The Free Christian Music Blog

Site Review: Guvera

I don’t normally review music websites (the last one I did was for the now defunct SpiralFrog, back in early 2008), but new website Guvera has too much going for it to ignore, especially since Guvera succeeds just about everywhere SpiralFrog failed.  I’ve been using the site for a month or two now, and I’ve been loving it too much not so say anything about it here.

Basically, Guvera is a music store that allows members to download any song they like from the site’s extensive catalog for free.  It’s a simple idea, really – you search and find a song you want to download, then click the “Download” button.  You’re then presented with a list of advertisers.  Pick one that offering a free download, and you’re taken to a promotional page where you can stream the song for free, and download it if you like, and that’s it.  Your song downloads right away, with no additional hoops.  To sweeten the deal, the songs I’ve gotten have been in 256 kbs DRM-free .mp3 files, which seems to be standard.  That’s equal or superior audio quality then most other music stores.

Of course, you can only get free downloads if there’s advertisers will to pay for it, which is the biggest restriction on the site.  The number of available downloads changes regularly (at the moment, I’ve got six free downloads available, a high for me – usually it’s between zero and two.)  When you sign up, you’re also required to fill out a short questionnaire about your interests to help Guvera match advertisers with you.  Still, considering that every single song you get is completely free, Guvera makes a fantastic alternative to iTunes for individual songs.

Guvera has an impressive song library as well – they’ve got a huge chunk of Tooth & Nail Record’s discography, including Solid State and BEC Records, from Aaron Sprinkle and Falling Up to Demon Hunter and Project 86, plus songs from the Happy Christmas and X series’.  They’ve got plenty of non-Nail artists as well, including Lifehouse, Amy Grant, Above the Golden State, David Crowder*Band, TobyMac, Chris Tomlin, Josh Wilson, Sanctus Real, Flyleaf, Newsboys, Paper Tongues, Switchfoot, 12 Stones, and The Rocket Summer, just to name a few.  To put it simply, there’s something for just about everybody.

In closing – I honestly can’t think of a single good reason not to sign up.  Between the selection, and the simplicity, Guvera just might be the best site for free music out there.  (Notice I said site – not blog.)    It’s just that good, and what few cons there are are easily outnumbered by the pros.  Absolutely worth checking out.

-Guvera.com-

Update: What songs are you going to be checking out?  I have my eye on Anberlin’s “Impossible” for my next download.

Tags: 12 Stones, Above the Golden State, Amy Grant, Chris Tomlin, David Crowder*Band, Flyleaf, Josh Wilson, Lifehouse, Newsboys, Paper Tongues, Sanctus Real, Switchfoot, The Rocket Summer, TobyMac

CD Review: Awaken, North Wind! – “Doubt”

As I listen to Awaken, North Wind!’s album Doubt, three words come to mind:  Raw, sparse, and chilling.  Listening to Doubt is like the visiting barren, windswept tundras of the far north, bare of trees and any apparent life.  It’s just you, alone, cold, and broken, and the dark begins to set in.

It’s a chilling scene, but it’s one that Awaken, North Wind! paints a little part of on every track.  The music is straightforward, even to the point of simplicity, and the sparseness only intensifies the emotion.  Coupled with Doubt‘s raw, brutally honesty lyrics about human brokenness and need, one a whole, the album paints a truly vivid picture.  Thankfully, though shadowed, it’s a picture that’s never completely dark, with Jesus Christ painted as mankind’s only hope.

Stand-out songs include the slowly building “Vultures”, “Intentions”, and the closer “Afraid”, a 11 minute, 29 second epic which tells the story of a unrepentant sinner.  It’s dark, intense, lonely, and even terrifying – indeed, listening to “Afraid” feels more like listening to an audio book of C.S. Lewis then a song.

In end, Doubt is more then just a CD – it’s an experience.  A dark, bleak experience, and not for the faint of heart, but an experience for taking all the same.

For fans of Cool Hand Luke, Ocean Is Theory, Edison Glass, and As Cities Burn.

Tags: Awaken North Wind!

House of Heroes Concert Review

Last Tuesday, I went to see House of Heroes in concert.  It was an all-around awesome experience, and here is why:  The first person I ran into once I got there was Tim Skipper, the lead singer of HOH.  I got there early, since I didn’t know how many people were gonna be there or how big there room they were playing in was.  I ended up waiting one hour out in the cold to get a ticket and another hour inside waiting for the show to start, and while I was waiting, I bought a House of Heroes shirt.  The room ended up being little and the size of crowd was criminally small, but we all rocked out and had fun anyway.

After a sort of weird opener, House of Heroes finally started their set.  They began with “Lose Control,” which is something that I wish I could have done at that point in the concert (not literally of course), but I didn’t start rocking out with them until we got to “Code Name: Raven,” which was still early in the set.  The finished off the set with “In The Valley Of The Dying Sun,” which is way more intense in person (someone please get that reference).  In between these songs they also played “Baby’s A Red,” “If,” and “Leave You Now,” all also from their new record The End Is Not The End; “Serial Sleepers,” “Buckets For Bullet Wounds,” and “Friday Night” from their self-titled and their re-release Say No More; and a Beatles cover ” Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” which is supposedly either gonna be, along with two other Beatles cover, on a EP they release with Relient K and/or an extra track on the nationwide store release of TEINTE.

These guys are hilarious.  They have what is probably the most entertaining sound-check in the industry.  For example, during the sound-check (and a couple times in between songs), Tim Skipper pulled out a book of useless facts and read a few of them off.  Their introduction to “Baby’s A Red” was awesome, and probably partly improvised.

Anyway, after This Providence’s set, I got to talk with the guys in House of Heroes a little bit, which was amazing.  I got them all to sign my newly purchased t-shirt, and I asked them about a few things (out of my own curiosity, but I’m passing the info on to you anyway).   They said that they were getting good reception from the Relient K crowds, and that the music video for “In The Valley” turned out a lot better than they expected.  Anyway, I eventually had to leave and go home, but I listened to the album on the way home, and the tracks that I had just seen were even more amazing to listen to now that I had seen them in concert.

Overall, I would give the concert 4.9/5, just because Tim’s voice seemed a little bit off in the beginning.  No offense to Relient K, but Im glad that they weren’t there, because House of Heroes got to play more songs than they normally would.

-James

PS:  Im not very good at reviewing yet, but I hope that you guys enjoy this.

Tags: House of Heroes

Family Force 5 "Never Let Me Go"

As promised, here’s my review of Family Force 5′s newest music video, “Never Let Me Go”, which debuted yesterday on TVU Music Television:

To be totally honest, when the video ended, I was disappointed. Before you stop reading, let me explain. I was expecting something like “Love Addict” or “Kountry Gentleman”. You know, raw crunk-rock. The animal-headed-humanoids just wasn’t what I was expecting.

However, since yesterday, I’ve decided that the video really was pretty cool. The song is one of my all-time favorites, the funky camera trick was pretty cool, and what I thought was a deep moral point was really Family Force 5 being their usual random selves. And the last last twenty seconds are just awesome. All told, I’d give it 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Now that you know what I think, it’s time for you to tell me what you thought. Please, leave a comment with your 2 cents. Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me it’s “2 kwl and ff5 = g8t”. Just say something! )

Tags: Family Force 5

SpiralFrog Review – Is it worth it?

I’ve been reviewing the ad-supported free music service SpiralFrog this week. It’s a mixed bag, with some highlights, low-lights, and interesting song selection. The following is my review.

Signing up is reasonably easy, although I had to download a third party plug-in to access the site. Before I could do anything with the site, I also had to download the “SpiralFrog Download Manager”, which I’ll get to a bit later. After that, I got in.

To start with, the first thing you notice is the advertising. Several ads banners and ad boxes. It reminds me of another teen-oriented website, Myspace. I was able to hide most of the advertisements using AdBlock Plus. The ads aren’t too terribly annoying.

The selection is…interesting. For Christian music, they have a couple of pretty cool MxPx CDs, the Elms’ Chess Hotel, the Flyleaf EP and the new Flyleaf Special Edition album, and several interesting String Tributes CD. There’s a String Tribute to Flyleaf, Casting Crowns, and Underoath. So if you’ve ever wondered what “Does Anybody Hear Her”, “It’s A Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door”, and “I’m So Sick” sounds like rendered in guitars, violins and cellos, now is your chance to find out. There’s even a documentary-CD from POD, which was tells the band’s history. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the band had anything to do with it. That’s all I could find in a week. There may be more.

Another feature of the website is the music videos. I was able to find several MxPx videos (Including my personal favorite “Responsibility”.), as well as Flyleaf’s latest, “All Around Me”.

The system itself is rather buggy. The website is slow, taking a long time to load pages. It’s been getting faster, but I can’t help but wonder if the site is slowing browsing down to make sure people view the advertisements. Could be it’s just a popular site too though. I don’t know. The SpiralFrog Download Manger runs all the time, even when the service is not in use. I’ve noticed it taking from around four megabytes to 11 megabytes of RAM. It’s not a huge resource hog, but enough to annoy you.

There are some pretty serious limitations to what you can do with the music and videos. Songs will only play on certain Mp3 Players (iPods and my Sansa se130 aren’t supported), and only on two different devices, and only then if you sync it with you computer every thirty days. You aren’t allowed to burn CD with any songs you download. You also have to visit the website and renew your membership every thirty days to continue playing download songs and videos on your computer.

In conclusion, you probably shouldn’t plan on becoming a long term member unless you are a fanatic MxPx or Flyleaf fan. For everyone else, I would recommend surfing the site awhile. Maybe become a member to try the site out. Download some songs, watch some videos. After all, if you don’t like it, you can always let you subscription expire.

Update: And even if you let your subscription expire, you will still get email from SpiralFrog, asking you to come back.  Ask me how I know this.

Tags: Casting Crowns, Flyleaf, MxPx, P.O.D., Payable on Death, the Elms, Underoath