Beyond our galaxy

Alright, because my last post was in part a plug for some awesome music, let me now give a short plug for some truly incredible music.

For the last few years, I've been quite an avid fan of anything that Steve Hindalong or Marc Byrd associate themselves with. It began with Cool Hand Luke, that once hardcore, then shoegazer/art/indie, then hardcore again, band that first revealed to me that, yes, praise the Lord, there is Christian indie music out there. Then I realised that Steve had also been a key member and songwriter in The Choir, who I'd loved when younger, and who, when listening to their 1996 album "Free Flying Soul" in my 20s, now reminded me a bit of a dreamier Sebadoh. Their album from last year, "O How the Mighty Have Fallen", confirmed that they really are awesome, and some of it can be heard on their MySpace (along with the classic, "About Love"). Then there's Hammock, the new collaboration between Marc Byrd and his Common Children collaborator Andrew Thompson. They play magically beautiful music that is somewhere between Sigur Ros and Aphex Twin, and they can be heard on their MySpace.

My latest discovery is Christine Glass, Marc's wife, who provided angelic vocals on both Cool Hand Luke albums, and has sung with Hammock and in a collaboration with Marc, appropriately called Glassbyrd. While trawling the web for Christian music that we could get very excited about, fellow-Christian indie obsessive Lachie and I encountered Christine's MySpace which featured, much to my excitement, a Hammock cover of the Catherine Wheel classic, "Black Metallic" with Christine providing vocals. Now, there are two things I'd like to say about that song. Firstly, it has very similar chords to "God of Wonders" - Marc, were you thinking of that song when you wrote yours? Perhaps? Secondly, however, it's amazing. I mean, really amazing. The original has been a favourite of mine for a while, and I was astonished by how Hammock were actually able to add something to a song that they owe such a clear debt to.

When I get so excited about really good Christian music, I sometimes wonder why. Music doesn't need to be Christian for me to like it, of course, and yet I know that I identify with Christian music in a way that I don't with almost anything else. And yet I'm quite profoundly limited by how damn boring most Christian music is that when I discover something I really like, I like it so much more for the sheer fact that it exists. Finding the Hammock version of "Black Metallic" was particularly special for me because it helped give that much-needed confirmation for me that, yes, there are other Christians who like the same music as me.

A Christian man I have the utmost respect for in most cases once talked about a youth group leader he knew who was really into "alternative" music only to be convicted that he was being a bad example for his youth group kids. I don't know what "alternative" music he was listening to, but, aside from being creative and interesting, there's really very little, if anything, in much indie music that other Christians have reason to be offended by. Besides, in one of those lovely double-standards that I'd let get to me if I wasn't trying to be godly and loving, many Christians are willing to listen to JT singing about sex on, quite literally, every song of his new(ish) album. There's nothing more Christian about mainstream music. It's just that more Christians listen to it. But I go to Hammock's website (www.hammockmusic.com) and see their amazing commitment to art and beauty there, and I can't help but feel that this, so much more than all the crap that gets played on Nova and Mix FM, brings glory to God, because it declares the glory of all that He has created - quite fitting, I guess, from the man who wrote these words:

God of wonders, beyond our galaxy
You are holy, holy
The universe declares your majesty
You are holy, holy.

It shouldn't just be the words that declare God's glory. It should be the music too. Marc, Steve and Christine have that down-pat in their music, and it's for that that I love them.

(And on that note, how awesome are mewithoutyou?)