Last month, I wrote about “Getaway,” a song located in the center of Turn Off the Stars’ only LP. I keep coming back to this obscure album, despite its simple, sometimes generic songs. “Brightside” is the last track on the 2006 eponymous release. The album takes listeners on a range of emotions from desperation to wonder to love to loss to dealing with the monotony of life, and finally to looking on the bright side. The optimism of the ending track perfectly embodies the Christian cliche of writing in a minor key but ending in on a major chord. However, I always wish listeners had an opportunity to hear what kind of music the band would have developed into. So, as we end another month’s playlist, let’s go out on a high note. Next month will certainly bring a range of emotions as the summer ends and school starts again in the endless cycle of children growing up and teachers aging toward retirement. Take a moment on Saturday, July 31st to enjoy some summertime sweet tea and think optimistically.
I LIVE, BUT ONLY FOR TODAY. It started with a little soreness, and then turned into a slight chill. Josh was hiking on a Sunday morning in early November with his student, an ajosshi who was so adamant about learning English, yet so slow to speak. Somewhere between a nice hike and “this day is dragging on” the fever started. Stomach pain from the dak galbi, a spicy chicken dish, exacerbated the problem. Bathroom problems had plagued Josh for a year now. Digestion on so little sleep had become a delicate balance of just a little simple food at exactly the right time, or else. But the toilet told another tale this time. Faking conversation for a few hours, Josh finally made it home to rest. Googling symptoms, it was pretty clear. He had sinned and he must suffer the consequences. What solutions were there when you were this kind of sick? Josh wasn’t sure if there were the same kind of HIPAA laws in Korea. Could the boss find out his diagnosis? Would he be shamed or deported? Bigger questions about his future career or the possibility of anyone ever loving him were whispering in his mind through his fever dreams. And of God, was it possible to turn back? He had come to the conclusion that it was impossible to change before making the biggest mistake of his life. Was that conclusion still correct? Or was he playing out a Greek tragic end fated for people like him?
‘CAUSE YOU KNOW THE SUN IS GONNA SHINE. The brunch conversation at the German bakery near Noksapyeong station was warmer than the conversation last night. For one thing, it was an unseasonably warm mid-October Sunday morning, but also the conversation turned more to the everyday fluff than the philosophical debates of last night. Last night had started with a Bible study that left Josh feeling that it was impossible for him to follow God as laid out in rules of the Seventh-day Adventist church. If holiness was impossible, a list of messages on the apps told him that horniness was just a train ride away. Packing a small bag, Josh took a 7:00 express train to Seoul without any plans to come back that evening. Meeting Nam at Itaewon station, they decided on a Brazilian place. Nam was nothing too impressive, but he looked similar to his photo online. His baggy clothes draped over him, making him look short, despite being an inch or two taller than Josh. He had a bit of a John Lennon-tortured artist look with his round glasses and a curl of hair coming from the front of his knitted cap. Dinner was a hit and miss to find common interests in a dimly lit brown-panel walled restaurant. “So why don’t you drink?” and “Let’s have the pork” were met by “Well, actually my religion doesn’t allow me to–” only to be cut off by a rant about how religion is master plan to control, or rather regulate, our basic urges. But something over dinner sparked the next part of the evening–a cement-floored coffee shop with cool music. Some talk about a Death Cab for Cutie song halfway through a cup of French-pressed coffee turned the tone of the evening. Stepping out of the cafe, the crowd of expatriate soldiers and cool, urban Koreans were descending upon neighborhood. Walking down the narrow street, crowds contracting for the frequent cars passing, Nam looked over at Josh, “So it’s kind of late. Will you be taking the train or do you want to come over for a bit?”
We’ve talked Taeyeon before, whether it was her melancholy ballad, “Blue” or with her group Girls’ Generation singing “Mr. Mr.” Unlike solo male singers, like D.O., female solo singers often do better than their girl groups. With the exception of Girls’ Generation, Twice, and BlackPink, Korean girl groups often lose steam before the boy groups. Why? Generally speaking these days Korean teenage girls are buying most of the music, whereas teenage boys are spending most of their money on phone game credits. Girl groups serve as a kind of aspiration for teenage girls and some boys buy girl group merchandise, but for all the girl group merchandise sold, multiply it by at least ten for the cute and cuddly image of boy groups. Solo female singers are often taken more seriously in acting roles apart from their groups, and without the branding of the bubble gum image, take a mature approach to the music they perform.
SUDDENLY I LOOK AT THE CLOCK. IT’S ALREADY 12 O’CLOCK, BUT THERE ISN’T ANY RUSH. Allan remembered talking to one of his former upper classmates at Mission Academy about how busy student teaching. She said, “Eventually, when you’re a teacher, it’s busy, but you can slow down for a weekend.” Mission Academy teachers, however, usually weren’t Sabbath School teachers, nor did they expected to put on Vespers on Friday night. But in Korea, where being a missionary was part of the job description, meant long hours on the weekend. On top of the grueling 7am to 9:40pm schedule Monday through Thursday, Adventist teachers were expected back at the Institute by 7 pm on Friday night and for a full morning of church, including leading out a discussion class before divine worship and sometimes write a sermon or fix a shoddy translation and read it for the service. On top of that the main office started once a month training for a new curriculum they were implementing on Sunday mornings in Seoul, which meant taking the 7:00 am fast train. Week after week started to wear Allan down, particularly the constant feedback: “Try to make it more accessible to the students. Talk about things they want to talk about, but keep it spiritual,” Pastor Jung said. “Remember to stamp the students’ make up attendance cards,” head office newsletters reminded. “Remind the students that attending the weekend programs are the only way to make up for absences.”
A BREWED GLASS OF BREWED COFFEE, I’LL HAVE IT ICED. “So where are you off to this weekend?” Allan asked his coworkers Lily and Marley on a Friday in June between classes one morning in the staff room. “We’re off to Seoul,” Lily said, said with such gusto like a 1950s London stage actress. “Some of our friends are going to Pride this weekend. We might check it out.” “There’s Pride in Seoul?” “Apparently. Ethan Lee from the Jongak Institute and his boyfriend Chase are even marching. Marls and I are more from the sidelines kind of people. What are you up to this weekend, Allan,” “Well, 7 pm Vespers tonight and then I’ll probably get to bed early because I’m leading out lesson study in the morning. Beyond that, maybe I’ll do some reading on Sunday, but nothing too much. We’ve gotta rest up because there’s training next Sunday.” “Oh, I was hoping to forget about that,” Marley said. “Oh, God, they work us to the bone and then they expect us to teach this un-researched drivel. So infuriating. I’m going to have to get extra drunk this weekend to make up for it.” “Honestly,” Marley said in his softer than white bread Welsh accent. “I don’t see how you can stand it.” “How much of Korea have you actually been able to see?” “I’ve seen a bit in my two years, but it would certainly be nice to have a few more weekends off.” At first Allan felt that his service, his sacrificed weekends gave his work purpose. He didn’t just come to Korea to teach English like thousands of other expatriates. He was here spreading the gospel. But this believe was breaking down. Half of the native English teachers were Seventh-day Adventist, the other teachers didn’t have to participate in anything religious that the school put on–and those programs taxed the native church members who were expected to run those programs. Furthermore, when student turn out was low, the older Korean church members blamed the lack of faithfulness of the native English teachers in recruiting students. Allan wondered how many more weekends he would have to sacrifice before God took notice of his sacrifice and gave rest and fulfillment to his life.
D.O. is a member of one of the biggest acts in K-Pop, EXO, a group that debuted in 2012. The Korean pop group has members from China and South Korea, and from the start of their career, recorded in their hits both in Mandarin and Korean. The group originally consisted of eleven members, but several of three members have left the group. In the span of their nine-year career, members have gone on hiatus to perform compulsory military service for South Korea, while some of the Chinese members have had legal disputes with the group’s record label. In South Korean pop music, male groups often are more successful than solo male singers. Still, male artists often diversify their careers with acting in dramas or films and solo careers. This can be essential for artists who are waiting for group members to finish military service. In these solo careers, the pop start is often able to create music much different from their main gig.
I MIGHT NOT HAVE A FANCY CAR, BUT I FANCY YOU. Doh Kyeong-soo, better known by his stage name D.O., has acted in dramas and movies since 2014, even starring in 2018’s Korean War historical fiction-musical Swing Kids. Doh plays a North Korean prisoner in a South Korean prison camp. The multi-talented singer/actor learned how to tap dance for the role over the course of five months before filming. Despite being one of the most anticipated Korean films of the year, the movie underperformed at the box office. D.O.’s roles since have mostly been supportive. His debut EP, 공감 (Empathy) features mellow acoustic tracks like the lead single, “Rose.” D.O.’s singing voice in EXO is at times gruff, adding ’90s pop-rock sexiness to tracks. The song “Oasis” from their 2018 album Don’t Mess Up My Tempo, is one of the best examples of this quality. Released on Monday this week, Empathy is somewhat reminiscent of Harry Styles’ 2019 album Fine Line. The lyrical translation of “Rose” is quite different from the English recording. The Korean version is more poetic, whereas the English version sounds like a CW teen drama. Note, however, that teenagers in South Korea cannot drive, and public transportation is much more common among young adults, particularly in Seoul and the larger cities.
IF YOU NEED A LOVER, LET ME KNOW. Two years of community college could save about $50,000 at Mission College. Working around the home, staying away from the ungodly influences of a state school were other perks about those years as well. For Allan, it wasn’t the secular courses at university that scared him. He felt he had a strong foundation from church that couldn’t be undone by two semesters of Professor Sutton’s Biology class. But course by course, Allan’s narrow world began opening to the world of the social sciences, to literature, to history, to learning. He was also meeting people who had very different experiences. “I’m Wiccan,” a woman who sat beside him in her mid-thirties said one day when they were talking after class. “I don’t believe in organized religion, and I would much rather worship in the forest and practice witchcraft.” Surprisingly to Allan, nothing bad happened after that encounter. No one turned up missing, no one experienced any curses. At community college there were Christian single moms, out of work truckers, late 20s university drop outs, and those like Allan, who came from high school. But unlike Allan, many of the kids came from public high school. With the exception of a few of the kids he knew from his Christian high school, Allan mostly kept to himself, talking to seat mates only when talking about the assignment. However, one day in Statistics class, Professor Clements broke the class into groups. They would have to work out advanced problems on their own time throughout the semester. Allan was grouped with kids about his age, Cody and Alec. They talked like they went to school together, but probably weren’t close. Cody was always dressed in loose pants and backwards ball cap. Alec, on the other hand, was always well dressed. “I’m sorry guys. My shift starts in 30 minutes,” Cody said. “We can keep going, if that’s okay with you, Alec,” Allan said. “Cool. Email me if you have anything to do.” The conversation continued about the relationship between two variables in a made up product for a made up company. But without the must of Cody’s lawn mowing jeans and with more moments of contemplation, broken by the sound of whispers in the empty library, a different light shined on Alec. Allan had seen this light on Alec in some moments in class, but he tried to ignore it. Allan had been authentically put into a situation with a fresh-faced young man he found attractive before any bodily imperfection could smear this image. Before he could say something that would strip him from his dreams. “I’m going to go home and do a little more work on this,” Allan said, giving Alec his email address. Walking back to his car, Owen, a high school classmate asked Allan how he knew Alec. “We were just working on a project together.” “Oh, good. I thought for sure you two were on a date. But Alec’s still probably lying to himself and pretending to date Paige.” Allan laughed off the encounter. What else could he do?
Composed of former child actors Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett, Rilo Kiley was an indie rock band from Los Angelos but signed to Warner Brothers for their final album, Under the Blacklight. The band’s song “Pictures of Success” was featured on the mixtape I wrote about last year. Jenny Lewis often serves as the band’s lead singer; however, on this track, Blake Sennett takes the lead vocals. Under the Blacklight is the band’s final album with the exception of a rarities compilation. After the release of Under the Blacklight and their subsequent tour to support the album, the band went on hiatus, which later turned into a break-up.
YOU’RE THE GIRL WHO WANTED MORE. One of singer Jenny Lewis’s most remembered roles on TV as a child actress was an episode from a season 3 episode of The Golden Girls, in which she plays the role of a Sunshine Cadet, a kind of Girl Scout, who volunteers to help the women with some house work. Blanche accidentally gives Daisy, the Sunshine Cadet, Rose’s teddy bear, for which Rose still has sentimental attachment. When Blanche and Dorothy try to persuade the girl to give the bear back, Daisy acts like a sad little girl who would miss the bear too much to let it go; however, as the two women try to persuade Daisy, Daisy turns to extortion, asking for gifts. And as the it becomes clearer to her how much the bear is worth to Rose, the price goes up. The story comes to a conclusion with Daisy threatening to destroy the bear, and Rose feigning defeat, only to push Daisy out the front door, grabbing the bear from Daisy’s hands. In the same year, guitarist and singer Blake Sennett was playing minor roles on Highway to Heaven, Family Ties, The Wonder Years, and Boy Meets World, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and 3rd Rock from the Sun. Lewis would go on to do voice acting and play small roles during and after her tenure with Rilo Kiley, whereas Sennett stopped acting. One of Sennett’s best know roles was playing Joey the Rat in Boy Meets World.
NECKING WITH THE BOY WHO COULD ONLY GIVE HER LESS. “Dreamworld” deals with denial and escapism. Delusion is a coping mechanism, but the song also gives the fact of the matter that the characters Sennett sings about are trying to escape from. Dreams are very important to singer/guitarist Blake Sennett, as he has made several accounts for how the band come to be known as Rilo Kiley. The first he claims he had a dream that he was being chased by a sports almanac. When he was caught, the book was opened to a page of a 19th century Australian football player named Rilo Kiley, who only existed in the dream. Another account of the band’s name origin was a dream in which Sennett met a woman who told him when fellow bandmate, Jenny Lewis, would die. The person in the dream was Rilo Kiley.
East West was a Christian hard rock band that released two albums in the early 2000s. The most successful single from their debut album The Light in Guinevere’s Gardenwas the guitar ballad “She Cries,” in which the band didn’t scream the lyrics. East West’s two releases are between two very important releases in Hard Christian Rock: P.O.D.‘s Satellite and Underoath‘s They’re Only Chasing Safety. The band’s follow up, Hope in Anguish was produced much better than TLiGG. The grungy sounds of slow songs and the gut-punching screams of the heavy songs met the drums, effects petals, and truly depressing lyrics–dealing with addiction, child abuse, and the music business. Four of the songs–three of the non-screaming tracks–made there way to Christian Rock radio. East West was a band that showed that they could write a hit and have a heavy album.
I COULD NEVER REALLY FIND THE ANSWERS. Three years after the release of Hope in Anguish, East West dissolved. Lead singer, Mike Tubbs had become disillusioned with modern evangelical Christianity as witnessed both in and outside of the Christian music scene. By 2008, Tubbs converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, rejecting contemporary Christian practices in favor of tradition. In an interview with Ancient Faith Radio, Tubbs talked about how modern Christianity led him to the point nihilism. Hope in Anguish seems to be talking about that faith journey to some extent. In the song “Seven,” the speaker “could never really find the answers” which were “always locked in something so close.” Tubbs sings about “the ones who consume” whom he is “becoming just like them.” When I was growing up, I assumed this song was about drug or alcohol addiction; however, this consumption could be anything from fashion to faith. But the biggest question of the song is: who is you? The speaker can’t find the answer and “just assumed it was you,” but he also fears that this hellish state he is in “will find its way to you.” Is it salvation? Is it nihilism? Is it just utter frustration at failing to solve the mysteries of the universe? Either way, this song encapsulates an inability to see beyond one’s prison cell, a truly relatable topic–but not one that’s left so raw in Christian music.
AND I CAN READ THE STAINS INSIDE YOUR MIND. Joseph Campbell writes this truly horrifying line in his magnum opus, The Hero with a Thousand Faceswhen talking about the difference between comedy and tragedy: “The happy ending is justly scorned as misrepresentation; for the world, as we know it, as we have seen it, yields but one ending: death, disintegration, dismemberment, and the crucifixion of our heart with the passing of the forms that we have loved” (19). Every fiber of my Christian upbringing wants to shout that Campbell is wrong. And yet, he states: “the world, as we know it, as we have seen it.” We have not seen anyone transcend death with our own eyes. We may hold a faith that death is not the end, but on earth, everything ends. A sixteen year old Allan felt he had the answer. He could listen to nihilistic music and say, with a childlike faith, “You just need to pray harder and get your mind on other things.” Still, listening to Hope in Anguish in his car on the rare occasion when a girl from school invited him to see a movie with a bunch of people, wasn’t great for his social anxiety. Somehow he believed that this blind faith in God would make him popular among the Christian kids. But as every good tragedy ends with the crucifixion of our hearts, the tragedy of kids who haven’t been socialized and reinforce weird religious piety with nihilistic emo songs is they don’t naturally make friends.
Metric certainly isn’t a household name when it comes to alternative rock music, even though they have been around forever. Had some success with their fourth album, Fantasies, seeing Top 20 singles in the U.S. Alternative Rock charts, but mostly the band has been confined to the Canadian charts. Lead singer Emily Haines, though, is a duel American-Canadian citizen, born to American parents in New Delhi, where her mother started a school. Haines collaborated with fellow indie rock band Broken Social Scene, singing on several albums, though Metric was her main gig. Metric’s music varies album to album both thematically and musically. Haines often writes about feminism, war, and dreams. On their sixth album Pagans in Vegas, the music is synth-heavy, taking influence on British New Wavers.
I’M FOLLOWING THE SUN THAT’S SETTING IN THE WEST. Speaking about first single, “The Shade,” Haines wrote: “When you feel yourself becoming a coward, the best thing to do is force yourself to get out of bed and be willing to feel everything, including rejection and confusion, all over again.” The song and video seem to have a duel message. The first is what Haines writes about: courage to succeed. The other theme is a little more implicit. The video has many images including beautiful scenes of nature, but there are some off-putting images as well. There are the melting ice caps, a scene of civil unrest, an overflowing landfill, massive flooding, and finally a skeleton. There are subtle reminders of climate change and the impact of humans who “want it all.” As a rock mid-tier rock band, Metric may feel frustrated that they aren’t as successful as the American rock bands. The band mostly opens for the big names like Paramore, Imagine Dragons, Arcade Fire, and the 1975, to name a few. At some point there seems like there should be some payoff for being faithful in the scene. Maybe when guitarist burns the “Hot 100 Bored” songs magazine, this is showing frustration at the band’s limited success on the American charts. Although there are more and more problems (the flooding) there are new technological advancements (the robot arm), constantly shifting our attention away from crisis at hand. When the music video shows Hollywood and Haines bathing on the roof with a glass of champaign, we get an idea about the decadence that this rock band is due. Yet, this decadence plays a role in destroying the planet.
WE GOT REWARDED, WE GOT REFUSED. Seventy-five dollars was all the money Jerod had when he decided that he needed help. He’d rather starve than ask his father-in-law for help. But now was not the time for pride, not with three young kids. His father had told Jerod, just work harder. But working hard didn’t help when it rained for weeks and you have to cut down trees. Working hard did nothing for bastards who refused to pay for honest labor. The food bank at the church kept the kids fed for the most part, but seventy-five dollars, wasn’t much to keep the lights on. He could see that his father was so weighed down by taxes, and he had already given away the family inheritance to the older kids. All that was left was a plot of land and some food from the farm. But his wife’s father had money. Jerod knew that he had to tell his father-in-law that he wouldn’t take one of those degrading jobs for the church he tried to set Jerod up with. No he wouldn’t muck stalls at the church camp, nor be the grounds keeper. The job would keep the family starving. No, his father-in-law would have to invest in a skill because you can’t raise a family with just a high school education these days. He would take it as loan and pay back every single penny. His father-in-law couldn’t see his daughter and his grandkids starve.
Hitting #1 on the Alternative Rock charts this week in 1997, and peaking at #4 on the pop charts in August 1997, “Semi-Charmed Life” was Third Eye Blind‘s first single, but singer Stephan Jenkins was worried that the explicit lyrics of the track would cause radio stations not play the song. Third Eye Blind’s eponymous debut LP spun three top 10 Hot 100 hits and five top 20 hits, but “Semi-Charmed Life” is the band’s most memorable and highest-charting song. Third Eye Blind is an example of a band that peaked early in their career and then faded into obscurity. The band churned out hits from their second and third records, but their fourth album only had one hit. Gaps between albums, line-up changes, and failure to evolve to the changing music scene made Third Eye Blind at best a relic of ’90s rock nostalgia. But to truly appreciate this band, think of the days before pop radio talked explicitly about sex and drugs. Back when the word ass was bleeped out. There had definitely been songs about sex and drugs before, but Third Eye Blind’s “Semi-Charmed Life” walked up to the line of radio censorship with only one two words being censored. Those words were essentially what the upbeat song of the summer was all about.
AND WHEN THE PLANE CAME IN, SHE SAID SHE WAS CRASHING. In 2016, one of the more bizarre political headlines in a year of bizarre politics was that Third Eye Blind had played the Republican National Convention. Republican candidates have been hard-pressed to find musical acts, whereas the Democratic Convention could hold festivals. What made Third Eye Blind’s performance stand out, however, was that it was a Trojan Horse. When the band took to stage, Stephan Jenkins asked, “Who here believes in science?” During the concert Jenkins, eventually booed off stage before they could play the hit preached about the messages in Third Eye Blind songs: LGBT rights and anti-war. It made me wonder if anyone in charge had even listened to Third Eye Blind. It also made me wonder if the GOP would be open to future attacks by late night hosts, pretending to be Republicans. It is interesting to note, though, how many rock stars have gone or outed themselves as right-wing in the recent years. Bands like Smashmouth playing at a super-spreader event during the pandemic, Staind’s Aaron Lewis releasing a polarizing patriotic, pro-war tune, or Trapt supporting the #firefauci movement. Back in the ’90s rock was one of the lesser political times of the genre. But a group from San Francisco with an anti-suicide song about a person who is coming to terms with his sexuality, is probably not going to turn Republican.
THE BEACH GIVES A FEELING, AN EARTHY FEELING. “Semi-Charmed Life” became a hit because the lyrics were so fast, that most didn’t know what it’s about. Stephan Jenkins sings in what critics call a “rapping style.” When the melody slows down enough, we hear lines that sound like sex or romance. We’re even treated to some setting painting when Jenkins sings about the beach. The lyrics “crystal meth” are the only words censored about this song, the drug Jenkins was on during this album’s cycle. In the summer of ’97, it was just a fun radio song. That’s why the peppier-than-ever girl on the karaoke stage was singing the song at the ‘90s-themed Welcome Back party for Mission College in September of ’08. The girl was fumbling through the lyrics and singing off-key, but keeping spirts high the whole time. “Hi Allan, I’m James. James Reagan.” “Like the president?” “Yes, no relation, though.” “Oh my gosh! Is that Tina Fuentes? I’ll see you guys later” “Bye…Lois,” Allan’s voice fell like an awkward teenager. “So how do you know Lois?” “She was a couple grades below me at Orlando Adventist Secondary School. I pretty much don’t know anyone here.” “Me neither.” “Cool, then would you be my date?” James said with a snicker. “Well, don’t count on anything happening afterwords,” Allan laughed. The song was followed by a group of boys from Asian Club singing Backstreet Boys‘ “I Want It That Way.”
In March Netflix released A Week Away, a Christian camp musical incorporating originals and the songs of Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, Rich Mullins, Audio Adrenaline, For King and Country, and Amy Grant into Disney Channel quality musical numbers. Shortly after, the podcast Good Christian Funreviewed the movie, which is how I heard about it. However, it wasn’t until today when I was listening to a conversation with Faith Based film maker Luke Barnett on You Have Permissionthat I remembered that I HAD to watch A Week Away. I had so many thoughts upon watching the movie that I think that my blog format is too restrictive. I would love to explore my own awkward summer camp experiences or tell the truth “slant” in fiction with one of my characters. However, I think that just talking about the film itself will be sufficient in terms of word count. So, on the very unlikely chance that one of these songs makes my “Song a Day” list again in a following month, the muses might spark a little fiction.
I OPENED UP THE BIBLE AND I READ ABOUT ME (AND YOU). First off, I recommend this movie with a hell of a lot of reservations. It’s not good. It’s got a 52% Rotten Tomato and a 32% Metacritic score. Without treading too much on the Good Christian Fun review of the movie, I would say the songs are nostalgic for a certain demographic, and that probably brought at least 50% of the audience to the movie (myself included), but then again, I don’t understand the Evangelical movement these days. The creative force behind the movie is writers Allan Powell, Kali Bailey, and Gabe Vasquez. The first of whom has a Wikipedia page that says Powell is best known for playing a role in ABC’s third season of Quantico. The movie was directed by Roman White. A Week Away is White’s second movie. However, White has been directing since 2003 and has directed 115 music videos, listed on Wikipedia. Starting with the 2003 video for The Benjamin Gate’s “All Over Me,” White directed several Christian Rock videos including Pillar’s “Bring Me Down” (2004) and Seventh Day Slumber’s “Caroline” (2005), but then switched almost exclusively to Country music videos with a few pop/rock exceptions. He directed several Taylor Swift videos, his most famous, “You Belong with Me” and Carry Underwood’s mega hits “Jesus Take the Wheel” and “Before He Cheats.” So it makes sense that Roman White would be enlisted to direct a long-form music video.
GONNA LEAVE LONG-FACED RELIGION. The plot is as predictable as: “I don’t know how I could ever pay for this big, thick juicy pizza.” “I can think of a way.” Bad boy Will (Kevin Quinn of Disney Channel fame) steals a police car and is threatened with juvey, but because he’s white and pretty, he gets a second (or 14th?) chance to be fostered by Kirsten (Sherri Shepherd, AKA 30 Rock’s The Queen of Jordan) and is taken to a Christian summer camp for a week. The campers are not a think like I remembered Christian camp campers to be, with no references to sex, drugs, or anything off-color in their conversations. Will is reluctant to join in until he meets Avery (Bailee Madison), who plays the “Christian hot girl trope.” Her presence in the movie helps Will to overcome all of his issues of being abandoned by God who let his parents die, putting him into the foster care system, though we first have to have the big reveal that Will is not actually a Christian, just pretending to be to impress Avery. The movie features cameos by Amy Grant and Steven Curtis Chapman, some extremely cringey moments, a few funny lines, and has a sappy ending. What makes simultaneously abhor and adore this movie is that I thought of it first. I wrote this exact plot as a 11th grade creative writing assignment. The story was a little different, a rock star, Josh, is sentenced to community service in an Evangelical ministry in Atlanta where his ideas about religion are transformed by how hip the church is and how the ministry really helps people, but mostly because he wants to impress a beautiful woman, Alicia. Where’s my Netflix movie? But seriously, check out A Week Away if you want to cringe at your Christian upbringing, but that’s probably the only reason I would recommend this movie.
In January, I talked about Leauges’s song “Lost It All,” from their debut album You Belong Here. The deluxe edition of the album contains today’s song, which, like many “Part of It” and “Sky May Fall” are also not on Apple Music. It is, however, on Spotify. The band’s live performance for Paste (in YouTube playlist) features the band as a four-piece, former Audio Adrenaline backup singer and guitarist, Tyler Burkum, playing minimally at the beginning but building into a wall of sound by the end of the track. This song feels at home on You Belong Here and is one of the band’s best tracks. “She Kissed Me” sounds like an old-timey rock ‘n’ roll or R&B song. Built around the drums and bass and adding guitar feedback and sparse chords, for this song Thad Cockrall sings in a lower register and backup singer Tyler Burkum adds the falsetto. And while the melody is completely original to Leagues, the song is a well-disguised cover.
EACH TIME I SAW HER, I COULDN’T WAIT TO SEE HER AGAIN. In 1963, a girl group called The Crystals released their song “Then He Kissed Me.” The song is a story about a young girl who falls in love with a young man and they eventually get engaged. Two years later, The Beach Boys covered the song, this time telling the story from young man’s point of view. The Crystals’ single reached number 6 on the American Top 40 charts. The Beach Boys’ cover charted in Europe, but not in the U.S. The song was also covered by Glam Rock band KISS, closing their 1977 album, Love Gun. All three of these versions keep the same melody, fast and built around a major scale. However, Leagues slows the song down, building it around minor chords. The guitar adds atmosphere and emotion arguably absent from the previous versions of the tune, making the relationship sound much, much more intense. The musical atmosphere distracts listeners from how undernourished in lyricism this song is. The simple song is an account of what happened. But the instrumentation on Leagues’ version, that is the real poetry.
ONE DAY SHE TOOK ME HOME TO MEET HER MA AND HER DAD. “So are you planning on staying there forever?” Josh and his mother were having breakfast for dinner at Cracker Barrel on the way back from the airport. Then the waiter came, a tall young man, wearing a ball cap covering his sandy blond hair. “What about our coffee?” Josh’s mom asked. “Oh, right! I’ll be right back.” “It’s a job,” Josh said, finally answering his mom. “It’s steady, and there’s not much around here.” “Yes, that’s true. You don’t want to be a teacher in North Carolina.” “Here’s your coffee.” “We ordered two,” Josh’s mom said. “Right. I’ll be right back.” “The kids they’ve got working here,” Josh’s mom said shaking her head. Josh and his mom saw the server at the front counter, talking with the maître d, leaning on the counter as if he were hanging out with a friend at the mall. Josh couldn’t help but check out his tight jeans. “Well, as long as you come home every year and you can pay your bills and you’re happy,” The server came back with the coffee. “Thank you,” Josh said, looking the young man in the eye. “I think we’re all set.” The rest of the conversation at breakfast-for-dinner was pretty trivial, about the flight, interesting things about work, a trip his mom had taken. Josh had put boundaries on talking about his personal life back in 2015, when after his mother pressed him on a Skype call to talk about if he had found someone so that she could report back to everyone at church, he said firmly, “Just tell them that I’m happy.” The truth was there should be an extra person at the table. Josh shouldn’t have flown alone. Josh couldn’t help think of how disapproving his mother was of the server. And yet what if he had lived in North Carolina? Maybe he would have taught at a public school and eventually come to terms with his sexuality. But it would have been much harder to hide from his parents. There would probably be years of silence, but maybe, just maybe someday the relationship would mend. He’d could introduce his parents to his boyfriend, a cute server at Cracker Barrel. Then his parents could disapprove of his partner, not because he is a man, but because he is lazy. It could be normal generational disapproval. Something that happened all the time with Jess all throughout high school. Instead, everything would remain hidden. But for how long?
Starting as back-up dancers, GRITS released their debut Jazz-Hip Hop album in 1995. Their fourth album, The Art of Translation (2002) was their breakthrough album, establishing the group beyond the limited listenership of Christian Hip Hop and earning the band slots on MTV and movie and television soundtracks. GRITS is fun to listen to for how they incorporate their featured artists. The group has collaborated in the world of Christian Hip Hop and Christian Rock, featuring Toby Mac, Knowdaverbs, Out of Eden, Jennifer Knapp, Third Day’s Mac Powell. Today’s song features Jars of Clay frontman, Dan Haseltine. Unfortunately, though, this song (Like “Part of It” and several other tracks this year) won’t make it the Apple Music playlist, as GRITS 2008 album, Reiterate isn’t on AppleMusic or Spotify. So, I’ll substitute with their2002 Jennifer Knapp collaboration, which is also an interesting collaboration. “Sky May Fall” came out around the time of the 2008 Financial Crisis. The song talks about world-ending events happening more and more frequently to the point of desensitization. The song is a prayer for keeping your sanity in the midst of a chaotic world.
SOMETIMES I DON’T KNOW IF I’M AWAKE. “People were claiming peace and safety. They said, let us tear down our barns and build bigger, better barns. But disaster struck them when weren’t looking. And my friends, that is this generation.” Some weeks after 9/11, the sermons at church changed in tone. Abstract holiness now had a focus, the coming of end of days, certainly in this generation, Pastor Jim said. It didn’t matter that Allan’s great grandfather had believed that he would live to see Jesus coming in the clouds. Still holding strong at 98 in 2001, but after his hundredth birthday in ’03, he joined the millions of Seventh-day Adventists in the grave convinced that the Second Coming would happen in their lifetimes. But the fear that gripped Allan Sabbath after Sabbath as Pastor Jim pointed out the beast of the week: new signs and wonders and interpretations and reinterpretations. The church filled with people looking for answers, weird people with their own theories about government surveillance. Allan ended up at more and more of these events, playing revival songs as a guest performer or running the sound system for small churches at which Pastor Jim had been invited to speak. It was a weekly spy novel: what was the pope up to? Was President Bush and Black Water in on it? But ultimately that didn’t matter. What did matter was unwavering faithfulness to the Sabbath. “If you break one commandment, you break them all,” Pastor Jim told the congregation. “What is it in your life that could be keeping you from the kingdom of heaven?” He would frequently ask at the end of his sermons.
WARS ABROAD AND CHILDREN SUFFERIN’, POLITICS AND TERRORIST THREATS. LOOKS TO ME LIKE THE SKY IS FALLIN’. After 9/11 every world event had Biblical repercussions. First it was the Tsunami in 2004. Pastor Jim claimed that an angel had spoken to a woman in Thailand, warning her that a disaster was coming from the sea and that a much worse disaster that would spark the end was coming soon to America. The angel also told her to find the Seventh-day Adventist church. Then there was the Hurricane Katrina the following year. But Pastor Jim’s time at the church was cut short because complaints. The first was his sermon on not being complicit in the politics of the world. He told the congregants, “I don’t want to be held accountable to God on judgment day for my role in bringing about Sunday law.” The other was his son’s involvement with one of the elder’s niece. But thanks to Pastor Jim, Allan had been given tools to interpret the signs of the times into his college years, which included the financial crisis, Lady Gaga, the Fukushima disaster, and Obama’s liberal agenda. Despite the financial instability, people started normalizing a post-9/11 world. Some level of “peace and safety” returned. But terrible dreams about being separated from God returned to Allan after a conversation with a coworker in 2015. “Economists are saying that the big financial crisis is coming this year. And that makes sense. It’s the year of atonement. People are saying America is going to pay for legalizing gay marriage.”
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