Writings from the Dirt Road

I’ve come to release that a lot of my favorite bands from my college/high school years that were, sadly, confined to the CCM ghetto are quickly fading away. Many of my younger friends have no idea who these bands are or what they sound like, so I’m creating a series of posts to educate the young listener.

Who Are They?
The Violet Burning is a rock band that formed in Long Beach, California. The band has essentially become the primary project of Micheal Pritzl, the vocalist and guitarist of the band. Other members of the band have changed frequently, but Pritzl remains the sole constant in the band. Unlike many Christian bands, The Violet Burning draws influences from unlikely bands such as The Verve or The Cure as well as more common influences such as U2 and Smashing Pumpkins. The Violet Burning has remained essentially independent of the music industry, Christian or mainstream, releasing albums and touring on their own. Much like The Psalms, individual songs by the Violet Burning portray hope or despair, but taken as a whole, also much like Psalms, the body of work reflects the Christian who wears his heart on his sleeve.

Brief History
The Violet Burning emerged from the Vineyard Church music scene in 1989 and released their first album Chosen a year later. The band released Strength in 1992. Both albums are reflective of late 80’s/early 90’s music and are very upfront in their declaration of Christian faith. Afterwards the band went through a dark period professionally and personally. While some demos were recorded, the band was dormant until 1996 when Pritzl pulled in the assistance of guitarist Andrew Prickett (The Prayer Chain) and drummer/percussionist/producer Steve Hindalong (The Choir) and released an album originally titled Lipstick and Dynamite Wonder, but the label balked at the album title and released it as the self-titled The Violet Burning. The album dredged the depths of despair and hopelessness and might well be one of the saddest and bleakest Christian albums ever released.

The experience proved cathartic and in 1998, The Violet Burning reemerged with the more hopeful album Demonstrates Plastic and Elastic which incorporated more electronic drumming. In 2000, the band re-recorded several songs from their earlier albums with a slower tempo and more relaxed feel and released it as I Am A Stranger In This Place: Experiments in Vibe and quickly returned to the studio to release Faith and Devotions of A Satellite Heart a worship album that has enjoyed some popularity in worship circles, particularly in the Vineyard churches. Both albums feature female vocals by Melissa Barnett accompanying Pritzl’s vocals.

Pritzl then joined the independent album label Northern Records, headed up by former members of The Prayer Chain, for subsequent releases. In 2002, Pritzl took a break from the band to release a more electronica sounding solo project under the name The Gravity Show. Many of the songs from the album, Fabulous Like You have been folded back into The Violet Burning in their live shows. In 2003, Pritzl reunited with Andrew Prickett, longtime bass player Herb Grimmaud Jr., and Sam West (Stavesacre) to release This Is The Moment, an album of decidedly shorter pop songs. A year later, Pritzl released acoustic versions of many Violet Burning songs as a solo project titled Hollow Songs. The band released a live album in 2005 titled The Loudest Sound of My Heart and in 2006 released their most recent album Drop Dead

Where Are They Now?
Presumably, still alive and kicking. Of all the bands I’ve covered so far, The Violet Burning remains the most active, though they haven’t toured extensively since 2006. Micheal Pritzl joined 77’s singer/guitarist Michael Roe to tour as a duo titled “Roe vs. Pritzl” during 2007. The duo has recorded an album worth of songs together, but no release date has yet been given. Also, during 2007, The Violet Burning released many songs online through their website, including demos from various eras of the band and an entire Christmas album. The band has posted European tour dates on their website and Pritzl has mentioned he has other projects in line to work on, but no further information has been given to date.

If You Bought Only One Album….
Of all the bands I’ve covered, The Violet Burning has been the most consistent in quality and has really only improved as they’ve gotten older. Chosen and Strength are classics, but have a dated sound. The self-titled album is a little dense to for a first impression of the band. Both Faith and Devotions… and I Am A Stranger In This Place are good, but not very representative of the band, unless you are seeing them during one of their worship sessions. I think I’m going to have to go with their most recent album, Drop Dead which sounds incredible. You can read a short review of the album by me here on this site.

Get Thee to iTunes! Or Make Your Own Mix Tape for 10 bucks
Unfortunately, it appears only four of the Violet Burning’s albums are available on iTunes, so we’ll limit the mix tape to just those albums, but there are great songs from other albums that will be missing here.

1.) Silver - self-titled
2.) Goldmine - self-titled
3.) Moon Radio (including the fade, which is a separate track) - Demonstrates….
4.) Berlin Kitty - Demonstrates…
5.) Oceana - Demonstrates….
6.) Radio Jesus Superstar - This Is The Moment
7.) Heaven Holds My Heart - This Is The Moment
8.) Do You Love Me? - Drop Dead
9.) Already Gone - Drop Dead
10.) One Thousand Years - Drop Dead

It’s not often that I get to go out to concerts anymore, but Adriene and the girls were out of town visiting her parents so I decided I needed to get out of the house for the evening. Fortunately, Paper Route was playing a show at the Masquerade so I had my plans set. This was a band that I saw at Cornerstone Festival a year ago. I have confess, they are a really hard band to describe. There are only four members of the band, but they play about ten instruments between them. In addition to guitars and keyboards, there are bells, a xylophone, electronic drum triggers, a slide guitar, and more littering the stage. The best description I’ve heard for them is “Americana meets electronica” and that doesn’t seem too far off. I guess they compare to the similarly named Postal Service.

I really wish more people were there Friday night to see this band, but the crowd was small. Maybe I’m on the cutting edge and more people will discover this band. One can only hope. Friday night’s performance was even better than the Cornerstone show I saw as they seem to have more stage presence and confidence on stage and the addition of a live drummer only added to the strength of the music. They played the songs from their new ep, Are We All Forgotten and some from their earlier self-titled ep. After listening to the new ep, I really see a jump in quality in their music with more diverse instrumentation and incredible vocals. They seem poised to gain mainstream attention really soon.

The night was augmented by a full lineup of bands. The first two bands were ok, but the pleasant surprise of the evening was a Nashville friend of Paper Route named Brooke Waggoner. She brought along friends on cello and guitars who were joined by Paper Route’s drummer. Her songs were lively and poignant all with a light sense of humor.

When I was younger, I didn’t hesitate to head out to some dirty, tiny club to see some band I’d never heard of, hoping to catch “the next big thing”, sometimes seeing a great show and sometimes seeing a bust. I don’t do that quite as much any more, but it was fun for one evening and maybe someday I can tell people about the time I saw Paper Route with 30 other people in a bar.

This is my fourth Peachtree Road Race and I have to admit, my slowest and laziest. I really didn’t train for it very much because up to about March or April there was just no free time to run with all the caring for babies stuff. But! They stopped eating all the time! And started taking naps! And I could run again!

The best part of this year’s run was that Adriene decided to join me. It’s a lot more fun to run these races with someone than being alone, especially at the starting line where you wait hours to actually start running. She even talked her cousin into running it with us.

Like past years, I wanted to take pictures, but didn’t want to drag my camera around so I bought a cheap little disposable camera.

Here we are at the starting line!

Adriene’s cousin called us while we were on MARTA heading down to Lenox to start and told us she had overslept. We told her that she could probably still make it if she hurried and sure enough, she showed up right as they called our numbers to move up to the starting line. She had already gotten her exercise before the race even started.

So, here I am. Running the Peachtree. I’m hoping all the blur in this photo implies that I was moving really fast…. at least try to think that in your mind.

Here I am nearing the finish line! Because of the drought in Atlanta, the race ended in a different location than Piedmont Park. Instead of finishing downhill into the park, it turned and went uphill on Juniper Street. I was…. displeased with the new uphill finish.

The best part of the race is getting the t-shirt! Adriene here shows off her shirt. Everyone in Atlanta knows what the shirt implies when you wear it. “Lazy people of Atlanta! I ran while you slept on the 4th of July! Regard me with honor for my desire to keep fit!”

Seriously, though, we had a lot of fun, even if we limped around the house that evening and the next day. It’s always a good fitness goal to train for and now we have to find our next goal. Savannah Bridge Run, maybe?

Derek Webb has released his latest album, The Ringing Bell through a new website delivery method called noisetrade.com

The concept is brilliant. You can obtain the album either by telling three of your friends about the album by including their e-mails or you can purchase the album and name your price, anywhere from $1 to $25. Webb believes that buzz about the album is as important as actual sales and he’s included some other artists and friends in the concept, too. It will be interesting to see how this works.

Click some samples above to hear some samples or read my review of the album.. Regardless, you have no excuse not to try the album out!

I’ve come to release that a lot of my favorite bands from my college/high school years that were, sadly, confined to the CCM ghetto are quickly fading away. Many of my younger friends have no idea who these bands are or what they sound like, so I’m creating a series of posts to educate the young listener. I figured the 77’s would be a good one to do next since I just missed their concert here in Atlanta. Boo.

Who Are They?
The 77’s are a rock band that emerged out of the Sacremento Warehouse scene in the 80’s. Michael Roe is the only member of the band to be in the band for the duration. Roe is the singer, guitarist and primary songwriter, though Roe has always maintained that the 77’s is a collaborative effort as he also has a solo catalog of his own. The 77’s were primarily a new wave band in the 80’s but slowly turned towards their roots of influences from classic rock artists such as Elvis Presley, The Beach Boys, Led Zepplin, the Rolling Stones with an additional influence of blues music.

Brief History
The 77’s originally started as The Scratch Band in the early 80’s and released their first album, Ping Pong Over The Abyss under their new band name in 1982. Original drummer Mark Proctor left after the first album and was replaced by Romeo Void’s drummer, Aaron Smith. THe band released their next album All Fall Down and earned enough recognition to be signed to Island Records. In 1987, the 77’s released their self-titled album and had the unfortunate timing to release the album at the same time as U2’s The Joshua Tree. When The Joshua Tree exploded in popularity, Island Records diverted all their promotion to U2’s album and the 77’s album withered on the vine.

The band continued to tour in the late 80’s but entered a nebulous time where very little material was released. Roe released a solo album under the moniker “Seven And Seven Is”, a name he would reuse time and again for projects outside of the 77’s. By the end of the 80’s, guitarist Mark Tootle and bass player Jan Eric Volz departed the band. Roe and Smith joined forces with David Leonhardt and Mark Harmon of the band The Strawmen to form the second iteration of the 77’s. During this time, the band released a live album from 1988 appropriately titled 88 and also a collection of b-sides and demos called Sticks and Stones.

The band signed to Word Records in 1992 and encountered resistance from the label when they wanted to title their album Pray Naked and thus released a second self-titled album (though fans still refer to this album by its original name). During this time, Roe began collaborating with Derri Daughtery of The Choir, Gene Eugene of Adam Again, and Terry Taylor of Daniel Amos to form the supergroup Lost Dogs. The band encountered troubles in the year after when Leonhardt was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease. The band channel their dispair and frustration and once again found the label censoring their music on their next album Drowning With Land In Sight. Shortly after the album was released, Leonhardt left the band and Aaron Smith also left the band to tour with Rich Mullins.

Roe hired former Vector drummer Bruce Spencer to form along with Harmon a power-trio that is essentially the core of the band today. The band released Tom Tom Blues in 1995 and Roe released solo albums, Safe As Milk and The Boat Ashore. Spencer and Harmon joined an assortment of other musicians to tour as the “Safe As Milk Band.” Roe also toured frequently as a solo artist in the following years.

In 1999, the 77’s regrouped and released an ep simply titled ep and resumed touring on a regular basis with the addition of Scott Reams on guitar, keyboards, and percussion. The band released A Golden Field Of Radioactive Crows in 2001 and then a series of leftover songs from that session on an ep titled Direct in 2002. The band then entered a period of dormancy, though Roe and Harmon did collaborate together, releasing an instrumental album titled Orbis and a Seven And Seven Is album titled Fun With Sound in 2004.

Where Are They Now?
The 77’s are in a period that Roe likes to call “semi-retirement.” The band performs infrequently, though they have just released a new album Holy Ghost Building which is based off old blues songs. The band is touring (as of June 2008) with David Leonhardt joining the band. Roe continues to tour as a solo musician and also still works with the Lost Dogs. Bruce Spencer still performs as a touring drummer with several musicians. Mark Harmon still performs on bass on occasion, but also works in the corporate world outside of music. Jan Eric Volz is probably best known for the trials that his son Eric Volz underwent in Nicaragua for conviction for murder and subsequent release on appeals.

If You Bought Only One Album….
The later albums in the 90’s and 00’s each have moments of brilliance but tend to be uneven. The best of those albums are probably either Pray Naked or Drowning With Land In Sight. However, the 80’s material tends to be stronger and the strongest album might actually be the collection of demos, Sticks and Stones. However, this album can be difficult to find, so I will recommend the first self-titled album The Seventy Sevens as the place start.

Get Thee to iTunes! Or Make Your Own Mix Tape for 10 bucks
Amazingly, there is no music by the Seventy Sevens on iTunes or Amazon.com, so you will have to do some hunting on your own:
1.) Caught In An Unguarded Moment (All Fall Down)
2.) Do It For Love (Seventy Sevens)
3.) MT (Sticks And Stones)
4.) Nowhere Else (Sticks and Stones)
5.) The Lust, The Flesh, The Eyes and The Pride of Life (88)
6.) Self-Made Trap (Pray Naked)
7.) Nobody’s Fault But Mine (Drowning With Land In Sight)
8.) Don’t Leave Me Long (Tom Tom Blues)
9.) Unbalanced (ep)
10.) Dig My Heels (Direct)