Church Jams Now!

As we continue our ACB mini-series, we take a detour into Hawkboy. For those of you that don't know, Hawkboy was the side project of Cody Bonnette and Aaron Lunsford, and they released 2 EPs in 2011! And we decided to cover both of them! Did TJ open for Hawkboy? Do one of these EPs contain the best Bright Eyes B-Side? We answer these questions and even talk about the two ACB singles that dropped b...

The CJN As Cities Burn mini-series continues with Hell Or High Water! Come Now Sleep left us re-thinking our rankings, but Hell Or High Water may provide the perfect rebuttal. As Cities Burn fulfills their destiny as Louisiana's finest jazz band and almost immediately morphs into Hawkboy, all on the same record. If Lady Blue has you going ‘round and ‘round throw yourself Into the Sea of sweet, swe...

Welcome to Part 2 of our 5 Part As Cities Burn mini-series! Take the train to the Interpolation Station as the CJN Crew is joined by the strong Jon Cannon to discuss the second album by "Lousiana's Finest Jazz Band", 2007's Come Now Sleep. We discuss tentpole songs, thematic snowballing, and overall how many thumbs a record can possibly get. Also featuring Beautiful Producer Josh's dulcet tones re...

Welcome to the first CJN artist miniseries on As Cities Burn! We're going through all of ACB's discography and kicking it off with the record that started it all. We've got all the usual CJN treatment, but with a twist as we venture into their debut record, Son I Loved You At Your Darkest. Along the way we discuss musical earfeel, movie runtimes, and the narrative principle that is Chekhov's...

What?! No Volume Number this time?! This year has been a doozy, and if you’ll allow us here at CJN to be a little self-indulgent, we decided to break our typical format and talk about our favorite moments from the past year of doing Church Jams Now! We talk “Jammiest Moments”, our favorite (and least favorite) albums of the year, and pick the Album of The Decade from the 70s through today. We also...

Hark! A Christmas pod proclaims! Bursting forth with spirit, glad tidings, and a healthy helping of humbuggery, this seasonal affective volume finds the Church Jams fellas grappling with the reason for the season: Sufjams! (Duh!)… 𝘗𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘦, the 5th and final volume of the 2006 collection Songs for Christmas, from everyone’s favorite para-Christian folk rock iconoclast, is an eclectic combination of h...

We’re back with another artist interview, and this time we’re joined by Orion Walsh of Slow Coming Day. We had a great time talking with Orion about the early days of the band, their time on Tooth & Nail, and hearing what the band is up to nowadays. Stick around to the end to hear how Orion fares when his emo knowledge is put to the ultimate test in another classic Kylan game. If you like what...

Unfortunately this week our regular CJN recording got messed up! When we went back to edit it there was some kind of crazy multi-dimensional feedback. Ah well, we'll try to upload it anyway. If you don't hear us on this episode then it's probably a version of Church Jams Now from a different dimension, one where previous guests Bethany Johnson, Faith Rugen, and Sarah Dickard host the show. They de...

In honor of Five Iron Frenzy Day, this week the CJN Crew is joined by none other than the inimitable Leanor Ortega-Till! We discuss everything from how Five Iron Frenzy got back together, how the democratic process works in the studio with so many members, and Leanor even puts the guys on the spot naming their least favorite Five Iron Frenzy songs. Church Jams Now is so excited to share this inter...

This week we get down with the DC Talk, d-d-down with the DC Talk covering their breakout 1992 record, Free At Last, for its 30th anniversary. This record has some slick production, but will it ultimately face the familiar flop fate like its follow-up record, Jesus Freak, fell into? Kylan’s daughter, Willow, gives her two cents as well as she delivers her first official bop or flop verdict on the...

Dark. Blue. Wet. Vampires. We’re joined this week by Chelsea Hollander and Kelly Attaway from Never Show The Monster and Debut Buddies to cover Evanescence’s 2003 album Fallen. This was a wild episode, and our two guests have set the bar pretty high in terms of preparedness. Stick around to find out if Fallen “brought us to life” as a bop or was a too scary flop. Please check out both Never Show T...

Pentagrams, horoscope signs, ouija boards, dungeons and dragons… we encounter every occultic symbol you could fathom as we accept A (Boy) Witch’s Invitation. Brew yourself a cup of steaming herbal tea and join some ghostly hosts for a Church Jams Now Halloween special as we dive into Carman’s spooktacular song and music video. Is this CCM’s unofficial response to “Thriller”? Is “A Warlock’s Invita...

Jonathan Clark, producer/composer/multi-instrumentalist joins the CJN Crew to talk about making Further Seems Forever’s 2012 album Penny Black on its anniversary. We deep dive into Jonathan’s musical history, how he got connected with Chris Carrabba and Twin Forks, and get super nerdy about production chains! This one will make any music production nerd very very happy. This interview goes everywh...

Mason Mennenga of the BlackSheep Podcast & A People’s Theology joins us to discuss Catch For Us The Foxes by mewithoutYou just in time for the record's 18th birthday. Mason brings an expansive and intimate knowledge of the band that eclipses the combined knowledge of Kylan, TJ, and Josh. Join us for a journey that parallels another famous journey in Middle Earth as we discuss Christian MTV, th...

Our guest this week, Sarah Dickard, excitedly brings Nichole Nordeman’s 1998 debut record to our attention, which led to a number of stunning flop and bop twists and turns…this episode made CJN history, so don’t sleep on it! Along the way, Kylan connects Nichole to Seinfeld, and we discuss French pop band Air, Weezer’s broadway show, and Nichole’s rap-adjacent lyrical stylings. Witness the rest of...

This week we have something totally new for Church Jams Now: our first artist interview! Steven Dail from Project 86 graciously joins us to discuss their 2002 record, Truthless Heroes , in honor of its 20th anniversary. We also discuss his involvement with Starflyer 59, Neon Horse, and White Lighter. Steven even reveals some exciting things on the horizon for multiple projects he’s involved with....

This week the CJN Crew tackles what many people believe is the best Emery record. 2005’s The Question. This is possibly the most agreeable Volume to date. We discuss Emery being the "Thinking Man's Screamo" and try to answer “the question” of how how to produce this album as a staged Rock Opera. If you like what you hear, please rate, review, subscribe, and follow! Connect with us here: IG: @churc...

We're back again with another EP and a brand new EP at that! Anberlin's recently released Silverline is their first release in 8 years so we figured we'd give it the official CJN treatment. We've got some strong thoughts on the artwork, and something about Anberlin seems to bring out the puns in our discussion. Listen in and let us know if there's Nothing Lost on our assessments, or if we end up j...

Get ready to deep dive into Larry Norman's 1972 album 'Only Visiting This Planet' with the CJN Crew. When Josh first suggested this album we were all kind of leery of it, but boy is it 100% worth it. From inspiring one of the greatest alt rock bands of the 80's to being an early adopter of punk music, Larry Norman was the godfather of "Christian" music and well worth a deep dive. Tuck in your poly...

We've got a quick one this week folks! In this episode the CJN Crew covers Kylan's first wishlist album, which turned out to be a 5 song EP! It was fun getting into early 2000's indie music, and spoiler! Kylan got COVID between Part A and B, so that tonal change is fun! Keep a look out later this week for a jam packed "If You Like This" Spotify Playlist. Let us know in the comments whether Are We...

To finish out our Month of Metal we brought resident metalhead Joe Cutler in to talk about Norma Jean's first record Bless The Martyer, Kiss The Child. Unfortunately TJ couldn't join us for Part B but it was still a blast. Also is this the only conversation about Norma Jean where Tony Bennett and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood are mentioned? I think so. Let us know if Bless The Martyr is a flop or a...

For our first Volume in our "Month of Metal" we're going all the way back to 2002 to cover the nu metal album Fireproof by Pillar! This is one of Beautiful Producer Josh's wishlist albums, and man is it a wild ride. Heads up Kylan kinda loses it a little bit. Thanks for checking out Church Jams Now! Let us know if Fireproof is a flop or a bop for you!

This week our new friend Sydney Davis Jr. Jr. (Growing Up Fundie, Second City, Third Coast Comedy) joins us to talk about the 2002 Newsboys album Thrive. There's lots of tattoos in inappropriate places, centuars, and action movies! Also if you haven't checked it out we guested on HER podcast Growing Up Fundie. You can listen to it here! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/growing-up-fundie-ep-22...

The writing is on the wall folks. You know it was only a matter of time until the CJN Crew covered the genre-defining Define The Great Line by Underoath. Our great friend Jonathan Hoogendoorn joins us to discuss it and honestly, There Could Be Nothing After This...

The CJN Crew goes back in time a little further than usual with the 1986 heavy metal album To Hell With The Devil by Styper. We couldn't think of a better guest than music critic and metalhead Aaron Cooper from The Crushed Monocle Podcast. We talk metal in general, the goofiness of metal lyrics, sweet guitar solos, and Kylan may have been going through something and taking it out on a member of St...