September 13, 2006
Nothing Is Sound - One Year Later
It's been one year since the release of the Switchfoot album Nothing Is Sound (NIS). In many eyes this album was considered a flop and not as good as the previous album The Beautiful Letdown (TBL). According to sales this would be true as NIS didn't even hit the 1 million mark while TBL was around 2.5 million. So I'll concede that NIS was a flop. There are many reasons including the infamous copy protection problem. I also wrote last year that they should have released other songs as singles. I don't know who makes those decisions but for some reason NIS was not meant to be a big hit and that's too bad. Frankly, it is Switchfoot's best effort. As Switchfoot has said in the past, "the song is king", and if that's the case then this is a remarkable collection of songs. The highlights are:
Those are songs that are absolutely fantastic and I can't believe fans of the band didn't latch on to them as much as the songs from TBL. These are songs that should have been heard but haven't and probably won't be much anymore. Switchfoot even had a myspace contest for the songs they would play and none of the songs from NIS. It seems even the fans can't get past TBL and so it seems that Switchfoot has closed the NIS chapter and is moving on to "Oh! Gravity." (OG). For me, NIS was a great album and showed a ton of musical growth and I'm sure OG will be even better. I just hope that the problems that plagued NIS will not appear again. Heck, maybe folks will discover NIS and give it a chance.
Cross posted at Blog Critics
February 24, 2006
New Switchfoot Video - We Are One Tonight
Check it out http://launch.yahoo.com/video/default.asp?vid=29924891.
November 08, 2005
Plugged In Online - "What Kind of 'Sound' Is Switchfoot Making?"
I'm going to "Fisk" parts of an article by Adam R. Holz for Plugged In Online where some swipes at one of our house bands, Switchfoot are taken. For the complete "Fisking" see below:
Labels are tricky, especially with music. Though most artists want us to believe their music is unique, the recording industry relies on tags such as rock or hip-hop, Christian or secular, to market their material. After all, if we don't know what category something is in, how can we know if we'll like it?!
Which brings us to Switchfoot. The San Diego alt-rockers' (there's your first label) initial three albums enjoyed modest success on Charlie Peacock's re:Think imprint (which was part of EMI's Christian Music Group). Then, their presence on 2002's A Walk to Remember soundtrack marked the beginning of a transition from the CCM world to mainstream accessibility (labels two and three, respectively). That shift was completed when the band jumped to a "major label" (Columbia) for 2003's smash The Beautiful Letdown, which sold a massive 2.5 million copies. Switchfoot's latest, Nothing Is Sound, is now capitalizing on that momentum.
Something that most people should understand is that Switchfoot never really wanted to be part of the CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) scene but a buyout of the label they were on (re:Think) was bought out by Sparrow Records. re:Think was a label that was trying to stretch beyond the simple CCM world and try to impact beyond the standard boundries.
On the road to mainstream success, the band has taken pains to distance itself from its CCM roots. Members have consistently downplayed their "Christian band" label, declined interviews with Christian publications and prevented pictures from being taken at Creation Festival (a Christian event). Defending this trajectory, bassist Tim Foreman told an interviewer in 2003, "As a band, we're Christians by faith and not in genre, and I think people have a hard time differentiating between the two."
Their roots are not CCM. Their roots were as just a normal band that was signed to a small label. CCM happened to them but it was not something they sought out. They are Christians but they (or any other CCM band) are as much a "Christian" band as I am a "Christian" software engineer. Their current label does put some restrictions of some media items but it's not a blackout of Christian things but more CCM things. They are a band. They are Christians. They don't want to be pigeon-holed into the CCM world where your audience is just Christians.
Modern-Day Proverbs
Switchfoot certainly has the right to position itself in the marketplace as it sees fit. But Christian fans also have the right to ask what, exactly, Tim Foreman's statement actually means. Is it just a lot of words justifying the band's jump into the secular arena? Or do Switchfoot's newest songs continue to find their lyrical footing in Christian ideas?
Maybe a bit of both is the most accurate answer.
The original intent was to be a band that wasn't supposed to be just a CCM band, but that did happen. Switchfoot has always wanted to reach out to a larger audience. They aren't a worship type band at all but a band that plays what is on their heart.
Switchfoot's music is indeed infused with biblical imagery—but not in a way Christian fans might expect. Where many CCM artists speak lovingly about Jesus, Switchfoot takes a more circuitous route to expressing faith.
It's a difference of being "in-your-face" which appeals to Christians vs. being a bit more less "in-your-face" which means other listeners aren't immediately put off. Sorry folks, but only Christians listen to "Christian" music and nobody else is being touched by it. Switchfoot wants to change the world not just edify other Christians. BTW, there is nothing wrong with "Christian" music as I've been blessed by some of it.
For example, "Happy Is a Yuppie Word" paraphrases Ecclesiastes: "Everything is meaningless/I want more than simple cash can buy." This lyric offers a representation of how the band uses biblical references. Instead of singing directly about Jesus or God, Switchfoot seems more interested in looking carefully at our culture, then using scriptural ideas to critique what they've observed. In this sense, their songs function as modern-day equivalents of the Bible's wisdom literature (Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job).
I couldn't agree more.
Frontman Jon Foreman tries to explain it this way: "What is true happiness? Is it a comfortable four-door sedan with tinted windows? Does it mean I have 2.3 children and a beautiful wife and live in a great neighborhood? Everybody has their own version of what happiness means, but may of the things we're going for—and I include myself in this—are absurd. There's a moment in Jewish Scripture in Ecclesiastes where it says, 'Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless.' That's the place where our new record starts."
His approach to lyrics is quite evident—if you know what you're looking for. The chorus in "Stars" echoes Psalm 8:3. And "The Shadow Proves the Sunshine" lifts a line from Psalm 22:1, asking, "Oh Lord, why did you forsake me?" More countercultural messages saturate "Easier Than Love" (which confronts casual sex) and "Lonely Nation" (which challenges our love affair with consumerism with the lines, "Just numb and amused. ... And we are slaves to what we want").
If a listener wants to get a "Christian" view from the lyrics it works but if a listener isn't a Christian the lyrics can still inspire. Again, the intended audience isn't just Christians. I just wonder why people have to always find certain code words to make a song seem worthwhile.
"The Shadow Proves the Sunshine" is more than Psalm 22:1 but is part of a CS Lewis apologetic about how the fact of evil helps prove that there must be good which eventually points to the existence of God. It's all in "Mere Christianity". "Easier Than Love" is more that just about casual sex but about how culture has trivialized it. "Lonely Nation" is more about how so many people are lonely in America despite all the technology that "brings us together".
A Potentially Fatal Flaw
After pouring over this disc, I can find only one song that doesn't somehow follow this subtly instructive path. It's "The Fatal Wound," on which Foreman threatens, "I am the crisis/I am the bitter end/I'm gonna gun this town." Several songs have melancholy moments, but this one takes thing farther, seeming to suggest suicide and perhaps murder: "I am the razor edge/ ... Son of sorrow, staring down forever with an aching view/Disenchanted, let's go down together with the fatal wound/This is the real thing/no rubber bullets now/This is the final bow."
Unfortunately, not even Foreman's own comments about "Fatal Wound" shed any helpful light on the track's meaning. "This song was one of those tunes you just spit out and try to figure out what it means after you're through—a rather dangerous way to go but [a] very honest, almost free-association type of thing," he says, arguing that it is ultimately about hope and that it has something to do with Jesus: "It means a few things to me, but overall it's a song of hope. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone [a reference to 1 Peter 1:7]."
Where is the evidence of what Foreman calls hope? A redemptive lyrical turning point would counterbalance "Fatal Wound's" apparent intimations of violence to self and others. But I can't find it.
The author has really missed out on the song. This is a song that is worth digging into which I did here. It should be obvious to anyone who's a Christian who the "Son of sorrow" would be. I don't see any suicide issues at all. It does speak of his knowledge of his sin. UPDATE: It's not "I'm gonna gun this town" but "I'm gonna gun this down".
Lost in Translation?
As an English major in college years ago, I learned to look for biblical allusions in Shakespeare, Milton, Dante and others. Without an understanding of Scripture, it was impossible to make sense of those writers. Listening to Switchfoot's latest album felt like that to me. The band reflects Scripture without beating listeners over the head with God language. Thus, recognizing Switchfoot's spiritual themes requires careful observation and a knowledge of the Bible.
Why does it require "recognizing Switchfoot's spiritual themes". Can't people just enjoy the music at face value. If they need to go deeper then that's cool. Switchfoot lyrics are for the thoughful and not the folks who just want easy answers.
I applaud the band for this thoughtful approach to songwriting ("The Fatal Wound" excepted). Yet I also wonder how many of these submerged spiritual allusions will be missed by its new secular audience, which may know little about God's Word. As Switchfoot moves more deeply into the mainstream, I hope their scripturally inspired insights will get the attention of unbelieving listeners. But I fear their usually sound messages may be reduced to nothing of consequence as they get lost in translation.
I think some people think that people should be getting saved by Christian bands. It is not the case. Music can inspire or make you think but I really don't think salvation comes through music. Thinking people will dig deeper whether they are Christians or not. People who just want to rock out can enjoy it also. I truly believe that Switchfoot is reaching far more people at various levels than any CCM artist. CCM artists mostly have just Christian fans while Switchfoot has a broader audience and is planting all sorts of ideas into all kinds of peoples heads.
Technocrati Tags: switchfoot
Switchfoot - The Fatal Wound
The tenth song from Switchfoot's latest, Nothing Is Sound
I wrote this song so that we would have a tune to play during the set with a harmonica. I'm deadly serious here. The harmonica will drive a man to do many things, (especially, in conjunction with a few bob dylan disks). This song was one of those tunes that you just spit out and try to figure out what it means after you're through- a rather dangerous way to go but very honest, almost free association type of thing. Well, it means a few things to me but overall it's a song of hope. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Hope for the hopeless in the form of the king of failures. The bed of e-bow guitars at the beginning really set the tone for this track for me. I whispered some Bokowski-ish lines over top and viola! -a vibey track appears from the mist of the harmonica flatlands.
I've not written about this song yet because it has so much meaning. See below for my thoughts on the lyrics. As you will see it's a song packed with great meaning and is quite clever. The person who Jon identifies with is quite appropriate and makes this song worth taking to heart. This song has moved up my favorites on the album, even past most of the more rocking songs. If I ever find a legal link for you to listen to the song then I'll let you know.
Here's the lyrics:
I am the crisis
I am the bitter end
I'm gonna gun this down
I am divided
I am the razor edge
there is no easy now
It's pretty vague here and you wonder where the song is going. Is it just a naval-gazing song or is there something more.
son of sorrow
staring down forever
with an aching view
disenchanted
lets go down together
with the fatal wound
The "Son of sorrow" seems to be pointing to Christ (insight from a friend of mine) and how He has paid the price for our sins. Where it get interesting is when it says "Let's go down together" and this seems to be very key for finding the "voice" in this song. I've heard it's written from the point of view of the thief on the cross who turned to Christ for salvation.
this is the real thing
no rubber bullets now
this is the final bow
my breath avoids me
my chest is in my head
my stomach's upside down
down
The thief understands that he is dying.
son of sorrow
staring down forever
with an aching view
disenchanted
lets go down together
with the fatal wound
with the fatal wound
The thief is addressing Christ and is ready to die. The previous verse along with the previous rendering of the chorus drives me to this conclusion.
Lyrics courtesy of Sing 365
Technocrati Tags: switchfoot
November 02, 2005
Broken Masterpieces Interview
Copying your music CDs becomes harder - The interview I had a couple weeks ago is now online. It was a pretty cool experience and Tim McNulty was a great interviewer. One thing that might not be clear from the audio is that I did not receive any illegal copies of the Switchfoot album, Nothing Is Sound, even though I had the chance to get one.
October 07, 2005
Show Switchfoot Some Love
Despite being clearly the best album in 2005 the latest Switchfoot album Switchfoot's latest, Nothing Is Sound
September 26, 2005
Switchfoot - Easier Than Love
The fifth song from Switchfoot's latest, Nothing Is Sound
Another song inspired by irony or paradox or perhaps sheer confusion. How is it that one of the most meaningful, intimate moments in a human's life is now used to sell beverages or magazines or auto parts? And indeed, sex sells. It's no wonder that sex is easier than love, because love is extremely difficult, almost impossible at times. I have no fingers to point, my friends, I'm simply stating the obvious and I love screaming this one out. This one was inspired by the Shins- a great band with great production elements. In many ways, Romey really made this one come alive.
This is a most interesting song from Switchfoot and it will be interesting to see what the Christian music industry says and also what the popular culture says about it. "Sex is currency" is not a line you usually see on an album in a Bible bookstore. At a time of really tasteless Carl's Jr. commercials it's good to have the opposite view thrown right back. As a parent, I hate how sex is THE way of marketing just about everything and I don't even have girls. "Where is our soul?" I dare Sony to release this as a single and I would dare MTV (purveyor of so much crap) to play it. It will probably never happen, but maybe Christian music will push it (but I doubt that also).
Sex is currency
She sells cars, she sells magazines
Addictive, bittersweet, clap your hands
with the hopeless nicotines
Everyone's a lost romantic, since our love became a kissing show
Everyone's a Casanova, come and pass me the mistletoe
Everyone's been scared to death of dying here alone
She is easier than love, is easier than life. It's easier to fake and
smile and bribe
It's easier to leave. It's easier to lie.
It's harder to face ourselves at night, feeling alone
What have we done, what is the monster we've become
Where is my soul
(Numb)
Sex is industry, the CEO of corporate policy
Skin deep ministry, suburban youth, hail your so called liberty
Every advertising antic our banner waves with a neon glow
War and love become pedantic, we wage love with a mistletoe
Everyone's been scared to death of dying here alone
Sex is easier than love.
Lyrics courtesy of Learning2Breathe.
September 21, 2005
Stupid CD Copy Protection - Switchfoot Responds
The moronic and behind the times record industry has made some of their best selling artists have copy protection on their CDs. It only happens on Windows machines and here's what happens: if you have auto run on enabled and you put the copy protected CD into your CD drive it puts up some type of license agreement. If you accept this license agreement then a little piece of turd software is loaded onto your system and does all sorts of digital signature stuff. Once this occurs you cannot rip the songs from your CD at all but can only use the WMA files on the CD, which are not the top quality files.
So, an iPod user like me cannot load the files on my iPod. I also like to rip all the Switchfoot and U2 into Apple Lossless format. This allows me to be able to make copies of CDs or mix CDs that I can play on my CD player in the car or take it to work. This whole thing really ticks off consumers who legally buy the CDs and just want to enjoy them in there own way.
Now that our Switchfoot guys are considered a big player, with the release of Nothing Is Sound
I'm hopeful that their record company, Columbia Records will accept that Tim Foreman has done the right thing for the fans. They may even have a legal case against Tim but he's not written anything that hasn't been written before. Of course, with the latest news that Nothing Is Sound is debuting at number 3, the record company might be a bit more foregiving. I definitely don't want any trouble for the band, especially Tim. He's a guy I know a little bit and consider him a friend. Heck, we even share the same birthday. A great musician, more than anything, he's a great man who is only trying to do the right thing by their fans. This is a band that truly gets it so please support them, especially during the rough times.
Technocrati Tags: switchfoot
Message from Tim Foreman of Switchfoot relating to stupid copy protection:
Hello friends,
my heart is heavy with this whole copy-protection thing. Many PC users have posted problems that they have had importing the new songs (regular disc only, not the dual disc) into programs such as Itunes. Let me first say that as a musician AND as a music fan, I agree with the frustration that has been expressed. We were horrified when we first heard about the new copy-protection policy that is being implemented by most major labels, including Sony (ours), and immediately looked into all of our options for removing this from our new album. Unfortunately, this is the new policy for all new major releases from these record companies. It is heartbreaking to see our blood, sweat, and tears over the past 2 years blurred by the confusion and frustration surrounding this new technology. It is also unfortunate when bands such as ourselves, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, etc... (just a few of the new releases with copy protection) are the target of this criticism, when there is no possible way to avoid this new industry policy.
For mac users these songs should import seamlessly. We are told that itunes is coming out with a new version for PC users in early November that will be compatible with all of these new CD's but in the meantime it's frustrating for all of us. That said, there are a number of solutions (as is always the case with these types of things) for importing the CD into your itunes and ipod. We have compiled some of the easier ways below. I feel like as a band and as listeners, we've all been through a lot together over the past ten years, and we refuse to allow corporate policy to taint the family we've developed together. We deeply regret that there exists the need for any of our listeners to spend more than 30 seconds importing our music, but we're asking as friends and partners in this journey together to spend the extra 10 minutes that it takes to import these songs, which we think you'll agree to be our finest collection of songs yet. As a band, we've always been known for having the best fans in the world and I know that will continue for years to come. A month from now, I hope to be singing these songs together at a show, and the extra time spent importing the music will perhaps be forgotten, or at least forgiven. Thank you for your understanding and the continued kindness that you have always shown for five dreamers from San Diego, we love you guys,
-tim foreman
A) If you're a mac user, or you have access to a mac, or you purchased the dual disc, you should have no problems... simply import the songs the same way as you always do.
B) If you're a PC user, and you haven't yet tried to import the the disk yet, download and install a free program called CDEX from http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/downloads.php. Now hold down the shift button while inserting the switchfoot CD (this disables the auto-run feature on the CD). Make sure that you hold it down until you are sure that nothing has run (maybe 60 seconds). Once the CD is loaded without auto-running it's software, open the CDEX program, and select tracks 1-12 (Lonely Nation-Daisy), excluding data tracks 13 and 14. THen select the top icon on the right side of the program "Extract CD tracks to WAV files". THis will extract them to your mymusic folder. Open iTunes and drag the .wav files you created into your itunes library, and you're done, and free to convert the songs into mp3, or whatever format you wish. (If you've already tried to import another copy protected CD like Foo Fighters, etc..., you may already have the protection software installed on your computer, and should go to plan C.
C) If you're a PC user, and you've already tried to import the the disk and accepted the auto-run installation, or don't mind accepting the auto-run installation, place the CD into your computer and allow the Sony BM audio player on the CD to automatically start. If the player software does not automatically start, open your Windows Explorer. Locate and select the drive letter for your CD drive. On the disc you will find either a file named LaunchCD.exe or Autorun.exe. Double-click this file to manually start the player.
Once the Sony BMG player application has been launched and the End User License Agreement has been accepted, you can click the Copy Songs button on the top menu.
Follow the instructions to copy the secure Windows Media Files (WMA) to your PC. Make a note of where you are copying the songs to, you will need to get to these secure Windows Media Files in the next steps.
Once the WMA files are on your PC you can open and listen to the songs with Windows Media Player 9.0 or higher (or another fully compatible player that can playback secure WMA files, such as MusicMatch, RealPlayer, and Winamp by dragging them from wherever you saved them into Windows media player. Once they are in the Windows media player playlist you can burn the songs to a standard Audio CD by right clicking on the songs and selecting "add songs to burn list." You can then burn the songs to a standard Audio CD. (Please note that in order to burn the files, you will need to upgrade to, or already have, Windows Media Player 9 or 10, which can be downloaded for free at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/default.aspx )
Once the standard Audio CD has been created, place this copied CD back into your computer and open iTunes. iTunes can now rip the songs as you would any normal audio CD.
UPDATE: This web site is not owned, operated or endorsed by Switchfoot.
September 20, 2005
Switchfoot - The Shadow Proves The Sunshine
The fourth song from Switchfoot's latest, Nothing Is Sound
Here's a tune that is a bit different than anything we've done before. It's a very simple tune- so simple that we almost overlooked it. The fight with this one was to work slow. The song didn't want much else other than a very honest performance. So when we went in to start overdubbing we would track a bunch of ideas and then come to the conclusion that we liked it better naked. So we would take everything off and start from scratch. It ended up being one of my favorite songs on the record. One of my favorite moments on the record was singing the words into the piano to get all of the strings resonating; I had the idea a while ago and have never been able to pull it off. It felt great to scream into a piano and hear the piano scream back. I can't wait to play this song live- it feels like it needs to be sung outdoors, against the backdrop of a dark night.
This is definitely not your standard guitar-driven Switchfoot offering. I've put off writing about this song because I still haven't got my head around it but as I am kept awake by thunder, now is as good a time as any. When I first heard it not much happened as I heard it only in my low quality free Amazon download. When I got the actual album in the mail this song just stood out. It's beautiful! I'm still trying to understand the lyrics but it seems to be a contrast of light and dark and how we live in both; dealing with what this world has to offer us and how we know it isn't as it should be.
Here's the lyrics:
Sunshine, won't you be my mother
Sunshine, come and help me sing
My heart is darker than these oceans
My heart is frozen underneath
We are crooked souls trying to stay up straight,
Dry eyes in the pouring rain well
The shadow proves the sunshine
The shadow proves the sunshine
To scared little runaways
Hold fast to the break of day light were
The shadow proves the sunshine
Oh Lord, why did you forsake me?
Oh Lord, don't be far away away
Storm clouds gathering beside me
Please Lord, don't look the other way
Crooked souls trying to stay up straight
Dry eyes in the pouring rain well
The shadow proves the sunshine
The shadow proves the sunshine
To scared little runaways
Hold fast to the break of day light were
The shadow proves the sunshine
The shadow proves the sunshine
Yeah Yeah, shine on me
Yeah Yeah, shine on me
Yeah Yeah, shine on me
Yeah Yeah, shine on me
Crooked souls trying to stay up straight
Dry eyes in the pouring rain well
The shadow proves the sunshine
The shadow proves the sunshine
To scared little runaways
Hold fast to the break of day light were
The shadow proves the sunshine
The shadow proves the sunshine
Yeah Yeah, shine on me
Yeah Yeah, shine on me
Yeah Yeah, shine on me
Shine on me,
Lyrics from Sing365.com
Technocrati Tags: switchfoot
September 15, 2005
First 3 Songs on "Nothing Is Sound"
To hear Lonely Nation, Stars and Happy Is A Yuppie Word in their entirety go to the Switchfoot MySpace area.
Technocrati Tags: switchfoot
September 14, 2005
Switchfoot - Happy Is A Yuppie Word
The third song from Switchfoot's latest, Nothing Is Sound
A year ago I had a late night talk with a friend who stated the quote: "Happy is a yuppie word." I stayed up after he left, turned off the TV war and wrote a song about our happy, yuppie world. Turns out, Bob Dylan was the one being quoted.
"In 1991, when Rolling Stone interviewed Dylan on the occasion of his 50th birthday, he gave a curious response when the interviewer asked him if he was happy. He fell silent for a few moments and stared at his hands. 'You know,' he said, 'these are yuppie words, happiness and unhappiness. It's not happiness or unhappiness, it's either blessed or unblessed.'”
For me this song is the heart of the record, pumping blood out to the limbs and fingers and mouth and such. And maybe every lyric on the record might be needed and true, still this song has kept everything alive for us. We had the privilege of opening for Wilco a few years past- I would like to dedicate this song to the incredible music that they have given all of us down through the years.
As of today (9/14/05) this is my favorite song on the album. It's truly nothing like Switchfoot has ever done. I'd first heard it live a few times and it didn't really click until I saw them perform it in May. At that point I "got it". The name of the album comes from the key lyric of the song and is truly pivotal and a bit prophetic. As I see news of hurricanes and am reminded of September 11, "nothing is sound" rings so true. The highlight of the album is near the end of the song when Jon Foreman is belting out "nothing is sound!" over and over and you can't help but want to scream with him. This is a song that sounds like it would be a downer but the the contrast to "nothing is sound!" is the lyric "i'm looking for the kingdom coming down".
As I listen to this album over and over I can't help but just love it. It's the best thing in rock music for quite a while and is worth buying. Get the DualDisc though for the extra DVD.
The lyrics are below:
everyone dies
everyone loves a fight
nothing is sound
nothing is right side right
the evening comes
when the sun goes down in red
nothing is new
when will all the fighting end?
when will all the fighting end?
happy is a yuppie word
nothing in the world could fail me now
as empty as an argument
running down the life that won't cash out...cash out
everything fails
everything'll run its course
a time and a place
[for all of this] nothing war
everything [buys]
[cause] everything's got a price
nothing is new
when will all us failures rise
when will all the failures rise, rise
happy is a yuppie word
nothing in the world can fail me now
as empty as an argument
running down a life that won't cash out
everything is meaningless
i want more than simple cash can buy
happy is a yuppie word, word
i'm looking for an orphanage
i'm looking for a bridge i can't burn down
i don't believe in emptiness
i'm looking for the kingdom coming down
everything is meaningless
i want more than simple cash can buy
everything is meaningless
happy is a yuppie word
happy is a yuppie word
happy is a yuppie word
happy is a yuppie...
nothing is sound!
nothing is sound!
nothing is sound!
nothing is sound!
nothing is sound!
nothing is sound!
nothing is sound!
happy is a yuppie word
happy is a yuppie word
nothing in the world can fail me now
happy is a yuppie word, word.
Courtesy of OurMusic.
Technocrati Tags: switchfoot
September 13, 2005
Nothing Is Sound Has Arrived
The best album of 2005 arrived one day early for me yesterday. Today it will be showing up in stores. It is truly a thinking person's album so go get it and let me know what you think.
Technocrati Tags: switchfoot
September 10, 2005
Switchfoot - Stars
The second song from Switchfoot's latest, Nothing Is Sound
Here's another song that we've been playing live for a while. Maybe it's the Led Zeppelin side of me but I love a good rock riff and this one is really fun to play. It's a good builder that I'm anxious to play this summer.
Speaking of summer, I have a theory about social entropy; if you and I ever end up talking about existence drinking caffeinated beverages in the wee hours remind me to tell you all about it. For now let's just say that in a world of pain and war and divorce and greed and genocide, how does anything good ever happen? I understand the second law of thermodynamics in the physical world to be something like this: "Any system which is free of external influences becomes more and more disordered with time. This disorder can be expressed in terms of the quantity called entropy."
So without some sort of external influence on the social plane, I find no logical reason why humankind didn't see her last day a long time ago. Call it grace or love or anti-entropy- there must be something keeping things together. The question becomes, why do good things happen to bad people? In the song, the first verse looks at things from Descartes perspective, pinning the center of the universe on the individual. "Maybe I've been the problem," maybe I'm overcast, falling apart, etc... The second verse talks about our world from the perspective of the stars looking down on earth from the eternal dance of gravity and motion. I love the night sky. It reminds me of how small and insignificant i and my problems are in light of the infinite. When I look at the stars i feel like myself.
This is a song that has a great guitar riff in different parts of the song and is the highlight for me. There is also an amazing video for the song. As of this moment it seems Stars is having problems getting traction on the alternative charts as it topped out at #16 and I think it's probably better targeted for top 40. The chorus is very catchy and my sons and I like to really belt it out but I wonder if the main lyrics might be a bit over the average listeners head and they use words like entropy and penitent. This is a song that has a ton of meaning and unpacking it and understanding it isn't the easiest task.
The lyrics are below:
maybe i've been the problem
maybe i'm the one to blame
but even when i turn it off and blame myself
the outcome feels the same
i've been thinking maybe i've been partly cloudy
maybe i'm the chance of rain
and maybe i'm overcast
and maybe all my luck's washed down the drain
i've been thinking about everyone, everyone
you look so lonely
but when i look at the stars, when i look at the stars
when i look at the stars, i see someone else
when i look at the stars, the stars
i feel like myself
stars looking at a planet, watching entropy and pain
and maybe start to wonder
how the chaos in our lives could pass as sane
i've been thinking about the meaning of resistance
of a hope beyond my own
and suddenly the infinite and penitent begin to look like home
i've been thinking about everyone,everyone you look so empty
but when i look at the stars, when i look at the stars
when i look at the stars, i see someone else
when i look at the stars, the stars
i feel like myself
everyone, everyone feels so lonely
everyone yeah everyone feels so empty
when i look at the stars,
when i look at the stars,
when i look at the stars,
i feel like myself
when i look at the stars, the stars
i see someone.
From OurMusic.com
Technocrati Tags: switchfoot
September 09, 2005
Switchfoot - Lonely Nation
Over the next few days I'll be looking at the songs of the new Switchfoot album Nothing Is Sound
The first song off of Nothing Is Sound
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Over the course our time on the road as a band I have met so many amazing, beautiful, desperate, lonely people. We are the lonely nation. We are the disenchanted, the disillusioned- we are the remnant of lonely souls wanting more than anything that we can buy with this cold, hard cash. I wrote this song while we were playing a stretch of rock radio shows. I'd walk around near the back and just breathe in the loneliness- masses of lonely, scared kids. I remember thinking about the irony. Here you have this connected generation of online communities, IM, TM, myspace, and cell phones that grows more and more lonely every day. This is a song is still yearning, saying, "Don't settle, please, don't give up. Fight for only the true and the beautiful!"
We wanted to start the record with this track because we feel that this song picks up where Meant to Live left off. There is hope for meaning and truth in this life but it probably doesn't come in the form of a corporate slogan. We, the target market, want more than this world has to offer. This is a song where tim and chad drive the verses and the guitars take the chorus. We've played this song many times live and refined it quite a bit from it's original state. There's nothing like playing a new song in front of real people with real opinions. The people at those shows, (the extended switchfoot family), they shaped this song as much as anyone.
If I were Sony then this would have been the first song as it truly rocks and will reach folks. Although I do spend a lot of time on the computer I enjoy people much more. I enjoy my family, my friends, people from church, work and Little League. There are so many great people out there it is sad that we are a lonely nation. It just seems that it is easy to retreat but there are so many options to be around great people. It does take effort but it is worth it.
The song itself is very guitar driven (like most of the best Switchfoot songs) and is definitely one to sing along and play air guitar to.
Here are the lyrics:
She turns like the ocean
she tells no emotion
she's been gunning down the fight
she's just reminiscing
blood sweat and one things missing
she's been breaking up inside
inside
singing without tongues
screaming without lungs
I want more than my lonely nation
I want more than my lonely nation
desperate we are young
seperate we are one
I want more than my desperation
I want more than my lonely nation
we are the target market
we set the corporate target
we are slaves of what we want
we're just not amused and
we're just used to bad news
we are slaves of what we want
singing without tongues
screaming without lungs
I want more than my lonely nation
I want more than my lonely nation
desperate we are young
seperate we are one
I want more than my desperation
I want more than my lonely nation
lonely
lonely
??don't leave me oo
I'm tired
don't leave me oo
I'm tired of feeling low
I'm feeling low
I'm feeling low??
singing without tongues
screaming without lungs
I want more than my lonely nation
I want more than my lonely nation
desperate we are young
seperate we are one
I want more than my desperation
I want more than my lonely nation
I want more than my lonely nation
I want more than my lonely nation
Lyrics from OurMusic
Technocrati Tags: switchfoot
September 05, 2005
Album Review - Switchfoot: Nothing Is Sound
I was finally able to listen to the complete Switchfoot album, Nothing Is Sound (NIS), by pre-ordering via Amazon. The quality is only 64K but is good enough for me to get the vibe. I can only listen to it when I'm on a computer so I haven't gotten the car CD or iPod effect yet.
So, full disclosure, I am friendly with 4 of the members of Switchfoot and am good friends with one of their relatives. I happen to be a big fan of this band but will temper the personal to take an honest look at the new album.
Switchfoot's last album, The Beautiful Letdown (TBL), came out over two-and-a-half years ago so it's long overdue for the new album. The latest was written and many parts were recorded on the many TBL tours. It seems to not be far departure from TBL but more of a continuation of the same themes. Just as TBL, NIS cannot be classified as a rock, alternative, mellow, pop, Christian, etc. or any other type of label. It's just Switchfoot doing what they do best; lots of guitars (they even added another guitarist, Drew Shirley), lots of catchy songs and a ton of thoughtful lyrics.
I'm sure many of you have already heard the first single called Stars, which is one the the more guitar driven tunes, but there are two others that are far stronger and would have been a better choice for the first single. Unlike Stars, these other tunes (Lonely Nation and Politicians) don't mellow out for the vocals then get harder for the guitar parts. Stars is more of a pop-rock song and seems to be struggling to get airplay on the local alternative stations. I think it will be more popular on more top-40 type stations.
The centerpiece of the album is called Happy Is A Yuppie Word; song title inspired from an old Bob Dylan interview. I've heard the song a few times in concert and it didn't really reach me until I heard it in May. It was a benefit concert (read more about it here) and the song really kicked my butt. Yuppie has a bit of a down-and-dirty bluesy feel to it and has a very memorable chorus. The Nothing Is Sound title is contained in this song and when Jon Foreman is screaming these words near the end of the song you just want to scream with him.
The Switchfoot guys always have a song that takes a great poke at society (see Gone, Poparazzi, Company Car from previous albums) and this time it deals with the commodity of sex and how it is Easier Than Love. Love is extremely hard but sex sells. It's kind of the big "duh" song but it needs to be said.
The rest of the songs offer a mix of different tempos but everything is listenable and pretty darn good. There are less electronics than TBL and everything they've previewed live for NIS comes out quite well, which didn't happen for On Fire on TBL. This album has a lot of potential singles and I'm hoping to see Politicians get on some hard rock stations.
Nothing Is Sound has at least one or two songs that many types of listeners would like a lot but if you are a Switchfoot fan or someone who likes variety in their albums then this is for you. There are twelve songs total and they all bring a little something different to the table. If you like just Meant to Live from the previous album then there are probably only two or three songs for you.
I think one thing that Switchfoot needs to be careful of is the perception that they are becoming brooding naval gazers who are pretty well off but feel guilty about it. You do have to listen for the optimism sometimes but it is there. They ask hard questions about "life, love and why" and as the Dread Pirate Roberts says "Life is pain, princess. . . anyone who says differently is selling something". They may be selling you something but it's honest, thoughtful and excellent.
Cross-posted at Blog Critics.
Technocrati Tags: switchfoot
