djByron [Dan Byron]husband, father, christian, musician & technophile ( but not a dj )

Fellow blogger posted these videos last Friday. Watch when you have a few minutes to spare!

Here’s the story behind the song

[via Ragamuffin Soul]

You just can’t help but smile at the chorus and ending of this song. You just don’t see this kind of performance any more!

Just downloaded these two albums on Amazon. Friend of mine told me about this guy yesterday, stopped by his myspace page and couldn’t stop listening to the clips… Great praise and worship material! Very “crowderesque”.

Where Faith Comes From (Released March 4, 2008)
Amazon | iTunes

Where To Begin (Released October 3, 2006)
Amazon | iTunes

On Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/jaredandersonmusic

Just a heads up to all you New York Third Day fans! They’re coming to the Palace Theater in Albany, NY on April 4th, 2008! Also with them will be Sanctus Real, DecemeRadio and Revive.

Get your tickets for the Albany, NY Third Day concert at Ticketmaster now!

Check for other national Third Day concert dates

The new album by Sanctus Real was released today! Here are a few brief sound clips and the corresponding lyrics below.

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Download DRM free on Amazon OR Download DRM free on iTunes

Lay Down My Guns
When I lay down my guns and lift my hands.
Surrender to love and live again
May this desert reach it’s end when my new life begins
When I lay down my guns and lift my hands

Sing
Lord we feel you now
Wanting to come down
And teach us how to…
Sing, oh sing
With one voice, how sweet it will be
When we
Sing, oh sing
One church under one King, and we will sing

Black Coal
There in the darkness beneath the surface of time and space
Could be a treasure that you’d only see through the eyes of grace
Looking for a diamond in the black coal
It feels good when you strike gold
Diamond in the black coal
If you never look then you’re never gonna know

Legacy
What will they say when I’m gone
In words that are written in stone
Under my name what will they claim about me
Oh I want to leave a legacy, to be remembered
More than just a memory, that fades away
Because we only, we only get one life

Download DRM free on Amazon

Download DRM free on iTunes

I’ve seen this happen now on a couple occasions and thought I’d post something about it. Why is it that the producers of children’s programming insist on showcasing censored or modified versions of songs that normally contain explicit lyrics? Today was the second time I’ve seen this happen and probably ONLY the second time because I don’t normally watch TV with a young one.

The first instance was a while back when I walked by a show on the Disney Chanel where the artist Nelly was performing “Ride Wit Me” to a group of pre-teen and young teenagers. I can’t remember just how they pulled this one off considering the song is filled with drug and sexual references on top of the explicit lyrics.

Today was not as bad as that but got me to wondering none-the-less. Preparing Evan his dinner when I hear James Blunt singing about the triangle shape on Sesame Street to the tune of “You’re Beautiful”. Those of you who are familiar with the CD version of the song (which I don’t own mind you) will know that one line in the song states “She could see from my face that I was, F**king high” (flying high on the radio version).

Now I don’t have an issue w/Blunt singing on Sesame Street or Nelly on the Disney Channel but why choose a song that who’s original version contains questionable content? Do these artists have no other songs they can perform in this scenario? My primary point is that both songs are catchy musically (thus their popularity) and what happens when these impressionable young minds want to go out and buy the album that contains the song they just heard on their favorite TV channel?

I kept reading articles today trumpeting the fact that the Warner Music Group library had been added to Amazon’s DRM free mp3 download library. The news here is due to the fact that iTunes is lagging behind by only having 2 million DRM free tracks to Amazon’s 2.9 million.

That being said I decided to give it a whirl and buy an album to try the process out. Seeing as I’m a pretty avid Amazon aficionado I signed in, downloaded their tiny “Amazon MP3 Downloader” application and bought the album using their 1-click method. And that was the hard part! From there I was prompted to open using the Amazon Downloader and everything else was taken care of, INCLUDING importing the album into iTunes once it had downloaded!

Given that the market share belongs to iTunes I won’t go into pros of iTunes. We all know it’s a great all-in-one user experience and super easy to use, so why would one choose to go over to Amazon? Here are a few reasons in my opinion.

1. As of today there are almost one million more DRM free tracks on Amazon than iTunes
2. Tracks purchased through Amazon are in mp3 format as opposed to Apple’s DRM free AAC format. This gives you more future options when it comes to device compatibility.
3. While tracks on Amazon are the same price, if you purchase as an album the price is relatively cheaper. In some cases you may save a dollar or more per album!

So head on over and let me know what you think!

http://www.amazon.com/mp3

Hey you guys need to check out a new band called Mute Math. They’ve been indie for a year or so and have had some great success on their own. Their latest self-titled release is going national on Warner Brothers on September 26th. I saw these guys in concert locally with Switchfoot and what a concert!! I love Jon Foreman’s voice in Switchfoot, but as musicians Mute Math stole the show that night. Being the newcomers, nobody knew what to expect but they blew the crowd away! Such a unique and new sound is refreshing in the musical world we live in.

Mute Math is an American rock band formed in 2003. They combine diverse elements like rock, industrial, white reggae, jazz, new wave, electro, and rave, with catchy, ambient vocals, to create a signature sound that’s innovative, soaring and atmospheric. The group from New Orleans consists of Paul Meany on rhodes, bass, keytar, keyboards, samples, and vocals, Darren King on drums, samples, and programming, Greg Hill on guitars and vocals, and Roy Mitchell-C√°rdenas on bass guitar, and bass drum. - Wikipedia

Check their website out at: www.MuteMath.com or their MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/MuteMath). You can find their music on iTunes and Amazon.

I picked up a Vox Tonelab SE pedalboard for my electric rig back in the fall of 2004 and I love the thing. From time to time I debate if I should get rid of it and replace with some individual pedals but I just can’t get myself to do it. What makes it so great? First of all the thing is built like a tank. All metal. No cheap components here… Secondly, the tone is unbelieveable considering it’s a pedalboard. Given that nothing can replace the real thing (a microphone on a vintage amp cranked to 11) but I play mostly in small venues where that is not an option. This is where the Tonelab comes in…

ToneLabSE features the acclaimed VOX Valve Reactor found on Valvetronix series amps and the ToneLab amp/effects modeler. The VOX Valve Reactor circuit uses a 12AX7 triode vacuum tube together with an actual low-wattage tube power amp circuit, a virtual output transformer, and a dummy speaker circuit that simulates the impedance changes of a real speaker. It also reconfigures itself so that its characteristics are the same as the amps it’s modeling (class A, class AB, negative feedback circuit, etc.) This means that all of the nuances of the original amp model including sound, feel, distortion and presence are reproduced. -voxamps.co.uk

96 user programmable locations allow you to save more settings than you’ll ever use on stage. Each location has an A/B switch allowing you to save two “tones” per setting so really 96 becomes 192 settings if you look at it that way. The manual knobs are great and allow you to easily dial in exactly what you’re looking for!