The sickest jams that I have been kicking as of late are some staples I have Marvin Gaye, “What’s going on?’ and Michael Jackson “Off the wall’, “Thriller‘, and “Bad‘. “What’s going on?’ has become one of my favorite records in the past couple of years due to some fantastic songs (though admittedly certain songs’ lyrics are sub-par) combined with a very unique and beautiful sonic landscape. The older Michael Jackson records were done in a way that defined the eras that they are from, yet they have an incredibly timeless quality to them. Thriller, which I found out recently, is the greatest selling record of all time, has seven #1 hit singles on it, only one of which is a worthless waste of tape “The Girl is Mine” a duet with Paul McCartney.

The only recommendable new items on my list are a band called As Tall as Lions, with their self titled sophomore release; and Feist’s new one, “The Reminder’. There’s definitely some less-than-remarkable material on both of these records, but overall they have some great songs sung by some great singers.

The Resurgence conference is approaching (Sep. 17 & 18). I’ll be doing a sick-sesh on Songwriting. As I’ve spoken with many of you over the years, I’ve found that most people view the act of songwriting as either completely mysterious or something done by “other people” somewhere else. Very few actually write their own material. Our vision is to see more worship leaders writing their own material as indigenous expressions of their specific cultures. That’s where you come in…

I’d really love some input on topics to cover during this sick songwriting sesh. Let’s start this sick sesh now so that we’ve got some good momentum come September. What questions do you guys have about songwriting?

Alan Hirsch, the Co-author of The Shaping of Things to Come, has a good blog that I read from time to time. His most recent, Existence Communication, contains a few thoughts via our brother, and father of existentialism, Soren Kierkeggard.

Neatnik theologians have been getting their knickers in a knot over SK since the 1800s (and at times rightfully so) but the dude still has an apt challenge for the church today.  Here’s a snippet of Hirsch’s comments re: Kierkegaards Existence Communication:

“There can be no way around the fact that our actions, as manifestations of our total being, do actually speak much louder than our words. There is a clear non-verbal message being emitted by our lives all the time. We are faced with the sobering fact that we actually are our messages”.  

 Could it be that for all of our talk of incarnational living, contextualizing the gospel and being mission minded-cool that we get stuck in our own cultural ghetto and fail to live the content of our message? I know I do…

Dont’ get me wrong. Proclamation of a robust orthodoxy is absolutely essential. But ideas have consequences. As in, our theology cannot be disembodied from our living. It’s a both-and thing, not an either or. Anyway, read the post and let me know what you think. 

Dungen Ta Det Lugnt (2004, Subliminal Sounds)
The culinary arts are all about pairings.  Sweet & salty, light & heavy, creamy & flaky.  The pairings are contrasts that compliment each other, causing an entirely new and flavorful dish.  Anyone who has ever experimented with their own pairings knows that they are very subtle and sometimes can go terribly wrong, like a peanut butter & tuna sandwich.

Musical influences work the same way.  Sometimes a sound emerges that is such an unlikely pairing, you simply have to hear it.you have to taste it.  That is definitely the case with Dungen (pronounced “doo-ngen”), the pride of Stockholm, Sweden. Their pairing is equal parts Jimi Hendrix and Sigur Ros.  At least, that’s what I heard my first time through their 2004 release Ta Det Lugnt, which translates to “Take it easy,” in English. 

Never you mind the odd pairing, because Jimi and Sigur Ros are only two of many of the inspired flavors on this reverby classicrock release.  There are hints of Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, My Morning Jacket, and The Doors just to name a few (the list could literally take up a page).  Ta Det Lugnt is their third release after a brief stint on major label Virgin Records, whom they left because the major label vibe didn’t feel right.   However, applause is due any record label releasing Dungen in U.S.  Not only does the band not speak (or sing) a word of English, but a good portion of the album is instrumental, two factors that ordinarily would ensure obscurity for such a release.  But not this one, because.IT ROCKS.  Just ask Wolfmother, who took them on tour last year; or the massive Bonaroo crowd they sent fumbling to recall the current decade. 

The thing is, the classic rock vibe is front and center, but the total sound is fresh.  The production sounds like Jimi’s Are You Experienced without sounding sparse.  Melodies go all over the place, but always resolve, never leaving you behind.  If you’re like me, you’ll find yourself walking around singing the melodies, making up your own words, hours & days after your last spin.  After all, I don’t speak Swedish.  But that’s not a barrier for this album because it stands on its own musically. 

Pastor Tim’s new band (someday they will be named, but for now they are non-committal) is wrapping up some various overdubs this week mostly doing guitars and vocals.an interesting track we did a few weeks ago was some stomps and claps on “What Wondrous Love is This?’ harkening back to Radiohead’s “We suck young blood’ and Queen’s “We will rock you’. We had about 10 people in a small studio with a tube U47 micing the floor. Everyone would sway back and step forward at the same time. We must have tracked this group 4 or 5 times, giving the illusion of 50 people slamming their feet on the floor it had a killer low end thump a la hip hop records.

We had a wicked string recording sesh last week. A group of Mars Hill string players came in 3 violins and 2 cellos (does anyone actually play the viola? Come talk to me if you do.). Brian Eichelberger (E-Pop) put together some outstanding string arrangements, which really took the songs to the next level. We sat the players up in a semi-circle with 2 AKG 414s (through GML mic pre’s) doing a close stereo pair thing. They sounded great and we ended up dumping the Coles 4038 ribbons which we had hoped to use as well, but were far too mid-rangy. I also put up a FET Sony C-37 (a mic which has grown on me a ton during the making of this record) in an omni-pattern in the middle of the group. I threw it into a Summit EQF-100 for some mid-sweeping goodness and slammed the Urei 1176 as well. This created a very full string sound with only 1 mic. Most songs we tracked either the Sony or the AKGs for 4 to 5 takes, again giving the illusion of many more players than were actually present.

ouch.

In April of 2006 I was blessed to become a father.  Over the last 14 months or so I have learned many lessons from my young daughter Scarlet, and one recent lesson was in how to worship.  My wife Rachel has taken Scarlet into the sanctuary in Ballard to hear the worship bands play almost every Sunday since she was born, but as I am often playing in one of the bands I don’t get to see her in action.I just hear reports about how she cheers and waves her hands and yells “dada.”
   
A couple weeks ago I got the opportunity to hold her in during the closing set on a Sunday and was blown away.  She raised her hands, clapped, bobbed her head, and tried her best to sing.  Being the natural skeptic I figured she was just imitating someone around her, but looked around and didn’t see anyone in our proximity doing the same thing.  I almost cried.my deepest prayer for my daughter is that she know and worship Jesus, and though she is very, very young I knew she was doing just that, even if she still doesn’t completely know what that means.  I remembered Jesus quoting from Psalm 8:2, ‘From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise’ (Matt 21:16), and thought how pleased God must have been with her.  But though my heart was full of joy I also felt convicted.  What an uptight snob I’ve been about how I praise my Lord!  How often have I been dispassionate in fear of appearing awkward or showy!  How I’ve been so much more concerned with worshipping “correctly”!
 
This also reminded me of how Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.” (Matt 11:25), and “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 18:3). 
It has been a prayer of mine that God would teach me things through my children, beginning with Scarlet, and already He most certainly has. 

A couple weeks ago I was privileged with an invitaion to blog at worship.com. To kick things off I decided to post a little somethin-somethin I already wrote in print version of the Mars Hill Vox Pop newspaper a little over a year ago about home ownership, stewardship and “stuff”. And just so you know, I’m not advocating materialism. Just in case you were wondering.

Anyway, enjoy.