Being Ryan Byrd

two in review: march/april 2013

ryan — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:06:40 +0000

ladies and gentlemen (and others), it’s that time to once again bring you another two in review.

if you’ve missed any past reviews, you can view the two in review archive.

this is one of those where it was really difficult to narrow down a long list of really great music. that’s why you’re getting this on the very last day of april. i’ve spent the last week (and particularly, the last 2 days) adding and taking away tracks from the final 20 you’re receiving today. a lot of great music didn’t make the final cut. nevertheless, i’m happy with the final result. i hope you are as well.

so without further ado, here’s the lineup for the march/april edition of two in review:

1. justin timberlake: pusher love girl [from the 20/20 experience]
2. kid cudi: immortal [from indicud]
3. vampire weekend: step [from modern vampire of the city]
4. neko case: that’s who i am [from ghost brothers of darkland county ost]
5. dan croll: from nowhere [from from nowhere]
6. rilo kiley: let me back in [from rkives]
7. beady eye: second bite of the apple [from be]
8. josh ritter: new lover [from the beast in its tracks]
9. lady: tell the truth [from lady]
10. iron & wine: grace for saints and ramblers [from ghost on ghost]
11. pusha t: numbers on the board [from MNIMN]
12. the shouting matches: avery hill [from grownass man]
13. water liars: fake heat [from wyoming]
14. snoop lion: ashtrays and heartbreaks (ft. miley cyrus) [from reincarnated]
15. woodkid: run baby run [from the golden age]
16. brandi carlile & emmylou harris: take me home, country roads [from the music is you: a tribute to john denver]
17. james blake: take a fall for me (ft. RZA) [from overgrown]
18. natalie maines: come cryin’ to me [from mother]
19. wavves: demon to lean on [from afraid of heights]
20. derek webb: #UNBLOKME [from #UNBLOKME]

enjoy!

download the zip: two in review: march/april 2013

patton oswalt talks boston bombing, inadvertently talks jesus

ryan — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:31:51 +0000

there’s little more i can add to the conversation surrounding monday’sboston marathon bombing. we’ve collectively mourned the loss of lives, searched for answers to why this happened and watched the explosion footage over and over in disbelief. when these senseless tragedies happen, we’re left with a lot of talk and very few answers.

it’s unlikely, then, that a comedian would add some worthwhile words of wisdom. but that’s exactly what patton oswalt did in a facebook post monday afternoon. quite frankly, i’m not that big of a fan of patton oswalt, but his words transcended whether or not i laugh at his jokes or watch his movies. i’m including his entire statement here. he writes,

Boston. Fucking horrible.

I remember, when 9/11 went down, my reaction was, “Well, I’ve had it with humanity.”

But I was wrong. I don’t know what’s going to be revealed to be behind all of this mayhem. One human insect or a poisonous mass of broken sociopaths.

But here’s what I DO know. If it’s one person or a HUNDRED people, that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet. You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out. (Thanks FAKE Gallery founder and owner Paul Kozlowski for pointing this out to me). This is a giant planet and we’re lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they’re pointed towards darkness.

But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We’d have eaten ourselves alive long ago.

So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, “The good outnumber you, and we always will.”

yes. yes. yes.

he taps into one of my most core, life-guiding values: people are inherently good. humanity isn’t collectively depraved and wicked and evil. good wins. love wins. evil and darkness are, have been and will be defeated.

this certainly wasn’t his intention, but what patton oswalt says here is one of the fundamental beauties of jesus’ message—we’re all beautifully shaped and crafted in the image of god. good is at work within the world. and the actions of a few aren’t representative of the whole.

we have reason to be hopeful in the midst of tragedies that make us cry. that make us angry. that make us confused and uncertain. even if “the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled” and “pointed towards darkness”, we can look around and affirm that good and love and kindness trump the “fraction of a fraction of a percent” that represent violence and bigotry and intolerance in the world.

so, in this time of mourning and sadness, may we also celebrate the fact that “the good outnumbers the bad, and always will”. and may we run TOWARDS the destruction so that the good shines brighter than the bad.

why i’m surprised rob bell came out in support of same sex marriage

ryan — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 12:27:20 +0000

yesterday morning, the theological wing of the twittersphere exploded when audio surfaced of rob bell affirming same sex marriage. while speaking at grace cathedral—an episcopal church in san francisco—he was directly asked about his stance on gay marriage and he offered the following response:

“I am for marriage. I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it’s a man and woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man. I think the ship has sailed and I think the church needs — I think this is the world we are living in and we need to affirm people wherever they are.”

here’s the deal: i’m not, in the slightest, surprised at his theological stance. i think, for quite some time, he’s made clear in his teachings and writings that he holds to a generous orthodoxy that majors on inclusion. i am with him on that—for lack of a better word—hermeneutic.

yet, i’m still surprised at his response. one of the things that has separated rob bell from pretty much every other prominent christian leader is his ability to—what i’m calling—”live above the fray”. he’s spent quite a few years uninterested in the christian culture wars or the divisive bickering that epitomizes the warring factions of christianity. he is above denomination and category and has operated in a space that no one else occupies.

because of those things, i’m a little surprised at his directness in response. it isn’t that i expect a politician’s response in which he doesn’t actually answer the question or a watery response that’s generic and valueless. rather, rob bell typically responds with a bigger answer—a more poignant and thoughtful answer—than what we expected or that the question even merits.

when jesus was asked small questions, he gave answers bigger than the question. the pharisees thought they could trap jesus by asking him which commandment was the most important. they sought a simple, singular answer. jesus, though, gave them a bigger answer when he told them that it was loving god and loving people. jesus’ response was “above the fray”.

this is what rob bell typically does. and that’s why i’m surprised at his forthcoming response to the question of same sex marriage.

don’t get me wrong, i agree with his stance and i’m glad that he’s opened the door to others having the courage to publicly support our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. i’m simply surprised at his directness.

he’s in a position in his life where this type of public declaration is easier for him (not pastoring a church, etc.), but it will still be interesting to see the backlash from evangelicals (particularly the angry reformed bloggers). regardless of the response, i think it’s safe to say that rob bell will continue, with wisdom and grace, living above the fray.

two in review: january/february 2013

ryan — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 15:14:27 +0000

ladies and gentlemen (and others), we’re a couple months into a new year which means it’s that time to once again bring you two in review. believe it or not, this is year number 3 of this series, so i’m excited to still be plugging along. i hope you’re enjoying it as well.

if you missed the final post of 2012, you can find that here. (or you can view the two in review archive.)

typically, the start of a new year is a slow time for new music. this year was no different. with the exception of music from fiction family, frightened rabbit and the lone bellow (and a couple others), there weren’t a lot of major highlights in january. february, though, picked up and helped to make for a pretty good collection this month.

my favorite two in reviews are ones that offer a broad spectrum of music and this one certainly doesn’t disappoint. so without further ado, here’s the lineup for the january/february edition of two in review:

1. jamie lidell: i’m selfish [jamie lidell]
2. thao & the get down stay down: we the common (for valerie bolden) [we the common]
3. justin timberlake: mirrors [from his forthcoming the 20/20 experience]
4. kitty: scout finch (ft. antwon) [d.a.i.s.y. rage]
5. fiction family: guilt [reunion]
6. alunageorge: attracting flies [from their forthcoming body music]
7. frightened rabbit: the woodpile [pedestrian verse]
8. chvrches: recover [recover]
9. leagues: you belong here [you belong here]
10. everything everything: cough cough [arc]
11. holly williams: without you (ft. jakob dylan) [the highway]
12. the strokes: one way trigger [from their forthcoming comedown machine]
13. the lone bellow: bleeding out [the lone bellow]
14. timbaland: the party anthem (ft. missy elliott, lil wayne & t-pain) [timbaland thursdays]
15. james blake: retrograde [from his forthcoming overgrown]
16. darwin deez: you can’t be my girl [songs for imaginative people]
17. jessie ware: what you won’t do for love [if you're never gonna move]
18. asap rocky: 1 train (ft. kendrick lamar, joey badass, yelawolf, danny brown, action bronson & big k.r.i.t.) [long. live. asap.]
19. ra ra riot: beta love [beta love]
20. autre ne veut: ego free sex free [anxiety]

enjoy!

download the zip: two in review: january/february 2013

beginning at the beginning: buddhism, the christian narrative (and les miserables)

ryan — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 13:26:24 +0000

truth is everywhere.

so was i reminded yesterday when i happened upon a tweet from @Buddha_Insights (via damien echols):

Buddhism does not view human beings as a pack of sinners. It views human life as the greatest opportunity for spiritual advancement.

01/28/2013 5:01 AM via SocialOomph ReplyRetweetFavorite

@Buddha_Insights

Rain

file this tweet in the category, “shots fired”. in this case, (whether it’s intentional or not) the shots flew in the direction of christianity. and, quite frankly, the shots are fair. (as well as this one, but that’s another post altogether.)

in the book, a new kind of christianity, brian mclaren lays out what he says is a poor narrative of scripture in which christians, by and large, skip the very beginning the story. the strong emphasis in christianity is largely the fall of adam and eve and the subsequent story of a god angered by sinful people. but alas! jesus comes and dies for us filthy sinners and everything’s ok (as long as you explicitly state the name of jesus as a means of salvation).

ok, hold that thought.

imagine if i’d never seen les miserables and you told me the following story:

a man named jean valjean is a fugitive on the run after committing a crime. he moves from city to city, changing his name to evade the law. the police inspector, javert, is in pursuit, attempting to perform his duties by bringing this criminal to justice. in the end, valjean eludes javert and javert kills himself because he’s unable to fulfill his sworn duty.

that’s the middle of the story. but the beginning of the story is absolutely critical to the middle of the story. you cannot understand the middle of the story without understanding the beginning of the story. according to the middle of the story, valjean is a criminal who rightfully deserves to be caught by javert. that would be justice. the beginning of the story, though, informs us of the context of valjean’s life and circumstances. and it changes everything.

so it is with the narrative of the christian scriptures. the middle of the story is only properly understood when told in the context of the beginning of the story. in the beginning, all things were created. and they were created good. as were people. and not only good, but in the very image of god.

when we make the primary narrative of christianity a story of sinners detached from god, we violate the the scriptures by removing parts of it.

human beings are not merely a pack of sinners. that’s merely the middle of the story. we are created beings who are crafted in the image of god himself. sin doesn’t define humanity. being made in the image of a good and loving and merciful creator, though, does.

the buddhist insight tweet offers a fair critique of a story perpetuated by a majority of christians. we’re more than sinners and it’s time we begin to affirm and live out the beginning of the story and not just the middle or the parts we choose.

12 albums i’m looking forward to in ’13

ryan — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:03:42 +0000

a few weeks into 2013, good new music has been pretty slow to roll in. so it typically goes in the month of january. the shortage has me thinking about albums that i’m anticipating throughout the course of the year. there’s a number of albums that have confirmed release dates while others are likely releasing this year but have no hard date for release.

let’s start with the albums we know are releasing this year.

the confirmed list

1. justin timberlake: the 20/20 experience
release date: TBA

few albums have been as universally anticipated as this one and it was just last week that we actually found out it would be happening in 2013. after a 6-year hiatus, timberlake announced a new single, suit & tie, that immediately broke the itunes records for most premiere-week digital sales. the bar is set sky-high for this album, so let’s hope he’s spent the last 6 years figuring out the formula for success.

2. derek webb: i was wrong, i’m sorry & i love you
release date: TBA, fall 2013

just months after the release of his highly anticipated album, ctrl, derek webb surprised fans by announcing he’d be celebrating the 10-year anniversary of his solo debut, she must and shall go free, by recording a follow-up that explores the same themes of the modern church. with his sonic and theological evolution over the last 10 years, this should make for a compelling album.

3. alunageorge: body music
release date: june

at the very top of my best new artists of 2012 list—not to mention the top of my best songs list—was alunageorge. after hearing their first song, you know you like it, i was captivated by this indie-meets-90s-r&b group from london. after a string of incredible songs throughout the pasat 9 months, the expectations for their debut album are incredibly high. we’ll find out in june when it releases.

4. natalie maines: mother
release date: may 7

i hate country music. and somehow, i’ve unabashedly been a fan of the dixie chicks since they burst onto the scene in the late 90s. after a long hiatus, natalie maines, disinterested in country music, is returning in may with a rock-influenced album (produced by ben harper) which will include covers of pink floyd’s mother and dan wilson’s free life.

5. fiction family: fiction family reunion
release date: january 29

at the tail end of 2008, much to our surprise, switchfoot’s jon foreman and nickel creek’s sean watkins announced that they’d formed a band called fiction family. after a great debut album in early 2009, they’ve returned in 2013 for a reunion album. with a couple tracks already floating around on the web, i anticipate an even stronger album this time around.

6. audio adrenaline: kings and queens
release date: march 12

listen, i’m cringing putting this album on this list. i get it. but…there’s 2 reasons it made it. first, it’s sort of a morbid curiosity. i fully expect cheesy ccm music from a band i loved when i was 14 years old. second, i’m still adjusting to kevin max—one of my all-time favorite artists—fronting a band that seems like an incredible stretch for his sensibilities. we’ll wait and see. (and then i’ll deny that i own this album…)

and here’s the albums that should release in 2013, but there’s no guarantee.

the most-likely list

1. arcade fire: currently untitled
release date: TBA, late 2013

i wasn’t a fan of arcade fire. and then i heard suburbs. all the hype is merited. with the bar set insanely high for the follow-up, we’ll see if arcade fire is able to continue their breakthrough and grammy award-winning success.

2. jenny lewis: currently untitled
release date: TBA, late 2013

let me go ahead and get this out of the way: i love jenny lewis. ok, now that i’ve said that, i can get to her music. i also happen to love that and we’ve been patiently waiting since 2008′s acid tongue. looks like 2013 will be the year that the waiting will end.

3. black keys: currently untitled
release date: TBA, late 2013

the black keys have been putting out albums for more than a decade now and with the 2010 release of brothers and 2011′s el camino, they’ve shown no signs of slowing down. there’s certainly no reason to believe this album won’t be another commercial and critical success.

4. u2: 10 reasons to exist (rumored title)
release date: TBA

haven’t we been talking about this supposed album for several years now? alas, it finally appears that it will actually happen. u2 is in a stratosphere by themselves and with that comes immense expectations. so let me go ahead and make a prediction: the album will be good…and the critics will hate it. happy 2013.

5. jay-z: currently untitled
release date: TBA

remember when jay-z retired? yeah, about that. people seem pretty confident that he’s currently finalizing his twelfth studio album—a follow-up to 2009′s the blueprint 3. i’m actually not a huge jay-z fan, but certainly, his albums are always worth the hyped lead-up to release.

6. kanye west: currently untitled
release date: TBA

alright, this one shouldn’t be on this list, but i really want it to happen. consider this the power of positive thinking. there’s been no official rumors of a new album this year, but kanye isn’t one to publicize the fact that he’s working on new material. i’m not holding my breath, but it could happen.

alright, so there you have it. i’m sure there’s plenty more great albums scheduled to release this year, but this, at least, gets us looking ahead.

what albums are you anticipating in 2013?

derek webb celebrates 10 years, announces new album, ‘i was wrong, i’m sorry & i love you’

ryan — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 13:13:33 +0000

on march 25, 2003, derek webb officially flipped the switch on his solo career with the release of his debut album, she must and shall go free. the album was a call to action and critique of the modern church which signaled a solo journey that would be characterized by controversy and an unpredictable evolution.

we’re fast approaching the album’s 10-year anniversary and today, derek webb made a couple announcements related to that anniversary. first, he announced he is releasing the album for free on noisetrade. you can download it, for a limited time, here. further, he announced that he’d be going on an anniversary tour throughout april and may in which he’ll play the entire album straight through.

these announcements were relatively straight forward. there was one, though, we didn’t see coming. in the video embedded below, webb announced that he’s nearly finished with a new—yes, just months after the release of his last album, ctrl—album, titled i was wrong, i’m sorry and i love you. he says the album picks up on the themes of she must and shall go free.

it’ll be interesting to see what direction this album takes, both theologically and musically. it’s hard to imagine he’ll completely return to the same as she must and shall go free for either of those things. i don’t expect a drastic theological/ideological departure, but, as with most of us, views evolve over the course of a decade. musically, webb’s music has moved in such a different direction that it’s particularly hard to imagine the new album being a direct sonic companion. i suspect, though, that there will at least be a nod to those earthy, folky sounds.

so, we’ll wait and see. should be a fun project. check out webb’s video announcement below.

what the final 60 seconds of ‘zero dark thirty’ tells us about war, torture

ryan — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:03:14 +0000

i’d give a spoiler alert warning, but zero dark thirty is a darker ‘titanic’. brace yourself, folks: they shoot & kill osama bin laden. with that said, i’m going to talk specifically about (and show a clip of) how the movie ends, which is not simply the killing of bin laden. so, proceed with as much caution as you deem necessary.

the controversy surrounding zero dark thirty began swirling almost immediately after word got out that kathryn bigelow, award-winning director of the hurt locker, would be making the film. as soon as screenings began, the criticism reached a fever pitch, with both conservatives and liberals decrying the film. even when, on twitter and facebook, i stated that i’d be seeing it, a few people chastised me for doing so.

i can report now, after seeing it, that it’s a movie that couldn’t have escaped the controversy. (i can also report that it’s a movie that i recommend everyone see.) the controvery seems to be a lesson in confirmation bias. ultimately, most people will enter with an opinion and leave with fuel that affirms that opinion. for example, conservatives who support “advanced interrogation techniques” will say that the movie proves they work. liberals who oppose torture will say the movie is inaccurate because it presumes that torture works and directly led to the successful conclusion to the hunt for osama bin laden.

no doubt, i have particularly strong opinions on the issues raised in the film. let me be very clear: i’m consistently pro-life. what that means is that i’m anti-war, anti-torture, anti-violence, anti-killing-for-any-reason, etc. i was opposed to the killing of osama bin laden and i’m opposed to the wars that our country have been engaging in for the last decade. to be even more clear: i believe the life of a “terrorist” is just as valuable as any american.

but if i’ve, after seeing the movie, fallen victim to confirmation bias, it’s in a different way than others of my ilk have used it to denounce the film (which i certainly do not).

i feel the filmmakers succeeded, as was their stated intention, in making a largely journalistic film. we watched as unflinching depictions of torture, shootings, bombings and suicide missions played out on the screen. these scenes aren’t set within the context of monologues that describe how we should feel. they simply occur. and we watch.

and for me, watching was difficult. as an american, watching detainees being tortured was chilling and shameful. seeing mothers and fathers being shot down as collateral damage in the raid on bin laden’s home was gruesome and saddening. the lines between the “good guys” and the “bad guys” have never been so blurred.

some have accused the filmmakers of setting up the CIA and the americans as the heroes, while all the muslims are simply deranged, blood-hungry terrorists. i absolutely didn’t feel that way. if anything, i saw the main character, maya (played by jessica chastain), as obsessive and calloused and largely unlikable due to her actions. early in the movie, she could barely watch the torture, but ultimately, she’s willing to endure those tactics if it means she gets what she wants. she is not a character i could root for.

and yet, she’s the character that delivers what i feel like is the only time the movie editorializes on what we’ve seen. it seems, in the final minute of the film, that the filmmakers offer their voice through her character. (to be fair, i’m making grand assumptions about the filmmakers’ points-of-view.)

after seal team six successfully enters the dwelling place of osama bin laden and leaves with his dead body (which is a genuinely riveting 30 minutes of cinema), chastain’s character confirms the identity of bin laden. with the mission over, it then cuts to her boarding a c-130. this sets up what i felt like was the most powerful moment in the movie. watch it below.

when she’s asked, where do you want to go?, her only response is silent tears. the realization that there is nowhere left to go is a tragic and painful one. where do you go after torturing people? after treating other human beings like less-than-humans? after obsessively wishing death on someone? after selling your soul for a government mission?

once you’ve traded your soul in for the dignity and value of others—regardless of what they’ve done or what they know—there is nowhere to go. you’ve entered into a journey in which you can’t turn back.

entering into that kind of darkness takes something away from you. it changes you. you’ve become what you believe you’re fighting to stop. it makes you lose direction.

in my estimation, this is the only time in the film that the filmmakers really pull back the curtain and offer a point-of-view. certainly, it’s a powerful one that sheds light on the horrific realities of obsession and torture and war.

i recommend that everyone go see zero dark thirty and in its aftermath, each one of us asks ourselves, where do you want to go?

teaching my kids not to be thankful for jesus’ death

ryan — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 13:03:05 +0000

i have a good friend who forbids his elementary-aged child from attending his parents’ church. he’s spent quite a few years working through what he feels like was a deceptive religious upbringing. now a church leader himself, he doesn’t want his child to be exposed to beliefs in a church setting that he views not only as wrong, but as his experience has proven, hurtful.

simply put, he fears a process of deprogramming with his child.

though i absolutely understand his feelings, i’ve felt like he was a little too overbearing with his probhibition.

now, though, i’m moving toward his point-of-view.

recently our children have attended another church a handful of times and a couple incidents—both involving lucy, our 5-year old—have given me reason for concern. (to be clear, this particular church isn’t one that i’m a big fan of, but i’ve chosen not to make it an issue.) the first incident was after she returned from vacation bible school and, thinking she’d impress me with what she learned, exclaimed, “he is risen so that i might live!”.

meanwhile, the other night during our prayer time, lucy, in her list of things she’s thankful for (mommy, daddy, olive, max, grandma, etc.), she said, “thank you that jesus died.”

now, don’t get me wrong, there’s certainly plenty to be thankful for regarding jesus’ death.

but for a 5-year old to first and foremost rattle off cliché phrases and prayers about the death of jesus—something she could never come close to understanding at this age? troubling, to say the least.

it’s been posited by various theologians and church leaders that the bible—at it truest and most raw essence—is inappropriate for children. i’m not sure if i go that far (though i might…), but certainly, the gruesome and brutal death of an innocent man is something we’d never dream to talk about with or show our children beyond the context of religion. it’s unthinkable that we’d wear an electric chair around our neck or use that as an emblem of our faith, but that’s exactly what we’ve reduced the cross to. we’ve made it not only palatable, but of no visceral consequence. those gruesome realities have been neutered in our christian culture and reduced to clichés that we teach children who have no capacity to understand those things.

so what can our children understand? they can understand the reckless mercy that jesus demonstrated in his life. they can understand the love that jesus showed to people who weren’t very deserving of love. they can understand the forgiveness that jesus granted to those who wronged him. they can understand the equality and acceptance he lived out to people who were marginalized and cast aside by society.

5-year olds aren’t cognitively equipped to understand the death of jesus but they can more than understand the life of jesus. debates have been raging for a couple thousand years about the purpose and meaning of jesus’ death, but the guiding principles of jesus’ life were agreed upon a very long time ago. let’s make those the focus.

so it’s time we stop introducing the story of jesus to children with the end of the story rather than the beginning. it’s time to stop being satisfied with passing down clichés rather than empowering children to live out the values that jesus demonstrated in his own life. it’s time we stop undercutting and disarming the story of jesus by believing and teaching others that his death is the only thing that matters.

yes, the death of jesus matters. but so does the life of jesus. and it matters so much more to our children. let’s honor both jesus and our children by teaching those truths.

when we do that, contrary to my friend’s fears, we’ll have little need of any process of deprogramming.

two in review: november/december 2012

ryan — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:02:04 +0000

ladies and gentlemen (and others), it’s come that time (just by the skin of my teeth…) to once again bring you two in review.

if you’ve missed past editions, here’s the previous posts from 2012:

1. january/february 2012

2. march/april 2012

3. may/june 2012

4. july/august 2012

5. september/october 2012

we’ve come to the end of another year of 2 in review-ing and this installment has been a bit unusual. as i write this, we’re on day number 6 of having no power, so we’ve been house-hopping and have found ourselves at a different person’s house each day. so, i’ve sorta thrown this together.

nevertheless, i think i’ve put together a worthy compilation despite the fact that this time of the year is a little slow for new (good) music. as always, i hope you enjoy and that you’re able to discover some new music.

without further ado, here’s the lineup for the november/december edition of two in review:

1. foals: inhaler [from their forthcoming foals]
2. big boi: in the a (ft. t.i. and ludacris) [from vicious lies and dangerous rumors]
3. islands: hallways [from a sleep & a forgetting]
4. poliça: lay your cards out [from give you the ghost]
5. jamie lidell: what a shame [from his forthcoming jamie lidell]
6. various cruelties: if it wasn’t for you [from various cruelties]
7. fiona apple: dull tool [from the this is 40 ost]
8. aerosmith: can’t stop loving you (ft. carrie underwood) [from music from another dimension]
9. stephen lynch: the gathering [from lion]
10. bruno mars: when i was your man [from unorthodox jukebox]
11. fiction family: damaged [from their forthcoming fiction family reunion]
12. green day: kid [from tré!]
13. punch brothers: icarus smicarus [from ahoy!]
14. shovels & ropes: birmingham [from o' be joyful]
15. the smashing pumpkins: bullet with butterfly wings (badlands demo) [from mellon collie and the infinite sadness (reissue)]
16. sufjan stevens: christmas in the room [from silver & gold]
17. dylan leblanc: i don’t want to know [from rumours revisited]
18. wu-block: bust shots (ft. inspectah deck) [from wu-block]
19. guards: giving out [from in guards we trust]
20. foxygen: shuggie [from we are the 21st century ambassadors of peace and magic]

enjoy!

download the zip: two in review: november/december 2012

most read blog posts of 2012

ryan — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 13:04:12 +0000

well, another year of blogging is in the books…er, on the internet.

in my most read of 2011 post last year at this time, i wrote that i thought i finally hit a stride in 2011. that stride slowed considerably this year (i wrote just over 50 posts this year, which is less than half of last year’s total), but in some ways, i think the quality increased. less filler this year. i only blogged about the stuff i really cared about. often, quite frankly, i didn’t even blog about some of the stuff i cared about. some of that was simply a product of personal burnout and time limitatons, but just as much was about making choices related to personal constraint.

each year, i like to take a look back—more out of curiousity than anything—and see which posts were most read. it never fails that that list is comprised both of posts i could’ve predicted (news-worthy or “controversial” posts) and things i would’ve never guessed.

so, here’s the list of the 10 most read posts on my blog for 2012.

10. burying the infant: in memory of rob toon

there’s a community of suffering that, on the surface, sounds depressing, but when you fully discover it, you experience a freedom that allows you to move on in healthy and holistic ways.

i’ll never forget rob and he’ll never cease to have an incredible impact on the rest of my life, but i’m thankful that i’ve finally been able to bury the infant.

read the entire post »

9. how then should we respond to violence?: a few thoughts on the thayer street shootings

how then should we respond to violence?

we should stay. we should invest in our downtown neighborhoods. love the people in these communities. refuse to let fear lead to an irrational and ill-informed decision about our neighborhoods.

read the entire post »

8. all hail the king: predictions for breaking bad’s final season

yes, it’s going to happen. it can’t not happen. hank will finally discover the identity of his coveted heisenberg. i think it’ll go something like this: hank will spend the first 8 episodes continuing to track the blue meth. in the final moments of the midseason finale, hank will finally get a big break about the source of the blue meth. when he discovers the lab, he’ll walk through the door, gun drawn, at the moment that walt rounds the corner, bringing them face to face. cut to credits.

read the entire post »

7. the lever-ending story: looking back at this election season

there’s a small part of me that’s ready for it to be all over, but i have to admit, i enjoy this process. i like the chess game of it all. i like the ridiculous fluctuation in the weekly and seemingly daily polling. i love the back and forth of the political talk shows. i enjoy it because i actually think it matters. exchanging ideas and debating policies is important. sure, it gets ugly at times and there’s plenty of vaccuous talking points, but our country moves forward when we engage in weighing out mulitple points-of-view and civic ideologies.

read the post in its entirety »

6. post-election burning questions: will will ferrell keep his campaign promises?

there’s so many questions left to answer after last night’s historic re-election of barack obama. the most important question, though, comes from some lofty promises made by america’s pre-eminent statesman: will ferrell.

read the entire post »

5. life of pi, biblical literalism and creationism

sometimes, the truth is ugly. sometimes, it’s unbelievable. sometimes, it’s mundane.

the creation stories in the first couple chapters of genesis weren’t intended to be scientific accounts. they weren’t intended by the writers to be literal. that wasn’t the purpose.

they understood that poetry and evocative imagery and emotive storytelling is what endears—and even allows—belief.

read the entire post »

4. best of 2012 posts

***i’m including all the best of 2012 posts collectively here. the cover songs post received the most visits of them all but ultimately, they were all pretty close to each other.

i assume that if you don’t love a good cover, then you must hate america. they’re great. while there’s a whole lot of bad covers, there’s always a good list (my initial list before narrowing them down included 50+ songs) of great cover songs each year. from established superstars to up-and-comers trying to make a name for themselves online, here’s my list of 2012′s best cover songs.

new music discoveries »
cover songs »
songs »
albums »

3. derek webb ctrl posts

***i’m lumping together a couple different derek webb-related posts. i’m cheating a little because they’re separate posts, but both deal with his album, ctrl: one announcing it and one giving my initial review/thoughts.

this is a whole new sound for webb. continuing the evolution of his sound over the course of his career, this album is truly uncomparable, sonically, to any of his previous work. if anything, it might be the place where mockingbird meets stockholm syndrome (with just a pinch of i see things upside down).

derek webb announces new album, ctrl, and fall tour »
derek webb releases new album, ctrl »

2. derek webb calls his biggest hit “theologically narrow”

i can’t imagine what it’s like to have spent 20+ years sharing my theologies and bearing my soul to hundreds of thousands (or millions?) of people. that’s exactly what derek webb has done since he began writing songs as a part of the grassroots christian band caedmon’s call and continued for nearly a decade as a solo artist. so does derek, like myself, ever look back with any contrition about past songs or specific lyrics.

read the entire post »

1. dan haseltine, jars of clay bid farewell to the evangelical church

i’m blown away by how much traffic this post generated. i’ll put it this way: this post generated triple the visitors than that of the aforementioned #2 most visited post. apparently people are particularly interested in jars of clay’s views on the church. who knew?

God gave us a story, and a space to fill. And it isn’t really in the same neighborhood as the evangelical church. And so our music will be disappointing to many. People will inevitably engage us with the question, “Are you going secular?” or, “Why don’t you sing about Jesus?” or, “How come you don’t share the gospel?” And some of those people will be angry. Some of them won’t have the tools necessary to understand that anger, or the fear that creates it. Some people will see our form of artistic expression as a threat. Some will categorize us as “back-sliders.“ I wish I had more patience and time for those people.

read the entire post »

alright, there you have it. these were the most read blog posts of 2012.

were there posts not on this list that stood out to you?

and while we’re talking about the blog, i’m always eager to receive feedback on what people would like to read or what you would not like to read. so, suggestions? complaints? i’d love the feedback.

best of 2012: albums, pt. 3

ryan — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 13:03:40 +0000

i began posting last week my annual best of lists. today, it all comes to a conclusion. as a complete list nerd, this is my favorite time of the year here on the ol’ blog. here’s the lists i’ll be posting:

thursday: new music discoveries
friday: cover songs
monday: songs 30 – 16
tuesday: songs 15 – 1
wednesday: albums 30 – 21
yesterday: albums 20 – 11
today: album 10 – 1

the granddaddy of all the end-of-year music lists is the best albums. so here we are with the final installment (check out part 1 here and part 2 here).

i always tell people that there’s never a better time for music than right now. i still get excited about album releases and i’m continually impressed by how artists are innovating and creating. 2012 was no exception. there was so much good music that making this list was harder than ever. in the end, i think i’ve narrowed down to 30 truly great albums.

from tried-and-true artists to up-and-coming rookies, here’s part 3 of 3 of the best albums of 2012:

10. nexus soundtrack: sola-mi

standout track: trust falling

derek webb has done it again. he created mystery and intrigue around an upcoming release and he delivered. in this case, it was a faux concept album that ended up working in tandem with his next solo release…which we’ll get to momentarily.

9. the heist: macklemore & ryan lewis

standout track: same love

a white, independent hip hop artist? yeah, and this white, indie hip hop artist hustled his way all the way to the very top of the billboard charts. one of the best music stories of the year.

8. swing lo magellan: dirty projectors

standout track: about to die

david longstreth and his band of merry music makers keep getting weirder and keep getting better with each release. this album features longstreth more prominently than albums past and it pays off with a series of great songs.

7. who’s feeling young now?: punch brothers

standout track: don’t get married without me

there’s absolutely no one doing what the punch brothers do. they’re a one-off original and as long as they put out albums, they’re going to find their way onto my best of lists.

6. bear creek: brandi carlile

standout track: that wasn’t me

no doubt, this isn’t brandi carlile’s strongest collection, but nevertheless, it stills find its way into the top 10 of this year’s best albums. she continues to craft beautiful music years after her initial release.

5. you know you like it: alunageorge

standout track: you know you like it

this is a 3-song ep. basically, it’s a glorified single. and it finds its way into the top of this lists. i don’t think i need to say anything else about how much i love this album and alunageorge.

4. ctrl: derek webb

standout track: i feel everything

prior to its release, all we knew about this album was that it would feature sacred harp music. well, we also knew that derek webb rarely fails to deliver on the promise to create great and completely original music. and that he did.

3. old believers: cory chisel & the wandering sons

standout track: i’ve been accused

there’s just something about cory chisel that creates a warm nostalgia while still sounding current and fresh. there are few albums that i can listen to start to finish over and over and this is one of them.

2. the idler wheel is wiser than the driver of the screw and whipping cords will serve you more than ropes will ever do: fiona apple

standout track: every single night

when we found out fiona apple would be releasing her first album in 7 years, the expectations were sky high—unfairly high. and then she managed to live up to them. in fact, she surpassed them and almost created this year’s best album.

1. channel orange: frank ocean

standout track: bad religion

after seeing a handful of lists with this as the top album, i tried my best to not rank this number 1. i couldn’t find any way around it, though. pound for pound, frank ocean’s r&b instant classic is the best album of the year.

there you have it, friends. the best albums of 2012. so, what did i miss? what did i get completely wrong?

if you’d like to get a taste of these albums, here’s a download of some of these albums’ standout tracks:

download the zip: Best of 2012: Albums

best of 2012: albums, pt. 2

ryan — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:01:50 +0000

i began posting last week—and will continue until tomorrow—my annual best of lists. as a complete list nerd, this is my favorite time of the year here on the ol’ blog. here’s the lists i’ll be posting:

thursday: new music discoveries
friday: cover songs
monday: songs 30 – 16
tuesday: songs 15 – 1
yesterday: albums 30 – 21
today: albums 20 – 11
tomorrow: album 10 – 1

the granddaddy of all the end-of-year music lists is the best albums. so here we are with part 2 (check out part 1 here).

from tried-and-true artists to up-and-coming rookies, here’s part 2 of 3 of the best albums of 2012:

20. love this giant: david byrne & st. vincent

standout track: who

i’ve never really been a fan of david byrne, but throw him on an album with st. vincent and an unexpected (but great) horn section and you’ve got a really incredible collaboration.

19. give us rest: david crowder band

standout track: oh my god

david crowder band’s final album is one of their best. after a couple very disappointing releases over the last few years, i’m glad they went out with a bang.

18. silver and gold: sufjan stevens

standout track: christmas in the room

let me tell you how many times over the years of making these best of lists that i’ve included a christmas album. zero. that’s how many. so what might that tell you about how great this one is?

17. life is good: nas

standout track: the don

i’ve never been on the nas bandwagon. until now. life is good sees nas returning to his early form and putting together one of the best rap albums of the year.

16. born to die: lana del rey

standout track: blue jeans

oh, lana del rey. there’s been plenty said about her. some love her and some absolutley loathe her. but here’s what i know: born to die is a great album that sounds like nothing else out right now.

15. blunderbuss: jack white

standout track: love interruption

jack white is one of the great modern musicians. this is an artist that sounds like no one else, consistently writes his own rules and keeps putting out music that only gets better and better with each project.

14. the lion’s roar: first aid kit

standout track: the lion’s roar

if you would’ve looked into a crystal ball at this time last year and said a swedish folk duo would be on this list, i would’ve told you your crystal ball was broken. but alas, here we are and here’s a (really great) swedish folk duo.

13. halcyon: ellie goulding

standout track: anything can happen

i didn’t include a lot of pop music on this list and ellie goulding is about as close as it gets. she continues to create good music that straddles the line of radio pop and indie sensibilities.

12. sun midnight sun: sara watkins

standout track: you & me

i really hate to say it, but sara watkins’ 2009 solo debut was one of the most disappointing albums in recent memory. i’m very glad to say, though, that all is forgiven with her outstanding sophomore effot.

11. vicious lies and dangerous rumors: big boi

standout track: apple of my eye

it’s always hard when a good album releases in the middle (or end, in this case) of making this list. i’ve only spent a few days with this album, but i suspect it would’ve ended up even higher if i had more time with it.

be sure to check back tomorrow for the top 10. at the conclusion of tomorrow’s list, i’ll offer a download of all the standout tracks.

any guesses of what will make the top 10?

best of 2012: albums, pt. 1

ryan — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 13:02:20 +0000

i began posting last week—and will continue the next few days—my annual best of lists. as a complete list nerd, this is my favorite time of the year here on the ol’ blog. here’s the lists i’ll be posting:

thursday: new music discoveries
friday: cover songs
monday: songs 30 – 16
yesterday: songs 15 – 1
today: albums 30 – 21
tomorrow: albums 20 – 11
friday: album 10 – 1

the granddaddy of all the end-of-year music lists is the best albums. so here we are.

from tried-and-true artists to up-and-coming rookies, here’s part 1 of 3 of the best albums of 2012:

30. babel: mumford & sons

standout track: i will wait

mumford’s debut album, sigh no more, took off like a rocket—an unprecedented rocket. while i certainly wouldn’t call this a sophomore slump, it certainly didn’t achieve those heights.

29. former lives: benjamin gibbard

standout track: something’s rattling (cowpoke)

i was never much of a death cab for cutie fan, but frontman ben gibbard managed to make me a fan with a solid debut solo album.

28. kaleidoscope dream: miguel

standout track: adorn

it’s good to have some artists making good r&b music again. miguel had a breakout year and while i didn’t rank his album as highly as many other best of lists, it still makes the top 30 cut.

27. a minor bird: sucre

standout track: chemical reaction

technically, one could call this a supergroup—composed of eisley’s stacy king, mutemath’s darren king and jeremy larson—but the final product is fresh and new, unlike many of supergroups of the past.

26. master of my make-believe: santigold

standout track: disparate youth

several years ago when santigold hit the scene with her debut album, the buzz was loud and i was only a partial believer. but with master of my make-believe, i was fully baptized in santigold’s unique sound.

25. settle down: julia nunes

standout track: maybe i will

almost as good as her music is julia nunes’ story. she began with acoustic ukulele-driven covers on youtube and quickly became an internet sensation. her debut album, settle down is just the right balance of youtube casual and studio polish.

24. r.a.p. music: killer mike

standout track: southern fried

i’ve been a casual fan of killer mike’s ever since i heard him do a guest spot on outkast’s the whole world, but with this album, i saw his creative genius fully displayed.

23. not your kind of people: garbage

standout track: battle in me

garbage didn’t reinvent the wheel with their first album in 7 years. they didn’t need to. ever since they started putting out albums in the mid-90s, their music has been fresh and forward-thinking.

22. candy bar creep show: ms mr

standout track: hurricane

how good was ms mr’s debut album? well, it’s not actually a full album. it’s merely a 4-song ep. that alone speaks to how great this collection is. i’m looking forward to hearing a full length project from them.

21. lonesome dreams: lord huron

standout track: time to run

there’s a list of albums i’ve downloaded from noisetrade only because they were free and while i’ve become fans of many of those discoveries, none connected more than lord huron. with his harmony-rich brand of layered folk, he’s managed to create one of the most compelling and unique albums of 2012.

be sure to check back tomorrow for the numbers 20-11. on friday, i’ll reveal the top 10 and offer a download of all the standout tracks.

any guesses of what will make the top 20?

best of 2012: songs, pt. 2

ryan — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 13:01:09 +0000

i began posting last week—and will continue over the course of this week—my annual best of lists. as a complete list nerd, this is my favorite time of the year here on the ol’ blog. here’s the lists i’ll be posting:

thursday: new music discoveries
friday: cover songs
yesterday: songs 30 – 16
today: songs 15 – 1
tomorrow: albums 30 – 21
thursday: albums 20 – 11
friday: album 10 – 1

i posted the first half of my favorite songs of 2012 yesterday and now it’s time to complete the list. from white rappers to swedish folk duos and everything in between, here’s the top 15 songs that made 2012 a great year for music:

15. this girl: punch brothers

this tongue-in-cheek prayer to god has frontman chris thile asking for very little—other than just this one girl. i bet even god likes this track.

14. i feel everything: derek webb

if this list were just about striking and poignant lyrics, this would take the top spots hands down. the gem from webb’s stellar ctrl.

13. time to run: lord huron

sometimes artists add layers to songs and they just end up sounding overworked and overproduced. but with lord huron, they manage to hit just the right sweet spot.

12. clique: kanye west (ft. jay-z and big sean)

all in all, i hate to say, but kanye west’s cruel summer was largely a dud. this track, though, harkens back to some of kanye’s very best work.

11. don’t get married without me: punch brothers

the punch brothers always manage to slip in one hidden gem and on who’s feeling young now? this beautiful and layered track carries that mantle.

10. every single night: fiona apple

years after her previous release, it was hard to predict what fiona would come back with. the first taste we got was this track and it managed to live up to incredibly lofty expectations.

9. same love: macklemore and ryan lewis

rarely does “message music” connect, coming off as preachy or pretentious. macklemore and ryan lewis, though, pull it off with flawless productions and authentic lyrics.

8. doyathing: gorillaz, james murphy & andre 3000

whereas this track is great from start to finish, there’s a not-so-secret formula that they employed to make it a hit: hand andre 3000 the mic and let him do this thing. it’s that easy.

7. bad religion: frank ocean

i knew this was a great track, but the first time i heard him perform it live, it gave me chills and i knew frank ocean had crafted something very rare and very special.

6. the lion’s roar: first aid kit

you mean you didn’t predict 2012 as the year that swedish folk would break through in america? ok, we didn’t see it coming but we’re sure glad it did.

5. you know you like it: alunageorge

the first time i heard this track, it was a new revelation. take everything great about early 90s r&b and fuse it with everything great about modern electronic indie music and you have alunageorge.

4. about to die: dirty projectors

the dirty projectors somehow manage to get no less weird and experimental, while staying completely accessible and churning out really great music. this track delivers as always.

3. too close: alex clare

microsoft gets most things wrong, but when they released a new commercial in the spring featuring little-known alex clare’s too close, this song took the music industry by storm.

2. hollywood forever cemetery sings: father john misty

there’s plenty of great tracks on this list that sound like something else. but i can’t think of another thing that sounds as unique and fresh as father john misty’s best track from this year’s fear fun.

1. your drums, your love: alunageorge

did i mention i’m a fan of alunageorge? it’s hard to say more about them, but this track took my music crush on them to another level, making it my favorite track of 2012.

i hope for nothing more than these songs being a gateway to more fully discovering these artists, so here’s a collection of these songs for your downloading pleasure.

download the zip: Best of 2012: Songs

best of 2012: songs, pt. 1

ryan — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 13:03:33 +0000

thursday: new music discoveries
friday: cover songs
today: songs 30 – 16
tomorrow: songs 15 – 1
wednesday: albums 30 – 21
thursday: albums 20 – 11
friday: album 10 – 1

this past thursday and friday—with best new music discoveries and cover songs—have been list appetizers. but now we’ve reached the main courses: songs and albums (we’ll get to albums in a couple days). i’ve listened to, um, a few songs this year. and while many were good, there were a select list of great songs.

since there were so many great songs that deserve a little extra attention, i thought i’d split the list into 2 halves. we’ll work through numbers 30 through 16 today and tackle the rest tomorrow.

so, from commercial sensations to obscure internet phenoms, here’s the (first half of the) songs that made 2012 a great year for music:

30. maybe i will: julia nunes

youtube-sensation-turned-indie-star always makes for a good story. and this song shows that julia nunes made the most of her big break.

29. blood is blood: adam faucett

every now and then i feel guilty for not paying more attention to local music. this track by little rock-based adam faucett proves that i should.

28. is your love big enough?: lianne la havas

this song begins with sweet and understated, but quickly erupts into the chorus and makes it nearly impossible to not find yourself singing along.

27. hurricane: ms mr

ms mr leveraged tumblr to feed a stream of great tracks throughout the year from their eventual debut ep. none shined brighter than this dark pop song.

26. get free: major lazer (with dirty projectors’ amber coffman)

i’ve never been much of a fan of major lazer, but leave it to adding a dirty projector to make this one of the most subtly infectious songs of 2012.

25. pressing on the bruise: derek webb

there was a lot to love about derek webb’s ctrl, but pressing on the bruise was the most accessibly pop-oriented track.

24. gun has no trigger: dirty projectors

i believe this was the first track i heard off of the dirty projectors’ swing lo magellan and it stood the test of time as one of the album’s best.

23. you & me: sara watkins

whereas sara watkins’ previous self-titled effort, by and large, missed the mark, sun midnight sun hit the nail on the head. this track stood out among many greats.

22. hot knife: fiona apple

on the surface, this song could be seen as a gimmick or even cheesy, but it manages to showcase fiona’s signature passion along with a quirky, but sophisticated lyrical concept.

21. flaggin’ a ride: divine fits

whenever a supergroup forms, it’s a tossup of what to expect. in this case, spoon frontman britt daniel’s signature vocal style shines through and creates magic.

20. push and shove: no doubt

ten years after their last album, no doubt returned. while not great, the album was good and this was, by far, the standout track from their comeback.

19. forest whitaker: bad books

speaking of supergroups, bad books—comprised of kevin devine and manchester orchestra frontman andy hull—put out another stellar bad books album and they prove again that they only know how to create great songs.

18. who: david byrne & st. vincent

what do you get when you combine david byrne, st. vincent and a great horn section? you get a great album and a particularly great opening track in who.

17. adorn: miguel

really great r&b is few and far between these days. fortunately, 2012 had several great contributions to that cause and miguel’s adorn was near the top of the stack.

16. forrest gump: frank ocean

speaking of great r&b, no one did it better than frank ocean in 2012. 4 or 5 tracks from channel orange could’ve made this list and forrest gump is near the top of that list.

what good would a list of songs be if you couldn’t listen to all of them? well, check back tomorrow for the remainder of the list and there will be a download of all 30 tracks.

any guesses of what will make the top 15?

best of 2012: cover songs

ryan — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 13:02:52 +0000

i began posting yesterday—and will continue over the course of the next week or so—my annual best of lists. as a complete list nerd, this is my favorite time of the year here on the ol’ blog. here’s the lists i’ll be posting:

yesterday: new music discoveries
today: cover songs
monday: songs 30 – 16
tuesday: songs 15 – 1
wednesday: albums 30 – 21
thursday: albums 20 – 11
friday: album 10 – 1

i assume that if you don’t love a good cover, then you must hate america. they’re great. while there’s a whole lot of bad covers, there’s always a good list (my initial list before narrowing them down included 50+ songs) of great cover songs each year. from established superstars to up-and-comers trying to make a name for themselves online, here’s my list of 2012′s best cover songs:

30. ring them bells (bob dylan): natasha bedingfield
29. the high road (broken bells): joss stone
28. wake up alone (amy winehouse): manic street preachers
27. gold dust woman (fleetwood mac): karen elson
26. wicked game (chris isaak): phillip phillips
25. (you gotta) fight for you right (to party) (beastie boys): coldplay
24. teeanger in love (dion and the belmonts): red hot chili peppers
23. blue velvet (the clovers): lana del rey
22. 16 tons (tennessee ernie ford): the dandy warhols
21. shout (tears for fears): strangers
20. what i got (sublime): blues traveler
19. crazy (gnarls barkley): bhi bhiman
18. pony (ginuwine): ed sheeran
17. halo (beyonce): lp
16. disarm (smashing pumpkins): paper crows
15. lilac wine (elkie brooks): miley cyrus
14. you’re the one i love (the everly brothers): sara watkins ft. fiona apple
13. crazy (patsy cline): the kills
12. jolene (dolly parton): the little willies
11. pyt (michael jackson): the wood brothers

10. settle down (no doubt): steamy in the city

cover songs fall in 2 categories: ironic cover and serious covers. with little-known folk band steamy in the city covering no doubt’s latest top 40 hit, this falls squarely in the ironic category. they transform into something new and fresh and fun.

9. she drives me crazy (fine young cannibals): the good natured

who doesn’t love the fine young cannibals’ she drives me crazy? because it’s loved and such a distinctive sound/melody, a good cover understands to keep it close to the fundamentals. that’s exactly what the good natured does and thusly, created a great cover song.

8. paper planes (m.i.a.): beautiful small machines

this is a perfect example of a band that no one would’ve ever heard of if not for the fact that they created a great, ironic cover. m.i.a. creates music that, quite frankly, is hard to decipher, so with beautiful small machines slowing it down and adding a dash of irony, it made this one of the best cover songs of 2012.

7. amie (pure prairie league): counting crows

counting crows’ cover project this year was largely disappointing, but amie was a clear exception. adam duritz and crew don’t try to reinvent the wheel, but in this case, sticking with the original melody creates instant nostalgia.

6. fallin’ (alicia keys): mutemath

as the cliché goes, mutemath could perform the phone book and i’d probably like it. there’s just a distinctive sound and vibe to mutemath music and it’s no different with alicia keys’ breakout hit, fallin’.

5. like a prayer (madonna): dale earnhardt, jr. jr.

their ep, we almost lost detroit, features songs by prominent michigan-born/based artists and naturally, dale earnhardt jr jr’s distinctive brand of indie irony couldn’t help but to include a madonna classic. it’s exactly what you’d think a version of like a prayer covered by dale earnhardt jr jr would sound like…and that’s a good thing.

4. no diggity (blackstreet): chet faker

i can tell you very little about chet faker. after hearing this cover, i did a little research, but came away with very little. what’s important, though, is that in the handful of no diggity covers i’ve ever heard, chet faker did it the best. and therefore, it climbs near the top of 2012′s best covers list.

3. party (beyonce): chairlift ft. kool a.d.

i didn’t fall in love with chairlift quite as much as everyone else in 2012, but i certainly did fall in love with their cover of beyonce’s party. the conviction with which frontwoman caroline palochek delivers these vocals is what makes it most endearing.

2. sexy and i know it (lmfao): noah guthrie

ok, noah guthrie wins the award for the “best ironic cover” of 2012. in fact, no one comes even close. this pudgy guy with an acoustic guitar managed to take one of the worst songs of all-time (i’m genuinely not joking) about sexy-proclaimed sexiness and made it relevant. this is the obadiah parker hey ya of 2012.

1. high for this (the weeknd): ellie goulding

there was a part of me that didn’t want a “serious” cover to take the top spot, but this one easily won out. it’s so hard for an artist to match the soulfulness and conviction of the weeknd’s original, but somehow, ellie goulding is able to pull it off. that makes this my favorite cover song of 2012.

what good would a list of cover songs be if you couldn’t listen to all of them?

download the zip: Best of 2012: Cover Songs

best of 2012: new music discoveries

ryan — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 13:01:27 +0000

over the course of the next week or so, i’ll be posting my annual best of lists. as a complete list nerd, this is my favorite time of the year here on the ol’ blog. here’s the lists i’ll be posting:

today: best new music discoveries
tomorrow (friday): cover songs
monday: songs 30 – 16
tuesday: songs 15 – 1
wednesday: albums 30 – 21
thursday: albums 20 – 11
friday: album 10 – 1

for best new music discoveries of 2012, these are bands that i personally initially discovered during this year. it doesn’t mean that they first appeared to everyone or within the industry this year, but rather, i discovered them in 2012. additionally, it includes artists who i’ve been familiar with for awhile (benjamin gibbard, for example) but released their first solo album in 2012. from up-and-coming electronic indie bands to the newest white rapper, here’s my list for 2012:

30. chiddy bang
29. polica
28. kishi bashi
27. the big pink
26. alex winston
25. imagine dragons
24. bahamas
23. alt-j
22. b.o.b
21. page cxvi
20. sharon van etten
19. the neighbourhood
18. electric guest
17. chairlift
16. chvrches
15. wu-block
14. shovels & ropes
13. divine fits
12. purity ring
11. miguel

10. jessie ware
key album: devotion
learn more: jessieware.com

out of the blue around february, i began to see the name jessie ware on every music blog i read. with her track running and eventually with her biggest hit, wildest moments, she became one of the hottest artists of 2012.

9. alex clare
key album: the lateness of the hour (released 2011)
learn more: alexclare.com

clare’s debut album released in the UK in mid-2011 with virtually no fanfare in the united states (and very minimally even in the UK), leading to him getting dropped by his label. in march, microsoft (believe it or not) used too close in one of their commercials and he blew up. based almost solely on that track, alex clare makes this list.

8. julia nunes
key album: settle down
learn more: junumusic.com

7. benjamin gibbard
key album: former lives
learn more: benjamingibbard.net

i’ve tried to become a fan of gibbard’s band, death cab for cutie, over the years, but it’s never quite connected. his debut solo album, though, finally clicked. it’s not perfect, but it’s certainly, front to back, a great debut effort.

6. lord huron
key album: lonesome dreams
learn more: lordhuron.com

there’s a list of albums i’ve downloaded from noisetrade only because they were free and while i’ve become fans of many of those discoveries, none connected more than lord huron. with his harmony-rich brand of layered folk, he’s managed to create one of the most compelling and unique albums of 2012.

5. sola-mi
key album: the nexus ost
learn more: sola-mi.com

contemporary christian music singer turns folk singer turns electronic artist turns concept artist. you know, your average musician’s career arc. well, leave it to derek webb to pull this off. and pull it off he did. with josh moore and latifah phillips by his side, they crafted what might be my favorite concept album of all-time.

4. father john misty
key album: fear fun
learn more: fatherjohnmisty.com

fleet fox memeber j. tillman took on the moniker father john misty and crafted one of the standout albums of 2012. while the album is great, the track hollywood forever cemetery sings is easily one of the top 2 or 3 songs of the year and puts him this high on the list.

3. ms mr
key album: candy bar creep show
learn more: msmrsounds.com

ms mr was another band that came out of nowhere and began releasing a series of singles with a distinctive dark indie pop sound via their tumblr page. candy bar creep show is only an ep, so there’s a good chance we won’t have to wait long until more of this great new band’s work surfaces.

2. macklemore & ryan lewis
key album: the heist
learn more: macklemore.com

when you’re white and you’re a rapper, you are easily dismissed. i certainly did when i began hearing about macklemore early this year. when the heist dropped, the buzz was huge and i was largely uninterested. but then i listened. and i was blown away. the passion and craftmanship and raw energy macklemore brings put him near the top of this list.

1. alunageorge
key album: you know you like it ep
learn more: alunageorge.com

i haven’t had a good new music crush in awhile, but i’m happy to report that within the first 30 seconds of hearing alunageorge’s debut track, you know you like it, i had found one. all they needed was an ep to instantly make them one of my favorite bands. early 90s r&b meet modern indie/electronic sensibilities. everything about that combination works for alunageorge.

if you’d like to learn more about these artists, i’ve created a mix of songs that will help you discover more.

download the zip: Best of 2012: New Discoveries

“super gay” brandi carlile talks salvation army, inadvertently talks jesus

ryan — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 13:02:39 +0000

for those who use twitter, you’re likely familiar with the following series: type a tweet, delete it; type it a different way, delete it; repeat these steps until you finally just give up. sometimes, you just know that however you say something in 140 characters, you’re not gonna adequately convey your feelings and/or you’re gonna do little more than just anger or offend people.

so it goes lately with the annual swell of a vocal minority taking to their blogs and social media streams to let everyone know how bigoted and homophobic the bell-ringing salvation army is and subsequently, why we shouldn’t support their charity efforts.

in a nutshell, much like—for better or for worse, depending on how you see it—the majority of other christian denominations, the salvation army’s official stance on homosexuality is that people who are attracted to the same sex should “embrace celibacy as a way of life”. in short, they view homosexuality as incompatible with god’s sexual/relational design.

which brings us to brandi carlile.

not only is she one of my all-time favorite musicians, but she’s a lesbian who was recently married to her longtime girlfriend. even more, she’s a longtime supporter of the salvation army. a few days ago, she announced her latest partnership with the salvation army in which she’ll be collecting toys at her upcoming christmas shows.

and then the aforementioned vocal minority weighed in.

and she replied.

and she did so in such a way that i could never quite capture when i typed and deleted those tweets over and over.

instead of offering any additional commentary, i’m just going to post her reply in full (which you can find here, on facebook).

Well I’m thinking that the issue surrounding the Salvation Army is such a worthy discussion that I’d love to be involved.

First of all, let me thank you all for the articulate and thoughtful comments about this. I can’t see one that’s out of line and it makes me proud that this is the kind of community we attract.

While I’ll admit that I was not aware of Salvation Army’s reputation amongst my LGBTQ peers, I have known it to literally save lives and certainly touch mine (and I’m super gay). So today I’ve “done my homework” and the conclusion I keep coming back to is that these are the mind and heart changing opportunities we should be looking for…all of us.
If it is true that the Salvation Army discriminates against LGBTQ families and employees, then this is our chance! Not to exert our power over them by exercising our right to deprive Salvation Army kids simply because they are associated, but to show our power under them by coming to them in service and offering our gift without condition. This is what changes minds, which inevitably changes laws.

Ref 74 passed because of this reason, minds were changed. Sure fights were won but minds change from love! Thanks for hearing me out and calling me out!

sacrificial giving? subversive power? influence from the oppressed? strength through powerless servanthood? life change from love, rather than fighting?

sounds like the perfect jesus story for this christmas season.

‘life of pi’, biblical literalism and creationism

ryan — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 13:02:32 +0000

in an old testament class in seminary, we spent nearly two months talking through and studying just the first two chapters of genesis. seemingly straightforward, the multiple version of the story (yes, versions plural) told in those chapters are a poetic way to describe a complex history of all created things.

that class was the first time in my life that i began to get a clear understanding of the historical, cultural and literary context of the opening scenes of genesis.

simply put, it’s when it became ultimately clear to me that there is no possibility of a literal understanding of the creation story.

it’s not my goal in this post to offer a thorough breakdown of the original languages or give some historical background about the use of genre in scripture, but rather, to talk about the nature of storytelling and belief.

which leads me to life of pi.

***[IF YOU PLAN TO SEE LIFE OF PI AND DON'T WANT SPOILERS, IT'S IN YOUR BEST INTEREST TO STOP READING NOW.]***

let me be direct: life of pi is the best movie i’ve seen in years. its story of dogged survival, unflinching hope and the unswerving pursuit of god made it a film that every single person should line up to see.

whereas the movie certainly contains the aforementioned themes, it’s overarching theme, it seemed to me, is the nature of story and peoples’ capacity (or willingness) to believe (or not believe).

long story short: a teenage boy named pi (piscine) escapes a pacific shipwreck (which carried his family and the animals from their zoo) in a lifeboat and finds himself floating with an injured zebra, orangutan, hyena and a bengal tiger (named richard parker). within the first day, the hyena kills the zebra and orangutan, followed by the tiger killing the hyena. pi spends the next 227 days sharing a lifeboat with the tiger. (trust me, just see it…)

when he is finally recovered, he shares his story, but no one believes him. so finally, he tells the truth: there were no animals with him on the lifeboat. rather, there was an injured sailor (the zebra), the ship’s cook (the hyena) and his mother (the orangutan). in fact, there was no bengal tiger. the tiger is pi himself. the cook murdered the sailor and pi’s mother and attemtped to use them as bait for food. as an act of revenge and the fear of his own impending death, pi murders the cook.

you see, the true story was brutal and frightening and unthinkable. people killing others and using them for fish bait. pi witnessing the gruesome murder of his mother. and ultimately, pi placing revenge and the will to survive over his most core values. the truth is often ugly and hard to swallow.

stories make the truth palatable. poetry makes the ugly beautiful. songs make the mundane intriguing.

so it goes with the creation story. i’m a firm believer that science and scripture are wholly compatible. i believe science is right about an old earth. and i believe science is right about evolution. i believe that it’s compatible with the accounts offered in the first 2 chapters of genesis. if we read it correctly.

further, i believe that the writers (and orators, since it was a culture of oral storytelling) weren’t concerned with telling a scientific story. rather, they were concerned with telling a story to explain the origin of created things in a way that was poetic and beautiful and awe-inspiring and mysterious and culturally relevant.

sometimes, the truth is ugly. sometimes, it’s unbelievable. sometimes, it’s mundane.

the creation stories in the first couple chapters of genesis weren’t intended to be scientific accounts. they weren’t intended by the writers to be literal. that wasn’t the purpose.

they understood that poetry and evocative imagery and emotive storytelling is what endears—and even allows—belief.

the story of a boy and exotic zoo animals makes for a much more palatable and beautiful and memorable story than the facts of the darkness of the depths of the human will to survive. it’s a story more worth believing.

so may we embrace the poetry and the stories and the lavish wordsmithing of scripture, all the while embracing the reality of the evolving truths of our existence—just like pi and his tale of bengals and belief.

a 4-year old olive

ryan — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 13:20:19 +0000

today, little olive becomes a little bigger as she turns 4 years old. it’s nearly impossible to avoid the clichés, but truly, i can’t believe 4 years have gone by so quickly. i’m not one of those parents who get sad about their kids growing up (i embrace it), but it’s still hard to believe another year has gone by.

as each year passes, olive only becomes more lovable and sweet and fun to be around. her personality is truly unique and throughout the years, she’s proven that there’s no one else quite like olive. if i were to make a birthday wish for her, it’s that as she puts more and more birthdays behind her, she never loses the unique spark that makes her the only little olive quite like her.

happy birthday, olive. i love you.

post-election burning questions: will will ferrell keep his campaign promises?

ryan — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 13:15:44 +0000

last night was a night where americans should’ve been proud. in re-electing barack obama, we made another huge step forward, signaling progress is happening and will continue to happen. it was a great night and i’m thankful to have another 4 years of a president obama-led white house.

with that said, there’s quite a few lingering questions.

will barack obama be more aggressive in his 2nd and final term? will he keep all the promises he made throughout the campaign? will he find ways to unite the highly polarized political parties? is mitt romney’s political career effectively over? will we ever discover that he is, in fact, an expertly-crafted robot?

there’s so many questions left to answer after last night’s historic re-election of barack obama. the most important question, though, comes from some lofty promises made by america’s pre-eminent statesman: will ferrell.

several days before the election, the obama campaign released the following video featuring will ferrell offering us quite a bit in exchange for our vote.

so will, when can we expect that homecooked meal of angel hair pasta?
i’ve got a couch to move and i could use some help from someone with a van.
what about that tattoo? and you also owe me a dance.
will you, in fact, eat anything i tell you? my requests will be the following, but not limited to garbage, hair, human toenails, underpants.
i don’t condone violence, but when can i expect you to begin punching yourself in the face?
and finally, i want that owl. it’ll look nice on my mantle.

alright, joking aside, i’m glad people got out to vote and i was particularly glad that those votes led to a second term for president obama. may he and statesman ferrell push us forward and deliver on what they’ve promised.

the lever-ending story: looking back at this election season

ryan — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 13:02:24 +0000

well friends, it all comes to an end tomorrow.

some time tomorrow night (though it could easily spill into the wee hours of the next morning based on how close this race is), we’ll know if barack obama will get another 4 years or if a guy named mitt will become the new leader of the free world.

some of you will be as thankful for its end as you would if you won a nobel prize or hit the jackpot in the lottery. no doubt, this process can be overwhelming and make us all weary of all things politics.

there’s a small part of me that’s ready for it to be all over, but i have to admit, i enjoy this process. i like the chess game of it all. i like the ridiculous fluctuation in the weekly and seemingly daily polling. i love the back and forth of the political talk shows. i enjoy it because i actually think it matters. exchanging ideas and debating policies is important. sure, it gets ugly at times and there’s plenty of vaccuous talking points, but our country moves forward when we engage in weighing out mulitple points-of-view and civic ideologies.

many people talk about obama supporters being less enthusiastic than 4 years ago. while that might be true in general, my feelings about and support for our president have only become stronger since i last voted for him in 2008. while i was particularly enthusiastic in ’08, it was dampened by some personal drama that i didn’t anticipate. when i became publicly vocal (mainly on this blog) about my support for obama, i lost many friends and colleagues who thought i had—and i’m not kidding at all—turned my back on god by choosing to cast my vote for someone other than a republican. to them, it was tantamount to apostasy. so, the 2008 election season was a personally difficult one. i’m glad to report that the current election has been devoid of those experiences. it’s not that i’m surrounded by ‘yes’ people, but that i’m surrounded by people who, by and large, can have healthy political disagreements that are detached from personal feelings of friendship and respect.

so, it’s been a fun political season. i’m hopeful that it ends tomorrow night with barack obama being re-elected. i genuinely believe his leadership is what our country continues to need and that he will continue to lead us in a better direction.

i’ve seen a couple recaps of this election, but none stood out more than bill maher’s on friday’s real time with bill maher. so, take a look back and relive all the things that have made you weary but also those things that made you laugh and engage and think and roll your eyes and a little bit of every emotion in between.

two in review: september/october 2012

ryan — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 12:20:46 +0000

ladies and gentlemen (and others), it’s come that time to once again bring you two in review.

if you’ve missed past editions, here’s the previous posts from 2012:

1. january/february 2012

2. march/april 2012

3. may/june 2012

4. july/august 2012

it’s been a good couple months of music. more than just good, it’s been a diverse couple of months. there’s a little bit of everything on this mix. new artists, along side artists you’ll be very familiar with. a little bit of rap. a little bit of rock. and even one track with both a little rock and a little rap. alongside some more obscure tracks, there’s a couple shots of top-40ish tracks. (if you’d like to read a little about the process i employ in order to choose songs, you can read the mini-rant from a previous two in review post.]

without further ado, here’s the lineup for the september/october edition of two in review:

1. kanye west: clique (ft. jay-z & big sean) [from cruel summer]
2. alunageorge: watching over you [from annie mac presents 2012]
3. bad books: forest whitaker [from II]
4. gary clark, jr.: glitter ain’t gold (jumpin’ for nothin’) [from blak & blu]
5. thao & the get down stay down: holy roller [from their forthcoming we the common]
6. lord huron: time to run [from lonesome dreams]
7. balthazar: the boatman [from applause (2010)]
8. chvrches: the mother we share [from the currently untitled forthcoming album]
9. benjamin gibbard: something rattling (cowpoke) [from former lives]
10. mumford & sons: babel [from babel]
11. bertie blackman: boy [from pope innocent x (p.i.x.)]
12. the black keys & rza: the baddest man alive [from the man with the iron fists soundtrack]
13. ellie goulding: only you [from halcyon]
14. macklemore & ryan lewis: same love [from the heist]
15. andrew bird: when that helicopter comes [from hands of glory]
16. nelly furtado: high life (ft. ace primo) [from the spirit indestructible]
17. noel gallagher’s high flying birds: freaky teeth [from fast than the speed of magic]
18. ms mr: hurricane [from candy bar creep show]
19. bear colony: flask report [from soft eyes]
20. no doubt: sparkle [from push and shove]

enjoy!

// download the .zip //

derek webb calls his biggest hit “theologically narrow”

ryan — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 12:30:59 +0000

my humble little blog serves as a repository of snapshots of my life at any given time. i’m glad to have it. of course, the yin to that yang is that i’m also slightly horrified every so often when i look back and see something that i so strongly believed at a sepcific time and i, well, don’t so much now (to say the least). fortunately, it’s only on display for the few thousand unique visitors each month that stumble upon this blog.

i can’t imagine what it’s like to have spent 20+ years sharing my theologies and bearing my soul to hundreds of thousands (or millions?) of people. that’s exactly what derek webb has done since he began writing songs as a part of the grassroots christian band caedmon’s call and continued for nearly a decade as a solo artist. so does derek, like myself, ever look back with any contrition about past songs or specific lyrics.

well, in a recent interview with faithvillage.com, that very question was posed to derek. i found his response particularly interesting and worthwhile. here’s the video (the entire clip is worth watching, but the part i’ll primarily comment on begins around the 4:00 mark):

the primary song in question is thankful from caedmon’s call’s 1999 commercial and critical breakthrough, 40 acres. as derek points out, it’s the biggest commercial hit that he’s ever had and says it’s his “most pointed and most theological song” (lyrics). so it’s that much more significant for him to call out that particular song.

more than just being a hit song, though, my interest was particularly piqued by him talking about it because it’s a song that—in spite of it being a really great song—i deeply disagree with theologically.

increasingly, over the years, one of my most deeply held theological positions is the inherent goodness of people. without going into all the biblical minutiae, i believe that god made people good and the fall didn’t fundamentally change that. people aren’t inherently wicked. we are not totally depraved. webb doesn’t stop, though, at just total depravity. thankful could be an anthem for all the TULIP-believing neo-calvinists.

to be clear, derek doesn’t recant the particulars of the theologies. whereas i’d love to have heard that, what he says is probably more commendable. as hard as it is to say, “my belief was wrong,” it’s just as difficult to have enough self-reflection to say, “the manner in which i lived out and engaged my beliefs with others was wrong”. theological arrogance is less about one’s particular beliefs and more about the posture in which one posits or lives out those beliefs.

certainly, the message hits home for me. this blog has been built largely on parsing through my beliefs, often in ways that are very forthright and unapologetic. much like my belief in inherent goodness, one of my increasingly important values over the past several years has been theological humility. so, i’ve become much more aware and sensitive to the manner in which i “pick fights” regarding theology. to this point, webb’s final sentence is a critical line to remember:

“i had a lot of fight in me in those early years. and i think i was fighting the wrong fights. and therefore i think i was writing the wrong songs.”

may we all have this level of self-reflection. and may we all spend our time writing the right songs.

5 reasons why this pastor is against ‘pulpit freedom sunday’

ryan — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 14:01:19 +0000

ray rivera, pastor and founder of latino pastoral action center in the bronx, once told a story about a conversation he had with a midwestern pastor who insisted rivera was too political. so rivera asked, “pastor, tell me how your local schools are.” the pastor replied, “they’re top notch. some of the best in our state.” rivera continued, “tell me about your local hospitals.” “they’re excellent,” replied the pastor. “tell me about your libraries.” the pastor said, “our community is very proud of them.” rivera paused before responding, “pastor, in our community, our schools are failing, our hospitals are woefully behind and our libraries are full of hand-me-down books that are falling apart. because we love our neighbors, we’ve become their advocates for a better a community. if anything, we risk not being political enough.”

i use this story to illustrate that i believe, as does pastor rivera, the church has an appropriate place in the political sphere. by law, by tradition and by the pragmatics of ministry, there’s no barrier for the church to engage in what are commonly viewed as political issues.

but let me be very clear: aside from incredibly rare circumstances (hitler, etc), advocating a specific candidate in the name of jesus is always inappropriate. (trust me when i say that jesus doesn’t care whether obama or romney wins.) further, political agendas that aren’t fundamentally and primarily rooted in the values and mission of jesus are equally inappropriate.

so why offer this lengthy preface? because this story and the subsequent values help to shed some light on yesterday’s “pulpit freedom sunday”.

if you don’t know anything about this, take a few minutes here to familiarize yourself. in a nutshell, thousands (supposedly) pastors endorsed a presidential candidate from their pulpit yesterday in order to challenge the IRS to revoke their tax-exempt status (churches have a 501(c)(3) federal tax status which exempts them from paying taxes). it will be some time before we know if the IRS gives a flip about yesterday’s events (i sorta doubt it), but let me unequivocally state what i hope happens:

i hope each church that participated in “pulpit freedom sunday” loses their tax-exempt status.

with a statement so strong, let me offer a few reasons i’m compelled to hold this position.

1. tax-exempt status is a special privilege, not an innate right.

most people have no idea why churches are tax-exempt. it’s simple. the church has, historically, been one of the most positive forces of social aid in our country. few organizations have had and have the resources, values and organization needed to directly impact their immediate communities as the local church. the government realized that and created a tax privilege so that churches could do the most good. (whether or not the church actually does that is a whole other blog post just waiting to happen…)

so, pastor friends, the government has given you an extra special privilege that very few other organizations get (and that’s not even getting into the parsonage allowance specifically for pastors or special funding for faith-based orgs). if you feel like you don’t have free speech (which you do), you are more than welcome to give up your special government financial privilege. you are not required to be tax-exempt. want to endorse candidates? throw rousing political rallies? you have the right to do that. so long as you’re not doing it on the government’s dime (not to mention your community’s dime, which is the reason you’re getting the tax exemption).

2. this is another example of false persecution.

the right wing powers-that-be have spent the last decade creating a false narrative of christian persecution. in reality, that political machine has created a climate where evangelicals have unparalleled political power. the bush era was defined by a rise to power built largely on the backs of a conservative evangelical voting block. mitt romney now counts on that same base for any election hopes. so with my first point as a supporting argument, the government—rather than persecuting—actually caters to faith institutions in ways that very few other groups benefit from. christians simply cannot play the persecution card here in the united states.

3. this is a political power move for pastors.

one of the things i’ve spent years championing is flattened leadership which pursues the value of (to use christianese) the “priesthood of all believers”. it’s the idea that the pastor is a co-sojourner with the rest of the people in the church—not a powerful leader on a pedestal above others. he or she isn’t a CEO or a dictator or even the primary source of truth and knowledge within the local church body. “pulpit freedom sunday” puts forth as a value that the pastor’s political opinion is the foremost of the church. that if he or she makes a political stance from the pulpit, then it’s akin to the gospel truth.

it also further affirms that the people can’t otherwise think for themselves. see, as a pastor, my primary job isn’t to tell people the truth. rather, it’s to point people in the direction of the truth. i help to equip people to seek out the truth, to engage it, to question it, to struggle with it, to bat it around in the context of community. what pastors did yesterday was spoon feed a political perspective to their members, signaling that they’re unequipped to discern an opinion on their own. it presents a very shallow view of the relationship between politics and faith. which leads me to my next point…

4. it offers an incredibly shallow relationship between politics and faith.

much like bronx pastor ray rivera, over the last decade plus that i’ve led congregations, i’ve repeatedly talked about politics from the pulpit. but you would’ve never heard me endorse a candidate or even say i was speaking about politics. and it’s because i wasn’t, directly. i talked about jesus. i talked about the most central christian tenets like caring for the poor, loving the outcast, being in community with those on the fringes, practicing radical nonviolence, intensely valuing life and doing unto others as we would have them do to us. guess what? those things are intensely political.

you see, i can’t detach my most deeply held christian values when i’m weighing how i’m going to vote. i just can’t do it. i can’t vote for a candidate who has policies that neglect the poor. i can’t vote for someone who doesn’t protect life. i simply can’t rally behind a candidate who champions global violence. so when i teach about those things, i’m trusting that when people begin to make voting decisions, they’re living out those values in ways that don’t allow them, just like myself, to cast them aside. i regard the people i’m in community with highly enough that i don’t have to spoon feed them my political opinions. a high view of the relationship of politics and faith rejects “pulpit freedom sunday”.

5. let’s be honest what this is really about.

this isn’t really about free speech. this isn’t really about tax laws. this isn’t really about standing up for our faith.

this is about rallying the troops to vote against barack obama.

not even for mitt romney, but against barack obama.

as previously mentioned about evangelicals having unprecedented political power, this is about extending that power. it’s about endorsing a republican candidate. of course, the fascinating religion-related dynamic in this election is that evangelicals are now faced with a candidate who represents one of their quintessential relgious foes: a mormon. four years ago, the thought of ever voting for a mormon was viewed by conservative evangelicals just about the same as voting for jim jones or david koresh. but now they have barack obama to hate. to blame. to accuse of religious persecution. to lie about his own religion.

so yesterday, from their pulpits, rather than preaching about the good news of jesus, they preached against barack obama in favor of a mormon. while i don’t believe in a religious test for candidates—whether they be christian, mormon, muslim, atheist, etc—most of the leaders of these churches do. most wouldn’t vote for a muslim or an atheist. and until now, they wouldn’t have voted for a mormon. but they’re faced with something much worse: barack hussein obama. you know, the guy who, in a video released just last week, talked openly about being led by his pastor into a saving relationship with jesus christ? yeah, that guy. let’s just be honest what this whole thing is about.

so, time will tell if “pulpit freedom sunday” actually amounts to anything. i suspect it won’t, but you never know. i’m hoping the pastors get what they want, which is the IRS to revoke their tax-exempt status. of course, what they ultimately want is for this to go to the courts to be finally decided. and when it does, i’m really not sure which way it would go. what i do know, though, is when these pastors start protesting and giving interviews on fox news about how persecuted they are, it will only serve to continue to make the church look irrelevant and out-of-touch and useless. it will continue to drive people away—particularly young, bright, intelligent people who will struggle to see how the church is anything other than a political operative for a narrowing set of right wing principles. i certainly hope i’m wrong, but i believe that’s what lies ahead if these sorts of vaccuous displays of irrelevance continue from the church.

in the meantime, let us continue to preach jesus. to teach and live out justice and love and inclusivity. let us engage politics in ways that represent jesus to the world. i believe when we do that, we’ll experience a much more rich and full freedom in the pulpit that yesterday’s stunt could’ve ever generated.

dan haseltine, jars of clay bid farewell to the evangelical church

ryan — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 12:20:53 +0000

i caught a bit of interesting chatter last night on twitter concerning a blog post penned by jars of clay lead singer dan haseltine. apparently it’s relatively old news, as it was posted in late july, but nevertheless, after being discovered by patrol magazine, news it was even a couple months later.

i’ve had an up and down relationship with jars of clay over the course of the last (nearly) 20 years. i think their debut album was rightfully lauded as one of the great christian albums of all time. from there, it seemed, to me, like a slow march toward your standard fare contemporary christian music. it wasn’t until 2003 until i found some of their work that i could appreciate and enjoy. who we are instead is truly a great album and the first time the band explored a more folk-driven sound. since that time, i haven’t been very compelled by their music, but i’ve appreciated their lyrical depth and, beyond the music, their social justice advocacy. ultimately, they’ve more or less been ambassadors for the kind of jesus i buy into without doing it in a cheesy, sell-out kind of way like most of the rest of the christian music industry.

it’s with that that haseltine’s blog post is particularly interesting. titled an unfinished record, an uncharted path, the post opens up about the band’s near completion of their forthcoming album and a very different direction their music and career is headed. he writes,

Since the themes of the record are very far from evangelical Christianity, the church community will most likely not embrace this record. Which, on one hand, is a relief. I am pretty weary from years of pretending to be more of something than I am. I am tired of carrying evangelical expectations on my shoulders. I have never been so sure of my faith that I was able to find a true home in the church communities where we played most of our shows. Our particular style of writing and the perspective that we have written from has not been an easy fit into an artistic community that has such a massive agenda and only a single idea of how that agenda gets accomplished. I don’t fit there. I may have at one point. I did grow up as a youth group kid wearing a t-shirt with a picture of Jesus on it. I did drive a car with a “Christian” bumper sticker on it. And at one point, I was sure of who God was, and how God operated. But I am not that way now. And so it is impossible to write from that old version of myself. I am in the middle space.

several years ago when david bazan (who, incidentally, will be performing at eikon this saturday night) released his solo debut, curse your branches, much ado was made about him “breaking up with god”. it seems in this case that rather than haseltine and (presumably) the rest of the band breaking up with god, they’re simply divorcing a very specific brand of christianity—a brand of christianity that has been the driving force of their fan base for the entirety of their career. i doubt the same to-do will be made by haseltine’s revelation as was bazan’s, but still, there will certainly be some extent of fallout with those who take exception to haseltine’s very pointed comments.

God gave us a story, and a space to fill. And it isn’t really in the same neighborhood as the evangelical church. And so our music will be disappointing to many. People will inevitably engage us with the question, “Are you going secular?” or, “Why don’t you sing about Jesus?” or, “How come you don’t share the gospel?” And some of those people will be angry. Some of them won’t have the tools necessary to understand that anger, or the fear that creates it. Some people will see our form of artistic expression as a threat. Some will categorize us as “back-sliders.“ I wish I had more patience and time for those people.

further, haseltine offers a broad critique on the status of church subculture. it’s one in which i can relate to and set forth, several years ago, to address as we forged a new kind of faith community with eikon. we wanted to foster a community that celebrated authenticity and honesty and depth and the embrace of doubt. quite frankly, we wanted to foster a community of things that, as haseltine eloquently states, are the antithesis of what has come to define the evangelical church.

These songs are honest expressions of what life around us looks like. The descriptions of love and pain, loneliness and hope are real to us. It is what frustrates me about the general church audience. If artistic expressions do not have an evangelical agenda, or they don’t explicitly cheer for Jesus, they tend to fail commercially. In my experience, the music with those kinds of agendas is shallow and somehow not ultimately believable to me. Ironically, what people probably want, and have a hard time articulating, is a description that gives voice to their experiences of doubt and faith and life, but they have been tricked into a very narrow view of where those descriptions come from. And so they often settle for the Jesus cheerleaders or worship songs that have been loaded with sentimentality but not reality. People set expectations that they are going to connect with real life during their worship services through the medium of worship music. At the same time, people may forget entirely or dismiss the movie that described a portion of hard life that their soul found resonance with, because it wasn’t in a church context. This doesn’t mean there is no space for evangelicalism. But it is such a tiny sliver of the entire pie. It is, “crumbs under the table. “

i’ve posted relatively large segments of his post, but it’s still worth going and reading it in its entirety. haseltine has lit a match in a room full of dynamite. an explosion is likely, but it just might end up being the thing that sparks a long-overdue conversation about a better way, a better jesus and a better church.

the death and resurrection of walter white: recapping ‘breaking bad’s’ season 5 midseason finale

ryan — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 12:20:35 +0000

over the course of the last 8 weeks, we witnessed the death of walter white.

no, you didn’t just receive a giant spoiler. walter white didn’t physically die. he’s still alive and well. but walter white left us throughout the course of this 5th season. we were left only with heisenberg. there was only a sociopathic, murderous meth manufacturer and newly crowed drug kingpin.

heisenberg is driven by greed and power. he kills when deemed necessary and holds no remorse. he exercises cold disinterest toward his wife. he fearlessly demands his will to his enemies. he’s nearly emotionless, carefully calculating his every move. (seriously, the scene where all the prisoners were murdered was one of the most gruesome and difficult to watch scenes in the show’s history.)

heisenberg allowed no more room for walter white.

death, though, sometimes leads to resurrection.

at the very tail end of sunday night’s episode, we finally see, it seems, the return of walter white. after skyler reveals a shocking mountain of cash that she’s been unable to launder due to its volume, walt reveals to skyler that he’s done with the meth gig (he also makes amends with jesse by giving him his fair share of the money). while i’m still not sure that heisenberg won’t rear his ugly head, we, at very least, got a few final moments with walter white. like those fleeting moments in a cold hospital room as your loved one prepares to enter the next life.

whether or not walter white remains or heisenberg returns, the end is certainly nigh.

the midseason finale ends with a peaceful lunch poolside in which the kids finally return to their home with a newly reunited walt & skyler. my stomach was in knots as i was nearly convinced that something awful was going to happen during this scene. rather, we’re left with what becomes the proverbial cliffhanger. and a great one it was. (not to mention that it sorta kinda fulfilled one of my preseason predictions.) watch it unfold here.

brilliant. one of my favorite things throughout the entire series of breaking bad is the writers taking small details from the past that you almost forgot about and making them critical plot pieces. beautiful example of that in this case.

one final note: in some ways, this was a disappointing season. don’t get me wrong, the show was as incredible and expertly crafted as ever (probably moreso than ever). the disappointment came, though, in being forced to say farewell to walter, who we’ve spent 4 seasons rooting for. season 5 disallowed us to embrace him as the hero. walter the hero disappeared and only heisenberg the villain remained for the majority of the season. i’m glad we got a glimpse of walter white again. here’s to hoping he stays…even if doom is impending.

also, lest we forget how season 5 began, below is a photo of a very different walter white than what we’ve seen so far. there are many more twists and surprises to come, indeed.

so, we’ll see how this plays out…next year.

bad’s still good: 25 years since my first album

ryan — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 12:14:44 +0000

for the majority of my childhood, two types of music comprised about 90% of my musical knowledge: southern gospel and oldies. of that 90%, about 75% of that was my dad’s (awful) southern gospel. occasionally we could beg him to turn on oldies on the car radio.

but then there was that 10%. the other piece of my childhood musical puzzle was the artist who any self respecting child of the 80s was obsessed with: michael jackson.

while i was mildly familiar with 1982′s seminal album thriller but it wasn’t until august 31, 1987—exactly 25 years ago today—that i became completely enthralled with the king of pop.

i can’t remember if it was on the release date or shortly thereafter, but at the ripe old age of 7 years old, i received my first album: michael jackson’s bad. i’m glad to say that 25 years later, it’s one of the few things—in all its vinyl glory (yes, vinyl…that’s the actual picture above)—i’ve managed to hang onto after all these years.

i really believe bad is one of the greatest and, ultimately, most underrated albums of all-time. following the monstrous success of thriller, people had a hard time not viewing bad in thriller’s shadow. some have argued, though, that pound for pound, track for track, bad was the stronger collection. while it didn’t have the single track as strong as billie jean, it had an arsenal of chart-topping hits that became classics from michael jackson’s songbook. in fact, it’s only 1 of 2 albums of all-time to have 5 consecutive chart-topping singles (i just can’t stop loving you, bad, the way you make me feel, man in the mirror & dirty diana).

i remember sitting for hours listening to this album, flipping one side to the other over and over and over. it’s impossible to say many original things about michael jackson at this point, but i remember listening to this album thinking it was magical and like nothing else i’d ever heard before. it has truly shaped the way i listen to music and set forth a journey of musical discovery that has and will always point back to that album.

so, if you’ve never given bad a thorough listen, go do it. 25 years later isn’t too late to give it a try.

two in review: july/august 2012

ryan — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 12:05:46 +0000

another couple months have passed by, so it’s time to once again bring you two in review.

if you’ve missed past editions, here’s the previous posts from 2012:

1. january/february 2012

2. march/april 2012

3. may/june 2012

some of these mixes come together relatively easily and others come together slowly and painfully. this two in review falls in the latter category. for whatever reason, the process of eliminating songs and coming up with the right 20 tracks was particularly laborious. i got to 16 tracks, leaving 4 spots, and had about 30 tracks i was left to narrow down. what this ultimately leads to is 20 really great, diverse tracks that made the mix…and a whole bunch (nearly 30) of really great tracks that didn’t make the final mix.

[if you'd like to read a little about the process i employ in order to choose songs, you can read the mini-rant from my last two in review post.]

alright, how about i shut up and get to the mix? i hope you enjoy.

here’s the lineup for the july/august edition of two in review:

1. lianne la havas: is your love big enough? [from is your love big enough?]
2. tame impala: elephant [from their forthcoming lonerism]
3. frank ocean: forrest gump [from channel orange]
4. ellie goulding: anything could happen [from her forthcoming halcyon]
5. cory chisel & the wandering sons: never meant to love you [from old believers]
6. alunageorge: your drums, your love [from their upcoming currently untitled debut]
7. derek webb: pressing on the bruise [from ctrl]
8. nas: the don [from life is good]
9. menomena: capsule [from their forthcoming moms]
10. yeasayer: longevity [from fragrant world]
11. no doubt: push and shove [from their forthcoming push and shove]
12. purity ring: belispeak [from shrines]
13. mumford & sons: i will wait [from their forthcoming babel]
14. jessie ware: wildest moments [from devotion]
15. elbow: mcgreggor [from dead in the boot]
16. grace potter & the nocturnals: never go back [from the lion the beast the beat]
17. method man ft. freddie gibbs: built for this [from the forthcoming the man with iron fists ost]
18. alanis morissette : woman down [from havoc and bright lights]
19. divine fits: flaggin’ a ride [from a thing called divine fits]
20. josh garrels: cynicism [from love & war: b-sides and remixes ep]

enjoy!

download the zip: two in review: july/august 2012

so, my kids are socialists: the story of a bad king and queen

ryan — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 12:32:14 +0000

this might be a strange statement, but not only do i love my kids, but i like them. there’s a difference. and fortunately, i like them. they’re fun. they have a great sense of humor. they’re creative.

and apparently, they’re proud 99 percenters.

so, quick setup: from time to time, we get a babysitter and the kids’ favorite babysitter (seriously, they might like her more than us…) is a college-aged girl named rebekah. several days ago, we returned home (she kept them all day) to discover that one of their activities was creating a book. lucy and olive did the illustrations and rebekah was there for her transcription and book-assembling skills (the plot of the story was completely by lucy and olive).

here’s what they came up with. (their story is in bold and my notes are in a regular typeface.)

The Bad King and Queen and the Nice Miss Rebekah and Lucy and Olive and Max. And They Steal the Treasure so the King and Queen won’t be Rich Anymore.

they decided to go all avant garde with a couple serious sentence fragments. and they’ve also mastered the literal. “look, we’re just gonna let you know right up front that we’re gonna steal the cash. these people are gonna be broke by book’s end.” it’s like changing thelma & louise to two murderous feminists drive their car off a cliff.

Once upon a time, there were some kids and a grownup in the forest. Their names were Rebekah, Lucy, Olive and Max. And the very bad king and queen. The kids pushed the king down on his head and then ran so fast so the book couldn’t see them.

page 1: DOWN WITH THE MAN! hashtag: #WeAreThe99Percent

this book gets scary quick. these kids are out for blood. and they don’t even care that their babysitter is there (in the forest) with them observing the mutiny.

the mark of a great illustrator, by the way, is when you’re like, “we’ve gotta draw 4 extra people on this page??? screw it, let’s just say we run so fast that we can’t be drawn.” brilliant.

Then the kids pushed the queen down on her head and then ran so fast so the book couldn’t even see them again!

hey, at least they believe in fair treatment for men and women. the queen gets the same upside down treatment as the king.

lazy illustrator strikes again…

There was a castle and the kids and the grownup named Rebekah and Lucy and Olive and Max snuck in and stole all of the king’s and queen’s treasure and treasure boxes, so they wouldn’t be rich anymore.

it wasn’t enough to go all ron artest on the king and queen in the forest. pillaging is the next logical step.

and also, i love the fact that they were like, “you know, we’re 4 pages in. maybe we should gratuitously remind the readers exactly who all is involved in this story. rebekah and lucy and…”

They were not rich anymore. They stole all of their treasure, so the king and queen looked all over for more treasure, but that was all there was, so they weren’t rich again for a long time. (Next to the picture:) This is Lucy taking all the treasure and hiding it so they will never find it in the deep, deep attic.

let’s just cut straight to head-scratcher here: “the deep, deep attic”. i got nothin’ on this. i don’t know. apparently we’ve got a basement/attic mashup situation going on. i think the only thing lucy knows about attics is the one time i told her i think there’s a rat and/or squirrels in ours. so, there’s probably some kind of repressed trauma there. who knows.

This is the Kingdom (Olive’s addition).

here’s exactly how this went down:

rebekah: “ok, i think we’re all done with our book.”
olive: [with a slight whine] “heeeeeeeeeey, i didn’t get to do anything.”
lucy: [smugly] “it’s because you’re a baby, olive.”
[olive smacks lucy. lucy smacks her back. rebekah steps in and tells olive she can add something.]
olive: [with a smirk of victory, as if she's strangely overcome by a shakespearean moment of inspiration] “THIS IS THE KINGDOM.”
[olive drops the mic and walks away…]

—————————————

so there you have it. this is what goes on in the heads of my children (read: lucy). i can’t say that i’m wild about the violent overthrowing of government…but i’m digging the robin hood vibe here.

viva la 99%, byrd kids!

derek webb releases new album, ‘ctrl’

ryan — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 12:27:53 +0000

last month after derek webb announced he was preparing to release a new album to be titled ctrl, we discovered an intriguing album description offered on his distributor’s website. the description read:

the convergence of soft acoustic guitar with hip-hop influenced rhythmic sensibilities and a heavy leaning on samples from turn of the century recordings of ‘sacred harp’ acapella recordings

huh??

well, we should’ve known that that description would make complete sense once we actually heard the album.

and as of midnight last night (i was fortunate to get my hands on it this past weekend because we previewed it at eikon on sunday), we’ve finally heard it.

i’ve spent the last several days listening to it on a pretty nonstop loop and i am glad to report that ctrl doesn’t disappoint.

this is a whole new sound for webb. continuing the evolution of his sound over the course of his career, this album is truly uncomparable, sonically, to any of his previous work. if anything, it might be the place where mockingbird meets stockholm syndrome (with just a pinch of i see things upside down).

of course, referenced in the above description is something called “sacred harp”. so what is sacred harp? you can read a full description here, but in essence, it’s a form of a capella choral music that is part of the larger tradition of shape note music. ultimately, it’s the absolute least likely thing one might sample for an album produced in the year 2012.

and yet webb does it masterfully on ctrl. the cinematic opening track, and see the flaming skies, is bracketed by these samples, whereas in other tracks like blocks, the sample serves as a bit of a benediction. the most succesful use is the standout track pressing on the bruise in which the sacred harp samples are fluidly woven into the track, almost as if he recorded the choral music specifically for the track.

lyrically, it’s the most abstract album he’s made. there are certainly themes (ranging from death to cultural engagement to, broadly, issues of the extent of human control) but they’re far less spelled out than in albums like mockingbird or even stockholm syndrome. ctrl is certainly webb’s most mature album, offering listeners an opportunity to sift through and wrestle with the lyrical themes he’s exploring.

with the progression of his sound over the last several projects (stockholm syndrome, feedback & the sola-mi album), he had the opportunity with this album to make this album over the top. his biggest accomplishment, though, might just be his restraint. both in the writing process as well as on the production end, webb has edited himself in ways that might just make ctrl his strongest collection to date.

it’s hard to get a good sense of an album without hearing a little of it. i highly encourage you to visit his website in order to purchase the album (several album tiers available). to whet your appetite, though, here’s my initial favorite tracks.

pressing on the bruise

i feel everything

watch rob bell’s new video, ‘rediscovering wonder’

ryan — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 12:15:36 +0000

since departing mars hill church in grand rapids and relocating to los angeles, we’ve heard very little from rob bell. that changed yesterday afternoon when bell, with no fanfare or forewarning, tweeted a link to a new video.

the new video, rediscovering wonder, is a minimally produced video featuring bell strolling through some back alleys in what is likely his neighborhood. the slow and lengthy walk is reminiscent of his final nooma, whirlwind.

the purpose, ultimately, of the video is a promotional piece for the release, by harper one, of his entire literary catalog on paperback, including best sellers velvet elvis and love wins. what’s most interesting about the video, though, is it goes far beyond a sterile marketing piece. it seems to be a direct response to critics. since the release of love wins in early 2011, the attacks on bell have reached a fever pitch. always the object of criticism, the release of love wins brought with it accusations on full on heresy, including claims of universalism and complete rejection of classic christianity.

in this video, bell talks about the difference between a christianity that focuses on the pursuit of “rightness” versus the scriptures’ invitation into to a fully realized “taste and see” experience with jesus. he beautifully conveys the narrow view of scripture that has spawned so many critics.

rather than battling his critics with (deserved) barbs, he invites viewers (and critics, for that matter) into a higher way. as we’ve come to expect, rob bell is a masterful communicator who adds signal in the midst of the noise.

enough of my noise. here’s the video.

all hail the king: predictions for ‘breaking bad’s’ final season

ryan — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 12:40:47 +0000

this sunday night (july 15 at 9 p.m.), breaking bad fans will finally get the fix we’ve all been waiting for since last year’s stunning season 4 finale. with great anticipation, we’ve counted down the days to see what walt—the newly crowned king—will do now that he’s free from the grip of gus fring.

[if you'd like a recap of season 4's finale—along with some video—go here to see my post from last october.]

season 5 will be (painfully, for fans) split into 2 mini-seasons. we’ll get the first 8 episodes this year and suffer through withdrawal until next summer when the final 8 episodes air. the important notation about season 5 is that it will be the show’s final season. so, quite a bit is in store for walt and his teetering empire.

how better to usher in the final season than to offer a few predictions. i’m gonna try to focus on the first half of season 5, but some of these will bleed into the second half.

1. a main character will die.

ok, this is a little open-ended, so let me narrow it down a little by ruling people out. it will not be walt (at least for the first half of the season). it will not be skyler. it will not be hank. it will not be marie. ok, so that leaves the following (main) characters: jesse, walt jr., saul & mike. i really want to go ahead and predict that jesse will die…but i think if that happens, it’ll be the second half of the season. either way, i think it’s safe to say that death will continue this season.

2. skyler will get just as dirty as walt.

season 4 saw skyler get involved with walt’s illegal activity and she quickly became adept at her crimes. skyler, much like walt’s original intentions, will be to protect her family. now that she knows about walt’s endeavors—both drug-manufacturing and killing gus—she’s fully culpable and knows she has to keep up the illegal activity to make sure her family is fully protected. much like walt has found, though, her attempts to protect her family will ultimately serve to harm them (in a number of ways).

3. walt will start a new lab.

at the end of season 4, walt and jesse destroyed the super lab. not only did they really have no choice, but it was there final declaration of their freedom from gus. walt, though, is the king now and his pride will force him to keep up. combine that with the fact that he’s running low on money (he had a lot of expenses last season) and i believe we’ll see the blue meth return very quickly.

4. mike will return and work with walt.

i don’t think walt and mike will have even close to the kind of relationship that mike had with gus, but mike is too deep into a life of crime to simply walk away just because his old boss is dead. keep in mind, also, that mike not only worked for gus, but was originally introduced as an associate of saul goodman. (this is a prediction that could go completely opposite. i almost predicted that he would come back and try to kill walt & jesse…which is highly possible.)

5. the mid-season cliffhanger will be hank finding out the truth about walt.

yes, it’s going to happen. it can’t not happen. hank will finally discover the identity of his coveted heisenberg. i think it’ll go something like this: hank will spend the first 8 episodes continuing to track the blue meth. in the final moments of the midseason finale, hank will finally get a big break about the source of the blue meth. when he discovers the lab, he’ll walk through the door, gun drawn, at the moment that walt rounds the corner, bringing them face to face. cut to credits.

alright, there you have it. i could be 100% wrong with every single one of these, but this is my story and i’m stickin’ to it.

of course, we’ll find it all out over the next couple months. it should be fun.

derek webb announces new album,’ctrl’, and fall tour

ryan — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 16:05:12 +0000

there’s a burning question we’ve all been asking ourselves for a very long time:

what do you find at the convergence of soft acoustic guitar with hip-hop influenced rhythmic sensibilities and a heavy leaning on samples from turn of the century recordings of ‘sacred harp’ acapella recordings?

yes, life’s mysteries…

chances are, not only have you never asked this question, but you’re now just utterly confused.

just in case you’re still reading, the answer to the question is derek webb’s forthcoming album, ctrl, set to release on september 4.

you can’t make this stuff up. “hip hop influenced rhythmic sensibilities” should probably never be legally allowed to be placed in a sentence with “turn of the century recordings of ‘sacred harp’”. (for the record, that is a sentence taken directly from provident distribution’s product page.)

yet, with derek webb’s musical journey over the last several years, these things are bound to make complete sense.

following the release of his incredible concept album with his band sola-mi, this will be his first “official” album since 2009′s stockholm syndrome. i think it’s relatively safe to say ctrl will be a logical progression from the work of sola-mi in terms of both the sound and, possibly, lyrical direction. we’ll likely hear a largely electronic album (especially since VIP tickets for his upcoming tour include an acoustic version of the album) that relies on heavy sampling.

based on the album’s description, you might be asking what ‘sacred harp’ is. i certainly had no idea. basically, it’s a type of sacred choral music that is associated with shape note music. i grew up in churches that used an old shape note hymnal, so i’m a little familiar. with that said, you can read about it in length (and hear a sample) here.

in addition to the album announcement, he released the initial dates on “the square tour”. i was excited (and very surprised) to find that he’ll be making a stop in little rock on (thursday) september 6. the shows promise to be a unique and engaging experience. the website notes,

Every show on THE SQUARE TOUR will take place in a surprising, unconventional venue specifically selected to accommodate a unique four-sided stage and lighting/production rig designed and built exclusively for THE SQUARE TOUR.

should be fun. if you’d like to get special seating, an acoustic version of the album and a special q&a with derek webb, you can purchase VIP tickets. tickets can be purchased at his website.

until then, here’s a strange little teaser for the album (and the tour).

best albums of 2012 (so far)

ryan — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 12:30:52 +0000

well, we’ve made it through the first half of 2012. all in all, i think it’s been a decent year for music. there’s been a few great albums and even more good albums (with plenty of, um, not so great albums). i think we’ve yet to hear what will ultimately become the year’s best music, but no doubt, i expect many/most of these albums to make it onto my end-of-the-year list.

so with that said, here’s my favorite albums of 2012 (so far):

20. some nights: fun.
19. hello: karmin
18. r.a.p. music: killer mike
17. reign of terror: sleigh bells
16. born to die: lana del rey
15. not your kind of people: garbage
14. what i saw from the cheap seats: regina spektor
13. a minor bird: sucré
12. fear fun: father john misty
11. master of my make-believe: santigold

10. blunderbuss: jack white
jack white’s solo debut is a classic examples of what unreachable expectations can do to an album. i expected so much that there was no chance to be anything else but let down when i finally heard the album. with that said, it’s still, obviously, one of the best albums of the year.

9. give us rest or (a requiem mass in c [the happiest of all keys]): david crowder band
i generally dislike “christian” music. even more than that, i dislike modern “worship” music. but crowder band’s 2005 release, a collision, transcended those categories. since that time, it’s been a bit disappointing, but give us rest—their final album—returned to that form.

8. swing lo magellan: dirty projectors
this album moves in a different direction than 2009′s bitte orca. whereas that focused more on quirky, eccentric arrangements and styles, swing lo magellan is more about songwriting and a focus on dave longstreth’s vocals.

7. the lion’s roar: first aid kit
when you think of great modern folk music, you think of the swedes, right? ok, maybe not, but with the lion’s roar, we might ought to start thinking that. if you love folk music that hearkens back to another time while being completely fresh and modern, this is the album to listen to.

6. old believers: cory chisel and the wandering sons
raise your hand if you’ve heard cory chisel? sadly, i doubt there are many hands. since the time i heard his 2008 debut ep, cabin ghosts, i’ve loved everything he’s done and this album is his best music since that time.

5. sun midnight sun: sara watkins
sara watkins’ 2009 debut album was, if i’m being honest, a little disappointing. while there were some high points, it didn’t live up to my post-nickel creek expectation. sun midnight sun is thorough redemption for her. she’s done exactly what nickel creek knew she could do with a great solo career.

4. who’s feeling young now?: punch brothers
speaking of nickel creek, there’s been absolutely nothing but great and unexpected things from chris thile’s various ventures over the past several years. the latest punch brothers album is a continuation of everything we’ve come to expect: beautiful, intricate boundary-pushing music.

3. nexus ost: sola-mi
file this album in “things i could’ve never seen coming”. out of nowhere, derek webb drops an electronic concept soundtrack album for a (fake) movie, nexus. based on the concept of the first machine to come alive, he’s put together a masterpiece.

2. bear creek: brandi carlile
the voice. i can’t say enough great things about the unparalleled voice that belongs to brandi carlile. as completely cliché as this is, she could sing the phone book and it would likely sound poignant and beautiful. bear creek is much earthier than her previous efforts, but none less beautiful.

1. the idler wheel is wiser than the driver of the screw and whipping cords will serve you more than ropes will ever do: fiona apple
there was no album so far this year that i’ve anticipated more than fiona apple’s first album in 7 years. that kind of anticipation is typically a recipe for an underwhelming result, but when you’re fiona apple, i don’t think you know how to make a dud. this album marks the return not just of her music but her genius.

what good would a list of best albums be if you couldn’t get at least a little sample of each album?

// download the zip //

two in review: may/june 2012

ryan — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 12:45:00 +0000

another couple months have passed by, so it’s time to once again bring you two in review.

if you’ve missed past editions, here’s the previous posts from 2012:

1. january/february 2012

2. march/april 2012

much like the last 2 in review, there was an incredible amount of great music the last couple months. and also like the last mix, that means, sadly, a ton of really great music didn’t make the final list. throughout the last couple years of creating these mixes, i’ve had complaints from time to time about music that i left off. sometimes it’s legit songs i loved and just loved others more, while sometimes it’s just stuff i didn’t like.

over the last couple mixes, though, i’ve gotten more and more of this type of feedback. let me offer a brief explanation—step by step—of how these mixes take shape. i make a smart playlist in itunes of all the albums from the past 2 months. then, i quickly go through it, making a list of songs that are potential keepers. for this particular mix, that list consisted of 59 songs that i liked/loved. what that means is that 39(!) had to be cut. i ask 3 questions in order to narrow down to the final 20: 1.) what are my favorite songs?, 2.) which songs work well together? (this eliminates some really good songs), & 3.) “the car test”: which songs do i want to listen to and sing along with while i’m driving? (this also eliminates many good songs…particularly slower ones, quite frankly). and there you have it.

one final note: i’m not embarrassed of any of the music i listen to and, accordingly, i don’t avoid including certain genres of music or certain bands. i don’t care if the songs are “cool” or “indie” or if pitchfork gives it a stamp of approval. i choose what i like to listen to. moves like jagger is a fun song to listen to. karmin’s brand of pop is great to sing along to in the car. for every several bad christian bands, there’s at least 1 making good music. my point is that i’m largely uninterested in “indie cred” or music snobs snarking about my choices.

ok…rant over… that felt good…

NOTE: i genuinely enjoy feedback, so please don’t let the previous paragraph scare you away. there might be music i just missed and you pointing that out is a helpful way to discover new music.

so, that gives some insights into how songs get chosen…or not chosen. yes, your favorite song from the past 2 months might also be a song i loved, but it might not fit all 3 of those criterion.

ok, without further ado (and rambling), here’s the mix. i hope you enjoy.

here’s the lineup for the may/june edition of two in review:

1. brandi carlile: hard way home [from bear creek]
2. dirty projectors: about to die [from their forthcoming swing lo magellan]
3. killer mike: southern fried [from r.a.p. music]
4. father john misty: hollywood forever cemetery sings [from fear fun]
5. ellie goulding: high for this (the weeknd cover) [internet release]
6. sola-mi: trust falling [from nexus ost]
7. bahamas: lost in the light [from barchords]
8. chester french: black girls [from music for tngrs]
9. david byrne & st. vincent: who [from their forthcoming love this giant]
10. frank ocean: pyramids [from his forthcoming channel orange]
11. garbage: battle of me [from not your kind of people]
12. sara watkins: i’m a memory [from sun midnight sun]
13. alt-j: breezeblocks [from an awesome wave]
14. selah sue: please (ft. cee-lo green) [from her forthcoming selah sue]
15. kid cudi, best coast & rostam batmanglij: all summer [from converse's 3 artists, 1 song series]
16. sucré: chemical reaction [from a minor bird]
17. admiral fallow: the paper trench [from tree bursts in snow]
18. b.o.b.: so good [from strange clouds]
19. walk the moon: anna sun [from walk the moon]
20. fiona apple: hot knife [from the idler wheel…]

enjoy!

// download the .zip //

david bazan is coming to eikon

ryan — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 13:19:20 +0000

this morning on the eikon blog, we made a particularly exciting announcement that i wanted to share here. on saturday, september 8, david bazan will be playing a show at eikon as a part of his current living room tour.

several weeks ago, on bazan’s website, they announced they were looking for a host for a little rock house show. since eikon’s beginnings, we’ve really wanted to host concerts, so when this was announced, we immediately contacted them and since that time, we’ve been working to finalize all the details.

tickets go on sale this friday (the 15th) at 3 pm (central). tickets will only be on sale through bazan’s website. we will not be selling any tickets through/at eikon.

so, i hope you considering coming to the show. it should be a really cool, intimate time. if you’ve never heard bazan’s music, here’s a performance of one of my favorite songs, hard to be, from a past house show.

max 2.0

ryan — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 12:30:40 +0000

two years ago today, we welcomed to the byrd house our first little dude. max ryan byrd joined us on june 8, 2010 (the numerically nerdy 6/8/10) just after 1 p.m. at a whopping 9 lbs, 3 oz.

it’s a bit cliché to joke about max having to deal with 2 older sisters, but the fact is, it’s been entertaining to watch. well, entertaining in the sense that he is regularly the brunt of both immense love and immense abuse from both lucy and olive. they make his life interesting to say the least. and, to say the least, he loves his big sisters.

as he turns 2, it’s exciting to see so many changes in his life. he’s beginning to figure out more and more words. and in the process, he’s beginning to learn what we assume he believes are words. he loves to dance. and dance. and dance. he loves to laugh and smile. he studies lucy and olive intently in order to figure out what he should be doing. he’s brave and willing to try new things. he loves to love people and i’m glad i’m one of the people who he chooses to love.

max is everything i could ever hope for in a son and i’m proud to be called his father.

so happy birthday, max. i love you.

here’s a few pictures of his first day in this world.

the apologetics of lebron

ryan — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 12:30:43 +0000

despite being a huge sports fan, i just don’t blog about sports that often. but every now and then, i come across something that deserves a little time here on the ol’ blog.

in this case, in the midst of the eastern conference finals (and typing this post as i watch miami blow it in game 5 to boston…), it’s a spot-on story by espn writer rick reilly about lebron james.

let me give you a very short list of my favorite athletes of all-time (not necessarily in order of importance):

steve young.
michael jordan.
lebron james.

that’s the list. there’s a lot of other peripheral athletes i love, but these are at the very top of the heap.

so, i have a vested interest in watching, over the last couple seasons, as the hate for lebron has grown to a fevered pitch. i’ve truly become more and more bewildered. for the first 7 seasons, this guy was a hero and the face of the league.

and then came the decision.

whereas the decision was truly a terrible move for lebron’s image, rick reilly brings some perspective to how we should perceive lebron. here’s the money quote:

You hate him — still! — for the way he botched the announcement of his free-agent move from Cleveland to Miami.

Forget that hundreds of people move from Cleveland to Miami every year.

Forget that dozens of NBA players change teams every year.

It was only one mistake. Has he showed up in any police reports since? Has he cheated on his fiancée ? Has he left his children stranded in the pick-up circle at school?

Has he refused to speak to reporters after a single game this season? Has he called out his teammates for their poor play, as Kobe Bryant did twice this postseason? Has he gotten his coach fired? Been fined for criticizing refs? Asked to be traded, released or named general manager?

Has he punched anybody? Choked anybody? Screamed at any parking valets? (Mom doesn’t count.)

Smashed a chair? Drop-kicked any equipment? Tiger Woods does that on the front nine.

OK, LeBron is not perfect. Threw a Gatorade cup. Punched a walking stick. Carries that stupid little man purse. But if you were to fill a plane with the most spoiled superstars in the country, he’d be boarding in the D group.

preach it, rick.

never have i come across a more succinct and spot-on apologetic for lebron truly being one of the good guys.

you can read rick reilly’s story in full here.

derek webb releases latest project, concept band sola-mi

ryan — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 12:30:57 +0000

at exactly 11:01 last night, derek webb culminated his 2 month-long (this all started on march 26 or april 24, depending on how you look at it) wild goose chase by, well, delivering the wild goose. the goose came in the form of a free download (direct download link) of the soundtrack for the (likely fictional) film nexus by his new concept band called sola-mi. the band consists of himself, long-time collaborator josh moore and the autumn film frontwoman latifah phillips.

i’ve wanted to blog about this since day 1, but there were far too many moving parts and ever-changing mysteries to make it coherent to those who weren’t obsessively keeping up like me and a group of others. one of the people keeping up kept an up-to-date blog post (part 1 and part 2) as things continued to develop.

throughout the process, most people involved hoped for a derek webb solo project. while there was a little disappoint when it was announced it would simply be a band in which derek merely wrote the songs and vocals were by latifah, it turns out that good things come to those who patiently wait and give the benefit of the doubt.

the “soundtrack” (which, it seems is only a soundtrack in the most conceptual sense as it appears there isn’t actually an accompanything film…) is pretty amazing. reminiscent of the vibe, for example, in trent reznor and atticus ross’ the social network soundtrack, the sound is electronic, harkening back to what webb began crafting with stockholm syndrome and feedback.

the album is best listened to as a whole, but here’s a few tracks to give the vibe. and don’t forget, it’s free, so be sure to go download it here.

crowd of silent strangers

the blessing of being bloodless

trust falling

10 spot riverfest edition: snoop dogg & MUTEMATH

ryan — Fri, 25 May 2012 06:16:21 +0000

i recently began a new blog series called ’10 spot’ in which i’d be crafting lists of the top 10 songs from artists of my choosing. i kicked off the series a couple months back with my 10 spots for the black keys and kanye west and since then, i’ve followed up with outkast. now, i thought i’d give a shout out to this weekend’s riverfest festivities.

i go to riverfest every year regardless of the musical acts, but this year, i’m actually excited about the lineup. particularly, my favorite rapper of all-time, snoop dogg, is playing sunday night and one of my top 5 all-time bands, mutemath, is playing saturday night. no doubt, i lucked out on this year’s musical lineup. in honor of that, i thought i’d get everybody ready with a couple 10 spots.

my favorite snoop album is his 1993 debut, doggystyle, and you’ll see plenty of representation of that here. but snoop’s catalog of hits isn’t limited to his own solo material. long before he went on his own, he was delivering some of his most memorable moments under dre’s tutelage. so, here’s my list:

10. serial killa (doggystyle)
9. doggy dogg world (doggystyle)
8. vato (tha blue carpet treatment)
7. deep cover (deep cover soundtrack)
6. stranded on death row (the chronic)
5. tha next episode (the chronic 2001)
4. murder was the case (doggystyle)
3. lodi dodi (doggystyle)
2. tha shiznit (doggystyle)
1. nothin’ but a g thang (the chronic)

as for mutemath, my affection began with them in the late 90s when 3 of the current members were a part of a strange little rock band called earthsuit. after their breakup, mutemath formed and they’ve been putting out incredible and innovative music ever since. while their self-titled debut is head and shoulders their best album, there’s definitely some representation from their remaining catalog. here’s my list:

10. electrify (armistice)
9. chaos (mutemath)
8. break the same (mutemath)
7. odds (armistice)
6. backfire (armistice)
5. control (mutemath)
4. prytania (odd soul)
3. plan b (mutemath)
2. stare at the sun (mutemath)
1. typical (mutemath)

let me know what i missed. or what i got completely wrong. and make sure to go see MUTEMATH saturday night at 6 and snoop dogg sunday night at 9:30.

if you’d like to download these mixes, you can do so here:

snoop dogg **warning: this mix contains quite a bit of objectionable language** // download the .zip //
MUTEMATH // download the .zip //

how then should we respond to violence?: a few thoughts on the thayer street shootings

ryan — Wed, 23 May 2012 05:31:48 +0000

yesterday afternoon, in the relatively quiet capitol view neighborhood, two peoples’ lives came to an end while another was left with life-threatening injuries.

just after mid-day, 19-year old charles murry, jr. entered a home on thayer street and before leaving, shot the 2 inhabitants. after fleeing the home, murry was shot by police and pronounced dead shortly thereafter.

as the events unfolded live on twitter (and in subsequent local news outlets’ accounts), i found myself particularly engaged. first and foremost, this is just a few houses down from where we lived several years ago. this was our neighborhood. this was our street. this was our neighbors. secondly, it’s not so much that i can’t look away from a train wreck, but more that my ears always perk when there’s violence and crime in neighborhoods near where i live. i’ll get to why i’m so particularly interested in these incidents shortly.

it goes without saying that the events of yesterday are particularly sad. the 2 people inside the home—28-year old gyorgy posan (deceased) and 25-year old gabar felszeghy (critical)—who were shot are the foremost victims and for them and their families, this is a tragedy. without even knowing them personally, it’s intensely sad and heartbreaking. if nothing else, just the senselessness of this crime makes it that much more difficult to wrap your mind around. when people are victims of violence—especially gun violence—it’s just as disturbing and tragic as the time before and the time before that. there are other victims, though.

some people won’t like this, but the 19-year old kid who was the shooter is also a victim. don’t get me wrong, what he did was wrong. it was evil. it was criminal. it deserved to get him locked up for a very, very long time. but we’re talking about a teenager. a human being, not a monster. i’m not excusing it or justifying it, but i’m simply saying that, most of the time, someone that age who chooses to engage in this type of behavior is usually a product of that type of behavior. i don’t want to get too caught up on this point, but i think it’s one worth making.

the final victim is the neighborhood and the downtown area in general. i don’t want to trivialize the events and compare the reputation of a neighborhood to the lives of humans (please, understand that i’m not doing that), but i think this is a point worth exploring in this case.

for quite some time, i’ve been meaning to blog about why we’ve chosen to live where we live (the dunbar community, which sits on the edge of one of the highest crime areas in all of little rock), but i’ll save that for another time. the principles, though, are very similar to my primary points in this case. in the aftermath of the shootings yesterday, i discovered, as with other similar incidents here in little rock, a series of reactionary, fearful, lashing-out commentary by people on both twitter and facebook. naturally, the indictments of the capitol view, stifft station and downtown neighborhoods were swift. i saw one person say, “Now you know why everyone who wants to live peacefully and wants to protect their family moved out west”. another person commented, “You guys can have Capitol View and Stiff Station! I will not live in fear that myself or my fiancee could get hurt. If it was a once in a blue moon occurance, that would be one thing, but it seems to be happening more and more often.” i could give a number of other very similar examples.

there are many issues i feel strongly about, but probably none as much as the issue of fear. specifically, i feel absolutely driven to dispel the crippling effects of fear on peoples’ lives and our society, in general. fear makes us hate people. fear makes us commit crimes. fear makes us never fulfill dreams and callings. fear makes us abandon certain neighborhoods. fear makes us prejudge others. fear makes us horde our money instead of giving to those in need. fear makes us have enemies instead of friends. fear makes us vote for unqualified and unhelpful political candidates. fear makes us power hungry.

fear is a dead end. it’s destructive. it’s unhealthy. and it drives our society.

when violence erupts in a neighborhood—much like it did yesterday in capitol view—fear is the winner. people spew the aforementioned reactionary comments that not only exposes their own fear, but tries to pull others into their disease.

what i’m here is to say is to stay away from that. don’t listen to it. don’t believe it. don’t trust it. don’t contract it.

when these incidents occur, people want to tuck and run. people succumb to fear. they go somewhere else that they perceive to be more safe. more “family friendly”. ~~more white.~~ more secure.

and you know what? sometimes they find it. sometimes they escape. sometimes they’re safe. but that’s just the problem. you know who leaves neighborhoods when they’re perceived as dangerous? the people who actually care and have the ability to make a difference. you know who stays? the minority who make those neighborhoods worse. for decades, the good people have fled to the “safer” places. a lot of neighborhoods (like my own) that could and should be great have been abandoned by the people who could and should make a positive difference.

letting fear win leads to abandonment rather than resurrection and revival and renewal and mutual understanding and friendship and learning about/from the other.

how then should we respond to violence?

we should stay. we should invest in our downtown neighborhoods. love the people in these communities. refuse to let fear lead to an irrational and ill-informed decision about our neighborhoods.

capitol view is a beautiful and interesting neighborhood. as is stifft station and the dunbar community and the little rock central area and the governor’s mansion district and the list could go on for this part of town.

yes, there’s crime. just like in other parts of little rock. yes, there’s downsides. just like other parts of little rock. but let’s not let our fear lead us to escapism. they hurt our neighborhoods and in turn, hurt all of little rock.

as we mourn for those whose lives were ended yesterday and for the one whose life has been forever altered, let’s not react in unhealthy and unhelpful ways. let’s honor their lives by not forfeiting ours to fear.

lucy lu turns 5: a look back at the photos

ryan — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:14:27 +0000

our little lucy lu is becoming less and less little by the day. it’s hard to believe, but today she turns 5. as cliché as it sounds, it really does seem like yesterday that we were driving to the hospital in paducah preparing to meet her for the first time.

my foremost birthday wish for lucy is that she knows how deeply she’s loved. and not just loved, but extraordinarily loved and adored and cherished. lucy’s become more than just a daughter. she’s become a conversation partner and a friend. once just a little girl, she’s now a little lady. over the past 5 years, she’s made me laugh and she’s made me cry. she’s made me understand the depths of love more fully and she’s taught me to see everything’s that good in the world even at times when i might otherwise not be able to see it.

beyond christen, no one will ever, obviously, be able to experience the depth of those feelings for lucy, but since it’s a bit of a milestone birthday, i thought i’d share some of my favorite photos of lucy to invite you into what she’s shared with us over the past 5 years. (please don’t judge us for our former photography & photoshop skills… ) enjoy.

bill maher spars with ross douthat on religion, creationism, killing bin laden

ryan — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:30:20 +0000

this isn’t the first time i’ve blogged about conversations on real time with bill maher. in spite of having regular (weekly, probably) disagreements with some of maher’s positions, it’s one of my favorite shows because of the blend of maher’s humor and the show’s candid conversations.

recently, new york times columnist ross douthat was one on the show in support of his new book, bad religion: how we became a nation of heretics. unsurprisingly, maher and douthat didn’t quite see eye-to-eye on any of the topics related to the book or religion in general.

what’s most interesting to me in the following clip is that the person i agree with flips back and forth like a game of tennis. maher’s documentary religulous exposed that he relies on surface level thinking/biblical interpretation and he consistently creates straw men. this exchange with douthat reflects both those things, particularly in regards to creationism (asserting the bible only allows for a literal interpretation) and his overall view of scripture (“the bible says it’s 100% true). on the other hand, i 100% agree with maher when he says supporting the killing of osama bin laden and following in the way of jesus is completely incompatible.

so, check out the clip and see whose side you end up on most of the time.

two in review: march/april 2012

ryan — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:31:12 +0000

in mid-2010, i began a new blog series in which i compiled a mix of the best music i had discovered in the preceding two months. the series and mixes are called, two in review. you can read the original post for details of why i started this.

if you’ve missed past editions, here’s the previous posts from 2012 (which, at this point, is only 1 mix):

1. january/february 2012

another couple months have passed by, so it’s time to once again bring you two in review. i’ve talked before about how music tends to come in waves. 2012 has begun with a wave that hasn’t crested. the last couple months have produced an incredible amount of great music. the bad news is that has forced me to leave a lot of great music off this list. the potential good news (i say potential because i might not have time to do it) is that i’m considering creating a b-sides styles mix of the stuff that didn’t make this mix. so, i hope you enjoy.

here’s the lineup for the march/april edition of two in review:

1. fiona apple: every single night [from the idler wheel…]
2. alex clare: too close [from the lateness of the hour]
3. santigold: GO! [from master of my make-believe]
4. major lazer (ft. amber coffman): get free [from get free]
5. brandi carlile: that wasn’t me [from bear creek]
6. imagine dragons: on top of the world [from continued silence]
7. kanye west: mercy [from mercy]
8. dirty projectors: gun has no trigger [from swing lo magellan]
9. alex winston: fire ant [from king con]
10. the welcome wagon: would you come see me in new york [from precious memories against satan's devices]
11. regina spektor: all the rowboats [from what we saw from the cheap seats]
12. civil twilight: fire escape [from holy weather]
13. sucré: stampede [from a minor bird]
14. electric guest: this head i hold [from mondo]
15. garbage: blood for poppies [from not your kind of people]
16. norah jones: happy pills [from little broken hearts]
17. ladyhawke: black, white & blue [from anxiety]
18. julia nunes: maybe i will [from settle down]
19. estelle (ft. janelle monae): do my thing [from all of me]
20. the neighbourhood: sweater weather [from i'm sorry]

enjoy!

// download the .zip //

should little rock police officers live in little rock?

ryan — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 12:30:07 +0000

a couple days ago, max brantley, on the arkansas blog, posted a list of city employees organized by place of residency (little rock or non-little rock). the most skewed numbers toward non-little rock residents—confirming brantley’s suspicions—were police and fire employees.

non-little rock fire department employees outnumber little rock employees by an almost 3 to 1 margin (295 to 110). despite the margin being more narrow, the far more troubling numbers, to me, are non-little rock police employees who outnumber little rock employees by more than 100 (365 to 252).

(allow me to pause to state that my primary purpose in this post is not to deconstruct the reasons these numbers exist. i could certainly speculate about white flight, differing cultural sensibilities and other factors, but trust me, that discussion would require a whole other blog post…one that could get sticky pretty quickly…)

to be clear, i’m not troubled in the chain-myself-to-city-hall kind of way. i’m not particularly indignant about it and i’m not insistent that every single non-little rock police officer immediately buy a home in my neighborhood.

i’m troubled more in the sense that it runs contrary to my philosophy of public service. though it’s in very different ways (to say the least), police officers and pastors are both public servants. (the very motto of the police department, of course, is “protect and serve”.) as a pastor, i’m deeply driven by an incarnational approach to serving others. simply put, live amongst the people you serve. know the people you serve. experience what the people you serve experience.

you simply cannot truly serve people you don’t know. you can’t care about people you don’t know. you can’t understand the day-to-day realities of people you don’t know. you can’t understand the cultural mindset of people you don’t know.

and on the flipside, you don’t harass or brutalize people you do know. you don’t profile people you know. you don’t neglect the needs of people you know. you don’t treat people you know with fear and suspicion and assume the worst.

you see, i’m not talking about knowing street names or being able to navigate the various neighborhoods or knowing every single citizen by name within the city limits. i’m talking about being in tune with the rhythms of the city and the people in it. there’s a distinct rhythm to life in little rock. i’m not saying it’s any better than or superior to surrounding communities. it’s simply different. it’s unique. it’s diverse.

you know those unique rhythms not by commuting in in the morning and returning home at night. you don’t know it by patroling the streets. you don’t know it by responding to calls in the worst parts of town a couple times a day. you know it by living here. by being a part of the community. by getting to know your neighbors. by having your kids be a part of the local school systems. by serving in a local church or a local outreach group.

so why is it troubling to me that there’s such a disparity in number of non-little rock residents as compared to little rock residents? because i want to be served by people who understand the dynamics of my neighborhood and my day-to-day life. i want to be served by people who don’t assume the worst about my neighborhood solely based on statistics and numbers, rather than knowing the heart and soul of the people trying to make it better. i want to be served by people who have a deeper connection to little rock. more than anything, i want to be served by people who love little rock as much as i do.

the reality is that there’s a good chance we’ll see the disparity in those numbers continue to increase, but i’m holding out hope for a shift where a greater connection to the city translates into a more connected and empathetic police force.

10 spot: outkast

ryan — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 19:28:47 +0000

i recently began a new blog series called ’10 spot’ in which i’d be crafting lists of the top 10 songs from artists of my choosing. here’s a little back story about how this began from my original post:

several weeks ago, my friend bryan stormed (when large men walk briskly, the term “stormed” is usually appropriate…) into my office and laid down a musical challenge: “top 10 black keys songs by the end of the day. go!”.

so, throughout the course of the day, i whittled down my original off-the-top-of-my-head list of about 32 to my final 10. at the end of the day, we compared and contrasted our lists. (bryan’s is here.)

and, of course, good times were had by all.

but why would a list nerd like myself let a one-day musical list-making challenge go to waste? why not keep it going?

so, i kicked off the series with my 10 spots for the black keys and kanye west. both generated some good feedback and i think today’s artist, outkast, could do the same.

my favorite outkast album is 1996′s atliens, but it only managed a couple individual tracks on this list. there’s so many great outkast songs from throughout their entire catalogue that it posed a serious challenge in whittling it down to 10. so, here’s my list:

10. two dope boyz (in a cadillac) (atliens)
9. roses (speakerboxx/the love below)
8. hey ya (speakerboxx/the love below)
7. the whole world (ft. killer mike) (big boi and dre present…outkast)
6. rosa parks (aquemini)
5. gasoline dreams (ft. goodie mob) (stankonia)
4. so fresh, so clean (stankonia)
3. babylon (atliens)
2. skew it on the bar-b (ft. raekwon) (aquemini)
1. b.o.b. (stankonia)

let me know what i missed. or what i got completely wrong.

if you’d like to download this mix, you can do so here:

// download the .zip //

listen to brandi carlile’s new track, ‘that wasn’t me’, from her forthcoming album, ‘bear creek’

ryan — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:20:05 +0000

several weeks ago, brandi carlile announced she’d be releasing her 4th (studio) album, bear creek, on june 5. last summer, while seeing her in kansas city, i grabbed a live recording of raise hell, a track that will be included on the new release. while that was a bit of a tease of her new work, we now have something much better.

today, brandi carlile released the album’s first track, that wasn’t me. long-time fans won’t be disappointed. whereas it has a much more soulful gospel-y feel than her past work, it’s not a huge stylistic leap. lyrically, as promised in a couple interviews, carlile gets pretty vulnerable and personal, laying out what seems to be a bit of an apology for past trespasses. here’s the full lyrics:

Hang on, just hang on for a minute
I’ve got something to say
I’m not asking you to move on or forget it
But these are better days
To be wrong all along and admit is not amazing grace
But to be loved like a song you remember
Even when you’ve changed

Tell me did I go on a tangent?
Did I lie through my teeth?
Did I cause you to stumble on your feet?
Did I bring shame on my family?
Did it show when I was weak?
Whatever you see, that wasn’t me
That wasn’t me, that wasn’t me

When you’re lost you will toss every lucky coin you’ll ever trust
And you will hide from every god like he never turns his back on us
And you will fall all the way to the bottom and fall on your own knife
But you’ll learn who you are even if it doesn’t take your life

Tell me did I go on a tangent?
Did I lie through my teeth?
Did I cause you to stumble on your feet?
Did I bring shame on my family?
Did it show when I was weak?
Whatever you see, that wasn’t me
That wasn’t me, that wasn’t me

But I want you to know that you’ll never alone
I wanna believe
Do I make myself a blessing to everyone I meet
When you fall I will get you on your feet
Do I spend time with my family?
Did it show when I was weak?
When that’s what you see, that will be me
That will be me, that will be me
That will be me

alright, you can listen to the track here:

[introducing] 10 spot: the black keys & kanye west

ryan — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:30:42 +0000

several weeks ago, my friend bryan stormed (when large men walk briskly, the term “stormed” is usually appropriate…) into my office and laid down a musical challenge: “top 10 black keys songs by the end of the day. go!”.

so, throughout the course of the day, i whittled down my original off-the-top-of-my-head list of about 32 to my final 10. at the end of the day, we compared and contrasted our lists. (bryan’s is here.)

and, of course, good times were had by all.

but why would a list nerd like myself let a one-day musical list-making challenge go to waste? why not keep it going?

so, beginning today, i’m gonna attempt to regularly post what i’m calling ’10 spot’. much like the original challenge, i’ll simply take an artist, rank my 10 favorite tracks and post them here. as an added bonus, i’ll throw in a downloadable mix of my list.

since i’ve already posted my 10 spot for the black keys (via twitter several weeks ago), i’ll post it here again, but i’ll also throw in another artist. what better way to kick off this series than with not just the black keys, but with a kanye west 10 spot?

for my black keys list, i offer a warning to old school (if you call 2001 old school…) fans that my love for the black keys began around attack and release and fully ignited with brothers. so, my list is pretty heavy from that point forward. here’s the list:

10. i’ll be your man (the big come up)
9. lonely boy (el camino)
8. she’s long gone (brothers)
7. next girl (brothers)
6. strange times (attack & release)
5. tighten up (brothers)
4. sinister kid (brothers)
3. gold on the ceiling (brothers)
2. everlasting light (brothers)
1. howlin’ for you (brothers)

as for brother kanye, the list samples relatively evenly from his entire discography (and i’m including watch the throne). as hard as it was to narrow down the black keys list, it was exponentially harder for the kanye list. there’s so many great songs that hit the cutting room floor. with that said, here’s the list:

10. all of the lights (my beautiful dark twisted fantasy)
9. stronger (graduation)
8. love lockdown (808′s and heartbreaks)
7. amazing (808′s and heartbreaks)
6. the glory (graduation)
5. monster (my beautiful dark twisted fantasy)
4. breathe in breathe out (college dropout)
3. gold digger (late registration)
2. otis (watch the throne)
1. all falls down (college dropout)

alright, there you have it. what do you think? did i miss anything? is my order wrong? let me know (and feel free to make your own list and post it in the comments).

if you’d like to download these mixes, you can do so here:

the black keys // download the .zip //
kanye west // download the .zip //