Rend Collective Experiment: A Review

A few weeks ago, I went to the Rock and Worship Road Show, hosted by MercyMe.  While, the primary reason for going was to see MercyMe, because they’re my favorite worship band, the only album I left with was “Homemade Worship by Handmade People,” by Rend Collective Experiment.

When Rend Collective Experiment first came on at the concert, their opening song was a powerful worship song with a background of xylophone and heavy rhythms, called, “Praise Like Fireworks.”  Appropriately named.  Their second song was what I thought was their most powerful worship song.  “Second Chance,” is their anthem for God’s grace and mercy.  In the middle of the song, Rend, along with everyone in the stadium, sang this line:

“Countless second chances we’ve been given at the cross”

It was a truly inspiring worship session.

Their final song, they introduced by saying they were “…unleashing the full of force of Ireland!” (Complete with Irish accent!)  “Build Your Kingdom Here,” is, by far, my favorite song.  During their performance, the drummer came out from behind his set, and picked up what can only be described as a stick with every bell and whistle attached to it.  He then proceeded to pound the stick into the stage, creating the coolest, and possibly largest, bass drum ever.  During the chorus, the harmonies the band produced were beautiful.  All-in-all, Rend Collective Experiment, since that concert, has become one of my favorite worship bands.

Here is a list of reasons that this up-and-coming band is the one to look for:

1. Three and four-part harmonies……that’s right.

2. They’re Irish!

3. They use a multitude of instruments, including a mandolin, banjo, and even a xylophone.

4. The messages in their songs are beautiful, powerful, and a blessing to the listener.

So, if you’re looking for good music with a message, look no further than Rend Collective Experiment, and their newest album, “Homemade Worship by Handmade People.”  With a message as powerful as theirs, and a sound as unique as theirs, there’s a lot to look forward to from this Irish folk group.

Tonight at the Grammys…..

If you’ve ready any other posts on this blog, then you could probably tell that I love music.  I recently watched the 54th Annual Grammy Awards.  While I think they did a beautiful job of celebrating Whitney Houston’s death, may she rest in peace, my main focus, selfish I know, was on the comeback performance of Adele.  The first time I heard her voice, sometime last year I think, I immediately fell in love.  She held such power, and she used it effortlessly.  On top of that, she never had to rely on any technology for her unique sound, unlike many other artists in the music business today.

I was genuinely devastated when I heard the news that she needed to have vocal surgery (I wasn’t surprised, though.  Have you heard her?!).  For almost two months straight, she wasn’t allowed to say anything.  This would have been torture for anyone, had she not found an app that would allow her to type what she wanted to say, (swear words included).  Luckily, she made a full recovery, and her comeback performance on the Grammy stage was breath-taking!  I barely even noticed that she lowered the key to her own song to protect her voice.  Kudos to her!

Despite the fact that she had to shout over memoirs, bad dancing, and the occasional exorcism, Adele’s voice was heard loud and clear, and it was beautiful!  That night she walked away with SIX, count’em, SIX Grammys, including ones for Song of the Year (Rolling in the Deep) and Album of the Year (21).  She is one shining example of what music once was, and what it could be once again.

 

The Touch of the Master

Below are several links for your pure enjoyment.  Each in a different category:

Art

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY1Lr-yGtd8&feature=player_embedded

Music

www.ted.com/talks/jake_shimabukuro_plays_bohemian_rhapsody.html

Awesomeness!

www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Dd6egUsZvWu4

What do these videos have in common?  Each of them, however different, shows a master of his craft.  Whether making fantastic paintings, or making beautiful music, or causing rainbows to spew forth from your mouth, all of these individuals have perfected their craft.  One would assume that they know what they’re doing.  These things are their creations; their babies, if you will.  When something is a creation all your own, you know everything about it, and you know exactly how it works and how to make it look or sound beautiful.  How much more, having created us, can God do with us, being the almighty creator that he is.

You see, sometimes, when we’re being our stupid human selves, we think that God can do nothing with us; we’re useless.  That is not, nor will it ever be true.  The only way that we could ever be useless, is when we stop serving God, and start serving ourselves.  It is then, and only then, when we lose our sense of purpose, and become, for lack of a better word, dead.

I’ve just noticed that this is the second post that I’ve written on a topic like this.  Which makes sense, because lately, I’ve been really worried about what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.  I want to study Psychology, my parents want me to be a computer technician, and I just don’t know what to do.  All my life, teachers have told me that I have the potential to do anything that I want, but they always assumed that I actually knew what I wanted.  All the potential in the world won’t help me, when I don’t know where to go.

Fortunately, there is a solution to this problem:  Just go.  All we have to do is take our faith in God, put on our helmets, and run like mad.  It doesn’t matter if we even know where we’re going.  As long as we keep God in control of our lives, he’ll move us in the right direction.  He created us, therefore, he knows exactly what we’re capable of, and will put us where we need to be.  All we have to do is walk.

As the Cheshire Cat once said:

“Oh, you’re sure to [get somewhere], if you only walk long enough!”

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

                                                                                                                                    Jeremiah 29:11

I am Pro-love

In my never-ceasing quest for knowledge, I tend to happen upon things that both surprise and profound me.  One instance that I remember quite particularly happened last year, while watching a documentary called, “Freakonomics: The Hidden Side of Everything.”  In it, Dr. Stephen Dubner and Dr. Steven Levitt discuss, among other things, an issue that lies in the hearts of many Americans today: Abortion.  Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, the conclusion made from this study will change the way you think.

This study begins in Romania, 1966.  Already, I am confused.  I have no idea what Romania has to do with abortion, but I continue to watch with mild curiosity.  Nicolae Ceausescu, totalitarian dictator of Romania, illegalizes abortion to create more workers and eventually improve the economy.  All across the country, women are forced to have children that, we can assume, they were not ready for and didn’t want.  As a result, an entire generation of children grew up in broken homes; unwanted and unloved.  Approximately twenty years later, crime rates in Romania skyrocket due, in no small part, to the illegalization of abortion in 1966.  At this point, I am still confused, but he quickly explains.  Statistics have proven that children who grow up in broken and unloving homes are far more likely to turn to lives of crime than those that grow up in loving homes.  Suddenly, a connection forms in my mind.  This isn’t about abortion; it’s about something much greater than that.  With all of this in mind, Levitt and Dubner move on to the United States in the late 80’s and early 90’s.

During the late 1980’s, crime in the United States was at an all time high.  All analysts were convinced that it would continue to rise into the 90’s.  However, something happened that no one expected: The crime rate fell; by over 30%, all across America.  Many experts attempted to explain this phenomenon by saying that new policing strategies, harsher sentences, and a decreasing crack market caused the crime drop.  However, according to Levitt, when you look at the data, these only account for about half of the crime rate decrease.  Until Levitt looked into this, no one was able to explain the other half.  At this point, I’m very intrigued; listening to every word with rapt attention, trying not to miss a single word of Levitt’s hypothesis.

Levitt’s hypothesis explaining this phenomenon was not only controversial, it also sparked outrage among his many new opponents, myself included, until I listened to what he was actually saying.  His hypothesis, which stemmed from his research on Romania, claimed that the majority of the crime drop was caused, accidentally he adds, by the legalization of abortion in 1973 in the aftermath of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Case.  This, according to Levitt, had the exact opposite effect as in Romania.  Instead of unwanted births being forced, they were prevented or delayed in most cases.  Twenty years later, when those unloved and crime-prone children would reach the ripe crime age, they just weren’t there to commit them.  Thus, the crime rate fell, instead of rising as in Romania.  When, Levitt reached this conclusion, all thoughts that had been swirling in my head suddenly and quite violently came crashing together.  He wasn’t advocating abortion as some sort of crime-fighting tool.  This was never about abortion.  It was about how we treat people.  It turns out that the Beatles had it right all along: It is all about love.

Despite the fact that abortion was a key factor in both of the above situations, the legal status of abortion cannot change how a child is brought up, nor can it change their future.  Only knowing that they’re loved can change that.  Love is a very powerful thing.  It can change a heart, no matter how hard.  On the other hand, it’s non-existence can destroy an innocent life, as it did so many times in Romania.  At this point, I’m not sure what I think of abortion, but I do know one thing: Every day, I will choose to love everyone around me, because it has the power to change any situation, and love, after all, isn’t as radical as we might think.

The Mariner’s Revenge Song

We are two mariners; a ship’s sole survivors, in this belly of a whale.

It’s ribs our ceiling beams; it’s guts our carpeting.

I guess we have some time to kill…

You may not remember me; I was a child of three, and you a lad of eighteen.

But I remember you, and I will relate to you how our histories interweave.

At the time you were a rake and a roustabout.

(In case you were wondering the man is being called an unskilled laborer with promiscuous habits….)

Spending all your money on the whores and hounds.

(…apparently with a gambling problem.)

You had a charming air; all cheap and debonaire.

My widowed mother found so sweet.

And so she took you in; her sheets still warm with him.

Now filled with filth and foul disease.

As time wore on you proved a debt-ridden, drunken mess.

Leaving my mother a poor consumptive wretch.

(Consumptive refers to pulmonary tuberculosis.)

And then you disappeared.  Your gambling arrears;

The only thing you left behind

And then the magistrate reclaimed our small estate.

And my poor mother lost her mind.

Then, one day in Spring, my dear, sweet mother died.

But before she did, I took her hand as she, dying, cried….

“Find him, bind him, tie him to a pole, and break his fingers to splinters; drag him to a hole until he wakes up naked, clawing at the ceiling of his grave…”

It took me fifteen years to swallow all my tears among the urchins in the street.

(For you math folks out there, the narrator is now eighteen, and the other character would be thirty-three.)

Until a priory took pity and hired me to keep their vestry nice and neat.

But never while in the employ of these holy men did I ever once turn my mind from the thought of revenge.

One night I overheard the prior exchanging words with a penitent whaler from the sea.

The captain of his ship, who matched you toe to tip,

Was known for wanton cruelty.

The following day, I shipped to sea with a privateer.

And in the whistle of the wind I could almost hear…

“Find him, bind him, tie him to a pole, and break his fingers to splinters; drag him to a hole until he wakes up naked, clawing at the ceiling of his grave…

“There is one thing I must say to you as you sail across the sea: Always your mother will watch over you as you avenge this wicked deed.”

(Musical Interlude)

And then, that fateful night;

We had you in our sight after twenty months at sea.

Your starboard flank abeam;

I was getting my muskets clean, when came this rumbling from beneath.

The ocean shook, the sky went black, and the captain quailed.

And before us grew the angry jaws of a giant whale.

(At this point, several screams can be heard from the so-called “fearless” mariners as they are being devoured by the whale.)

Don’t know how I survived.

The crew all was chewed all alive.

I must have slipped between its teeth.

But, oh, what providence; what divine intelligence, that you should survive as well as me!

It gives my heart great joy to see your eyes fill with fear.

So lean in close, and I will whisper the last you’ll hear…

(Then, more accordion music plays steadily growing faster and faster until a climactic ending where we can only assume that the boy avenges his mother’s death.)

Several years ago, this song was shown to me by a good friend of mine who was into anything and everything “indie.” That is, anything that no one else knew about.  There were only a few people among us who knew about the song, and even fewer that liked it.  I don’t blame them either.  Polkas are truly an acquired taste.

This fantastic song was the reason I fell in the love with The Decemberists.  Collin Meloy, the lead singer, has vocals that are truly unique and, quite frankly, hypnotic to me.  Their music is top quality but at the same time, unique and different from anything you’ve ever heard.  Not to mention I can’t name any other bands with an accordion player; can you?

It is at this point that I would like you to pray for The Decemberists and for their accordion player, Jenny Conlee.  Earlier this year, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  The prognosis is good, because she caught it early, but cancer treatment is taxing on the body and she will be out of commission for a while.  Below is a picture of this amazing band.  If you would like to find out more about them and about Jenny, visit www.thedecemberists.com.

JOIN TEAM JENNY!

From left to right: John Moen, Nate Query (back), Jenny Conlee (front), Colin Meloy, and Chris Funk