Hot List: Remedy Drive

You've just got to check out this up-and-coming band from Nebraska. It's four brothers—Daniel, Paul, Philip, and David Zach. We like this song "Daylight," from their first major release Daylight Is Coming. It's all about the hope that only God can give. So watch for Remedy Drive's album release on August 26. In the meantime, watch this video. And read a little more about the band in on page 5 of the August issue of ec.

Remedy Drive
Daylight is Coming
© 2008 (Word Records / Warner Bros)

Not without love

Last week, CCM artist Jimmy Needham dropped by to talk about his new album (Not Without Love), which hits the streets on August 19. He also took some time to chat about the reason he does what he does, saying “if all this were gone tomorrow, it would be OK.” That's a refreshing kind of humility we don't often get to see.

Jimmy actually had a lot of interesting things to say, especially as he talked about the problem he has with thinking he has to earn God's love. Truth be told, I have a problem with the same thing a lot of the time. We both know that God has brought us into His family through His grace and mercy, but the idea all too soon creeps in that we have to do something that makes us deserving of it. And God doesn't extend His grace because we deserve it; He does it because of who He is.

Here's what Jimmy had to say about grace on his blog at his Web site: “I was all about sharing the Lord," he explains. "I carried tracts everywhere I went. I was like Bibleman. It was so wearing on me. It got to the point that I couldn't walk into a supermarket without feeling like a failure if I didn't witness to every cashier in the place. I was working really hard to put a smile on Jesus' face because I was afraid if I didn't, He was going to be disappointed in me."”

“I discovered that zeal and passion for God is a good thing, but if you don't love people, it doesn't count for much. It is good to speak the truth, but it is so much better to speak the truth in love. I realized I had shared the gospel with so many people in the flesh, but all they knew was the Bible beater. I could have just loved on them and what impact would that have had? God has called us to joy. We have the hope of eternal life. That's really what this album is all about.”

So if you like singer/songwriters who push you to think, Jimmy's your guy. He sounds a little like Marc Broussard and Jason Mraz. Plus, he's humble and serious about pursuing God. Which is something we absolutely support at ec.

Friday Snippets and Soundbites

• Cave explorers are working to map Snowy River, which is actually a massive formation of tiny calcite crystals on the floor of a cave in southeastern New Mexico. It's thought to be the longest continuous cave formation in the world. The cave's floor is covered with a white formation that oddly resembles a river, hence the name. The Fort Stanton Cave Study Project began a surveying expedition in early July. They hope to add several more miles to the cave's known measurement and continue discovering previously unknown microbes.

• In Russia this week, the government announced that they had found the remains of the last Tsar's 13-year-old son and 19-year-old daughter near the home in Yekaterinburg where Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, and three of his daughters were killed in July 1918 as part of the Bolshevik Revolution. Before the identification of the missing daughter, several women had claimed to be the Grand Duchess Anastasia, most notably Anna Anderson in the U.S. Her claims were proven false.

• Are you an amateur videographer? Well, Carma Laboratories, Inc., the makers of Carmex lip balm, have just the contest for you. They're looking for participants in the "Share the Tingle" video contest. You just have to make an original video that features the products and answers the question, how do you share the Carmex tingle? Videos can be no longer than 3 minutes and must be uploaded to www.youtube.com/group/carmex. You could win $5,000, a Canon high-def camcorder, and a five-year supply of Carmex lip balm. Go here for more info.

• New artist Francesca Battistelli released her first major album on Tuesday. The album, released by the Fervent Records artist, is called My Paper Heart. “This young singer/songwriter reaches out with her smooth piano-pop style, which is much more adult contemporary oriented than sugar-coated bubble gum teenage pop. Keep your eyes and ears on this young lady, because she is definitely here to stay!”said writers at Jesusfreakhideout. For more info on Francesca, go here.

Friday Snippets and Soundbites

• Police in Flint, Mich., are replacing hundreds of missing—and presumed stole—wait for it. . . .manhole covers. Apparently nearly 400 cast iron manhole covers have disappeared from the city in the past year. Officials think they may have been sold for scrap. A cover generally fetches $20 at a scrap yard. . . but can cost the city up to $200 during the same period. The city is working on stopping the problem by outfitting the covers with a bolt that can only be turned by a specific wrench that only they have.

• Capital Lights' This Is an Outrage, an album the ec team raved about and Jen even mentioned in a "Music Minute" post, is seeing success on the charts. It landed on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart this week at number 51 and made an appearance on Billboard's Christian rock chart at number 12 and Top Christian Albums at number 34. In addition, This Is An Outrage grabbed the attention of the digital buyers on iTunes as it debuted on overall Rock Chart at number 27 during street week.

• Rocco the beagle is finally going home. Rocco wandered away from his New York City home five years ago and was reunited with them this week after being discovered 850 miles away. In Hinseville, Ga. Someone dropped the dog off at a local shelter on July 5, and employees used a microchip embedded under the dog's skin to find his family. Natalie, who was only 5 years old when Rocco disappeared, was ecstatic.

• Speaking of pets, do any of you have a cat? You'll relate to this video.

DecembeRadio is satisfied!

Hey, ec readers!
I just got back from a meet 'n greet and interview with the band DecembeRadio. If you don't remember these guys, their self-titled first album came out in June 2006. They were nominated for a Grammy in 2007 and received four Dove Award nominations. They came home with the Dove Award for Rock Album of the Year, which was a pretty big deal, since the Virginia-based foursome was a pretty new face in the Christian music world.

The guys are all set to release their second album, Satisfied, in August. And took some time to talk about what they've learned from their success with me. Here's a few outtakes:

“The Grammy nod, we definitely didn't expect that," says Josh Reedy, lead singer and bass player. “God humbles you in strange ways. You know, we just went from playing the Third Day tour to a small town in Mississippi where everything was run through a Peavey system on sticks that basically blew up. We had to move the whole thing inside and play and almost no one was there."

The guys pointed out that early in their career, they traveled with an evangelist who really helped them to see that all of this wasn't really about them; it was about God.

“God put us on the floor face up toward Him. ‘This is not about you,’ He said. ‘Music shouldn't be your God,’” says Reedy.

The band seeks to stay spiritually grounded and focused on giving God the glory by spending time in prayer—with each other as a band and separately. And they're thankful for the spiritual grounding and discipleship they got early on as a band by traveling with an evangelist who became a mentor of sorts.

And according to Brian Bunn, lead guitar and vocals, they've also got three other things in their lives that help them stay grounded and humble:

“A, Your wife will help you stay humble," he says. “B, We still travel on a 15-passenger van. That reminds us every time we get on. And C, whenever we fly into airports, people ask us, ‘Who are you?’ When we tell them DecembeRadio, they don't recognize us and it's like ‘Hey, yeah, can you move your bags?’”

All in all, these guys are the real deal. Give Satisfied a listen when it comes out on August 26, 2008. Meanwhile, check out these hits from the first album:
"Drifter"


"Love Found Me"

Surviving Revelation

Get ready for another "when-I-was-your-age" story! But I promise, this one has a point!

When I was in high school, I attended a small church in my hometown. It was the church I grew up in, and my parents were very active. . . meaning my brother and I were, too. At some point in high school, we started having a student-led Bible study on Wednesday or Sunday nights in the church basement.

There were three of us. Three. Seriously, this was our youth group.

Here's the deal: we were all Christians, but most of us, me included, hadn't made much of an effort to go very deep in our relationships with Christ. We knew Him; we loved Him; but we didn't pursue Him or let Him make a daily difference in our lives. So really, this Bible study was probably a good thing for us, because it was a step in the right direction. We were at least trying to put some spiritual disciplines into practice in our lives.

But here we were, three high school students who hadn't gone very deep in our relationships with God trying to study Revelation. Yes, we picked Revelation to begin our Bible study! It was sort of like the blind leading the blind.

Don't get me wrong: I think studying Revelation is important. I think studying the whole of Scripture is vital. The Bible is one of the ways God reveals Himself to us. We have to read His Word to know Him more. But if you're anything like me all those years ago in that Bible study, you know it's easy to get more caught up in the study of end times than seeking to learn and apply God's Word in your life.

As an adult, I realize that there are a lot of differing viewpoints on the various aspects and events that will lead up to and follow Christ's return. And it's all too easy for us to get caught up in trying to figure out which one is right. Here's what we do know: Jesus is coming back some day; He'll be victorious; and God has a plan for His children to spend all eternity with Him. That's the source of our hope.

The Bible doesn't spell out every last detail of what will happen at the end of time. But it does instruct us, multiple times, to love God, love others, and proclaim the gospel.

So study His Word and ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand. Rest in the hope that God doesn't forget you, and, one day, Jesus is coming back. Spend your time doing things that have eternal value, like loving God, loving others, and proclaiming God's message of hope.

Friday Snippets and Soundbites

• Need a pick-me-up on a summer Friday? Try this video on for size. And once you're thinking about "the opener," why not give a listen to Randall Goodgame's song about being an opening act?


• Speaking of music, I Am Terrified, Gotee’s newest metal core band, will unveil their six-song EP next week on their launch tour. The tour begins with a July 18 hometown CD release event in Birmingham, Ala., (Life Church 1449 Court Place Pelham, AL) where fans can purchase the EP exclusively. The EP will be available for purchase at iTunes on July 29th or be pre-ordered at Zambooie.

• If you saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, you kind of know what a crystal skull might look like. The really interesting part? Crystal skulls actually exist. But this week, scientists at the Quai Branly Museum, the British Museum, and the Smithsonian all said several crystal skulls in their exhibits were revealed to be fakes, not masterpieces crafted by Aztec craftsmen a few hundred years ago. Want to know more? Go here.

• Want to see what the ec team has been up to? Well, don't try this one at home. Here's a little prank we played on a coworker who was out of the office for awhile.

Poor Karen!

Music Minute

Jen here, with a look at Christian music this week. Not a lot is going on; the dog days of summer have settled in, officially — until August 11, according to Wiki (check out that link for a little astronomy lesson, which isn't as geeky as you might think).

What's brand new: New releases from Relient K, Joel Auge, Capital Lights and Sever Your Ties will hopefully take the edge off the heat and help you relax into your summer.

Special props to ec's copy editor Emily, who is recovering from a tonsillectomy. Get well soon!



What we like:
The ec team got copies of the new Capital Lights album This Is an Outrage!" in our mailboxes last week, and I don't know about anybody else, but I **love** this album and can't stop listening to it. It's full of power-pop hooks that will stick in your brain for days at a time. Fans of Relient K and Hawk Nelson should check it out. Favorite tracks: "Mile Away" and "Out of Control."





Speaking of Relient K, they released a 26-song EP (no, that's not a typo!) on July 1 called The Bird and the Bee Sides. (For anyone born after 1980, the "A" side of a 45rpm record was typically the radio single. The "B" side was the flip side of the single. Some bands release B-side albums — with songs that weren't released as singles, are exclusive, or non-album tracks.) Bee Sides is available at Target for $9.99. You can also pick it up on iTunes for the same price. We like "The Scene and Herd," but there's plenty to go around on this album.



Joel Augé has a new album full of solid, catchy acoustic rock called On the Blue. We like "Even the Rocks." Joel also gets the award this week for coolest album cover / myspace design (hey, I'm the designer!). Nice work, guys!



What we're looking forward to: Fall.

What we don't like: Warm ketchup, wet beach towels, and sand in your teeth.

Leave a comment with your favorite summer tunes!

Attention, campers!

Camp is on my mind this week. Many of you have already been to camp this summer and some of you are sure to go before August comes to a close. But this week, my brother (who is a volunteer youth leader in the church we grew up in) and his wife are taking their fledgling youth group to FUGE. It's the first time many of these students have been that far away from home. It's definitely the first time they've taken part in a church camp that's, well, that big.

Yesterday, I left him a message to let him know I was praying for him and the crew. I just felt the need to pray pressing on me, so I did. He called in the afternoon, saying they were on their way. Later that night, he called to say things weren't going so well. Kids were homesick; the pool wasn't open; this camp was "too different," and they didn't know anyone. "I don't know what to do," he said, his wife echoing the sentiment in the background. "Their attitudes have to change."

He called me back around 10:45 p.m. Things were going better, he said. It was only the first day of camp and things will hit full force today—and hopefully, his students won't have time for complaining and homesickness.

Here's the point: your attitude at camp makes a difference. If you arrive ready to find fault and dislike the experience, you probably will. And you'll have squandered an opportunity to grow in your faith and get to know God on a deeper level. If you spend all your time complaining to your leaders, you not only ruin the experience for them, but you also make it very clear that you think you're the most important person there. Sometimes camp is the experience that God uses to separate us from all the stuff going on in our lives so that He can work in our lives and speak to our hearts. It would be a shame to miss out on that because you were too caught up in complaining about the heat, the pool, the distance from camp to home.

Your camp experience will be what you make it. Your attitude matters. Check out Kyle Cravens' story on page 50 of the July issue of ec for ideas on how to get the most out of camp. Regard it as an opportunity to grow in faith, deepen your relationships with others in your youth group, and just enjoy the fellowship of other believers.

God is at work. Don't miss it!

Friday Snippets and Soundbites—A day late

• Happy July 4, ec fans! Need a little info about the holiday to wow your family and friends with? Independence Day commemorates the day the Declaration of Independence was adopted. The Continental Congress declared independence on July 2, 1776, adopted the final draft on July 4, 1776, and started signing the document in August of 1776.

• Check out this video about a guy who gave up his day job to become a full-time fire-eating magician. His hairstyle also deserves an honorable mention!

• Popular reality show "American Idol," a fave of ec editor Mandy, recently announced the audition cities and dates for the next season. They are: San Francisco: July 17,; Louisville, Ky.: July 21; Phoenix: July 25 ; Salt Lake City: July 29; San Juan, Puerto Rico: Aug. 2 ; Kansas City, Mo.: Aug. 8; Jacksonville, Fla.: Aug. 13; and East Rutherford, N.J.: Aug. 19. The show will audition outside the U.S. for the first time this year with the stop in San Juan. Auditions are open to singers ages 16-18. Need more info? Go here.

• And the ugliest dog title goes to. . . Gus! The Chinese crested with three legs, one eye, and not a lot of hair claimed the title last week at a fair in northern California. Gus is actually a pedigree dog, meaning he's pure-blooded Chinese crested. He won $500 for his "beauty," and celebrated with a much needed nap.

Welcome to July!

That's right, it's already July! Summer's in full swing and a great holiday weekend is just around the corner. (For those in the United States, that is!)

We hope that you've gotten your July issue of ec at church. Be sure to check out the lead article on end times and our guide to the Summer Olympics, which are just around the corner. And if you'll be going to camp this summer, be sure to check out veteran camp staffer Kyle Cravens' article about how to get the most out of that week on page 50. And of course, there are also music reviews in the July issue, including Hawk Nelson, Skillet, the Afters, and Stellar Kart.

And while you're here, why don't you give us some of your thoughts on the magazine? We love comments. Or answer the Question of the Month. We want to hear from you!
(Yes, you, right there at the keyboard.)