The Free Christian Music Blog

James’ Top 10 Downloads Of 2008

So, it was hard, but I narrowed down my top 10 list. And I only included three of my own posts, unlike Matt, who listed ten of his. Nevermind the fact that I joined him late in the year and only posted one day a week for not even every week til the end of the year…

Anyway, I sorted through the 300+ posts and probably 1000+ songs and ended up with this list of favorites:

10: Tie Between Children 18:3, Children 18:3, and Children 18:3 – So, Matt had a tie at 10th, so I thought it was only fair that I do the same. Children 18:3 was a band I found near the beginning of the year and was the first band that year to show me that pop-punk could be something that I could enjoy if it was done right.

9: Sides of the North – This small band was one of Christian music’s best kept secrets, which is a shame because they were awesome. Six songs by them is definitely an awesome post and worthy of placing in the top 10.

8: Summer Slam Volume 2 – Indie Vision Music has been one of the top sources of free Christian music, and SSV2 is their biggest and best. It gave me free songs from Project 86, Stavesacre, Ocean is Theory, The Dark Romantics, and introduced me to a bunch of smaller bands, especially The Human Flight Committee, with their song “She’s A Car Destroyer.”

7: The Devil Wears Prada – I became a fan of TDWP when I saw them at Warped Tour (and crowdsurfed to them). So I was very excited when I found a free sampler containing “Hey John, What’s Your Name Again?”

6: The Awkward Romance – The Awkward Romance was already my favorite local band before they came out with this CD, This Song Is Writing Me, but this CD caught me by surprise by how well produced it was. And the fact that they gave it away for free was an even bigger surprise.

5: Capital Lights – What Children 18:3 started was reinforced by the introduction to my of Capital Lights. And what we have here with “Can I Get An Amen” is Capital Lights at their best.

4: Stavesacre – Stavesacre is a band that I’d heard of a for a while but never listened to for the longest time. However, once I saw on here that they had a song (“It’s Beautiful Once You’re Out There”) up for download, I decided to give them a listen. I was far from disappointed, and I must say that I have found one of my new favorite bands.

3: mewithoutYou – As I’ve mentioned before, mewithoutYou is my favorite band. The only reason that this isn’t listed higher is that I already had the song long before I found the download that I featured. Still, they are my favorite band.

2: Tooth & Nail Fuel Sampler – Any Tooth & Nail sampler is gonna have awesome songs on it, but this one caught me by surprise with the artists that I enjoyed the most on it. Now, I already had the great songs from Children 18:3 and Showbread, but this sampler introduced me to Capital Lights and Oh, Sleeper plus it gave me amazing songs from Sever Your Ties and my personal favorite on the whole sampler, “Abracadavers” by The Classic Crime, which was a band I had long ago written off.

1: House of Heroes – Sure, I found it before I found this site, but the three free songs, in combination with the ones they streamed on myspace, held me over until their new CD finally came out in September. “In The Valley Of The Dying Son” has been in my collection since March and has yet to ever at any point get old, and neither have any of the others, which is why this places as the number one download of the 2008.

Honorary Mentions:

Everyday Joe’s – This sampler was no longer available by the time that I found this site, but anything that includes Listener Project is awesome.

Christmas Day 12 – Matt put a ton of work into this post, listing something like 2 dozen artists with Christmas songs up for download.

Tags: Capital Lights, Children 18:3, House of Heroes, mewithoutYou, Ocean is Theory, Oh Sleeper, Project 86, Sever Your Ties, Showbread, Sides of the North, Stavesacre, The Awkward Romance, The Classic Crime, The Dark Romantics, The Devil Wears Prada, The Human Flight Committee

New Sampler from Indie Vision Music

Indie Vision Music has put out many, many samplers recently, and though many of them are no longer posted online, they have taken the best songs from the seven samplers (sans the heavy stuff, which might be getting its own “best of” sampler) and put them into one. What you get is free songs from Chasing Victory, Project 86, Stavesacre, Ever Stays Red, Esterlyn, and 35 other awesome bands.

I haven’t been able to listen to everything yet, as I have not only been busy but also overwhelmed with this and another even bigger sampler that all of you will probably see in the near future. You might get spoiled this week, thats all I’m saying.

-The Best of IVM Vol. 1-

-James

Edit:  Apparently the wonderful people at IVM are working on another compilation that they hope to put out in time for Christmas.  If you’re in a band and have a quality recording they are interested in possibly using your song in the compilation.

Tags: Amaradio, Amen. The Animal, Arkeo, Avery Pkwy, Blood & Water, Burning Tree Project, Cathy Crescendo, Chasing Victory, Darkroom, Dennis Zender, Dogwood, Erika Soto, Esterlyn, Ever Stays Red, Failure to Excel, Fairgreen, Finchley, Forever Changed, Hands, Kessler, Kings to You, Makeshift3, Man Alive, My Jeremiah, Ocean is Theory, One Hot Minute, Orion Walsh, Paul Wright, Project 86, Quick and the Dead, Say You Will, Send Out Scuds, Sleep for Sleepers, Stavesacre, The Apprentice, The Echoing Green, The Trade, Thrush, Tumbledown, We Shot the Moon

Summer Slam Vol. 2 Free Sampler from IVM

Free music today courtesy of Indie Vision Music. They recently uploaded Summer Slam Vol. 2, the biggest free Christian music sampler since One Dark Summer. This thing is huge! You can get 52 songs absolutely free! You don’t even need to give a email address.

In the 52 songs, there are tracks by MxPx, Project 86, Cool Hand Luke, Esterlyn, I Am Terrified, Stavesacre, The Glorious Unseen, Means, The Echoing Green, and many talented independent artists. The full artist listing is on the page.

I haven’t had a opportunity to hear the songs on this sampler yet, thanks to my internet connection, but I’m drooling over it right now. I know for sure that a couple of songs are rare finds – I haven’t seen the MxPx one anywhere else, and both the Project 86 and Stavesacre were iTunes Exclusives. Which is just one more reason to get this awesome sampler.

I also heard a that the other free downloads on Indie Vision Music could be disappearing soon. It could be a rumor, but if you haven’t yet, make sure you download all of the goodies before tomorrow. All of these links are to free music, making this the biggest amount of music I’ve ever featured. Check it out, enjoy it. It’s after all, it’s free!

Tags: Cool Hand Luke, Esterlyn, I Am Terrified, Means, Mendelson, MxPx, Pennylane, Project 86, Stavesacre, The Comeback Tour, The Echoing Green, The Glorious Unseen

"Under the Watchful Eyes Of T.J. Eckleburg" {And Other Weird Song Titles}

Here it is! The highly anticipated list of weird, strange, random, unusual, and wise, song titles. When I first announced this, I had no idea the response I would get. I also had no idea that such interesting titles existed. Therefore, without further ado, the moment you’ve been waiting for:

• Relient K – “Crayons Can Melt On Us For All I Care”
• Five Iron Frenzy – “At Least I’m Not Like All Those Other Old Guys”
• The Devil Wears Prada – “Reptar, King of the Ozone”
• Daniel Amos / The Swirling Eddies – “Donna Nietche And Her Super Race Of Kick-Boxing Uber Parrots”
• Daniel Amos / The Swirling Eddies – “Arthur Fhardy’s Yodeling Party”
• Five Iron Frenzy – “The Phantom Mullet”
• Search the City – “In This Scene You’re Just An Extra”
• Showbread – “I Had Music In My Heart, But Now My My Heart Is Broken”
• House Of Heroes – “You Are the Judas of The Cheerleading Squad”
• Relient K – “Chap Stick, Chapped Lips, And Things Like Chemistry”
• Underoath – “I Have Ten Friends and A Crowbar that Say You Ain’t Gonna Do, Jack”
• MYCHILDREN MYBRIDE – “A Bayonet Doesn’t Make You A Hero”
• Blue Cadet and the Brave December – “Brass Knuckles Won’t Do You Any Good In Soul To Soul Combat”
• The Devil Wears Prada – “Hey John, What’s Your Name Again”
• Send Out Scuds – “This is So Cliche That it Will Rot Your Teeth”
• Showbread – “Oh! Emetophobia”
• Underoath – “It’s Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door”
• The Almost – “They Say You Can Never Write I Told You So In A Song But Here I Go DEMO”
• Falling Up – “The Dark Side of Indoor Track Meets”
• Project 86 – “The Forces of Radio Have Dropped A Viper In The Rhythm Section”
• Emery – “You Think You’re Nickel Slick (But I Got Your Penny Change)”
• Rich Mullins – “Alrightokuhhuhamen”
• MxPx – “Another Song About T.V.”
• Five Iron Frenzy – “Wizard Needs Food, Badly”
• David Crowder*Band – “O God Where Are You Now (In Pickerel Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?)”
• Anberlin – “A Heavy Hearted Work of Staggering Genius”
• Sullivan – “Under the Watchful Eyes Of T.J. Eckleburg”
• Anberlin – “There Is No Mathematics to Love and Loss”
• Showbread – “A Llama Eats a Giraffe (And Vice Versa)
• Nodes of Ranvier – “Nagheenanajar”
• Maylene And The Sons of Disaster – “Bang! The Witch Is Dead”
• Norma Jean – “I Used To Hate Cell Phones, Now I Hate Car Accidents”
• Demon Hunter – “Our Faces Fall Apart”
• Daniel Amos / The Swirling Eddies – “(Near Sighted Girl With Approaching) Tidal Wave”
• Daniel Amos / The Swirling Eddies – “(It’s The Eighties So Where’s Our) Rocket Pack”
• DC Talk – “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”
• Gwen Stacy – “What Will Happen If I Hit Enter?”
• The Chariot – “If Wishes Were Horses, More Beggars Would Ride Them”
• The Devil Wears Prada – “Swords, Dragons, and Diet Coke”
• The Devil Wears Prada – “This Song Is Called”
• The Chariot -
  1. Back To Back
  2. They Faced Each Other
  3. They Drew Their Swords
  4. And Shot Each Other
  5. The Deaf Policemen
  6. Heard This Noise
  7. Then Came To Kill
  8. The Two Dead Boys
  9. Forgive Me Nashville
  10. The Trumpet

And my two personal favorites:

• The Chariot – “Someday In The Event That Mankind Figures Out What It Is That This World Revolves Around, Thousands Of People Will Be Shocked And Perplexed To Find Out That It Was Not Them. Sometimes This Includes Me.”

• Gwen Stacy – “Hey God, This Song’s For You. I Hope You Like It.”

Pretty crazy, huh? Let me know what you’re favorites are by leaving a comment on this post.

One other thing, if you want to copy the list and use it on your blog, Myspace, Facebook, etc, go ahead. Spread the weirdness. All I ask is that you link back to The Free Christian Music Blog (http://www.thefreechristianmusicblog.com).

Tags: Anberlin, Blue Cadet and the Brave December, Daniel Amos, David Crowder Band, DC Talk, Demon Hunter, Emery, Falling Up, Five Iron Frenzy, Gwen Stacy, House of Heroes, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, MxPx, MyChildren MyBride, Norma Jean, Project 86, Relient K, Rich Mullins, Search the City, Send Out Scuds, Showbread, Sullivan, The Almost, The Chariot, The Devil Wears Prada, The Swirling Eddies, Underoath

Project 86 Mp3, Social Network Poll

Project 86 is giving away their song “Spy Hunter” on their Purevolume page. Musically, the song is tight. Lyrically, however, there’s nothing to indicate it’s a Christian song. Basically, it’s hunting for a spy. Actually, I take that back. The very last line is “I need truth!”. Either way you look at it, it’s free.

Tags: Project 86

X2008 (With Free Music)

Spend all of your Christmas money yet? If you haven’t, I’ve got a way to make it go farther.

If you buy the first printing of X2008, the new Christian rock compilation, you could get a “New Rock Sampler”, with 15 new song, free with your purchase. (You can tell it’s the first version by looking for a little sticker on the packaging, say it’s got the sampler.)

The new rock sampler has some of newest and coolest bands and songs, including:

• Dizmas – “Play It Safe”

• Our Hearts Hero – “Tomorrow”

• Emery – “The Party Song”

• Mainstay – “Becoming Who You Are”

• Newworldson – “Working Man”

• Spoken – “History Erased”

• Project 86 – “Evil (A Chorus of Resistance)”

• The Send – “An Epiphany”

• A Dream Too Late – “14th and Knott”

• This Beautiful Republic – “Going Under”

• Ruth – “You Are”

• Wavorly – “Madmen”

• Stephanie Smith – “Superstar”

• Nevertheless – “Live Like We’re Alive”

• KJ-52 featuring Toby Morrel from Emery – “Wake Up”

To claim the music, you need to put the CD in your computer and visit the site listed on the card. They’ll ask you for a email address. Once you put that in, you can download all the songs.

The X2008 CD itself is a good collection of songs, not perfect (compilations never are), but worth the money in my opinion.

Tags: A Dream Too Late, Dizmas, Emery, Mainstay, Nevertheless, Neworldson, Our Hearts Hero, Project 86, Ruth, Spoken, The Send, This Beautiful Republic

O.C Supertones Download, Project 86 recording a Christimas song?!?

Music today from another dearly-departed band, the O.C. Supertones. The Orange County ska group has two songs on their Purevolume profile. The songs are “Superfly”, a catchy rock song reminding fans to please report to their radios and turn it up. Then there’s “We Shall Overcome” a can-do kinda song informing Christians to take a stand for their faith.

Now for the news section:

“…But to be perfectly honest I can’t remember a more enjoyably prolific chapter as as artist. (Notice I didn’t use the word “musician.” I picture a “musician” as someone who is attempting to avoid responsibility at all costs, eeking out an existence off other people’s couches, never adopting the concept of adulthood or becoming a productive member of society.) By “prolific” I mean that we are dropping this EP (which was super fun to make) AND we are recording a CHRISTMAS SONG this Thursday. Yes, I said CHRISTMAS SONG. SCARED? You should be. Then again, if you don’t have faith by now maybe you never will. GET IT? FAITH? CHRISTMAS? HA!”

This could get interesting… Could it be a sign that the stellar Happy Christmas series will be continued this year? Only time will tell.

Tags: O.C. Supertones, Project 86

Hey! It’s another sampler!

Hey! It’s another Tooth & Nail/Solid State sampler. Pun intended. Anyway, it’s got 18 songs from a variety of T&N artists, including Anberlin, Neon Horse, Ruth, Surrogate, The Send, and MxPx. It’s got some sweet songs, and it’s made even better by the fact that they are all newer songs. So, don’t wait another minute.

-The Hey! Sampler on Purevolume-

Tags: Anberlin, As Cities Burn, August Burns Red, Cry of the Afflicted, Haste the Day, MxPx, Neon Horse, Project 86, Ruth, Sullivan, Surrogate, The Almost, The Fold, The Send, Underoath

One Dark Summer

Another Tooth & Nail-Solid State Purevolume Sampler! This one is huge. 32+ different song by that many artists. It’s awesome. If you like rock (Thousand Foot Krutch, The Almost, Jonezetta), punk (fm Static, Hawk Nelson, Run Kid Run), and/or hardcore (Underoath, Emery, Destroy the Runner), you have got to check this out! I can guarantee that if you enjoy loud music, you will find something you can listen to on here.

Get all 32+ Songs at Purevolume here now!

Note: You do need to give your email address to get the sampler. It’s worth it.

Update: During a recent upgrade, Purevolume.com removed all of the free samplers from the website. Including this one. So I’m sorry to say it’s no longer available. However, if you looked through the archives here on The Free Christian Music Blog, you could probably find some music that is just as good. I know it’s not the same, but it’s the best I have to offer, so please accept my humble condolences.

Tags: Anberlin, As Cities Burn, August Burns Red, Becoming the Archetype, Dead Poetic, Demon Hunter, Destroy the Runner, Emery, Fair, Far-less, fm Static, Haste the Day, Hawk Nelson, He Is Legend, Inhale Exhale, Jonezetta, Mae, mewithoutYou, Norma Jean, Project 86, Run Kid Run, Showbread, Spoken, Starflyer 59, Sullivan, The Almost, The Chariot, The Classic Crime, The Fold, Thousand Foot Krutch, Twelve Gauge Valentine, Underoath

The Rock Brigade

Another online sampler from Tooth & Nail, Solid State, and BEC. It has new songs from Anberlin, Haste the Day, KJ-52, Seventh Day Slumber, The Almost, The Send and more. You have to have a Hearitfirst account to access the downloads, but, in addition, if you have a account, they’ll send you a another free download once a week. Hearitfirst is actually pretty interesting. It’s a website that’s run by the whole Christian music industry, so they have tons of neat stuff from almost every artist you can hear on you average radio station.

Update: The sampler has sadly been removed. Thankfully, there’s plenty more music out there…

Tags: Anberlin, Haste the Day, Joy Electric, KJ-52, MxPx, Project 86, Ruth, Seven Places, Seventh Day Slumber, Sullivan, The Almost, The Chariot, The Fold, The Glorious Unseen, The Send