The Free Christian Music Blog

Matt’s Top 10 Favorite Posts of 2008

Happy New Year!  It’s hard to believe that it’s 2009 already.  Strangely enough, it doesn’t feel much different from 2008 so far.  Hmm.  Anyway, James came up with a great idea for the end of the year.  We’re both going to go through last years posts and pick our top ten.  There was a ton of great music last year, and I had trouble narrowing it down to just 10, but I finally succeeded.  Without further ado, my list:

10.  Tie: Jonathon Steingard’s Atlantis EP & Fighting the Fall- I just couldn’t decide on this.  The Atlantis EP is an excellent & personal solo debut from Hawk Nelson’s guitarist Jonathon Steingard that I really like.  On the other hand, Fighting the Fall is a talented independant emo/screamo band with two good free songs.  Both Atlantis & the FtF downloads are still available.

9.  Run Kid Run “One In A Million” and Sanctus Real “Turn On The Lights” – “Turn On The Lights” is a great song, but the real reason I particularly love this post was “One In A Million”.  It’s an awesome, catchy song that I can’t get enough of.  Sadly, both songs are no longer available.

8.  Leeland “Opposite Way” – Not only do I like the song, but I also really like what Leeland did by asking fans to share their stories about “going the opposite way”.  This one is still available, if you’d like to check it out.

7.  The Devil Wears Prada, Burden of a Day, Before Their Eyes – It’s hard to top The Devil Wears Prada, and when you add in two promising new bands like Burden of a Day (with an excusive demo, I might add) and Before Their Eyes, it’s probably going to be good.  Still available.

6.  The Tooth & Nail Fuel Sampler – I shouldn’t really need to explain this one much.  Something like 25 free songs from the best Tooth & Nail Records bands.  My favorites are Run Kid Run, Capital Lights, and The Becoming.  By the looks of it, this sampler is still available too.

5.  House of Heroes’ FreeHoH .com – Three awesome songs from The End Is Not The End, House of Heroes’ latest that could very well be the best CD of the year.  Really, really good.  As far as I can tell the songs are still available.

4.  Staple “Dictatorship vs. Democracy” – I don’t know what it is about this song, but I just don’t get tired of it.  This one has been on my mp3 player all year, and I still love it.  This one is also still available.

3.  Number One Gun – Pure alternative rock goodness.  I don’t think I can begin to count how many times I’ve listened to these three songs this year.  Still available, and highly recommended.

2.  Three Cord Wonder – Even though they may not have been the next big thing musically, I think Three Cord Wonder was one of the coolest Christian bands I featured this year.  I listen to a lot of music, and I rarely ever get to hear such a unashamedly Christian band.  Sure, the lyrics are simple, but they’re true, and give glory to God.  That’s a band I can look up to.

1.  Esterlyn – I’d never heard of the group Esterlyn before 2008, and now, they’re one of my top artists.  In fact, I liked their music enough to write up a whole spotlight on them.  Extremely good.

There you have it, the year 2008 in free Christian music as seen by Matt.  Now, even though those were my favorite free music posts, there were a couple of others that deserve mention simply because they were particularly fun, random, and unusual.  That list includeds No More Gloom, the free CD Everyday Joe’s Coffee House (in Fort Collins, Colorado) released, featuring different songs by artists who’ve played there, which was really random.  And then there’s the BarlowGirl song on the German site that required step-by-step instructions.  That was a lot of fun to write up.  And, last but not least, the mind-blowing weird song titles post.  That was so much fun to research and write for, and totally random too.

That’s why I decided to start stockpiling song titles for version 2, which you can look for sometime soon.  Like last time, I’d love it if everyone could contribute their favorite weird-and-wacky titles.  Leave a comment, or shot me an email at freechristianmusicblog@gmail.com.  Thank everyone for reading, and happy New Year!

Oh, and I just remembered, I was going to ask what your favorite posts from 2008 were.  Do you agree with me, or have your own top pick?

Tags: BarlowGirl, Before Their Eyes, Burden of a Day, Capital Lights, Esterlyn, Fighting The Fall, House of Heroes, Jonathon Steingard, Leeland, Number One Gun, Run Kid Run, Sanctus Real, Staple, The Becoming, The Devil Wears Prada, Three Cord Wonder

Captive Mad Man Cries: Tooth & Nail’s Latest Sampler

Tooth & Nail Records have given away quite a few great samplers (see here, here, and here) and just released the huge Fuel Sampler a few months ago.  Now, they’ve teamed up with Amazon.com to offer another, smaller sampler entitled Tooth & Nail Records Amazon Sampler.

The key here is quality over quantity.  The sampler only has three songs, one from Haste the Day, The Becoming, and Sever Your Ties.  Remember the old cliche “good things come in small packages”?  Well, in this case it’s true.  All three songs are amazing!  The track listing:

• The Becoming – “I Cry”
• Haste The Day – “Mad Man”
• Sever Your Ties – “Captive”

“Mad Man” is Haste the Day’s first single from their latest CD Dreamer.  Solid speed metal song.  Both The Becoming and Sever Your Ties are fresh new bands on T&N.  Both are bands to watch.  “I Cry” is all about the feeling of guilt, and a plea for grace, well worth the download.  Finally, my favorite song, “Captive”.  I don’t even know how to begin describing it.  Just know it’s good.  Enjoy!

-Tooth and Nail Records / Amazon Sampler-

By the way, as James mentioned, there is one more sampler on the way.  Look for it later in the week!

Tags: Haste the Day, Sever Your Ties, The Becoming

Brand New Tooth and Nail / Solid State Sampler

This could very well be the biggest news in free music since MyFreeMusicFriday.com shut down.  Only this time, it’s good news.

Tooth and Nail and Solid State Records have teamed up again to create the ultimate free sampler once again.  (The last one was the Hey! sampler, last year.)  This time, it’s full of free new and unreleased songs from the latest and greatest artists on Tooth and Nail.  To save time, I’ll just post the track listing.  It speaks for itself.

• Children 18:3 – “LCM”
• The Classic Crime – “Abracadavers”
• Underoath – “In Regards To Myself (Live)”
• Capital Lights – “Outrage!”
• Ivoryline – “Be Still and Breathe”
• Sever Your Ties – “Captive”
• August Burns Reds – “Composure”
• Secret and Whisper – “XOXOXO”
• MYCHILDREN MYBRIDE – “HEADSHOT!”
• Oh, Sleeper – “Vices Like Vipers”
• Inhale Exhale – “I Needed A Spaceship (Instead I Got Problems)”
• Destroy the Runner – “Mr. & Mrs. Cuckoldom”
• Emery – “The Party Song”
• MxPx – “Shut It Down”
• The Becoming – “I Cry”
• Anberlin – “The Haunting”
• Demon Hunter – “Storm the Gates of Hell”
• Once Nothing – “The Dust of A Town”
• The Famine – “Scar the Earth”
• Advent – “Blackout”
• The Chariot – “And Shot Each Other”
• Soul Embraced – “Curtain of Deceit”
• Showbread – “The Pig”
• Search the City – “Son of a Gun”
• Family Force 5- “Fever”
• Run Kid Run – “Captives Come Home”
• Far-less – “A Toast To Bad Taste”
• Norma Jean – “Robots 3 Humans 0″

You can get all of the mp3s for free, in one .zip file, just by entering your name, email, and country of residence at the website.  Tooth and Nail will them email you the link for the sampler.

Standout tracks are Anberlin’s “The Haunting”, which is a hauntingly beautiful Cities b-side, Capital Lights’ “Outrage!”, which is so unbelievable happy and catchy, it should be a controlled substance.  Capital Lights is one of the best power-pop bands I’ve ever heard, and a must-hear for Hello Kelly and Eleventyseven fans.

For hardcore fans, “Vices Like Vipers” by new hardcore band Oh, Sleeper, is amazing.  Tons of lyrical depth, plenty of screaming, eerie choruses, the works.  And you can’t go wrong with Demon Hunter, Norma Jean, The Chariot, Inhale Exhale, and August Burns Red.

Actually, most of the songs on this are must-hear.  Packed with new and old songs, this is one sampler you don’t want to miss.  After all, it’s free!

-Tooth & Nail and Solid State Fuel Sampler-

Tags: Advent, Anberlin, August Burns Red, Capital Lights, Children 18:3, Demon Hunter, Destroy the Runner, Emery, Family Force 5, Far-less, Inhale Exhale, Ivoryline, MxPx, MyChildren MyBride, Norma Jean, Oh Sleeper, Once Nothing, Run Kid Run, Search the City, Secret and Whisper, Sever Your Ties, Showbread, Soul Embraced, The Becoming, The Chariot, The Classic Crime, The Famine, Underoath