Our very own Nathan Burke (bassist for MH Worship band, Ex-Nihilo) has a project band called the Out_Circuit with a new CD titled Pierce The Empire With A Sound. For more info and a sample of some tunes check out his virb page here.

Here’s additional info from Buzzgrinder: “Previously working with one-time Lujo artist Chase Barber aka Brahm in his Out_Circuit debut Burn Your Scripts, Boys and again in their side project Night Is Invisible, Nathan has since expanded his collaborative palette to include friends Dustin Kensrue (Thrice), Sean Ingram (Coalesce, The People’s Court), Matt Johnson (Roadside Monument), wife Rachel Burke (Beauty Pill) and more. And if that’s not enough parenthetical nudging for you (oh yeah, artwork by Don Clark), the album was produced [by Jared McFarlane and] mixed by Teppei Teranishi, also of Thrice, which undoubtedly pushes the final product’s quality to unquestionable heights”. (more…)

Written by Brian “E-Pop” Eichelberger

On the advent of our first studio release since Mars Hill Christmas (2006), those of us that constitute the collective brains of the Mars Hill Recording Squadron have come to an all-too-familiar fork in the self-produced musician road.  Will we put out the Rain City Hymnal ourselves, or should we pursue heavier streams of distribution? (more…)

After months of production and a few stalled attempts at an actual release, we are pleased to announce that we are finally going to have a CD release show for our Mars Hill Music Rain City Hymnal on March 7 at 7:30 pm at the Downtown campus. This is a free event so there is no cover charge at the door.  Ex Nihilo, E-Pop and The Northern Conspiracy will be rocking the Mic.

This project has been by far the most ambitious of all the other MH recordings. It features re-worked arrangements of old hymns as interpreted by BCG, Ex-Nihilo, The Northern Conspiracy, E-Pop and vintage era Team Strike Force. We did most of the tracking at the old Ironwood studios (now known as Avast! II) with the help of our own Brian Eichelberger and Joel Brown both of whom are talented and nimble control-booth-knob-turners for Christ. After JB and Eichelpop did their audio geek magic, the recording was sent off to Jacquire King (Modest Mouse, No Doubt, Tom Waits, Kings of Leon, Be Your Own Pet, Mute Math, Switchfoot) to be mixed and the result is a fantastic sounding recording.

 Please come join us and let the Flock be Rocked!

Today, all day long, my dear brother Mark Driscoll poured himself out for us to speak about what the scripture has to say on the sovereignty of God.  The question was answering was part of our series “Religion Saves & 9 Other Misconceptions” and asked, “Why does an all loving, all knowing, and all sovereign God will into creation people He foreknows will suffer eternal condemnation? Why does Romans 9:20 feel like a cop-out answer?”Pastor Mark did an outstanding job of breaking down this highly contentious issue with historical context, theological clarity and biblical truth.  As I sat there I could not help but think of the great hymn, “What Wondrous Love is This”.  This if one of my favorite texts that we sing at Mars Hill.  A few years ago I discovered it and took the text and wrote a new melody.  Last year my band and I recorded it for the “Rain City Hymnal” project due out next month.  Here is a the text: What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul! What wondrous love is this, O my soul! 

What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss 

To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul, 

To bear the dreadful curse for my soul.

When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down, 

When I was sinking down, sinking down, 

When I was sinking down beneath God’s righteous frown, 

Christ laid aside His crown for my soul, for my soul, 

Christ laid aside His crown for my soul. 

To God and to the Lamb, I will sing, I will sing; 

To God and to the Lamb I will sing. 

To God and to the Lamb Who is the great “I Am”; 

While millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing; 

While millions join the theme, I will sing. 

And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on; 

And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on. 

And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing and joyful be, 

And through eternity I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on, 

And through eternity I’ll sing on.

Here’s a final mix of the song as it will be heard on Rain City Hymnal:

It is absolutely essential that every person who claims the name of Christ wrestles with these ideas.

Please take time to dig into this doctrine through the word this week.  Listen to Pastor Mark’s sermon again and look up the passages.  And, if it helps, spend some time with this song in personal worship through song. 

In Christ…

Pastor Tim

A buddy turned me onto a good article on the Wired site called David Byrne’s Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists - and Megastars. Instead of bellyaching over the demise of the Big Record Company biz, he gives some creative, viable alternatives to distribution, touring, publicity and getting paid. Good stuff indeed.

Here’s a follow up with Thom Yorke of Radiohead on the release of the “pay-what-you-want” release of their latest, In Rainbows.

Just wanted to let all of you know that our Christmas CD Silent Night is available at the book store for $7 or 4 CDs for $20. AND its also available at iTunes as a download for $5.99. Tis the season!

This Sunday the 14th me, Mrs. Johnson as well as the Shoop, McAlister and Phillips crew are debuting Sons of Thunder at Mars Hill. Check out the songs here.

The idea came about a couple months ago that developing bands should demo their material and make simple 3-4 song CDs available the first Sunday they play. That way interested folks can get accustomed to the new bands and hopefully sing along the second and third times they play. Anyway, since SOT were the guinea pigs for the project and the timing didn’t quite come together, CDs will unfortunately not be available for a few more weeks. BUT click on the link above to check out a myspace page that we slapped together.

Mad props go out to Brian-EPop-Eichelberger for his sweet skills on engineering and mixing the jams.

Enjoy.

Read on to check out a little bio I whipped up…. (more…)

On a more geeky level, I’m going to touch on some actual recording techniques and general nerd talk on how we’re getting those sweet sounds to tape.

For the drums on “Solid Rock’ (which is being done by Epop), Brian wanted to get a very pulse-y sound. The drums play only on Bass Drum and cymbals, and build throughout the song to a loud 8th-note crescendo at the end. Brian said he wanted to hear the compressor “breathing’, which is essentially where something is being compressed in such a way as to be very noticeable for effect. It makes you feel like the drums are slamming against a brick wall on every hit. To achieve this effect, we pulled out an old omni-directional EV microphone similar to what would have been used on an on-site news report in the 70’s. This was run through a Shure level-loc (popularized in modern recording by an amazing recording engineer - Tchad Blake), which is an insane compressor originally designed to be used for announcements on a P.A. in a bowling alley or something of the like. Lots of fun!

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written about our studio project, (which is a hymns compilation of several Mars Hill bands) largely because I’ve been really busy working on it. We are now knee-deep in production, and we’ve finished 4 of the 5 bands’ basic tracks. Pastor Tim’s new band will be going in to do their basic tracks at the end of the month.

We are seeking to capture Mars Hill Church’s missional perspective on corporate worship in a way that shows our diversity and inspires other churches and musicians not only to worship Jesus, but to do so in a way that is in tune with their local culture Christian or not.

I’m really excited about the way things are turning out we’ve been able to hone in the already great existing arrangements, which has been great for Brian and I (the producers) as well as a nice time for the bands to be able to step back and get new perspective on songs that many of them have been playing for a long time.

This is something that we as bands at Mars Hill wrestle with and as music director, I am trying to address (forgive the bad analogy) the need to keep the “wheels turning’, but never getting a chance to really work on the engine. We’ve grown at a very fast pace and have just barely been able to create enough new bands for new campuses as they crop up, so stopping to re-group or record has rarely been a luxury we’ve had. Though Projects like this one are a nice “break’, we’ve opted to do this one while keeping most of the bands in current Sunday rotation because of necessity. While this has been difficult and a lot of work, I feel it has gone well so far and we haven’t burned out any of our volunteers.

For the next blog, I’ll geek out a little on some tech-y stuff and discuss how we got good sounds in the studio…

We’ve been gearing up in the Music and Productions department to record a studio compilation CD consisting exclusively of re-vamped versions of old Hymns. I will take on the role of Executive Producer along with Tyson Paoletti as we guide the big picture process of the recording including overall aesthetic and general production values. Tyson will also be our “outside ear” so-to-speak and he’ll help us shape what we do to reach a broader audience.

Our own Brian Eichelberger of E-Pop fame will be producing and engineering two of the five bands’ songs including:

• I Sing the Mighty Power of God
• What Wondrous Love is This?
• Here is Love
• Man of Sorrows
• Nothing but the Blood of Jesus
• I’ll Fly Away
• Solid Rock

I will also be producing and engineering three of the five bands’ songs including:

• All Creatures of Our God and King
• We have not known Thee
• When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
• O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus
• Tomorrow
• Come Unto Me

We hope to make this the best CD that we’ve done yet at Mars Hill, and most of all, we want to see Jesus glorified by showing the unique ways that our congregation collectively responds to his work in our lives. We have a lot of good bands and this album will showcase a select few of them that we feel mesh together the best. Stay tuned as the studio project ensues!