Sonic Awakening: 3rd Qtr Nominees - Rock

We end our rollout of the third quarter 2012 releases that are eligible for Platinum Vinyl Award consideration with Rock. Ten entries made the cut this quarter, and that would be more than enough on its own. As always, this one will have a lot of whittling down to do

Rock Music

• Big Daddy Weave - Love Come to Life
• Children 18:3 - On the Run
• Deluge - Swell
• MxPx - Plans Within Plans
• Mercy Me - Hurt & The Healer
• Petra - Best of the 80's
• The Rocket Summer - Life Will Write the Words
• Thousand Foot Krutch - The End Is Where We Begin
• Willet - Love On the Outside
• Write This Down - Lost Weekend

That's a lot of entries, and if you would like to help The Night Beat, click the titles to go to Amazon and purchase. We are an Amazon Associate, and your purchase will help support this blog. If you want to read my original full reviews, click on the band names.

That concludes the 3rd Quarter Rollout. We now continue with the final quarter of eligibility. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Music Video Monday: Zombie Time

Welcome to the latest edition of Music Video Monday. We are racing through the third quarter videos and will soon be caught up. I might actually get to do the 4th Quarter in the 4th Quarter. Now THAT would be an accomplishment.

Due to the number of available videos in each category we are combining the Pop and Dance genres this time around. In honor of a few of my Triberr friends, namely Shannon Mayer and Frederick Lee Brooke, I have decided to begin with the Music Video for Family Force Five entitled Zombie.

We will sandwich the Dance videos with a pair of pop videos. First up we have the relationship misadventures of Rocky Loves Emily with Secrets Don't Make Friends, which seems to confirm my friend Shannon when she says "Women are Crazy". (Her words, not mine).

Staying with a relationship theme, we will go to the Gorgeous Holly Spears (just because I favor Brunettes doesn't mean I don't notice a good looking Blonde. I'm still a guy). Holly wants someone to Watch Over Me. (Personally I think she should have plenty of applicants).

We close with The Washington Projects. Normally found in the Hip Hop and Rap circles, they recently made a Remix album entitled Space Time Continuum, and remixes are pretty much all about Dance. Here they exhort us to redeem the Time.

That concludes this edition of Music Video Monday. Next week we will be moving on to Hip Hop. Until next we meet, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Sonic Awakening: 3rd Qtr - Hard Rock & Metal

We're down to the final two. Next up are the entries for Hard Rock and Metal. Remember, these bands and artists haven't won anything yet. They have merely been admitted into the initial eligibility pool for the 2012 Platinum Vinyl Awards, which will be the third annual ceremony. Without further ado:

Hard Rock & Metal

• Demon Hunter - True Defiance
• For Today - Immortal
• Haste The Day - Best of the Best
• The Overseer - We Search, We Dig
• To Speak of Wolves - Find Your Worth Come Home
• War of Ages - Return to Life

One more to go. Before we wrap things up, I want to remind you to enter my first ever giveaway for a copy of Heather Williams This Time Around. You can enter either on my Facebook Page or on the original blog post. With under one hundred entries right now, and nine days to go, your odds are terrific. So enter today and get all your possible entries. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

In Praise of the Megasong

Nobody writes long songs anymore, at least not from my experience. Oh sure, there are pockets out there, but it usually is just the Modern Worship or Gospel Genres. At least they write songs that clock in over 5 minutes. That doesn't have to be the case. Since I go to churches that are big on the Modern Worship/Hillsong style, I have found it amazing that Churches have not capitalized on their ability to distort the time-space continuum. Seriously, how is it possible that you can take a four line chorus and make it last for a half hour while at the same time making it seem like twelve hours. It's the sanctified version of the song that does not end. (The sanctified Song That Does Not End would have to be Psalm 119. At 176 Verses long, a comfortable paced read takes approximately 30 minutes. Singing it as intended, even with modern music, probably longer.

That's not the type of song I'm talking about. The songs I'm talking about are over six minutes long, some are twice that, but the experience is such that you would think it's only two or three minutes in length. The six minute bar is intentional, for it surpasses the 5:55 run time of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Of course, nothing against Queen, but I prefer my Bohemian Rhapsody to come from high class sources. Bohemian Rhapsody is the bar. My first list of songs not only exceed that bar, they smash it. In reverse order of length.

• #10 - Sudden Death, Servant, World of Sand, 1981 (8:18) - Doing a top ten list, this one winds up the shortest. It stands as a megasong on its own, though it is also part of a two song "rock opera"
• #9 - Trilogy, Iona, Iona, 1991 (8:34) - This is where it all begins. This Progressive Rock/Celtic band from the UK almost can't make a song under 5 minutes. This is from their eponymous debut, though not their longest or best.
• #8 - Songs of Ascent Pt. 2, Iona, Open Sky, 2000 (9:06)
• #7 - Bird of Heaven, Iona, Beyond These Shores, 1993 (9:09)
• #6 - Castlerigg, Iona, Open Sky, 2000 (9:25)
• #5 - Woven Cord, Iona, Open Sky, 2000 (9:28)
• #4 - Boomerang feat Tracy Truells, Cloud 2 Ground, The Gate, 2000 (11:18) - Wow, a song not by Iona made the list. This Trance/Techno band by Chad Petree and Jeremy Dawson is great.
• #3 - Encircling, Iona, Journey Into the Morn, 1995 (11:38)

• #2 - Matthew-The Man, Iona, The Book of Kells, 1992 (11:54)
• #1 - Sodom, Jerusalem, Warrior, 1981 (12:33)

I have praised Sodom many many times before, so I wont say anything this time. If you take away the Iona songs, not only is the list only three songs long, but two of the songs are written in 1981. See what I mean, nobody does it anymore.

I'm going to do a cheat here. In the era of mp3 files, there are certain songs that would be megasongs if they were not split into two. The songs may have been intentionally recorded as two songs, but they either, because of theme or the fact that they have barely a millisecond of space between them. Here are three two part megasongs.

• #3 - Destroy/Savior, Worth Dying For, Love Riot (6:31)
• #2 - Tourniquet/Imaginary, Evanescence, Fallen (8:55)
• #1 - Sudden Death/Come Jesus Come, Servant, World of Sand (11:55) Sudden Death and its companion song Come Jesus Come were billed as a two song "rock opera". It was written in honor of a death by auto accident of members of the Servant Community.

This has been a special edition of Flashback Friday. If you know of a mega song that you love, please share it with me by commenting. As always, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Sonic Awakening: 3rd Qtr Nominees - Dance

We are continuing with our announcing of Third Quarter releases which crossed the initial bar of admission to the pool of Platinum Vinyl Award contenders. This time we move onto the Dance genre. Five releases mad the initial cut this quarter.

• Family Force Five - III.V
• The Letter Black - Hanging on By a Remix
• Owl City - Shooting Star (EP)
• Page CXVI - Re:Hymns
• The Washington Projects - Space Time Continuum: The Remixes

Both The Washington Projects and The Letter Black normally wouldn't be found in this genre. Their usual home is Hip Hop and Rock, respectively. However the remix is particular to Techno, and if one is done correctly, will turn anything into a dance album. (There is one exception - Switchfoot - Vice Re-Verses - why?)

Hard Rock and Rock are the only two genres remaining. Then we can get on with the new stuff. Click on the links to go to Amazon and buy from them. You will get some great music and support The Night Beat at the same time. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Sonic Awakening: 3rd Qtr Nominees - Pop

Before I begin with the task at hand, a welcome and a little gloating. The Night Beat began (apart from a now deleted 4th of July Post) on July 8, 2010. Though I knew that I wasn't the only fish in the sea, I didn't know who they were at first. One of the first competitors I discovered was Jays Muzik Blog. Well, he started just before me and I Survived Him! So to all of Jays readers, I hope you will choose to make the WENC Night Beat your new home.

Continuing our announcing of the 3rd Quarter 2012 releases (for PVA Eligibility, that 3rd Quarter is April - June 2012). We move on to the Pop Music Genre. While the genre as a whole has been very well represented, not so much this quarter. There were only five entries this quarter. Considering that I will narrow things down to Seven nominees at the end, five sounds pretty good. However, considering the Pop Pool is now thirty strong, that means that the first two quarters contributed twenty-five, so that puts things in perspective.

Pop Music

• Mat Kearney - Young Love (Deluxe Edition) [+video] [+digital booklet]
• Jon McLaughlin - Promising Promises
• Point of Grace - A Thousand Little Things
• Rock Loves Emily - Secrets Don't Make Friends
• Holly Spears - Heartache to Hope

Only three more to go. To all the new readers coming from Jay, please follow me on Facebook or Twitter. And while you're here, don't forget to enter my This Time Around Giveaway for a copy of Heather Williams perfect album of the same name. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.

Sonic Awakening: 3rd Qtr Nominees - Alternative

Continuing once again with our rollout of the PVA eligible releases for the 3rd Quarter. We move from Gospel to Alternative. This was also pretty well represented.

Alternative

• 12 Stones - Beneath The Scars
• Bellarive - The Heartbeat
• Canopy Red - Wake Up
• The Choir - The Loudest Sound Ever Heard
• Lovelite - In Three Persons
• Mewithoutyou - Ten Stories
• Newworldson - Rebel Transmission

12 Stones is a solid group, now going independent. They welcomed Evanescence into the Wind-Up fold and became the 1-2 Christian Band duo at Wind Up. Though Evanescence is more mainstream, both have deep spiritual themes.

We are almost through with the rollout, only four more remain. Until next time, I am Awaiting Your Reply.