by Nate Burke
Vox Pop #19: 07.02.06. Tool will play at the Gorge this August. Tickets went on sale last weekend.

For those familiar with Tool, there is nothing particularly surprising about 10,000 Days. All told, however, this latest offering from the “progressive metal” pseudo-genre is a very creative, well-executed record. In short, it rocks: an aural rollercoaster featuring moments when I feel the need to pull out a friggin’ abacus just to figure out what the heck is going on with all the time changes. Tool is so far and above the usual “chugga chugga” metal that it bears almost no resemblance to it. (more…)

Pastor Mark Driscoll recently wrote about the book, Body Piercing Saved My Life, over at The Resurgence. Here’s a review that will appear in August, Vox Pop #20.

By Matt Johnson

Ever hear that old adage “why should the devil have all the good music”? The quote is often mistakenly attributed to the 70s Jesus People Movement pioneer Larry Norman when in fact, rumor has it, Martin Luther coined the saying. Regardless of where the question comes from, the fact is that music has been a point of controversy within Christendom for centuries.

Senior contributing writer for Spin Magazine Andrew Beaujon comes to this project as a non-believer and an outsider to the world of Christian rock. Beaujon describes the Christian music world as a parallel universe to the “real” world of rock and roll depravity. To be fair, that’s really not a bad assessment. Historically, Christian artists have been famous for offering up second rate family-friendly versions of what is popular in culture at large. The Christian version of Hall and Oates in the 80s = Degarmo and Key. If you like AC/DC, you’ll love X-Sinner! And the list goes on and on. (more…)