Music Minute

Jen here, with a look at what's happening right now in Christian music.

What's brand new: Fourteen Christian albums released onto the market yesterday, and there's something for everyone. In addition to new stuff from the David Crowder Band, Salvador, Telecast, Dizmas and Charlie Hall, you'll also find a great big heap of two-for-one albums from Sparrow and Forefront artists like Bethany Dillon and TobyMac. 

What we like: 



• The Beauty of Simplicity from Telecast is a sparkling, pretty Brit-rock album - but with substance. Telecast says this album is a call to holiness for believers. (We think it's proof that holy doesn't have to be boring.) Check out I Just Need You.


• Latin/funk/Christian band Salvador's Aware has a catchy, upbeat pop song we like called What Would It Be Like.


• Dizmas' self-titled album (their first major-label release) is $7.99 on iTunes right now. It's full of great big guitar - they call themselves "guitartastic" and man, we love that word! We've been singing our guts out to Different.


What we're looking forward to: Former American Idol Chris Sligh (remember his big crazy hair?) releases Running Back to You on May 6. The single Empty Me is available now from iTunes — it's a classic worship ballad that really showcases Sligh's vocal talent. According to his myspace profile, he's also a "nose flautist"—here's hoping there's an example of his talent on the album.


What we don't like: black socks with sandals, xylophone solos, and mean people. 

We really meant it.

When we said we wanted to hear from you, we meant it. Seriously. So here's another chance: let us know what you think! We're planning an article for an upcoming issue about the things that stress you out and make you feel overwhelmed. So we really need you input. Send us e-mail. Leave comments. Go to ec's pages on Facebook and write on the wall or discussion board. We need to hear from you to make ec the magazine for your real life!

Friday Snippets and Soundbites

• Gospel Music Association week kicks off this weekend in Nashville, culminating with the Dove Awards ceremony on April 23. The awards show will be broadcast live on the Gospel Music Channel. The ec team will be hitting some of the showcases and artist interviews, so stay tuned for our take on the festivities. For more information on who's nominated for what, go here.

• Pope Benedict XVI arrived in the United States for his first official visit as the head of the Catholic Church. Upon his arrival in Washington, D.C., he met with the president, celebrated his birthday,http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif met with Catholic educators, held a private meeting with sexual abuse survivors, and celebrated an open-air Mass at Nationals Park. He arrived in New York City today, where he'll meet with the United Nations, visit Ground Zero, celebrate Mass in Yankee Stadium, visit a synagogue, and meet with leaders of other denominations. Read more about it here and here.

• A woman in Maryland gave birth to quadruplets—the even more fantastic part? Three of them are identical! The parents plan to introduce themselves and the boys in a press conference today. There are fewer than 100 documented cases of "identical triplets plus one" in the United States, hospital officials said.

• A couple in Dubuque, Iowa, decided to pay their neighbors back for all the pranks they'd played over the years. So when the neighbors left town for a wedding, they forked their yard. With 3,000 white plastic forks. When passers-by asked what was going on, they said they were "aerating" the yard. They have promised to help the neighbors clean up the mess. See the pictures here.

Heroes

There's something to be said for heroes of the faith. Check out Hebrews 11. In those verses, all the names you'd expect to see in a list of heroes of the faith are there. Noah? Check. Abraham? Yep, he's there. So are Sarah, Isaac, Moses, and David. But then there are those names we don't expect or know little about, like Abel, Enoch, Samson,and Rahab the prostitute. The point? God uses all kinds of people with all kinds of pasts and in all kinds of situations. You may think you're unworthy but God doesn't.

In the April issue of ec, we challenged you to live a legacy in the lead article, "Heroes: Living a Legacy." And we asked some of you to share who the heroes of faith were in your life. Let's continue that discussion here. Who has been a hero of the faith in your life? Who has challenged you to go deeper in your journey? Who has helped you to better understand what it means to live as a person of faith in this crazy world? Tell us all about it, you know, in the comments section!

Seriously. We want to hear from you!

Last week, we posted a request for you to let us know what kinds of things cause you stress or make you feel overwhelmed. The response? Yeah, underwhelming! We really do want to know what kinds of things are stressful and overwhelming. . . .for a good reason: we're planning an article about these things and ways to deal with them. We just need to know what they are first. So leave your thoughts in the comments section, email us, or jog on over the ec's pages on Facebook and leave some comments on the discussion board.

This is your magazine! Let us hear your voice!

Friday Snippets and Soundbites

• VisitBritian, the national tourism office for England, Scotland, and Wales, announced its "Made in Manchester" contest this week. The idea is that people design a New Balance sneaker for Grammy nominated singer/songwriter KT Tunstall. Tunstall will judge the entries and select the winner. New Balance will only make two limited editions of the winning shoes—one for the winner and one, of course, for KT Tunstall. The winner will also get an all-expense paid trip to Manchester to attend a live performance on June 17. Check it all out at www.madinmanchester.us.

• Speaking of the British, popular British band Coldplay is at work on their fourth studio album. It's set to hit stores in May and is still untitled. They say this album will be markedly different. "We felt like the first three albums were a trilogy, and we finished that," says guitarist Johnny Buckland. "So we wanted to do something different." The band let Rolling Stone hear some of the tracks, and the magazine says the songs are darker, rougher around the edges, and "bracingly different from Coldplay hits like 'Clocks‘ and ‘Speed of Sound.’”

• Police in Maine are searching for a man accused of stealing a guitar from a music store. That's not all that strange, but how he did it is. The man reportedly picked up the Fender Stratocaster, hid it in his pants, and pulled a sweatshirt over the top. Two other men served as lookouts, and the store's video surveillance caught it all on camera.

• And while we're talking about random and strange police stories, police in Cincinnati say they just followed the trail to find the thieves they suspected of breaking into a candy store. A trail of candy and wrappers, that is. The four suspects were arrested a few blocks away from the store and are accused of stealing about $400 worth of candy.

What's the problem?

Lately, we've been hearing from a lot of teens that you just feel, well, overwhelmed. Some teens talked to us about academic pressures, others mentioned big decisions (like college), still more discussed time management and all the obligations you have, and a few talked about relationships and family. In response to all we've heard about the stressful world you're living in, we wanted to know exactly what things are causing you the most stress or overwhelming you. Let us know in the comments section! Or send us an e-mail!

Friday Snippets and Soundbites

• Christian band Hawk Nelson's latest release, “Hawk Nelson Is My Friend,” dropped on Tuesday. The band is touring in support of the album. Check out their Web site to see when they're coming to a town near you. Don't forget to play the interactive board game!


• Today marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. King was in Memphis, Tenn., in support of African American sanitation workers who were on strike. On April 3, 1968, King delivered his famous "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech at Mason Temple in Memphis. He and his entourage were staying at the Lorraine Motel, and the civil rights leader was shot a day later as he stood on the balcony. A crowd of some 300,000 people attended King's funeral five days later. The Lorraine Motel is now the site of the National Civil Rights Museum.

• Nearly a month after children found a parachute that could have been used by mysterious skyjacker D.B. Cooper, a man examining the chute said it isn't. D.B. Cooper hijacked a Northwest Orient flight from Portland, Ore., to Seattle in November 1971, claiming he had a bomb. After the plane landed safely in Seattle, he demanded $200,000 and four parachutes, then demanded he be flown to Mexico. He bailed out somewhere near the Oregon line. The man who provided the chutes the FBI gave to Cooper in 1971, Earl Cossey, examined the recently discovered parachute and said it was made of silk, while the ones he gave to the FBI were made of nylon.

No Foolin'

Hey ec readers! ! Happy April! We know it's April Fool's Day and all but we decided to go against the grain and *not* trick you today.

Here's a poll to fill out:


We found two YouTube videos that *might* be April Fool's jokes - but we think they're real! So if you're just sitting around bored today, go watch an elephant paint a self-portrait. Is it real? Fake? What do you think? Leave us a comment!

If that's too controversial for you, then check out this video of a dog using a machine to throw a ball. Smart doggy! Cool machine! Do you believe it? (We wish we had one in the hallway here at ec!)