Fearless Now, my sister's solo project on Varietal Records, dropped this morning on iTunes.

Christianity Today also reviewed the album here.

Nice.

Labels: Music, Varietal Records

The biggest, most anticipated Indie-rock release of the year is out and Robert Ham of Relevant sat down with Ben Gibbard to talk about the new record. The interview talked about the early days of the band in Bellingham, WA which made me sigh a little bit and reminisce about living in Washington, and my wanna-be-indie-rock days.




If you haven't heard the single for the new record, you probably haven't been listening to KROQ or your local Alterna-rock station. The new song is amazing, and gives me confidence that the new record "Narrow Stairs", will be amazing.

Labels: Music

It must be the weekend, because my brain is worked. I had a big, multi-tasking week at work, and I rewarded my hard work with a quick nap on the couch when I got home. I need to recharge a bit before heading out on the town with the unofficial "Three Saints And A Sinner" fan club tonight. The cool cats are playing at "the Gem" tonite, and it should be a good time.

Tomorrow my wifey comes home, and I'm sure she has a lot of great stories to tell me of her trip. I'm pretty sure all she will need her blanket and the Tivo remote on Saturday night. She's got a lot of American Idol and The Bachelor to catch up on.

I finally got a listen to "God Of This City", the latest cd from Passion/Six Steps Records. It was a solid record, but not the best they've ever done. But wow, "Let God Arise" and "God Of This City" are two amazing songs, and I hope to put these into my rotation of songs at Live Oak.



I've also been listening to Bloc Party's latest disc. Good stuff. Lots of energy, and I love the guitar sounds. The next thing I'm going to demo is Leeland's latest.

The weather was HOT today. I stepped out of my office at about 11 AM today, and it was like a furnace blast! Earlier in the week I was awakened by cold air blowing in the window, and now it's about 85 in my room. It finally felt like summer is right around the corner.

I had better get ready to head out to the rock show. I'll be live from the Gem on my twitter feed. You can check out updates here.

Labels: Life, Music

Labels: Music, Varietal Records, Vineyard Music

My buddy, David, says that he likes the frequency of my posting.....or should I say "liked"? I've not been posting much lately. It's a combination of doing a lot of other things, boring news and media, and being kind of busy. It's all good. I suppose that blogging isn't really that important.

A lot of my time has been spent with my guitars for the last couple of weeks. I've been learning and practicing a bunch of new songs in preparation for this weekend.

Speaking of that, I'm pretty stoked about this coming weekend. My sister Sheri is flying into town, and my good friend Rhett is flying down from Washington. We are all getting together this weekend to work our way through learning a bunch of songs from Sheri's upcoming CD, and get ready to go out and lead at a few gatherings here and there. Melisa is going to be playing keys and our awesome friend, Drew (recently married to Abbie!) is going to playing bass! This should be a lot of fun, but a lot of work.

Sheri and the rest of us on her team are so glad to be doing our first event together at my home church, Live Oak Vineyard, this Sunday night. It will be the first time that this group of people will be leading together as one unit, so it's nice to begin in a familiar, safe place with people who are behind us.


I wish Joshua could make the trip. We'll miss you, brother!

And I do hope that a good number of people from the Live Oak Worship team would be willing to come to the worship gathering on Sunday evening to worship with us, and pray for Sheri and the team she has drawn together. I think that it would be great for a group of worshipers to come and pray for her as she is on the verge of an album release and beginning a series of events. I know that she cherishes the prayers and support of her extended Vineyard family all across the country.


Not only is he a smokin' drummer, he's a connoisseur of cheesy crackers!

I'm also excited about Sunday. Rhett is going to be able to sit in on drums on Sunday morning. We spent almost four years playing music together and becoming great friends. I miss that guy a lot, and I'm excited to be able to lead worship with him this week! I just wish he could bring his wife, Molly, because it's been too long since we've all had a chance to get together in one place. Melisa and I will just have to figure out a way to make it up to Washington this summer to see all of our Washingtonian brethren instead.


Rhett and Molly.....this picture is way old, but the best I've got....sorry!

I've got to finish up my set list for Sunday. Does anybody have a song on their heart that they really want to sing to God this weekend? Let me know. The set is hardly carved in stone yet.

Labels: Life, Music

Labels: Music, Varietal Records, Vineyard Music

Holy shneikies, did The New Hotness completey blow the doors of The Roxy in Hollywood last night. They pretty much burnt my eyebrows off my face last night with their Rock-Onslaught! The power-trio can truly bring the rock, and do it with a way that is both familiar yet has an original edge.

Eric Newton, lead vocals and guitar, has a voice made for rock-and-roll, and has some serious guitar chops. Not only that, but he's not afraid to use effects and be creative with his sounds.

John K. on bass is a blast to watch, as he is the most mobile of the bunch on stage. His rockstar stage-presence is one of the keys to the Hotness being such a fun show. His no-nonsense rock sound is the perfect fit in this trio.

John K. pairs up with my friend Jared on drums to create a tight rhythm section. Jared, of course, was on it last night. The guy's amazing. He can rock on guitar, and last night I found out just how good he is on drums. Not only that, but he isn't afraid to sing BGV's with John K., and that was fun to watch, too.

If you live in LA, be sure to come out and see them this month. They have a few more shows coming up at clubs in Hollywood. You can also listen to a lot of their latest CD on their myspace page. Check them out at http://www.myspace.com/thenewhotnessrocks to get it all.

Labels: Music, Shows

My sis, Sheri, is releasing her new album on May 6 (my birthday!) titled "Fearless Now", and one of her songs is being featured this week on WorshipSource.com!

If you want to catch an early listen to one of the tracks off of Fearless Now, this is the only way, so click here! You can also download the PDF lead sheet if you would like to do the song at your church!

Labels: Fearless Now, Music, Sheri Carr, Varietal Records, Vineyard

Paramore and Jimmy Eat World announced today (Jan. 18) that they'll begin a co-headlining U.S tour beginning in March.
--Billboard Magazine

Labels: Music

I do this "blogging" thing late at night so that Melisa can fall asleep before I start snoring. Apparently the clicking of keys is music to her ears when compared to the roar of me sawing logs!

Anyway, we just got back tonite from playing a worship set with some friends as part of a "fundraising sendoff" for a couple that is moving to the Philippines to begin a church plant. It was great to be a small part of the night, and see the passion that this church has for missions, and to take the message of the Kingdom to the world. Exciting stuff.

But wow, 6AM was a long time ago, and my eyes are scratchy, and my body is worn out from hauling gear around. It's time to go to bed.

Tomorrow we are going to be working on Melisa's song some more with Milk and Billy-Boom-Boom (also known as my father-in-law). I think Milk has the Pro Tools tuned up and rockin' this time.

As I check around the net tonite, I see that the NASCAR season gets off to a start tomorrow with the Bud Shootout. NASCAR sure doesn't waste any time after the NFL is done to kick off their season, do they.

On a closing note, I'm bored with music. Who has a band that is rocking their world that I haven't heard yet?

Labels: Music, Worship Leading

Melisa and I were at Starbucks last week in Ft. Collins, and we saw the Radiohead album on the music rack. We didn't have their latest CD, "Rainbows in Rainbows", so we grabbed it. I cracked it open tonite and listened to it on the way home, and was pretty disappointed. Radiohead has forgotten how to be melodic. I mean, there are some seriously cool moments on the record, but it's not something I can rock out to. It's more like background music, or a soundtrack for some movie or the latest episode of Grey's Anatomy.

Labels: Music

Vineyard Music USA has four nominations for the Worship Leader 2007 Praise Awards from Worship Leader Magazine. Be sure to case your vote for:

Worship Project of the Year: Full Attention
Song of the Year: “Sweetly Broken”
Worship Compilation: Playlist: Stand In Awe
Breakout Artist: Jeremy Riddle

Go to: 2007 Praise Award Nominations Announced at the bottom of the page and cast your votes!

...

Labels: Music, Vineyard Music

I almost forgot to post about Daughtry. I had no idea that this guy/band had become so popular. Isn't this band a lot like Incubus, with a little more of the Alabama sound? I had no idea that these guys were even remotely popular. Where have I been? Oh, that's right, listening to Jimmy Eat World's latest release.

Labels: Music

Mis' and I just got back from Beantown in Sierra Madre. We were checkin' out Steve's show at Beantown, and were hangin' out for a while. Good times. Sierra Madre is like teleporting out of LA into a small town. I like it there. It's up on the hill northeast of Pasadena, and it's really chill up there.

The internet connection at our apartment is really slow right now for some reason. The internet guy from Charter is coming in the morning. Hopefully he can get 'er done, and get us back to 3 Megs tomorrow so I can watch Champ Car qualifying on Race Director. I guess we'll see.

G'nite from Pasadena.

Labels: Leisure, Music

I've just had a listen to some cuts off of the new Lifehouse record, and I'm pretty impressed. In particular, the track titled "Broken" is pretty powerful.

I'm fallin' apart
I'm barely breathing
With a broken heart
That's still beating
In the pain
There is healing
In your name
I find meaning
So I'm holdin' on...... I'm holdin' on
I'm barely holding on to you.......

And the music behind it has a depth I've never heard from Lifehouse before. I must say that I think Stanley Climbfall was unlistenable, and their recent self-titled release was OK, but this song makes this latest record for me.

Labels: Music

Vineyard Music USA has a preview of "Stand In Awe", their next Playlist release. We've already been doing four songs off of this upcoming CD at the Live Oak Vineyard, because we heard them on earlier club releases.

"Allleluia", "Stand In Awe", "All I Have", and "God Of All Glory" have all been songs that have touched our church.

Some of the songs have been re-recorded and re-arranged, and you can listen to them at VineyardMusicUSA.com.

Labels: Music, Worship Leading