there are a few things I've been thinking about lately, things I'd like to post...and maybe I'll just start with mewithoutYou.
It's no secret that I occasionally get stuck on one musical act, wear the heck out of said musical act, and then move on to the next greatest thing. Well, not necessarily, I have still been listening to healthy doses of both Mae and Ryan Adams lately (Mae has a new album out in August - did you know, Chrissy?). But I have recently discovered a deep and abiding affection for yet another band.
Granted, I've heard their music over the last couple years on samplers from their record label and have enjoyed them, and then when Seth and I went to Cornerstone a couple years back we saw the start of their live show, which was more than a little bit... umm... unconventional? and so we didn't stick around too long. Guys prancing (seriously) around stage to songs we didn't know wasn't all that enticing, tho quite visually artistic.
So I burned their CD from a friend and listened. And liked it. But then left it alone because there were other things going on musically. But I found I really missed this one band. The music grabbed me first, but after awhile it's the lyrics that really have stuck out. I'll admit that I don't really understand all of them, but every once in awhile there's a phrase or a chorus that's just bursting with insight or meaning. There's a humility that doesn't occur in most songwriting, even from Christian groups (the truth belongs to God/the mistakes were mine). They fully embrace all sorts of different emotions, the fact that humans are sinful and that our only hope rests in knowing God (You wanna be set free?/you wanna set me free?/that can only come from the union with the One who never dies). My current favorite bit of lyrics is "if ever you come near/I'll hold up high a mirror/Lord, I can never show you anything as beautiful as you".
I would definitely say they're not for everyone. They do tend to have short verses, and lots of music, which is kinda cool to me, they do get kind of loud musically, and the lead singer tends to speak almost as often as he sings, tho on their new album he does sing more often. I had read an article that compared their lyrics more to sung poetry, which I will agree with, so it might help to like poetry in order to like these guys very much.
One thing that I do think is very cool is that on their purevolume page, they openly advertise that before their concerts, they invite everyone to come beforehand and have a potluck dinner. They also invite people to host seminars, or bring instruments and sing songs before the show! They will try to come out themselves in between doing soundchecks, etc. And they even give their fans an opportunity to play onstage with them during shows (providing they practice and can sing along in tune).
So this is how I'm spending my time on my last day of work....things are a little slow, I guess. At least there'll be Skip-Bo at lunch!!
2 comments:
Going back one month to post is cheating. You're going to have to get to 300 by some other means.
Is it bad that that's how long it took me to post it? Since the new "autosave" feature came around, I can't figure out how to update the posting date to make it the newest, instead of burying it among the "old" ones...do you know??
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