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Highlights – Man On Fire, I Don’t Wanna Pray, One Love To Another

Are you a fan of ‘Mumford and Sons’? Maybe ‘Noah and The Whale’? Or even ‘King Charles’? Then maybe this one is for you. Last year I stumbled across this folk group from California, and after one listen immediately fell in love with their sound. Think of it as a feel good version of Mumford & Sons, somewhere alongside Noah and The Whale’s first LP. I find the vocals from Jade Castrinos to be completely amazing, a completely unique voice. Lyrically this album is catchy and maybe somewhere close Religious rock. The melodies are memorable and get you tapping along.

For all I can hear, ‘I Don’t Wanna Pray’ is up there with anything Mumford have produced. It’s a catchy, feel good song that I have listened to may times and have never once skipped. I cannot praise this song enough.

I am a huge fan of music that you hear something new every time you hear it, whether it be a bass line you missed, or a quiet banjo that can only be heard when you completely focus on what the band is giving to you, and this album is full of these songs.

With UK folk music embracing it’s biggest popularity for many years, I think this is an album that will appeal to chart listeners and indie music fans alike. I heavily recommend it for anyone feeling down and it makes a great summer chill out album.

Let me know what you think of it!

The beauty is hidden usually in simplicity and that’s how it is this time. Instead of using something big, investing thousands pounds for special effects and complicated video story, they just simply divided the screen into 4 equal pieces and gave us 4 different life stories, which in some point connect together and that’s brilliant.
It’s like showing their listeners, that no matter how different you are, you can find your place in Mumford & Sons family. How simply and warm is that?

This video doesn’t really show anything special, but I actually did watched is 4 times, one for every single part. They are nice guys!

AND they get 10 bonus points for showing us the girls from Haim in it. Can you find them?

Marcus Mumford and Co. have certainly kept busy since releasing “Album of the Year” Babel last fall.

They performed their smash hit “I Will Wait” at the Grammys, Marcus Mumford collaborated with Justin Timberlake while working on the soundtrack for 60s Folk Explosion flick “Inside Llewyn Davis”, spoke to Rolling Stone about how they want to make a rap album and, of course, have toured relentlessly in support of Babel.

Read more at MStars

London’s Calling, Again

Call me an Anglophile, call me a turncoat, but don’t call me a fool — England’s done it again. The ol’ Union Jack has been churning out band after band, with the prolificacy of the Industrial Revolution of the 19th Century (yeah, I’m taking a British history class right now, so what?). I guess those limey bahhstards across the Atlantic know how to write some jolly good tunes, and one of their latest and greatest contributions to the sonic stratosphere is the soon-to-be-huge Mumford & Sons. Yes, I realize Mumford & Sons does sound like the name of a paving company from Des Moines, Iowa, but in fact, they’re a quartet of versatile Brits who are influenced by bluegrass, folk, and pop, and they create some of the neatest music without overstepping into the dangerous realm of pretentiousness. I would liken them to Arcade Fire (although I don’t really listen to the Arcade Fire because I don’t really like them), with a dose of Fleet Foxes (see: Arcade Fire), a touch of Band of Horses perhaps, and a pinch of banjo pluckiness for good measure. Chances are, you’ve already heard a song or two by them (they were nominated for Best New Artist and Best Rock Song by some old hag named Grammy), but to eradicate the very slight chance that you haven’t, here’s a sampling from their album “Sigh No More.” Fancy a spot of Mumfy? Roight-o, gov!

–CHOWDAH

Photo linked to source

You can check the Spark Of The Week here.

Mumford & Sons – Whispers In The Dark
This is the live version from this amazing band’s new song!
My Rating: 

Nelly – Hey Porsche
A hot girl, a poppy song with some RnB lyrics. Very Flo Rida!
My Rating:

French Montana ft. Nicki Minaj – Freaks
Nicki goes down and dirty with Mista Montana.
My Rating: 

Muse – Panic Station
This is an unofficial video for the new single of Muse.
My Rating: 

Isbells – Heart Attacks
Very intimate song, nice music video.
My Rating: 

Mariah Carey – Almost Home
Typical Carey song and the soundtrack of the new Disney movie: Oz The Great And Powerful.
My Rating: 

Kat Dahlia – Gangsta
First single of this cool chick. Sounds great, can’t wait to here more from here.
My Rating: 

Mindless Behavior – All Around The World
Well, this is like the cool, dirty, black version of One Direction. However, hard to compare! Their band name says a lot…
My Rating:

These are this week’s new songs.

Next Monday another Newborn Flash!

Enjoy the Newborns and keep spreading the Songstikal Word!

Lots of love, music and moustaches!

Lend me your hand and we’ll conquer them all
But lend me your heart and I’ll just let you fall
Lend me your eyes I can change what you see
But your soul you must keep, totally free

I can’t pretend that I listen to Mumford all that much but I recently added them to a Pandora station, and—damn there are some good lyrics there. I mean I could spin a post off a number of songs but I will stick with Awake My Soul, for today. Fickle heart, woozy eyes, struggling to find truth in your lies. Yes. Yes. And, yes again. We feel what we want to feel and see what we want to see. And we continually struggle with vain attempts to find truth in the human heart; leading us to hit dead end after dead end. And our hearts stumble, stumble, and stumble some more. I know, this is a really uplifting post I got goin’. It may not get better.

But once we get to that last line–when we finally show our weakness; God is like “Yes! It is about time. I have been waiting for you.” His lyrics would look something like this:

Lend me you hand, I’ll lead you away from those fears. Give me your heart, for I satisfy. Lend me your eyes; I do change what you see. Give me your soul and I’ll set you totally free.

It’s funny; if you look at the song from a worldly perspective it makes total sense. A lot of relationships are “Yeah, together we can conquer the world! Oh–but don’t, don’t give me your heart. I will definitely let you down.” But if you give God your heart—life. God’s love is the only one that satisfies. It is a love that doesn’t dismay, betray, or enslave (more Mumford). These guys have got to know the gospel. If not, they “get it” more than most of the Christians I know. So what do we do about love? Ehh, I can’t really answer that. My perspective recently has been this: We love to share. To share life, to share grace and the gospel. We love to laugh.  We love to encourage. We love to do. We love to learn how to be unselfish. We love to forgive. We love to care. We love to take risks. Because risks are important. So, we don’t love to satisfy. We love to expand.

Now, I’m not one of those “Oh, my heart will be so lost in God that a man will have to seek Him to find me,” kind of girls. I wish I was. Well, maybe I don’t. I shouldn’t say that, it sounds bad. I’m just being honest here; I tend to be quite honest—in the most unpolished of ways. I wish, I wish I could say that Jesus fully satisfies me. But I can’t. I can’t. What I can say, is that Jesus fully satisfied God for me. And that sets me free. And it was for freedom that Christ died (Galatians 5). I am one of those girls that has been set free. That has tasted grace both through tears and joy. And love? Dad’s got that.

“If you add anything to Jesus as a requirement for being happy, that’s your real king.” –Tim Keller

enjoy.

A constant reminder of where I can find her
A light that might give up the way
Is all that I’m asking for
without her I’m lost
But my love, don’t fade away

So I watched the world tear us apart
A stoic mind and a bleeding heart
You never see my bleeding heart

And your light’s always shining on
And I’ve been traveling oh so long
I’ve been traveling oh so long

A constant reminder of where I can find her
Light that might give up the way
Is all that I’m asking for without her I’m lost
Oh my love don’t fade away
Oh my love don’t fade away

Ever since talking to my mentor, Randy Woodley at Wild Goose West last fall I have been thinking about this a little differently. Then with the happenings of the Emergent Christianity thing in Memphis … I thought I would bring out what I have been whittling away at in my workshop.
This is something I am working on and I would love your constructive feedback. 

The problem isn’t Brian McLaren speaking at a conference.
The problem is if everyone speaking at the conference looks like McLaren.

The problem isn’t reading a book by a white guy.
The problem is only reading books by white guys.*

The problem isn’t having a man speak up front at church.
The problem is if we only hear men speak from up front at church.

You don’t even listen to podcasts! 

Here is what I want to avoid. There was some grumbling on facebook when The Culture Cast was released and it turned out that both Jordan and Christian were white guys. Ironically, almost all the grumbling came from white guys – but that is a different issue.

One female friend said “where are the women podcasters?”

I suggested that since it was a concern of hers … why didn’t she tell us some recommendations.  Why is she asking a question?

She responded that she didn’t listen to podcasts.

I was stunned.

I asked “then why do you care? What difference would it make to you?”

It would be like me complaining their aren’t enough black NASCAR drivers. I don’t watch NASCAR. I don’t even know how many black drivers there are. That reality is irrelevant to my existence.

I think that we need to care deeply about things that we are invested in. There are too many issues that matter for too much for us to get tangled in controversies vicariously.

We don’t except tokens.

We need to be careful of tokenism. Let me be clear on this: if you are group of white people who have organized a conference, already have 10 white speakers lined up and then think ‘we need some color – let’s see if we can get Randy Woodley’ … that is token.  Randy got no say in the direction and organization nor had any power or influence. You just want to put a microphone in his face and have him do his schtick.

Token is an afterthought that serves primarily to help one feel good about being able to check off a box. If Randy was on the organizing committee – trust me the no conference would look the same.

In contrast to ‘token’ let me offer 3 examples:

• Anthony Smith is an emergent voice and influence. He was in the movement before me and helped bring me in. That is not token. That is influence. Anthony Smith is influential.
• When Tripp and I organized the Emergent Village Theological Conversation we said “Monica Coleman is our marquee speaker, our cornerstone, our prima donna.” And we did not do anything until she agreed to be our first round draft pick. She got session 1 to start the conference to set the tone and she got session 5 to end the conference so that she had the final word. We built the conference around that structure. We then invited others to come in around her.
• When we inherited the Phoenix Big-Tent Christianity event many of the speakers were already in place. It was great to have Richard Rohr, Marcus Borg and Brian McLaren to boost ticket sales. But we wanted to highlight some voices that people had not heard a lot before. So, for instance, we structured the actual sessions that one of the ‘marquee’ voices was asking questions of one of the ‘emerging’ voices. For many people, that was the first time they had heard of Rachel Held-Evans. I will never forget watching her debate Marcus Borg about church folks understanding of creation!

I’m with the band. 

Here is my big point:
The problem isn’t that Mumford and Sons are all white guys. We have to look at the way that bands form. It makes sense that the guys of Mumford connect and play.

The problem is if every band on the radio is white guys.

The problem isn’t that Bono is a white guy or that U2 are all white guys.

The problem is if every band on a record label is a bunch of white guys.

We have to learn to distinguish between how a band come together and how the music industry functions.

We also need to do this for church … and for christian conferences.

No conference or podcast is or can be the full expression of the kingdom on earth. It is not nor can it be heaven. It is not supposed to be. Like no band can play every type of music …

I understand our desire for diversity – I just want us to manage our expectations. Our problem isn’t with Mumford and Sons, it’s with the music industry.

The answer isn’t “add a black guy”.  That is not how bands work.
Can you imagine somebody saying “why doesn’t Boys 2 Men have a women in it?” or “why doesn’t Destiny’s Child get Ricky Martin to join?”

The problem then isn’t with any church, podcast, organization, conference or person. Our concern is with how that all comes together in a less-diverse way than we would hope for and desperately need. 

The answer then is not to ‘add a women and stir’ or to ‘get some color’. That is what we call token – and it is insulting to everyone involved.

The need is to examine the bigger picture. This includes how things are planned, who makes decisions, and in what ways can people access resources.

Here is a timely example: Tripp and I are singers and songwriters. Our friends Callid Keefe-Perry and Steve Knight are as concerned about the impact of technology on the church as we are. We have talking about  it whenever we are together. We started this when we lived in 4 different parts of the country. Tomorrow, Steve Night is in town and we are going to record a podcast about the subject.

That is not a problem. We are Mumford, or U2, or The Stones, or the Beatles … we are just a band.
It is not a problem that we sing together – or in this case talk together. The problem comes if we are the only ones you hear.

Just to be clear: 1) I am using this an analogy. 2) I am using the music industry as a positive example.

___________________

*If you find yourself in this situation, here are some books suggestions

Quest for the Living God by Elizabeth Johnson

Christ the Key by Catherine Tanner

Teaching Community by bell hooks

Shalom and the Community of Creation by Randy Woodley

Many Colors or The Next Evangelicalism by Soong Chan-Rah

Triune Atonement: Christ’s Healing for Sinners, Victims, and the Whole Creation by Andrew Sung Park

I’m thinking tonight. In the past three years – probably longer than that, really – I have lived safely. Yes, I’ve gone on adventures, done some “crazy” things, but I live a very safe life when it comes to people. I have a nice little circle of family and friends that I allow myself to be vulnerable with, but outside of that nice little circle, I’m safe. I stay where I am. I stay safe.

That’s no fun. There’s no adventure always being safe.

But you see, vulnerability is scary as hell. I am scared to death to bare parts of my soul to others, afraid to lay on them what has happened in my life up to this point and time, afraid that I will be too much. Afraid that what I’ve dealt with will make me too much. Or that I won’t be enough.

What is that?

Why am I afraid that I am not enough? As a believer in Christ, I believe that I am enough to have the Son of God die for me. So why am I scared that I am not enough for another flawed human like myself? Because we are all flawed. We all have our crap that we carry around from past hurts and experiences. We are all broken and scarred in our own way.

Why can’t I allow myself to be vulnerable? To bare those parts of my soul that hurt to others besides the ones who already know me?

I am scared to be hurt.

Maybe that’s why the whole romance department is lacking in my life: Because I am afraid to put myself out there. Maybe we’re finally uncovering the reason that I’ve never dated. And when I say ‘we,’ I do, of course, mean me.

I’ve been having this conversation with my mom for the past few months. I have these huge walls up around my heart, and I don’t allow anyone new over them. At first, when she presented this idea to me, I scoffed at it.

Me? Have walls? No way.

But, then winter quarter began, and I started to learn more about myself. I realized things I didn’t want to, and those realizations were, at times, very hard.

Those walls are there. They’re real. And I don’t know how to start breaking them down and be free. I want to start that process, I do. But the thing is: Where do I begin? Where do I start with the chisel, with God’s hand chipping away at the walls that I’ve built and have come to know? I am used to them. Even though the weight of them is starting to crush me, I am used to this load.

So why take something away that I am used to? That will just hurt.

I have a mantra: It’s on a poster I made last year and it’s tattooed on my back.

“Love: It will not betray you,
dismay or enslave you;
it will set you free.”
–Mumford & Sons

It’s interesting that the line that means so much to me is about being set free in love. I am spiritually set free in Christ’s love, but I am not all the way there with the rest of myself yet.

However, I believe it. Love doesn’t trap you and make you into something that you are not, it does not put you down and make you feel like you’re not enough, but it sets you free. Free to be yourself with all of your baggage, free to be vulnerable and enough just as you are.

The definition of vulnerability is: capable or susceptible to being wounded or hurt.

I don’t want to be hurt. Hurting sucks. Being emotionally wounded sucks. I hate the idea of allowing myself to be hurt by another after I’ve told them the deepest parts of me.

But that’s the risk, isn’t it: To be hurt?

CS Lewis wrote in The Four Loves:

“Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

…To love is to be vulnerable.

I am getting there, day by day.

Be free in love, my friends. Dance with one hand waving in the air, love the ones around you, and be free.

blessings,
Stephanie

Anyways, this song just speaks to me. I love the lyrics. Some highlights:

• Tell me now, where was my fault/In loving you with all my heart
• You desired my attention/but denied my affection
• Lead me to the truth and I/will follow you with my whole life.

If you couldn’t tell, it has been quite the Monday.

“White Blank Page” by Mumford and Sons

2)21 Emotions For Which There Are No English Words, via Popsci

3)25 Things I Wish I Knew Before Moving to San Francisco, via The Art of Living

4)27 Ways to Make Your Groceries Last as Long as Possible, via Buzzfeed

5) Why We Love Beautiful Things, via The New York Times

I love the pre-show, I love the red carpet, I love the awards and I even like the commercials.

I look forward to seeing who is wearing what and what underdog will pull through.

I also look forward to seeing some of my celebrity crushes…

We all have that celeb crush…or five…

Here’s my top five in no particular order…

1. Paul Walker
2. Usher
3. Zach Galifianakas
4. Bear Grylls
5. Marcus Mumford

My husband knows all about these crushes and is quite comfortable with them. In fact, he’s got a couple of his own. He also knows I reserve the right to change my mind and replace them as I see fit.

Now, here’s his list in no particular order…

1. Jennifer Lawrence
2. Scarlett Johanssen
3. Sophia Bush

Who are yours? No particular order, of course.

Phillips won Amercian Idol last year and in November his first album ‘The World From The Side Of The Moon’ came out.
His biggest song so far has been ‘Home’ which has been released right after his victory on that popular TV Show.
This song is now nominated for World’s Best Song at the World Music Awards.
Last week he came up with a new song called ‘Gone Gone Gone’.
He likes artists like Mumford & Sons and Damien Rice, good taste no?

|< When life leaves you high and dry
I’ll be at your door tonight
If you need help, if you need help
I’ll shut down the city lights,
I’ll lie, cheat, I’ll beg and bribe
To make you well, to make you well >|

Keep an eye on this guy ’cause I think he might become a big star.

You can check this song and all other Songstikal Sparks of 2013 in the Songstikal Sparks 2013 Youtube Playlist.

Enjoy the Spark and keep spreading the Songstikal Word!

Lots of love, music and moustaches!