This week I was contacted by some friends letting me know about some more “music you’ve never heard”. One bad is a friend of a friend, and they are in a contest right now trying to win the chance to open for Hawk Nelson at The Rock Of Ages Festival in California.  The second is a friend of mine from a tour about two years ago.

First off is a band called Chasing Truth.  Here’s the cool thing about them.  They are like thirteen years old or something and have been playing for three years.  It’s pretty impressive when you start to think about the dedication and focus that it takes to even become a band when you are thirteen.  They are pretty intense musically, but would be a good fit to open for Hawk Nelson, not to mention, how cool would that be as a thirteen year old?  So take thirty seconds and go here, scroll down to the bottom of the page and vote for Chasing Truth to open for Hawk Nelson.

Second is my friend Coury’s first solo project.  Coury and I met on the MercyMe tour where he was in charge of the Compassion table.  We ended up hanging out quite a bit and still occasionally get together for coffee or something.  Coury’s new site just launched yesterday, and he’s giving away a few covers and some original stuff in anticipation for his record.  In fact, for two bucks you can get five songs to check out.  I really like Coury’s stuff.  It’s got a really cool vibe and it’s different than anything else anyone is doing.  Also Coury has a blog where he promises to be involved and update often.  So head over to Coury’s new site and check out some cool new music you’ve never heard.

Anything new besides Coldplay that you are listening to?  Whatcha’ got?

(WCW)

I have been thinking a lot about our little “Music You’ve Never Heard” experiment that we have done a few times on here, and in the spirit of that I wanted to point out some of my friends who happen to possibly create “Music You’ve Never Heard”.  These are all people that I have come to know over the years.  Some I grew up with, some I have met in the past few months and some I have even lived with, but they are all albums that you should literally buy as soon as possible.  Here goes.

Brian and I met about two years ago on a tour where he was playing guitar for Audio Adrenaline.  Brian also is one of the founding members of another band from back in the day called All Star United.  He’s a crazy talent and equally as entertaining to watch on stage.  He lives in Phoenix and this is not the cover of his album, but for whatever reason I can’t seem to find the cover of it big enough to post.  

Brian is one of the most talented, genuine people I know and I wish that I could hang out with him more.  Seriously, if you don’t have this album, you are missing out.  Independent or not, this is an amazing album by a good friend.  So there you go.  Go Buy This Record and come back and tell me what you think.

 Next is a guy that I have never actually met in person, but talked to several times on the phone and through email. A few months ago I got an email from Daniel Renstrom asking about some music industry stuff and what I thought were some good options.  The more we talked, the more I started to like the way Daniel seemed as a person.  He wasn’t trying to prove that he was something he wasn’t.  He didn’t come across like he was someone trying to “break into the music scene” but genuinely wanted to just talk about different things.  This was before I had even heard his record.  

After several emails back and forth Daniel sent me a link to download his record and for the next several weeks that was all I listened to.  Seriously, if you haven’t heard me talk about Daniel and haven’t gotten his record yet go do it.  He’s about to have a baby (if he hasn’t already) and needs some diaper money.  Not to mention you get a great record out of the deal.
 
This is my friend Kevin’s album.  His real name is Kevin, but his band is called Glowworm.  I don’t know how to describe it other than awesome.  It’s powerful, instrumental music where you visit other places when you are listening to it.  

Kevin and I went to high school together.  He dated one of my friends.  We played music together, though never publicly, and he has always blown me away with his talent.  Glowworm is a perfect expression of that talent wrapped in ambient noises.  Kevin lives in Kentucky now, but told me the other day that he is moving either back to California or back to Oregon, both of which make me sad, but we barely hung out when he lived in Kentucky so things won’t change much.  Either way, you need to go get this record too. There’s really no reason not to.  Let me know what you think.

Some of you know about these guys, but most of you won’t.  These are some friends of mine from way back.  I think I was a sophomore in high school when I met the guys in Five O’Clock People.  Back then they were a five piece with a flute, bongos and a mandolin.  Since then they have been in and out of a record deal, gotten married, added some members, lost some members, parted ways, formed new bands, had babies, and now have rejoined for what sounds like some of their best music yet.  

Alex, Drew and Pat are back with some pretty amazing stuff and I’m excited to see where it goes.  Alex has always blown me away with the way that he can write lyrics and Drew is an amazing talent as well.  And there aren’t enough nice things I could say about Pat.  I can’t tell you how excited I am about this record and I can honestly say that it exceeds what I thought it could.  It’s time to go get you some music.

So there it is folks.  My “Music You’ve Never Heard - Friends Edition”.  My suggestion would be to write these down and save up, and seriously get all of them.  They are all really good people and worth supporting.  Not to mention, some of the best “indie” music I have heard.  So go get their stuff and come back here and let’s talk about what you think.

*Part of Watercooler Wednesday**

So, a while back we did a thing here at “…in case you were wondering.” and it seemed to work pretty well. We all participated in a thing called “Music You’ve Never Heard“.  You know what was awesome about it?  We all got to check out some music we have never heard, and there are still people submitting music that we have never heard.

As soon as I figure out how this will be something way more awesome than comments on my blog, but for now I would like to continue spreading the love  and add to the list.  I have gone through and copied all the links that were submitted and I want to go through those again.  There are a lot of new people here and I want them to be able to check out some of this music and also submit their own.  So here goes.  Round Two of “Music You’ve Never Heard”.  Whatcha’ got?

This Holiday Life 
A New Honour
Above The Blue *
Briertone
John Mark McMillan *
Jamie Barnes *
JayMay 
Josh Ritter
Todd Wright 
Sleeping At Last 
Paige Aufhammer  
Phil Danyew  
The Myriad *
Sarah Macintosh
Shawn McDonald
Edison Glass  *
Daniel Renstrom *
Shelly Moore *
Fordinal 
Dominic Bali
Nathanael Mehrens 
Mono 
Carbon Leaf 
Andria 
Josh Irby Band 
Rova Zetella 
Ours To Alibi 
Brooke Fraser *
Farewell Flight *
Rachel Taylor 
Maeve 
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club 
Dave Clo 
Good Tomorrow 
Shane & Shane 
MGMT 
Hot Chip 
Spoon 
Louis XIV 
Weaver At The Loom 
The Most Serene Republic *
Band Of Horses 
Andrew Bird *
Headlights 
Jimmy Robeson 
Richard Butler *
William Fitzsimmons *
Greg Laswell *
Ian Galleghar 
Carney 

So that’s the list so far folks.  Pretty intense huh?  So what do we do with this?  Here’s what I am thinking.  I don’t like the idea of a “voting system” but I would like to see some of the “most recommended” music rise to the top and get more recognition.  I would like to see something like this really turn into something amazing and become a huge resource for music we have never heard.

I have two questions for you today. One:  From this list what sticks out to you the most?  And Two:  In the spirit of adding to this list, what are you listening to that people have never heard?

I am always looking for new music. I am always looking for something that I haven’t heard and that isn’t being played on whatever “Top 40″ radio stations are still around. I can drive Kristin crazy because I can spend ridiculous amounts of time in record stores looking for something that is the perfect thing I have never heard before. And I do this because it’s fun to “discover”. It’s fun to seek something out that you (personally) have never heard of. It’s your discovery and most likely you love your “discovery” more because of that.

I remember about eight years ago, Kristin and I had just gotten married, getting on some independent bands site and listening to clips for hours and hours. This was before iTunes but still had the same idea. I remember being home alone and finding this album. Sure the cover was a little bright and weird, but the vocals were amazing and the guitar playing was something different. I ordered it right then. A week later when I got it in the mail, this album was all I was talking about. I was showing my friends, playing it over and over, and even forcing others to buy it.

With so many amazing talents out there writing music, everyone and their brother with the ability to record, and the internet, stumbling on to great “unknown” music is more possible than ever. So I wanted to start something where we can all discover “unknown” music together. What do you say? Eventually this will become it’s own thing called “musicyouveneverheard.com”, but for now lets start it here.

Let’s start a list of music that we love that others might not know about. Something “Independent” or something “Local”. Maybe even something that you just don’t think people know enough about. Leave a link to the artists website in the comments, and let’s all discover some new stuff. Sound good?