John Jackson has joined the staff of HXCChrisitan.com as a contributor. If you want to learn more about John, check out his profile on the HXCChristian.com About Us page. Comment on his post folks!!
Soundtrack: “Grounded” from Chase the Sun – OC Supertones
So, many of you likely have seen the ad on the HXCChristian.com site looking for unpaid workers. Music, specifically HXC, punk, and (gasp) metal, has been a large part of my life and God has literally used it to reach me and, more often than not, slap me across the face to get me back on the narrow path. I’d written some things for a buddy’s metal newsletter and thought it was about time I gave something back to the other scene so influential in my life. Calling up Josh and chatting about it and making a commitment to write something was the easy part.
Then the hard part I knew was coming arrived – what was I even going to write about? I had some rather grandiose, overly complicated dissertations I was thinking about, but put those in the “just in case” file and set about praying for direction. I even asked one of my colleagues at work to pray for me as well, and that email exchange is below:
Me: I need some prayers for inspiration and then clarity. A burning bush would be nice as well, since I tend to get easily confused/distracted… Then again, I might miss the burning bush so some stone tablets, perhaps?
Continue reading Soundtrack for Life
Carrying The Fire is one of the newest hardcore bands to come out of Maryland, if you haven’t heard of Carrying The Fire you might recognize some of the members of the band. Carrying The Fire is comprised of several ex members of xLooking Forwardx. I learned about Carrying The Fire when Matt who plays in the band posted on the HXCChristian.com Forum to introduce the band. If you liked xLooking Forwardx and were bummed that they are pretty much decommissioned, then I think you will love Carrying The Fire, this band kind of picks up where xLFx leaves off, except with a bit more heavy feeling and sound. I recently caught up with Justin who sings for the band (and was the singer of xLFx) about the band (thanks Matt for the hookup), to find out what is up with Carrying The Fire. PS – you can download their songs for free from Facebook. Oh, AND, Carrying The Fire will have a new song featured on the upcoming HXCChristian.com compilation album due out in early February.
Band: Carrying The Fire
Location: Bel Air, Maryland
Musical Style: Straight Up Hardcore
Links: Myspace Facebook last.fm
Q: Carrying The Fire includes several ex members of XLooking ForwardX, how did CTF get it’s start?
A: While there are members of XLFX in the band, CTF actually wasn’t born from XLFX at all. Originally it was Matt, Auggie, Dan and another friend named Brandon in the group under a different name and they asked me to do vocals
Continue reading Are you “Carrying The Fire?”
So I was at the beach here in North Carolina over Labor Day Weekend, and the guys from In Shepherds Arms were nice enough to take some time sit down with me at The Java Post in Swansboro, NC for a video interview (well actually I bribed them with free coffee). You may have heard these guys on HXC Christian Radio, they have been around for a while, but they have had some recent additions to the band that have completely changed the sound of the band. In my opinion, these guys are putting out some SOLID hardcore. Their new material is tight, and we are going to load two of their new songs onto the station in conjunction with the interview here. So go over and take a listen when you get done watching the interview. Sorry for the bad lighting and shoddy camera work (it’s DIY)!
Band: In Shepherds Arms
Music Style: Hardcore
Location: Crystal Coast, NC
Links: Myspace Facebook
Part 1 of the interview with In Shepherds Arms
Part 2 of the interview with In Shepherds Arms
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Hey People! Sorry for the long break. Cornerstone was more than I ever imagined. I am still pouring through video and pictures and slowing updating. I plan on having a big write up of all the events, shows, and meet and greets we did. In the meantime. Check out the photo album page HERE and also, check out the HXCChristian.com Youtube page, there is already a lot of great video I loaded and am working fast and furious to load more. Look for an epic post on the festival within the next 5 days. Thanks to everyone who stopped by the tent and drank some DIY Gatorade, picked up some free HXCChristian.com stickers, and to everyone that helped out (Doug, Alex, Sebastian, Katie, RJ, the Debtor crew), a special thanks!
Hey Folks. Some big things are going on. God is doing great things through HXCChristian.com. We are officially hosting a tent at Cornerstone Festival this year. We were originally going to do an artists lounge, and setup a small tent to interview bands and meet all the cool people that grace the site and forum with their presence. However, God has much bigger plans for us. We are going to have an official tent, the HXCChristian.com tent. We are looking for bands that want to do acoustic sets, or perhaps spoken word/questions from the fans about life on the road, great stories about shows gone wild, or about how God has used the band to reach out to people that otherwise have never heard the gospel or maybe rejected it. I know that Call To Preserve, Debtor, and a few other bands said they would be down. So if you are interested in having your band hang, we would love to meet you, hang with you, and have you guys play an acoustic set or do a group spoken word, or just share stories of life on the road. Email me at Josh @ HXCChristian DOT com if you are interested. We don’t have a schedule or anything.
In other news East Coast Christian hardcore band TEN33 unofficially officially announced (to me at least) that they are doing a reunion show in the near future. If you know anything about these guys, then you know that they put on a great
Continue reading Quick News and Other Stuff
I had the opportunity to catch up with The Great Commission on the Abominable Snow Tour in Raleigh. Justin was nice enough to agree to an interview. I dig The Great Commission, I don’t know if I would classify their music as “classic” style hardcore, but it is definitely good stuff (if you like bands like Sleeping Giant, you will dig The Great Commission). They have a full length album “Every Knee Shall Bow” that was released on Strike First Records, if you don’t have it, go and pick it up, well worth the $9. I spoke with all the members of the band, and I can tell you that they are all in for Christ, and their message is definitely an uplifting one. As Justin, the singer of The Great Commission says, “we are a ministry and we are all about heavy worship.” So enjoy the interview and if you are going to Cornerstone this year, you can catch the band there this year.
Band Name: The Great Commission
Music Style: Hardcore
Location: Inland Empire, CA
Myspace: http://www.Myspace.com/TheGreatCommission
Q: When did the The Great Commission form as a band? No doubt the name came from Jesus’ command for the the disciples to go out and preach the word of Christ, why did you guys choose The Great Commission as the bands name?
A: The Great Commission played our first show in April of 2008. We really wanted God to have complete control of the new project that we were starting so before picking up any
Continue reading The Great Commission – SoCal Hardcore
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Want HXCChristian.com Merch? Want a t-shirt? Want a comp album, how about some stickers? We have left over merch from Cornerstone and are selling it in our bobo webstore. You can pay with PayPal or credit card, it is secure and easy. All orders are shipped FREE! Pick them up while they last! Check it out! |
