mountain masala

new music

in havent blogged about new music for ages, so I won't list everything. fortunately emusic.com saw sense and reverted their pricing structure, so i'm getting 75 songs a month for A$36, usually about 6 albums.

favourites of late are

- the felice brothers (self-titled)- very dylanish, and side project from one of the brothers - the duke and the king - described as neil young meets marvin gaye
- the phenomenal handclap band (self-titled) - upbeat, dancy, clappy, a real mix of styles, some very retro, love it.
- annie lynch & the beekeepers (self-titled) - a freebie album from pastemusic.com (for susbscribers...) - accordion, guitar, lazy crooning swing. gorgeous
- julie feeney - "pages" - irish album of the year - i bought it through HMV UK - multi-layered vocals and an orchestra - great melodies, orchestral pop
- 7 worlds collide - "the sun came out" - double album from Neil Finn and a broad group of family & friends. listening as we speak - very varied, lush, beatlesque in places - johnny marr, kt tunstall, pearl jam, liam, tim, etc....
- pete yorn & scarlett johansson - "break up" - this is surprisingly good - kind of 60's folk-pop
- and arctic monkeys, kasabian.....

speaking of irish music, an album back on rotation around our house is duke special's "orchestral manouevres in belfast". this is a live BBC recording with the Ulster Orchestra largely based on his album "Songs from Deep Forest". duke special is a dreadlocked pianist-singer who writes broadway-type songs for musicals that don't exist yet. we have no idea what most of these songs are about, but they are brilliant and the orchestra sounds fantastic. i mail-ordered it from the uk ages ago.

duke currently has a free sampler album for download.

meanwhile, here are pete and scarlett...

that incarnation thing

my song "God Today Has a Human Face" has just been published and recorded as part of the Seasons of the Spirit curriculum for Advent. They called the lyrics 'profound' and it is used as part of the advent candle lighting for the 4 weeks. i just wish it was easier to sing, but since it's my first public attempt at lyrics AND melody together I'll live with it.

other Aussies David MacGregor and Trish Watts are also in the book and on the CD.

you can supposedly buy the songs online but I don't know where as yet.....

i suppose its funny (NOT) but the recording messes up one line....

the first verse says

"heaven's child in earth's embrace
blanket wrapping grubby grace"

but the singer sings

"blanket wrapping grub by grace"

the original lyric was meant to be about grace being found in this 'dirty' birthplace
instead jesus is called a caterpillar or something i don't quite understand

what were they thinking i meant?????

sigh, such is fame.......

this is our story

when i preached at "the corner" UC the other sunday, the music leader mentioned that their congregation sang "this is our story", a song that tim beale and i wrote for ncyc 1999. i think its the first church that i've heard of that actually sings the song! anyway, i told them that the ncyc songbook had some words missing. so for posterity's sake, here are all of the lyrics. btw the ncyc theme was "it all depends". thank you U2 for the bridge...

this is our story

this is our story, this is our song
this is the dream that we depend up
written on pages, carved in stone
rebel people become God's own
freed from oppression, captured by grace
shake off your boots, it's a holy place!
now living in exile, alien land
got a strange way, strange hope, strange plan

gather us into your history
gather us into your song
take us along on your journey
Yahweh, with you we belong

you are our story, you are our song
you are the one we depend upon
God of the cosmos, walking the earth
Jesus you came, giving hope new birth
woman and children, beggars they came
those on the edge, you called their names
voice of forgiveness, healing, release
crying for mercy, singing for peace

gather us into your story
gather us into your song
take us along on your journey
Jesus, with you we belong

(bridge)
red moon, red blood, red sky
joshua tree standing oh so high
poured out Spirit, cyclone fire
sons and daughters, prophesy!

we are your story, we are your song
we are the ones you depend upon
breaking the claim of the gods of our age
money and power, fashion and fame
dangerous message, whispering word
reckless compassion washing your world
called to walk in a costly way
welcome God's future into today

gather us into your future
gather us into your song
take us along on your journey
Spirit, to you we belong

gather us in, take us along
gather us in
your story, your song
gather us in, take us along
gather us in
with you we belong
gather us in

lyrics by craig mitchell, music by tim beale
(c) 1989.May be copied for non-commercial church use.

i might post the sheet music tomorrow. mind you, i thought at the time that the word/melody combination needed a bit more work due to the changing metre of the verses (my fault, not tim's!).

free music site

bands giving away free sample songs from their albums - from the looks of it largely unknown bands...

www.rockridgefree.com

looks like a music management company or record label. some nice stuff there - got to it from paste music.

new moby music

i'm posting this as my 'soundtrack' category for worship music has been rather quiet.

i like the new moby album "wait for me" even though some of it seems derivative of himself....

recently i used the track "grit" in college chapel with a looped video of dripping water in the forest (one of the free monthly videos from istock) to go with Psalm 63.

i also used the track "wait for me" with Psalm 51 - a video series of people in confessional poses.

both seemed to work well.

a few other tracks on the album that immediately stand out. its lush, looping, moody, but at times seems a tad contrived.

new music.....

finally the bandwidth is back!

new music this month.... a bit more than usual - i found out i had bonus credits on emusic....

Annie Lynch & the Beekeepers - free with my pastemusic.com VIP subscription - dreamy folk. gorgeous
Madness - "Complete Madness" - now to introduce the kids to British ska!!!
The Felice Brothers - "The Felice Brothers" - Dylanesque folk-rock, harmonica and all...
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - "Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit" - he's an ex-Drive By Trucker member - what more can I say? its southern and it rocks
Blackbud - "Blackbud" - pop-rock crooning, upbeat and mellow.
Belle & Sebastian - "The Life Pursuit" - them Scot songsters...
1990s - "Kicks" - ha! - brash rock that sounds a decade old. brilliant!
Bob Dylan - "Together Through Life" - on sale at iTunes
XTC - "Oranges and Lemons" - i had this classic on tape and have long lost the tape. great psychedelic Beatlesque melodic music
Doves - "Kingdon of Rust" - great album, a bit Coldplay in parts (the kids like it!)
Elvis Costello - "Secret, Profane and Sugarcane" - back with T-Bone... no more need be said...
Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoods - "Under the Covers 2" - excellent bunch of covers - Fleetwood Mac, Mott the Hoople, Bread, and Yes "I've Seen All Good People"
Ohbijou - "Swift Feet for Troubling Times" - another gorgeous, melancholic female voice with acoustic backing. folky, sometimes country. love it.

new music month

emusic have just halved the value of their monthly plans, so I might be stopping my subscription. but for now, here's this month's batch, and thanks to darren for some of the recommendations.

mono - "hymn to the immortal world" - japanese band like 'explosions in the sky' watch on youtube
pentangle - "early classics" - early british folk
stereophonics - "pull the pin" - british rock (welsh actually)
the antlers - "hospice" - hard to describe. amazing. have a listen! The Antlers - Bear (mp3)
The Antlers - Two (mp3)
the guggenheim grotto - "happy the man" - upbeat pop/folk duo from ireland
the presets - "apocalypso" - aussie dancemasters. doof doof (not really...)
charles mingus - jazz masters vol 2 - no more need be said.
eleni mandell - "miracle of five" - gorgeous, torch songs. light the fire and pour a glass of red.
jenny lewis - "acid tongue" - brilliant album from rilo kiley singer - a bit country, a bit folky, a bit poppy, a duet with elvis costello
hem - "home again, home again" - sublime folk, a bit country

all for US$25. crazy. no wonder it couldnt last....

i'm still sick as a dog so I'm watching movies and listening to music. oh, and i finished editing general competencies for the ministry of pastor...

 oh, and the new butterfly boucher album 'scary fragile'.

fanfario

i'm home sick as a dog (that's a dog, not a pig.....) so of course I'm surfing the net, blogging and watching movies...

meanwhile, the sigur ros mailing list has just announced that UK friends of theirs, Fanfario, have their debut album on sale for $1 until july 4, with a bonus track. it's produced by the same guy that jonsi from sigur ros is doing his solo album with.

just had a listen and bought it. it's described as pop-baroque - I immediately heard acoustic 'talking heads'. the album had great reviews in the music press.

check it out here.

saving paste

as a big fan and longtime subscriber of paste magazine, i've joined the campaign to save them from extinction do to falling advertising revenues in the financial downturn.

you can make a donation and in return get over 100 downloadable songs and a good feeling inside....

unseen music unheard words

i'm rather excited to discover that steve kilbey of 'the church' and martin kennedy of 'all india radio' are just about to release an album that they've recorded together. as a big fan of both groups and the men themselves, this is brilliant!

the album is available for US order here.

steve kilbey's interesting poetry is here.

all india radio also have a new album, 'a low high' out but not yet on itunes. you can download it from cdbaby.

enjoy.