Read part one of the interview here.

Here we continue our conversation with Daniel Smith, also known as Danielson, an independent musician and businessman based in rural New Jersey who’s done much to foster creativity and community for Christian performers through his record label, Sounds Familyre.  Smith has just released his first album in five years, Best of Gloucester County, which you can order here or from your favorite online retailer.

vimeo Danielson performing live for La Blogotheque

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Before we get back into the interview, I’ve got some thoughts about the record itself, which I’ve listened to quite a few times before its release.  As noted in the last portion of our conversation, this has been a transitional record for Danielson in many ways.  In addition to reassembling a team of supporting players, the band is standing in the shadow of 2006’s imposing concept album Ships.  Rather than try to escalate the sound into more “epic” territory, which would quickly degenerate into self-parody, Danielson scales things back and gets about as back-to-basics as he can.  Since he’s working with a smaller sonic palette that doesn’t change much from song to song, the album has a jammier feel; it takes me back to the 2001 Danielson Famile masterwork Fetch the Compass Kids.

Though there’s still some of the heady, theological musing that made up the majority of Ships, Gloucester healthily revives the overt humor of past Danielson days.  “Lil Norge” is a bouncy ball of pure fun co-starring Swedish pop singer Jens Lekman, drawing good-hearted laughs out of culture clashes between Swedes, Norwegians, and Americans, and the aforementioned “People’s Partay” basks in its small-town idiosyncrasies with clever couplets and wordplay.  It’s a light-hearted song about learning that all you need for celebration is other people, God’s most precious creation, and discovering the joy of belonging to a loving community. (more…)

One of the best-kept secrets about the Church is that Christians have often been pioneers and giants in the arts.  You certainly wouldn’t know that from what’s peddled as “Christian” music, that incestuous sub-genre known as CCM (contemporary Christian music) that embodies all the excess of the Nashville-based music industry.  Vain, kitschy, sappy, vapid, and overproduced, it’s an insult for us to offer such tripe in our worship instead of impassioned, finely crafted art.

Over the next few months, Big Hollywood will be highlighting the work of Christian musicians who buck this trend, who don’t use their music’s subject matter as an excuse for sucking but push boundaries for themselves and their listeners.  I’m personally ecstatic that our first contact is Daniel Smith, the founder and leader of the New Jersey-based music project named “Danielson” which has gone through many variations over the years, the first and most search engine optimized being the Danielson Famile.

Starting as a senior project at Rutgers University, the Danielson Famile was an experimental folk-rock outfit that consisted of Daniel Smith and his four siblings, some of whom were still in their teens.  Focusing on the marvelous fact that God has adopted him as a son, Daniel communicated his childlike faith through yelping, falsetto vocals, instruments like xylophones that sound like they’re being played by an out-of-control nursery, and unpredictable song structures.  As a fan, the first album A Prayer for Every Hour, I’ll admit, is off-putting and hard to sit through, but it was miraculously picked up by Tooth and Nail Records, which was then primarily known for releasing Christian punk music, allowing the Famile to tour and build up buzz in the indie world.  The rest is history, well documented in a great film from a few years back.

Over the past decade-plus, Danielson has gained and lost members as siblings moved on to other endeavors, and Daniel himself has settled into a different mode of writing as he’s built up his own family, started a record label, and come to appreciate a more provincial place in this world.  He’s gone from freak-folk ringleader to the frontman of one of the most slyly subversive pop-rock groups around, weaving layered Biblical allusions into poetic lyrics that can take Rubik’s-level effort to unravel.  His voice has given up on its squeakier octaves, and his melodies, while still unpredictable, have grown more accessible.  It’s a perfect time for anyone who’s unfamiliar with Danielson to hop on board and work their way back through his catalog of work.

Daniel was gracious enough to answer some questions about his new album Best of Gloucester County, which is hitting shelves almost five years since his latest (much lauded) release, Ships– an eternity in music years, but as you’ll see below, for good reason.   You can order the album directly from his label, Sounds Familyre, and those who purchase the vinyl LP will receive a digital copy of the album.  Below is the first single for Gloucester, a song called “Grow Up,” followed by part 1 of our exclusive interview.

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Despite the fact that the United States spends more per student on education than any other nation in the world, students of the American educational system have scored well below average on worldwide rankings of mathematical and literacy proficiency.  Why is this?  The engaging and thought-provoking documentary, “The Cartel,” attempts to answer that very question.  Using New Jersey, the number one state in educational spending, as an example, the film investigates the various obstacles that stand between our country’s children and a first rate education.

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While the film delved into numerous issues, from bloated salaries to lack of oversight in spending, two of them were the most infuriating.  The first is the fact that the teachers’ union vehemently opposes any meaningful reform that it sees as a threat to its power.  While, as the film expresses, there are plenty of individual teachers who care about their students and put forth their best effort in the classroom, the NEA has become a bloated political organization that is interested only in protecting its power rather than in educating the students it pretends are its highest priority.  For instance, the NEA and its state chapters exert massive political influence over who is chosen to fill administrative posts that will negotiate contracts with them.  This enable them to keep policies in place such as the tenure system that manifests itself in a ridiculously unbelievable 99.97% teacher retention rate in New Jersey.  Watching Joyce Powell, head of the NJEA, try to spin her way around the facts presented to her is both laughable and maddening.  Until this mammoth self-serving organization can be dismantled, reforming public education will continue to be futile endeavor. (more…)

From the Associated Press:

Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – MTV is getting more pressure to cancel its “Jersey Shore” reality show.  The latest criticism comes from the New Jersey Italian American Legislative Caucus, which says the show promotes derogatory ethnic stereotypes and is “wildly offensive.”

In a letter sent Tuesday to the president of Viacom, MTV’s parent company, caucus chairman Joseph Vitale asks that the show be immediately taken off the air.

The state lawmakers also have asked advertisers to boycott the show, which focuses on eight tanned 20-somethings and their escapades in Seaside Heights, a popular New Jersey beach town. (more…)

Chris Christie was obviously wearing his; as was Robert McDonnell.  The GOP is officially breathing again.  It was a great day for Republicans Tuesday.  It happened exactly one year after we took our worst shellacking since the 1960s.  And, what did President Obama do while his party was getting whooped in two states which voted for him last year?  The official statement from the White House is that he did not even bother to watch any of the results as “they just didn’t matter and didn’t reflect on him:  They were locally driven.”

For the past year I have been saying the current President is one of the biggest megalomaniacs in history.  And Tuesday night he proved it again.  While the state of New Jersey, which is one of the bluest, was falling and the State of Virginia was being swept by Republicans (which has not happened since Reconstruction), the President refused to acknowledge any of it mattered. I wonder if he was wearing his lucky tie.  (more…)

On a rainy day last week in Long Branch, NJ, Bob Dylan, wearing a hood, was peering into a for-sale home when a neighbor called the police fearing he might be a burglar. Two young officers arrived on the scene and neither of them knew who Bob Dylan was. They asked for I.D. – he had none but explained he was a musician on tour with John Mellencamp and they were set to play at a nearby stadium in Lakewood. Without fuss or anger, Mr. Dylan was escorted back to his tour bus where he produced I.D.

That was that. End of incident. (more…)