Do The Funky Christian!!

My best friend Darrell way over in Winnipeg has always been very involved in the church. Every time I visited him on weekends when we were young, to play AD&D, I would arrive and find him sitting in their rocking chair with ginormous headphones on, listening to music and ... rocking. He has been a part of his church band for as long as I can remember.

Today he sent me an email saying that the band he belongs to entered a local contest competing for "stuff" against several other Christian bands. The competition is based on voting and he sent out his PR asking his friends to vote.

"Stuff": The top band will pick up a THOUSAND DOLLARS worth of prizing from Quest Musique. The winning group's single will get some spins on CHVN and will be featured on CMC Distribution's "Sea to Sea" compilation – a cd shipped to Christian bookstores across Canada. And, they'll be the opening band for the Building 429 concert on June 20th at the Red River Exhibition!

The catch is, you have to log into this Manitoba Christian website and make an account there. They say they will send up to two newsletters a month. I'm hoping that I can unsubscribe when this is done because I'm not really all that interested in seeing what Manitoba Christians are up to. But I am interested in helping Darrell win that contest. And I can vote daily. And get my dose of God if I so wish. Yay.

Anyway, if any of you want to sign into this website (it was a bit tricky, but you'll figure it out, I think), register, listen to the songs, and then vote, be my guest. Be honest, and don't vote for anything you don't like.

Mayu was around when I did this and she started giving me comments from the other room about her impressions regarding the songs, so I jotted them down in an email I was writing to Darrell to let him know that I voted (for his band). They are very interesting (the comments).

The music Mayu listens to these past years (and goes to when she "groupies it around the country") is extremely technical (not techno), and requires a very high level musician to play. So this local church band stuff sounded a little bit "simple" to her technically-oriented ears. To me, some of it sounded very... Canadian Christian; you know, the kind of stuff you'd hear on Sunday morning AM radio when you accidentally hit upon the "Good Morning Christ!" channel? You know the kind where they want to get you boppin' to God as you vacuum the carpets?

Darrell's song is Hosanna and he does background vocals.

Site: www.manitobachristianonline.com
How to sign in: Hover over "Contests" on the top bar, then click on "Quest for the best" and follow instructions.

Or, sign in directly here: Sign in or Register here to vote

When you get to that page, you'll have to click the link that says "sign in" even though it says "create an account below" or something like that (I forget now - they automatically sign me in... yaaay). Anyway, once you figure that out, fill in the info, you'll get an email asking you to confirm the stuff. It went to my Spam folder so check there. I guess Christians are spammers, too!

Once you click on their link, you go back to their page and follow the sign in again. This is where it seemed a bit weird to me, but after clicking the only link available (sign in?), it actually took me to the page here (but I don't think it will work for you until you sign in...).

I'll leave it up to you as to whether you want to do this or not, but some of you out there may have a penchant for Christian amateur band music and it would be unfair of me to prejudge anyone. God forbid and Heavens to Mergatroid no!

Here are Mayu's comments...

• Rain Down - The kind of band that only friends can listen to.
• Give him Praise - Sounds like a poor expression of Ricky Martin.
• Love's the Revolution - Don't like it. Has too many bible words in it.
• Lord Most High - Nice vocalist, but typical amateur band sound. Her voice doesn't match with the arrangement and the background vocals. Therefore a good producer wouldn't put this voice into this music (i.e. bad producer).
• Fill Me Up - The vocalist is copying too much of somebody else's style. It's just a copy of stuff that's already out there. This kind of music already exists so why do it again?
• The Happy Song - Too simple. Sounds like a highschool band. (Cam thinks it sounds like a Winnipeg version of the Proclaimer's "500 miles". It's a sound you'd hear at the Festival du Voyageur as you were wandering around looking at the ice sculptures and eating deep fried frogs legs while complaining that your fingers and toes had fallen off from the cold.)
• ***Hosanna*** - She has a country music vocal voice. Her voice is too light to be singing solo, so the arrangement with other aspects of the song offset that which is good. The band arrangement is the best of all of these songs. Just had a flashback of being in the parking lot of Safeway. Very very North American sound.
• Mighty to Save - Very N.A. culture. All the female singers have the same voice in all these songs... maybe it's the "choral voice". This song is suitable for this kind of female voice, but it sounds like a "typical church band", something you'd hear on N.A. AM Christian radio.
• You are Worthy - Her voice is good. Best vocalist so far. Kind of "simple" in construction, but after all.. . typical church band.

Have a great day and may the gods bless! I'm off to the shower, and then to do some meditation to the Universal powers that be. I have something very important to order and need to get my order in soon, and make sure it is clearly understood.

I love you!

Cam