HM Magazine Intern Diary: 7.10.09

Hmm, let’s forget about this week, ‘mkay?

Every time I said “Oh yeah, I’m gonna start writing my three stories now!” or “Oh yeah, I’m gonna post pictures from Warped Tour!” those were lies. Always something to keep me from doing either of those.

So, I make no promises for this weekend. I might make it out to the He Is Legend/Drop Dead, Gorgeous show at Emo’s tomorrow night, I might not. I might watch the Cubs-Cardinals game tomorrow afternoon, I might not. Who cares if it’s the only Cubs game I’ll likely get to watch before going home?

I got music for four more album reviews: Between the Trees, Hawk Nelson, Castanets and Skillet. So those will need to get done too, though again, the no promises thing.

I got a bunch of album reviews, including U2, The Devil Wears Prada, Emery and The Chariot from the last two issues posted, so there’s some proof of an accomplishment from this week.

Lord Save Us From Your Followers alternated between making me angry at being an American Christian and giving me hope that maybe all’s not lost, so it at least did a better job than most commentaries on Christian culture lately at not being completely depressing.

Have a better weekend,
Corey Erb

“Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say ‘infinitely’ when you mean ‘very’; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.” – C. S. Lewis

HM Magazine Intern Diary: 6.25.09

I finished my review of Falling Up‘s Fangs! finally, which is ironic since by the time this issue comes out it will be a five-month-old album. Guess we missed it back in March when it came out. These things happen.

One of the Tooth & Nail publicists sent me The Glorious Unseen‘s album that drops August 25 unsolicited today, so I’ll have to check it out tomorrow. I’m not sure Doug’s opinion on them, so I don’t know if they’ll make it in the mag but I really like dude’s voice and they write captivating worship songs and cover some of the better songs from the past few years by several David Crowder worship-with-artistic-integrity types.

Bear with me while I be a fanboy once again – I was listening to The Receiving End of Sirens‘ The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi and following along with the lyrics and I learned the song “Disappear (Oubliette)” is based on The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis – one of my favorite books. I always heard some spiritual undertones on TREOS’ songs (they mention sin elsewhere, though I wrote it off since non-believers can use the word too) but just thought I was a crazy Christian wanting to project my beliefs into music intended to be secular. I didn’t think they had any connection to Christianity whatsoever. Holy crap, my instinct was right for once… and I told it to shut up and just enjoy the music for what it was, not realizing that my gut was right and it was actually based on spiritual stuff. I love it when I find out cool stuff about a band I love, which in this case means very little to anyone since they broke up, but it gives me another layer to appreciate on an album that was already one of my top albums based on lyrical depth and intricacies of sound. No idea if they’re Christians or just fans of Lewis’ writing, but that matters little to me. I already would have had to try hard to think of another album from the last couple years that tops it. Please give it a listen if you haven’t heard it – I’m not objective at all but I think it’s ridiculously artistic, yet still accessible.

Oh man tomorrow’s gonna be fun,
Corey Erb

“I watched you steal away / A man’s best years / With the drumming of his fingers / With the kicking of his heels /…/ Because anything or not a thing will do / (A dead fire in a cold room)” – from “Disappear (Oubliette)” by The Receiving End of Sirens (Last mention for a month, promise. Well, maybe…)

HM Magazine Intern Diary: 5.25.09

In honor of Memorial Day, I didn’t want to send out much to read but I realized I haven’t really given much of an indication of who I am, so I thought a list of my favorite bands, and why I like them, might be a good start. Here are a few of my favorite bands, in no order:

– Further Seems Forever – I’m one of the few who likes all three of the band’s lead singers, though each for different reasons. I liked Chris Carrabba because I got into the band during his tenure and I love the atypical song structures on The Moon Is Down. Jason Gleason’s voice is by far my favorite, how he varies his emotion with the lines he’s singing. Jon Bunch was the black sheep of the three but I liked Sense Field and I thought bringing more of his faith into the lyrics turned out pretty well, even if he butchered a few of the band’s songs live.

– The Beautiful Mistake – TBM was a band that meant a lot to me during a transitional time in my life during my junior year of high school. The ironic thing is, I’m not even sure they were a Christian band. But either way, lyrics like “It’s funny how clear, your eyes get from crying / It’s funny how clean, your life gets from dying” definitely encouraged me to continue to embrace the hardships I was facing and find some hope through it – which, after a long process, ended up being Christ. Their C.S. Lewis fascination sort of alerted me to the theologian and reading Mere Christianity definitely helped change my incredibly immature view of the faith. Also, their album, Light A Match, For I Deserve To Burn was one of my first forays into harder music.

– Inhale Exhale – Part of my transition into actually enjoying metal. With their new album, I Swear, they moved lyrically and sonically from being a copycat outfit to having a distinctive package of their own – and one that should influence the metalcore pack instead of simply blending in.

Those are mostly studio bands I guess, so I’ll probably follow up with a list of the best bands I’ve seen live. What are your favorite bands? Why do you like them?

Call me emo, I welcome it,
Corey Erb

“But pasted wings and foil rings, do not an angel make.” – from “The Bradley” by Further Seems Forever