you think, if this guy wasn’t on American Idol, he should have been.

His debut on Reunion Records under the guidance of legendary Christian producer Brown Bannister sounds very Idol, with songs that showcase soaring choruses and emotional lyrics, and Stacey definitely has the chops to deliver them.

It also sounds very contemporary Christian — hence, Idol’s friendliness to Christian singers the last few years. That’s also what makes Into the Light a little disappointing.

His post-Idol debut on Lyric Street records was a refreshing sound for the Christian market, introducing some country songwriter cleverness in songs like It’s Who You Know, and bringing some genuine energy to the project. But Stacey says he was miscast as a country guy and pop was always where his heart was, hence the move to the Christian pop label and embrace by Christian pop royalty — Michael W. Smith is his labelmate.

The result is a solid album with catchy tunes like Inside Out and soaring worship ballads like One. He also pulls out a great Rich Mullins cover, Hard to Get, that could serve to show some younger listeners there’s more to the Christian pop legend than Awesome God.

What’s really missing here is any sense of Stacey’s own individuality, which seemed to be so present on that 2008 debut. With Into the Light, Stacey has been embraced by the Christian music establishment. On future efforts, he needs to avoid sounding like a generic contemporary Christian artist.

Is the GMA in trouble?: My fellow Christian music blogger Joanne Brokaw has an interesting post about recent cuts and layoffs at the Gospel Music Association and the just-annouced $1,000-a-plate Save the GMA fundraiser. Is Christian music’s umbrella organization in danger of going under?

Close, but not quite here: Yes, we do have Jeremy Camp coming Thursday night and Casting Crowns in a few weeks. But there are two Christian tours of interest not quite getting here, but they will be close if you’re the road tripping type.

~ If you’ve wanted to see Newsboys with Michael Tait out front, they get as close as Wilmington, Ohio, just north of Cincinnati, Nov. 15. Click here for Newsboys tour itinerary and ticket links.

~ You may also have heard plenty of TobyMac and Relient K live, but still find the concept of their Winter Wonder Slam tour together irresistible. It hits Louisville Nov. 29.

Skillet are drummer Jen Ledger, guitarist Ben Kasica, bassist and lead singer John Cooper and keyboardist and guitarist Korey Cooper. Photo courtesy Atlantic Records.

Review: Skillet’s Awake

On the surface, Skillet is just a four-piece rock ‘n’ roll band with a raspy-voiced lead singer.

But the Memphis quartet has done what a lot of raspy rock quartets would love to do: rise to the top of Christian rock and deliver yet another killer, accomplished album.

That’s because Skillet’s a raspy four-piece rock act that’s grown as musicians and songwriters. A very teen-targeted act, a lot of the group’s original core audience is now in college or careers - this is part of why The Older I Get, a hit off Skillet’s 2006 album Comatose, is such a big sing along at shows.

Awake yet again gives original and new Skillet fans a lot to listen too as frontman John Cooper recognizes that songwriting is an abstract art. The band that once sang Jesus was, “the best kept secret of my generation,” and recorded an album called Alien Youth (in 2001) now writes with less specificity but the music is as interesting and compelling as ever.

It’s Not Me, It’s You returns to the theme of a teen trapped in an abusive family - well, that’s how you might read it in the context of past hits such as the anti-suicide anthem The Last Night. But lyrically, It’s Not Me is far less specific, but no less riveting: “Let’s get the story straight, You were a poison, You flooded through my veins.”

The physical album closer - digital versions come with some extras - Lucy is more oblique and compelling, a graveside conversation to a . . . a girlfriend? Wife? Child? The key is promise of a heavenly reunion, but like many other tracks here, it can move around the listener’s demographics and lifestyles.

Skillet is maturing, but certainly not running too far from its bread and butter, hard rock anthems like Hero and Monster, the first two singles, which were being previewed for fans on tour this summer.

Not that there aren’t new dimensions to the music. Skillet’s guitars usually grind and drone, but Ben Kasica takes a few sterling solos here, and on her first album, drummer Jen Ledger shows off some vocal chops.

Awake confirms Skillet isn’t just some old rock quartet. It’s a great rock quartet.

Note: Derek Webb’s Stockholm Syndrome, which we reviewed a few weeks ago, is out in stores today.

Review: Derek Webb — Stockholm Syndrome

Derek Webb’s latest album has stirred up as a lot of controversy, primarily due to the presence of one choice four-letter word. Some have accused Webb of invoking the expletive to get attention and make people listen to his album.

If so, fine, because Webb’s Stockholm Syndrome is as challenging and thought provoking as any Christian album in recent memory. It is most definitely an adult album in that it tackles numerous issues that need be discussed with more than talking points, and musically it’s Webb’s most diverse and nuanced effort. The topics, to name a few,  include government, firearms, commercial spirituality, social justice, and homosexuality — specifically, how some Christians treat people who are gay.

The last point is the one attracting all the attention.

The big song in question is What Matters More, in which Webb takes on Christians who protest homosexuality while ignoring world hunger and disease. Toward the end of the song, he sings:

Meanwhile we sit just like we don’t give a —-
About 50,000 people who are dyin’ today

It’s reminiscent of something evangelist Tony Campolo has said on more than one occasion: “I have three things I’d like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don’t give a —-. What’s worse is that you’re more upset with the fact that I said —- than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.”

In both cases, they’re challenging, convicting statements.

It’s something Webb, as a solo artist, has based much of his career on: confronting the conventional notions of conservative, evangelical Christianity.

On Stockholm Syndrome, he does that better than he ever has before.

Freddie, Please takes on Fred Phelps, the Kansas man who has staged protests against homosexuality at Churches and funerals. Webb sings from the perspective of Jesus, asking, “How could you tell me you love me, when you hate me?,” and “Freddie can’t you see, brother, you’re the one who’s queer?”

Webb soft-sells the lyrics in the form of a doo-wop ballad, one of several sonic turns that take Stockholm Syndrome far beyond a singer-songwriter protest album. There’s the swirl of The Spirit vs. The Kick Drum, an indictment of purely emotional, vapid faith, the dancy Jena & Jimmy that’s as seductive as the drunken one-night-stand it describes, and moments the album gears down to a simple tune and a naked voice — which is the extent of the nudity on this album — that stops listeners in their tracks.

Far beyond challenging listeners with his lyrics, Webb challenged himself as a musician.

It is too bad INO Records was reluctant to release this record and actually will not release it in its entirety. The disc, minus What Matters More, comes out in stores Sept. 1. But listeners who pre-order through Webb’s site can get an immediate digital download of the complete album.

If your fingers do the walking, prepare to give the album some time, because once Derek Webb has your attention, he won’t let go.

Note: Derek Webb has two upcoming performances in Kentucky, Louisville Sept. 17 and Lexington’s Dame Oct. 4.

Phil Danyew. Photo by Aaron Redfield | Sparrow Records.

Review:

Future of Forestry | Travel

Danyew | Danyew

Christian pop so often divides into 3:05 teen pop, AC worship or blistering metalcore, it’s easy to get giddy when some terrific, thoughtful composition glides across the desk.

Give us two, and it starts to feel like Christmas.

Like the Yuletide season, the summer yielded a expected treat and surprise, both of which prove great things can come in small packages — in this case, EPs.

First, the surprise was Danyew, a new artist appropriately paired with David Crowder Band and Seabird for a fall tour.

The six-song, self-titled EP is the product of multi-instrumentalist Phil Danyew. Cleary, he’s trying on several ideas here in a debut that includes things like the jaunty Turnstile. But the tracks that make the biggest impressions are ones like Closer We Are and Beautiful King that build into airy acoustic-electric soundscapes.

With his sound, Danyew is playing in a park Eric Owyoung’s Future of Forestry has already been in for a while — and his old band, Something Like Silas, occupied before.

Forestry’s latest effort, the six-song Travel, finds the always adventurous Owyoung exploring new territories for his work such as the acoustic-based Traveler’s Song or gritty This Hour, which trades in reverb for distortion. The familiar synthesized tone is back with Colors in Array, and the overall package shows Owyoung’s skill as a song crafter and, dare we say, orchestrator.

The most satisfying thing about both of these short discs is they are the expressions of artists: something the marketplace does not always accommodate and something that is entirely appropriate in the context of worship.

CCM coming back, sort of: One of the worst decisions in the history of contemporary Christian music is being reversed, kind of. CCM Magazine is coming back as a quarterly digital magazine.  In 2008, the print edition of CCM ceased publication just short of three complete decades of publication. The move was tantamount to Rolling Stone closing up shop. Love them or hate them, both are the publications of record in their respective genres of music — or, in the case of CCM, we must say, “were.” Getting a CCM cover was a big deal for an up-and-coming band, and saved together in a rack, the magazine was a running chronicle of the genre. The idea was to continue with a website, but CCMmagazine.com has been poor and confusing at best. Lately, I have been following Christian music news through other sources such as Christianity Today’s excellent Christian Music Today website.

Earlier this year, CCM launched a prototype of the digital magazine to good reviews, so it is continuing on. The summer issue has Leeland on the cover and its 34 “pages” look much like the old print edition with a dose of Harry Potter’s Daily Prophet. The Leeland story, for instance, features a video of the band performing tunes from its forthcoming album, and there are similar touches throughout.

Does it replace the print edition? No. Will it be a worthy stand in? Time will tell, and it will be largely dependent on whether editor Lindsay Williams and her staff can put together a publication people eagerly anticipate because it’s relevant, useful and compelling, as well as cool. I hope they pull it off, because Christian pop needs a vital CCM.

Speaking of Christian Music Today, check out this excellent article on social justice in Christian music and how to keep it from just being a passing fad.

Ichthus has questions: The Ichthus Festival just put out a survey asking what folks thought of the festival this year and who they want to see at next year’s event. If you did not go this year, you can still answer questions about next year’s event.

Mat Kearney. Photo courtesy of Columbia Records.

Review: Mat Kearney — City of Black & White

Mat Kearney approaches sophomore album pressure in a different way: He sings about it . . . in the opening lines of the opening track of his sophomore album.

Here we go at it three years later
Will you help me to dream it all up again?
Tired of the same song everyone’s singing
Rather be lost with you instead

Kearney’s 2006 Columbia Records debut, Nothing Left to Lose, was a mainstream hit and also found the artist embraced by Christian listeners for his faith and songs that certainly had faith-based underpinnings. Now, the aforementioned three years later, Kearney is back with a new album that should reaffirm the Christian market’s faith in him as well as his status as one of the leaders in the current singer-songrwriter ranks that includes Jason Mraz and Gavin DeGraw.

City of Black & White has some ambition, clocking in with 14 tracks that run around an hour. It also finds Kearney diversifying his sound and subject matter. The unity of the album is a steady echo, as if we are always navigating concrete and glass towers in an urban jungle. That best resolves in the title track, which ends in lonely threads that sound like dulcimer and slide guitar.

The lyrical content is empathetic, individualistic stories and portraits, Annie being the most immediate and memorable. Most of the songs have a spiritual interpretation, if not an overt message. With City of Black & White, Kearney has cleared the sophomore hurdle, and his future is sounding good.

The Ichthus Battle is set: Get your coffee, kids, because the Ichthus Festival’s Battle of the Bands will get started at 9 a.m. June 11, the first full day of the fest. Nine bands will be vying for a spot on the Ichthus Main Stage during the festival, and that winner will advance to a national competition between bands that win battles at other fests during the summer, with the possibility of a Word Records deal being the big prize.

The contendah’s are:

Eyesuponus of Versailles, which won a secondary stage spot in Ichthus’ first band battle in 2007.

7:13 of Paintsville

Crosslife of Owingsville

Too Many Drummers of Lexington

The Lee Roessler Band of Alexandria

Allison Stafford of Bradfordsville

Chasing Canaan of Shreveport, La.

Calling Glory of Athens, Tenn.

Those seven acts got in through online voting in the Ascenxion Scout Competition. Two additional bands made it through preliminary competitions.

Wisdom’s Call of Elizabethtown won a competition in Tennessee.

Divine Day, which was an Ichthus winner last year, won an Ohio competition.

The whole festival, numero 40 for the fish, is now under two weeks away. Keep checking in here and on my Twitter page for updates, stories and info. At Twitter, we use the hashtag #ichthus.

Guitarist Chris Clonts, guitarist and vocalist TJ Harris, drummer Josh Oliver, and guitarist Brandon Mills are Decyfer Down.

Review: Decyfer Down –Crash

You know that guitar riff, the one with a grinding force that makes you reach for the dial (button, lever, touch screen, whatever) and crank it up? There are a bunch of those on Decyfer Down’s latest, Crash, a healthy serving of bluesy power rock imbued with enough pathos to make it a really compelling listen.

At first blush, this sounds like it may be bordering on metalcore a la Underoath, but the disc really owes much more to the prototype metal of 1970s and ’80s AOR staples with just a little more grit and a little less sheen. In Christian rock, Decyfer’s latest falls somewhere between the glossy bombast of Skillet and denseness of Underoath. But this album will do a lot to draw the band out of comparison land and up to a star of its own. That’s an appropriate reward for years burning up the highways playing opening slots and small venues.

That experience has given the band a strong sense of purpose and vivid songcraft best shown on songs like Fading, an accelerating song about addiction and peer pressure. Over those years, vocalist TJ Harris and guitarists Brandon Mills and Chris Clonts have tuned into one another to give their precedented sound a distinctive vibe. When Decyfer Down is firmly established as a headliner, this will be seen as the album that made it happen.

• Beliefnet’s Joanne Brokaw reports Decyfer drummer Josh Oliver’s wife has been diagnosed with lymphoma and is undergoing chemotherapy treatments.

Where’s the new Derek Webb album?

Derek Webb.

New Derek Webb albums don’t exactly fire up the charts the way, say, something from Michael W. Smith or TobyMac does. But Webb has a following — this blog included — that has enjoyed his thoughtful and challenging music. And we were supposed to be hearing a new album from Webb today. But Stockholm Syndrome has not appeared yet due to a disagreement between Webb and his distribution label, INO Records — or has it? Read on.

In an e-mail to fans, May 12, Webb wrote:

. . . we’re in a situation that has gotten a little out of control and it’s time to fill you in. as some of you may know, i’ve been working for months on my new record, ’stockholm syndrome’, which i’ve recently finished and turned in to the record label. they’ve been very supportive over the years, but this time we didn’t get the response we expected. it seems i’ve finally found the line beyond which my label can support me, and apparently i’ve crossed it.

i consider this my most important record and am adamant about all of you hearing it . . . but at this point we’re not sure when the record will come out and in what form. the majority of the controversy is surrounding one song, which i consider to be among the most important songs on the record. so we’ve decided it’s an appropriate time to break the rules.

but because of various legal/publishing issues we’re having to be rather careful with how we do what we’re going to do next. that’s really all i can say for now and i’ve probably said too much.

Further coverage suggests Webb’s content has gotten a bit too challenging and/or a four-letter word starting with “s” are at issue. Patrolmag’s CCM patrol reports that there is one song in particular on the album in which Webb addresses Christians’ treatment of homosexuals, and he uses the word, a euphemism for excrement. Webb has been open about using that specific word in the campaign for his new cause, digging latrines in Africa to help stem the spread of waterborne disease. Sojourner’s magazine has a real interesting article on this. (ADVISORY: Both the Patrolmag and Sojourner’s links contain the word in question.)

On his Twitter feed, Webb has written, “the record has a lot to do with race and sexuality,” and an e-mail dated today says, “our trouble with the label over content is very real, and not as simple as one word.”

The note, posted at Webb’s website, contains a coded message: you enter the letters after each “_” and get a phrase. Enter that phrase as a .com web address, and you will get instructions on what to do next. Unfortunately, it looks like something you can only do in Nashville.

Fight? Saavy marketing? Both? Don’t know. Wish I didn’t live three hours from Nashville. I want a latte.

Review: Newsboys, In the Hands of God

Out of the weirdness that has been the Newsboys of recent months comes a new album — a new album with the old guy on lead vocals. Or is he the old guy, or just the singer who will no longer travel with the group? It’s a murky picture, but what we do know is the Aussie group has released its first album since frontman Peter Furler announced he would not be touring with the band anymore and former dc talk member Michael Tait took over the mike.

In the Hands of God was recorded before that, and it is unmistakably Newsboys in sound and tone. You get the feel of an act wanting to take one last sweep through its current state before everything changes, such as the late-90s humor in The Way we Roll and the more recent worshipful nature of the title track. Problem is it all sounds like classic Newsboys, but nothing is quite as compelling as the best of the band’s catalog. Maybe it was time for a change.

Review: Sarah Reeves, Sweet Sweet Sound

Sarah Reeves could have titled her debut album “Getting to Know You,” if she didn’t have a nice little title tune to bing off of. Her short debut — maybe EP most accurately describes this offering — is a sextet of nice personal songs co-written by Reeves that leave a strong impression of a young woman very devoted to worship and looking for direction in how to use her gifts.

While none of the tunes are terribly distinctive or instant classics, the 19-year-old Alabamian had a pretty cool opportunity to write with longtime hitmakers Ed Cash and Matt Brownlee. And the voice we hear is young, earnest and full of hope. With Sweet Sweet Sound, we can say we’ve been introduced to Sarah Reeves, and we hope to hear more from her.

Ichthus tick-tock: Time is running out on two things you can act on with Ichthus.

1. The latest ticket-price increase is being held off until May 22. So, until then, full weekend tickets are $98, single-day tickets are $53, single evening tickets are $56 and children ages 7-10 are $57 for the weekend and $37 for a day. After the 22nd, the weekend adult tickets pop up to $108 and all other tickets increase too. You can order tickets at the festival website or by calling (859) 858-3001. Ichthus is also advertising payment plans for tickets.

2. There are only a few days left in voting for the Ascenxion Scout Competition. The Top 5 acts will be on the Deep End Stage the first day of the festival, and the top act, as chosen by judges during those performances, will get to play Ichthus’ Main Stage July 12 and the Deep End July 13.

The 8 Kentucky acts in the 13-band competition are:

Versailles’ Eyesuponus

Paintsville’s 7:13

Owingsville’s Crosslife

Paintsville’s Battlelion

Bradfordsville’s Allison Stafford

Alexandria’s The Lee Roessler Band

Wilmore’s The Shane Tracy Project

Lexington’s Too Many Drummers

Voting ends May 15.

Jars of Clay are (clockwise from top) singer Dan Haseltine, guitarists Matt Odmark and Steve Mason and keyboardist Charlie Lowell. Photo by Kharen Hill | Provident Music Group.

Review: Jars of Clay — The Long Fall Back to Earth

What do you do after painting a masterpiece?

While the public didn’t make Good Monsters Jars of Clay’s career top seller, many observers and critics — including me — thought the 2006 release was a career record, synchronizing compelling music and a clear message in a way few artists do.  Rather than try to repeat the success of that big rock record, Jars has followed up like many bands in its position do, changing course and going a bit smaller and introspective on The Long Fall Back to Earth. Think U2’s The Unforgettable Fire after War.

And like many of those more modest efforts following masterpieces, there is no diminution of craft, despite the album probably having a more limited appeal.

Jars is now a completely self-guided effort, recording as an independent act, though the quartet is still distributed by Essential Records. The band’s vision on The Long Fall Back to Earth is a little ’80s retro, as was signaled by the first single, Closer. Over the last several albums, Jars has been gravitating to a more rootsy, Americana sound. But Long Fall is largely keyboardist Charlie Lowell’s album, creating soundscapes reminiscent of bands such as XTC and some of Jars’ early efforts — it can be jarring, for instance, to hear the original recording of Liquid, in light of the acoustic version Jars has played live for years.

There certainly are Jars staples here, such as Dan Haseltine’s lovely melodies on Boys (Lesson One) and the lyrical craft of Two Hands.

Long Fall ultimately turns out to be a nice mix of innovation and recall, and it provides at least one answer to the question of what you do after recording a masterpiece: You move forward.