Marc Byrd's new project
(Hammock is finally released)

Hammock is:
Marc Byrd
Andrew Thompson

Record label: Hammock Music

Working in music is bittersweet. Bitter because you almost always have to deal with other people's ideas and preferences that don't necessarily suit your personal taste. Sweet because regardless of the style or quality, you're still getting to work on music and it sure beats digging a ditch. Both Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson produce, write songs, twist knobs and play several different instruments. They have each spent years in different bands traveling in vans and buses, performing in front of anyone who was willing to listen. However, these days they spend most of their time behind the scenes, working on other people's music. Marc has even had a song he co-wrote beamed up into space to wake the astronauts on two different space shuttle missions. Marc and Andrew consider themselves fortunate. But there are times when the need to create your own thing begins to interrupt your life. And if you don't give in to that need, everything else begins to suffer.

And so, with no agenda or expectation in mind, Marc and Andrew began getting together periodically to let the sounds inside of them find their way out into the open. There was no band, no record label breathing down their necks and really, no plan to make a full-blown recording for release. But after numerous sessions of creating and fumbling around, they looked up to realize that they had recorded around thirty pieces of music. And so this melding of music, space, passion, years of hard work and wide-open spaces became a new band...Hammock.

The sixteen pieces chosen for Hammock's first release, entitled Kenotic, evoke endless sky and the open Southern landscape. Kenotic is all at once ambient, post-rock, dreamy, lush, melodic, and atmospheric, a soundscape inspired by stillness, beauty, emptiness and silence. This is a band and an album that makes you notice the world around you by filling up the space within you. And like the world outside-like the empty space within, this music overflows with beauty and tension, melancholy and hope. All equally abiding there.

check out www.hammockmusic.com (early 2005)

(purchase here)

Dear Ephesus (to return)

When emo seemed like a new concept – back in the previous millenium – there were a handful of bands that seemed to get it right the first time (Brandtson, Appleseed Cast, and Dear Ephesus). It was with great shock and sadness when they called it a day back in 1999. Since then many a rising new band has cited DE as a definite influence. While this has not gone unnoticed by the former members, there was never a serious thought towards reforming the band. Thanks to the prodding and help of Jeff Adams, who worked for the infamous Jeff Hanson Management team (Creed, Alter Bridge), Dear Ephesus will record an EP this fall.
~Hm Magazine (Dear Ephesus Interview

2004 Dove Awards Announced
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
Here are the nominations in the Rock and Hip-Hip categories for the 35th Annual Dove Awards, which are Christian music's version of the Grammy awards.

The Dove Awards will take place on April 28 in Nashville, TN.

Rap/Hip Hop Recorded Song of the Year
- "Believe" - Grits
- "Dear Slim Pt. 2" KJ-52
- "Jubilee" - Souljahz
- "Love Is In The House" - TobyMac
- "Raised in Harlem" - T-Bone, Michael Tait, Donnie Lewis

Modern Rock Recorded Song of the Year
- "Beautiful Day" - Sanctus Real
- "Breaking Me Down" - Downhere
- "Go" - Andy Hunter
- "I Am Understood" - Relient K
- "Savior" - Skillet

Rock Recorded Song of the Year
- "All About You" - Nate Sallie
- "Ammunition" - Switchfoot
- "Dirty" - Audio Adrenaline
- "Free" - Plumb
- "Get This Party Started" - TobyMac

Rock/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year
- "Gone" Switchfoot
- "Meant to Live" Switchfoot
- "Sing a Song" - Third Day
- "This Fragile Breath (The Thunder Song)" Todd Agnew
- "You Are So Good to Me" - Third Day

Urban Recorded Song of the Year
- "Dance, Dance, Dance" - Mary Mary
- "Let Go" - Souljahz
- "Love, Peace and Happiness" - Out of Eden
- "Nobody Like Jesus" - Darwin Hobbs
- "Showpiece" - Out of Eden

Rap/Hip Hop Album of the Year
- Gospelalphamegafunkyboogiediscomusic - T-Bone
- Holy Culture - The Cross Movement
- It's Pronounced Five Two - KJ-52
- Lil iROCC Williams - Lil iROCC Williams
- The Exodus - Gospel Gangstas

Modern Rock Album of the Year
- 2 - Apt Core
- A Beautiful Glow - Rock 'n' Roll Worship Circus
- Beautiful Lumps of Coal - Plumb
- Perfect Change - Dakona
- Two Lefts Don't Make a Right...But Three Do - Relient K

Rock Album of the Year
- Believe - Big Dismal
- Lose This Life - Tait
- Phenomenon - Thousand Foot Krutch
- Picking Up the Pieces - Seventh Day Slumber
- Say It Loud - Sanctus Real

Rock/Contemporary Album of the Year
- Furthermore: From the Studio, From the Stage - Jars of Clay
- Grace Like Rain - Todd Agnew
- So Much for Substitutes - Downhere
- The Beautiful Letdown - Switchfoot
- WorldWide - Audio Adrenaline

Recorded Music Packaging of the Year
!Hero The Rock Opera - Meaux Records
The Agony Scene - Solid State Records

Short Form Music Video of the Year
- "(There's Gotta Be) More To Life" - Stacie Orrico
- "Dear Slim" - KJ-52
- "Breathe Slow" - Mars Ill
- "Hoy Mas Que Nunca" - Miguel Angel Guerra
- "Legacy" - Nichole Nordeman
- "You Get Me" - ZOEgirl

Other notable nominations include:
- "Meant to Live" by Switchfoot for Song of the Year
- Jeremy Camp for Male Vocalist of the Year
- Switchfoot & Third Day for Group of the Year
- Switchfoot for Artist of the Year
- Jeremy Camp & Todd Agnew for New Artist of the Year

Source:~ CCMmagazine.com

 

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