Entries Tagged 'musick' ↓

creative, lyrically driven, political, rebellious spouting… Find him here.

This Sunday I am traveling about as far away from Oklahoma as I can… All the way across the globe to Indonesia, with most of our two weeks spent on an island west of Sumatera.  I am going with a great friend of mine, Joe Hall, who lived there for the past 3 years and will be the tour guide for the trip.  From what I know, we are going to be doing some disaster relief with an International NGO, which includes teaching some farming techniques, some ESL, some construction and some repairs.  It is a mixture of traveling for travelings sake while also doing some good.  A mixture I think I am preferring, rather than just traveling for the exotic food and beers…  While in Trinidad last year I helped build an addition to a building, mixing mortar, stacking cinder blocks, carrying cement, and other labor intensive tasks.  It was a way to soak in the culture, be around the locals and do good.

I leave on Sunday, May 11 and will be gone till the 25th.  I don’t think I will have computer access, though I will be journaling and taking mad photos… so be on the look out for a random entry and then a dumping when I get back.  I can honestly say that I am looking forward to the experience and am getting incredibly anxious for the 30 hour travel day… blah.

music you’ve  never heard, but should… this is for those who live to love.  some have asked for some new stuff to spin in the decks, and i have delivered.  if you’ve heard of all of these bands, you are as cool as me.

Alternative/Melodic -
Band of Horses - cease to begin

Sleeping at Last - keep no score

Ester Drang - rocinate

Stars of Track and Field - centuries before love and war

Progressive Folk -

Kunek - flight of the flynns

Deas Vail - all the houses look the same

Intrumental -

This Will Destroy You - young mountain

Singer/Songwriter -

Dustin Kensrue - please come home

Rap -

Swollen Members - black magic

Check more Independent music out at:  IndieUprising.net

Just got back from MC’ing Konnection in Branson, MO… It was a blast, a lot of great speakers and concerts coupled with some sweet time of praise and worship, both in singing and in conversation. Being an MC at a conference is a hectic, fluid, and completely fun. I tag teamed MC’d the conference with Allen Befort, he is hilarious, organized and covered every time if forgot what the next announcement was (which happened… twice).

The conference itself was dynamic with speakers like Pete Newman, Shaun Groves, David Nasser and Soup Cambell; coupled with musical performances by Pete & Bekah Majors, Ben Rector, Shaun Groves, Phil Wickham, and Cairyo (pronounced: K-Rio). All in all a great weekend - I caught up with all my K-Institute family and my K-Colorado family, although it seems that encounters were brief, they were cherished.

Look for the podcast of some of the speakers here.

I have had a rather contemplative weekend. No real big events, just a lot of discussions and listening. I listened to a podcast by Scott McKnight entitled, “The Whole Gospel,” twice this weekend, and will probably listen to it again soon, as it affirms so much that is going on in my mind about church, community, and the gospel.

One of the illustrations he uses to describe the disconnect between the propositions of the faith and the action of the faith… is beautiful.

To the left is a snapshot of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata this will be the protagonist to this discussion, if you click on the snapshot you can download the entire third movement in pdf format.

To a un-musically-educated person, it just looks like a mass of notes, crescendo’s, and rests (or dots, lines, and squiggles), the lay person cannot hear the beautiful melody by looking at notes on a page… but unlike us, the infinite God hears the entire piece when he looks at this compilation of notes, crescendo’s and rests.

In the same way when wrestling in our understanding of Christianity we cannot limit ourselves to propositions of faith (logical statement that expresses a concept and or belief) written on tablets of paper. We must interact with these propositions, see, touch, hear and feel what they look like in action.

Interaction: Take a second and try to humm the melody as you follow the notes to “Moonlight Sonota.” Can you hear the magnificence of the music? or is it rather humdrum and a tad flat?

We can get an idea of the masterpiece by someone humming but we cannot experience the fullness without interacting with the music: we must hear it, bask in it, hummm it, and then begin to share it with others. If this music (our faith) has truly changed our lives than it must be played! So here it is folks Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (third movement):

This past week (pre-christmas) has been a movie and musick week for some odd reason. I don’t normally see three movies in one week or buy 3 cd’s in one week. I blame Christmas gift cards. They make you purchase things you have been wanting with no guilt. So here is the rundown:

	inspiring, musical, community, passion, artistic, mountains, oceans, streams…. Iceland!
	soundtrack & movie, musical, studio, love, guitar, piano… Dublin!
	indie rock, Sub Pop Records, melodic, rock… Seattle!
	instrumental, ambient rock, trash, explosions in the sky… San Marcos!
	musically gifted, connectedness, love, guitar, cello… NYC!

A masterful piece of film, which integrates documentary style cinematography with raw unadulterated musical passion. It was like watching an hour and a half music video, but with none of the scantily clad women or reference to bling-blang.

My brother told me about the soundtrack to this movie yesterday (although I don’t think he has seen the movie yet) and after buying the soundtrack via a iTunes gift card (Thank you Hudiburg Family), I convinced a few friends (they are girls… its a romantic movie… hence and easy sell) to rent the movie and we watched it last night.

Brilliant. Cool. Irish. Gypsy. Love. Life. Mess. Passion.

Just a few words that come to mind if I were doing a free association exercise. I recommend this flick if you enjoy these three things: independent music, documentaries, Irish people cussing. If you don’t like any one of these, I would recommend you get a life and stop watching smutty, overproduced broadcast television. Cool.

This is why my life is never boring…

Ok, I showed up at one of my writing spots an hour ago to find a little celtic band holed up in the middle of the coffee shop…

the hell?

It first seemed to be an impromptu jam session, but soon became much, much more… I don’t really know what to think and my writing is ‘mos def’ shot for tonite.  The “band” consists of 4 players, who play multiple instruments (not at the same time… that would be a feat), including a guitar, a banjo, a mandolin, a fiddle, an accordion, a flute, a piccolo and a drum. They just took a break which allows me the opportunity to render some of their songs (I’ve been recording them on Garage Band for the past half hour)… We’ll call them the Leprechaun Four.

For (I’m sure) the first time… Introducing to the world the Leprechaun Four! Enjoy!

 

 Track 2: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Track 3: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Centuries Before Love and War

My brother Sean, who produces a weekly podcast called IndieUprising - True.Independent.Rock. has been feeding me an endless supply of great new music. This band is getting a lot of playback on my iPod. The album can be compared to Mute Math, but has its very own style of vocal harmony and flowing instrumentals. Try it out, see what you think.