Tag: Josh Silbernagel

When I Learn to Sing The process of finding a front man for a rap-rock band is no simple task. There are many stringent qualifications that must be met. You need someone who can hype up a crowd, rhyme words at a fifth grade level, look good in parachute pants and a backwards hat… and maybe even sing.… Continued →

Rock The Party Around the turn of the century a new genre of music would see a meteoric rise in popularity. Teenage boys were stoked. Music critics were not. This genre would come to be known as “rap-rock”. Rap-rock was exactly what it claimed to be, a mixture of hip-hop and alternative rock or metal, usually played with down-tuned guitars and loads of testosterone fueled angst.… Continued →

We’re A Band I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. I’ve known way too many people who have said, “This is the year! I’m going to do P90X!” Most of them get up at 6:00 AM the next day, struggle through the first routine, go to work and exuberantly tell people “I’m doing P90X!… Continued →

Fever (A Defense of The Big Three) I need to take a brief pause at this point in my story to address something that I believe to be very important. To my knowledge it is something that has never been properly articulated publicly by any music critic from within the Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) community.… Continued →

Let It Begin I’ve always been one of those guys who shakes his presents. I’ve also been known to ask clever, probing questions in an attempt to sucker a gift giver into accidentally letting an all important hint slip out about what I might be receiving. To be completely honest, I probably find just as much (if not more) satisfaction in figuring out what a gift is before opening it as I do in the actual gift itself.… Continued →

Best Kept Secret It’s hard to keep anything hidden for long in a town with a population of less than 2,000 people. You know who’s at the post office by looking at the cars parked out front. If you are walking down the street and see someone working in their yard, chances are you’ll know each other by name.… Continued →

Check out my review of Tracings "Unconditional" Ep

The life of the average teenage boy is full of overwhelming contradictions. You want to fit in with everyone else, but you want to “be yourself”. You want to be treated like an adult, but you don’t want to take out the garbage or clean your room. You want to attract a girlfriend but you don’t want to use deodorant or change your socks.… Continued →

ALL THE WAY LIVE 1999 would prove to be a pivotal year in my young life for many reasons. I had just started the ever-tumultuous 8^th grade, I got my first job washing dishes at a local greasy spoon, I finally managed to score my first kiss, and most importantly… I started my first Christian rock band.… Continued →

SET IT OFF I’m going to be honest with you. I am not a Calvinist. I like to believe that God’s sovereignty is shown through the fact that humankind gets to make its own choices even though God could pull every string and direct every action.  However (get ready for the hyperbole), it is hard for me to look past the idea of divine appointment, née even the possibility of total pre-destination in some extreme instances.… Continued →

TEENAGE POLITICS I suppose it was inevitable that at some point my god-fearing (and also Marilyn Manson-fearing) mother would try to find a substitute that could replace my quickly developing taste for “worldly rock-and-roll”. She made it her task to find me the “Christian” alternative to Metallica. At this point in my life my only exposure to Contemporary Christian Music was the mundane crap that was peddled on the local Christian radio station.… Continued →

RESTLESS YOUTH In the year 1998 a small, quiet town in rural North Dakota was the place that I called home. I was about to enter the seventh grade and my life revolved around three things; sports, girls, and church… probably in that order. I spent my days in school, and my evenings either at practice for whatever sport was in season or walking around town consuming vast quantities of Dr.… Continued →