alot of my friends like to tease me about my high-school years in the seventh day adventist christian wilderness, but i stick to my guns and tell them where to shove it. however, it’s always bummed me out a bit that christian music gets such a bad rap. it’s not true that it’s all horrid, you have just have to look past that whole DC Talk jesus freak rabbbble rabble.
my friend nathaniel from splitworks and i have talked about this before, and i think a big part of it is getting over the ‘christian rock’ label and just listening to things you like. maybe “serious” christians will disagree with me, but it’s all about feeling something in what you’re hearing, feeling amazed and thankful for all the cool shit we get to see and experience on an everyday basis.
the search party for example, were a fantastic christian folk/psych that came out of california in the late 60s, and their music is haunting and amazing and beautiful all at once. the innocence mission are another band i really like who use christian imagery in the prettiest way imaginable. bands like danielson are so fun you wanna puke but also so sweet and ridiculous you can’t help but like them.
i’ve put together a zip folder of 5 songs i really like by christian artists – i used to try and figure out what was ‘christian’ and what was just ‘music’, but i’ve decided it doesn’t matter. you can download the folder here (thanks sam for hosting!).
the songs are:
001 danielson – did i step on your trumpet
002 neutral milk hotel – king of carrot flowers pt 2+3
003 search party – speak to me
004 innocense mission – tomorrow on the runway
005 pedro the lion – indian summer
Even though I am a Jew, I like Christian music too.
Did you hear this:
http://asthmatickitty.com/music.php?releaseID=114
i just downloaded + listened to the mp3 on the site (sold! to a nice rich man) – thought it was ok but maybe a little bit too earnest for my tastes. earnest but not in the fun sweet way. what else do you have?! thks for reading.
G’ Bless You JWO. You too JEW W/ NOSE
As a subscriber to Contemporary Christian Music magazine for a fair chunk of the late 80’s, I believe I can weigh in on the subject with some authority.
Christian music is the only kind of music that is categorized by its lyrical content. It’s a weird, parallel music industry, which I’ve come to think of as unhealthily cut off from the rest of, well, life. Christian rocker Steve Taylor lampooned this sensibility in his tune “Guilty by Association:” “You’ll be keeping all your money in the Kingdom now/And you only drink milk from a Christian cow.”
Ultimately, I think branding music as “Christian” detracts from what it means to make “music” (a composer like Messiaen didn’t need labels or lyrics at all to write some of the most profoundly gorgeous Christian music of the 20th century), and I suspect that at worst some artists go into the Christian biz just to have a smaller pool in which to be a big fish.
Nonetheless, some artists transcend the categorization, so here are some of my picks. I don’t have MP3’s to post, but you can probably find a bunch of this stuff on-line. Caveat: I kind of stopped paying attention around the time Christian alternative started to become a big thing, so I can’t really speak to that, Jars of Clay or whoever, although some older artists kind of got grandfathered in.
Daniel Amos (it’s a band, not a dude). They started off as a Jesus freak country band in the 70’s, and their second album, Shotgun Angel, is a classic concept album about the End Times. Then they became a new wave band in the 80’s, epitomized by Darn Floor Big Bite in the mid 80’s, then a rocking alternative band, and I think finally back to a country band (although now it’s called Americana). They’ve done a ton of side projects, and lead singer/songwriter Terry Scott Taylor has done some solo stuff, and even scored a few videogames!
Mark Heard. He had chronic label problems, going all the way back to the 70’s I think, so he’s not that well known, but around 1990 he started his own label and released 3 brilliant Americana albums before collapsing of a heart attach in the middle of a concert in 1994 or so. My favorite is Dry Bones Dance.
Chagall Guevara. This was some of Steve Taylor’s finest work. He began as a goofy satirist with songs like “I Want to be a Clone” and “Meltdown at Madame Tussaud’s,” and his early stuff was really conservative, coming down squarely as anti-gay and anti-abortion, stances he later renounced. His 1990 record I Predict 1990 was awesome, much rockier than his early stuff. Then he formed Chagall Guevara, who released an eponymous album on MCA and had a song (“Tale of the Twister”) on the Pump Up the Volume Soundtrack. He released another solo album or two and founded Squint Records which launched Sixpence None the Richer, but then the parent label pulled the plug, and I don’t know what he’s doing now.
I’d have to give props to Michael W. Smith for his clever chord progressions, a big influence on my songwriting, although his later stuff got way dippy. But his 1986 record The Big Picture, his 3rd album, has some mad synth work on it, super catchy, basically a bunch of good advice to kids. Thumbs up.
77’s have done some good stuff over the course of their long career (also going back to the 70’s, perhaps?), which includes an album or two for Island in the early 80’s. Their 90’s record Pray Naked is solid (definitely falling into the Christian alternative bin).
But of any of these folks, the one I still listen to the most is the artist formerly known as Leslie Phillips (as a Christian singer) and now known as Sam Phillips (the “secular” singer signed to Virgin, then Nonesuch). An affecting voice, poignant lyrics, beautiful, simple music. It doesn’t hurt that she’s married to superstar producer T. Bone Burnett (O Brother, Where Art Thou, Raising Sand, Elvis Costello, etc.). Her last two albums, Fan Dance and Boot and a Shoe, are gorgeous; I’ll lend ‘em to ya.
OMG, what am I doing, this was going to be such a very quick, tersely worded comment, verging on disinterested! OK, I’m done now. Anyway, thanks for sharing those nice songs!
Great post, Ben. I share your sentiments (and experience) almost entirely. Steve Taylor’s “Meltdown” was the first cassette I owned, if I recall correctly. 1984…Jenn were you born yet?! The first festival I ever went to was a Christian festival called Creation, held on a farm in Pennsylvania. I think we saw Michael W Smith there.
Bearing in mind, I was not ever “allowed” to listen to rock music, but claiming whatever as Christian rock somehow cloaked it enough to meet parental approval and it was a slippery slope from there once I found my father’s old Beatles records.
To respond to another post – Asthmatic Kitty is a great label – if fact, to plug an upcoming Split Works show, My Brightest Diamond from Asthmatic Kitty should be coming here in December. But I really like The Welcome Wagon too. Have you heard their cover of “Half a Person” by the Smiths? http://sidebar.asthmatickitty.com/archives/1283 Scroll to the bottom. It is nearly sacrilegious in another way, but I kinda like it.
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