I once read part of a Peter Enns book and could see myself going back to it someday I guess. But, I really struggled with his modernist attitude toward the spiritual/supernatural. Like, what you talking about? That’s some of the good shit in Christianity! Love the Holy Ghost, lol. Oh well. Anyways, yeah, saying that women obviously can’t be in leadership and have to submit to men is such obvious bullshit, lol. I know people who are poisoned enough by American evangelicalism to suck on queer issues, who still land on the right side of saying the trajectory of Scripture clearly supports women as pastors, prophets, etc. (Though, I do unfortunately also know people who stick to that “clear” teaching. Sigh.) It’s so dumb.
I feel this. I went through some stuff pretty hard after 2016 and seeing so many families from my old church on social media with MAGA merch and just turning into hateful people. Made me really start drifting away from the Calvinist upbringing I had. Took years of reading, listening to podcasts, and meeting with people in my church to find solid footing I think. I truly think finding the right church is critical. Pray you find peace.
Just did a search and didn’t see this mentioned here yet… Sam Hauge’s album Out of Isolation is really good pop punk/easycore for fans of New Found Glory, Sum 41, and Four Year Strong. He’s also a one man band which is pretty cool! I think a lot of people here would dig him!
Before going further, I want to be clear that I'm being 100% genuine in this post. I legitimately am hoping for recommendations and discovery while also trying to ask a legitimate question about what I've observed about Christian music. Question 1: Why is so much Christian music rootsy/folky/americana-y ... or hardcore? Question 2: I'm really desiring worshipful, good Christian music along the lines of Third Eye Blind, Motion City Soundtrack, Mom Jeans. (yes, Mom Jeans.), Slow Pulp, Petey, Origami Angle, stuff I legitimately love listening to. I want to legitimately love the music and songwriting of Christian stuff too, with lyrical content that keeps my focus on God. So far only Kings Kaleidoscope and John Van Deusen have done it for me. Any recommendations?
there’s this really cool band called Relient K who is kinda like a Christian Origami Angel ;) 1) My best guess for the former is that those genres strike the balance between modern and inoffensive, and translate most easily to integrating into a worship service or by a solo artist, which led to more songwriters writing in those genres. My guess for the latter is that you’re posting on FKA absolutepunk.net so those artists are discussed more frequently here 2) Colony House, Mutemath, Paper Route, House of Heroes, and Tyson Motsenbocker are some favorites who are Christian but not Worship and outside of the folk or hardcore spheres the Spotify algorithm is pretty good at generating playlists if you type in Christian [genre] (ie. Christian pop-punk) that might give you a more specific example to what you’re looking for!
I was going to suggest John Van Deusen, but you already got him. He’s so good. Have you listened to Bleach? They’re an older band that might fit that Third Eye Blind hole.
1. My guess would be because a lot of churches have more stripped down music in the folk/americana vein bands off-shoot from there. Hardcore as a reaction to the movement in 90's/2000's, it was a huge influence on Christian kids who went and made music. 2. Hearts Like Lions, Juliana Theory, Waking Ashland, twothirtyeight, listener, the Classic Crime, The Fold, Sullivan, Switchfoot, Sanctus Real (early stuff), Superchick, Showbread, Brothers Martin, Ace Troubleshooter, and Further Seems Forever are ones that come to mind. Depends how worshipful you are looking for of course but these all scratch that itch for me.
100% yes to both of these recommendations! JVD has been a great recent find and Bleach is still a favorite of mine. Sun Stands Still and Sufficient/Knocked Out are top tier worship songs
Bleach…love that band. Wish they’d gotten their act together and done more a few years ago. Played a couple shows and then nothing. Also, their name makes it very difficult to search for anything specifically related to them on eBay/online haha
Top 3 Bleach search results: Anime, Nirvana, Chlorox I wish they would have done more reunion shows too. But I do appreciate that they were able to do a final album and tour. I watch that final show from time to time, just wish they could have released the entire thing instead of only half the songs
Here's the setlist I found, I also remember the Jesusfreakhideout review talking about how half the songs were cut too. It's still better than nothing but I would have loved having those extra songs. Not getting Knocked Out and Jaded Now is just wrong
I love that Bleach still comes up in discussion every few months. I'm watching the final show again and it brings back such nostalgia, more than almost any other band. It's a strange mix of joy and melancholy remembering/missing being 15 and standing outside at summer festivals watching them play
Agreed, however I’ll add that cutting the self-titled songs (Once Again and Race), is such a bummer as well. I’m guessing someone at T&N did the math on how much they were paying someone to edit the set footage vs how much they thought they could make from the CD/DVD release and decided 12 songs was their limit. I would even take a live CD of all the songs… Edit: messaged Mark Lee Townsend to ask about them since he recorded the show. Not sure if he’ll reply but I’ll update if he does.
I did not realize he recorded that, very cool. I would love to see that footage or even get the audio. I'm guessing he couldn't just post it to Youtube but I would definitely buy that
I still spin a lot of their discography a few times a year. My wife got a signed poster while they were touring on Atronomy when they did a show at Messiah College while she was there. It's hanging in our bedroom. One of my favorite things.
Saw them at their final tour…there was like 20 people there. Not exaggerating. Whoever put on the show didn’t promote it very well. And the power went out partway through so Davy hopped on a piano and played stuff for a bit while they fixed the issue. I think they took requests and played Once Again Here We Are for me lol
Not all direct comparisons, but these are the bands that track reminded me of the most. Broken Cedars, they have very overt Christian message in fast pop-punk, very good stuff: Ace Troubleshooter, love these guys so much: Side Walk Slam, fast pop-punk with less Christian themes but still more than most:
I love Side Walk Slam and their off-shoot band Run Kid Run had some good stuff too. Sorry if my question was unclear. That lighthouse song is a worship song, and I was wondering if any other praise songs would work well as pop punk.
Pretty sure I saw one of Side Walk Slam’s last shows…their singer had left unexpectedly and the bass player filled in for him. As I recall he did not look pleased…the entire time lol
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