Mixtapemotions

  • "Forward Motion" by Thousand Foot Krutch, Thursday, March 25, 2021

    The atmosphere is a casual restaurant. You’re enjoying your time with your friends. The food just comes out and everyone is in conversation. The background music was something pop, like Ariana Grande, or something you didn’t notice, but all of a sudden, Thousand Foot Krutch‘s “Welcome to the Masquerade” starts blaring on the speaker overhead. Just when you think you’d never hear your college Christian rock in a foreign country, it comes up at a rather inappropriate time, between talking about something that happened to you at work and the second bite of your taco. 

    IF WE CAN HANG ON WE CAN CROSS THIS OCEAN. Thousand Foot Krutch has an album formula that they used especially from their fourth album to their sixth. The albums start heavy and have a few poppier songs in the middle. “Forward Motion” is one of the poppier moments on this album, almost as if it’s a preview for some of lead singer Trevor McNevan‘s pop-punk project, FM Static. I think of driving back to college to this album. I took a beautiful scenic route one Sunday in autumn, maybe because 1-40 was closed due to a rock slide. I listened to “Forward Motion” driving along the Hiwassee River, windows down. The albums I listened to on the four-hour drive I made each month to college serve the music I really grew up to. No longer was I living under my parents’ roof. I cleared my head from the term paper I had to write when I got back and just enjoyed the music.

    LET’S KEEP IT MOVING IN FORWARD MOTION. Thousand Foot Kruch (TFK or Krutch) was a staple in high school and college. I loved their second album Phenomenon in tenth grade, which was a departure from the Limp Bizkit sounding Set It Off. When the band was touring with their fourth album supporting Skillet on one of the legs of the Comatose tour, I got to see them in Charlotte, for free.* I just put the asterisk because I feel like every time something is for free there should be an asterisk, and this applies to this case as well. My friend had gotten hooked up with someone who needed volunteers to sell band merch on the tour. Because this was the only time I did this, I don’t know if this is normal or if this is a Christian band thing. So we came long before the concert and saw the sound check. A few volunteers were needed for the first opener, Decyfer Down. My friend and I scored selling Krutch merchandise, while a bunch of people sold Skillet merch. We got to see the concert, but we were so busy selling CDs and shirts, exchanging money, and dealing with fans. I’m very sorry to TFK if I miscalculated the price that night. It was so hard to keep track of everything. I didn’t meet Skillet or TFK, but I did meet lead singer, Trevor McNevan’s wife, who was asking which shirts were selling the most. 

  • "High Hopes" by Kodaline, Wednesday, March 24, 2022

    Last week I taught a lesson on Irish music to my students. I played examples of Celtic instrumental music. I showed videos of River Dance. I played sad songs like “The Parting Glass” and “Danny Boy.” Then I played some famous Irish artists like Enya, U2, and The Cranberries. Then I played Kodaline‘s “High Hopes.” When I asked my students which they like the best, they said Kodaline. Well, that’s kind of a stupid question. There are times when I want to listen to Celtic bagpipes and jigs. There are times I want to go out and have fun an Irish pub and hear Celtic-punk rock. There are times I want to listen to U2, and it’s certainly not the same day I want to listen to Enya, but those days happen too. But like my students, I think Kodaline’s first album fits more into my everyday listening habits.

    BROKEN BOTTLES IN THE HOTEL LOBBY. While In A Perfect World is a great everyday listen, you have to be careful watching the music video for “High Hopes.” It’s a beautiful love story between an older man and a somewhat younger woman. The couple meets when she runs away from her wedding and she saves him from trying to kill himself in his car. They begin their relationship when he takes her to his meager cottage.  The two build their relationship, but the tone of the video changes when they are lying in bed and he notices the scars on her back. Then, as the guitar solo starts, the couple is shot by a man carrying a shot gun. The two are in a pool of blood.  The man wakes up in the hospital and sees her bed is empty. At the end of the video, she hugs him from behind.

    I KNOW IT’S CRAZY TO BELIEVE IN STUPID THINGS. Lead singer Steve Garrigan wrote “High Hopes” after a bad breakup. I think the graphic nature of this video is meant to be metaphorical. The woman saves the older man from his destructive ways. They fall in love but when he discovers her scars, the relationship reaches levels of problems that lead to another person/outside factor “shooting”  both partners. And the end of the video could either mean she left him and he’s remembering her, and the embrace is just holding on to memories, or it could be that she left for a while but comes back to him. Either way, the video is a bit shocking, so I didn’t play it for my students. 

  • “Feel Good Drag (Anberlin Cover)” by Jonathan Slack, Tuesday, March 23, 2021

     

    It was Superbowl Sunday of 2005 when I bought Anberlin’s Never Take Friendship Personal.  It was the perfect album for high school. The band’s style took a turn on their sophomore album from a classic or ’90s rock sound to a more emotional, mid-2000s sound. The band would redefine themselves with this album, becoming a lesser-known emo staple. Stephen Christian’s vocals meeting Joseph Milligan’s riffs, Deon Rexroat’s heavy bass, and Nathan Young’s reliance on the cymbals make this one of the band’s heaviest records. The band released two recordings of this song on two different albums and many fans debate which one is better. The original feels grungier and Stephen’s scream was perfectly aligned with the musical trends of the day. The New Surrender version beefs up the guitar intro and the solo has a bend that is quite satisfying. 


    THIS WAS OVER BEFORE IT EVER BEGAN. However, having already chosen an Anberlin song this month, and without cheating, I’m choosing a cover I found on YouTube several years ago when I was searching for Anberlin covers. With only 68 YouTube subscribers and the last video uploaded 3 years ago, this is my most obscure pick yet. From a five-minute research trip of his other social media profiles, the ones linked in his YouTube account, However, Slacks’ vocals and empty bedroom recording is the best acoustic rendition of this song I’ve heard including several released by Anberlin. Unfortunately, the Apple Music Playlist won’t include this version. I can post it on my YouTube playlist. So, I will I have to cheat with the Apple Music playlist and post the Anberlin acoustic version.


    LIKE THE DEVIL’S GOT YOUR HAND. It’s no secret that Anberlin is my favorite group, and “Feel Good Drag” was their biggest hit, reaching #1 on the Alternative Rock chart for one week. On the surface, it’s a song about how cheating dooms the future relationship. However, in interviews with Stephen Christian, right after Anberlin’s hiatus, he talks about it being his failure with premarital sex. That makes Christian’s lyrics, particularly in the second verse, seem condescending. In this sense, this rock hit is a time capsule of Evangelical purity culture. In its original iteration, this song was in the middle of the album I would listen to driving back and forth to Christian High School every day with my sister. We would gossip about people–the relationships that had gone too far, the hypocrites. When it became a radio hit in 2009-2010, I was in Adventist College, doubling down on my conservative values. However, as my mind opened up in Korea (I promise I will get to this story), and I started reevaluating the values that had been instilled in me, I subscribed to The BadChristian Podcast after hearing the interview with Stephen Christian, who started to double down on his conservatism, becoming a music minister in New Mexico and releasing a worship record. At that time, I felt like I was outgrowing Anberlin. I was starting to see God more broadly, and Christian was focusing on the straight and narrow of following the rules. Today I consider “Feel Good Drag” as one of Anberlin’s best songs, but of their catalog, it wouldn’t have been the hit I would have chosen. The band had a much better message–fighting injustice, the complexity of human relationships, dealing with complications in faith and doubt. Why did a simple song about cheating on your significant other become how they’re most remembered?


    Read the lyrics on Genius.


    Never Take Friendship Personal (Original) Version:

    New Surrender (Radio) Version:

    Anberlin Official Acoustic Version:

  • “Little Dark Age” by MGMT, Monday, March 22, 2021

     

    I first started listening to MGMT in the spring of 2009. Their debut album Ocular Spectacular had been released at the end of 2007, but tracks like “Kids” had hit the alternative radio stations by 2009. My roommate in college loved the opening track “Time to Pretend,” which is a fun song about moving to Paris and marrying models, and when things get difficult, just get a divorce. After enjoying OS, the next year the band released their follow up, Congratulations, which boasted more experimental electronica. After reading the review about how the band refused to release radio singles, I never tried the band and felt that they were venturing into a musical realm that wasn’t for me. However, in 2019 when I heard their single, “Me and Michael” in a book store and when I started listening to “Little Dark Age,” I realized that the MGMT that I loved in college was back. 

    THE MORE I STRAIGHTEN OUT, THE LESS IT WANTS TO TRY. The lyrics of “Little Dark Age” refer to two things 1) the political atmosphere, particularly in the United States, starting in 2016, and 2) a period of personal depression that comes from the world imploding. If we think of the Dark Ages in Europe, it was a time following the societal collapse that happened with the fall of the Roman Empire. We have this idea of the “barbarians” ransacking Rome, bringing in less enlightenment, especially as they burned the libraries of the classics. We think of this shift as causing religious superstition to rule over scientific advancement. Fast-forward to 2016 when racist, anti-scientific rhetoric influenced key elections around the world. Conspiracy is given equal footing to data. Fear and hysteria trump every one of the opposition’s answers. And while this is nothing new to history, we can only hope that it was just a little dark age that was sparked.
    Photographs of sunset June 24, 2016, Gyeongsan, South Korea. Photos by Tyler Kent.

    I GRIEVE IN STEREO. I remember the day that I heard that The United Kingdom had voted to leave the European Union. That evening I saw one of the most incredible sunsets. The Seventh-day Adventist teachings about the end times came to my mind as I wondered what was in store for the world. One of my American coworkers said that year that Christians should vote for the worst candidates to expedite the end. Whether or not the end of times is close at hand can be debated. On one hand you can say “look at the world we’ve set up. It can’t last much longer with the hatred growing and climate change threatening our existence.” On the other, you could look to the early 20th century and think if it wasn’t then, why now? Regardless, we should be on guard of the turning gyre of history’s feasts and famines, realizing that a second coming and a third coming of hardships and suffering is never far behind times of great prosperity.

  • "The Veldt" by deadmau5 ft. Chris James, Sunday March 21, 2021

    I must admit that I know very little about deadmau5. Somehow the DJ music of the late ’00s and ’10s just never appealed to me beyond a few catchy songs I heard at the gym just because I heard them over and over again. But when I heard this song today, I had to listen again. The calm House electronica and the melody were pretty catchy. And what was that about being raised by machines, digital families? And lions? It started making me think about something I had read before. But what was it? Was it Hemingway? No. It was based on Ray Bradbury’s short story by the same name, “The Veldt” or originally “What the Children Made.”

    HERE, THE WORLD THAT THE CHILDREN MADE. A few years ago, I binge read Ray Bradbury. I think I became aware of Bradbury from the episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents which were adaptations of his short stories. I became enthralled with Bradbury’s description of the double-edged sword that is technology. Though the story “The Veldt” was written at a time of black and white television, Bradbury imagined a time when television would become so vivid that what is real and what is digital would be so close that the digital could even become real. The story can also be a cautionary tale of what can happen when the television becomes the babysitter. And all of this was written before the advent of cable television with 24/7 children’s programming. But when my generation, raised on Nickelodeon, the Disney Chanel, and MTV grows up, we’ve been completely submerged in a “happy life with the machines.”  

    OUTSIDE THE LIONS ROAR, FEEDING ON REMAINS. Ray Bradbury died in 2012, a few weeks before “The Veldt” music video was released. The video is dedicated to Bradbury. Bradbury has made so many contributions to the world of pop culture we live in today. He helped to carry the torch of science fiction writers, taking the flame from authors like H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and Arthur C. Clark, to inspiring so much of the Sci-fi we have today. Yet, the technology Bradbury warns us of becomes the means by which he told his stories and tools by which his successors have ultimately diminished the reading public. It’s as if to say, “let’s base a children’s television series on my short story talking about the harmfulness of children’s television on childhood development, particularly when children get everything they want.” Perhaps the parents that are eaten by the lions are the authors who helped to build the world that led to television. A world of non-readers. A world where we’re constantly forgetting our past. 

    https://genius.com/Deadmau5-the-veldt-lyrics

     

  • “Wake Me” by Underoath, Saturday, March 20, 2021

    In many ways Underoath‘s 2018 release has seen the band’s climb to new levels of success, yet the album and the band have become controversial with longtime fans and critics. Not only were the fans debating the band’s expansion to mainstream-sounding rock, but also the band’s denouncing of organized religion. However, spiritual themes on this record are undeniable, and the lyrics come from an honest place that the Christian Rock gatekeepers don’t allow to make it to the Family Christian shelves. At a time when the Christian bookstores that used to hold the power over if an artist was sold or banned have gone out of business, bands like Underoath can start the honest conversations many would rather sleep through.

    I HOLD MY TONGUE. For years Underoath toured and recorded music keeping the secret of lead singer Spencer Chamberlain’s drug addiction. On an old episode of Labeled tells the story of when the band tried to confront Chamberlain in the summer of ’06 on the Warped Tour and almost broke up the band. The band had already gone through one lead singer, and it was Chamberlain who had brought the band to their two most successful albums. Admitting that there were problems would only lose fans from the Christian market, which they desperately needed to keep the machine going. Warped Tour, debuting at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, a gold record–much of this was built on the Christian hardcore fanbase. So just like most problems in the church it was covered up and it grew in silence.

    OPEN UP MY EYES AND SHOW ME SALVATION. Chamberlain stated in an interview with Music Feeds before the release of Erase Me, the album from which this song comes: “I’m not saying religion is wrong for everyone, but for me it was wrong. It ruined my life, turned me into a drug addict and people were awful to me the whole time. I never felt more alone in my life than when I was Christian.” In a video, also released in 2018, drummer and clean vocalist Aaron Gillespie and Chamberlain talk about the problems with modern-day Christianity. From following Gillespie’s career from Underoath to The Almost to his solo worship records, he seems to cling to many aspects of faith, whereas Chamberlain feels that it is too toxic to deal with. The metaphor of “Wake Me” compares Christianity with Chamberlain’s drug addiction. Things might just be simpler to fall into line with a 20th century-cultivated faith, in which all answers are provided and your job is not to dig at them; however, just like it is important not to be “asleep” or numbed by the drugs, Chamberlain felt he had to wake up to the realities that Christianity was about judgment and keeping up appearances rather than healing and community. 

    Read the Lyrics.

  • “Machines” by Paradise Now, Friday, March 19, 2021

     

    For all of my fantasies about an alternate reality in which I decided to peruse music after high school, the state of the music industry during COVID is certainly something I’m glad I never had to deal with. Imagine being a new band in 2019, releasing your first EP which has earned enough hype to put you on a big tour with a veteran band, only to have that tour canceled. That’s what happened to Welsh brothers Sam and Ben Taylor and their friend Nathan Beaton of Paradise Now. The tour with Disciple may have been canceled, but depending on the state of Covid, they will return to the States with the Juliana Theory.

    IT’S GETTING OLD. A listen to Paradise Now’s Supernatural is a bit confusing. Sometimes it’s hard rock that gets a little soft with poppy electronic elements like the title track and “Anvmals.” Their hit single “Baptist” plays with a Steve-Milleresque synth intro before taking a hard rock turn. “WildOnes” sounds like a Hillsong track until the chorus turns up the electric guitars and the bass. Perhaps the most generic track on the EP is this one, which makes me think of a typical active rock band in the early ‘00s like Trapt. All in all, I wonder, if this band survives the COVID odds, what to expect from them. They seem like they are doing Christian rock, which has been out of vogue since the mid ’00s. Yet, with their Christian rock radio hits, they seem to bee a step ahead of promising young artist that appear on Tooth & Nail with a promising EP or LP, only to disappear from the roster. Another possibility of this band is to go the way of Thousand Foot Krutch and gain support in mainstream rock. Only time will tell.

    WE’RE BETTER NOW. I’m still 50-50 on whether this EP or even this band is good. But “Machines” is a track that I started listening to on my playlists last year. It may not be catchy the first time you listen to it, but after a few days of it appearing in my playlist, I found myself humming it on my walk back from work. The more I listen to it, the more I like it. The lyrics about being wrong and rethinking your position combined with Sam Taylor’s earnest vocals meeting a well produced modern rock track make this song stand out to me. As Taylor pleads for the listener to reserve their judgment on coming up with a better answer, I feel like that’s the journey culture has been on as we come to understand equality. This may be putting words in the band’s mouth as I have no idea about their affiliations. But still, I like this song because it talks about processing and admitting that you were wrong about something.



  • “Foundation” by Years & Years, Thursday, March 18, 2021

     

    Olly Alexander grew up next to a church, and as a boy he was fascinated by the what he heard and saw from his home. His parents were not religious, but his impressions of the rituals that took place, during particular liturgical holidays sparked his interest in organized religion. However, as Alexander grew up in his sexuality, he came to realize that the church next door was not a place for him. He was still captivated by the symbolism of ritual. He sought community in gay clubs, which became like a church to him. If you listen to Years & Years two albums, the themes of religion may almost trick you that you are listing to a Christian album.

    I DON’T REALLY WANT TO BE FINE. The opening track to their debut album, Years & Years start their brand of Pet-Shop-Shop-Boys inspired electronica with an atmospheric, lyrically minimal track. However, it doesn’t take a lot of words to convey the complex emotions in this song. And if you take the track with the highly symbolic music video, you’ll have something to think about for a while. The video depicts Olly Alexander’s funeral with a hypnotized audience. There are so many symbols calling back to nineteenth century spiritualism. The song itself sounds like the calm before a storm on a late spring or summer day. It gives me the feeling the time when a sunny day starts turning ominous, just as the cloud start rolling in–angry clouds. Standing in a field when the first bolt of lighting strikes from out of nowhere. And just as the hail starts to fall you make a run for it. This is what the atmosphere of this song reminds me about.
    IF I TRIUMPH, ARE YOU WATCHING? Lyrically this song makes me think about feeling unworthy of happiness. In my own life, I’ve tried to take the righteous path because I thought it would keep me holy. I felt that pursuing my happiness would lead me away from God. That’s why I  chose to go to Seventh-day Adventist university, rather than a cheaper state school. I avoided people I thought would take me off the straight and narrow. However, in 2014 I couldn’t put off my own happiness anymore. That year opened up my eyes and made me question the systems put in place to make me feel like I was afraid of the world. I often wish I had learned my lessons earlier. It would have saved me a few thousand dollars and maybe I would be on a different career trajectory. Then again, I want to think that I’m on the right path now, and I should just learn as much as I can. Love is possible. Success shouldn’t be avoided. 

  • "Zombie" by The Cranberries, Wednesday, March 17, 2021

    I first heard The Cranberries‘ “Zombie” when I was at a 4-H state presentation. All the different counties of North Carolina sent their qualifiers in different categories to Charlotte to compete with other counties. My presentation was about coin collecting, which was something I was kinda-sorta into, and I’m pretty sure I qualified for State only because I was the only one in the category in that section. It was a good experience with public speaking; however, I realized that there was a talent show which was far more interesting than anything I could have presented. The only talent I remember was the gothic people, members of a 4-H group from another county. They performed “Zombie,” and may have won the talent show.


    IT’S NOT ME; IT’S NOT MY FAMILY. Today is St. Patrick’s Day. I like to pick Irish artists; however, this song is not a cheery song about drinking in the pub and dying the river green. Instead, this song delves into the issues in Irish history. Although the sectarian violence was formally resolved in 1997, I don’t remember hearing about the conflicts until I listened to U2’s War in the early ’00s. Later in college I took a course on English history, but the course is kind of a blur, covering over 1000 years of history in a semester. Other semesters, I read the poems of William Buttler Yeats, who writes about the 1916 Easter Rising, referenced in this song. Religion and nationalism both played a large role in these events, and the conflict that “Zombie” is based on took place in Northern England. Singer Delores O’Riordan, stated: “It’s not Ireland; it’s some idiots living in the past.”

    AND THE VIOLENCE CAUSED SUCH SILENCE. I wish I didn’t have to keep bringing everything back to America, but something about this sporadic, yet organized violence makes me think of the attacks that happen almost daily in Anytown, USA. Just today a man was arrested for shooting and killing eight Asian Americans. The more and more I hear about hate crimes, I think of the “idiots living in the past.” All too often I hear about another racially motivated shooting in America, all targeting a group of people white people think are a threat to their existence. When O’Riordan says “it’s not me; it’s not my family,” that becomes a mantra of people in the United States and continues to perpetuate the problems as no one takes responsibility for the violence. Silence equals compliance, and things get worse. It may not be fair to compare American problems to the fighting in Ireland, but there are certainly lessons we can learn. Love is love as hate is hate.

     

  • “Float On” by Modest Mouse, Tuesday March 16, 2021

    In keeping with a recurring theme of emotions, I elect this song as a song of the day. Songs like “Blue” and “Rose-colored Boy” explored sadder emotions, but “Float On” by Modest Mouse takes on a cheery disposition. If it’s bad, thank God it’s not worse. It’s the lyrics of this song that would have Paramore’s Haley Williams upset, as Issac Brooks’s lyrics certainly are rosy. While bad things happen, they could be worse. If it didn’t kill you, you can get over it. Just float on, man. After all, isn’t it the hardships ending that make the good times better?


    I BACKED MY CAR IN TO A COP CAR THE OTHER DAY. An upbeat guitar rhythmically starts this indie-rock classic. Singer Isaac Brock’s vocal style works out great for this track and only a few other Mouse tracks. The lyrics are funny, but not so Weird Al to make you stop singing along out of laughter. Sometimes bad things happen to us. Other times they happen out of an accident. And other times we bring them on by our own actions. The song talks about losing money in a scam, talking smack about someone, and getting fired with a friend. Sometimes the singer is let off the hook. The police man just drove away. A true friend knows when you’re just B.S.ing and laughs it off. Losing money was worth it, because he learned from his mistake. And being fired from a job you hate can lead to a better career. The optimism in this song gets a little too extreme, but these are pretty hard times that need optimism. We need people to believe that they can make a difference and that things can improve.

    ALRIGHT, ALREADY. However, I want to interject with Copeland’s “Chin Up,” though. Aaron Marsh sings, “If we only tip the bottle back to keep us filled up,” meaning we can lie to ourselves about being half empty/half filled, or possibly it leads to getting drunk. In the chorus he warns, “You break your neck to keep your chin up.” The 2021 School Year is certainly much better than 2020. We’ve learned a lot and we don’t make the same mistakes. We’re floating on. However, Copeland is reminding me that we shouldn’t sweep the issues under the rug. There are still problems to address. If you were complaining about something in 2016 and it got worse and in 2021 it goes back to the same as 2016, is the problem solved? No, new problems were solved, but the underlying symptoms are unaddressed. Sometimes there’s a time when all we can do is float. Sometimes we can fight for something better.