-jamie
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{Thanks Preston}
Think of 15 albums (CDs, LPs, etc.) that had such a profound effect on you that they changed your life, dug into your soul, music that brought you to life when you heard it, took you somewhere.
Now list them. Then when you finish, tag at least 15 others, including me. Make sure you copy and paste this part so they know the drill. Get the idea now? Good. Tag, you're it!
In no particular order of importance..some of these may not be "cool" but they were a part of my world. Some influential, some just heavily played.
• Motley Crue - Too Fast For Love
The first band that grabbed my attention from the early 90's LA rock scene. Still my favorite from them. Raw and punky.
• Poison - Look What The Cat Dragged In
I bought this album almost a year before they "broke" The album cover got my attention and I bought it on a whim. Wore it out to the point that when they got popular, I was burnt out on it. Still have a sweet spot for this disc.
• Stryper - Soldiers Under Command
As a teen in a Christian school who had written off Christianity as a hypocritical/self-righteous facade, Stryper was the thing that God used to get my attention. I can't say they were the defining point in my acceptance of Christ, but certainly a major step leading me on that journey. This album rocked and broke all the stereotypes. Saw this tour with my friend Rob Watson in Louisville. A few years later, I had the pleasure of getting to know those guys and toured with them. I'm still proud to call them friends. "Surrender" was my favorite.
• R.E.M. - Automatic For The People
On a weekend run to Germany for a one off Guardian show, the long flight led to boredom, which led to me listening to the in flight music program. I heard "Man On The Moon" and loved the melancholy feel. As soon as we landed, Heather picked me up and we went to Tower Records in Irvine, Ca. and I bought it. To this day I love it..the whole thing from top to bottom.
• Radiohead – The Bends
This record flat out destroyed me for a whole year! Have you heard "Nice Dream", Fake Plastic Trees, Bones, or "Bulletproof"? The emotion poured into the performances resonates with me..big time! Funny story, Randy Spencer took me to the R.E.M. "Monster" tour in 95 or 96...Radiohead was opening the tour with this album, I had no interest in seeing them so I wasn't bummed that we missed their set. About 3 months later, I discovered the album...STILL bummed! In my opinion they have never came close to matching this album.
• Third Eye Blind - Debut
This is an album where I like every track! Stephen Jenkins is one of my favorite writers and vocalists. I love the melody lines he creates. It influenced me in my writing with the london calling/ruled era
• Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness
“Bullet with the Butterfly Wings”sold me, “By Starlight”pushed me over the cliff. This record highly influenced my mid 90 songwriting style.
• TYGERTAILZ – Young & Crazy
This British glam band wasn’t really known in the USA. Their album “Young & Crazy” had dumb songs, terrible vocals, poor production and amateur sounding performances. It was PERFECT! I listened to it all the time circa 1989. Recently reformed, their bassist, Pepsi Tate, passed away from cancer.
• Warrant – Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinkin’ Rich
What can I say… I’m a true product of the 80’s. Warrant were easily my favorite band from the Sunset Strip era. In my opinion, no one wrote commercial hard rock in the late 80’s as good as Jani Lane. “Sometimes She Cries” & “Ridin’ High” still sound good to me.
• Extreme – III Sides To Every Story
This album was on constant loop during the fall 1992 Guardian tour. I recall thinking Miracle Mile could have some of the same vibe. In hindsight, I think it did. Just listened to this album 3 days ago. Still dig it.
• Cheap Trick – Dream Police
Pure ear candy, my first concert (I was 10), Kiss got me interested in music, Cheap Trick made me love it! I think it’s been obvious in my songwriting that I am a huge fan of this band. I like all of their albums, but Dream Police is the one that sold me. My favorite is the debut. Side note: Bassist Tom Peterson lives in Karl Ney’s neighborhood…I would be a stalker if I could.
• Kiss – Alive II
The over the top showmanship and image made up for the delightfully bonehead songs. Alive II is Kiss doing what they do and it’s brilliant! I have to say I like the album covers and whatnot better than the actual music, but when I was 9 years old, it just didn’t matter. In my young mind, Kiss was Superman, Spiderman, and Batman rolled into one. Music was something they happened to do. Steve Taylor took me to my first Kiss show for my 27th birthday. There was pyro and it was cool. Late 2003, Gene showed interest in working with London Calling and we met with him in Louisville. He was in make-up and full costume. Surreal doesn’t begin to describe it.
• Van Halen – II
If the story that I remember is correct, my mom was part of the Columbia House direct sales music club thingy. She ordered a Kenny Rogers album and got the numbers wrong. Van Halen II showed up instead and I was floored! One of the best mistakes ever!
• Stone Temple Pilots - Purple
STP consistently put out music that I connected with. I saw them with Cheap Trick during the height of their popularity. Always smart, wonderful songwriting.
• Guardian – Fire & Love
WHAT??? Ok, it’s my album. BUT, it was the one album that started me on the journey that I never could have imagined! I know it’s lame to listen to your own music, but I was just as big of a fan of this album as anyone. Still love it actually. I think it only makes sense to include it as a “changed my life” album. Chances are, most of you would not be reading this had I never joined Guardian. My life is better for it and thanks to all of you, I have a worldwide base of friends! Can you feel the power??????
These are just 15, there have been sooooooooooooooo many meaningful albums to me.
-jamie ¶ 2/27/2009 0 Comments
What will people think? There is strong social pressure to conform and to be ordinary and not creative.
Here are some overheard examples:
Creative Person: "I like to put water in my orange juice so it's less sweet."
Ordinary Person: "You're weird, you know?"Ordinary Person: "What are you doing?"
Creative Person: "We're painting our mailbox."
Ordinary Person: "You're crazy."Creative Person: "Why don't we add a little garlic?"
Ordinary Person: "Because the recipe doesn't call for garlic."Ordinary Person: "Why are you going this way? It's longer."
Creative Person: "Because I like the drive."
Ordinary Person: "Did anyone ever tell you you're strange?"
Today I saw an interesting Twitter post from my amigo Daniel Rosas regarding creative thinking. I've long accepted that I'm not wired like the person next door and that "normal" people don't burn to create works of art. This is a great read.
Above: Guardian taping "House Of Guardian" on 02/21/09
Photo: Christian Rowe
Since I'm in linking mode, allow me to plug David Bach's latest blog highlighting "House Of Guardian"
(Click here to read David's entry)
Hope you have a fantastic week!
- jamie
¶ 2/24/2009 1 Comments
Yes, it's true! After YEARS of on again, off again banter...Guardian will turn on the lights for a season. I still can't give a whole lot more info yet, but here are some things that I can say:
- Guardian will tape the debut episode of "House Of Guardian" this weekend in Nashville. H.O.G. is going to be a main component of Guardian's activity for this new run.
- House Of Guardian is also "Casa De Guardian"..The Latin American fans have gone above and beyond for Guardian over the years, they won't be left out! Our Spanish speaking audience will be pleased!
- All members of the classic Guardian line-up are back: David Bach, Karl Ney, Tony Palacios and myself...along with Jamey Perrenot. Yes, 5 dudes instead of 4! Can you say "more guitars"? :-)
It's a new era for the music business, and we have found a unique way to embrace it. Great for the fans...and great for the band too! While we all have great "non-band lives" going right now, we all miss "being Guardian".
Will you see a 40 city Guardian tour this year?
Probably not.
Will you have a chance to see Guardian for the first time since the late 90's?
Absolutely.
If you want to see some new pics in real time this weekend, be sure to follow Guardian on Twitter as we will be posting randomly.
Ok, there ya have it...
What else is goin' on?
I'm very happy to report that a client for Integrity Music that I have spent many hours working on the past few months, has had the #1 Christian album on iTunes all week! Congratulations to Kari Jobe!
Check out a video of testimonials that I created for Integrity using testimonies that people sent in. I think it's a moving piece!
Also, Last Friday, I spent the better part of the day singing background vocals on the upcoming Newsboys album. Peter Furler had called and asked me to come down and I was blessed to be a part of it. It was good to see those guys again and my bro Michael Tait from dcTalk. We had a nice little vocal group going with Jeff, Jody, Peter, Tait and myself. A really cool side note: Peter had Christian sing on "Lead Me To The Cross", a cover of the Hillsong track. It was a cool "dad moment" for me. And his first professional credit! Christian spent his last day of being 13 years old by singing on an album by one of the biggest bands in Christian music history. Pretty cool me thinks.
Also, Max Hsu from Superchic(k) was producing with Peter and for the record, I have to say that I think Max may be the most talented guy on the planet. From music to photography to video... he is sick! To top it off, he's a really nice guy! Jeff showed me an iPhone app called camerabag that was killer. My mobile uploads now look much cooler thanks to his app wisdom. Muchas gracias Mr. Frankenstein!
Newsboys have made an outstanding new record. Be sure to get it in May.
BTW- New Hillsong United music coming soon too...I'm always excited about that!
God bless all y'all..thanks for reading!
jamie
¶ 2/17/2009 3 Comments
But it's a solid start in the right direction don't ya think?
jamie
Link world:
Hello everyone, it seems like my blog isn't getting the attention I need to put into it! I've been really busy working on some new projects that are consuming my hours, but are still thrilling to work on!
One artist that has gotten a good amount of my time of late is Kari Jobe. Kari has a wonderful voice! I have yet to meet her personally , I can tell she has a sincere heart for God. Some of you may know her already from Gateway Worship, her home church where she serves as a worship leader. She is the voice of "Revelation Song" which is sang in congregations worldwide...as well as my own.
Tonight while doing some promotional work for her, I was checking out her church's website. This section jumped out at me from their "about" section:
Growing
Gateway’s first service was on Easter morning, April 23, 2000, at the Hilton Hotel in Grapevine
with approximately 180 people in attendance.
Three weeks later, the church began meeting on Saturday nights at Christ Our King Church in Southlake. With a strong Saturday night congregation, the church continued to steadily grow. In July 2001, Gateway Church began meeting at A World of Learning training facility in Grapevine, during which time the church grew to five services with over 2,000 people attending weekly.
We broke ground for our current Southlake Campus during Gateway’s third year of ministry. As we constructed our building, the church continued to grow. In June 2003, we moved into our Southlake Campus. By Easter of 2004, attendance was around 5,000; four years later on Easter of 2008,
we had 16,500 people in attendance.
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I emphasized two mind blowing items in the quote above. The amount of people attending in an 8 year run went from 180 to 16,500!!! And from a non-traditional starting point of having church on Saturday in the beginning. I'm sure this is exciting to the folks who attend Gateway Church, it's exciting to me sitting in my bedroom right now! I love to see evidence of God's work. Especially when it's right in front of my eyes.
My home church is currently experiencing new growth as well, not to this extent but you never know what God has planned. It seems like folks who value people over tradition, the life changing, powerful Jesus over the social club sized "Good Lord", listening more than speaking, and open hearted to boot...these are the ones who God is using mightily. As broken as I am, I want to be a part of God's biggest plans. God can, will and often does use broken people like me. Maybe it's because I am honestly aware of His grace in my own life that I have the audacity to think that he has granted favor to the Fort Branch GBC. We are mainly a congregation of imperfect believers who, as Brennan Manning puts it, walks through life with a ''victorious limp"...doing our best to have fellowship knowing that it's all about God's will and not our own. A place I often said I would never go back to (after being treated rudely as a visitor years ago)..it's now a place I attend weekly and truly experience God's goodness and peace. With others who simply seek and want to be used by God!
God is good.
Back on Kari Jobe, her album releases next Tuesday, Feb 10th. It's available in most music stores from Integrity Music.
Check it out ... would ya!
jamie
¶ 2/03/2009 0 Comments
