Christian alternative

I was very impressed with Brad Reno's new Daniel Amos career overview and passed it along to a Christian alternative aficianado friend of mine, who was very appreciative:

"it's evident that the author grew up as one of those 'Christian hipsters'. There are perhaps five hundred people on Earth who know TST and DA's corpus as well as this fella while also knowing their 'secular' influences (in fact, it's entirely likely that I've met the author.) Very, very good analysis of both the band and the Christian music industry...that bit about bad business decision to join the Christian music ghetto is so right on. I think I'll have to show it to [his wife], who has always been impressed by DA's musical depth (if not production level...very few recordings in Christian music during the 80s had anything close to the shine of what their contemporaries had.)"

So thanks for the enlightening commentary!

While I did grow up in a mildly evangelical (but thankfully not fundamentalist) household, any interest I've had in Christian alternative started with a friend of mine who was a dj at her christian college radio station from which she stole their DA and 77s (and for some reason Legendary Pink Dots - we never could figure out why they had those) collections when she left to finish her education at a secular university where i met her. (This is the same friend who dragged me to the Gary Chapman concert mentioned in the Funny Concert Experiences thread).

She made the not really persuasive but kind of interesting argument that being the only cool band in an incredibly uncool environment must make that band cool beyond belief. I didn't buy her logic, but then she played Alarma for me and I thought Holy crap, that actually is pretty good, and decided to investigate further and found out there was this tiny, undiscovered little scene of pretty interesting bands who were ignored by almost everyone, both secular and christian. They deserved better, and it's probably not overstating it to say that we have them to thank for Sufjan Stevens, Pedro the Lion, the Danielson Famile and Damien Jurado.

Oh, no disagreement from this (not-quite hipster) Jew. I saw a 77s concert at Carleton College, a wholly secular school in Minnesota, and thought the band was excellent on any usual . (And, their sound guy was playing Big Star on the P.A. before the show). As a pretty big Sam Phillips, Low, and Pedro the Lion fan, I owe my Christian-alternative friend a debt of gratitude for informing me of a whole host of such bands. Over the Rhine, Vigilantes of Love, etc. are all good too. He also taught me about Chick tracts and Sojourners magazine.

One has to ask: What kind of moral failings are implicit in stealing from a Christian college radio station?

She viewed it more as liberating than stealing - no one else there was playing them and she figured she might as well take them rather than let them gather dust until they were inevitably dumped off on the local Goodwill store.

Which was a good argument, though even she had to admit it fell somewhat short of explaining why she also helped herself to the coffee maker from the breakroom.

dylan had a couple born again albums. is bono a christer? was stipe a fundamentalist? pray for rain is a christian band:
[www.prayforrain.com]

A current group, the Lost Dogs--Mike Roe of 77's, Terry Taylor of Daniel Amos, Derri Daugherty of The Choir, Gene Eugene of Adam Again--is also worth a listen. I'm a secular kind of guy, but this is a great group. M. Roe also has some interestingly ambivalent takes on CCM; if you can track down any interviews with him, they're usually worth a read.

erikalbany wrote:

> A current group, the Lost Dogs--Mike Roe of 77's, Terry Taylor
> of Daniel Amos, Derri Daugherty of The Choir, Gene Eugene of
> Adam Again--is also worth a listen. I'm a secular kind of guy,
> but this is a great group. M. Roe also has some interestingly
> ambivalent takes on CCM; if you can track down any interviews
> with him, they're usually worth a read.

Pleased to find this site, being an owner of an old, but well-worn TP record guide. Ironically, listening to a M. Roe solo disc as I stumbled over here. Erikalbany recommends reading interviews if they can be found... this piece is about as thorough as they come:

[www.newsreview.com]

The missing word there is [scale], in "the band was excellent on any usual ... scale."

A contradiction in terms.
Why would someone denude themselves to that market anyway?
I too have xtian relatives and have waded through piles of crap bands that feel this is the only marketing snafu they can grasp.
Yet the list of good bands with xtian underpinnings/lyrics in the regular indie talent pool is large
Roxy Music/Ferry
Ultravox/Ure
Starflyer 59
(for starters)
making the marketing choice seem less cool regardless.
Sort of like looking for a good indie pagan/new age CD in an incense store. There is an obvious reason to relegate your band to this status...eh?
I'm assuming any coolness factor is in the 'martyrdom' one supposedly achieves (by tackling the 'uncool perception') and is lost on anyone else.

Well hell fuckin yeah!
Brad Reno does christians.
He's got bills to pay.
Shit, If I had 20-50 christian rock CD's and the time to listen to 'em all and pick the twenty best I'd rule the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So two years ago Steve said if he knew the 20 Best Christian Rock albums, he could rule the world. I would very much like to live in a world ruled by Steve, plus a challenge to make a list is one that I can rarely pass up. So after two years of wading through a lot of crap I've not listened to in decades looking for the gems, here are the 20 Best Albums Ever Released on a Christian Label (which therefore eliminates such folks as U2, Pedro the Lion, Maria McKee, Jeremy Enigk etc., as they either never released anything on Christian labels, or else their best work wasn't on Christian labels).

1. Leslie Phillips - THE TURNING. (Sam meets T Bone and kisses off the oppressive cCm industry by gifting them with the greatest album they ever got the chance to mishandle.)I
[www.youtube.com]

2. Danielson Famile - TELL ANOTHER JOKE AT THE OL' CHOPPING BLOCK
[www.youtube.com]

3. The Prayer Chain - MERCURY. (Pink Floyd plays Can's FUTURE DAYS. Pair it up with the PC's ANTARCTICA, which collected discarded and much more abrasive tracks from the sessions, and it's a hell of a listen. The best guys from the band carry on as the Lassie Foundation.)
[www.youtube.com]

4. Lifesavers Underground - SHADED PAIN. (Michael Knott shreds the standard cCm line of Life Is Wonderful with a howl that the world is still a shithole even if you're born again.)
[www.youtube.com]

5. Daniel Amos - FEARFUL SYMMETRY (The kings of Christian alternative's best album)
[www.youtube.com]

6. Starflyer 59 - SILVER (The first Christian shoegaze album, at a time when there was very little American shoegaze at all.)
[www.youtube.com]

7. Sufjan Stevens - SEVEN SWANS
[www.youtube.com]

8. Mark Heard - DRY BONES DANCE (Bruce Cockburn preferred him to Dylan; Victoria Williams, Mark Olson, Sam and T Bone all thought he was one step away from Godhood. Had a heart attack onstage in 1992, finished his show then lapsed into a coma and expired. Cockburn's "Closer to the Light" and Julie Miller and Emmylou Harris' "All My Tears" are tributes to him.)
[www.youtube.com]

8. The 77s - STICKS AND STONES (A band that was always better live than recorded. This collection of outtakes and discarded tracks manages to be their best album, so maybe they were just always trying too hard in the studio.)
[www.youtube.com]

9. The Choir - CHASE THE KANGAROO (A little treasure of 80s guitar rock - a mix of the best tendencies of U2, the Church and REM.)
[www.youtube.com]

10. Honey - LOST ON YOU (What AVALON would have sounded like if it had been recorded by Slowdive instead of Roxy Music)
[www.youtube.com]

11. Charlie Peacock - LIE DOWN IN THE GRASS (Steely Dan meets Scritti Politti. Then it was all downhill and Peacock earned a shitload of money writing hits for Amy Grant.)
[www.youtube.com]

12. Adam Again - 10 SONGS BY ADAM AGAIN (Great funk-rock from a guy who did cartoon voices for Hanna-Barbera as a kid, then dropped dead at 39.)
[www.youtube.com]

13. Joe Christmas - NORTH TO THE FUTURE (Before Zachary Gresham became a peripheral Elephant-6er with Summer Hymns, he was in this band, which I think OPTION once described as a mix of Yo La Tengo, Mission of Burma and the Ramones.)
[www.youtube.com]

14. Terry Scott Taylor - A BRIEFING FOR THE ASCENT (Grandma raised me, now she's dying, this is my last gift to her. Beautiful and moving.)
[www.youtube.com]

15. Sarah Jahn - SPARKLE. (One of the finest albums of the Lilith Fair era - Sarah McLachlan and Paula Cole wish they'd made an album this good.)
[www.youtube.com]

16. Poor Old Lu - A PICTURE OF THE EIGHTH WONDER (Buddies of Sunny Day Real Estate, or at least of Jeremy Enigk. SDRE signed with Sub Pop and became semi-legendary, Poor Old Lu signed with a Christian label and that was just dumb.)
[www.youtube.com]

17. Sal Paradise - FURTHER (Aussies who sounded like Steve Kilbey fronting Luna)
[www.youtube.com]

18. Velour100 - OF COLOUR BRIGHT (His Name is Alive offshoot - gorgeous space rock that sounds like Stereolab playing Portishead)
[www.youtube.com]

19. Steve Scott - LOST HORIZON (A Limey poet type who sounded a hell of a lot like a cross between the Comsat Angels and Cactus World News)
[www.youtube.com]

20. Joy Electric - MELODY (Still the purest distillation of Ronnie Martin's goofy-ass vision of the world. Sounds like a Nick Gilder album produced by the Easter Bunny.)
[www.youtube.com]

Rule with wisdom and moderation, Steve!



Post Edited (10-16-07 09:34)



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/2025 04:11PM by breno.

As a kid growing up in a pentacostal church I was encouraged to give up secular rock music as it was "the devil's music" or even worse "homosexual". This was in 1983 and I was in the 8th grade. So for about 18 months I listened to nothing but Christian rock. The I picked up the album "Branded" by the christian punk group UNDERCOVER. That one album got me to give up on christian rock entirely. It had a tremendous amount of emotional depth to it and the whole album was about coming to terms with your faith even though you have a lot of doubt as to its validity. All of the other christian music I was listening to at the time seemed highly naive and jingoistic in comparison. At the same time Leslie "Sam" Phillips gave an interview in Christian Music Magazine on how she was leaving christian music behind and her disgust with the industry. It further influenced my break.

Ultimately that one album led me to discover Punk and Alternative music. The first secular music I bought after this was REM "Life's Rich Pageant", Cure "Head on the Door", The Jam "Snap" and Smithereens "Especially for you". These four albums really shaped my musical tastes going forward.

Does anyone else remember Undercover? Danial Amos could have had a similar impact but they were just a little to cereberal and bizarre (still worthy of respect though).

"God Rules!"

He he, yep, I had a friend who was briefly into Xtian rock (he even took me to a Resurrection Band show) who played me some Undercover. I thought the idea of Christian punk was funny.

Also remember seeing some "God Rules!" bumper stickers around that time...

Of the Undercover albums I heard, BRANDED was the pick of the litter. The earlier stuff I heard by them was always passed off as punk but it sounded a lot like over-caffeinated Oingo Boingo to me.

Kudos for mentioning Heard's Dry Bones Dance, a great singer/songwriter album regardless of affiliation. His final album Satellite Sky is great as well, but DBD is Heard's masterpiece.

I agree that Sticks and Stones is the 77s' best. Though I dig the self-titled album a lot as well.

I love the Choir and Adam Again. I'd argue for AA's Homeboys and Dig over Ten Songs, but that's just me. And while I love the Choir's Chase the Kangaroo, I've listened to Wide-Eyed Wonder, Circle Sky and Speckled Bird more.

I liked Daniel Amos, but I always preferred the Swirling Eddies side project. Terry Taylor also put out a bizarre compilation of Eddies, Amos/Da, solo and production tracks under the name Dr. Edward Daniel Taylor, sequenced like a fundamentalist radio show. I'd about kill to have that on CD.

I should also put a plug in for Steve Taylor, whose I Predict 1990 is a great, sarcastic rock album, and scaterd-few, whose weird Sin Disease is the great album Jane's Addiction never made.

I'm an atheist, but I still love a lot of the late 80s/early 90s Christian alt. stuff. The Tooth & Nail era leaves me cold, for some reason.

Steve Taylor!?! Remember Chagall Guevara? That was his secular band that released an album on MCA in 1991 or '92. I actually saw them play at The Point, here in Atlanta. As one would expect with any band comprised of Nashville guys, they were tight. "If It All Comes True" (with lead guitarist Dave Perkins on vox) was a very Tom Petty-esque highlight.

Steve Taylor went on to produce Sixpence None the Richer ("Kiss Me", cover of The La's "There She Goes"), so I hope things worked out for him.

I also enjoyed some Over the Rhine about 5-10 years ago. Not so much lately.

Mark Heard was a truly great writer.

There's a local singer/songwriter named Jon Black who's really good, too, without getting into the whole Christian thing...



Post Edited (08-05-07 01:25)

I forgot all about Chagall Guevara! Not sure how - I listened to that record constantly when it came out. (The MCA version, not the one released to Christian stores.) Great album.

Whatever happened to Dave Perkins, anyway>?

Perkins was in the pop-industrial band Passafist for a little while - they had a pretty good song called "(Saved All My Money Gonna Buy Myself a) Glock" or something to that effect. Don't know what he's done since then - mostly session work, probably.

The book BODY PIERCING SAVED MY LIFE has a pretty good section on Taylor, as does the documentary WHY SHOULD THE DEVIL HAVE ALL THE GOOD MUSIC?, which are both pretty interesting chronicles of that whole scene. David Bazan comes off as the most sane and rational participant in both, but Taylor comes in a close second.

The sole factor that sets the truly "Christian alternative" bands apart from the others is as with any other Christian outfit, is a break from the stereotypical sex, booze, drugs elixir that all the other bands seem too eager to stuff down the throats of the gullible unsuspecting ones.
While that is an anthem that a majority of the people like to hear, there comes a point when you look back at what you are listening to and wonder to yourself if any of it has any meaning or is it just a way of allowing some vague stoned songwriter to find some dischordant tone in life and try to hit a chord with it?
I have found that my brain cant handle anymore dope. Anymore and I would probably need to go to rehab. If i did, maybe I would enjoy some of the music more! But now, I cant relate to the songs written by drug heavy artists and this makes Christian alternative an awesome option! Something thats not totally depressing!
Talking about lackluster performances, I think the main reason is that most of the Christian bands have more of a rock leaning. There is no doubt that some of the Christian rock bands can put many of the secular ones to shame.

christian metaphors/symbolism is great for songwriting. personally, the more ambiguous the better.

Check out the British band Delirious? (with the question mark), if you haven't already. A terrific band, whether Christian or secular. Their third album, *Mezzamorphis* (1999), is magnificent.

It was released twice, first by a Christian label named Sparrow, then by Virgin, who saw commercial potential for Delirious? in the secular market. The Virgin release deletes two songs from the Sparrow issue -- the two most overtly Christian-messaged ones.

Virgin's hopes did not materialize, and Delirious? was dropped. But theyr'e still at it, still releasing albums and touring the U.S. (not frequently enough, IMO).

First off: It's STEVE'S world, we just live in it.

Second: It took two years to compile the list?

I didn't try very hard.

actually you did a great job. I might pick one or 2 of these up based on your descriptions.

Hope in a barren wasteland.
While driving home from the local beerstand, I heard a band on mr christian's radio station.
Promising.