One of my favourite things about social networks is the ability to discover new music and generally speaking it’s always nice (apart from Wheatus’ newest material which is interesting at best).

Here are my latest discoveries which I think are worth downloading

Indevotion

Indevotion are a Swedish pop/rock band with a hint of electro probably best likened to Paramore but with more synths. Their music is just lots of fun.

Check them out here

Paper Route

I first came across this band last year and wasn’t really a fan but they made their latest release ‘The Peace of Wild Things’ available for free on NoiseTrade so I gave it a download and actually really like it. Wikipedia describes them as indie-rock which is probably close enough to what they are.

You can download the album free on NoiseTrade here

Miserable Man

Finally I discovered Miserable Man through his busking in Norwich without even going there! 

One of the people I follow on YouTube did a ‘day in the life of’ which included filming a little bit of Miserable Man (and support) busking and a quick glimpse of his card. 

Miserable Man mostly does ska/reggae covers of songs and they are incredible. I especially like his version of Radiohead’s ‘Creep’.

You can download his stuff for free on his website here

So there you go. 3 little music recommendations for you!

Monday next week is the start of Christian Aid week and whilst in the past I’ve never really done much (or rather, anything!) for it this year Jo & I are going to be participating in the ‘Live Below The Line’ challenge.

Basically in our world lots of people in the world don’t have enough food to eat. There is more than enough food in the world to go around but it’s not distributed evenly. There are 1.4 billion people in the world living in extreme poverty which is defined as living on less then £1 a day.

For 5 days next week Jo & I will live off £1 a day each for 5 days giving us a grand total of £10 to keep us both fed for the week. We can’t use anything already in our cupboards (or steal food!). We’re going to give the remaining amount of our shopping budget from that week to Christian Aid who will help those who don’t have enough food. 

If you’d like to sponsor us in this you can do so here

I’m also planning to vlog my way through the week. Every day next week over on my YouTube channel I’m going to do a daily vlog (which will total 6 or 7 as they’ll be an intro one and maybe a reflection one). The first video should be up next Monday morning (assuming I manage to edit in time!)

Today (after months of work) my new album ‘Thirteen Months’ is out worldwide.

Thirteen Months is my second album and is basically the result of me setting myself a challenge to write one song a month for thirteen months to capture my thoughts in an album.

The album is 13 tracks long and you can buy it on iTunes, Amazon etc.

I’m also giving the album away on my Bandcamp page where you can download it for zero if you want (name your price!).

I’ve also had a very limited run of physical CDs done of the album which you can pick up for £5 each plus minimal P&P (I’m also having a sale on CDs of Escape This Town which are now £3 each or you can get both albums for £7).

I’m also aiming to blog about song meanings. Over the next 13 weeks I’m planning to blog on a song from the album and the meaning behind it…I’m aiming for this to be a Monday thing.

Links

Bandcamp

Physical CD Store

Amazon

iTunes

Spotify Streammont

Yesterday after days of media attention the youth police and crime commissioner Paris Brown resigned.

Whilst I disagree with the twitter comments she made which referenced drugs, her sex life and were potentially racist/homophobic I disagree more with the way it’s been handled.

In typing this blog I wanted to check my facts but actually finding out when these tweets were posted took a bit of work as the media seems to want you to believe that they’re recent however according to the BBC and Independent they were actually posted over time when she was 14-16.

That doesn’t make the content of them right but I think it should however have had an impact on how the case was viewed. Most teenagers will say something stupid, probably offence and exaggerated.

On top of that between the ages of 14 and 16 you grow up quite a lot and so to drive a 17 year old who made it through over 150 applicants to the position she was in to the point of resignation is (in my opinion) wrong.

Throughout the appointment process she must have come out as one of the strongest candidates, put herself across in a confident and professional manner and with a sense of maturity and so for the media to judge her suitability based on tweets made up to 3 years previously seems incredibly judgemental.

Whilst the whole thing serves as a reminder that it’s important to remember that what is on twitter is indeed public I think it also reminds us how cruel (and hypocritical…especially the Daily Mail!) the media is.

I hope Paris will be able to move on from this and focus on the positivity of making it through the recruitment process out of over 150 young people and not focus on the negatives of the last few days.

(Link: BBC News article)

A new album from Paramore has been a long time coming (Brand New Eyes was released back in 2009). Since the then 5 band members have become 3 and the release of their new, self titled album on Monday sees the beginning of a new era for the band.

I have to admit when they first previewed ‘Now’ as the first new Paramore material I was a little skeptical about the album. ‘Now’ has grown on me but is a big step from previous Paramore material.

However having now listened to the album quite a lot I think it may just be the best album Paramore have ever released!

The difficulty for a band like Paramore is they have a pop-punk following and the feel of songs like ‘Misery Business’ and ‘Crush,Crush,Crush’ are the sort of things people expect and so releasing something different is a brave move however with ‘Paramore’ it totally pays off.

For me ‘Paramore’ strikes the right balance between producing an album that it loyal to their past (and in turn fan-base) but also true to where the band are now personally and as musicians (especially in light of a line-up change).

Overall the album is (in my opinion) slightly more pop than Paramore’s previous albums with a few synths sneaking in but in a more grown up sense of the word pop. The opening track ‘Fast In My Car’ is a great high-energy album opener and sets the mood for the record.

The album is laid out perfectly and the order of songs keeps your attention. The addition of 3 interlude tracks which are essentially Hayley and a ukulele provide nice peaceful moments before the energy kicks back in again.

I think the album also really shows off Hayley’s vocal ability, especially with the gospel-like vocals in ‘Ain’t It Fun’.

I think my favourite tracks at the moment are ‘Ain’t It Fun’, ‘Still Into You’, ‘Daydreaming’ and ‘Interlude: Moving On’…although picking favourite tracks is difficult when the whole album is so good!

Overall Paramore are back and stronger than ever. This is probably their best album to date both musically and lyrically. It has catchy guitar riffs, really ‘fat’ drums (which as a drummer makes me happy) and the vocals are delivered with passion from Hayley Williams. - 4.5/5!

Disclaimer: In this post I’m probably going to make some generalisations. These are from my experience and I’m open to the idea that I may be wrong in some cases but would value your thoughts, discussion & ideas.

I am a youth worker. My role is to work with (sometimes) children and (mostly) young people partly in a schools setting and partly in a church setting. Underpinning the church side lies a desire to see more young people come to church & to discover God for themselves.

I believe whole-heartidly in the importance of reaching out to children and young people and realise that many churches lack children & young people.

However at the same time I think the bigger lack in our churches is the 20/30’s. 

The church I work for recently had some discussions about this and consequently decided to start some new initiatives to encourage families along to churches.

This is great however as a 20-something in the church with no children (and no desire for!) I feel like these is a gap in initiatives aimed at the young married & childless and also the single 20/30-somethings.

In our church I can count the 20/30’s on 1 hand and chatting to other people I know this seems to be a similar thing in many churches (some don’t have any).

Yet in chatting to these same people it becomes apparent that whilst there are some things in place to reach out to families there’s nothing aimed at 20/30’s.

This frustrates me.

This frustrates me because often it means that as someone churched and childless I don’t feel valued by the church. On top of that I’ve seen people in the same position as me leave the church because it doesn’t cater to them.

I see the value of & fully support initiatives aimed at children, young people & families (after all I am a youth worker!)

However I think we need to focus on the childless 20/30’s too. This will support & encourage the few we do have in our churches, provide somewhere for young people in youth work to ‘graduate’ onto (after-all less young people are going to university than they were) and also continue to build the foundations of our churches with some of those 20/30’s going on the produce future members of youth/children’s groups.

After all what’s the use of children’s, youth and families ministry if we don’t fill the gap between youth and families?

What thoughts/comments do you have? How does your church support childless 20/30’s? What does it do well? Do you feel supported? What could it do better?