As Bright As Dark

Written while listening to My Brightest Diamond's Bring Me the Workhorse:

her record
beautifully haunting
like dark honey dripping thickly

© 2007 Amy E. Hall

Spinning This Week:

Nate Sallie : Ruined for Ordinary
Sufjan Stevens : The Avalanche
Group 1 Crew : Self-titled
My Brightest Diamond : Bring Me the Workhorse
Amy Winehouse : Back to Black

Spinning This Week:

My Brightest Diamond : Tear It Down
Various: A Tribute to Joni Mitchell

My Two Cents: Freedom Writers

Laugh if you will, but I primarily bought this movie soundtrack to reconnect with my inner, early 90s hip-hop head. My sister and I recently watched Freedom Writers and broke into happy hysteria when we heard the likes of "Hip Hop Hooray," "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" and "This Is How We Do It." Besides loving the film itself, I like the theme song "A Dream" quite a bit. Created by Common and will.i.am (of the Black Eyed Peas), the new song is an inspiring, anthemic cut, featuring samples of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s most famous speech. In addition to the aforementioned tunes and original instrumental tracks composed especially for the movie, the album includes Talib Kweli's "Listen!!!," Jeannie Ortega's "It's R Time (Lenky Remix)," Cypress Hill's "When the Ship Goes Down," 2Pac's "Keep Ya Head Up," Gang Starr's "Code of the Streets" and The Pharcyde's "Officer." I love me some old school jams!

My Latest Freelance Assignment

You can read my featurette on All Star United in the May/June edition of HM Magazine. HM is found on most Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Family Christian Stores shelves. For a list of locations in your state, click here.

Spinning This Week:

Amy Winehouse : Back to Black
Paul Wright : Sunrise to Sunset
Derek Webb : The Ringing Bell
Something Like Silas : Divine Invitation
Mindy Smith : Long Island Shores
Michael Christopher : Unplugged
Michael Christopher : Self-titled
Sufjan Stevens : The Avalanche
Birdcage Walk : Honey Sweet
tobyMac : Portable Sounds
Patty Griffin : Children Running Through
Lily Allen : Alright, Still...

For Nostalgia's Sake: Bleach

Memories of a Michigan winter storm come to mind when I listen to Bleach's self-titled album. I had agreed to serve as a makeshift drummer for my singer-songwriter friend, Matt, in 2000. We were to open for Bleach at a college (the name of which I can't recall) in Kalamazoo. Due to the storm, the entire evening's timeline was thrown out the window. In the end, we did not even get to play. (I was a little relieved and a little disappointed.) We did, however, get to hang out backstage all evening with the guys. I felt cool all night. The Bleach boys were great both onstage and backstage. We also got to rub elbows with Plankeye (who opened), as well as meet a sweet new band, PAX217 (one of my favorites to this day, despite its retired status), who opened for Plankeye. In fact, after all was said and done, we went to Denny's with 217's bassist and DJ, Josh and Bobby, respectively. I still have my autographed copies of Bleach (self-titled), Plankeye (Relocation) and PAX217 (self-titled) CDs from that eve.

Hot Pick: Out Today

Derek Webb's The Ringing Bell drops today, an album Webb describes as his "most commercial record" -- the result of "listening to too much Beatles and too much of the great plugged-in Dylan music," he quips, according to INO Records. Look for my two cents on the album in the days to come.