Month: June 2023

June 30, 2023

Slow Salvation "Here We Lie" Releasing August 25th via Velvet Blue Music

Velvet Blue Music has another exciting artist to announce, and their band name is “Slow Salvation“. A 15sec trailer dropped (View below) which shows the album “Here We Lie” dropping on August 25th through Velvet Blue Music. It sounds ethereal, dreamy, and otherworldly. Serious dreamy-pop, indie noise vibes in the most melodic and sincere of ways. Pre-Order here on the Velvet Blue site and stay tuned for a song soon.… Continued →

Anberlin "Convinced" EP, Out Now!

Anberlin have just released their brand new 5 song EP titled “Convinced” and it’s available worldwide today. Thoughts on this new outing from scene faves, Anberlin? I kinda wished they named this EP “Conversate” because it would remind me of my favorite Anberlin album, “Cities”, and just sounds fun. The last ep and this one together make a really diverse set of songs with a sound much more mature and modern in nature. Do I like it personally? Well, I don’t know the answer to that all important question quite yet as I’ve only listened once through.… Continued →

The Julies Release Brand New Song Titled "Symmetry"

The Julies are back in a big way this year. They’ve had a couple prior (old) albums repackaged and released on Vinyl for the first time by Lost In Ohio and now they come back with a brand new song titled “Symmetry” which is quite frankly the best I’ve ever heard from them or any likeminded band for that matter. I hate using all the genre specific classifications when describing songs such as this because honestly, this band goes above and beyond to bring you music which rides a wave of uniquely, “Julies” music but terms like “shoegaze”, “indie pop rock”, “Dream pop”, etc could easily be applied to this then twisted around and around with the beautiful color hues projecting outwards.… Continued →

Light The Way Drops Fantastic New Song, "Life Makes No Sense"

Light The Way just dropped their brand new song titled “Life Makes No Sense” and it is now available on ALL digital networks and streaming sites. It is a fantastic new song and one of the band’s strongest efforts so far. It’s meaningful, it’s a bit depressing, it’s entirely honest, and it’s a song full of vulnerability and hope. Make sure to give it a solid listen and add these guys to all of your playlists. Solid Pop-Punk such as this comes only ever so often and they are riding a wave of uniqueness that will be hard to replicate.… Continued →

Song of the Day: Lieutenant Stitchie - Shopping

Famed Jamaican reggae artist Lieutenant Stitchie already had a lengthy career as a dancehall reggae artist beginning in the late 1970s. His first album hit in 1987, and he released 7 full-length albums and nearly 50 singles (yes, 50!) all before becoming a Christian. As the story goes, he was on his way to perform in Montego Bay, but was injured in a car crash. Against the advice of doctors, he proceeded to perform anyway. After the show he was given a Gideon’s Bible and as a result of reading the Bible in his hotel room, he gave his life to the Lord.… Continued →

June 29, 2023

Song of the Day: Secular End - Junkie

Here is a rare band that came out on this comp. They seemed to have done some stuff under Boot To Head records also before disbanding, but didn’t seem to find the Christian niche market that other bands on the comp did. Took me circa 25 years to track this one down so enjoy!  And my son Tyler will be flying down to see me in a few hours EST!
Continued →

June 28, 2023

June 23, 2023

Song of the Day: This Train - Screen Door

One of the few rockabilly bands in the Christian rock scene, This Train was even more rare in that they focused on more traditional rockabilly sounds, as opposed to its faster, punked-up cousin psychobilly, which was better represented in our scene (The Calicoes, Ruby Joe, Prophecy, Blaster the Rocketman). I’ve always found it curious how certain subgenres really catch on in faith circles (metalcore, metallic industrial, emo), while others go largely untouched (EBM, post-rock, folk-punk, etc.) Maybe someone could analyze that and write a PhD dissertation on it!… Continued →

June 21, 2023

Luxury Vinyl Reissues

Burnt Toast Vinyl are proud to present a special reissue of the first 2 Luxury albums on Vinyl. “Amazing and Thank You” (1995) and “The Latest & The Greatest” (1997) are both getting beautifully arranged on a 180G Double LP, including colored vinyl with full color inserts and packaged in a thick, gloss gatefold jacket. Both are limited pressings of just 500 copies. Both albums have a couple of bonus tracks so you don’t want to miss out on this. Full press write up on the vinyl reissues can be seen below this post.… Continued →

Klank Releases "Between Unholy and Divine Vol. 2"

Klank has just released the follow up to last year’s “Between Unholy and Divine Vol. 1” with Vol. 2 dropping last week. It’s an insane combo of heavy guitars and electronic sounds that’ll get you in full beast mode ready to meet your day head on. I’ve listened on Spotify and enjoyed what I heard. Go check it out now on all digital networks and buy physical media by clicking this link here (it is also available on Vinyl).… Continued →

June 16, 2023

Teeth For Eyes Unleash Debut EP

The new punk band called Teeth For Eyes, just launched their debut EP as a band and it’s up on their bandcamp page right here (or stream it below this post). The band features members of Crux, Empty Tomb, Citron, Cicero, Godspeed, Pollywog, and Govt Hate Mail. It’s an excellent debut recording and a perfect representation of a diverse set of sounds that quite honestly defy standard definitions. Listen for yourself and get ready to hit those “follow” buttons for @teethforeyes (instagram).… Continued →

Song of the Day: Ambient Theology - Humanity

Ambient Theology was an (wait for it . . . ) ambient side-project from the people behind Virus and The Bubblebaby Experience. It wasn’t ambient in the Brian Eno elevator music sense–having a much more rhythmic feel to it–but it was ambient electronica nonetheless, perhaps more akin to the “ambient techno” genre. This project only released one self-titled album in 1995, although there were at least 5 other full-length albums released via the various other projects. Ambient Theology was an interesting concept. Since electronica is more often than not dominated by instrumental music (sans vocals), the ‘theology’ portion came in the form of well-written, deeply thought out devotionals.… Continued →

June 14, 2023

June 12, 2023

Song of the Day: DJ Jireh - Among Us

Trance master DJJireh aka DJ Jireh aka HeavenlyTrance aka Mauritz has quite a catalog under his moniker. Find his stuff on Beatport site under Deepsink Digital Records. Originally hailing from London, he now resides in South Africa. Most, if not all, his music is composed on dance music to phrases from the Bible. This one appears to contain portions of both John 1 & Ephesians 1.  
Continued →

June 10, 2023

Song of the Day: Above Only - Listen Friend;

This Christian modern rock band has been heard around the country with songs such as Evil Never Sleeps & Change. This catchy SOTD was released back in 2021 so here’s to hoping to hear more. As far as the lyrics go, they hit hard: Can I show you my monsters Can I show you my pain And the addictions that strangle the life from my veins Can I tell you my secrets and confess every sin I don’t need another hero I just really need a friend You don’t need all of the reasons You don’t need the right words to say Sometimes the hardest part of reaching out is when your hand gets pushed away But I’m begging you to hear me now while there’s still a little time If you care enough to listen friend You might just save my life  
Continued →

Everything Is Gonna Be Alright, Be Strong, Believe: 20 Hits From 20 Years Ago

*This is an update to an article that originally appeared on Indie Vision Music back in 2018 for the 15th Anniversaries of the albums below. Some wording and arrangements may have been altered. I hope you enjoy this article as much as I enjoy these albums. Happy 20th to all these and many more that may have been accidentally left off the list (my memory is fuzzy). 15 20 years ago, a collection of what can now be determined as “Classic Hits” were unleashed on a crowd that had an insatiable appetite for what was new and considered “ROCK” music.… Continued →

June 9, 2023

Song of the Day: Saint Spirit - Volt

This thrash metal band hailed from Brazil in the region of Belford Roxo, just outside of Rio de Janeiro. They were active in the mid-90s, playing a form of thrash that was occasionally influenced by related styles like death metal, groove metal, and metalcore. They broke up in the late 90s and then re-formed in 2001, and have been active on and off. This video was posted in 2017, but I’m not aware of an accompanying album to go with it. Nonetheless, the band has had at least one full-length and one EP, both on the Brazilian indie label Força Eterna Records.… Continued →

June 7, 2023

June 5, 2023

Song of the Day: Upstanding Youth - Better Than You or Me

Hailing from Hawaii, this fun 6 piece ska band has all the elements that drove probably most of us to love ska. Crowd vocals, music to skank to & mean guitars melding w/ horns. They released 2 LPs, an EP & a few songs on the IVM Ska Lives comps. Here is my fave. & btw, check out current ska band Must Build Jacuzzi from Peoria, Illinois whom I have seen I believe thrice live now.  
   … Continued →

June 3, 2023

June 2, 2023

Song of the Day: Lovelorn - Feather

This was one of those ‘one and done’ bands, meaning they only released one album as Lovelorn. However, they were connected directly and indirectly to a number of other projects. Vocalist Jayson Holmes had been in metalcore band Eso-Charis, and later formed The Handshake Murders (who mostly recorded on secular labels). Corey Putman (Eso-Charis, Norma Jean) and Arthur Green (Eso-Charis, Living Sacrifice) also made appearances on the album. The album is a wonderfully strange concoction of emo-core, hardcore, indie rock and math rock–almost like Roadside Monument meets Coalesce, but with bits of Karate thrown in just because.… Continued →

June 1, 2023

Focused Reunite for a LIVE show and 30th Anniversary Celebration of 'Bow', soon

Those classic Spirit Filled Hardcore OGs known as FOCUSED, are reuniting FINALLY for a show (or shows) this fall or in 2024 (heck, do both!). They have announced there will also be an appearance by a 90’s Spirit Filled Hardcore Legend so my hopes are high that it is one of my faves. We are coming up on the 30th anniversary of both their debut record “Bow” and the launch of Tooth & Nail Records, which actually began right here in Orange County, California almost 3 decades ago.… Continued →