OK Go - This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.

More from the Civil Wars:
Free live album available here.
“Poison and Wine” EP (4 songs) available on Amazon.com.
Follow The Civil Wars on Twitter.

SEE: Art In My Coffee
The first time I ever experienced “foam art” in my coffee was in Seattle. There’s a coffee shop our good friend Megan told us about called Victor’s Coffee that literally made designs in coffee. It’s something I’ve seen pop up more in the internet world and now the site Art in My Coffee is completely dedicated to this beautiful art. I really appreciate the quality of the images here as well as the fact they are basically considering it an online museum. You can even submit your own photo which is fabulous. Oh, and if you’re looking for them in short form, they are on Twitter.

DO: Buy Me This In-N-Out Clear Cup
For those non-Californian types this won’t make sense so if you want to move along that’s fine. But for my California natives, I know you understand how awesome this is. Some people may have already spent their hard earned money on one of those (way overpriced) Starbucks clear cups, but I’m telling you right now that this In-N-Out cup should be mine. For only $10.50 from the In-N-Out company store, this is a no-brainer. My family already purchased the beautiful, stunning, fabulous, hand-painted, hand crafted In-N-Out Double Double, fries, and drink Christmas ornaments, but those can only be brought out once a year and for a limited time. This perfectly clear, palm tree lined, 16oz plastic cup of goodness is exactly what I need on a daily basis. I promise I will treat it right, never microwave it, and always hand wash so you know it’ll be in good hands.

Only A Man

I used to live my life in fear
Was worried all the time
From waking up to laying down
I had no peace of mind
The world became a darkened place
A struggle without end
Although bitter times those were
The days that I had began to understand
I was only a man

I grew up singing songs in church
With questions in my mind
Then turned my back and ran away
From God who gave me life
Then one night his presence fell
I wept and shook and then
I fell down and cried, Dear Jesus, rescue me again
I understand I am only a man

And He said, What will it be now?
Will you choose me or keep swimming up stream now?
I’ve been inside your head hearing you scream out.
Well here I am, just take my hand and I’ll take out
All of the pain and all of the fear
All of the fear

I’ll give you my burdens (I’ll give you peace)
All of my desires (I’ll give you what you need)
Oh, what about these chains, Lord? (I’ll set you free)
But they’re so heavy (Lay them at my feet)
I’ll lay them at your feet
Just promise you won’t leave (I’ll never leave)
So where do I go from here, Lord? (Just follow me, just follow me)
I’ll follow you (Just follow me) wherever you lead
Wherever you lead, wherever you lead

Music and lyrics by Jonny Lang. Purchase the album here.

Today is the official release of Paramore’s 3rd album titled Brand New Eyes, and from what I’ve previewed on their website…it’s gonna rock. I suggest you get yourself a copy. This band is good, no doubt about it.

HEAR: Needtobreathe - The Outsiders
Don’t let this band’s album artwork freak you out — they’re not scary. My friend Kurt turned me on to this band last week and the only way I can describe them is if Counting Crows, Kings of Leon, Tom Petty, and Hanson all got married, this would be their child. That’s probably the most awkward way of describing a band, but nothing else was coming to mind so you’re just going to have to go with it. Needtobreathe has Godly lyrics, and a more poppy sound without being so radio friendly that I just can’t handle it. They’ve got a Southern soul that makes me want to sit on the front porch a sip lemonade, and they have a hint of the newer Hanson sound that I dig — speaking of Hanson, did you know they’re going on tour with hellogoodbye this fall…awesome. Seriously, this band has impressed me. I can’t speak for their earlier albums, but their latest titled The Outsiders is good and I recommend you take a listen. Click here to buy the album from Amazon.com or just click the “Preview All” button to get a taste!

SEE: This Creative Video By a Guy Named Ben Rector

Ben Rector - Free from TK McKamy on Vimeo.

DO: Visit CheeseandBurger.com — It Will Change Your Life

You definitely do NOT want to visit this site if you answer yes to any of the following states:

I am currently hungry
I am pregnant
I hate cheeseburgers
I am a vegan or vegetarian
I hate amazing things
I never saw the movie The Emperor’s New Groove

Cheeseandburger.com is not for the faint of heart or for those not wanting to immediately run out the door and find the most incredible cheeseburger you have ever had. I think this website may have changed the way I look at the cheeseburger….mmmmm… cheeseburger…. My favorites are: 6, 7, 10, 17, 21, and 25 — is it lunch time yet?

New album coming out November 10th. Neat.

Imogen Heap - Canvas

If you don’t know that I love music, then you probably don’t know me very well. Music is something that I play, talk about, dream about, and write about. Listening to music is simply one of my favorite pastimes. Were I a woman with a dress, in Austria, in an open field to sing I would sing a song about it — and among my list of favorites things would be music. It’s just that simple.

That’s why I want to know if you’ve heard about evade the noise? Think of it like shaycam.com, only instead of being about me, it’s about music (and movies). That’s why I think it’s the other half of my brain, because when I’m not taking photos or doing whatever it is I do, I’m writing about music. In fact, it’s not just me — it’s me and my friends (one of whom is pictured above). We figured since we all love music (and movies), why not write about it? So this is simply to remind you to be sure and come check us out when you get a chance, and if you’re really techy, add us to your RSS reader.

Here’s a few of our most recent reviews:
Where The Light Is: John Mayer Live In Los Angeles (film/music review)
Coldplay - Prospekt’s March EP (album review)
Seven Pounds (film review)

Click here to visit evade the noise™ (dot com)!

After you listen you’ll understand the photo above.

June 3rd | New Weezer album, The Red Album
June 13th | Dizmas concert
June 15th | My birthday falls on Father’s Day! I will only be celebrating my birthday so don’t start any rumors.
June 17th | New Coldplay album, Viva la Vida
June 27th | Movie - Wall-E

July 3rd | Movie - Hancock
July 18th | Movie Batman: The Dark Knight

August 8th - 24th | The Summer Olympics in Beijing! Already setting my TiVo for a few soccer matches.
August 30th | Sister-in-law getting married. Means a trip to the great northwest.

I can’t wait.

Get your copy… $7.99 on iTunes. Beautiful.

And for the record… Zach used to wear those visors — trust me, I was there.

Despite all that, I do try to keep up with the band via this crazy thing called the world wide web — you might have heard of it. Every now and then a good YouTube video pops up and today was one of those days. Below is some footage of the guys playing “Redemption, Passion, Glory” from their first album.

Where I find Dizmas:
Dizmas on Twitter. (see also, Yeshua, JonDizmas, Nikolaka, and JoeyDizmas)
Dizmas on MySpace.
Dizmas on Last.FM.
Dizmas on YouTube.

I know I’ve been posting a lot of videos lately, but they just keep coming in… and somehow they are getting better and better. Thanks to Mike for sending this over via Twitter.

Oh, and for more on music be sure and visit http://evadethenoise.com. Evade everything.

At times the church has this problem. They point, focus, and click, but what they thought was going to be a great picture of the church turned out to be something quite different. Or at least that's what I think happens. I wasn't even really planning on talking about this tonight until I came across a church youth website. Honestly, I was looking at some web design company and noticed they had a youth ministry in their portfolio. My first thought was, "how the heck did a youth ministry afford a professional website?" so I had to check it out. These were the first words I read:

"Oneighty is open Thursdays 6:15pm to 9:15pm for High Schoolers, grades 9-12. Featuring billiards, basketball, Xbox and PS2, foosball, food, experiencing God, and discovering who you were created to be."

Maybe you read that and thought, "sweet, sounds cool." If you did, that's probably what the leaders were going for on this one. But that's not what I thought. My mind triggers on how things are worded and where things are placed. Words mean something to me. Sentence structure also means something. We don't just use our language to communicate information, we can, and do use it to communicate a message. The message I got from those two sentences was this:

“Come on in! We’ve got everything you can do at home and more!…. and if we get around to it, we just might try to explain what ‘experiencing God’ means.”

Call me harsh, but let’s be honest — putting “Xbox” and “experiencing God” in the same sentence doesn’t really make much sense. If given the option, I’m sure just about every average high school student (male or female) is going to choose “food” or “billiards” over “experiencing God.”

The church doesn’t need to be another place to plug in, play pool, or eat junk food, it needs to be the church. It needs to be the church as defined in Scripture. We don’t need youth who are committed to Halo, we need youth who are committed to Christ. It just gets under my skin. I don’t understand where we thought this was a good idea. I only include myself because I am a part of the global Church. These people may be genuine followers of Christ, but I think they need to rethink their platform for ministry.

The reality is, I love the church. But I don’t understand why we need to dress her (the church) up like the local burger joint to talk about Christ. I’m not trying to judge the hearts or intentions of the people of the unnamed church I am talking about, but I think it’s simply dangerous. May I quote from Derek Webb’s song “Nobody Loves Me”:

the truth is never sexy
so it’s not an easy sell
you can dress her like the culture
but she’ll shock ‘em just as well

because she don’t need an apology for being who she is
and she don’t need your help making enemies
so i don’t care if…

nobody loves me, nobody loves me
nobody loves me but you