The Week-est Link, Nov. 30: The Greatest Band You Know Nothing About

1. As has been happening, there is only one link this week. It is to my new favorite band: Explosions in the Sky. For those who have not heard of EitS, it is a rock band with some very significant twists: 1) it does not have a singer (ever), 2) it plays a style that could best be described “cinematic rock,” and 3) it makes some of the most thoughtful, beautiful music you will ever hear. I’m not a big rock guy, so that last statement represents me going toward the end of a limb.

Here are some great videos to watch (sound quality not great, but will give you a taste):

• “Greet Death” (sounds like the modern death song of a Norse warrior)
• “The Only Moment We Were Alone” (captures the poignance of a fleeting romance)
• And the best song of them all, “Your Hand in Mine” (was on the Friday Night Lights soundtrack, one of the most powerful songs I’ve ever heard)
• The band’s myspace page (has four songs on it of great sound quality)

If you don’t like rock, or you’re not really much into contemporary music, don’t write me off from the start. EitS plays long, melodic, haunting, intro-build-climax-soften-build again-peak again kind of music. The band dresses and talks like a normal hip rock group, but their music is nothing like much of the “radio rock” that you hear. It is music that asks the great questions of life, that probes the deepest, darkest areas of life. I get the impression that many people listen to this band expecting some kind of mindless punk/thrash music. What they get instead is a look into the higher things, the things most do not speak of, the things of the soul.

If I could have one group write the soundtrack music for my life (there is no danger of that happening, don’t worry), this would be the group. Music is a funny thing for many people. Many of us (myself included) confine ourselves to our narrow little interest group and never discover the beauties of common grace that are all around us. Well, I encourage you to discover Explosions in the Sky–innovative, unusual, haunting, beautiful.