For years now, the Christian rock scene has been one of the few vibrant rock scenes going in America?

Well, certain organs do make fucking sounds...this is true s

Cool or Fool?

I liked Kirn's book Up In The Air so I'll stay out of this though.(i usually cringe when otherwise good writers talk about the rock and the roll.)

(there's a lot of christian hip-hop too)

I think (just from reading the paragraph, not the article) that he's saying it's economically vibrant, not necessarily artistically, in fact he's saying it's not artistically vibrant.

Or better yet, Atheism?

I was about to say. Anyway, I'm from the land of the OC Supertones, and that really is all I have to say about that. But on the flipside, OC was also the home of Tooth and Nail for many years before they split to Seattle, and compared to most Christian rock bands their roster actually had some moments, thus Starflyer 59. I still think Joy Electric are pretty damned fantastic in their synth-pop revival -- take them over those DC Talk clowns any day on both the subject matter front and the musical front.

Then there was Power Source, a sort of front by PTL that had the utterly gooey and ridiculous top ten hit "Dear Mr. Jesus" in the mid-eighties...but that's going back in time.

Have you ever thought about your soul? Can it be saved?
Or perhaps you think that when you are dead you just stay in your grave.
Is God just a thought within your head or is he a part of you?
Is Christ just a name that you read in a book when you were in school?

When you think about death do you lose your breath or do you keep your cool?
Would you like to see the Pope on the end of a rope? Do you think he's a fool?
(Well/Will) I see the truth.
Yes I've seen the light and I've changed my ways.
And I'll be prepared when you're lonely and scared at the end of our days.

Could it be you're afraid of what your friends might say
If they knew you believed in God above?
They should realize before they criticize that God is the only way to love.

Is your mind so small that you have to fall
In with the pack wherever they run?
Will you still sneer when death is near
And say that you may as well worship the sun.

I think it is true it was people like you that crucified Christ
I think it is sad the opinion you had was the only one voiced.
Will you be so sure when your day is near say you don't believe?
You had the chance but you turned it down (now/no) you can't retrieve.

Perhaps you think before you say God is dead and gone
Open your eyes, just realize that he is the one,
The only one who can save you now from all this sin and hate.
Or will you jeer at all you hear?
Yes! I think it's too late.

Lamers. Stryper used to throw Gideon Bibles at their audience.
But that was way before guitar bands retreated to the tabernacles and places of worship on Amish farms.

A release from what -- your sexual appetite?
Forget it -- get real! It's artificial sex!

[Chorus:]
Masturbation is artificial sex!
Masturbation is artificial sex!
Masturbation is artificial sex!
Don't do it! Wait! No!

Some of you will one day find a mate.
Wait until then and have the real thing.
Sexual sin is a sin against your own body.
Sexual sin is a sin against your own body.

The body's not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord.
Your body's for the Lord!

[Repeat chorus]

Some of you will not marry on this earth
It's not for marriage that you were given birth
Spend your time devote yourself to God.
Know the master, nothing could be better.

Think about it man,
Put your body in subjection.
Take all things captive to the obedience of Christ!

[Repeat chorus]

It's a ripoff!
Set your mind on other things!
Act like Jesus is with you all the time --
Because he is!
He sees everything you do!
So walk humbly before him and with him
Over sin and over temptation in obedience!

"We love Jesus, how about you," chanted a group in one corner, inciting a competitive echo from across the room. As the first band plugged in, the audience sang along, repeating choruses of praise from four giant video screens: "You are my drink," they sang. "You are my feast."

I sorta feel like I'm missing out. Then again I sorta don't.

Amish farmers?!?!?! A little behind the times?!?!? HAHAHAHAHAHA!

http://thejet.crosswinds.net/gg/godis.html

but the best one, is this:

http://www.taitlifto.net/Poems/drama-commercials.htm

I couldn't stop laughing when I read that one. I felt sorry for who decided to actually share that with the Net.

Lost in the unexplored depths of America... Christian rockers are spelunkers, yeah! My experience as growin' up in "an unexplored [abyssal trench] of America," was that no one had any trouble driving one, two, three or even four hours for a rock concert, or a football or baseball game.

Some of the band names:

Corpse
Faithbomb
Frank's Enemy
Slamcat
Ultimatum
Crown of Thorns

Offended by the very mention
of Jesus' name
The thought of God scares you,
you move on just the same
Not bending even slightly
from what you do
Your point the finger at us,
but there's four pointing back at you

Rolling down your road
moving like the wind
Stomping on your people
Shock value is your friend
The down slide is not
Intentional, oh no
But just the same
Downward you go

I have faith in God
It's what I do
Call on His name
You will discover too
Traveling the down road
Oblivious to the sin
Fight your way out
On your knees repent

Choking dust on the down road
Inviting lust on the down road
Who will you trust on the down road
Your faith is lost on the down road

On re-reading this this could almost be describing the way I felt after eating old seafood the other day and had to sweat it out on the crapper

Sort of like Panzerfaust Records bands.

Anyway, Christian rock revival stories, like the one in the New York Times, are as repetive and regular as the hacks writing them. Pick any year and you'll find a bunch in Lex-Nex, all the same: Christian rock is waxing while something else is waning, seasoned with deadening references to an imagined wholesomeness, the salt-o-the-earth people of the heartland or, perhaps, the Amish country, or the turning to hope and God in a time of travail or filth in the mass media.

Like this from 2001, or anything before going all the way back to the Eighties when I first recall getting press releases for it. Sales were always going up, up, up.

Jesus, rock and the Underground

Cliche #1:

"...Christian-music CDs and cassettes sold in the United States increased 8 percent from the previous year’s figures. Perhaps this is an important indicator of a sea change in musical tastes, a turn toward something overtly moral in the face of a post-9/11 world..."

Or an indication of cooked books, optimistic reading of statistics,
complete rubbish or the usual editorial try at stuffing some seemingly important claim into a story.

Cliche #2:

"So, it’s no great surprise that a suburban church in Roseville has converted its youth-ministry room into a rock club. The good news is that the Underground (inside the Valley Springs Presbyterian Church at 2401 Olympus Drive) is perhaps the highest-quality all-ages suburban club I have seen..."

Yes, it's always quite a wonder. The Catholic high schools in the 70's always turned over their facilities to teen functions, complete with hard rock bands. Some even made records but they weren't "Christian bands" per se and -- hah-hah -- they were perhaps the highest quality all ages suburban clubs I have ever seen.

Cliche #3: local band, a crappy example of anything, is given as example of the new breed:

"...Josh Reeves, who spoke briefly between songs about his religious beliefs, inviting audience members to speak to him or any of the band members about Jesus Christ. Following the brief speech, the band launched into a hardcore number that featured Reeves’ vocal technique, a wordless, repeated single syllable screamed at throat-tearing volumes: “Waaaah! Waah waaah! Waaah!”

Can you feel the sea changing?

"Rolling down your road
moving like the wind
Stomping on your people
Shock value is your friend
The down slide is not
Intentional, oh no
But just the same
Downward you go"

On re-reading this this could almost be describing the way I felt after eating old seafood the other day and had to sweat it out on the crapper

this made me LOL so hard

I remember once I was drunk as hell on vodka on a train, about 1992. Some stupid girl tried to feed me Bible bullshit, played me a Christian rock cassette.

I escaped by playing the Disco Inferno album "In Debt" over and over and over. And Comsat Angels' "Sleep No More", too.