This past week a friend of mine gave me a list of about 25 bands to look up. I was a little overwhelmed by the amount of great bands that I had been told about, but my favorite of all of them had to be Frightened Rabbit. Frightened Rabbit is an indie rock band from Selkirk, Scotland that was formed in 2003. The band consists of Scott Hutchison (lead vocals and rhythm guitar), Billy Kenedy (guitar and bass), Andy Monaghan (guitar), Grant Hutchison (drums), and Gordon Skene (guitar and keyboards). They have come out with three albums including Sing The Greys (2006), The Midnight Organ Fight (2008), and The Winter of Mixed Drinks (2010).
The video below is not actually their song. It's a song by The Awful N-Trance. I love the lyrics of this song, but I do not like The Awful N-Trance very much so when I found a cover by Frightened Rabbit I was so excited! So here it is, hope you like them! =]
Switchfoot is a band that has been around since 1996, so they are certainly not new like the other bands I have written about. I am writing about them because they are one of my favorite bands and I was able to see them this past Sunday night at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia, PA! This is the second time I have been able to see them and they never disappoint. They are one of the best live bands I have ever seen. What is so impressive is that Jon Foreman (lead singer) sounds the same on CD as he does live, which is something that not all singers are able to accomplish. Now if you do not know much about Switchfoot I will enlighten you. They are an alternative rock/Christian rock band out of San Diego. The band is made up of Jon Foreman (lead vocals and guitar), Tim Foreman (lead guitar and back-up vocals), Chad Butler (drums and percussion), Drew Shirley (guitar), and Jerome Fontamillas (keyboard, accordion, and guitar). They have come out with seven albums including Legend of Chin (1997), New Way to Be Human (1999), Learning to Breath (2000), The Beautiful Letdown (2003), Nothing Is Sound (2005), Oh Gravity (2006), and Hello Hurricane (2009). Their most popular songs are Dare You To Move and Meant To Live . An interesting fact about Switchfoot is that their name comes from the surfing term which means switching your feet to face in the opposite directions. Jon Foreman said that they all liked that name because it was about change and they wanted a different way to look at music. Something else that is interesting is that they do not like to consider themselves as a Christian band because and I found a quote where Jon Foreman addresses this idea: "For us, it's a faith, not a genre. We've always been very open and honest about where the songs are coming from. For us, these songs are for everyone. Calling us 'Christian rock' tends to be a box that closes some people out and excludes them. And that's not what we're trying to do. Music has always opened my mind—and that's what we want."
The video below is one of my favorite songs by Switchfoot. It's called The Sound (John M. Perkin's Blues) and it is off the the Hello Hurricane album. Why I like this song so much is because it is about the problem with slavery all around the world today and that not enough people know about it. Hope you enjoy =]
The first time I went to Soulfest was in July of 2007 and I saw so many bands that I do not remember the names of. There were a few bands that really stuck with me and one of those Bands was Before Their Eyes. This was the band that got me into likeing screamo music. Before Their Eyes is mostly all clean vocals, but they do have a small amount of screaming in their songs. They put on an amazing show because they were so full of energy and were just jumping around on the stage for an hour straight. Also after the show was over my friend and I were at their merchandise table and while we were standing the bassist (who at the time was Brandon Howard) came up to us to ask how we liked the show because he saw us up front! It was my first experiance meeting someone from a band and not only was he from a band he was incredibly good looking, so I froze. My friend on the other hand got so nervous that she ran away, so I never really was able to talk to him!
Before Their Eyes is catagorized as "post-hardcore" and they are from Ohio. I am not sure when they were formed, but their first album came out in 2007. The band currently consists of Jarret Hottman on drums, Anothony Damschroder on bass guitar and backing vocals, James Arnold on keyboard and lead vocals, Jordan Disorbo on guitar, and Evan McKeever on guitar and backing vocals. An interesting fact about Before Their Eyes is that they got their band name from Romans 3:18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes."
The title of this blog is a lyric from the song Why Is 6 Afraid of 7 which is one of my favorite songs not only by them, but in general. Hope you enjoy!
There is this band called Page France who has always interested me. They have a different sound and they were really the band that made me expand my music interests. They are classified as an American Indie-Folk band that was first started around 2004, when their first CD came out. They have produced five albums between the years of 2004 and 2007. Page France has consisted of many different members since 2004, but the band has included Clinton Jones, BJ Lewis, Bryan Martin, Whitney McGraw, Chris Morris, Michael Nau, Jasen Reeder, Matt Smith, and David Tracy. The band split up in 2008 when band leader Michael Nau wanted to focus full time on his other band Cotton Jones.
What interests me so much about this band is that they have not come out and declared themselves as Christian artists, but they love to talk about God. I found a quote by the lead singer saying "As for the Christian symbols in my writing - sometimes I don’t even realize that they exist until someone points them out to me. There’s really no reason; it just rolled out that way." I think that is so cool because he has not declared himself as Christian, but there is obviously something moving in his heart for God because of the lyrics he writes.
The video I included is my favorite song by Page France and the the title to this post is a lyric from this song. Hope you enjoy!
This past weekend on Saturday September 4, 2010 I got to go to a music festival called Revelation Generation (Rev Gen)! It was held in a giant field in Frenchtown, New Jersey that used to be used for the raising of horses. Rev Gen is one of the most important music festivals in New Jersey and last year about 30,000 people went. It is a two day festival that will have a total of about 60 acts performing for God and telling people about Him. When I was there I saw quite a few bands including Fireflight, Kutless, Oh Sleeper, Britt Nicole, August Burns Red, Brandon Heath, and best of all The Almost. I have seen all of these bands before except for Oh Sleeper and the Almost. I have been told many good things about Oh Sleeper and all of them were 100% true. Their lyrics are so incredibly powerful and really are some of the best lyrics I have ever heard. They have one song called The Finisher which is about what God would say to the devil and here are some of the lyrics: "Do you mean to challenge me? Because your speech is threatening to the writer of your history, through a future perverted by envy. Your whisper may sway the weak, but when I speak it roars the sea." Those are only the first few lines of the song, but they are by far my favorites.
Another band that I had the opportunity to see was The Almost, who is my favorite band ever. I have been wanted to see them ever since I found out about them my freshman year of high school. The band was formed in about 2005 after Aaron Gillespie left Underoath (whom I also love) where he was the drummer and clean vocalist. The Almost is now made up of Dusty Redmon (guitar), Alex Aponte (bass), Kenny Bozich (drums), Jay Vilardi (guitar), and of course Aaron Gillespie (vocals and guitar). Seeing them live was an absolutely amazing experience and I would absolutely love to see them again. Also I was able to meet them when I was buying a shirt from their stand and they were sooooo incredibly nice. Below I attached a photo that I took on Saturday and a video of one of my favorite songs by them, hope you enjoy!
