transcending platitudes and ooze: The Essentials Collection

If you are Christian, but not sure you like Christian music,
especially if you a fan of the Sacramento Scene bands (or never heard of them),
 check out  (and subscribe to) the "Essentials Collection" from Strip Cycle Music Project:

What are the Essentials? They are those albums that have made an impact, stylistically and artistically and which still remain spiritually compelling. This is the music that proved once and for all that Christian believers were truly capable of creating art, vital and transforming art. 

This wasn't stodgy "church music." This was music that transcended platitudes, smashed the barriers of what was possible for Christians to write and sing about. Carmanesque Jesus cheerleading was passe and the stereotype that "Christian music is lame" no longer a truism. This music dared not only to sing of the joys of salvation, but of the darkness and doubt residing inside of every human heart.

Like an endangered species, the Essentials are fast disappearing. These groundbreaking albums are out of print and out of circulation.

The Strip Cycle Music Project makes as its first task preservation. It is our aim to hold onto the redemptive art that has been bequeathed to us by these stellar musicians. They have set their pearls before the swine of a cookie cutter industry that apparently cares nothing of its musical past. This must change. These albums must not be allowed to be forgotten.

Our second task is education. Strip Cycle strives to educate and inform others about the great musical heritage we have been given. This education entails exposure; SCM exposes you the listener to some of the greatest albums ever recorded by Christians, whether or not these believers label themselves and their work with the unhelpful terms "Christian singer" or "Christian rock." These are CCM (contemporary Christian music) labels used to limit and pigeonhole. They must be discarded.

The albums we feature are simply great records made by people who also happen to be Christians. That many are ignorant of this entire subculture is a travesty; it is a travesty perpetrated (intentionally or unintentionally) by the powers-that-be in the so-called "Christian music industry." They have cobbled together this unnecessary subculture, this ghetto of hidden creativity. 

Michael Roe, charismatic frontman of the legendary rock band the 77's, in a moment of extreme candor stated "If you were to say, 'Listen to this Christian rock record,' immediately this oozy slime is on the floor. The colors of the room turn pink and cream, sugar is dripping off the walls, the furniture is plastic," Roe says. "You change the whole atmosphere of the room with a few words like that. And the last thing you want to do that to is a kick-ass rock 'n' roll record."

Truer words were never spoken.

-by STRIPCYCLE MUSIC, LINK 
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Music:

The 77's, Adam Again, Daniel Amos, The Choir, Lost Dogs, Michael Roe, Bride, Kaiser & Mansfield, Larry Norman, The Swirling Eddies, Steve Taylor, Deliverance, Guardian, Michael Knott, Lifesavers, Cush, L.S. Underground, Mortal, King's X, Saviour Machine, Gene Eugene, Legend Seven, Aaron Sprinkle, Over The Rhine, Jimmy A, Eden Burning, Chagall Guevara, Southside Blades Of Eden, Steve Hindalong, Vigilantes Of Love, Sweet Comfort Band, Terry Taylor, Aunt Betty's, Starflyer 59, Fluffy, The Violet Burning, Poor Old Lu, The Strawmen, Undercover, Dig Hay Zoose, Sass O' Frass Tunic, The Prayer Chain, Wish For Eden, Unveiled, Dakoda Motor Co., The Throes, My Little Dog China, Mark Heard, Dead Artist Syndrome, Pray For Rain, Veil, Vector, Raspberry Jam, Charlie Peacock, Galactic Cowboys, Tonio K and more