ZWAK music, the 5th symphony.
One thing that has come to my attention over the years here at GLIB world headquarters is that many of you like Roots and Americana music. Well, there is a lot of that out there, some good, some bad, some in my collection.
It is also apparent that many of you are Christians. And the problem with that, and it is a problem, is that praise music sucks. And that is what most of what passes as Christian music is. It doesn’t challenge itself, nor does it challenge the listener.
This does. And by this, I mean the music of David Eugene Edwards, no matter if he is playing in his first band, 16 Horsepower, later efforts such as Wovenhand, or playing strictly solo. He has the temerity to wrestle with God, along with his own demons. Not every song is explicitly religious, merely informed by the feel of the Old Testament. But with a penchant for using vintage sound equipment and instruments, along with one of the most killer bass players, Pascal Humbert, this band speaks directly to the cavernous maw in each of us.
Hailing from Denver and named for the number of horses pulling a hearse, the two main members of the band met doing carpentry in Hollywood and soon found they had compatible tastes in music even with hailing from different continents. But they found that no trip through American music can be complete without reaching for the divine yet never coming close in this life. And that suited our singer just fine, as he as the son of a preacher, and this is the life he grew up knowing. Listen, and you will hear this at the heart of every song.
From the album Sackcloth and Ashes, Haw:
Black Soul Choir
One of my favorite songs of all time, American Wheeze
And a cover, just for fun, Wayfaring Stranger
Praise music does suck. Something happened in-between the old standards and the 1980s. It is universally bad at “modern” services. If I see an electric guitar and a drumset, I know to duck out when the music starts.
Post-Vatican II masses were pretty much that sequence from Airplane! for the most part. Tambourines and acoustic guitars.
I was at one place, they had the drummer behind a Lucite pane to keep the noise down. Nice touch. Didn’t help because the guitarist and bass player had it turned up to 11.
“Jesus is my buddy” was one of the worst things to happen to the church. True story – when I was a kid the musical director at my (Catholic) church actually played Desperado during mass. *barf*
My (also Catholic) church was strictly hymns. The organ was electric, though.
I hope that musical director came to his senses.
TT played “guitar masses” at his parish back in the day. He says a neighbor, the doyenne of local TV talk shows in St. L at the time, would often show up fashionably late to make a grand entrance. As soon as she saw that it was a guitar mass, she’d turn on her heel and stalk out. 😄
I’ve seen some modern service music that’s pretty good.
In my relatively large southern church we have small group time from about 9:30 to 10:30. Then there is the “Ignite” modern service in the theater or “traditional” service in the main church. (Same sermon, whichever pastor is preaching just does the modern then over to traditional)
It amuses me to sip my coffee and watch everyone under 50 head towards the modern service and over go to the traditional.
Praise music is the bland, flavorless wonder bread of modern christian musix.
How did we go from Plainsong, or more especially Bach to modern blech music? Don’t know.
Plainsong?
More like this I think.
I suspect a large percentage, if not a majority, of both religious and secular music sucks. The question is what will still be heard in a hundred years.
“ninety percent of everything is crap”
“How did we go from Plainsong, or more especially Bach to modern blech music?”
I’m guessing gospel is still a thing in black churches. Why didn’t the white churches culturally appropriate that?
Yes, Mr. Imprudent, like that.
rhy, you gave me a serious spasm with that link.
I thought Switchfoot’s Meant to Live was good music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXcrEVFZOXs
And that is what most of what passes as Christian music is. It doesn’t challenge itself, nor does it challenge the listener.
Truth. Most of it even sounds like Cartman’s cynical and shallow compositions.
It does make one wonder why modern music hasn’t found the magic that other artists have over the last 2000 years. I’m sure some have, but these guys seem like part of a vanishingly small group.
I know Black Soul Choir. Probably from you.
Thanks for this one, ZWAK! I know what I’m listening to the rest of the day
Casting Crowns has some good songs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnkkZLdjf9Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI1LgfkF8J8
My wife likes them, there are some good songs.
Thanks! I’ll give a listen,
My wife loves christian music and they are the only ones I like.
“juris imprudent on February 4, 2025 at 10:44 am
Congress funds spending. Elon can’t do shit about that.”
They can allocate funds all they want, someone still has to spend it, otherwise it doesn’t go anywhere. That is how the executive can stop spending… Just don’t do it.
Impoundment is of dubious Constitutionality. There is no line item budget veto – Reagan asked for that and was never given it. What makes you think Trump can just do that?
Congress has made its appropriation, now let them spend it.
Ideally I would like to see the Impoundment Act repealed, the concept of mandatory spending only makes sense in a world where Congress resumes its legislative responsibility instead of outsourcing it to the Executive. What we have created is a regime where the Agencies largely decide what they want to do with the money, can waste the money to their heart’s content with the assurance that when they run out before carrying out their responsibilities Congress will pony up more, but cannot exercise frugality.
Remember when they protested Biden “forgiving” student loans, aka spending money that wasn’t his to spend? Neither do I.
One of my biggest complaints with Progressives is their view that the Constitution should be disregarded. So I can hardly endorse that same attitude when it suits my policy preference.
The power of the purse belongs in the House, but of course it would help a whole fucking lot for voters to not be the dipshits they by and large are.
“Impoundment is of dubious Constitutionality.”
One does wonder what the courts would do if the Executive just didn’t spend everything that had been appropriated.
Issue an order? Fine. Say the money still doesn’t get spent. Hold someone in contempt? Who, exactly?
And what happens when the clock runs out on the appropriation before the litigation is done?
The power of appropriation belongs to the House, expenditures have a good bit of grey area since the actual spending is not done by the House, it is done by the Executive. Contracts are not negotiated by Congress, payments are not made by Congress. Impoundment probably crosses from the grey when it is the Executive abandoning a Congressionally mandated program, but where the mandate is as general as it usually is I’m not sure it breaks the Constitution for the Executive to spend $10 Billion when Congress appropriated $11 billion. The goal, at least in theory is not to spend a minimum of X dollars, it is to accomplish some tangible aim. I realize that with our existing government there are never tangible aims and it’s all just monopoly money hurled into a furnace, but imagine that the budget item is “Build a bridge at X locale, to Y standards” and the budget is $20 billion. If the job can be completed to standard at a cost of $10 billion it would require insanity to have the Executive be required to pay the extra $10 billion in some fashion. If the aim is amorphous, the standard is equally amorphous. I am not convinced the Constitution actually dictates that the Executive must in all things always spend as much as was appropriated.
It does point out, as Jarflax alludes, that most federal spending doesn’t really have a goal other than growing bureaucratic empires. Agency X is given $Y billion to spend on a “program” with no definable deliverable or end point. It’s a pure jobs program.
I hope Trump wasn’t kidding when he said that the surplus IRS agents could go to the border and fight illegal immigration. If the courts do say “You can’t fire them or put them on leave”, that should be his next move. The courts are going to run out of appetite (and capacity) to micromanage the bureaucracy pretty quickly. I don’t see them saying “You can’t fire them, or put them on leave, or assign them as you want. You have to assign these people to these functions.” If they try, I would flood them with motions to review and approve employee assignments across the bureaucracy.
The goal, at least in theory is not to spend a minimum of X dollars, it is to accomplish some tangible aim.
There is the crux of the problem with the bureaucracy. It is in fact measured on actual spending, not on accomplishment of some aim. Spending your budget is a performance criteria.
And when “clear” deliverables are laid out we still can’t hit the mark. NextGen for the FAA is 14 years behind schedule and $4.2 billion overrun.
No one is held accountable for something they don’t get measured on – if we measured on deliverables, we’d get some deliverables. But everyone in that FAA management chain that has fiscal responsibility is measured on “did you hit your financial metrics“?
Incentives, right?
I’m not sure if he can.
I do know that not every dollar appropriated is spent on time, and I’ve never heard of a court case resulting from that.
So there’s probably some leeway he can take advantage of. I’m sure if he did nothing at all he’d be sued.
thanks, ZWAK. After listening to that first song, I do believe I’m now headed down a rabbit hole.
New music, good bourbon, and steak with chimichurri sauce. What more could a man need?
Little early, Al.
I should be more clear: steak and bourbon is for this evening. Steak and bourbon for breakfast would take a tougher man than me.
I look forward to listening when I get back to my headphones.
I love old-time bluegrass gospel, as music; doesn’t do anything to move me to the faith.
I’m the same with my lack of faith, but it doesn’t make Cantata BWV 147: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring any less moving.
https://youtu.be/S6OgZCCoXWc?si=FzLZ2YCL-OH4t-GG
Every time I see Leopold Stokowski I keep seeing Mickey Mouse pulling on his sleeve in Fantasia.
Way back when I did attend church regularly, I always loved the Advent music in particular.
The only praise music that I have purchased.
Didn’t know it was a praise album until I bought it.
The radio was playing this song at the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhrzoq3WbV4&list=PLkjL9366zaYtsBt3UPGZ4FBex5cQTYmCB&index=8
“praise music sucks”
Indeed. Don’t like it during Mass. Too loud, and the songs are too long. However, I have helped out with youth retreats (phrasing?) and it seems to be the right venue for it.
Agree. I don’t think it belongs in the liturgy.
This is better:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yyrIFlK8c0&ab_channel=PalabraVivayVivificante
But the kids probably wouldn’t like it lol.
https://www.axios.com/2025/02/04/tulsi-gabbard-confirmation-vote-senate-intel
Director of National Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard has wind in her sails ahead of Tuesday’s Senate Intel Committee vote.
Why it matters: Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Todd Young (R-Ind.) announced their support for Gabbard ahead of the vote. The two were considered the crucial swing votes at the committee level.
If she clears the committee vote, Gabbard can lose three GOP votes on the Senate floor and still be confirmed, thanks to a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Vance.
Collins was one of three Republicans to vote against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, before Vance broke the tie.
“Tulsi’s getting confirmed. RFK’s getting confirmed. Bondi’s getting confirmed. Kash is getting confirmed. All this stuff about how they’re not is DC bullsh*t.”
Taibbi was pointing out that this is the people behind all the Russia hoaxes trying to run that playbook one more time. That has been a very useful tool in the blob’s toolkit, if it fails that will be a blow to them.
I know it’s just a dream, but the Senate censuring Schiff would be so beautiful.
I saw 16 Horsepower a whole bunch of times before they disbanded, and the shows were transcendent. Secret South is an epic album…
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_muUu9jCTDVundv9ckCy1LMcXorRdrLrAM
Here’s a fun little documentary from back in the day that tells the story of the main protagonist. Some good commentary from the man, practice jams, his family, etc…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0lZdfyAYZI
Worth watching in full.
That’s what happens when you elevate the message over the medium.
See also: most political “comedy”, Hollywood movies pushing [drinker voice]The Message[/drinker voice], etc. etc.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-04/musk-buyout-offer-accepted-by-more-than-20-000-federal-workers
More than 20,000 employees — about 1% of the federal workforce — have signed up for an offer to quit their jobs in exchange for a deferred resignation deal that would have taxpayers continue to pay their salaries through the end of September.
But those numbers are increasing every day, according to an official familiar with the data, and the Trump administration expects a spike in resignations as employees near Thursday’s deadline to accept the offer.
It’s a start
We’re losing one, but since we are Navy, they expect him to get replaced.
I’m just a contractor, if I lose my job, it would suck.
But it would be such a sign that we are actually moving in the right direction, it would probably make me happy while I look for a new direction.
This is a big thing. My wife works for an R1 university, and, obviously, research dollars are a huge part of the budget. This could severely fuck us personally, but we both know, and have talked about, that there is a problem with the countries finances, and it will be ugly fixing them. Will we be OK in the long run? Sure, but it could be painful.
When this offer expires, put a new one on the table that offers 5 months of deferred salary, then 4, etc. Make it clear that by summer, you’ll be to the point where it’s just plain old firin’ time. If Congress or the courts think any of these people should be federal employees, they can hire them as congressional or judicial staff.
Incentives matter.
Think this was one time offer. Now they have through the summer to start Reduction in Force proceedings and have those ready to drop around June.
Most agencies in their union contracts agreed to a 90-day notification period if I remember correctly and some may vary.
That puts it close to end of fiscal year.
If Congress would have agreed to CR extention through June, I don’t even think we’d have seen this ‘buyout’
I have no idea if we have praise music in Romania as like bands… I assume there must be something.
google tells me this is some
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVRVg6d1HII
There’s Vampire Weekend and the Hollywood Vampires.
Obligatory.
In defense of traditional hymns:
https://www.thebeehive.live/blog/defenseofhymns
In defense of modern worship:
https://www.thebeehive.live/blog/in-defense-of-modern-worship
Same guy.
How the Church got worship wrong:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBymWQLP-rkGoTzyS81-MIi5q63Aq4UgI&si=rjhB-NqnskA9WNkg
Some other guy
My favorite “praise song”:
https://youtu.be/jaVyGsno-OE?si=ogxCH50Qo9ZdfTg5
Kudos to the Senator from Idaho for putting a stop to Coons’ idiocy.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5124652-sen-jim-risch-blocks-senate-resolution-usaid/?tbref=hp
“Why should we bother coming to an agreement on appropriations here in the Senate, pass a law, send it to the president, he signs it, and then in the next Congress and the next president, they can shut it down and claw it back?” Coons questioned.“
why, indeed?
Congress has always had the power to rescind spending. The question is should the Executive?
They don’t even pass appropriation bills any more, they pass CRs, I understand your point about the Constitution and Congress, but they have abdicated their responsibilities for my entire adult life. If there is a way to use the imperial Presidency which they created to abet the looting to stop the looting I’ll put my purity on hold to cheer it on.
Someone from Idaho keeping coons down? Color me surprised.
LOL
I grew up in a black church but damn it do I love the hymns from the Presbyterians. My wife is a presbyterian, so we got married at her church and I got to pick out both of the hymns. There’s something about singing together as a congregation with the organ playing that does something to me.
Presbyterians…
I grew up one and always felt the hymns were a litmus test of the congregation on who really was paying attention
Presbyterians: God’s frozen people.
Big protest tomorrow
https://www.reddit.com/r/50501/
Protest all you want. Just don’t impede my travel.
“I was a staunch Republican, lover of Atlas Shrugged . . . .”
Sure, Jan.
That… Is a hilarious read.
You’re not kidding. Those people are mentally ill.
But commies gonna commie, I guess. Knock yourselves out, r-tards.
*Note to self: extra mags.
“All the posts about how to protect yourself from police, instigators, Proud Boys/etc, are scary. ”
My, how the worm has turned.
5-1-5-0, somebody call the po-po.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa9Y0Hlrlbs
In California, that is the code for mental confinement.
And also the name of a terrible fake Van Halen album.
I checked it out, and who do they think is gonna impeach him? They don’t have the House anymore.
Who is gonna arrest him? They don’t have the DOJ anymore.
Who is gonna care? They don’t have the public anymore.
Chris Coons (Del.) asked for unanimous consent that the Senate agree to a resolution that affirmed USAID’s role in protecting the United States’s national security.
We’d be helpless without them!
“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers…”
I’ve posted this before, but I’ll say this again: I wish the churches I was forced to go to growing up had been half this energetic. All I got was old-timey yodeling country gospel singers. Low energy is an understatement.
Nothing more joyous than a Catholic mass. It was as joyous and energetic as a funeral. Christmas mass was as close to joyous as they got.
That’s some good tunes, Zwak.
Music to do something or other by
Bow chicka wow wow?
That’s a great tune that doesn’t get played enough.
Hilarious timing. Politico didn’t make their last payroll. Almost makes you wonder where the money was coming from
https://x.com/maxwelltani/status/1886776855312687477
LOL!
2025 is gonna be fun.
In response, Coons highlighted the importance of the agency for the nation’s global standing and the aid it provides to various communities internationally. He also highlighted a point he and other lawmakers have presented over the last several days, which is that Congress has already appropriated funds for USAID, and it is now President Trump’s role to carry out that function.
How narrowly does the appropriation specify the spending? It should be well within the scope of the executive to audit these programs. Maybe they should just deem the mission to be accomplished.
And the problem with that, and it is a problem, is that praise music sucks. And that is what most of what passes as Christian music is. It doesn’t challenge itself, nor does it challenge the listener.
Quoted for truth.
I used to lead the AV ministry at an old church and volunteer regularly on the sound board at the current church, so I’ve been exposed to this in more detail than most.
1) Modern Christian music is written for a band to perform on stage, not for corporate worship. What does that mean?
A) half the church doesn’t know the song, so it’s a consumptive exercise, not a participatory one, which flies in the face of “worship”.
B) half of the people are physically incapable of singing their parts of the song, making them disengage.
C) the theological heft is removed from the song to make it fit modern patterns, which makes it fluffy and ephemeral.
2) the target audience of this music is 30-something soccer moms who desperately want to relive that high school church camp emotional experience. What does that mean?
A) the music is designed to heavily manipulate the audience’s emotional response, relying on repetition and heavy builds and releases to induce an emotional euphoria in the target audience.
B) the depth of the song is capped at 14 year old girl depth so that it is reminiscent of the kinds of songs that were played at church camp.
C) it’s meant to be a taste of “cool” without actually being culturally relevant. It vaguely sounds like the music the cool kids listen to, but it’s Jesus flavored! Just what the on-the-fence church attenders need to commit to the church 🙄
D) It’s on K-LOVE, so it is something the soccer moms have heard before.
3) It’s targeted at people with surface-level theology. What does that mean?
A) churches know that deeply committed members aren’t going to bail just because the music sucks. Not that the church is intentionally trying to select sucky music, but a disturbing amount of churches are populated by salesmen as ministers. They care about butts in seats, not about Christian communion or Truth. The result is that they will pull any gimmick or do any stupid thing that is seen as “seeker friendly”, while completely ignoring the needs of tier current “customers”.
B) there’s a legit subculture in Christianity that loves this stuff. They relish in the campiness and soak up the badness of it. It’s, again, the one foot in, one foot out types. They want a similar feeling to the secular world, but want that pinch of “I’m sacrificing something for Jesus”. In this case, it’s their eardrums.
C) There’s a tone deafness in some of these churches. They are unaware of the shift in the cultural millieu. They grew up in “positive world” where people just needed a gentle nudge away from the worst excesses of culture. They don’t recognize that many Christians today are turned off by that syncretism. Many people now want something quite distinct from the mainstram culture.
This has become an essay, so I’ll wrap up quickly. The best worship experience I’ve had is in acapella churches. Yeah, occasionally we get something from the last 30 years show up in the rotation, but most of the time were singing hymns designed for church worship. I don’t believe the doctrines forbidding instruments in worship, but I appreciate the simplicity and the unity that comes from all of us participating in the worship. There is something genuinely lost from the community when most of Sunday morning is Peggy from HR and Steve from two doors down belting out vapid songs on an overamplified system to the bemusement of the half-awake audience. I’ve even attended a church with a band in residence, and aside from them being more musically competent, the experience is just as lackluster.
Good job Trashy.
Also: “Yeah there’s a whole book of the Bible that’s all songs, and we strenuously ignore it but put tons of effort into all this vapid performative pablum.”
“but we pull quoted a verse from the psalms and repeated it 15 times to the point that it became meaningless. That has to count for something!”
“This has become an essay…” Yes, and one that I enjoyed. You should flesh it out a little and submit it. If you do, lemme know because I don’t read Glibs everyday. (The tech people know my email, I’d think)
HOLY SHIIIT. The FBI just revealed that 5,000 out of their 13,000 agents were focused on January 6th protestors.
39% of the entire bureau, for this:
https://x.com/EndWokeness/status/1886865234704654724
Not sure if this is accurate, but I doubt any of us would be at all surprised if it was.
“… and the rest for grandmothers praying outside abortion clinics and fathers upset at school boards covering up their daughter’s rape!”
Yeah — fits my preconceptions too well to take it at face value… but neither would I be shocked at this point.
I think the total FBI is a lot higher. But that’s a ridiculous number of Agents not looking for actual criminals.
Gotta keep a couple freed up for “noose investigations”.
The FBI just revealed that 5,000 out of their 13,000 agents were focused on January 6th protestors.
Muh existential threat!
I’m sure there are some actual investigators doing real stuff in the FBI. Good luck sorting them out from the Praetorian Guard.
Zwak,
Great music. I’d be hard pressed to call it Christian or praise music, but it is spiritual. I’ll be adding it to my collection.
Thanks,
https://babylonbee.com/news/study-highway-hell-theologically-accurate-96-modern-worship-songs
Nice.
https://southpark.cc.com/video-clips/n1s091/south-park-replace-darling-baby-with-jesus
I love Token’s muttered “goddammit…”
Best part of the clip.
Relevant to the last post. That must be the way modern worship songs are written.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/04/politics/fbi-employees-tuesday/index.html
FBI turns over details of 5,000 employees who worked on January 6 cases to Trump Justice Department, as agents sue
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, in a Friday memo with the subject line “Terminations,” had given FBI officials a noon deadline Tuesday to submit the details of thousands of agents and analysts. Bove previously ordered the firing of eight senior FBI officials, including those who oversaw cyber, national security and criminal investigations.
More than 5,000 employee details were submitted, including employee ID numbers, job titles and their role in the January 6 investigations, sources said, but not their names. There are more than 13,000 agents and 38,000 total FBI employees.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-committee-backs-tulsi-gabbard-intelligence-chief-rcna190440
The Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday voted 9-8 to back President Donald Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, clearing an important hurdle for her nomination.
Hot
Ouchie
https://x.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1886771131270521165
I wonder how much of that grift she got.
They could have flown aircraft over the cities and dumped cash out of the back, and it would have been more effective at getting money into the hands of people that needed it.
The amount of dead weight in a government business like social security is large. No matter the viability or justification for a gov. issued pension, we still have SS and people have been promised it by their government. It should be provided efficiently and accurately until it no longer is funded.
Several people in my circle work there. There are stories of 80+ year-olds refusing to retire because they have no other social outlet, people that don’t know how to do their job after 5 years of being employed with no repercussions, and the general overall waste. This is also one of the “good’ performing sites.
13 hours on Webex today. Not nearly a record, but a bit long for a normal workday.
Stupid me, I mistook this for the evening post.