The Rend Collective Experiment plays worship music with a jangly, fun, indie vibe (all good things in my book).
In the video below, they play Chris Tomlin’s popular worship anthem How Great is our God as a full band with nothing but their iPhones. Engaging and, strangely, breathes some fresh air into this well-worn song (must be the nerd in me!).
Last month, I was able to catch Far on their reunion tour. Despite being down one guitarist, Jonah Matranga and the band put on a fantastic show. Amidst the massive riffs and singalong choruses were smiles all around.
In this era of generic big-box musicians and carefully cultivated images, Jonah maintains a fierce DIY (do it yourself) ethic. At his online merch store, appropriately called the Yard Sale, Jonah was years ahead of Radiohead in pioneering a “pay what you want” approach.
With the same spirit of community and togetherness, Jonah recently invited singers, drummers, steel pedal guitarists, cellists, and others to join in the recording of his new album, due out in August. Jonah gives a basic sketch of what he’s looking for, but true to the DIY attitude, there’s plenty of room for performers to give their personal perspective. For example:
130bpm, Key of D, romantic and yearning, sweet. Ebows and long high notes, but skitter-y stuff would be nice too.
If only I had not returned my brother’s e-bow to him after stealing it for several years!
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Listen to the title track from Far’s latest album, At Night We Live below. The bridge reminds me of the LOST series finale.
Tim Hughes and his Worship Central crew have made available a free acoustic worship album for download.
Tim is best-known for penning popular worship anthems such as Here I Am to Worship (Light of the World), Beautiful One and Happy Day.
The Worship Central site has loads of free chord sheets, video tutorials (for guitar, drums, etc.) and worship-related articles. Merry Christmas, friends!
I find it increasingly difficult to keep up with all the music being released these days. And, perhaps due to my increasingly crotchety old man disposition, I find myself favoring old-timey indie rock (although, I still enjoy plenty of current music, as you’ll see below).
So, without any further caveats, here is some of the music (and music-related) stuff I liked from this past year:
Santa’s not the only bearded gift-giver this Christmas! Get your fill of free hirsute holiday music (oh, there will be banjos)…
From the folks at Sounds Familyre records, get yourself a free Christmas album (or two, even). Not your standard muzaky holiday shopping soundtracks…
At The Record Machine, get all woodsy with a free copy of The More The Merrier Christmas.
And, this one’s neither Christmas-y nor beard-y, but you can download alternate versions of songs from A Thousand Shark’s Teeth by My Brightest Diamond via Asthmatic Kitty.
Posterous
