Fred Flinstone Syndrome

while i was watching united's latest dvd and
seeing joel houston talk about their then
upcoming studio release, a thought came to me:
will excessive facial hair work for me? you
know joel has hairs all over his face and yeah
it looked cool on him, maybe it will look good
on me too. so i'm on my first week now, but i
noticed i'm starting to look more like fred
flinstone than a musician. but i'm still giving
it a chance, maybe on it's second week it will
look fine. or wicked. or astig. or not.

have you seen united's album cover? just scroll
down to my cd review and you'll find it. notice
there are people wearing shirts with things that
they stood for. like hope, love, faith, etc. if
i was invited to that photoshoot, i'll will also
wear a shirt that says something i definitely like.

BURGERS.

raindrops keep falling on my head

kahapon naligo ako sa ulan.

CD Review: All of The Above - United

I'm not sure about the reason behind it but this time around, United
decided to do a studio effort rather than the usual live recording that
they have been doing the past years. Although the album somehow
lacked the energy that is evident from any live recording, this
album never lackedthe spirit of worship. The desire to worship
God in spirit and in truth (the be all and end all of all worship
recordings) is very much alive in this album. On the other hand,
since this is a studio recording, the arrangement and production
is so squeaky clean you can see your reflection from it.

The album contains 13 spunky new tracks, the song "Found" which
debuted on the "Mighty To Save Album" made a reapperance here as
a drum-looped and effects-laden worship gem totalling (?) the
lineup to 14. The album kicks off with "Point of Difference" a
lament about one of the worsening problems we have in the world
today: apathy. This song calls us to chip off this block of ice
with God's love and thus making a difference in the world. "Break
Free" is danceable track that actually has the word "dance" in
it's lyrics. You will be easily get hooked with the opening guitar
riff, and when the complementing bass line sets in, dancing is not
even an option.:)"Desperate People" is one of the top songs in the
album. The United team made an extensive touring of Asia (including
the Philippines) last year and probably have seen a lot from their
trip. This song strike me as something about helping each other out,
our common cause.

The album features a new worship leader named Brooke Fraser (my
brother was bragging about meeting her last year in the conference).
She wrote and sang two wonderful songs here in the album, "Lead Me To
The Cross" and "Hosanna" which I guess is one of the highlights of
the album. She has a solo album out and it is released by a different
label. Search her on Youtube and you will find some of her videos. The song "Solution" can very well be the "carrier" single of this album.
This is one of the only three songs you will find in the bonus DVD
(Hosanna and Saviour King are the other two). Co-written by Matt
Crocker, this song by Joel Solution is a rocker and may already be a
favorite among youth groups. Once again Joel made reference about
helping broken nations.

The songs in this album is heavy with guitars textured in digital delay.
Not U2-esque but Bloc Party-esque kind of playing. The use of post-punk
guitar showmanship is a welcome for me. Alavet. The album is currently
distributed in the Philippines by Praise Records, look for it in your
friendly neighborhood House of Praise outlets.

Rating: Four Point Five

Solution

Here's the new single from the much-anticipated studio album of United:






Solution
Joel Houston, Matt Crocker

it is not a human right to stare, not fight
while broken nations dream
open up our eyes so blind that we might find
the mercy for the need

hey now
fill our hearts with Your compassion
hey now
as we hold to our confession

it is not too far a cry, too much to try
to help the least of these
politics will not decide if we should rise
and be Your hands and feet

whoa oh oh
God be the solution
whoa oh oh
we will be your hands and be Your feet

higher than all circumstance You promised then
Your love for all to see
higher than our protest lines and dollar signs
Your love is all we need

only You can mend the broken heart
and cause the blind to see
Your grace completes the sinners path
and set the captives free
only You can take the widow's cry
and cause her heart to sing
be the father to the fatherless
our Savior and our King

we will be Your hand we will be Your feet
we will run this race for the least of these
in the darkest place we will be Your light
we will be Your light


we will run
we will run
we will run with the solution

©2006 Hillsong Publishing (Admin. in U.S. & Canada by Integrity's Hosanna! Music)
All rights reserved. International copyright secured.

New Band Introduction: Grace Period

watch out cris carraba, peter parker has turned emo! well i
guess that one stood out as the most memorable spiderman 3
moment for me. when the space vulca seal crept into
his uniform he suddenly turned emo, wearing black
clothes, putting eyeshadows, and (most importantly) letting
his bangs loose. then he did the weird dance. oh brother.

but still we enjoyed watching it, the computer effects
was over the top. haneps! the story is fast-paced and
the fight scenes were good. then he did the weird dance.
i liked what peter parker said in the closing scenes of
the movie, that we always have a choice to do the right
thing. then he did the weird dance.

okay that has nothing to do with the title. hehe. we
have just formed a band and we are giving away a demo song
for free. we are called grace period and in the most
daring feat of self-promotion (hehe), we are going around
forcing people to give our song a listen. just send us
an email at grace.period@yahoo.com! thanks! for more info
about the band (i sing and play guitar for this band by
the way), check out friendster.com/graceperiod or
myspace.com/thegraceperiodband God bless!