No, I did not find out about this song because it was the theme for The OC. And out of respect for Arrested Development, I intend to never watch a single episode.
It was 2002, and my family was on vacation. We were channel surfing in the hotel before going to bed when this performance on David Letterman caught my eye:
I started watching it about a minute or so into the song, so I didn’t hear the name of the band. I spent the next several months trying to track them down (bear in mind this was before the days of Youtube or Yahoo Answers). When I finally did, I considered myself a fan.
Perhaps my favorite thing about Phantom Planet is singer Alex Greenwald‘s absolute disregard for proper vocal technique. He has an excellent singing voice, but that’s not what impresses me about him – it’s his performance. If you listen to any Phantom Planet record from beginning to end, you’ll hear Greenwald giving 110% the whole time. And I really mean that; he’s often singing beyond his voice’s breaking point.
I’m more than just a little excited to learn that they’re planning a comeback in 2013.
Bonus: Check out their video for Big Brat, possibly one of the coolest music videos ever made. Judging by the youtube comments, apparently this song appears in the latest Spiderman movie, which I have yet to see.
I’ve been meaning to do this for a while now, and while a holiday week may not be the best time to start, I figure I should do it while I’ve got the time. Today, I’m introducing a series of “Top 5” countdowns here on the blog, simply because I want to share my favorite things with you. Many of these countdowns will be music related, but who knows – maybe in the future I’ll share my thoughts on books, food, religion, etc. My hope is that by reading these posts, you’ll discover something you like, too.
It seems that people generally appreciate my opinions on music*, so for starters, I’m going with the familiar: rock and roll. This week, I’ll be sharing my top 5 favorite rock songs with you.
Please note that these are my favorites. I’m not taking historical significance, critical reception, composition, production, or anything else into account. I’m just sharing what I like. You may discover that you don’t like it at all. You might disagree with every single thing I write for the next five days, and that’s totally fine. Musical taste is a subjective thing. We can still be friends.
So without further ado, let’s begin…
#5: Reeve Oliver – I Want Burns
I stumbled on Reeve Oliver back in 2004 when I was browsing through new Militia Group artists on Purevolume. From the very first time I heard the song I Want Burns, I was hooked. No, seriously…I bought their Self Titled record the day it came out, and soon enough I had amassed almost everything they had ever released.
I guess Reeve Oliver is a pop-punk band; Sean O’Donnell used to play in Dogwood, and after Reeve disbanded he joined Yellowcard for a spell. But to write these guys off as another Starting Line or MxPx isn’t a fair comparison. I Want Burns certainly displays a “Weezer meets Green Day” flare, but if your curiosity is even moderately piqued by what you hear, I strongly recommend checking out the rest of their work. Here’s the link to their Magnum opus, Touchtone Inferno, on iTunes.
From time to time, one of my friends will ask, “Hey, whatever became of the Relient K ordeal?” This is my attempt at answering that question…sorry it took so long!
A few months ago, I saw that Relient K had posted a teaser video for their upcoming album. I’m a longtime fan of Relient K, so naturally I was excited to hear new music and see some behind-the-scenes footage. But when I clicked on the link and the video started playing, what I heard didn’t sound new at all. Instead, I heard the main riff of one of my own songs, Biting My Tongue.
For comparison, here’s Relient K’s video:
And here’s my song:
Flight Metaphor has been playing Biting My Tongue live for more than two years; the studio version above appears on 2011’s Eastmost Peninsula.
As I watched Relient K’s video, my head started spinning. I didn’t know whether to be flattered or upset. I knew that if their song appeared in a finished form on Relient K’s new album, it meant that I’d have to defend the integrity of mine. It would only be a matter of time before someone accused me of “ripping them off.”
I showed the video to a few of my close friends, and almost all of them flipped out. A few told me to seek legal counsel, others started “ralllying the troops” for an online revolution, and I started composing a reactionary blog post. I dug up all the demos I ever recorded of Biting My Tongue, preparing to “put Relient K in their place.”
The next day, I received an extremely gracious and kind response. Ethan assured me that he had never heard my song before, that it was a freak coincidence. What follows is a portion of his e-mail:
I’m pretty blown away that the first chord/melody is pretty identical! So crazy. I put that RK video together and needed some music behind it. I, literally, wrote and recorded that guitar thing about 10 min before posting the video. I hope you don’t think there was any ill will here. I apologize for the confusion! Also, we have no intention of using that for our new album. Again, it just came out quick, while playing guitar.
He even went so far as to offer to take the video down and re-upload it with different music, but I told him it wasn’t necessary. I was happy enough with the fact that I could keep playing my song without having to justify it to my audiences.
All in all, it was a pretty surreal experience. Never in a million years would I expect to pull up a video from one of my favorite bands and hear a song nearly identical to something I had already written. Thankfully, the entire matter was wrapped up in less than a day, and Ethan was real cool about everything. Moral of the story: following God’s instruction can keep you from doing something stupid.
As for Biting My Tongue, every version I ever recorded of it appears below. I’ve always wanted to make a blog post highlighting the “evolution of a song,” and this experience has afforded me the opportunity. Enjoy! (Oh, and be sure to pick up Relient K’s new album when it finally drops 🙂 )
Demo #1
December 25th, 2009, 2 AM – Instrumental Idea
Demo #2
December 2009 – Vocal Idea
Demo #3
February 2010 – “Wait And See” Full Band Instrumental Demo
Demo #4
March 2010 – “Wait and See” Full Band Demo
Final Version
October 2010 – Biting My Tongue (Biding Time) Studio Version, Released June 2011
Today’s post is for my church family, as I promised to give periodic updates regarding my studies. Thus far, my experience with Sioux Falls Seminary has been overwhelmingly positive – few times in my life have I ever felt such a strong sense that I’m right where God wants me to be.
Here’s a quick overview of what I’ve been up to:
This semester, I’m taking two classes: Biblical Foundations of Sermon Preparation, and Introduction to Spiritual Formation and Vocation. Sermon prep is all about the basics of preaching, and the Spiritual Formation class is focused on self-care. In addition to learning practical information that I’ve been able to implement at church, I am also learning a lot about living a healthy spiritual life.
Last Friday, I was asked to speak and perform at the seminary’s board of trustees dinner here in Omaha. I shared a bit of my story (which you can read about here), performed an original song, and finished with the song Jesus Paid It All. I received a lot of affirmation from the seminary’s representatives that night; they truly care for their students, which means a lot to me.
And here are a couple ways to support me:
Prayer. I cannot stress how important this is. Although I feel that I’m up to the challenge, the reality is that being in full-time ministry and taking graduate-level classes at the same time means more work and more stress. Please pray that I will trust in Christ alone to provide the spiritual, physical, emotional, and financial stability needed to complete my studies. I don’t want to simply survive seminary; I want to thrive. I know this is only possible with your help. Please remember to pray for me regularly.
Financial Support. Through Sioux Falls Seminary’s LIFE Fund program, you have the opportunity to make a tax-deductible donation toward my educational expenses. While I am grateful that the church is providing some support for my education through the general fund, this only covers a fraction of the total cost. Your support will help me “bridge the gap” between my current income and the costs required to attend seminary, allowing me to concentrate on my studies without becoming distracted.
Please consider giving to the LIFE Fund (and thank you to those of you who already have!). If you’re interested in providing financial support, please contact me and I’ll be happy to pass along some literature. If you choose to contribute to the LIFE Fund, any giving should be above and beyond what you currently give to your church. I do not want to take away from anyone’s tithe or other commitments.
That’s it for now…for my next update, I plan to share some of my coursework so you can get a “taste” of what I’m doing.
Thanks for reading, and thanks so much for investing your friendship, your money, your time, and – most importantly – your prayers in this endeavor. I am moving forward in faith, trusting that God will guide me every step of the way!
About a year ago, I got together with my good friends Jared Kliewer, David Potter, and Cody Villarreal to record some Christmas songs for our friends and family. It was very much a “just for fun” project; we tracked everything in one afternoon in the basement of a church friend’s lake house. As you can see from the photos below, there was nothing glamorous about the recording process – we just set everything up and hit record:
We put the songs on Noisetrade so we could share the music with as many people as possible. About 100 people downloaded it, and our friends and families loved it. Success. The end, right?
Not so fast. We discussed taking the music down earlier this year, but I never got around to it. There’s plenty of albums, EPs and samplers buried behind the frontpage of Noisetrade, so I left it online in case anyone ever went looking our music again. If nothing else, we had someone hosting the music for us in case we ever lost it ourselves.
Well, you can imagine our surprise when we all checked our e-mail yesterday and found this promotional message in our inboxes:
Was it random? Did someone like our music? We don’t know, but we’re thankful for the plug. Since the e-mail was sent yesterday, our EP has been downloaded more than 1,000 times!
Today is Thanksgiving, and I couldn’t be more grateful for our music to be reaching so many people. However you ended up reading this post, thank you for your support! If you found us through Noisetrade, we’d love to hear from you: we made a page on Facebook where you an connect with us. I’m especially curious as to whether any worship leaders are planning to use our arrangements during Advent.
Happy Thanksgiving, and Merry Christmas!
For those of you who are interested in knowing a little more about the Omaha Collective, here’s a quick rundown of who we are and what we do:
Jared is a worship leader for Christ Community Church‘s Sarpy campus in Bellevue, NE. He played guitar and sang for our EP.
David is a worship leader, formerly of Christ Community Church, who just relocated to St. Louis to attend Covenant Theological Seminary. He recently released an album of hymns and original worship songs. Visit davidpmusic.com for more information, and grab his free download of Come Thou Long Expected Jesus on Noisetrade. He played acoustic guitar, drums, bass, and sang for our EP. He also engineered and mixed everything.
Cody is a worship leader for Journey Church in Gretna, NE. He played electric guitar, mandolin, and sang for our EP.
I, Mike, am a worship leader for Community Covenant Church in Omaha, NE. I play in a band called Flight Metaphor, and we also have free music on Noisetrade. I played acoustic and electric guitars, bass, drums, and sang for our EP.
And oh yeah…in case you haven’t yet, you can download the EP below:
I started watching it about a minute or so into the song, so I didn’t hear the name of the band. I spent the next several months trying to track them down (bear in mind this was before the days of Youtube or Yahoo Answers). When I finally did, I considered myself a fan.
I stumbled on 
Today’s post is for my church family, as I promised to give periodic updates regarding my studies. Thus far, my experience with 
