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Altar Boys | |
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| Origin | Southern California, US |
| Genres | Christian punk |
| Years active | 1982–1992 (indefinite hiatus) |
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Altar Boys were a Christian punk band from California formed in 1982. The original members were Mike Stand (vocals, songwriting and guitar), Jeff Crandall (drums), Steve Pannier (guitars) and Ric Alba (bass guitar and backing vocals). Mark Robertson later replaced Alba on bass guitar.
The Altar Boys helped to pioneer Christian rock music. [1] They were known for their Ramones-style punk music which was differed radically from the Christian music common at the time of their formation. [2] Especially in their early years, they were known for being explicit with their faith in their lyrics. [2] Their sound was heavily influenced by the punk rock scene in Southern California and they quickly became one of the best known Christian bands on that scene. [3]
The Altar Boys' first album was issued on various labels (e.g. Ministry Resource Center/MRC, Maranatha! Music and Broken Records) and sold over 7,000 copies with their second selling 20,000 in its first two months of release. [4]
Their third and fourth releases, Gut Level Music and Against the Grain, propelled them to national standing. [1] [2] Gut Level Music was explicitly aimed at a secular audience, and marked changes designed to enhance their credibility with that audience. [4] Their lyrical approach changed toward a more subtle expression of their faith. [5] They also refined their sound in an attempt to distance themselves from the punk "garage band" image that they had acquired early on. [5]
Their final studio album, Forever Mercy, was released in 1989 and supported with another tour. Some time after the tour, Alba left the band and was replaced by Mark Robertson. Work had begun on a follow-up album, tentatively titled No Substitute, when the Altar Boys went on an "indefinite hiatus" in 1992. [3]
The group did a number of reunion concerts of which the most notable were Cornerstone 2000 and 2002,[ citation needed ] and the Broken Records reunion event in July 2005.[ citation needed ] The group's final performance was in June 2006 at the Corona del Mar Fairgrounds.[ citation needed ]
The group of four performed live for their final show [6] on September 16, 2018, at House of Blues in Anaheim for the new release of the No Substitute album. At the sold-out performance, the Altar Boys performed crowd favorites Gut Level Music, a few new songs from No Substitute, and other well-known songs from their other albums. Stand's son made guest appearances on both drums and backing guitar.[ citation needed ] The show's opening act was Crumbacher, which was its first reunion since 2011.[ citation needed ]
Stand has resurrected many of the Altar Boys songs with a "punktry" project called The Altar Billies. [7]
Drummer and Stand's cousin, Jeff Crandall, is currently[ when? ] a connector with Worship Catalyst in Tucson, Arizona, who acts as a mentor, coach and trainer to worship leaders in Tucson and across the US.[ citation needed ]
The Choir is an atmospheric alternative rock band currently comprising Derri Daugherty on guitar and lead vocals, Steve Hindalong on drums and percussion, and Dan Michaels on saxophone and Lyricon. Long-time bass guitarist Tim Chandler died in 2018, and guitarist Marc Byrd was the fifth member of the band between 2005–2014. As of 2024, the band has released 19 full-length studio albums, three EPs, five live albums, one single-disc compilation album, one retrospective box set, and is still actively recording new material.
¡Alarma! is the fourth studio album by Christian rock and Daniel Amos, issued on Newpax Records in April 1981. It is the first album in their ¡Alarma! Chronicles series and one of the earliest records in the Christian alternative rock genre.
Christian punk is a form of Christian music and a subgenre of punk rock which contain Christian lyrical content. Much disagreement persists about the boundaries of the subgenre, and the extent that their lyrics are explicitly Christian varies among bands. For example, the Crucified explicitly rejected the classification of "Christian punk" while staying within the Christian music industry.
Undercover is an American Christian rock band based in Fullerton, California, formed in the early 1980s by Joey "Ojo" Taylor and James "Gym" Nicholson. Through more than two decades and a few lineup changes, the band released eight studio albums and two live albums, and were pioneers in what would later be called alternative music in the Christian world. The band was known for the spiritual growth shown in their music as their career progressed; CCM Magazine once called them "the band that grew up in public."
Scaterd Few was a Christian punk band originating from Burbank, California. CCM magazine described their music as "pure punk for dread people," stating that it was a cross between Janes Addiction and Charlie Mingus.
The Archers were an American contemporary Christian music group. They were originally brothers Tim and Steve Archer, Fred Satterfield, Nancye Short and Billy Rush Masters. After Masters and Short departed in 1977, sister Janice Archer joined. They enjoyed greater longevity than most of the pioneering CCM artists, recording chart hits in the decades of the 1970s, '80s, and '90s. Their hits included, "Jesus Is The Answer", "Little Flowers", "It Wouldn't Be Enough" (Aldridge), "Fresh Surrender", "Stand Up!", and "Heaven In Your Eyes". Former Maranatha! Music artist and CCM pioneer Erick Nelson defined The Archers' role in the development of contemporary Christian music as representing one-half of a convergence: traditional vocal groups like The Archers got hipper while the hippie rock groups got more mellow—eventually both evinced the polished, commercial sound that would be identified as stereotypical contemporary Christian music.
Daniel Amos is an American Christian rock band formed in 1974 by Terry Scott Taylor on guitars and vocals, Marty Dieckmeyer on bass guitar, Steve Baxter on guitars and Jerry Chamberlain on lead guitars. The band currently consists of Taylor, guitarist Greg Flesch and drummer Ed McTaggart. Over the band's career, they have included keyboardist Mark Cook, drummer Alex MacDougall, bassist Tim Chandler and keyboardist Rob Watson with sounds that experimented with country rock, rock, new wave and alternative rock.
Alarma Records was an imprint of Newpax Records and Frontline Records. Alarma! Records and Tapes was formed in 1983 by the band Daniel Amos with musician Tom Howard for the release of their Doppelgänger album. The name of the label comes from the band's 1981 album ¡Alarma!.
One Bad Pig is a Christian punk and metal crossover band from Austin, Texas, which formed in 1985. The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music describes them as "quite possibly the most popular hard-punk act ever to arise within the Christian music scene." They were known for their mischief and irreverence on stage, as reflected even in their reunion at Cornerstone in 2000.
DigHayZoose was a Christian funk and modern rock band from Kansas City, Missouri. The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music describes them as "One of the first Christian alternative rock bands of the 1990s". Their name, when spoken, is audibly similar to saying "Dig Jesus" in Spanish.
Frontline Records was a Christian rock record label, founded in 1986 by James Kempner in Santa Ana, California. The label focused primarily on modern rock, rap, dance-pop and hip-hop. The label closed in the early 1990s, and then resurfaced in 2010 to digitally re-release its music catalog.
Voices in Shadows is the first studio album by alternative rock band the Choir, released in 1985.
Leviticus was a Christian metal band from Sweden. The band formed in 1981 and was led by Bjorn Stigsson. They released four albums before breaking up in 1990.
Pocket Change was an American Christian punk band from Suffolk, Virginia, United States, that recorded and performed from 1995 until 2001.
Shout was an American rock band formed in 1987 by Ken Tamplin. Musically, the band was similar to Journey and Styx, with the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music describing them as "more competent than Stryper". Cornerstone magazine wrote that Shout was more straightforward than other Christian metal bands such as Bloodgood. The band garnered a Dove Award after their breakup in 1989.
Dead Artist Syndrome was a Christian gothic rock band formed in 1989 in Orange County, California. The group consisted of singer-songwriter Brian Healy and a rotating cast of side men. Healy was dubbed the "father of Christian goth" by Rozz Williams, and was an ordained minister. The name of D.A.S. according to Healy is "Dead Artist Syndrome means greater in death than in life, be it James Dean, Van Gogh or Jesus Christ". His debut album Prints of Darkness was a notable, groundbreaking release. The band had been sporadically active due to health issues, releasing two albums in the 2000s, and another in 2015. In 2006, Dead Artist Syndrome was named "Outstanding Orange County Band" by the editors and readers of Rock City News, a Los Angeles local music paper. For several years Healy was privately in poor health his gallbladder exploded while recording vocals resulting in emergency surgery, and a neurological disorder his wife Marie Tullai Healy described as "a combination of Michael J. Fox and the late Foster Brooks everybody thought he was drunk, Brian was falling down he broke his arm, slurring his speech trying to complete his record, next thing we know he's in a wheelchair, finally in 2012 they discovered the cause and he had brain surgery and is 100% back to his old self and had no idea any of this was going on, inside his head everything was fine". Healy said on his Facebook page 'He's back" and is actively recording, producing others and hosting Frontline Records Rewind Broadcast and podcast Healy died January 12, 2020, of a brain hemorrhage.
Mortal was a Christian industrial/dance band fronted by Jerome Fontamillas and Jyro Xhan. Both members went on to found the alternative rock group Fold Zandura, and for a time were members of both bands simultaneously. The band is known for its lyrical intelligence, incorporating advanced theology with what has been billed as "Industrial Praise and Worship." According to CCM Magazine "Mortal has had a much greater influence... on industrial music than its modest output would suggest."
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Christian ska is a form of Christian alternative rock, and subgenre of ska and ska punk which is lyrically oriented toward contemporary Christian music. Though ska did not constitute a genre within the Christian music industry until after third wave ska had peaked in the general market, Christian ska continued to thrive independently into the early 2000s.
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