Author: Hunter

Categories
Art Music

Andrew Osenga – Letters to the Editor, Vol. 1

Andrew Osenga - Letters to the Editor, Vol. 1 It’s a perfect day for some great new music. One of my favorite musicians, Andrew Osenga, released a digital EP via his blog last night that is, in a word, amazing.

Clocking in at 6 tracks and just under 21 minutes, the album started off as an interesting idea: Andrew would write and record some songs, but the community that visits his blog / website would provide the inspiration for the record, sending in pictures, drawings, paintings, stories, cool words, or ideas they wished someone had written about. Andrew based each of the six songs off of an idea that was contributed from the community, which is pretty cool. I haven’t heard of or seen anything quite like it before; I’m sure that similar projects will become more commonplace as musicians grasp hold of the internet as a tool to promote community interaction between fans and artists.

But Andy went a step further. A really, really interesting step further.

For one of the songs, “Swing Wide the Glimmering Gates,” Andrew invited the community to contribute background vocals (webground vocals?) that he would add to the mix. He uploaded a guitar part and two different harmonies which people recorded singing on their own and sent back to him. He combined all of the voices together to make a chorus at the end of the song filled with the very people that inspired the album in the first place, the people who would probably be the ones buying it. 😉 How innovative is that?

I got my name in the credits, which is pretty cool, and I had a lot of fun recording my vocals. I can pick out my voice at the very end as the chorus of voices becomes more prominent. I PayPal’d him $9, but the entire album is available for free from his website. Donations are suggested, but it’s completely up to you. I highly recommend going over and downloading the album — you have nothing to lose, and it’s a very fun, solid project. Andrew added “Vol. 1” in the title, so here’s hoping that he continues to make more EPs like it.

The entire album was recorded between May 23 and June 6, 2007. He released it last night, on June 12th.

20 days from conception to release.

Welcome to the new face of music. It’s beautiful.

 

Andrew Osenga – Letters to the Editor, Vol. 1

Download Page with PayPal Donation Link

Direct Album Download (.zip)

 

Letters to the Editor, Vol. 1 – Tracklisting

1. Andrew Osenga – Wanted (2:49)
2. Andrew Osenga – The Ball Game (3:45)
3. Andrew Osenga – You Leave No Shadow (3:46)
4. Andrew Osenga – Anna and the Aliens (3:07)
5. Andrew Osenga – The Blessing Curse (2:40)
6. Andrew Osenga – Swing Wide the Glimmering Gates (4:45)

Categories
Art Photography

Lightbox for WordPress

Testing the Lightbox Plugin.

Five After

Categories
Life

Redesign!

I’m in the midst of a redesign, as well as a general back-end clean up, updating all of my plugins and libraries, as well as WordPress, itself.  Bear with me; my goal is to make this sucker easier and more enjoyable to update.  Wish me luck!

Categories
Faith Life Musings

Quiet.


Verse of the Day
You forgave the iniquity of your people; you covered all their sin. (Psalm 85:2, ESV)

I’ve had a pleasant afternoon, full of quiet and reflection. I got home from the Fellows Initiative retreat about 1:30 PM, and I’m still sifting through all that was talked about there. It’s been a while since I’ve really had time to sit down and think. I make myself so busy with things that ultimately don’t seem to matter. I worry a lot about things that have less value than I put into them. I dull the edge of the creative streak God has instilled within me. I’m still trying to get my head aroud the things that really matter, realign the priorities in my life to coincide with the things I profess to be true. It’s no easy feat, and it won’t happen overnight, I’m sure. One thing this weekend really reaffirmed for me was the strength of the friendships that have fallen out of my experiences with the Fellows Program. A lot of wise council, affirmation, and correction has resulted from the 12 other individuals I chose to spend a year with and those that committed themselves to help us grow. I wouldn’t give it up for the world; It’s become so apparent to me how God puts us places for a reason. I don’t know what I would do without these guys, these brothers, sisters, teachers and friends. It gives me hope.

I’m a work in progress, a traveler on the road of the already-but-not-yet. There are many miles to go, and I’m often not sure exactly how I’ll make it or what it will look like, but what I do know is tied up in the that passage from the Psalms. So often I forget it or sweep it under the rug in the midst of my business, but it stays the same. I’m going to be ok. It’s all going to be ok, and I can sleep at night with the knowledge that while there will be valleys amidst the mountains, I’m going to be fine. For the first time in a long time, I feel covered. It’s refreshing.

Our lives are played out between the bookends of Love and Thunder, and God is found equally amidst both, constant and true.

Come, love.

Come, thunder.

Come.

Categories
Music Musings

Switchfoot: Looking Back

Switchfoot - Oh! Gravity.This January I was lucky enough to acquire a copy of Switchfoot’s new album, Oh! Gravity. I’ve given it a few spins, and it’s not bad. With that being said, I find myself missing their old stuff. New Way to Be Human, Learning to Breathe, even The Beautiful Letdown all have a markedly different sound and feel to them in comparison to Nothing is Sound or Oh! Gravity.

You won’t find the guitar distortion typical of Switchfoot’s current sound in these previous albums, but you will find beautifully crafted rock with inventive, quirky instrumentation and catchy hooks. I recently grabbed New Way to Be Human off of Amazon.com, rediscovering an album that is solid from cover to cover. It’s interesting to see a band meld music that’s fun to listen to with lyrics that make your head spin. “Amy’s Song,” “Only Hope,” Let That Be Enough,” even “Something More (Augustine’s Confession)” — there’s a depth to the words Jon Foreman pens that leaves you breathless. Off of Learning to Breathe, check out these lyrics from “Economy of Mercy”:

These carbon shells / These fragile dusty frames / House canvases of souls / We are bruised and broken masterpieces / But we did not paint ourselves / And where will I find You?

That’s one of my favorite lyrics out of any song I’ve heard, and I bought this album back in high school; it’s poignant and paints a vivid picture of the human condition. Words like that don’t just fall out of the sky. The Beautiful Letdown also doesn’t disappoint with its content, though there are a few songs I feel were hit-and-miss. That album was Switchfoot’s first taste at mainstream success, and the world hadn’t heard anything quite like them before.

Personally, I think Switchfoot deserves all of the acclaim it’s received thus far – there are few songwriters today that can craft songs the way that Jon Foreman can, especially in the arena of rock and roll. I do feel, however, that Switchfoot has lost sight of their roots, lost sight of part of what made them such a wonderful band – the accessible …. you see it in “Dare You to Move,” you see it in “24,” you see it in “Beautiful Letdown,” and you see it in their live shows. But, to a degree, on the last few albums their poignant art has found itself somewhat obscured by the overpowering nature of the rock and roll sound they seem to be developing. The words are still there; they’re just harder to see through the noise.

I still have high hopes for Switchfoot and their messages of hope and redemption in a world found lacking. I’m sure Oh! Gravity. will grow on me, but if you’ve never heard Switchfoot’s older fare, you’ll be doing yourself a huge service by grabbing a copy of Switchfoot’s retrospective The Early Years: 1997-2000 over at Amazon.com. You won’t be disappointed.