Christian Rock Sunday: The Truth!

This is the truth about Christian rock music. Christian rock is not choirs singing gospel hymns or some sissy, watered down version of rock music. I heard more hardcore music coming from Christian bands that some heavy metal bands. And in fact many people who are opposed to this genre are surprised to learn several of the artists that frequent their playlists are popular Christian bands. Let me introduce you to some of my favourite Christian bands, some you may already know.

Demon Hunter

This band plays rock and heavy metal and in my experience people who hear them without knowing it would never guess they were Christian. Have a listen to some of their music:

Official "Collapsing" Video

Thousand Foot Krutch

Hailing from Canada, some of you may or may not know this band, as they have a larger following in the USA. To some's surprise, Trevor McNevan, founding member, guitarist and lead vocals, has close ties to Three Days Grace, Finger Eleven, and Breaking Benjamin. He even had a hand in Three Days Grace's demo. You can pick up anyone of their albums and every song is crazy awesome, so it is hard to pick some favourites.

P.O.D.

Here is a great band that has been around for a long while and have great mainstream success. You probably know them, so I just let you get to the music. If you don't recognize either of these two songs, look up "Boom".

Pillar

This is one of the bands I've found on people iTunes and they had no idea they were a Christian band. I couldn't find a good quality video that had embedding enabled or wasn't blocked in Canada (don't know how record companies expect people to spread music around), so just click "Frontline".

Here is a quick run down of some more great Chrisitan bands you may already be listening to.

Skillet

Relient K

Project 86

Decyfer Down

I could go on with many more great bands, some unknown and others mainstream artists, but why not just discover them for yourself. Here are two free sites streaming Christian rock.

Or you can sign up for New Release Tuesday or Hear It First. Both of these sites give you several free downloads each week, offer full album previews, contests and NRT even lets you earn points for free swag.

Street Music in Toronto

I had originally gone downtown Toronto to see Stars play at the Queen St. HMV, unfortunately it was not the best of days outside and parts of the subway were closed so I decided not to stick around for the performance. But while I was downtown I did see some interesting street music aside from the usual drums, guitar and bagpipes that are always around. I came around a man, I believe he was sitting somewhere along Queen St., and he was playing a saw with a violin bow. To create different notes he bent the blade using a handle attached at the end. He was managing to create some quite haunting music on it and I thought this is probably one of the most interesting instruments I have seen in a while.

I only wish I had a camera with me because my phone's quality is atrocious. But, I searched YouTube and was of course able to find someone playing similarly.

Taking It Back Thursday

This is the first segment (hopefully of many) of Taking It Back. The Taking It Back segments will vary as I this blog goes on. Sometimes it will be about some classic hits that have been lost in 30 or more years of new bands and hit singles. Other times, we will reminisce about a bands early years.

This week I'm taking you back to 1990 for the formation of one of the great rock bands to hail from Seattle. The original line-up was first known as Mookie Blaylock, a name paying homage to a basketball star. Changing the name to Pearl Jam for fear legal consequences. Vedder's audition tape to three bands including the future Pearl included three songs, one of which would the first single on the band's debut release. This song, "Alive", still gets regular play on radio stations nearly 20 years later.



Currently, Pearl Jam are on a European tour for their 2009 release Backspacer. Whether or not you like their new hits, you can't reasonably deny the greatness of this song. Even Vedder himself has stated that Ten is the only early Pearl Jam album he can listen to.

I hoped you enjoyed reading this segment and stayed tuned for future taking it back Thursdays and other new segments. Feel free to post any of your thoughts or ideas on this segment.

Top 5 Masked Musicians

I wanted to make a list of the best costumes in music, but every band just had creepy costumes all following in the footsteps of Kiss, such as Lordi and Gwar, or wore the same type of suit, the Hives, the Beatles, Devo, et cetra. There were some unique get ups such as the Village People, but I decided to limit this list to masks only. Besides masked bands are so much more mysterious. Everyone always has to try and find out what they look like underneath the mask. It is also good for bands that don't want to be judged on their looks and style, only their music.

Without further ado, here are the best five masks in music:

5. Los Straitjackets

This band's masks are very simple, but can be very funny, even inspiring a Jack Black movie.

4. Slipknot

All unique masks that will mess up your dreams.

3. Buckethead

Even simpler than the Los Straitjackets, it is just an empty KFC bucket. I wonder if he gets paid by them, he might be able to get a better deal from Mary Brown's or Popeye's.

2. Deadmau5

I think it is the size of this mask that counts, plus he is the only Canadian DJ in the Top 25 on TheDJList.com. (I guess I should note that the red suit in the picture is coincidental and not always worn)

1. Daft Punk

These are by far the most intricate (and most expensive) and hard to replicate masks on this list. All the LEDs add great effects at live shows and robots fit perfectly with Daft Punk's style.

What do you think, creativity or gimmicks?

Female Lead Singers

Question for everyone, how come there are handfuls of female lead singers in rock bands, many successful ones, yet most people say they don't like female rock singers?

The Evidence:

Flyleaf

Paramore

Evanescence

Metric

Guano Apes

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

Others:

No Doubt

VersaEmerge

Hey Monday

Stars

Lacuna Coil

Within Temptation

Arch Enemy

Silverson Pickups

And I could go on, but you get my point. I don't know why some people can't listen to female singers. Check out "My Apocalypse" by Arch Enemy, the vocals are more hardcore than many male metal singers. Some female vocalists are very talented, Haley Williams being near the top of the list.

Must Have Summer Tuneage!

Island in the Sun by Weezer

Soak Up the Sun by Sheryl Crow

Patio Lanterns by Kim Mitchell

Obviously a great tune for ever summer party on your deck or grilling on the BBQ.

Sunburn by Muse

Not really a summer song, but still great none the less. [Sorry, embedding was disabled]

Steal My Sunshine by Len

Where Is My Mind by The Pixies

Written while on vacation in the Caribbean, this song has a great summer vibe.

California Gurls by Katy Perry ft. Snoop Dogg

I didn't really want to include this, but you're probably gonna hear it all summer anyways.

If you're in the mood you can bring out Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams. And, if you want to listen to All Summer Long by Kid Rock, don't, just listen to Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon and Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd.

The Most Typecast Actor in Music Videos is...

The albino Burmese python! That's right, unfortunately this poor little fella, *ahem* large fella is always getting the same role. But on the other hand he's been with some beautiful women. Check him out in Emii's "Magic" music video, in the dark in Ke$ha's "Your Love is my Drug" video, and you all know him from Britney Spears' famous performance at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Lady Gaga vs. Madonna

I just watched the "Alejandro" video by Lady Gaga and it kinda reminded me of the "Like a Prayer" video from Madonna. Just in the way that the burning crosses and black Jesus were controversial. This video had a Nazi or SS soldier, Gaga wearing a red leather (by the look of it) nun outfit, and even a cross appeared in the 7 and half minute. Not to mention the graphic sexual positions and motions.

This got me thinking and Gaga seems very similar to Madonna. They both wear odd outfits that are often pushing boundaries and both of them seem to be able to transform how they look quite easily. I would say Lady Gaga is the modern day Madonna, she seems to be releasing enough hits. Just look at some evidence below:

You can always just Google Lady Gaga and Madonna and you'll see how many times they've completely changed their looks. They both seem to be trend-setters of fashion, not that I would know very much about that.

Here are links to Alejandro and Like a Prayer if you want to check them out.

Welcome to the Blog, We've Got Fun and Games

Yeah, so I just started up this blog to go with the Sicum Reviews YouTube channel, twitter, and website.

I'll probably post some reviews that I don't have time to record or anything else music related. So stay tuned for more.