Tag: California

Welcome to the song that brought me a lifetime love for Christian Reggae. The band has been around since the mid 90s & still releases music almost every year. They have done a few worship albums & even some kid stuff! This is an example of a band that I label in the ministering category of “Christian” music as they are unabashed about the Gospel. From their LastFM site The name is pronounced CHRIST-AH-FAR-EYE, in Greek, the original language of the New Testament, Christafari is the name given to “a group of people who collectively represent Christ.”… Continued →

Honestly I think this is a song that only Half-Handed Cloud could write. Aside from the ever-present pop bliss is a song about a baby trying to reach shiny Christmas ornaments that are out of reach, and yet so desirable. But Ringhofer makes a point that only he could make, about humanity’s incessant need to grasp for shining things that are always slightly out of reach and that we really don’t need after all. Merry Christmas IVM friends–may you find the true joy of Christmas this year–the baby in the manger!… Continued →

NT was a band from Cali who released 3 LPs of energetic pop punk tunes circa the late 90s. Appears the bass player went on & played w/ Eager Seas & Lakes that I’ve seen around. Their drummer was also in Upperhand. This jam is my fave.   … Continued →

So this has gotta be the heaviest song Andrew & co. has ever released. It is the first single for their last project (no pun intended!) entitled Omni that will be released in early 2023. I’ve seen them almost as many times as Norma Jean live & they are great in ever way with their musical finesse. I helped crowdfund their live album & have a unreleased pressing from it. Their eponymous album was the first cd I purchased when I joined the military at an army PX!… Continued →

It was pretty hard to find this LP over the years. Finally tracked down a copy on Ebay If I remember quickly. They fall within the alt/nu metal/rapcore genre. They had another LP on CDBaby back in the day also. Anyways, check out Lately I’ve Noticed also. Appears they were from Cali. They remind me a lot of E-So whom I am still looking for their song The Game. … Continued →

I first discovered this band from Tim Henderson (Warlord/Mr Bishops Fist) one night as we were talking about obscure Christian bands from the past. Body and Soul was a one-off solo project from Daniel Amos keyboardist Rob Watson. Body and Soul released only one 7″ in 1983, and never did anything else. Side A featured “Something’s Going On Here,” which is a good song, but is more typical of 80s new wave/pop. It sounds like a track you’d hear in an 80s action comedy film, something akin to Adventures in Babysitting.… Continued →

Redline is a grunge/post hardcore band from the 90s that changed their name to Echocast then to Ironside & now to The Ironside Collective. I think I saw them live right as they changed to Echocast. The Ironside Collective is their name & will song be coming out with stuff on The Charon Collective record label. … Continued →

This very catch SOTD hearkens from way back in the day & had been released on Narrowpath Records. I first heard the song on a compilation & had to track them down thereafter. They even have a Facebook page which is interesting as a lot of these bands faded into existence in the early days of the internet. Check them out. … Continued →

If you’re of the opinion that only melodic music can be godly, then you might want to navigate your browser elsewhere. If, on the other hand, you see the possibility of the Spirit working and moving in the new, the avant garde, the experimental, and the downright weird, then Ganglia just might interest you. Sometimes stylized as GÅNGLÎÅ, this one-man project was started by David Smittcamp in Los Angeles in the late 1990s. He took the already experimental genre of grindcore (lightning-fast tempos and ultra-short songs fused into an extreme form of hardcore and metal), and flipped it on its head by utilizing only electronic instruments.… Continued →

The Stand was a 90s power pop band that played on the CCM radio scene when Petra, Wayne Watson, Hoi Polloi, Out of the Grey, Point of Grace, The Winans, Whitecoss were all on the same playlist. It was a way cool time in the scene as you could the radio friendly songs from hard rockers right along next to CCM mainstays. I found out when I got older the formats varied across the USA & I was pretty blessed to have a modern CCM station near me.… Continued →

Jeff Hansen is the man behind one man “unblack” metal band Geistkrieg. It’s German name translates to something like spiritual war. He also worked on P!g3on. Anyways, this song sounds so cool & you can read the lyrics on his Bandcamp page here. https://jeffhansen.bandcamp.com/track/peculiar-compulsion  … Continued →

This 5-piece band from Norwalk, CA started as a metalcore band but morphed into something heavier and more technical with an interesting mix of death metal, grindcore, and the odd jazz passage. The band only released two demos. The first was a 5-song tape called “Soldiers of the Cross.” In 2006 they released their more known, somewhat ironically titled “Death Gospel” (Gospel set to death metal, get it?) cassette, featuring 4 songs. Then the band was never to be heard of again. However, just this year an independent secular metal label from Riverside has re-released the demo as a cassette-only release, with three bonus tracks.… Continued →

Aviadora is a Christian metalcore band that incorporated electronica elements. I know it was only a fad for a short period of time, but I dug it. It broke up the monotony of other metalcore music. I believe they disbanded, but there is still stuff on them on the world wide web. Check em out. … Continued →

This is an arena rock band who eventually turned grunge before disbanding. Have always dug this song & the bass line helped a lot! Nostalgia… … Continued →

This is a hxc punk band I just saw live back in July. Their name is just the Doulos if you want to pronounce it correctly. Trust me, I know! They put on an awesome show & are really nice in person. Check ’em out! … Continued →

There was a lot of hype surrounding this band when they were first signed by Facedown Records, in large part based on the fact they had three vocalists. While the hype, and sadly also the band, were short-lived (they only released one full-length and one 3-way split album), they definitely generated a healthy buzz in their short existence. And for good reason too. Soli Deo Gloria (roughly translated as “to the glory of God alone”) dropped in 2001, and stylistically the album shows its age. Torn in Two were building off of the heavy, metallic, chugga-chugga or “new school” style hardcore of the 1990s, and adding more metallic leads and riffs without ever fully crossing over into metalcore.… Continued →

So what is the actual name of this band? The Supertones, Supertones, OC Supertones! Anyways, they got the whole Christian industry into 3rd wave ska music. The other 2 Five Iron Frenzy & The Insyderz caught on right afterwards if I remember correctly. My acquaintance from high school was actually trying to bring them to Bloomington/Normal Illinois, but from what I gather they got stuck in a snow storm. Pretty sure this was circa 1995. Anyways, the bass lead is fun to play & not that difficult if you want to learn it.… Continued →

So I saw this band when they first changed their name to FZ from Mortal. I talked to I think Jerome before the show with Bloomsday & asked for what I think was Kingflux & they ended up playing it for me. Yah! Anyways fast forward all these years later & Jerome has been working with Switchfoot & then AI find out they might come out with more music? Sounds good to me. Oh yeah, & remember YHWH is still in control of king planet! https://www.morzanmuzik.com/… Continued →

Many fitting tributes have been written about the one and only, the mighty drummer/musician/song-writer/animal rights activist Ted Kirkpatrick. So much has been said about his life, his music, and his impact that I can’t really add much here. Ted’s incredible musicianship is impossible to overstate. He was revered even by the most ardent anti-religion folks, for his musicality alone, including folks like King Diamond and Marty Friedman. While I never got to meet Ted, I did have the chance to see Tourniquet live once. It was their first tour with Luke Easter as the new lead vocalist.… Continued →

So I heard this song back in the day & fell in love with it. Now this is in those days that internet wasn’t around yet & I had no clue how to find it. Years went past & while digging thru Idle Cure’s stuff, whoa I just found my jam!  This is AOR & I get this is a punk site but these lyrics (partially pulling from Psalm 99:9) still ring all these years later. Hope y’all understand what I mean. Have you ever been up to the mountain Have you ever walked on holy ground We can all go without condition The veil’s been torn, there’s love all around The light shines from all directions You’ll cast way your cares Have you ever taken water from the river If you drink you’ll never thirst again It’s all been given to us freely No more servants, we’re called friends The path is narrow, the days are few Let’s walk up to the mountain and turn the old to new Shadows falling, harvest from the light I can feel the power of love Voices singing, praising the Most High Now I know, I’m standing on holy ground Have we lost the heart to worship Have we lost the song of praise Is our walk another chapter Reading words but we never bless His name The path is narrow, the days are few Let’s walk up to the mountain and turn the old to new Come enter in and you will see The temple door is broken free Lift your voice now don’t be shy Lift Him up to be glorified  … Continued →

This guy here has been in the music biz longer than most of us have been alive (1971). You can read all about his career elsewhere, but this song has always been comedic to me as I think as anticipated. Have fun with this one!   … Continued →

I’ve been listening to Ronnie Martin’s music since the late 80s, when he and brother Jason (of Starflyer 59 and many others) were known as the duo Dance House Children. That group reveled in synth-pop, but with a super quirky edge. There was nothing in the Christian nor secular markets quite like it. After two underrated albums, the pair split. Jason started the legendary indie rock monster Starflyer 59, while Ronnie carried on with synthesizer-created music in the form of Joy Electric. Picking up where Dance House Children left off, Joy Electric took the quirkiness to extreme new levels.… Continued →

For a brief moment in the early 1990s, it looked like electronica (or techno, or rave as it was being called at the time) was going to take over popular music. It had a huge following in Christian alternative music for a good two years. Although the synthesizer-driven genre had little to do with the guitar-dominated alt-rock, grunge, and hardcore punk of the era, what it did have in common with those genres was simply being an oddball style of music with which to glorify God.… Continued →

Krush was a hard rock band that released a couple albums & a demo. This song is from a cassette demo that I finally shelled out my hard earned cash to get! Hope y’all like it as I was looking for it for years. And Happy July 4th! … Continued →

Metalheads are divided over whether the subgenre dubbed “speed metal” actually exists or not. Often confused with shred metal and/or Neo-classical (yes, those guys play fast, but that’s not the same thing), it’s almost synonymous with thrash except there are often clean vocals and/or slightly cleaner guitars. In the Christian scene, the most obvious examples are the seminal and fantastic Valor, Tourniquet’s early work (also adding a progressive element) and the mighty Deliverance. While Deliverance has flirted with a lot of different styles (speed/thrash, gothic metal, alternative metal, groove, etc.),… Continued →

This band is cool. I remember seeing them back in the day & I was impressed. I’d consider them pop punk & they were one of the early T&N bands that I had collected. Chose this one as I always understood the lyrics. The life’s torn from you, there is nowhere to turn. You’re all alone, you feel hollow and empty. Nothing you do can suppress the heartache that you feel. The only strength you have is used to cry in misery. Could you fill the hole you’ve made inside your heart, when you can’t erase your past mistakes?… Continued →

This is a hard song to listen to, but it needs to be heard. This one talks about a guy who hurt someone close to the author. He’s ticked with the dude, but tells him that God will forgiven him if he repents. There is what appears to be a music video on YouTube, but it’s to risqué to list here. … Continued →

Emerging from the original wave of Spirit Filled Hardcore (or SFHC) came southern California’s No Innocent Victim, AKA N.I.V. In contrast to their SFHC peers like Unashamed, Strongarm, and Overcome, who often integrated metallic influences that were becoming more popular in hardcore, NIV stuck to their old school roots with a “Loud Fast Rules” mentality. In fact, their old school approach to fast and heavy hardcore played a part in sparking a revival of the style, which eventually evolved into “tough guy hardcore,” essentially an update of that old school sound with added breakdowns and heaviness.… Continued →

For some of you, this SOTD will stretch the limits of what “Indie Vision Music” should cover. Glam metal was at the height of the commercialization of rock and roll in the late 80s, thus rendering Stryper’s inclusion here as suspect. But here are a few reasons why they absolutely deserve to be here: 1. They were, and possibly are still, the most important and/or influential Christian rock/metal band of all time. Yes, it’s true. With number one singles, album sales that rivaled their secular peers, and heavy rotation on MTV (when it still stood for “Music Television”), their impact is still felt far and wide.… Continued →

No, The Supertones weren’t the first Christian ska band. The Israelites’ first album pre-dated them by a year. But in the UK, Rev Counta and the Speedoze* (another incarnation of Ishmael United) had released a full-length as early as 1980! And perhaps some Jamaican bands that didn’t fit into the CCM/CBA mold had been active earlier than that, it’s hard to say. However, the Supertones were the first Christian ska band to release an album on a nationally-distributed label, releasing The Adventures of the O.C. Supertones just a few months before Five Iron Frenzy dropped Upbeats and Beatdowns.… Continued →