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Rockin’ With the Lord

Lauren

Hugo thinks Christian music is seen as inherently uncool in the secular world. What he doesn’t know is that all the kool kids listen to Christian music, even a godless, atheist heathen like me.

One of my not-so secret secrets is my love for this band label: Sounds Familyre. I believe every artist on this label is either a) putting out specifically Christian music, or b) Biblically-inspired, morally explorative music. This label is the brainchild of Daniel Smith, head of the band The Danielson Famile.

You can get most of the following mp3s from their website, thus these mp3s will be removed from our servers in a few days. Catch while catch can. Right click, save as.

The Danielson Famile puts out some of the quirkiest feel-good music that I have ever heard. My first listen was both amused and slightly skeptical because of the childish, chiming voices and melodies. It grew on me — and it will grow on you if you have an appreciation for the noisy, upbeat, and avant garde. And yes, they are wholeheartedly serious and are supposed to be a great treat live.

All the kids in the Danielson Famile were fathered by Lenny Smith, a laudable musician in his own right. This song, overtly Biblical, rocks like the best bands of the 1960s. Smith has a back catalogue of songs stretching back at least thirty years that are to be released in album-length selections over the next few years.

This Dan Zimmerman tune has had me rocking out for days. It absolutely plows through musical darkness and light. Great song.

Of the artists I list here, the most popular artist who deals with Christianity in his music is Sufjan Stevens. This indie rock god “came out” as a Christian two years ago with his album “Seven Swans,” whereas his spirituality was only hinted at in previous albums. I highly recommend it as well as his other albums, especially the conceptual geographic- and culturally-themed albums “Michigan” and “Illinois”. His music is all-ages friendly with solid composition and unusual arrangments and instumental choices. Almost all of his songs deal with moral stories or personal tales of hardship, but all capture the beauty of humanity with his lovely voice and lyrical content without being overt or preachy. Just wonderful.

See also: A more comprehensive review of Seven Swans.

If anyone has any similar artists to share, I’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments.

UPDATE: This song I just found (notice: decidedly unchristian) is an electropop Too Short cover with a female vocalist. I can’t decide if it sucks or not.

24 thoughts on Rockin’ With the Lord

  1. The most popular artist who deals with Christianity in his music is Sufjan Stevens.

    What about Kanye West? Or for that matter U2?

    “Contemporary Christian music” is a marketing label. Saying that people who don’t like CCM are anti-Christian is a bit like saying that people who don’t like pink-and-green “chick lit” books are misogynists.

  3. Heh. I actually thought “Lauren must have completely blocked Creed from her consciousness.” Which is something that I wish I could do.

  4. Well, the Staples family definitely qualifies, though I think many people who claim to listen to “Christian Music” quietly disqualify African-Americans from consideration. Similarly with Aretha and the Nevilles and lots of other folks of darker skin hue.

    I’m a big fan of Julie Miller, with or without her husband Buddy.

  6. I went to Christian school when I was a kid, and there’s only so much Amy Grant and Sandi Patty you can hear before you’re irrevocably ruined to the genre. Music class consisted of a steady, unbroken diet of gospel hymns and songs about Jesus. I can’t take those seriously, either.

  7. I taught a class at an Evangelical college a couple of years ago, and they had a big music section in their bookstore, with only Christian music. And I was surprised to realize that CCM is no longer all Amy Grant or Sandi Patty. There’s Christian music in every genre you can think of: Christian hip-hop, Christian metal, Christian hardcore, Christian ska. I suspect that the Christian music industry has become a whole lot more sophisticated since you were in school. But my hunch is that the most interesting Christian-inspired music is being made outside the CCM industry, for the same reasons that the most interesting music in general is being made outside the mainstream music industry.

  8. Though the best work tends to be secular, there’s a lot of Christian metal bands, too: Extol, for example, Sanctifica, Living Sacrifice, &c.

    I’ve found that, paradoxically, the best Christian musicians are those for whom the Christianity is a distant second to musicality, which sort of defeats the purpose of such a label.

  9. I have been a rabid fan of Joy Electric since 2001 or so. JE is mostly just one guy, Ronnie Martin, who has a fascination with vintage synthesizers and the ability to write fantastically catchy and melodic pop songs (and then make them sound very, very weird). His most recent album was created entirely with a Moog Voyager.

    He doesn’t seem to have a very huge fan base and I cannot for the life of me understand why. The all-analog-monophonic sound can be a bit jarring at first, but I have completely fallen in love with it. The only thing that sounds remotely the same is Kraftwerk from back before there *were* samplers and digital effects… it could be the Christian thing, too, but if you don’t listen to CHRISTIANsongs (his punk-“eff you” album to other bands in the orange county christian-music scene who thought they would be more popular if they were really obscure about the Jesus stuff), you might not even notice his religious influence at all. (of course, if someone told you later, you might say “ah, that makes sense…”)

    “The White Songbook” and “Hello Mannequin” are highly, highly worth taking a chance on. There’s also a compilation-type thing of older hits and remixes that’s pretty decent.

    (sufjan is wonderful as well. Saw the Illinoise tour last month… awesome show.)

  10. I love Sufjan Stevens. Good music is good music.

    I don’t particularly like overtly religious ‘message’ type stuff though… but of course I do tend to associate Christian music with happy-clapper Ned Flanders “yes Jesus loves me”, which clearly isn’t respresentative.

    If I feel like I’m being preached too at all I don’t like it — and that goes for any sort of art.

  11. I haven’t wanted to listen to Amy Grant ever since I heard “Angels Watching Over Me” way too many times at a time in my life which was exactly when I didn’t want to hear it. There’s nothing like hearing “A reckless car ran out of gas before it came my way” over and over and over right after the guy you love has been killed by a reckless truck. It’s a wonder the song didn’t drive me out of Christianity altogether. OK, I’m exaggerating about the driving me out of Christianity part, but I really hated hearing that song.

    Fortunately, Amy Grant isn’t all there is to Christian music. Thanks for all the links, Lauren!

    Of course, one of my favorite popular songs with Christian imagery, from back when I was young, was one that was definitely not “contemporary Christian music.” It’s the Simon and Garfunkel song “Blessed are the meek.” I always loved the lines “Blessed is the church service, makes me nervous. Blessed are the spat upon, shat upon, ratted on.”

  12. I’m a huge fan of Damien Jurado. The Christian part is mostly pretty subtle- as is the rock part. Some of his songs make me cry. There’s a lot of darkness and sadness, and the songs tell stories. Very pretty. Except for his one attempt at rocking out- I can’t remember the name of that album, but look for his quieter stuff. Start with “Ghost of David”.

  13. Mindy Smith’s “Come to Jesus” got a lot of radio play around here. I like it a lot, although I think I like her cover of “Jolene” (with Dolly Parton doing backing vocals!) more.

  16. I love Pedro the Lion, which is supposedly Christian though i can’t really see it.

    A friend just turned me onto them recently, and I’ve gotta say, Rapture is about as close to God as a song gets…

  17. What about the Velvet Underground? In between all the songs about speed and S&M they occasionally took the time to sing “Jesus/Help me find my proper place/Help me in my weakness/For I am falling out of grace.” Doubt any of them actually were Christian, but nothing gets more hipster points than the Velvets. That alone disproves it pretty much, without even having to get into No More Shall We Part-era Nick Cave (guy goes from blasphemy to seeming sincerity?) or Leonard Cohen (again, not sure if he’s Christian or not, but that’s still an awful lot of Bible imagery he uses).

  18. As a Christian…I can pretty much say that I hate CCM. I grew listening to all kinds of crap that I just laugh at now. Oh well.

    But there still are some great Christian bands out there that are outside the mainstream of CCM.

    Madison Greene – a great “hippy” band, they call themselves agressive acoustic – have a similar sound to Rusted Rood.

    Infradif Ensemble – jazz fusion. I doesn’t get much better than this.

    Waterdeep – a little more “religious”, but they are incredibly talented. They are somewhat of a jamband, but with a more mellow feel.

    Of course…as many already mentioned, Surfjan Stevens is great, as is Danielson Famile.

    And if you want to get really experimental, check out The Psalters. Very different, almost scary. But kind of cool. And most of ya’ll will like their political bent.

  19. I’m not familiar with Christian rock but am a fan of Bob Dylan’s “Saved” (I am a big Dylan fan generally). How does Dylan’s “Saved” compare with the best of Christian rock that is out there?

  20. Not contemporary, but one of my old favorites is Guadalcanal Diary — great stuff that it took me a while to realize was Christian-inspired (though their first album title should have given it away: Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man.

  21. How does Dylan’s “Saved” compare with the best of Christian rock that is out there?

    It doesn’t. Very few “Christian” albums can even touch the quality of Dylan’s “Saved”.

  22. Dave, thanks for the input, I can’t say I’m surprised — who can touch Dylan?

    That said, there is alot of great Gospel music out there but that’s a different genre, obviously.

    I also have a CD that is a recording of the music performed at requiem mass for the unborn (an annual mass held on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade). It is sensational. It’s probably unlistenable though if you are not pro-life.

  23. I also have a CD that is a recording of the music performed at requiem mass for the unborn (an annual mass held on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade). It is sensational. It’s probably unlistenable though if you are not pro-life.

    Who is on it? Do you know if it is available at all?

  24. Dave, it’s called:

    Shantigarh Requiem for the Unborn, produced by John Bonaduce. I got it from a friend of mine who lives in L.A. and I think she had it sent to me from the website for the Archdiocese of L.A. I checked and you can get it from that website, under the section for “Cathedral,” then “Gift Shop.” In my opinion, the two best songs on it are “Tell This Generation” and “You Are The Resurrection” but the entire thing is really good.

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