finally. it is here. last night we had the cd release party at our church. ubc. wow. it was so freaking fun. thanks to all who came and shared the night with us. it was absolutely perfect.

today the cd is in stores and on itunes. dir sir, or madam, you must act! do not neglect your monumental responsibility to embrace such sonic goodness.

i hear bestbuy has them at a stupid low price. of course HERE IS THE LINK TO OUR STORE(with super happy goodies included), and here is a link to the cd on iTunes –

and thanks so much for the words of excitement in the comments and such. it has added to my exuberance in a large way.

i have strong feelings of enthusiasm and much eagerness. the reason being, i spent the late afternoon with some pals packaging up some of the preorders of Remedy. i can’t express how fun it is to see the cd in hand and read the person’s name and address and stick a simple sticker with that person’s name and address on a bubbled envelope and then put such a simply thing as a cd into the bubbled envelope along with a number of extra happy things that will not be expected necessarily and shall surely be a certain treat. it was just fantastic i tell you. ridiculously so. i cannot wait until you get this recording. seriously. i can’t believe it, 6 more days. ugh. too long.

IF YOU HAVEN’T YET, CLICK HERE TO PREORDER!

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER AND RECIEVE EXTRA HAPPY THINGS!

alright, so here’s the deal. we’re now 26 days away from the release of our latest recording – remedy.

this we are excited about. thrilled. smiling with teeth bared.
and so, for 26 days, we will need to tell you about it. again and again.
this is not a new phenomenon, no, this is in the long tradition of musical groups; going back to a guy named steve. he was the first to make the music and then think to tell someone about it.
so, in the long line of the tradition of steve, i give you this:

i sent an advanced copy of remedy to a friend in san diego. another friend broke into first-mentioned friend’s office while first-mentioned friend was away. second-mentioned friend stole previously-mentioned advanced-copy cd. he then brazenly posted a review of it on his blog. i include it below:

“ysmarko’s recommended music, volume seven
Thursday August 23rd 2007, 6:09 am
Filed under: music
david crowder band’s new album, remedy (amazon has them listed as “david band crowder” — ha!).

i’m currently on my 12th listen-through of my absconded pre-release copy (sent to a co-worker) of this album, which doesn’t officially release until sometime in late september. and i hardly know where to start, in terms of choosing words to describe what i’m listening to.

let me start with this: for me (and i know that music is subjective), there is no god-focused collection of music better than this.

now, let me back up a bit. i was a major consumer of christian worship music for a few years. this was particularly easy to do, since we got pretty much every new ccm release through our office back then, for youthworker journal record reviews. so i didn’t even have to pay for ‘em. but, at some point, it was more about being a consumer than about being consumed. it was more about what’s next and what’s new than about what’s eternal and what’s mysterious. i got bored with it all: not bored with worship; but bored with listening to worship music.

except. i never got tired of the david crowder band. maybe because they really don’t quite fit a simple genre description of worship music. it’s like, rage against the machine wrote and performed songs that were almost all political in content. but that wasn’t their genre. they were an alt-rock-rap group, or some other genre combo-platter. same here. dc*b is a nu-rock band. and they sings songs about god, pretty much exclusively so.

last evening, as i was driving in my car, with this new album at a particularly engulfing volume level, already singing along, i had two distinct images come to mind:

first, i could already imagine — it was a strong image, i felt my throat tense with emotion as i envisioned it — singing some of these songs with thousands of youth workers this fall at the national youth workers conventions. the line “you make everything glorious” from the song, “everything glorious”, was one of those lines. i can hear it now, as i type this: 4000 youth worker’s voices joining together to sing that line. crowder stepping away from the mic, making it clear we are not singing to or about him. same with the line “you never let go” from the song by that title. mmmmm.

second, i was in the midst of noticing how easy david’s voice sounds on this album. i never thought of his voice as forced before. but there’s a new level of vocal maturity here. it’s rounder, smoother, calmer, more beautiful. and then, i started to notice a similar kind of growth in the other instruments: b-wack’s tinkering and beeps and blips are more prominent, but not distracting. mike d’s keyboard (i assume it’s mike d) is downright gorgeous on the title track. jack’s guitar is extra-crunchy on “we won’t be quiet”. hogan’s violin emotively pure, like a sound of a child with a clean, pure voice, on the opening track. i could go on — the same could be said for each band member. so here’s the image i had. some things grow in a linear fashion, along a line. and that’s not necessarily bad. the next spot on the line can be better, certainly. but as i was listening, i had this image pop into my head of growth in all directions — like the growth of a firework just after bursting, or the growth of a network diagram on fast-forward. this is what the growth of dc*b feels like to me on this album.

oh, and lyrics. yeah. wow. as usual. try this one on for size, from the final cut:

‘and the problem is this
we were bought with a kiss
but the cheek still turned
even when it wasn’t hit

and i don’t know
what to do with a love like that
and i don’t know
how to be a love like that

when all the love in the world
is right here, among us
and hatred too
so we must choose
what our hands will do

where there is pain
let there be grace
where there is suffering
bring serenity
for those afraid
help them be brave
where there is misery
bring expectancy

and surely we can change
surely we can change
something

and the problem it seems
is with you and me
not the love who came
to repair everything

and i don’t know
what to do with a love like that
and i don’t know
how to be a love like that

when all the love in the world
is right here, among us
and hatred too
and so we must choose
what our hands will do

where there is pain
let us bring grace
where there is suffering
bring serenity
for those afraid
let us be brave
where there is misery
let us bring them relief

and surely we can change
surely we can change
o sure we can change
something

the whole world’s about to change…’

ok, i’m gushing, i realize. for me, this is why god invented music. sorry you have to wait a month. pre-order, i tell you.”

it is true: summer is pretty much over, at least so far as quote unquote summer vacation goes. but i choose not to concentrate on this. you see, we are now on an official break. and i, for one, am calling it summer break. yes, i know, it is undeniable: the college students are rolling back into town which signals an end to quote unquote summer, but i insist it continues. the autumnal equinox is still ahead. endless summer i say! at least while i’m quote unquote off, which means at least a couple of weeks. and so it shall be. summer! i mean feel this heat! do not deny this heat! summer i say.

for you: below is a bit of goodness from our last summer hoorah! and wow, yes, it is conclusive, we had ridiculous, beautiful fun this merry summer season. a happy “thank you” to all who were with us while we were out and about. we love you deeply and can’t wait to see you again soon.

speaking of reuniting: i beg you, please get your tickets to the fall tour now as we’re really close to selling out a good number of these (for instance i know that anaheim has sold out now) and i don’t want you guys to miss it.

click here to purchase! por favor.

one last item of business: we now have remedy up for presale on our website. it releases officially on the 25th of sept. which i’ll tell you more about later, but i thought i should let you know about the presale now.

click here to show your love.

i must first announce that we [dc*b] have been met with a joyous summer; each of the music festivals have proved blissful. we have relished the out-of-doors. we have basked in the sunshine. we have reveled in the rain. we have savored the cheerful singing faces of the undulating masses. we have gloried in the music of bands we rarely have the opportunity see. what we have not held in fondness are the sound checks.*

* ["sound check” is that institution of necessity involving the setup and plugging-in of all the band’s instruments and microphones and such, ensuring that they all function properly and that the respective noises emitted are successfully making the journey to and through the speakers that the crowd will be listening to and also ensuring that these sounds are exiting the speakers that the band will be listening to as this will greatly aid the band in the victorious production of what will be met with the ear of those persons facing them. seems simple enough. and, as best we remember, it used to be. over the course of our existence as a band we have faced only a modest handful of memorable type sound checks: i.e., those that might be designated “taxing.” this summer, the inverse has proven to be the norm: i.e., there have been but a modest handful that were not. we’re unsure what may have gone wrong, globally speaking – we’re at a loss.]

e.g., the-recently-participated-in-festival-de-music: IGNITE CHICAGO and the longest sound check in the history of reinforced sound.

here’s what happened: while stalled onstage – in the midst of the longest sound check in the history of reinforced sound – i began to feel the urgent need to interact with the crowd, at least those in the near proximity of my unassisted voice. i only wished to dispel the unease rising among us who could bear witness to the phrase, “check one, two. mic check. one, two, three,” in an endless, repetitious cycle of a loop [sic], with the occasional, “re-patch,” thrown in at suitable intervals. things progressed sufficiently well at first – my distraction of the crowd. i said hello, shook some hands, gave high fives – which are awesome, hit the beach ball at a good number of people, handed out some water, wrote my name on several water bottles before throwing them really really far, signed a sock, a shoe, another shoe, a hat, a shirt, then someone handed me a dollar bill. i held it up, as if to say, “hey, someone is giving me money. this is fantastic. what a great idea.” then i put the dollar bill in my pocket, knowing full well this is not what was intended but thinking it would be funny. and yes, those astute enough to observe the transaction were humored and a few laughed even. this spurred me on. another dollar bill arrived. i inserted it into the same left front pocket of my jeans. more shirts, more shoes, a piece of paper, then another dollar. i inserted it as well. “ha, ha, ha,” i thought to myself, “i am funny. the funniest,” as i signed a deflated beach ball. “i will wait until the very end to sign the dollars. the owners will panic and think me evil and that will be fantastically funny.” then a hat arrived and people began yelling at me, pointing back away from the stage and into the crowd. i looked in the direction of the pointing fingers and observed a young man on the shoulders of another young man and he was pointing at himself. i surmised what he and the rest of the crowd must be attempting to communicate: “hey! that’s my/his hat! write your name on it for me/him, please.” so i acknowledged such a feat of cooperation among many and wrote my name on this young-man-hoisted-on-shoulders-and-pointing-to-himself’s hat while i simultaneously devised a plan for its return. i then indicated to those occupying the space immediately in front of the stage that i was intending to walk on them, with their assistance of course. and so i courageously stepped forth into the crowd, suspended above them, supported by unknown hands transporting me in cooperative direction toward the young-man-on-shoulders-smiling. i made it roughly half way before falling. see here, observe:

i surfed the rest of the way supinely toward the hat guy, who it turns out did not own the hat i was bringing him, and after a brief stint in the crowd i was later returned to the stage where still nothing productive was transpiring, and i, being fresh out of crowd pleasing material, suggested from the microphone, that despite there being little worthwhile for the band to monitor onstage, and if the crowd could hear everything through the speakers out front, then we should just get on with things. and so we did.

it was a rousing and riotous night of revelry and anthem. we played our little hearts out and afterward unanimously agreed that no one in the crowd appeared perturbed by our inability to hear ourselves properly. in fact, we agreed that it might have turned out to be the most exuberant crowd of the summer, which was quite pleasing, considering. and, as we loaded the van with smiles on our faces and warm feelings in our guts for the good people of chicagoland, my hand happened to slip into my front left jean pocket.

i stole three dollars.

apparently i went pro on a fellow xangan’s wii. this is his mii which is me:

in other related news, hogan’s wife sent him this a couple of days ago, and he in turn sent it to me:

in this last rendering, my favorite bit is the mild stash, as this is incredibly accurate; owing to my lack of vigilant shaving habits. i.e.: what is up with my upper lip in my may 30 post?

update: this just in from theyoyoman:

i blow me away.

i trust today you are doing something patriotic, like having a picnic, barbequing, eating watermelon, hanging your flag on your front porch, going to the mall. yesterday, toni and i were sitting at ryan’s steakhouse (there is so, so much to be said about this, but i’ll keep it brief — toni loves her some ryan’s. to sum up my feelings, i’ll quote a friend – any restaurant that has skittles next to the mashed potatoes is suspect, to say the least. toni enjoys the ranch dressing particularly. i’ll admit, i do too. it is very similar to most other ranch dressings except it has much supplementary water. this, in our opinion, is a good thing. so, we’re sitting there, eating iceberg lettuce that is swimming in watered-down ranch dressing, when toni asks, “when we were growing up, why do you suppose all the adults put salt on their watermelon?” i hadn’t thought of this in years – salt on watermelon. there happened to be a couple of slices sitting there in front of us, complements of the salad bar, so i picked one up, grabbed the salt shaker, shook it a couple of times, watched the salt hit the melon and dissolve and spread immediately, then took a bite. the whole of my summer childhood came back in a mouthful of melon. it was a mouthful of the 4th. i have no idea why my parents and grandparents salted their melon, but i was really happy i lived in this magical land of crazy salad bars and salt shakers on every table.

have a happy fourth of july and a large thank you to all the troops serving our country.

well, i am happy to report that the first two sites were semi successful. by “semi,” i mean that the items that were left did not arrive in time for the first exhuberent seekers. and this makes me sad. i was able to remedy (no pun intended) this in a couple of cases myself but it really bummed me out. those most excited would have been the first to arrive i suspect, and to be greeted with cluelessness is most unfortunate. we are making great effort to ensure this doesn’t happen at the remaining sites. as well, i trust those who have acquired what was left, will share.

5 sites remaining!

in addition, it was great meeting many of you at a few of the stops so far this summer.

this will be fun. click the boy on the front page of our website.

located here!!!!