Music Video Monday: Forever

Welcome back everybody. We had some personal problems leading to our first missed Music Video Monday. I may have missed one due to a holiday but I do not remember. Either way I will make sure it doesn't happen again.

We begin with an event. Some videos just make you go WOW. This is one of them. Kari Jobe and this is Forever. I'll be here when you finish. It's over twelve minutes long, but well worth it.

We're back. I hope you agree, WOW. Sometimes you just have to spend a while in worship before the throne. Right now everything else seems window dressing but we must go on. We move on to Rap/Rock. First up is KJ-52 (five-two). This is Tonight.
It's about time that we created a ruckus. Rapture Ruckus, that is. They team up with Soul Glow Activatur. It's really freeing when you're not in The In Crowd. 
Goth Girl's got some moves. Know who else does? Sarah Anthony of The Letter Black.  Rise Up From The Ashes.

That concludes this edition of Music Video Monday. I hope you enjoyed it. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

 

The Night Beat Presents: Summoned Blog Tour

We're taking a break from music today. When I signed up to host the Summoned Book Tour from my fellow blogger (I would say author, but I'm not published yet) my Welcome To The Republic blog was collecting dust while I centered on this one. It has been resurrected, however, and future book tours will be given honorary citizenship over there. You can purchase Summoned at Amazon by clicking the link. (Badges seem to not play well with Blogger). As a plus you will also help support The Night Beat at The same time.

So without further ado. The Summoned Tour. Rainy is also giving a pair of Amazon Gift Cards, so don't forget to enter. This is my first Book Tour, and I have no idea what I'm doing, I admit it. 

Blurb

Twenty-three year old Dimitri has to do what he is told—literally. Controlled by a paranormal bond, he is forced to use his wits to fulfill unlimited deadly wishes made by multimillionaire Karl Walker.

Dimitri has no idea how his family line became trapped in the genie bond. He just knows resisting has never ended well. When he meets Syd—assertive, sexy, intelligent Syd—he becomes determined to make her his own. Except Karl has ensured Dimitri can't tell anyone about the bond, and Syd isn't the type to tolerate secrets.

Then Karl starts sending him away on back-to-back wishes. Unable to balance love and lies, Dimitri sets out to uncover Karl's ultimate plan and put it to an end. But doing so forces him to confront the one wish he never saw coming—the wish that will destroy him.

Summoned is represented by Rossano Trentin of TZLA.

Find out more at http://www.summonedtheseries.com

Author Bio

Rainy Kaye is an aspiring overlord. In the mean time, she blogs at RainyoftheDark.com and writes paranormal novels from her lair somewhere in Phoenix, Arizona. When not plotting world domination, she enjoys getting lost around the globe, studying music so she can sing along with symphonic metal bands, and becoming distracted by Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/rainyofthedark>@rainyofthedark

). She is represented by Rossano Trentin of TZLA.

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Music Video Monday: Not The Color Green, but The Letter Black

Welcome back to Music Video Monday and Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone. This is a green free zone this week as far as I know. Nothing against green, just no Irish Videos. Not even Rend Collective.

We begin with The Letter Black. Depending on what you did to celebrate, you may need a Painkiller.
b
Colton Dixon is next. This is the music video for Never Gone.
Turning to Reggae for a while. You see, we do everything here, except for Country and Western. This is Step up feat . D.A. T.R.U.T.H. 
And we move on to Rock again. This is one of my favorites right now. This is Sumerlin and Breaking Out.
We shall have another quartet of videos next week. Until then, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

The art of the Remix

Here at the +The WENC Night Beat we are big fans of remixes. For those not up on music lingo, a remix is when the audio track of a song, and sometimes the lyric track as well, is taken by another artists and put into a blender and worked over until the song bears little or no resemblance to the original. Now take out the word blender and replace it with synthesizer and you have the truth.

Remixes are all the rage these days. I think we average one a month around here. A few years ago we might have had one all year long. Just because they are all the rage doesn't mean you should do one. Take this month for example. We have four remix projects out. +Hillsong United has The White Album (boo hiss on The Beatles Reference). +Jars Of Clay put out Inlandia. +Capital Kings come out with Remixd, and +Jesus Culture puts out Jesus Culture Reconstructed Volume 1. I'll take two to compare.

First, the good. Jars of Clay remixed a few songs from Inland and in the process transformed themselves into The Choir. Not really, but Jars, especially in their early work, really lent itself to an ethereal sound, something that The Choir is know for. Since I love both bands, the result was awesome. Mission Accomplished. The songs were remixed into something completely different.

On the flip-side we have Hillsong United. It isn't a bad album, it's just that, despite the claim, it isn't a remix album. Note my definition above. The songs sound just like a typical Hillsong United album. The tempo hasn't increased, the sound hasn't been distorted, nothing has really changed except for a few beeps and other sounds being added. It's a major fail. 

It looks like the remix category at the PVA's is here to stay, at least for another year. I'll be sure to make sure you know about the best ones. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Music Video Monday: Zen and The Art of Xenophobia

Welcome Back to an all new edition of Music Video Monday. We will be moving all around the genres from now on. We have four Music Videos this week. First up is a bit of Metal. Heavy Metal in the form of Righteous Vendetta. This is The Fire Inside.
Slowing it down just a tad. This is Five Iron Frenzy, one of the SKA bands. This is Zen and The Art of Xenophobia.
Moving on to Alt-Rock. This is Scott Stapp, former lead singer of Creed. This is Slow Suicide.
Finally we move on to Hip Hop. This is a rising new duo from Diverse City Seth and Nirva. This is Whole World.
Next Monday we will have three videos, with not an Irish Tune among them. Until then, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Night Beat Rewind: February 2014

Welcome to March. Spring better be in the air soon. The Polar Vortex should put the deep freeze on any of the Global Warming nuts. Just bury them in the snow drifts. With the groundhog, who's probably on the lam in Aruba.

With this edition of Rewind we are beginning a new segment. I am adding a quick hit rating for released singles. We shall see how this helps or impacts the picking of song awards. There were three songs released in February.

Single Songs

• Forever (Live) , Kari Jobe 4.50 Emeralds
• Splendour , Quiet Science 4.50 Emeralds
• Tonight , KJ-52 4.50 Emeralds
• You Won't Let Go , Michael W. Smith 4.50 Emeralds

For purposes of this post, we shall say this is a very good song, and should go into the song pool. On to the album ratings. As always, we begin with the albums which will not get an award because they failed to make the pool. These are they which

Miss The Mark

• Ellie Holcomb - As Sure as the Sun 3.75 Emeralds
• Kutless - Glory 3.75 Emeralds
• Mike Mains and The Branches - Calm Down, Everything Is Fine 3.75 Emeralds
• Rapture Ruckus - Invader Volume I 3.75 Emeralds
• Various Artists - Son Of God Original Motion Picture Soundtrack [+digital booklet] 3.75 Emeralds
• Various Artists - WOW Gospel 2014 3.75 Emeralds

A few words about this list. Kutless and Wow Gospel, though in different genres, suffered from the same malady. Simply put, they sounded flat, as if it was mailed in. Rapture Ruckus started out good, but repeated listenings wore me out. Simply put, there were only seven songs and the first and last were the same (the final cut a remix of the opener), so eventually you didn't know if you were ending or beginning. My biggest disappointment, however is reserved for Son of God. This was no Music Inspired by The Story. Even a good orchestra couldn't save it.


We move on to the perfect, the 

Pure Platinum

• Canton Jones - Lust, Drugs & Gospel 5 Emeralds
• Sumerlin - Runaways 5 Emeralds

There really isn't much to say about these except Wow. I reviewed Runaways in full. Canton Jones is a mixtape, and I love the way he can move seamlessly between Rap, Hip Hop, Gospel and some smooth R & B.

Most of the releases, however, are neither perfect nor horribly flawed, they are simply what we call 

Semi-Precious Metal

• Anthem Lights - You Have My Heart 4.75 Emeralds
• Dave Barnes - Love Songs EP 4.50 Emeralds
• Carrollton - Breathe In Deep EP 4.50 Emeralds
• City Harbor - City Harbor 4.75 Emeralds
• Deraj - Mirrors & Medicine EP 4.50 Emeralds
• James Fortune and FIYA  - Live Through It 4.75 Emeralds
• Jars of Clay - Jars 20 Stage It: Debut Album 4.50 Emeralds
• Loftland - I Don't Want To Dance 4.50 Emeralds
• The Love Amendment - The Love Amendment EP 4.50 Emeralds
• For Today - Fight the Silence 4.50 Emeralds
• Veridia - Inseparable EP 4.75 Emeralds

Of the list above I was most impressed with Veridia. For a debut. Wow. It could have been perfect with a few more songs. Plus, you've got to make the young ones suffer a bit. Until next time, think warm. I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Music Video Monday: Sympathy

It's March, folks, and while that means nothing in the PVA World, except maybe that I'm behind schedule with nominations. It does mean that I am SOOOOO ready for Spring. March Madness has nothing to do with Basketball this year, it's how we all feel about the Winter.

We begin with another video from Stryper. This is Sympathy. Just not for the devil.

Skillet recently put out a Music Video for Not Gonna Die. Previously all they had was a very cool Manga Lyric Video. Yes the Album was for the current year, but the video is recent.
Next up is Daughtry. He's Waiting For Superman.
That's it for this week. From now on there will be a mish-mash of videos. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.