i sang for people: here's the update.

remember when i told you about how i was going to do something scary and i was going to sing in front of people?

well that has come and passed and you know what, it wasn't nearly as terrifying as i thought it would be. it was actually pretty fun.

see i wrangled a friend who knows how to play guitar into helping me (since i don't know how to play guitar, don't worry, it's on the new year's resolution list) and we practiced some christmas tunes and showed up on a rainy december morning to play for a handful of people who were all either drinking coffee and chatting with loved ones, knitting, or having a bible study. we did all covers (i'm not ready to completely wear my heart, emotions, and soul on my sleeve with my own tunes just yet) and only screwed up once or twice, which i am totally blaming on my singing partner.

it reminded me how much i love creating music. i used to perform with my high school orchestra and i loved concert nights. and even though these songs weren't something i had penned myself it was still this sense of rightness when performing them.

so i will continue on in music even though i may not have the best voice and despite the fact that i'm not the most naturally musically inclined because it is something that fills my heart with joy. it feels like where i am supposed to be, even when it takes getting over myself to get there.

"far better to fail at building a magnificent world than succeed in monochromatic survival." -jon foreman

xo

top 20

recently i was asked to write my top 20 christian album releases of 2012.
so here they are, in no particular order (because let's be honest, i can't decide who gets first in this race):

·      Paper Route- “The Peace of Wild Things”= One of those albums that is straight-up captivating.

·      Future of Forestry- “Young Man Follow EP”= I was tardy to the party with Future of Forestry but I am a fan now because of this EP.

·      The Classic Crime- “Phoenix”= Crafty writing and driven beats garner this release a spot in the top 20.  And ‘Glass Houses’ has a sing-a-long part!

·      The Wedding- “No Direction”= Their first full-length in years, it was worth the wait.

·      NEEDTOBREATHE- “Keep Your Eyes Open EP: Songs from The Reckoning Sessions”= I love their recordings, I love them live, so obviously I would love a live recording.

·      Capital Kings- “I Feel So Alive”= It’s fun. And dancey.

·      Stomptown Revival- “Stomptown Revival EP”= It has harmonica, I mean come on.

·      Brandon Heath- “Blue Mountain”= The first track, ‘The Harvester,’ is what got this album on the list.

·      Write This Down- “Lost Weekend”= Such a solid sophomore release, gritty and raw and perfectly imperfect.

·      Britt Nicole- “Gold” = She sounds a little more grown-up, and a little more polished. And she got Lecrae to join her on a track, don’t worry, it works.

·      Anberlin- “Vital”= Stephen Christian and Co. are really good at hitting the nail on the head.

·      Owl City- “The Midsummer Station”= With the summer anthem ‘Good Time’ and unexpected songs like ‘Silhouette’ it nabs a spot.

·      Summertime Dropouts- “Rewind”= A sparkling new band with a sparkling new pop-punk summer soundtrack.

·      Love Out Loud- “Catch Me If You Can” = If Owl City, Family Force 5, and Relient K got together and had a baby it would be this album.

·      Benjamin Dunn and the Animal Orchestra- “Fable”= Unabashedly Christian, not a drop of cheesy.

·      Heath McNease- “The Weight of Glory”= Making an album inspired by the works of C.S. Lewis could go horribly wrong or horribly right, in this case it was the latter.

·      From Indian Lakes- “Able Bodies”= I just like these fellas.

·      Josh Anderson- “All the Little Things”=He’s like a rough Jon Foreman, I’m for it.

·      Dave Barnes- “Stories To Tell” =Sometimes you just want a solid pop album from a talented singer-songwiter.

·      Honorable mention: House of Heroes- “Cold Hard Want” = I have heard so many great things about this album but have yet to really spend time with it, my fault. 

here's to a 2013 filled with great jams!

xo 

oh be careful little pen what you write.

semantics are important. words, i'm a fan of 'em. there are certain words i won't say because i don't like the way they feel in my mouth or i just think they sound ugly. and they aren't even bad words!

because i am such a fan of words i hate cheap rhymes/dumb phrases in songs. train is super guilty of this crime (but i still love them). ed sheeran wrote one that i hated so much i tweeted it (and he's "ginger Jesus"). even jon foreman has written a rhyme that i could have written (and i expect more out of him, we all know how much i adore him).
so here are some lyrics that i wasn't thrilled with and how these same people completely redeemed themselves:

train: well let's just say there are a TON of awful lyrics from the pen of pat monahan but we'll stick with a famous one, "but my heart is 'bout to beat right out my untrimmed chest." redemptive lyric: "in a world where what we want is only what we want until it's ours." 

ed sheeran: out of his first single here in the states we get this gem, "but lately her face is slowing sinking, crumbling like pastries." redemptive lyric: "all i want is the taste that your lips allow."

jon foreman: this one hurts me more than you will ever know, "i want to thrive and not just survive." (added note on this one, i don't disagree with the content i just feel like he can write SO MUCH BETTER than this). redemptive lyric: "if it doesn't break your heart, it isn't love."

so i think the valuable lesson we have all learned here is to think twice before you write a song that will go on to gain you popularity and bring you monetary gain because i might not like it and blog about it.

xo

mistakes and learning.

i am a firm believer in the idea that you never stop learning.
it's not always book or classroom learning.
often we learn from making mistakes.
recently i learned that if you are going to take pictures with cookies featuring the faces of your favorite band boys expect them to be seen by the band boys.

*if you have no idea what i am talking about, scroll back to earlier this year and read the story about how my roommates are wonderful people.*

my one roommate decided that she was going to the music with a mission tour in a town a couple of hours away. i didn't end up going. what i didn't know was that icon for hire was on that tour. not a huge icon for hire fan but i am a fan of their drummer. or rather, i'm a fan of his huge biceps. so that is what i put as the caption when i took a picture with my "adam" cookie and put it up on facebook. i know, i'm a real class act.

see? super classy.

while at the show my roommate decided to show adam the picture of me holding the cookie with his face rosie-the-riveter-style. i know my muscles are super impressive but it's probably really awkward to see a picture with your face on a cookie being held by a girl you have never met.
they then proceeded to take a picture of him balancing her phone (with my cookie picture on it) on his bicep. now i'm the one who's awkward.

but look at those biceps! 

but then i figured he already knows that i'm weirdly obsessed so i friended him on facebook. now we're friends and you know if i meet him someday that i will straight up tell him that i'm "that girl who had the cookie with your face on it" because clearly i don't learn from my mistakes.

xo

"but i don't run...."

i'm not a runner. i don't like being sweaty and i don't like hearing the sound of my own breathing.
a couple of weeks ago a friend of mine asked me if i'd be in his music video. i said, "of course! that sounds like so much fun!" without actually knowing what the video shoot would consist of. i assumed i would be a blurry extra in the background that you would see for a half of a second and i was psyched for it.
after a couple of texts back and fourth and one phone call i learned i would be one of the more major characters in the story of the video. alright.
i found an outfit i thought would work and then just waited nervously until the day of the shoot finally arrived.
i showed up to the set just before the sun came up and was then informed that majority of the shoot would consist of us running through the woods. awesome.
filled with adrenaline i was sure i could take on anything and besides we were just doing short sprints, it's not like we were running miles at a time, i can handle short sprints.
well, actually, i can't. see i could have handled it if we had been running on flat (or even semi-flat) ground. but no, we were running through woods. like legitimate woods, no trails. and i think we hit a bog or two? i don't even know i just know that i struggled. majorly.
so in the video there were people that were supposed to die so at various points they were told to fall. i was one of the lucky characters that was supposed to live, therefore i didn't need to fall. BUT I FELL MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE.
seriously, first shot, started running, five steps in i hit a random hole in the ground. girl down. two shots later i fell again. and this wasn't a cute little trip and stumble this was a full on face plant, body sprawled in the overgrown, thorny brush kind of fall. after some "big group" running shots we started doing smaller shots of two people at a time. when i was up it was just me and a rather attractive guy i had just met that day who were supposed to run. it was a pretty thick part of the woods and my foot caught a root. i was stopped by my face hitting a tree. the dear boy behind me managed to not trip over my flailing body for which i was thankful. best part: they were filming that part in slow motion and in the playback you could see my head bounce off the tree branch. second best part: everyone laughed at me. everyone.
at the end of the day i walked away with numerous scratches and sore legs and we aren't even finished with the video yet. but never fear, i will be back for part II, i won't let a scrape on the cheek and public humiliation stop me. 

xo

dirty pretty.

music festivals are where all the pretty boys congregate. this is not even close to an exaggeration, seriously, i think they all call each other and tell each other to be there.
so, as an appreciator of beauty, i am a big fan of music festivals.
it just so happened to be the first night of a festival when i spotted a pretty boy. he walked by, i looked at my roommate and said, "i don't hate it."
i kept seeing him throughout the weekend (helped that he wore the same shirt all weekend, what can i say, i'm a sucker for "dirty pretty") and eventually figured out what band he was in. HUGE bummer, he's in a band that i am really not a fan of and wasn't planning on going to their show.
but i decided to lay aside my dislike for a half an hour and catch part of their set. the show was about as mediocre as i expected but he did a fine job and and looked real handsome while doing it.

i may have stolen this off of his instagram account. 

so after 3 days of seeing him around and being sleep deprived and overly caffeinated i got ballsy and walked up to him, introduced myself, and told him i thought he was pretty.
he threw his head back and laughed and then gave me a hug. and then, when i wanted nothing more than to turn and walk away, he proceeded to have a ten minute conversation with me. he asked my name (since clearly he wasn't listening the first time i said it) and when i told him it was sara he said, "like the dinosaur in land before time" and i said "yeah, but spelled differently" and he asked if i was an "h" or "no h" and i said "no h" and he said "that is what i would have guessed" and i said "yep, it's pretty unbiblical" and he said to friend him on facebook and we made random other small talk and i finally made my exit.
3 days later i found him on facebook and friended him and my instant attraction started to fade. see, it's not that he's a bad person or into questionable stuff, we just have virtually NOTHING in common. he's super into eating healthy (i really like chips and diet coke), he's really into dinosaurs (i should have known from the land before time comment), and he framed a star wars comic to hang on his wall (this was really the nail in the coffin).
so i highly doubt we are going to get married and adopt babies together but i can still think he's pretty, right?

xo

lists.

lists. in my generation of twitter and shortening attention spans they are so handy!
i was recently asked to write a list about the top 25 most influential christian albums of all time. holy buckets that is difficult. but i plowed ahead and did the best i could leaving off some albums i know others would have added but this is my list so shush. these are in absolutely no particular order

·      Business Up Front, Party in the Back by Family Force 5- These boys brought us crunk.

·      Winds of Heaven, Stuff of Earth by Rich Mullins- “Awesome God,” need I say more?

·      She Must and Shall Go Free by Derek Webb- He toes the line, he swears, and I like it.

·      The Beautiful Letdown by Switchfoot- The album where Christians cried the band sold out because it got mainstream airplay and Jon Foreman solidified himself as one of the best lyricists of our time.

·      Step Up to the Microphone by the Newsboys- the first album featuring the fab five as the Newsboys should be: Peter Furler, Phil Joel, Jody Davis, Duncan Phillips, Jeff Frankenstein.

·      My Forever by He Is We- A ridiculously sing-able album and there isn’t one song about purity (not that singing about purity is bad, I am just sick of that being the target market for female singers).

·      Phenomenon by Thousand Foot Krutch- “Rawkfist” crossed over into mainstream and did that polished rock thing really well.

·      Ocean Eyes by Owl City- Hello, electronica made for a wide audience.

·      Heart In Motion by Amy Grant- My very first CD. She got herself pretty much shunned from the Christian community but we’ve accepted her back. I think.

·      Almost There by MercyMe- When you’ve got a blatantly, contemporary Christian song (“I Can Only Imagine”) being played on top 40’s radio it has to make the list.

·      Beyond Belief by Petra- Classic rock that inspired many of the artists that inspire today. And John Schlitt can still work a crowd.

·      Rehab by Lecrae- Good rap/hip-hop was not easy to find in the Christian market until Lecrae and the 116 Clique came along.

·      The Outsiders by NEEDTOBREATHE- The album that took them from being a great band to a phenomenal band. Hey, Taylor Swift noticed.

·      MuteMath by MuteMath- They were progressive way before they were ever on the Twilight soundtrack.

·      Jesus Freak by DC Talk- Can we all just go ahead and agree that this one is on the list without having to talk about why?

·      Do You Feel? by The Rocket Summer- The one-man wonder under the moniker “The Rocket Summer” shows his chops and his heart.

·      The Silver Cord by The Classic Crime- It’s raw and honest and has lines like, “There’s more glory to been seen and savored through suffering than ever was through self-serving escape.”

·      Who We Are Instead by Jars of Clay- The band that changed their sound on almost every album. This was my favorite…though If I Left the Zoo was pretty great too.

·      Comatose by Skillet- This is one where they honed their sound. Unfortunately, they haven’t expanded much beyond since.

·      Young Love by Mat Kearney- He has a style all his own and this album is exploding like none of previous albums have.

·      Barton Hollow by The Civil Wars- Longtime Christian artist Joy Williams paired with John Paul White to produce a stripped-down, haunting release that reminds us we don’t always need bells and whistles.

·      To Hell With the Devil by Stryper- Yellow and black. Hair metal. And a Stryper t-shirt was seen in the movie “Whip It” so there’s that.

·      Who Can Know It by Showbread- Their first album on Come&Live! and they did a Kickstarter before Kickstarter was the thing to do.

·      Anatomy of Tongue in Cheek by Relient K- They endeared themselves to 14 year old girls everywhere with witty lyrics that were, well, tongue in cheek. And now Matt Thiessen writes for Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson, and Owl City.

·      The Peace of Wild Things by Paper Route- This one just released but it’s got all the ingredients of a “this is such a classic album.” It’s the influencer for future artists.

which albums are on your list?

xo