I Don’t Want To Go To Heaven If I Can’t Get In

The title of this post comes from a recently released single, called “Heaven” by the band O.A.R. (which apparently stands for “Of A Revolution”).

This is not a band I follow much, so I’m not very familiar with their other work, but I like a lot of what I have heard of their music. This particular track, the first single of the bands album King which was released this year, caught my attention partly because it’s a catchy tune and has been getting some radio play, but mostly because of the lyrics.

Of course, it’s just a dumb pop song in some ways, but it resonates with some people and is causing some small stir in the Christian community, partly because it captures, in a very articulate and pithy way, a view that is very widespread in our culture and is the reason, I believe, why many people want nothing to do with any organized religion, including ours. That view is that religion pitches heaven (the ultimate goal of existence) as a kind of exclusive country club, and the kind of person you are is really not welcome there.

New Music – Mumford & Sons

Here are a couple of new tracks from Mumford & Sons, a band I have really come to like lately. Let me know what you think.

Remembering

As we passed Memorial Day this week, I found myself thinking of the people I have lost the last few years. I lost my secretary several years ago, who died young of lung cancer (she was a smoker), I lost my uncle, who died in his sixties of complications related to birth defects, I lost a dear friend who committed suicide after a lengthy battle with bipolar disorder, I lost a grandfather and a grandmother (one from each side) who were both in their nineties, a friend’s family (his wife and two children) died in a car accident, and I lost my mother.

A Year in the Making: U2 360 Salt Lake City

U2 are the band that it seems everyone, of every age, has a fervently held opinion about, either positive or negative. It’s possible, maybe even fashionable, to be deeply cynical about them now, especially when they show up with 27 semis and build a UFO in a football stadium, preach at you between songs (am I buggin’ you?) and charge a hundred bucks per ticket for the privilege of hearing them do so. That kind of thing can turn people off.

And on top of all that, when you delay the concert for a year while your primadonna lead singer recuperates from a bad back (damaged while shouldering the cares of the world no doubt) you better think twice before hauling your sorry ass into town and asking people to dust off their year-old tickets and show up to your over-late, over-blown traveling circus of a show.

Huntsman 2012 – The Hip Choice?

This article on the nascent Huntsman campaign is the first one I’ve read that actually makes a credible case for how Huntsman could win a presidential race. After reading it, I’m still not sure he’s running this time around, and there seems to be some possibility he might wait until 2016, but his political strategy appears to be that he intends to pitch himself as (you ready for this?) the cool republican.

Foo Fighters – Wasting Light

We haven’t talked about Foo Fighters new album, Wasting Light, which was released a couple weeks ago, and which reunited Grohl with Butch Vig, the Nirvana producer. I was planning to do a post on it but then I saw them perform on Letterman and thought the videos of that performance were just awesome, so I’m posting one of them above. As with most Foo Fighters albums, this album has some great tracks and some that just are over the top. One of the tracks, called “I Should Have Known” features Krist Novoselic on bass and appears to be a memoir of their former bandmate’s death, with Grohl repeatedly singing “I cannot forgive you yet.” Seriously. I think this album is one of the best albums this band has ever done.

My favorite track is the one above. I also really like “Walk.” Let me know your thoughts on this new Foo.

Fictionist in the Final Four

Fictionist is a great local band from here in Utah which has made it into the final four bands in a contest to be on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine. You can check them out and listen to their music here and on that same site you can help them by giving them your support to make the cover (do it, it’s easy!). You can read a great interview with them here. Tell all your friends and relations to vote for them so we can get this cool Utah band on the cover of Rolling Stone. Thanks!

New Music: Augustana

Augustana is a band that evolves with every album, and their new self-titled album, out now, is no exception. We’ve talked about Augustana before here and here, and as previously noted, the band started out as straight-up pop-rock balladeers, but with their last album switched gears a bit into a bluegrass-influenced folk/americana sound. This new album continues in that path, while bringing along some of the pop hooks that brought the band fame to begin with.

The Atonement and The Book of Mormon Musical

I’m always astonished to hear that there is little or no coordination among the speakers at General Conference. We correlate and pre-approve everything in this Church, but apparently, to a great extent, conference has escaped this tendency. Yet somehow, despite this, there is always a broad span of subjects covered and rarely a lot of overlap. This time, however, there were two talks on the Atonement. An overzealous attempt at correlation might have squelched one of these, but that would have been a mistake, as they covered the topic in different ways and they bracketed the conference nicely, one occurring in the Saturday morning session and one in the Sunday afternoon session. Both were by members of the seventy, the first by Elder Kent F. Richards, and the last by Elder C. Scott Grow (no relation to his more famous counterpart, Elder C. Spot Run) (ok, I apologize for that joke).

Justified: Debts and Accounts

The name of this episode is, once again, significant in more ways than one. Mags is despondent over Coover’s death and wants to “settle accounts.” She meets with Raylan’s aunt, who is apparently representing the Givens side of things. After some talk, Mags is apparently convinced not to go after Raylan for the killing. She also shares the Black Pike money. Before leaving the bar, she is confronted by a man who is upset about her selling out to the mining company. She warns him in front of a bar full of people that he will be killed if he speaks to her like that again. Don’t mess with Mags.