Last year, Lizzy McAlpine released her albumfive seconds flat. She began writing the songs for an EP, traveling to London after ending a relationship. The song “ceilings” was a part of that writing session, and as McAlpine explains to Genius, the lyrics of the song refer to an experience in the rain in London. The song went viral on TikTok, especially due to the outro which is a “plot twist,” according to McAlpine, in which the love interest appears to be a fictionalized story in the speaker’s mind. The song is a perfect rainy-day song with the strings backing the acoustic guitar and Lizzy’s beautiful voice. I want to dig more into five seconds flat, but today I’d like to make a Rainy Day mixtape to close out this depressing, sad girl summer we’ve been having in Korea. Of course, these songs won’t be specific to the summer but will soundtrack rainy days throughout the year. Enjoy!
My generation has had a few sobering news days, but in 1999 very little struck more fear into the hearts of American students and parents than turning on the news on April 20, seeing the horrifying scenes of the massacre at Columbine High School. In the way that September 11 changed aviation forever, Columbine changed education. There had been school shootings in the U.S. before, but none had the scope of planning of Columbine. So much information came out about the victims and perpetrators after the shooting for years to come. There were several distinct responses I remember growing up immersed in the evangelical South. First, it was that shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were into the gothic scene, wearing all black, keeping nihilistic journals, and listening to music likeMarylin Manson, Korn, and Insane Clown Posse. This music was clearly satanic and could lead teens to commit mass shootings. Second, the testimony of Cassie Burnell, the girl whom, years later, was misreported to been asked, “Do you believe in God?” and was killed because she said, “Yes” was preached as a message of religious martyrdom. There was also a third view that grew in popularity. But it was seen as too unAmerican in the evangelical South.
DADDY WORKS A LONG DAY. In 2011 when “Pumped Up Kicks” hit number 3 on the Hot 100 and topped the Alternative Rock chart, a few listeners started to have some reservations about the song. Written by former commercial jingle writer Mark Foster, “Pumped Up Kicks” is a dancy track sounding like it’s from the ’60s or ’70s. The song was released online as a free download and started getting virally famous. Foster played all the instruments on the song, but formed a band in order to play live when “Pumped Up Kicks” gained popularity enough to sign him to Startime Records, an imprint of Columbia Records. Foster at first explained the lyrics as a “‘Fuck you’ to hipsters.” Essentially, he created the equivalent of what the Mel Brooks did in The Producerswhen Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom produce a should-be-doomed musical titled Springtime for Hitler. There had been songs about school shootings before. P.O.D.‘s “Youth of the Nation,” Flyleaf‘s “Cassie,” Michael W. Smith‘s “This Is Your Time,” and Rebecca St. James‘ “Yes, I Believe in God” all were somber religious songs about the what did or what could happen in a school shooting. But “Pumped Up Kicks” was similar to a 1979 song by an Irish group The Boomtown Rats, singing about a school school shooting earlier that year in their major U.K. minor U.S. hit “I Don’t Like Mondays.” Foster claims that the story in “Kicks” is completely fictional, but it does make you wonder about if you should be dancing to a song about a shooting, real or imagined.
YOU’D BETTER RUN, BETTER RUN, FASTER THAN MY GUN. Foster told Billboard in 2019 that the song never mentioned a school, but that listeners had “filled in the blanks.” The song was inspired by hearing about a shooting on TV. He told Billboard, “I remember that week [that I wrote the song], there was some shooting that happened, and it really bothered me, because I recognized that it was going to continue to get worse. And that nothing was going to change.” He’s also told USA Today that the song “isn’t about condoning violence at all. . . . The song is an amazing platform to have a conversation with your kids about something that shouldn’t be ignored.” When Foster the People became a band, bassist Jacob “Cubbie” Fink (future husband of the aforementioned CCM singer Rebecca St. James) said that his cousin was a survivor of the Columbine Shooting. He saw the songs as a platform to talk about violence. In 2002, controversial film director Michael Moore made a film called Bowling for Columbine in which he argued that American gun lobbyist group The National Riffle Association (NRA) was responsible for keeping guns easily accessible to those with malicious intent. Many dismissed Moore’s claims as being too far left and even attacked his research. However, mass shootings, both in and out of the classroom continue to escalate in scope and scale in the United States. After Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, the Amish shooting, church shootings, synagogue shootings, mosque shootings, the Colorado theater shooting, the Las Vegas concert shooting, the Pulse night club shooting, are just the ones off the top of my head. I remember watching the episode “Thoughts and Prayers” of Bojack Horseman’s fourth season the day before the Las Vegas concert shooting. That episode darkly parodies the American’s inability to do anything to prevent shootings. What we can do is offer “thoughts and prayers” constantly. The reaction to the Vegas shooting by the NRA was “It’s not the time to talk about gun control” when people are extremely upset about it. This isn’t new, and they say this all the time. As if the NRA is waiting around for the perfect time to broach the subject when people are calm, cool, and collected. I used to think that a dancey indie track wasn’t the best platform to talk about gun violence, but it’s become so common in American society, that I start to wonder why not? Gun violence can happen at anytime or place these days. Why not talk about it.
Ben Gibbard started performing in 1997 under the moniker Death Cab for Cutie, the name of a Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band song by the same name released in 1967 and featured in The Beatles’ film Magical MysteryTour. When Gibbard signed a recording contract, he turned his solo act into a band. The band released albums on indie label Barsuk Records, garnering spots in films and television, which got the attention of Atlantic Records. Their major label debut, Plans, was released in 2005 and spawned three singles: “Soul Meets Body,” “Crooked Teeth,” and “I Will Follow You Into the Dark.” Despite being on a major label, Death Cab for Cutie is a symbol of Indie Rock music. They consistently produce thought-provoking music and have many Grammy nominations under their belt. However, like most bands with die-hard fans, their older records often resonate best, whether it’s We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes, Transatlanticism, or Plans–the nerdy boys and awful Christmas sweaters speak to times in fans lives that most mainstream radio failed to convey.
IF THE SILENCE TAKES YOU, THEN I HOPE IT TAKES YOU TOO. Listening to Plans, I always felt that it was an existential passage through the seasons of a year. Songs like “Crooked Teeth,” “Summer Skin,” and “Soul Meets Body” are beautiful, bright songs, but songs like “Brothers on a Hotel Bed,” “What Sarah Said,” and “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” frigidly remind listeners of mortality and the expiration of relationships. Speaking about the themes of the album, Gibbard stated: “One of my favorite kind of dark jokes is, ‘How do you make God laugh? You make a plan.’ Nobody ever makes a plan that they’re gonna go out and get hit by a car. A plan almost always has a happy ending. Essentially, every plan is a tiny prayer to Father Time. I really like the idea of a plan not being seen as having definite outcomes, but more like little wishes.” The themes of this album spoke to the students in my circle in Adventist university. Adventist Millennials were taught by Baby Boomers who had been taught by the Silent Generation. Somewhere along the way the Adventist message had shifted from “Don’t bother going to college. Don’t buy a house. Don’t build to last because Christ will return in 50 years time” to “Make plans, but draw them in pencil.” Many of the ideas shared were not a lot different from Dan Koch‘s four-part You Have Permission series on “End Time Anxiety” only with a rapture-less, full-tribulation, running to the hills time to look forward to.
SO BROWN EYES, I’LL HOLD YOU NEAR ‘CAUSE YOU’RE THE ONLY SONG I WANT TO HEAR. An argument played in my head as I looked at the bill for my expensive private university tuition. One side was saying that in order to evangelize the world, I needed “worldly” credentials. The counterargument was “Why gather the elements to a stable life when everything would ultimately be scattered?” But eleven years into the student loans, I realized I was duped into a belief that the church takes care of its own. Loans don’t matter because God will take care of my needs. I have been fortunate never to be employed by a religious institution and be able to make consistent payments. However, I haven’t saved for other major life goals as I was paying a huge portion of my salary. As my beliefs have shifted since college as well as my understanding about my sexuality, I feel that I deceived myself into thinking that working as a Christian school teacher was my life’s calling. However, this was never practical because it overlooked that I could never truly be myself–happy, in love, personally fulfilled, living as a soul denying its body. I bought into the idea that going to public university would make me turn away from God and I knew that I would experiment with my sexuality if I went to a state school. But I couldn’t run from myself forever, and the “righteous path” revealed itself to be unfulfilling. It was an $80,000 mistake that I feel has limited my future opportunities for success. But at least I found my way.
Paramore‘s second album Riot!made the pop-punk emo band of late millennials famous with the summer Alternative Rock and pop radio hit “Misery Business,” which is still arguably the band’s signature hit. Usually, though, a band’s signature hit is either their highest charting song or they’re located within the era of the band’s commercial peak. However, seven years after the summer of “Misery Business,” Paramore charted the highest with their 2014 final single from their eponymous record, “Ain’t It Fun.” This shift from emo to more conventional pop was in line with fellow bands Fall Out Boy and Panic! at the Disco, which also did. Just as the scene kids were growing up as every generation of rebellious rock ‘n’ roll had, “Ain’t It Fun” is a song about growing up and realizing that the world isn’t as easy as you once thought it was. It may not be punk-rock, but it certainly still has some emo sentimentality.
WHERE YOU’RE FROM, YOU MIGHT BE THE ONE WHO’S RUNNIN’ THINGS. Every Paramore record comes with its share of drama. In fact, the formation of the band was unorthodox. Hayley Williams signed a record deal with Atlantic Records at the age of 14, the label wanted her to be a pop star. Williams, however, wanted to be a rock singer. Williams formed Paramore with friend Zac Farro, who had played together in a group called The Factory. The band was signed to a niche, subsidiary label Fueled by Ramen, while Williams was signed to Atlantic Records. This uneven record deal was one of the controversies that kept changing band members over and over throughout the band’s tenure. Issues between band members and resolutions made band membership like a revolving door. At the time of the band’s self-titled album, drummer Zac Farro had departed when his brother Josh was ousted for writing a homophobic blog post. This is the time that Underoath and The Almost‘s Aaron Gillespie stepped in as the band’s touring drummer. The video for “Ain’t It Fun” features Williams, guitarist Taylor York, and bassist Jeremy Davis. Davis would leave the group due to a lawsuit for collecting royalties to “Ain’t It Fun,” which was based on a loop recorded by Taylor York. The drama from this album’s touring cycle along with Williams’ divorce from New Found Glory‘s lead vocalist Chad Gilbert would lead to the lyrical content of the band’s 2017 record After Laughter.
IT’S EASY TO IGNORE TROUBLE, WHEN YOU’RE LIVIN’ IN A BUBBLE. “Ain’t It Fun” is a sarcastic song Williams wrote about herself. She called it a “kick in the butt” when she was missing her hometown of Franklin, Tennessee, after moving to Los Angeles. At first, I thought the song sounded a little mean-spirited when it says: “Don’t go cryin’ to your momma, ’cause you’re all alone in the big world” and it doesn’t help that a gospel choir is amplifying the bridge, almost mocking the listener of the song.” However, the song takes on a different meaning knowing that Williams was writing to herself in the second person. We’re often hardest on ourselves, and our inner second-person dialogue can be pretty harsh. Williams was 28 at the time of the move, and she felt that it was time to live away from the safety of her hometown. Even though she was a star, coming home to family can be difficult when you’re away for such a long time. And even though you are making your own money, you feel that family is a safety net in case something doesn’t work out. So many in this generation rely on their families for much longer than the previous generation. The effect of the economy’s instability on the millennial workforce will have dire consequences on our future stability. There are so many millennials, even older than me, still relying on their parents. I feel anxious whenever I think about what if Korea doesn’t work out or something happens that makes me go back to relying on my parents for a bit. I should be saving for retirement. I think about my parents who haven’t saved for retirement just as many baby boomers haven’t because they supported their millennial children for longer than their parents had supported them. And while it’s kind of nice knowing that you can go and buy a cake and eat it for breakfast and not make your bed if you don’t want to, growing up, you start to see the effects of your choices. And that ain’t fun.
BadChristian started as the provocatively-titled book, Bad Christian, Great Savior, written by three friends, Pastor Joey Svenson and Emery’s lead vocalist Toby Morrell and guitarist Matt Carter. BadChristian quickly grew into a brand–a podcast and a record label–that pushed back on the conservative, family-friendly branding of Christian entertainment that had been curated for years by Christian bookstores, radio, and other Christian media outlets. Emery began releasing their music through BadChristian. In 2018, they released their second LP on their own label, and just like Matt & Toby’s edgy podcast, Evewas the most interesting conversation piece to come out of Christian Rock that year.
CALL IT TRASH, I CALL IT PEARLS. From its controversial cover (pictured above), a nude woman on her knees showing a naked buttocks, to its lyrical content addressing alcohol and drug use, profanity, lust, divinity, and homosexuality, Eve doesn’t leave listeners with definitive answers. But it asks some good questions. The first one is what is Christian music? When I was growing up, there was Christian music and secular music. Of coursesecular could mean the Carpenters which was ok, but it could also mean Korn or Eminem. A Christian bookstore was a safe spot where you could buy just about any CD without parental objections, unless of course, your parents were anti-rock music. There was no cursing, sex, or violence. There certainly were no naked people on the album cover. There were some anomalies to this. P.O.D. had album artwork reprinted on both The Fundamental Elements of Southtownand Payable on Death.EvanescenceandMuteMathsued to be taken out of the Christian bookstore and section. A few early Tooth & Nail bands contained strong language (the label wised up to the money-making opportunity to keep a clean nose for the Christian bookstore). But in all of this heavy branding, how realistic was it to how adult Christiansreally acted? The Christian music industry promoted a lifestyle in the fans that many of the bands didn’t even realize that they were promoting. Emery comes along and breaks free of the bullshit and starts to question whether Christian music can be Christian without censorship. And this journey continues on this provocative album.
I STAY IN MY DREAMS, BUT I DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS. “Is This the Real Life?” is an ontological discussion in the form of a song. Reality is a theme that Matt and Toby talk about a lot on The BadChristian Podcast. How do we know that life isn’t just a simulation? How do I know that I am real? How do I know that you are real? Are you just a program in the simulation? Am I? I’ve spent a lot of time wondering about these things myself. We only really get one perspective in this life. And the human experience is at most 100 years out of thousands of years in Earth’s history. I am one of 8 billion people alive today. Trillions have lived before me and trillions will live after me. I read somewhere that it only takes 3-to 4 generations to go by for you to be completely forgotten. That is unless you do something great or notorious, but even then only a small percentage of people will be educated enough to know about your dot on history only if it was significant enough. And I think about how I don’t know much about my great-aunts and uncles. And even if we can see their names, we can’t know their daily lives and struggles unless they happen to keep a journal. And even if they did leave a journal, there are so many journals to read. With trillions of lives lived, who could ever have the time to appreciate all of them and move us forward as a species? And I’m going to stop starting my sentences with and.
For an in-depth analysis of this song, I will link to theBreak It Down Podcastwith Matt Carter.
I haven’t been keeping up with updating my playlists these days. So today, I wanted to take the opportunity to create a 2023+ playlist for Apple Music. Recall that my + playlists mean that I include songs from the previous two years, and Kye Kye’s “Animal” fits that description because it was released in 2021. In the past I’ve only included tracks that I blogged about on these lists, but this time I will try to opt for the newer tracks. Furthermore, I’ll continue to update this playlist, swapping songs.
The Cure‘s “Lovesong” peaked at number 2 on Billboard‘s Hot 100 in October of 1989. Hit Parade‘s 2019 episode “Lost and Lonely Edition,” detailing the British Post-Punk movement, views this unlikely pop hit as a kind of peak of the movement that continued into the early ’90s. Of course, The Cure’s commercial success came after years of songs that didn’t chart and even the invention of a music chart for Alternative Rock bands, at the time called Billboard‘s Modern Rock Chart.
HOWEVER FAR AWAY, I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU. When Billboard launched the Modern Rock chart in 1988, “left of the dial” college radio stations began reporting the songs that they were playing. Some of the bands included on the predecessor to today’s Alternative Airplay chart were established on other charts–U2, Elvis Costello, and Tears for Fears had mainstream rock and pop hits prior to charting on the Modern Rock chart. However, other acts like Siouxsie and the Banshees, New Order, and R.E.M. were given a chance to chart when they had never charted before. I’ve talked at length about how to classify the genre of Alternative. Looking at the list of songs that have topped Modern Rock to Alternative Airplay from 1988 to 2023, post-punk from The Cure certainly looks like a through-line that we could follow. In the ’90s Depeche Mode, Peter Gabriel, and Morrissey continue that post-punk trend. But of course, we cannot forget that grunge made a huge impact on the chart with Nirvana, Live, and Jane’s Addiction or the impact of hip hop appropriation with groups like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Third Eye Blind.
YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE I AM WHOLE AGAIN. The Cure’s frontman Robert Smith wrote the straight-forward gothic “Lovesong” as a wedding present to his wife, Mary Poole. Smith expressed disappointment about “Lovesong” being the band’s breakthrough hit and even about how its inclusion in their 1989 gloomy
Disintegrationbroke the cohesion of the record. The album was a return to form for the band as Smith had written poppier, less dark songs for his own mental health following the band’s dark earlier material, especially their 1982 record Pornography. Smith wished that it were other songs on Disintegration that would have become The Cure’s signature song. “Lovesong” has been covered by many artists. The first time I heard the song was when Anberlincovered it on their 2003 debut album Blueprints for the Black Market. According to their livestream, We Are the Lost Ones, the band had seen Aaron Sprinkle perform a version of the cover similar to the arrangement that was later recorded by the band during an open mic night around the time when the band was working on their debut record. The next year, the band 311 recorded the song for the Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore romantic comedy 50 First Dates. While Anberlin’s version was only a hit on Air1 and some Christian Rock radio stations, 311’s version topped Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart. And in 2011, Adele included a bossa nova cover on her sophomore record 21. I’m partial to the Anberlin version and then The Cure’s version. Both versions are romantic and longing. Somehow they are songs that make me want to stay in for the evening with a romantic bath, but Adele’s version makes me want to enjoy a night out with a cocktail, enjoying a jazz singer at the piano. However you listen to this song, there’s a lot to love.
Opening Third Eye Blind‘s debut record and becoming the fourth single from the record, “Losing a Whole Year” is quintessential late-’90s rock. The song chronicles the ending of a relationship between the speaker and a “rich girl.” When the relationship starts to cool and as the sex stops being so great, the speaker begins to think that the whole relationship was a waste of time. Lead singer Stephan Jenkins penned the lyrics after hearing the riff that guitarist Kevin Cadogan played.
RICH DADDY LEFT YOU WITH A PARACHUTE. Stephan Jenkins is one of the most interesting rock stars I’ve read about. Graduating from the University of California, Berkeley with a Bachelor’s Degree in English and then going on to forming a Shakespeare-inspired rap duo called Puck and Natty, Jenkins brought a variety of new experiences into the alternative rock scene when his new band Third Eye Blind debuted in 1997. Alternative Rock is a hard to define genre, but it is best described as rock that has been influenced by another genre. For Third Eye Blind, being from San Francisco and their temerity in embracing their San Francisco influences–the drug culture, hip hop, and queer culture–set a liberal tone for the latter years of the Clinton Administration on rock and pop radio. Third Eye Blind was, in a way, several apparent contradictions. Jenkins writes intimately about drug use, and not just casual drug use. The band’s first single, “Semi-Charmed Life” details a relationship between two people constantly getting high on Crystal Meth. But Jenkins was college-educated, something not usually associated with hard drug use. Furthermore, for the late ’90s no rock bands were queer-affirming, but Jenkins claimed queer culture as his San Francisco heritage, even penning the song “Jumper” about a gay kid who committed suicide. People questioned if Jenkins was himself gay.
I REMEMBER YOU AND ME SPENDING THE WHOLE GODDAMN DAY IN BED. But Stephan Jenkins has only had public relationships with women, starting with a high-profile romance with South African actressCharlize Theron and later a relationship with singer-songwriterVanessa Carlton. Whether “Losing a Whole Year” was based on a real relationship or not, Jenkins claims, “the words were how the riff makes me feel.” The specific details about a rich girl from Bernal Heights who grows bored with her lover to experiment online with the “pierced queer teens in cyberspace” remind us not only of our breakups–the seemingly wasted days and nights learning someone else’s desires, preferences, and anatomy: knowledge that is not easily transferred into other subjects, thus is, as Ted deems breaking up with Robin onHow I Met Your Mother, “The emotional equivalent to earning an English major”–but it reminds us of time passing and how else we may have lost a whole year. Today’s song often strikes me in August. I listened to this song a lot around the time when I broke up with my first serious boyfriend, which was in August. And while that was many years ago, there’s something about August that reminds us that the year is rapidly approaching completion. It’s a kind of check in: have you done something worthy of calling it a year yet? The next year is around the corner. Don’t waste anymore time.
In 2011, Thousand Foot Krutch announced that they would be leaving Tooth & Nail Records, releasing music independently. The band had released three LPs and re-released a reworked version of their breakthrough record Set It Offon the iconic label. Thousand Foot Krutch certainly wasn’t the first band to leave the Tooth & Nail fold to become an independent artist, but doing so often was career suicide because before the 2010s, record labels served bands in marketing their music, pushing songs to radio, funding music videos, as well as a number of other promotional means of making a band as big as possible.
I DON’T THINK I NEED YOU ANYMORE. In 2008, the website Indiegogo launched. A year later Kickstarter was launched. These websites, while not the first of their kind, helped to popularize crowdsourcing, a business venture directly funded by patrons who promise funds in exchange for a product and often recognition for funding a new product. Bands started using crowdfunding to finance their projects, at first bypassing the record company. Rather than trying to meet the sales quota in order to make money on the record, bands could sell fewer copies and pocket the profit after paying expenses, rather than waiting for a complicated system in which the band got a check from the record company. So when some bands like Anberlin were signing to major labels, other bands like Thousand Foot Krutch, Project 86, and Falling Up decided to produce music independently. Producing music independently may have not propelled the Project 86 0r Falling Up to greater heights, but the move was very successful for Thousand Foot Krutch.
WE HAD A PLAN TO BUILD A WALL. The eleven-year-old The End Is Where We Begin sold 23,000 units, peaking on Billboard 200 at number 14, the highest charting TFK record until their next album, Oxygen: Inhaletwo years later, which peaked at number 11. Furthermore, The End Is Where We Begin topped both the Hard Rock and Christian album charts. The band spawned active rock singles from their post-Tooth & Nail albums. However, the band had been on hiatus since 2016’s Exhale. For me, I thought that TFK’s final two records lacked the catchiness that made their Tooth & Nail career; however, The End Is Where We Begin is perhaps their best record. The band goes darker and is heavier than most of their records. They leaned into the heavier sound on their final record, but sacrificed catchiness. Today’s song, “Fly on the Wall” is everything that we can expect from a Thousand Foot Krutch song. Lead singer Trevor McNevan delivers the lyrics passionately. The lyrics are slightly more cryptic than the usually weak Thousand Foot Krutch songs. The song deals with people who appear to be imprisoned, but in actuality are free and the prison is purely mental. There seem to be spiritual implications that the band signifies, but it also fits a rock ‘n’ roll anti-authority narrative as well. I’ll be watching Thousand Foot Krutch in the upcoming months as they have announced a re-recording of The End Is Where We Begin. So far, they have released two tracks, “War of Change” and “Down,” each featuring a different band accompanying Krutch. Will they continue to record the rest of the album with different artists?
When Eisley began their career, they were the indie band that had the opportunity to open for Coldplay on the North American leg of A Rush of Blood to the Headtour. Soon, the band “became too big” for RadioU and Christian rock radio. The only problem is that Eisley came up at a time when every major label was trying to suck up indie talent, but the indie talent rarely made it to radio. Hence, these bands didn’t keep their major label deals.
YOU WON’T TAKE THE BREATH FROM THROAT. I’m sure there’s a backstory to Eisley’s second record, 2007’s Combinations, especially regarding lead singer Sherri DuPree-Bemis. Today, I intend to tread respectfully with the dating dynamics of the Christian-adjacent indie scene, particularly as it relates to two up-and-coming bands in 2007: Eisley and Paramore, and how they are related. Both female-fronted bands had gained acclaim both in and out of the Christian circle. In 2007, Paramore had just released their breakthrough record Riot!and while they didn’t claim to be a Christian band, they didn’t deny their ties to the scene. Lead singer Hayley Williams appeared on several Christian Rock records and the band even performed at the Christian Festival Purple Door. Paramore was so well connected to other Christian Rock acts from the worship band Leeland to Relient K. Eisely, likewise was connected with a lot of Christian and Christian-adjacent bands from MUTEMATH to Aaron Sprinkle‘s band Fair. But it’s the two bands’ connections to punk that bring them to an intersection, especially when they began touring in 2004 with New Found Glory.
THE COLORLESS WORDS ARE BURNING OUR HEELS. Lead singer Sherri DuPree married New Found Glory guitarist Chad Gilbert briefly. Sherri has talked about the divorce on many occasions, talking about how quickly the couple were engaged and how little they knew each other from the beginning to end of the relationship. Shortly after the divorce, Sherri began dating Say Anything‘s frontman Max Bemis, whom she married shortly after and whom she is still married to today. Chad Gilbert’s next marriage, however, was with Paramore’s Haley Williams. Unlike Sherri DuPree-Bemis, Williams wrote a bitter break up album aimed at her ex. Williams and Gilbert began dating in 2007 and married in 2016. They were divorced by the end of 2017 due to Gilbert’s infidelity. On here divorce record Petals for Armor, the song “Dead Horse,” Williams admits, “I’ve been the other woman first.” On an episode of Lead Singer Syndrome, Dupree-Bemis talks about how here family helped her get through the divorce which happened when she was only 21, she said she threw herself into making art and creating music. “Invasion,” sounds a bit like it could be a break up song, even inspired by the same man that Williams would later right about. I think that listening to “Invasion” and “Dead Horse” together paints a portrait of divorce that certainly isn’t popular for evangelicals, but I think it shows us that we are not living in an ideal world. DuPree seems happy to be free and has moved on; Williams may have moved on but the betrayal–maybe because of the years invested in the relationship–feels much greater. And it’s not my job to quantify the hurt these women feel. However, music is literature, and we’re seeing a character sketch. And more importantly, we’re looking at people and empathizing with the choices they made.
Mixtapemotions 