Mosquito Fleet – All Those Who Wander Are Not Lost

Recently I’ve been avoiding newer bands because I’m so sick of being let down and being out fifteen bucks. Its been almost two years since I’ve bought an album from a band that I’ve never heard of and really enjoyed it. Because of my wariness towards new bands Mosquito Fleet sat in my Downloads folder for days before I almost deleted it but instead took a chance to at least give it a listen first … and I didn’t stop for a whole week. Even albums that I had been looking forward to by some of my favorite bands were benched in favor of this band I had never even heard of.

As I have mentioned many times before, what attracts me most in music is lyrics rooted in honesty and great storytelling and All Those Who Wander Are Not Lost has them both. While not the most innovative music, Mosquito Fleet gives us a loose story of a back and forth between doubt and faith. Well, maybe not doubt but more an acceptance of hopelessness. While it works well overall it does feel odd singing along to a song about holding onto sins.

My absolute favorite track on this album is Times Are Changing

I can’t let go of whats holding onto me.
this is just for show
because you don’t want to see who I am.

I am surprised that this isn’t talked about more often as it reflects who I’ve been in the past as well as who I continue to be and I know I’m not the only one who sometimes feels like this. I’m a firm believer in that if no one addresses something then how will we ever be able to overcome it.

The song Back And Forth sums up the album and leads into the conclusion Oh Indiana, a song you wouldn’t expect to hold such redemptive lyrics just by looking at the title. One of my favorite parts of All Who Wander Are Not Lost is that it is self referencing by hearing bits of other songs, like hearing God’s Not Listening during Back And Forth and the little rewind effect at the end of Oh Indiana used earlier as well. It makes the album more cohesive (something I find lacking in popular music’s constant search for singles).

The tone of the album reminds me of Die Radio Die but I have no spot on comparison for the music. So many bands play like this but none do it as well as Mosquito Fleet.

You can get All Those Who Wander Are Not Lost and Swings & Cloves EP on their website, Amazon.com, iTunes, or the Zune marketplace.
Their absolutely intoxicating version of Come Thou Fount of Ev’ry Blessing can be found on Indie Vision Music’s Passionate Hope: Songs of Worship vol. 1 for free along with many other great songs.

The Ember Days – Emergency

The Ember Days are back with their newest release, Emergency. Earlier this year they gave us the single, Make Us One, allowing us a view of what a new full length would sound like. The long instrumentals of The Finger Painting EP have been shortened but the simplicity of their lyrics and message remain. This is the kind of music that is easy to get lost in and it becomes hard to differentiate one song from the next. Emergency creates a true atmosphere of worship with all focus directed to God. It fills the gap in my collection once occupied by The Glorious Unseen with some of the most haunting sounding yet truthful songs. You can tell that The Ember Days isn’t playing to the listener but to God and a means for you to get washed up in with the music. It surrounds you, swallows you, and and you get taken by the current, losing all control on your way to the divine. There are no specific standout tracks, the album stands as a whole. Fluid and cohesive moving without notice from one song to the next as a surrounding musical experience. Everything sounds so simplistic yet so full. Its another album to get lost in. I said it last time and I stand by it, The Ember Days have made the worship album that I’ve always wanted to hear.

For more information on The Ember Days or to download Emergency for free visit Come&Live!

The Rock Music – Alive My Soul EP

There is nothing special about this EP from The Rock Music. Its just plain amazing. When I first listened to Alive My Soul by The Rock Music I wasn’t too impressed. A typical worship sound for a typical worship band. So I did what I should never do when listening to an album for the first time and shelved in in favor of something I knew I would enjoy. There was my mistake. Luckily I gave it a second shot the next day and was completely blown away by the power packed into these eight songs. My first assessment wasn’t completely wrong, there was nothing groundbreaking about the music or lyrics but sometimes I get so caught up in listening for these things that I forget that I’m listening to a band that’s purpose is to help listeners connect with God on an emotional level. And that is something they do very well. The songs are catchy enough to pick up on the first listen to sing along to but not so much that you’ll be humming these tunes throughout the day. Burn For You will sweep you up in a passionate call to follow God, Alive My Soul will have you smiling the whole way through, and Your Love Remains will keep your hopes up long after the song has ended. If you are looking for some fresh music to listen to as you worship then I suggest you check out this release, available for free download from Come & Live!

Standout tracks include :
Burn For You
Captured By Grace
The Lord’s Right Hand
Your Love Remains

For more information on The Rock Music and The Rock Church or to download the Alive My Soul EP visit Come & Live!

Showbread – Who Can Know It?

Who Can Kan Know It, the fifth album from Showbread came as a surprise in my inbox just days after the band announced that they themselves had just received the mastered tracks. Fully funded by online donations, this album will be released free of charge through Come&Live on Tuesday, November 16^th as well as having physical copies for sale on their website and at shows. These genre jumpers have come a long way from the lo-fi noise of their early recordings to the pop sounds on The Age of Reptiles, uniformed industrial feel and explosive chaos on the double album concept Anorexia Nervosa, and their signature sound on No Sir Nihilism Is Not Practical and the recent The Fear of God. With Who Can Know It Showbread is at it again. After listening to the album only once I found myself humming songs by Guided By Voices, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Galactic Cowboys later on in the night (though none of those is an accurate comparison) which is one of the drawbacks of this album. The closest Who Can Know It comes to their previous releases are the songs And the Smokers and Children Will Be Cast Down and Matthias Replaces Judas on NSNINP and the closing tracks to both Age of Reptiles and The Fear of God (apologies for not having any Anorexia Nervosa references. I still don’t own that album.) There are no Mouth Like A Magazines, Dinosaur Bones, or like the majority of The Fear of God‘s catchy sing a long choruses. It took several listens for me to find myself singing I Never Liked Anyone And I’m Afraid Of People, Hydra, and Deliverance. The same style of lyrics are still present just delivered in a less catchy way. A Man With A Hammer, Dear Music, and You’re Like A Taxi remind me of older Pedro the Lion stuff while songs like Myth of a Christian Nation retain that classic Showbread energy. I’m not too sure how this album will be received by listeners. Hardcore Showbread fans will love it but the occasional listener may use the change an an excuse to ignore it. Don’t get me wrong, there is no doubt that Who Can Know It has the Showbread sound but with it comes an unexpected twist. I’m not their biggest fan but this is my personal favorite album they’ve released. Showbread made the album I’ve been wanting to hear for years, whether by them or another band. Its got those fuzzy, distorted guitars and a mix of personal and challenging lyrics with a punk rock attitude that I can’t help but enjoy.

For more information on Showbread and the release of Who Can Know It visit Showbread.net and the Come&Live! website.

John DeGrazio – Stronghold

John DeGrazio’s latest album, Stronghold, is a bit hard to describe because of its appeal to such a wide audience. Not that I would call this an everyman’s album but with the movement between strong strings, piano, and acoustic guitar these songs could be sung by church choirs with backing tracks, covered by hard rock musicians, and blared from bedroom stereos by teenage goth girls. Parts of it remind me of what I wanted from Jeremy Camp’s sophomore album while others I imagine live backed by an orchestra and industrial rock bands on a dimly lit stage with vocals bellowing much lower than they appear on the album. I’m reminded of Casting Crowns, if not in style or content but his ability to mix the reality of Christian life and the quality of good music. Simply, its a near perfect blend of CCM radio with honest lyrics portraying the joys and struggles of following God but with enough talent to keep music aficionados listening. From the first few notes of the title track and New Life I can tell that these are the songs that are going to be stuck in my head. So Much Stronger Now is the song I can hear twenty-somethings playing in their car in the parking lot after church, the kind of song I’d expect to hear on an independent film soundtrack. And worship songs like At All Costs and Lord Of Sacred Light kept me focused on God throughout my week.

(tangent)
I often describe our western Christian culture as lacking reality in what we talk about, the books we read, and the music we listen to. Often real world problems aren’t addressed or cliche answers are given about trusting in God’s plan (which IS what we’re supposed to do) but we sometimes avoid dirty words like pain, loss, depravity, and loneliness. And I feel that Christian music doesn’t always contain the passion when addressing our need for God. Instead we get watered down rock riffs, softly singing about a need that is supposed to be a dire cry pertaining to eternal life or death. If we had more artists like John DeGrazio maybe we’d be on a better path to showing the world that we’re not all fake smiles and side hugs but real people concerned about real issues. And, by the way, there is an answer.

You can pick up Stronghold at John DeGrazio’s website, iTunes, Amazon, or CDbaby.

Body Piercing Saved My Life: Inside the Phenomenon of Christian Rock

Body Piercing Saved My Life: Inside the Phenomenon of Christian Rock is a wonderful outsider look into the world of contemporary Christian music (CCM). Andrew Beaujon (managing editor of the Washington City Paper and has written about music for the Washington Post, Spin, the Guardian, and Salon) writes like every journalist should with a fast paced, informative, and often funny, narrative. Here we visit Cornerstone, the Gospel Music Awards, and some higher ups in the Christian music. Though it seems like most of the book is him trolling around the CCM campus with David Bazan (Pedro the Lion), Andrew gives insight about Christian music that is informative to both Christians and non-Christians alike. Included are one on one interviews with David Crowder, Mute Math, Steve Taylor, Doug Van Pelt (HM Magazine), Brandon Ebel (Tooth & Nail records, home of Underoath, Demon Hunter, Jeremy Camp, and KJ-52) plus more time with Bazan and some Asthmatic Kitty/Sounds Familyre bands many Christians may be unaware of. He looks into the inclusiveness of worship music, the appeal of crossing over into the mainstream market, Rock For Life, and the difficulty of winning an iPod shuffle at GMA week. Body Piercing Saved My Life‘s inside look at the orgins and current state of Christian rock may not answer the question of why a separate market for Christian music exists but it does show how it has become one of the fastest growing markets in the music industry.

Lovelite – Nearness

Lovelite has slowly been becoming one of my favorite bands this past year and half and finding the words to describe what may be one of my top albums of the year was no easy task.

In their latest album, Nearness, Lovelite does something almost unheard of with worship music, they provide an easily accessible sound for those both inside and outside of the church environment. Lovelite is fronted by husband and wife duo Andrew and Jen Polfer “to inspire praise in the hearts of God’s people and desire in the hearts of the lost.” And if anyone can do it its these two. Nearness provides guitar/keys parts that you’ll find yourself humming all day long with the simple lyrics needed to make a worship song stick. Apathy starts the album off with some great synthesizer sounds and the lyrics “I’m starting to notice/ that life can lose it’s color/ When I can’t see a thing/ Come pull out apathy” followed by the the chorus calling to “Shake off the dust” as a call for us to pull ourselves out of our daily routines that we often get lost in as we renew our zeal for God. The title track is a simple song wrapped in atmospheric sounds that I can only describe as a musical hug. Its the song I played over and over again moving it up to one of my most played songs on iTunes. Finally Free brings the album around from apathy to freedom and puts us in indie rock heaven with the couple’s dual vocals. What Nearness provides to the worship scene is both wonderfully bright melodies and honest, intimate lyrics that can be enjoyed all around.

You can buy Nearness at Lovelite’s store or download it for free at Come&Live!

The Ember Days – Finger Painting EP

The Ember Days is another band that didn’t really hold onto my attention until hearing more and more of their music. I fell asleep one night with The Ember Days EP in my CD player and woke up later wondering why I was listening to Ester Drang. This thought alone made me listen to this EP over and over again and what I heard was sounding less and less like one of my favorite ambient rock bands and more like something else. I love bands that play with different sounds and styles and merge them all together to create a single, unified musical experience. This is true in both their 2008 EP and previous album, Your Eyes Light Up, where lead vocal duties are shifted back and forth and even with several great voices in the band they bring themselves to shut up completely and give us some of the most beautiful instrumentals imaginable. This instrumental sound, though similar with the many other bands playing this kind of music, doesn’t just bridge the gap between songs but weaves us in and out of emotions and is even more evident in the recent Finger Painting EP where instrumentals are the driving force behind songs with simple lyrics simply sung. Even after so many listens It Is Well still takes my breath away. This is the worship album I’ve always been looking for. I can’t wait to hear what comes next.

You can download the Finger Painting EP, The Ember Days EP, and Your Eyes Light Up for free at Come&Live!

Ascend the Hill – Take The World, Give Me Jesus

I usually steer clear of hymn albums and honestly, Ascend the Hill doesn’t excite me the most musically but I have made it a point to listen to anything Come&Live! releases a least once. Ascend the Hill’s self-titled album gave us some great songs that should be heard in worship services for years to come with guitars that remind me so much of Die Radio Die and a voice that will fit in well in the modern worship scene. The songs are simple and easy to follow and sing along to by anyone in attendance.

The band’s latest release, Take The World, Give Me Jesus, show more experimentation probably due to playing already established songs. Songs range from the well polished electric sounds on The Love of God and I Surrender All to more stripped down versions of Rock of Ages and Oh Love That Will Not Let Me Go. Hearing some of these songs for the first time in years brings back memories of my new love for this God who sacrificed so much for us and when I could worship without mentally criticizing the music. The passion put into these songs is often overwhelming which is sometimes lacking in popular Christian music these days. Ascend the Hill does a wonderful job of transporting all the passion and energy of a live band to recorded music.

Standout songs include wonderfully redone versions of I Surrender All, How Great Thou Art, and Be Thou Vision.

You can download Take The World, Give Me Jesus and Ascend the Hill for free at Come&Live!

One Sentence Review: Sleeping Giant

I may not think much of the music but I can’t hate on their passion.

You can pick up their albums at the Facedown webstore (I chose the vinyl) or download a a great worship track for free at Come&Live! They are currently on tour with Demon Hunter, Inhale Exhale, and A Bullet For Pretty Boy

One Sentence Review: Men As Trees Walking

Men As Trees Walking is a worship band that sounds like what would have happened if a bunch of goth kids started Enter The Worship Circle  and played some reggae.

You can get their album 1518 for free at Come&Live!.

What the Puft!?!

Have you had enough of my Ghostbusters posts yet? Well I’m not even tired. With Ghostbusters hitting its 25th anniversary last year everyone’s celebrating. We’ve had a video game, comic books, 2, 6 and 12 inch tall action figures, t-shirts galore, and of course, food products. I just opened my tin of Slimer Sours I bought last Friday and expecting to find some nastily sour candies I instead got tiny pieces of Slimer-shaped chalk with a slight watermelon flavor. I’m not a fan of sour candy but when something has the word sour in its name I’m expecting some sort of foul taste. This sin’t the first time I’ve been disappointed in some of the newer Ghostbusters products; I’ve also tried the Ghostbusters ectoplasm energy drink. Energy drinks are another thing I’ve never gotten into so I wasn’t a big fan of this product either. To me it tasted like every other energy drink I’ve ever had.

What happened to all the great Ghostbusters foods I grew up with? Not only did we have that amazing Ghostbusters cereal (which was pretty much Froot Loops with marshmallows) but also the widely popular and long lasting Hi-C Ecto Cooler!! Ecto Cooler was such a great drink that it outlasted the Real Ghostbusters TV show by nearly 10 years. It even has its own subsection on the Hi-C wikipedia entry. I understand that now, instead of marketing to children, these newer products are being aimed at adults but that doesn’t mean quality should be sacrificed. In defense of the manufacturers, though, these are produced as specialty items and not food stuffs and in the end anything with the Ghostbusters label on it is only a way of moving product into the hands of hardcore fans or a throwback to people’s childhoods. But I’d still like it better if my childhood loves were handled better.

And then there’s the untested:

mini review: Ghostbusters Tainted Love

Well my wait is now over; Ghostbusters Tainted Love has arrived. As I mentioned in my previous GB comic review I am a huge fan of the Ghostbusters franchise and have been most of my life and was very disappointed with the previous Christmas special one shot IDW released. Tainted Love totally redeems my faith in IDW and the Ghostbusters comics. Though I don’t like the character design used for this issue the art is still amazing and dialogue is on par with the two Ghostbusters films but not the great blend of film and cartoon that was so perfect in Displaced Aggression. It has a nice story delivered a little late for the season of romance and gives Winston a chance to shine. Another positive note is the new mini=packs developed for close combat and minimal collateral damage. A nice touch for those pesky home exterminations. Overall this issue is great and so very much more enjoyable than Past, Present, and Future but Displaced Aggression still reigns supreme in my mind for Ghostbusters comics. I’m really enjoying these one shots with different writers and artists but please, IDW, bring back the Displaced Aggression team for another GB limited series.

mini Review: Ghostbusters Past, Present, and Future

Being the Ghostbusters fan that I am this comic was a must read that I was really looking forward to. Ghostbusters Past, Present, and Future is a Christmas special release issue that pits our boys in gray up against the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, something we’ve seen before in The Real Ghostbusters. Only this time its not as entertaining. I found it hard to hear the voices of the Ghostbusters in this issue and the story is too rushed for a single issue. They should’ve gone with something a bit shorter and closer to the Ghostbusters we’ve come to know over the years. With The Other Side and Displaced Aggression comics showed us something that couldn’t have been done in a film but this comic reads more like bad a made for TV movie. The look of it even feels that way. The art isn’t bad but I don’t think it fits the Ghostbusters. It reminds me of another 1984 creation, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It even seems like it would look better in black and white.This issue is probably only going to be bought by the biggest of fans but I don’t recommend it  for the casual Ghostbuster fan or comic book reader. Overall the story isn’t that great and the art, though good, is not appealing in this kind of story. If I had the choice to go back and not buy this issue I would certainly take it. I hope the conclusion of Displaced Aggression makes up for my disappointment in this story.