Eisley

You can now hear 3 songs off of their upcoming record, "Room Noises", which hits stores on February 8th, plus a remix of one of those songs. Here you go:

"Telescope Eyes" (Quicktime)
"Telescope Eyes" (Windows Media Player, 128k/fast)
"Telescope Eyes" (Windows Media Player, 56k/slow)

"Golly Sondra" (Quicktime)
"Golly Sondra" (Windows Media Player, 128k/fast)
"Golly Sondra" (Windows Media Player, 56k/slow)

"Lost At Sea" (Quicktime)
"Lost At Sea" (Windows Media Player, 128k/fast)
"Lost At Sea" (Windows Media Player, 56k/slow)

"Lost At Sea (Remix)" (Quicktime)
"Lost At Sea (Remix)" (Windows Media Player, 128k/fast)
"Lost At Sea (Remix)" (Windows Media Player, 56k/slow)

You can watch their video for "Marvelous Things", featuring the version off of "The Marvelous Things EP", here.
You can join their e-team, E-Merge, by clicking here.

I cannot wait until the album is in stores. Eisley is the type of band I can't really explain why I like them, but they are easily one of my favorites even without having released a full-length album. What do y'all think about the new songs?

I Like "Elf", "Elf" Is My Favorite

The movie "Elf" is officially the greatest thing ever. I've seen it 3 times now and each time I was feeling really crummy going in and I came out so happy it's almost sickening. I'm giddy. I'm smiling. Non-stop. I don't think anyone but Will Ferrell could have played that part so perfectly. It had every chance to be a stupid kids movie but it prevailed as a pristine piece of feel-good comedy. Many people's lives were saved thanks to "Elf's" calming affect on me. Ok, so no one's life was saved, but many inanimate objects were spared of my wrath. That is a fact.

Oh, I also saw "Citizen Kane" today in my film lab. Great film. I can now join serious discussions on film. Woohoo!

Later...

"I like to smile! Smiling's my favorite."
"SANTA! OH MY GOD! SANTA'S COMING! I KNOW HIM! I KNOW HIM!"
"You're not Santa. You smell like beef and cheese! You don't smell like Santa!"
"I thought maybe we could make ginger bread houses, and eat cookie dough, and go ice skating, and maybe even hold hands."
"I passed through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, and then I walked through the Lincoln Tunnel."
"Have you seen these toilets? They're GINORMOUS"
" First we'll make snow angels for two hours, then we'll go ice skating, then we'll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse Cookiedough as fast as we can, and then we'll snuggle."
"The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear."
"I'm a cotton-headed ninny-muggins."
"SON of a NUTcracker!"
- Buddy Elf

Eating Gator and Turkey

I'm pretty excited about the Florida State game against Florida this Saturday. Not just because it's always a fun game to watch, but because I will actually be there which I've only done once so far this season. I would love to be able to make it in time for the first FSU basketball game on Friday night, but it doesn't look I'll be able to leave here until about 3. The great news is that I'll be home ALL next week for Thanksgiving. It's going to be a blast. It'll be nice to get away from school, though I'll have a little bit of work to do over the break. I'm not so worried about school at the moment, I still have no idea what I want to do but I'm suddenly ok with that. I'm pretty stoked about my classes next semester (I registered a few days ago), which include Private Guitar, Psychology, and Computer. It should be good stuff, and not too hard, which is the best part. I'm going to leave you with a list of the bands that carried me through this post:

The Beach Boys
Switchfoot
Ben Folds
Cool Hand Luke

Later...

School Sucks, Mmhmm Rocks

Guy 1: "I went to catholic school for twelve years."
Guy 2: "If you went to catholic school for twelve years, why aren't you catholic?"
Guy 1: "Because I went to catholic school for twelve years."

I've gone to school for over twelve years and I am downright sick of it. If I could only function outside of the classroom (some might argue, as would I, that I don't function inside the classroom either) I might consider dropping out of school. But I couldn't do that because I've always been taught in school that I need to stay in school. "You never stop learning", they say. I argue that you stop learning somewhere around the 9th grade. School just seems like a waste of time right now, but my lack of effort is a waste of mind. If I'm going to stick with this, as it seems I am for at least one more semester, I might as well do my best. I better start salvaging this semester, I've only got about 2 weeks left before finals. Good times...

If you haven't already gone out and bought Relient K's new album, "Mmhmm", you really need to. It is simply incredible. By the way, it debuted at #15 on the Billboard Top 200 Album's chart. That's pretty amazing, considering all that was pretty much accomplished by an 'independent' band. It will be interesting to see what happens when Capitol starts to push the album.

Later...

Freakin' Maryland!?!? And One Awesome Concert

Florida State lost to Maryland. Pathetic. Maryland. Pathetic Maryland beat FSU. FSU lost to pathetic. FSU was pathetic.

I went to an amazing concert tonight. I saw Nickel Creek and Howie Day in concert at the historic Ryman Auditorium. I'd never heard the music of Howie Day before but I consider him one of my favorites now. He puts on one heck of a live show. With just a guitar, and several different pedals, he is able to create the sound and effect of a full band. Nickel Creek was very good as well. I had heard their music before but wasn't too familiar with them. More later, I've got to get some sleep.

Maebelle Plant: 1983-2004

Please pray for me and my family as we mourn the loss of my great-grandmother. She passed away yesterday at the age of 111. She was a wonderful servant of God and I am happy that she is finally home, but it's still tough to lose a loved one. Her passing has made me evaluate my life and where I'm at with God. These verses are quite comforting:

2 Corinthians 5:6-8
Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:  (For we walk by faith, not by sight) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

Revelation 21: 4
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

The title of yesterday's post, though it was just something odd I came up with to be stupid, fits my day today perfectly. I went to class, hung out with friends, did a lot of laughing, then I got the call from my Dad. I cried for a while and thought about the things I could learn from her life. She never gave up on God. Never. No matter what happened in her life she found comfort and strength in The Almighty. For years now she's said she was ready to go home, I can't wait to see her again someday.

Yo-Yo's Go Up And Down (And So Do I)

Man. It's a really busy time. So much is going on in our world right now, from the trivial to the critical. I was really into this whole election a few weeks ago but I'm just ready for it to be over now. Four more years of Bush would be awesome, but it leaves me fearing for what will happen after that. I've already voted (absentee ballot) so I'm kind of done keeping up with that stuff, until election day that is.

You should know by now that Relient K has a new album coming out on November 2nd entitled, "mmhmm". If you don't know that, then I have failed in my duties as an obsessed fanboy. Head over to mmhmm.com to check out some songs, watch some funny commercials, and there's free food. Everything except the cheap cuisine is true.

Later...

Pulling Through

Some of you may know that I've been struggling lately in my relationship with God. Well, I have some good news: I'm starting to come around. I described it to someone the other day as if I've been traveling through a dark tunnel and now I'm finally starting to see some light up ahead. That might be cliche, but it describes my situation perfectly. I'm beginning to see how all of the stuff I've been through makes me who I am. I've tried some different things out and in the end it's very clear that I am not any of the people I've tried to be, I am the person God made me to be. I don't look down on anyone for anything that they've done or are doing because I've been through that period of searching, but at the same time I no longer feel the pressure to do that stuff because I am confident with who I am. I think I may have finally found faith rather than religion. That is a beautiful thing. Later...

Another Day, Another Set of Lost Intentions

I am a bum. Not in the flannel-shirt-wearing, panhandling kind of way, though I probably don't bath as much as I should, but in the sense that lately I don't finish the things I start. When I say lately I'm taking about the last few years. I've been meaning to write something like this for a while but I just never got arou

More NEW RK SONGS

Go to mmhmm.com then click on Listen. Right now you can hear Who I Am Hates Who I've Been and a new clip will be added every Tuesday until November 2nd when the new album comes out. Enjoy!

Movies, movies, movies, and (take a guess) more movies...

So, a couple of weeks ago I bought a BlockBuster Movie Pass, which allows me to make unlimited rentals for a month. I did this so I could rent movies for my Anatomy Of Film class. I have to watch 10 movies this semester and write a screening report for 5 of them. Have I watched any movies for the class yet? Only one, and I didn't write the report on it. But, I have been watching TON's of movies! I've rented probably about 30 movies in the last two weeks. I've been presently surprised with some of them (Cold Mountain, Club Dread, Man On Fire, Traffic), not so surprised at the stupidity of others (Dorm Daze, Auto Focus), and have even found a few new favorites (Rounders, Hellboy). But the best movie I've seen this summer, and now fall, is Garden State. GO SEE IT NOW! I woudn't suggest that you go see The Forgotten. It was alright, but nothing special in any way. Definitely check out Napoleon Dynamite, it's flippin' sweet! I'm going to try and post more often, but we'll see how that turns out.

NEW RELIENT K SONGS

Go to www.purevolume.com/relientk to hear two new songs off of Relient K's forthcoming album, "MMHMM". The two tracks that are up are "The One I'm Waiting For" and "I So Hate Consequences". MMHMM comes out Nov. 2, be sure to pick it up then. Later...

COLLEGE

Stay in school kiddies! All the years of torture are rewarded when you make it to college...

Title: Knight Of Day or The Spectrum?

I don't think anyone is even reading this, but I thought I'd ask for your input anyways. Some of you may know that Knight Of Day Ministries was something I did a little work on in the past, and that I now have no interest in doing that type of work. When I registered this blog I used the name Knight Of Day because that was the name I was using on pretty much everything at that time. Now I kind of want to get rid of that title, or at least not use it for everything. In trying to come up with a new title for this blog I came up with The Spectrum. I like it. But, I want your input on it. The reason I like The Spectrum is that I want to be able to write about anything and that name obviously gives me the oppurtunity to go all over the place. Just leave your comments under the appropriately titled comment section. Thanks...

The Nashville Rythym

I am so excited about the new ABA expansion team the Nashville Rythym. The Rythym will be playing at Allen Arena, which is about 50 yards from my dorm on the campus of Lipscomb University. I'm not living there yet, but I'm moving at the end of next week. The Rythym are the first professional men's team to be coached by a female. The $4 ticket price, for students, is a great deal.

Later...

'Good Night Good Fight' Video

I finally saw The Evan Anthem's new video for the song 'Good Night Good Fight'. I was really impressed by how cool this video is. I know there wasn't much of a budget but it still managed to interest me. I really enjoyed what is basically a live version of the cover art from their debut album. Enough of me talking about it, go and see it yourself. Go here to hear some more song's.

I told you it was good. For me, it just cements TEA's top spot on my 'Bands I Most Want To See Live' list. This little blurb in the bio also intrigues me:

"A relentless touring act, The Evan Anthem’s live show is already in a class by itself among their underground following. Having toured with peers like Relient K, Anberlin, Don’t Look Down, Spoken, and Cool Hand Luke, and shared the stage with Mewithoutyou, Norma Jean and Matthew; their reputation for ingenuity is already firmly entrenched. The Evan Anthem’s concerts incorporate various audio clips from motion pictures and perfectly timed drum loops as their stage intro and various transitional interludes. Depending on their mood and setting, occasional lamps and televisions augment the visual assault on stage as the band orchestrates everything to coincide with what’s taking place musically, giving their audience a compelling new experience rather than simply another good live show."

Sounds pretty damn cool.

The Pursuit of Pure Artistry

I've done a lot of thinking over the last few years about the responsibility held by artists to infuse integrity and purity into their work. As I dug into music I discovered that much of what is being produced today just doesn't have that undefineable yet undeniable quality that connects me to a great muscian like Johnny Cash. Today I had the pleasure of listening to a few songs by a modern singer who has 'it'. In the words of Jack Black, "I don't know what 'it' is but he's got it." This artist is Sufjan Stevens. His music could be described as both ambitious and simplistic. 'Simple' doesn't really sound like the right word once you are accustomed to Steven's songs, but it is a good enough adjective for a newcomer to his arrangements. Not everyone will like this music, but those who have an open musical mind will find great rewards hidden within. His newest disk, "Seven Swans", is possibly the most beautiful collection of songs I've ever heard. Imagine you've been laying out on the beach all day long. You are now sweaty, covered in sand, and ready to get out of the heat. So, you take a dip in the ocean or in a swimming pool. Isn't that refreshing? Sufjan Stevens is my musical refreshment. I have been out in the heat far too long, and this album is a welcome retreat into cool, calm waters. I also highly recommend "Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lakes State". This is the first of fifty albums that Steven's has pledged to make on every State in the Union. That is the most ambitious promise I have ever heard any artist make, and even he admits that it is more something he would like to do than something that will actually happen, but I will be anxiously awaiting each and every one. Let's hope he not only puts out all 50 'state' albums but that he continues putting out fantastic disks like "Seven Swans".



On almost the exact opposite end of the musical spectrum, I have been listening to Chevelle's "Wonder What's Next" a lot lately. They are fast becoming my favorite hard rock band. Their new single, 'Vitamin R (Leading Us Along)', was released a few weeks ago. It's a great song that has me eagerly anticipating the release of "This Type Of Thinking (Could Do Us In)" on September 21.



Later...

Love

I love this template. Absolutely love it! It's gorgeous. I just can't get over how awesome it is. I was trying to find something witty or insightful to write in this blog, but all I could come up with was how amazing this template is. I'll do witty later.

Great Music

Copeland- Beneath Medicine Tree
Lovedrug- Pretend You Are Alive

COMING SOON

This blog is currently in the planning stages. Most likely, this will become my personal blog, and all K.O.D. business will be done on that site (http://knightofday.tallahasseedistrict.org). I'm considering switching to a xanga, but this template is so darn cool. However, I really like how xanga's set up. I'll think it through and get back to you.