Joanne Brokaw: September 2008 Archives

As he wraps his nationwide, headline "Back to School" tour this week, American Idol finalist Chris Sligh is asking fans to help him create his next video, by lip-syncing to the original vocals for Sligh's debut, top 10 AC hit single, "Empty Me."

The sardonically witty and outspoken Sligh made quite an impression when he auditioned for American Idol. Entertainment Weekly named his the "Best Idol Auditions Ever," and he was a fan favorite, making it to the Top 12. Chris Sligh's debut album,"Running Back to You," became one of the best-selling Christian album on iTunes when it released in May. "Empty Me" is currently on Christian radio, and the follow up single, "Arise," hits the airwaves this week.

The length of each video for "Empty Me" will be limited to 35 seconds, and fans will be asked to submit a video for a specific portion of the song based on the first letter of their last name. The breakdown, from Chris's blog:

Rockers Dizmas left last week for a seven week tour of the Czech Republic, where the band will be performing in high schools and working alongside an organization called Josiah Venture. The ministry is located in Eastern Europe and shares the gospel, creates disciples and offers gospel resources to help build the local Church body.

The band writes on their blog that they have been told they're the first Christian band allowed to play in Czech schools in the last 50 years.

"We consider this opportunity an honor and would like to ask for your prayers as we begin this new adventure. For now, if you would like some specific things to pray for, please pray that we will travel safely and that once we arrive God will give us the energy, unity, and wisdom to minister the truth in love."

The band will be providing updates from Eastern Europe on their blog. To learn more about Dizmas, visit them on MySpace.

With global cumulative sales of more than 5 million units of their six albums, and dozens of chart singles, Switchfoot is releasing an anthology of their signature tracks on The Best Yet.

The collection is a greatest hits but also a collection of songs that represent the history of the band. "These are songs that we would like to play for someone who has never heard of Switchfoot," says Switchfoot member Tim Foreman. "There is quite a wide musical journey expressed in that list, and we're very proud of that part of our history as a band. Beyond that, we've been digging into the vault to find rare video content for the deluxe edition, so that the hard-core fan that does decide to buy it won't be disappointed."

My friend Dave Weiss, supplier of all ideas unusual, sent me this video today from a Christian rock band called WinterBand. Their YouTube profile says, "We hope our music is a blessing to you. We play original Christian Bible based songs, original contemporary Christian music. Christian rock music."

It's kind of ... ZZTop with choir robes.

Music is cool, and they look like lots of fun - until you listen to the lyrics. The latest video, God Squad, talks about the "six eyed" God and "six legged" God that we worship. Wait ... it's an anti-Trinity song!

That Christian parody band, ApologetiX, is adding another guitar player to the line up and they've put out a call for auditions.

While the band, which takes current hit songs and turns them into Bible lessons, may have been ignorned by most of the Christian industry (when the band started, no label wanted to touch them), they have a huge fan base and have achieved enough success that when they were approached by a label a few years ago, they turned the offer down.

The band is relentless in maintaining a relationship with their fans, keeping track of how many shows fans attend, letting fans perform once in a while, recognizing birthdays, and letting fans help pick the songs to parody.

Most importantly, the band is committed to using the music to teach people about the Bible and to share the gospel.