Where is the LOVE for all these Christian rock acts who are ripe for hipster reappraisal?

And how about DC Talk, whose "Jesus Freak" was a crucial rap-rock pioneer? "The King Alleluia" and "No More" were also pretty rockin'.

Oh wait, it says here "no known recordings" for Servant Pt. I. Never mind.

Mom got me a CARMAN video once.

Which reminds me, I used to go to bible camp at Camp Squeah in BC, and there was this mennonite girl named CarmEn who was so hot I actually PRAYED each night in my cabin (Juniper boys!) that I could see her boobs. My counsellor was this guy Reinhart who rode a motorcycle and one night at campfire chapel I was sitting across from him and through the leghole of his shorts his right nut was just hanging out there in the open. SOOOO many fineass xtian girls, you could smell their hair, everywhere. All cabin teams had to go on this KILLER hike through the woods, so thirsty when we got to the stream we just stuck our heads in the water, gasping.

Yeah, Larry's supposed to be good too, haven't heard him though.

I don't have much love for any of the above, but on what might be a related note, my God-rockin' buddy rates The Call super-high, and one of his big favorites is On The Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough by Michael Been. Don't know if there's any explicit Jesus content on that one, but it is kind of an ass-kicker. Any love for that one?

Phil Keaggy to thread.

Anyone remember that Xtian hardcore band called Undercover? They had that song "God Rules". Man, that song is a gas.

Ooh, and I forgot Holy Soldier's "Love Me," which has a fantastic riff!

(xp)

When I lived in BC as a child, I went to Ootsa Lake Bible Camp and Chubb Lake Bible Camp. Ootsa Lake Bible Camp had Mennonites, but Chubb Lake was mostly Pentecostal. They made the kids talk in tongues and get slain in the spirit at chapel! It was freaky!

I remember Carman - my lame-o family friends loved it, and watched those movies again and again. Abysmal!

77s
Daniel Amos
LSU/Mike Knott
Dead Artist Syndrome

i am counting the seconds till Daniel Amos 4-volume "Alarma Chronicles" is the subject of a Pitchfork essay.

a lot of it has aged really badly.

Re Danielson: definitely not a joke, more a smug class project. Well, I say smug, but there's definitely some childlike wonder type shit in there. I only have their unlistenable debut, so maybe they got better.

Re "Awesome God": there's a reason many churches only sing the refrain. The first line of the song is some awful thing about "puttin' on the ritz".

"When he rolls up his sleeves he ain't just puttin' on the ritz /
OUR GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD! /
He's got thunder in his footsteps and lightning in his fists /
OUR GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD!"

Oh dear. This thread is going to send me back into therapy.

It was far less inclusive a song during my childhood.

Re: Christian Hardcore - very popular in the northern BC town that I grew up in. I think there were at least two or three Unashamed shirts in a town of 5,000 people. Hotbed!

so, i have owned a copy of Daniel Amos's *Doppelganger - Vol 2 of the Alarma Chronicles* foir years, and I never play it, but I am playing it now and it is wacky enough for me to ask if his other stuff is as good. or as wacky. It fits in perfectly with other diy/newwave/weirdo stuff from that time. You wouldn't know he was X-ian unless you knew he was X-ian. You know?

....and through the leghole of his shorts his right nut was just hanging out there in the open. SOOOO many fineass xtian girls....

"Arrrgh! It burns, it burnsss..."

maybe they consider their faith private and feel like it doesn't have that much to do with their jobs!

I used to have their first four records - I wish I could find them now. It would be fun to listen to them again. I remember in junior high, I had their logo drawn on the cover of my notebook or something, and this kid sitting next to me in class told me that he knew the guys in the band and he had hung out and drunk beers with them. I didn't know whether to believe him or not. I knew they lived in the area, but I couldn't picture them drinking.

Your friend should fuck off.

My main point is: why does anyone care if a band is Christian or not, just because it may not be so obvious in the music? How many times have we discussed this?

I don't care, necessarily....I just don't want to fuckin' hear about it. Keep your damn faith to yourselves, and keep the evangelical agenda out of rock'n'roll.

So what do any of you Christians, former Christians, or Christianity voyeurs out there know about the Resurrection Band, aka the Rez Band, aka Rez? Were they actually any good? I'm reading Andrew Beaujon's *Body Piercing Saved My Life: Inside the Phenomenon of Christian Rock* now, and I'm finding the paralell pop and rock universe it talks about really interesting and eye-opening. Were Rez Band's *Mommy Don't Love Daddy Anymore* and *Awaiting Your Reply* as rocking as he suggests, or is he exagerrating? A guy in the band also says they used to do AC/DC-style covers of gospel songs like "Oh Happy Day"; that's wacky! (Other acts I've read about in the book so far that I'd like to hear someday, though I have no idea whether I'd like any of them: Larry Noorman, Children of the Day, Keith Green, Degarmo and Key, White Heart, the Seventy Sevens, Daniel Amos, plus Steve Taylor's "I Want to Be a Clone" and old eve-of-destructioneer Barry McGuire's *To the Bride* album. Most of which I assume were not nearly as metal as the Resurrection Band, but who knows? I bet some of them might not suck.)

We used to have Mommy Don't Love Daddy Anymore on record. I'd like to listen to it again if I had the chance. They were more hard rock than Servant, who also played our church, and they were more metal than Undercover, who had more of a new wave sound.

confessionals:
i participated in a choreographed, lip-synched performance of carman's "the champion." it's hilarious still.

i sang a solo on rich mullin's "awesome god." it's awkward because you have to say "power" as if it were one syllable. like, "with wiiiiz-dum powr and love!"

i thought michael w. smith's the big picture and I 2 (Eye) were both great

same with david meece's candle in the rain

hahaha! you obviously didn't make yourself clear enough, LeCoq!

(xx++post)

between him and audio adrenaline's "big house," i can see how ccm music can encourage such wrath...

the material is kind of dull, but i really love him...

Since I started this thing, I'll brazenly link to reviews I've been writing for Burnside Writers' Collective.

Here's my Sheep & Goats column for December--it's a sort of binary consumer guide, w/ picks of Disciple, Norma Jean, and Jars of Clay, and pans of the Afters, Lecrae, and (um) Kanye.

Here's the November Sheep & Goats, with love for Israel Houghton (one of my favorites of the year, fwiw), Sufjan, and also the Thermals and Dandy Warhols; disses of Sufjan, Point of Grace, and MWSmith.

Here's a pretty good appreciation of DC Talk's second album and a mockery of their subsequent career.

Here's an appreciation of King's X's third album, which may or may not be the best album ever made by anybody.

Here's a review of the latest Marvin Sapp.

Here's an I-hate-white-Christian-radio screed.

Here's a review of WASP's Christian apocalyptic album, also one of the year's best, even though it really came out last year. (Got slept on, as you'd imagine.)

Here's a review of Gary Lucas and Dean Bowman's gospel covers album.

Here's a Nneka review and a Patty Griffin review.

And it's not CCM or anything, but here's an O.A.R. review that's pretty cool.

Thanks for reading, enjoy.