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Dan Ficker

@dandaman_live

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A web developer & native of the Minneapolis/St Paul area who loves music & tech. he/him
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Album Of The Day: Bleach by Bleach

Released 27 years ago today, this is the third album from Christian rock band Bleach. This band was never one of my favorites, but were a pretty solid entry in Christian music with a good rock/alternative style. Although the lyrics definitely had spiritual references, they didn't seem to be as preachy as some of the more mainstream Christian bands. Maybe I just never really felt lead vocalist Davy Baysinger's southern twang or something. I remember a few songs like the opener, "Heartbeat", from the "Extreme Days" movie soundtrack and Christian radio. Apparently @bleachisalive has done reunion shows on occasion, and they recently even released an album of old songs re-recorded, so if you're a Bleach fan, check that out.

Release Year: 1999

See the links in my bio for links to finding my Album Of The Day on popular music streaming platforms or just search your favorite streaming service. by @dandaman_live

Album Of The Day: Economy by John Mark McMillan

Released 15 years ago today, this is the fourth album (second easily available) by rock artist John Mark McMillan. On this release, he mixes poetic lyrics with an excellent rock ethos. His band is firing on all cylinders throughout, with layers of screaming guitars and pounding drums and bass. Released on Integrity Music which is a label known for modern church music, this album and artist doesn't exactly fit there. I think this is more a rock performance than songs for praise and worship, though some of his lyrics do have some elements of that. It's not my favorite @johnmarkmcmillan album, but it may be his most rock 'n' roll and I think that's why some fans really like it. It's a solid album and well worth a listen. And if you want, you can listen to me and a few others talk about it in depth on @caleb_the_spy's The Album Anniversary Podcast recently.

Release Year: 2011

See the links in my bio for links to finding my Album Of The Day on popular music streaming platforms or just search your favorite streaming service. by @dandaman_live

Album Of The Day: Eat, Sleep, Repeat by Copeland

"I'm in love with my doubt / It's freaking me out." Released 20 years ago today, this is the third album by alternative rock/emo band Copeland. Aaron Marsh and his bandmates put together achingly-beautiful songs about love found and lost and just the daily struggles of life. Songs like "Love Affair" even features strings and horns and songs like "Control Freak" are very catchy. I remember when I first heard this thinking it was very different from the first two Copeland albums, but it's not as different as I thought in retrospect. I'm not sure exactly why, but I was really into Copeland from 2003-2006, but I haven't really gotten into their music newer than this too much, though I have listened to them on occasion and even seen them play live a few times. Still, this is a pretty solid album and worth a listen if you like this type of indie rock music with a bit of an emo style. Copeland do a good job at crafting a unique lyric and catchy melody.

Release Year: 2006

See the links in my bio for links to finding my Album Of The Day on popular music streaming platforms or just search your favorite streaming service. by @dandaman_live

Album Of The Day: What Matters Most by Wes King

Released 25 years ago today (or maybe earlier in this month), this is the sixth album by guitarist and singer-songwriter Wes King. Throughout the 1990s, he released five Christian pop/rock albums, and this was his last release. It was released on the very short-lived Word Artisan imprint of Word Records, with all other of the label releases being around the same time from Phil Keaggy. Wes King here crafts some personal songs about life as well as some songs about the Christian faith, and they are beautifully crafted with strings on many tracks along with Wes's excellent guitar work and vocals. The title track might be my favorite on this album. "Staring Down The Dog" gets into a country-rock groove too, which is fun. Like many of his other albums it's just a quick 10 tracks and 40 minutes, but it is a quality album that I don't listen to enough. @weskingofficial has been posting on Facebook about a new album in the works, which is an interesting idea for someone who has not recorded any new music in a few decades as far as I'm aware. I hope it turns out well and that he's got some good things to say all these years later.

Release Year: 2001

See the links in my bio for links to finding my Album Of The Day on popular music streaming platforms or just search your favorite streaming service. by @dandaman_live

Album Of The Day: My Eyes Are Open by Mission House

Released 5 years ago today, this is the first live album by female worship duo Mission House. Folk-pop artists Taylor Leonhardt and Jess Ray both have solo singer-songwriter careers, but as @missionhousemusic they write and record new songs for church worship services. They are often very simple, sing-able songs sung passionately in praise and worship to God. After releasing a few short studio albums in the few years before this, this recording is a live, acoustic worship session. @jessray and @taylorleon take turns singing lead and have great harmonies throughout. A number of guests appear on this album including Andrew Peterson, Skye Peterson, Sarah McMillan, and Josh Baldwin. It's not exactly clear if there was a live audience there joining them in worship, as I don't hear them singing along much on this recording, but maybe they were just not miced-up well. These are solid new songs for church and this is well worth a listen.

Release Year: 2021

See the links in my bio for links to finding my Album Of The Day on popular music streaming platforms or just search your favorite streaming service. by @dandaman_live

Album Of The Day: ( ) by Sigur Rós

Released 24 years ago today, this is the third studio album by Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós. The first album I heard from this group, I immediately loved it. Much of it is slower, atmospheric instrumentals and occasional vocals speaking Icelandic or gibberish, I'm not really sure which. The CD came without any track listing or liner notes, but contains 8 tracks at over 70 minutes long that are commonly just referred to as "Untitled" numbers 1 through 8. It works great as background music for me, but also can certainly also hold your attention as a more focused listen as well. The music is very dynamic; sometimes the music is just a low drone of the guitars with some drums and then more guitars kick in, Jónsi lets out a singing yell and it's a raging cacophony of rock music. The music of @sigurros might not be for everyone, but I think you should check this album out. I have the CD I bought within a year of the album's release and a 20th Anniversary Vinyl set that came out 4 years ago.

Release Year: 2002

See the links in my bio for links to finding my Album Of The Day on popular music streaming platforms or just search your favorite streaming service. by @dandaman_live

Album Of The Day: Tunnel Vision by Tunnel Rats

Released 25 years ago on Sunday, this is the second album by underground hip-hop group Tunnel Rats from Los Angeles. Their first release on Uprok Records, this crew has a whole bunch of members and they spend over an hour showing off their rap skills over some simple beds of drums, bass and often keyboards but sometimes other instruments. These folks can certainly rap and the variety of voices rapping keeps it fresh. They are masters of wordplay and do a bit of hating on other rappers, but more often talking about life's struggles and bring a bit of their spiritual beliefs as well. Maybe I'm showing I didn't listen to that much rap, but I love the women who are in this crew, Elsie and Zane, as they spit powerful words and truth. But the men, Jurny Big, Macho, Raphi, Sev Statk, and Dax are also crafting interesting rhymes that I haven't listened to enough to remember, but are very good. It's a solid album and it was fun to revisit after many years of not listening to this and other underground rap releases I did listen to back around the time this was released.

Release Year: 2001

See the links in my bio for links to finding my Album Of The Day on popular music streaming platforms or just search your favorite streaming service. by @dandaman_live

Album Of The Day: The Wonderlands: Dawn by Jon Foreman

Released 11 years ago this past Friday, this is the eighth EP from Jon Foreman, the lead singer of long-time rock band Switchfoot. In 2015, he released 4 EPs in The Wonderlands series, each of the 25 songs written about a certain time of day, to some extent. This EP has 6 songs from 5am to 10am and each song is co-produced with a different Producer. Guests abound on this EP, not just Producers. There are vocals from Kanene Pipkin (The Lone Bellow) on the opening track and Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek) playing fiddle on the closing track. And "Mercy's War" has Jeff Coffin playing clarinet, I think, as well as a full Gospel choir. Like the rest of these EPs in this series, the music is beautifully arranged and more acoustic pop than rock, usually. A year or two later, after releasing 25 songs on 4 EPs, Jon Foreman decided to perform 25 short concerts in 24 hours in his hometown of San Diego, and you can find bits of him playing these songs, @switchfoot songs and more in a documentary by the name "25 in 24", which is mostly about his experience completing this feat and him driving his VW bus around town between these gigs. @jonforeman is such an experienced songwriter and I'm really glad he records more songs than just what Switchfoot wants to perform.

Release Year: 2015

See the links in my bio for links to finding my Album Of The Day on popular music streaming platforms or just search your favorite streaming service. by @dandaman_live

Album Of The Day: Sojourner by Future Of Forestry

Released today, this is the seventh non-Christmas album by rock/pop band Future Of Forestry, also known as Eric Owyoung. Like many of his previous albums, this is full of love songs, sometimes to a lover and maybe sometimes to a higher power. The music is epic, cinematic-sounding pop/rock with swelling guitars and piano, while Eric's vocals soar over these music beds. As the album artwork alludes to, many of these songs have a space exploration theme though they also are certainly also rooted on Earth too. The final track, "Supply", features vocals from Tenielle Neda as well. This is the first album from @futureofforestry in over five years and it is well worth the wait. I will have to listen to it a few more times to really decide how it stacks up to their other releases, all of which are good.

Release Year: 2026

See the links in my bio for links to finding my Album Of The Day on popular music streaming platforms or just search your favorite streaming service. by @dandaman_live

Album Of The Day: Liver by Steve Taylor

Recorded 32 years ago today in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA, this is the second live album by Christian alternative rocker Steve Taylor. The performance includes songs spanning his solo career in the '80s and '90s and even a few songs from the band Chagall Guevara which Steve Taylor was the singer and co-songwriter. Steve Taylor is known for satirical, sardonic lyrics that point out humorous and sometime hypocritical attributes of modern culture as well as for a fun rock show. Some of his '80s stuff, especially, is at least as much disco as rock, so it's fun to hear these more rock-focused live arrangements. The recording isn't perfect, but it captures well the energy, performance and crowd engagement of his live show. This is actually the first time I've heard this album because it only recently became available on streaming, I think, and I haven't yet found a CD copy for my collection as I wasn't really listening to Steve Taylor much in these early years of my life. "On The Fritz" gets an extended, slowed-down intro and then really ramps up by the end of a six-minute runtime. "Hero" also starts out slow and builds as well, and "Bannerman" is a salute to those who hold up the "John 3:16" banner in the end zone at football games. Maybe it's not the best introduction to Steve Taylor's career; there's a few compilations of his works for that. But this is a fun peek into his live shows. (I think the album title is pronounced like "live concert", so "live-er".) @stevetaylortpf went on to start the record label that made Sixpence None The Richer a hit band, direct a few films, has more recently recorded a few music projects in the last decade, and is currently on a small run of tour dates this fall. He also is on the faculty of Lipscomb University.

Release Year: 1995

See the links in my bio for links to finding my Album Of The Day on popular music streaming platforms or just search your favorite streaming service. by @dandaman_live

Album Of The Day: The Reckoning by Needtobreathe

Released 15 years ago last month, this is the fourth album by southern rock band Needtobreathe. After seeing them live on the tour for their previous album, "The Outsiders", I was a fan, and so I picked this album up on release day. It's not one I listen to very often, but it's pretty good and has some solid songs. The band definitely keeps it rockin' on songs like "Drive All Night" and "Keep Your Eyes Open". And there's some excellent slower songs from this Nashville/South Carolina rock band too like "Able" and "Wanted Man". The brothers Bear and Bo Rinehart who wrote these songs definitely include lots of religious language from their churched upbringing, but these songs are less preachy and more love songs and coming to grips with their humanity where they use religious terms. Needtobreathe has been through many eras and this is them being their most straightforward southern rock, while more recent albums have been pop or even country primarily. I do like the next few @needtobreathe studio albums and live recordings more than this, but it's a pretty solid album from their early years.

Release Year: 2011

See the links in my bio for links to finding my Album Of The Day on popular music streaming platforms or just search your favorite streaming service. by @dandaman_live

Album Of The Day: Love Broke Thru by Phil Keaggy

Released 50 years ago this month, this is the second solo album from rock/pop artist and guitar virtuoso Phil Keaggy. Until just a few years ago, these early Phil Keaggy albums were very hard to find and so I am more much more familiar with his '80s/'90s and later albums which were much more available on streaming and CD. But thanks to some work and ownership of his music by Phil Keaggy and his team, almost all of his albums are now easily available on streaming for us to listen to or even buy digitally, which I love. This is a tight, classic LP with 10 tracks stretching to nearly 40 minutes, and most of these songs are not extended jams like some of his albums later released on CD. But don't get me wrong; Phil Keaggy and his band definitely show off their skills throughout this album. As with most Christian music in the '70s, these songs are very ministry-focused, clearly speaking of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You might recognize "Your Love Broke Through" as a Keith Green song, and it was written by Green, but this is where it was first recorded and released. This title track was recorded by a number of other artists including Keith Green in the following year. "Time" is the only track on this album that includes an extended jam and has been re-recorded by Keaggy a number of times since. If you are a fan of classic rock or Christian music, you will probably like this album. In anticipation of this 50th anniversary, last year the album was remastered and re-released on a beautiful vinyl set with a second LP and 3 CDs of demos, outtakes and alternative mixes.

Release Year: 1976

See the links in my bio for links to finding this Album Of The Day on popular music streaming platforms or just search your favorite streaming service. I also have links in my blog to purchase the new deluxe edition. by @dandaman_live