May 25
I bought a new digital music player recently, a Creative Zen, 8gb [blatant money making link], to replace my old Creative Zen Nano and dumped nearly all my music on it. I was using the random album feature and up popped Beanbag, an older band that I hadn’t listened to in awhile. The album was Free Signal and I remember really liking it. So, it got me thinking of other bands that I really loved and have since disappeared.
Beanbag disbanded in 2002. I really loved Free Signal [another blatant money making link] and saw them in concert for that album’s tour. I thought their music was new and refreshing. I did some digging and found this an interview with drummer Phil Usher on HM Magazine
and he talks about the breakup. It seems the American Christian music industry just kind of chewed them up. That’s too bad, “Jesus Will Never Let’s You Go” was a great song.
Phil had a side group going called Tonjip. But I can’t find any info about them. Lead singer, Johannes Van Vliet has a band called Hunz out. They released an album in Australia back in 2008.
Another couple of bands I really liked from the late 90’s and early 2000’s was Lloyd and The Channel Surfers
I found The Channel Surfers in the late 90’s when I received their first album for review when I worked at the local newspaper here in town. I would describe them to my non-Christian music listening friends as sort of Red Hot Chili Peppers but they keep their clothes on. Loved their first album immensely. They lost their original lead singer and put out a lackluster second album and then disappeared.
Another band that imploded early was Lloyd. These guys put out one of the best albums of 1998 called Thoughts From A Driveway. I wore that CD out. I never heard anything from these guys again after that. Two of those members, Rick Weinland (drummer) and Daryl Youngblood (guitars and vocals) appear to be part of the group Vapor but I can’t find any current info on them either.
My list could go on and on. Sileage/Parkway, The Normals, The Dingees, Pax 217, Tragedy Ann, Fanmail. Really good bands that just never seemed to be able to keep it together, for whatever reason. Maybe God called them to something else, maybe they weren’t cut out for the rigors of the music industry. Who knows?
I do miss these bands though. What bands do you miss?
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DINGEES still around
myspace.com/thedingees
NEW MUSIC
new album soon
myspace.com/thedingees
new music
new album soon
Hey, that’s awesome! Please let me know when the album is out. Thanks for giving me the heads up.
[...] Rogue37 placed an interesting blog post on Long Lost Christian Bands | Circle 37Here’s a brief overviewI bought a new digital music player recently, a Creative Zen, 8gb , to replace my old Creative Zen Nano and dumped nearly all my music on it. I was using the. [...]
I miss tragedy ann they were a really good group. When they came our with a new album in 2000 I was hoping the album would kick them back into the scene but they just faded away. There are so many bands that I could mention. The ugly side of any music scene is that it takes a lot of self sacrifice and sometimes being on the road and having little time to even breathe can get to a human being. The bands who make it are the bands who truly love every part of it from the making the music, performing the music, the fans, and for christian bands the ministry involved in it. It is truly a calling and if you go into the business for self or the lime light you will not make it you must be called or have a deep passion and love for the industry. Sometimes bands break up because of the lack of cheistry or personal issues but no matter what you need to have passion and love for whatever it is that you want to do for the rest of your life. Food for thought :-).
Tragedy Ann! They were good. I was able to see them in concert a couple of times, nice bunch of guys. If I remember correctly, the drummer was involved in the Worship Circle, which I’m not sure if they are still together either.
Thanks for the comment John!