I hate country music

I hate country music.
(now, I have a confession to make--I have three Keith Urban songs on my zune)

I think I have a justifiable right to state that I officially hate country because I've listened to a lot of different country artists; I have heard at least one full album of all the following: Josh Turner, Martina McBride, Trisha Yearwood, Billy Ray Cyrus, Keith Urban, Randy Travis, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, Brooks & Dunn and many more.

Its not that I don't like country music itself, I think some country artists make beautiful music--I just detest the average country song lyrics. It's always a love song about how we've finally found our true loves and we'll never never break up, and then the next track goes something like, "tequila loves me even if you don't".

From my country music experience it appears that the common scenerio for an album is: I'm a backwoods boy (a.k.a. a hick/redneck), I went to town to buy a beer, I saw this one girl in the bar, now we're going out, we walk around in the dark woods, and I check her for ticks when we get back to my house, then either--she breaks up with me for [insert reason here] or we get married and have a herd of kids that are hicks/rednecks just like us.

oh! sorry, I forgot, there is also the less popular scenerio for a song or two: I was a bad boy/girl hick, and I used to run from the cops, and I did drugs and slept around, but now I've found Jesus, and I married my pastor's daughter and we now live in a little cottage by the river and we're extremely happy. (And then the next song is most likely to follow the first scenerio mentioned)

Ok. So obviously not all country songs/albums really fall in either of those scenerios...but they come pretty close most of the time. And, these scenerios can be found in pretty much all genres of music; however, they are most common in country.

"And though is may cost my soul, I'll sing for free"

So I love music; however the music I like is constantly changing, or well, the songs I like the best are constantly changing. I decided it would be fun to create a list of the songs I really like right now.

Shaded Pain - L.S.U.
a friend gave me a copy of an '87 album, by L.S.U called Shaded Pain. The title track is the slowest song on the album, and the most gripping.

how can we be forgiven

if we don't live our lives

we throw off all the shackles

then we wear the chains

shaded pain

we find out who we are

and then we lose our name

shaded pain

The Beautiful Letdown - Switchfoot

Recently I dug up The Beautiful Letdown album and gave it a spin as I was drawing an artbook for it, and I became attached to this song. This song is like my theme song to a certain degree; it's something that I find myself thinking, "I don't belong here..."

It was a beautiful letdown

When You found me here

Yeah, for once in a rare blue moon

I see everything clear

I'll be a beautiful letdown

That's what I'll forever be

And though it may cost my soul

I'll sing for free

Breathe - Anberlin

As way of confession, this is the only song I have from Anberlin's new album, New Surrender, and for being an Anberlin fan, that's rather shameful! This song is epic, and beautiful, so I love it, and Stephen Christian has an angel's voice.

I can finally breathe

Suddenly alive

I can finally move

What it feels revived

This long of a struggle

Finally opened up my eyes

Revolution's not easy

With a civil war on the inside

Learning How To Die - Jon Foreman

this song is kinda impossible to talk about, its just to sad to talk about I guess.

All along I thought

I was learning how to take

How to bend not how to break

How to live not how to cry

But really

I've been learning how to die

I've been learning how to die

New York - U2

Yes, this song is old (from 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind), and yes, its probably a song that no one has heard--but I like it, I like it a lot. I discovered it for the first time last time I borrowed this album, it was epic, and I had never listened to it before...and I was shocked because I had missed it!

In New York I lost it all to you and your vices

Still I'm staying on to figure out my mid life crisis

I hit an iceberg in my life

But you know I'm still afloat

Absolutely thrilling...

So, its 2009, and Word Entertainment's yearly compilation disc, titled WOW Hits 2009 is out to be consumed. So here are the songs:


1.
Cinderella - Steven Curtis Chapman

2.
Every Man - Casting Crowns

3.
Jesus Messiah - Chris Tomlin

4.
God With Us - MercyMe

5.
Lose My Soul - tobyMac
6.
Call My Name - Third Day
7.
Let It Fade - Jeremy Camp
8.
Everything Glorious - David Crowder*Band

9.
Mighty To Save (Live) - Michael W. Smith
10.
The Best Thing - Relient K

11.
In Better Hands - Natalie Grant
12.
How You Live (Turn Up The Music) - Point of Grace
13.
You Are Everything - Matthew West
14.
Song of Hope - Robbie Seay Band
15.
Set The World On Fire - Britt Nicole
CD 2:
1.
We Need Each Other - Sanctus Real
2.
This Is Home - Switchfoot
3.
Give Me Your Eyes - Brandon Heath
4.
All Because of Jesus - Fee
5.
Your Grace Is Enough - Matt Maher
6.
Love Is Here - Tenth Avenue North
7.
Count Me In - Leeland
8.
Unbreakable - Fireflight
9.
Already Over - Red
10.
Washed By The Water - NEEDTOBREATHE
11.
Jesus Loves You - Stellar Kart
12.
I'm Letting Go - Francesca Battistelli
13.
My Freedom - Krystal Meyers
14.
Sound of Your Name - Above The Golden State
15.
All Along - Remedy Drive

Sounds absolutely thrilling doesn't it? [sarcasm] Most of these songs are drastically overplayed on the only Christian radio station in my area. Casting Crowns' "Every Man" is possibly the only song they've ever done that is somewhat interesting (and thats coming from a person who dislikes them); plus, there a new names that are not even familiar to me! (Above the Golden State) and others that I've heard of, but never gotten exposed to (Remedy Drive). Overall, it looks like its the usual CCM pick of mundane music that all pretty much comes out of Nashville.

Note: Naturally, I'm slightly impressed with how Switchfoot got on there (this would make the second WOW in all time that they've made it on--the other being WOW 2000 with "New Way To Be Human). On the other hand I found it annoying and a little rude because magazines such as Christianity Today COMPETELY (and when I say that, I mean it) ignored their very presence on the album--they said NOTHING (they also said nothing about Relient K...perhaps because the author of the article was having way to much fun complaining about how the other songs were cheesy picks, I mean, this dude, he couldn't sell me anything they way he's writing reviews). Now I understand that I am a severly biased Switchfoot fam, but all the same that seemed like something that would not happen.

"It'll be a day like this one"

"So the new year has arrived in her traditional fashion: with a kiss, a yell, and a sip from a disposable plastic glass. We throw in a mumbled verse about auld acquaintances and swallow the old year down. Dead. Done. Gone. Over. That's really all there is to it. And yet, when the sun rises on the suburban sprawl of driveways and shopping malls he finds them much like he does on every other Sunday. Yes, and we reluctantly wake to find that the bedroom ceiling looks eerily familiar. Yes, and aside from the telltale beer bottle on the lawn next door it might as well be any day of last year or of the next. So you rub your eyes and roll away from the window, hoping to get back to sleep. Your thoughts drift back to last night. And then, in that brief, tender moment of thought between reality and a dream you smirk at the ridiculous concept of celebrating the passing of time. Why are we so excited to announce that we are yet one year closer to the inevitable graves that await us all? Perhaps we are enthralled by The New. I know I am. The thought of a second shot; a clean slate; the American dream; the fairy tale; the "anything can happen"... could we call it a longing for redemption? Maybe. For me, redemption is collection a bittersweet stories that haunt the present tense. You see the past I have has much that has been forgiven. Mistakes piled on top of mistakes. And every year I add to the list of injustices that betray the selfish, arrogant bastard that I truly am. And yet, today I am not despondent. No, you see I have far too much to be thankful for. I wake up with the new sun knowing that I am not forced to be enslaved to myself. The chains of my appetite and of my lust are not my destiny. Truly, I have been given a second start: a new, abundant life that begins this side of the grave. No, I do not have all the answers but every breath that I have been given points to a grace that I cannot fully comprehend. Thanks to the community around me who has shown me the face of God as they demonstrate his abundant grace. Happy new year, mi amigos, have a graceful 365.25." - jon foreman

It'll be a day like this one

When the sky falls down

When the hungry and poor

And deserted are found

Are you discontented?

Have you been pushing hard?

Have you been throwing down

This broken house of cards?

It'll be a day like this one

When the world caves in

Well, its now time to bid 2008 "cheerio!", and then instantly greet 2009 with an "oh hullo!"


Why do we celebrate the new year? Tradition? or is it something about hoping for a better year to come?

I don't know.

graphic credit goes to LOBH

Its not my job

This week has been emotionally rough. I have encountered things that I do not understand, things that do not even begin to make sense to me, but one thin has no occurred to me: God is much wiser, and much more powerful than me. I cannot even pretend to understand half of what is in the Bible, I do not understand how our world even continues spinning, and yet I am comforted by knowing that it is alright to not know everything because I'm not God. It's not my job to run the world, its not my job to have everything figured out.

"Oh, the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgements and His ways past finding out!" - Romans 11:33

"Praise Me. Praise Me. Praise Me."

"Worship tunes tend to evince an adolescent theology, one that just can't get over how...cool it is that Jesus sacrificed himself for the world. "Our God is an awesome God." "O Lord, you are glorious." "How can it be/that you, a king, would die for me?" Moreover, it's self-centered in a way that reflects evangelicalism's near-obsession with having a personal relationship with Christ. It's me Jesus died for. I just gotta praise the Lord. Not for nothing is "Amazing Grace," which marvels at the author's salvation, one of the few traditional hymns to be regularly included in modern worship services. Absent is any hint of community found in hymns such as "The Church Is One Foundation"-- the Jesus of worship music is a mentor, a buddy, a friend whose message is easily distilled to a simple command: praise me. Not "feed the poor, clothe the naked, visit the prisoner." Simply thank Him for His gift to you (and make sure to distill copyright information at the bottom of the screen so royalties can be disbursed)." - Andrew Beaujon [Body Piercing Saved My Life]

_____________________________________

For some reason, I find this to be extremely hilarious (especially the parenthetical inclusion at the end) -- in a cynical and ironic way. I just get this really odd picture of a robotic Jesus who chirps in a machine voice: "Praise me. Praise me. Praise Me."

"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world." - James 1:27

"your eyes are closed when you’re praying, you sing right along with the band, you shine up your shoes for services, but there’s blood on your hands, you turned your back on the homeless, and the ones that don’t fit in your plans, quit playing religion games, there’s blood on your hands" - Jon Foreman ["Instead of a Show"]

Its really easy for me to sit here and confirm other people's accusations...but really, am I any better? I do find it a lot easier to walk right by people that I could at least say something nice to. I guess, I want to make it clear that by posting this, I'm not trying to be self-righteous.

Everything Will Let You Down

Life is pain. That is possibly the only think I know to be true right now. There is enough pain in one minute to last a lifetime. My family is a wreck, I'm a wreck, my friends are wrecks and I don't belong here--moments like these makes that very clear. I don't care about my life--it is but a lost cause; all I want to do is sleep, sleep, and let sleep kill me. Sleep's death is miles better than maniacal depression death. God is still here, its true. I just don't know where. And I only understand one thing--man is but a vapor, and right now all I want to do is disappear like a vapor will. Because being nonexistent is way freer than being existent. Existence means pain. Pain means depression. Depression means being a wreck. Being a wreck means killing myself. But then, all I want is nonexistence anyway. (please don't take that as a suicidal statement)

"Invade my heart, Invade this broken town. . . two things you told me, you are strong, and you love me, yes, you love me. . . "

Tears may fall. Scars may form. Wounds may break back open. Vices may win temporarily. But I won't touch myself with a knife because I know deep inside that it won't help any.

Perhaps the most depressing aspect of it all is that tomorrow will come, and nothing will have changed. Hearts still break, people still die, and I will still wonder if I am indeed just another mere lost cause. Through it all, I will walk on because "it would be a lie to run away."

"Everything in this life can let you down. Right now, the chair I am sitting in could break and fail me. In a few minutes I can go up and sing on that stage to thousands of people, but when I get off the stage my health could fail and I could lose my voice forever and never be able to sing again. I have a beautiful wife, but I could go home and find out she has been unfaithful. You see, everything in this life can fail you. Everything in this life is finite, meaning it doesn't last, but only one thing is truly infinite and will last forever. Yes, everything in this life can and will let you down, but the beautiful thing about it is this, when everything lets you down in this world it leads you to the one thing that is truly beautiful..... the unfailing love of Jesus Christ." - Jon Foreman

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, not powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:38-39