Saturday 25 May
 
 

IndianGiver — Plafond EP

If you were to peruse the “About” section of IndianGiver’s Facebook page, you’ll notice how the instruments attributed to each of the Oklahoma City band’s five members are described with downright flippancy: Dylan Jordan plays “sticks & animal skins,” while Jazzton Rodriguez earns his keep with “shanties & loud noises,” and so on.
05/22/2013 | Comments 0

Various artists — Never Give Up: Celebrating 10 Years of The Postal Service

Few indie bands have had the impact on current music that The Postal Service has. Even fewer have done so with only one album.
05/15/2013 | Comments 0

Big Worm — Bench All-Stars

Fans of the comedy classic Friday may recognize the name Big Worm, but the Big Worm behind Bench All-Stars is rooted not in South Central L.A., but on the streets of Oklahoma City.
05/08/2013 | Comments 0

Code 22 — Going Soft: The Acoustic Album!

The guys of Oklahoma City’s Code 22 seem like a likable group of fellas. Their latest release, Going Soft: The Acoustic Album!, is likable enough as well — so likable that on first listen, I took its clean, acoustic sound and clear, unstressed vocals as an alternative praise-and-worship band.
05/08/2013 | Comments 0

Eureeka — Polysynthetic Fields

It’s always refreshing to hear music that embraces its own eccentricity, yet presents it in an accessible and meek fashion. Eureeka — the Norman-based duo of Jordan Vargas and Devin Wahl — has tapped into this rarified air on its self-released EP, Polysynthetic Fields.
05/08/2013 | Comments 0
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Music

Kart tunes


Whether they’re covering Disney songs or saving lives, the Christian pop-punkers of Stellar Kart have God on their side. Can they get a ‘hallelujah’?

Joshua Boydston August 3rd, 2011  

Youth Evangelism Conference featuring Stellar Kart, Josh Wilson and Press Play
Friday-Saturday
Lloyd Noble Center
2900 S. Jenkins, Norman
ou.edu/lnc
325-4666
$25

Even when Christian rock’s Stellar Kart decides to cut loose, its four members still wind up seeming pretty wholesome. In between studio albums, they decided to record a short, goofy EP for release this summer.

The subject matter? Disney, of course.

“We’re all fans of Disney, and I have a 4-year-old daughter that I’ve took to Disneyland several times over the years,” singer Adam Agee said. “We started playing ‘Whole New World’ last summer at festivals, and people loved it. That was the most memorable moment of the set for some people, and we are fine with that. We wanted to record it for people to have, and decided to pick a few other favorites to do along with it.”

The “Whole New World” EP also features covers of tracks from “The Little Mermaid,” “The Lion King” and “Beauty and the Beast.” It was a fun endeavor for an act otherwise concerned with more weighty ones.

Stellar Kart formed in 2002 when Agee and drummer Jordan Messer — inspired by Audio Adrenaline, Green Day and Jimmy Eat World — just wanted to learn their instruments to lead church worship services. They ended up doing a lot more than that.

“I never thought we’d be playing internationally, flying all over the world and playing music for a living,” Agee said.

Kids latched onto to Kart’s poppunk sound with a positive message; for Agee, that’s what it’s always been about.

“God just happened to be what we wrote about. We grew up in the church, and that’s what we wanted to do,” Agee said. “Whether we were a Christian band or not, I could have never made music that had some sort of hope. Music that is empty and doesn’t have a point ... they don’t really do anything for me. The songs that connect propel us because they are helping people.”

Stellar Kart has done that. Letters and emails come in all the time, thanking the band for a certain song that helped them get through tough times. In one case, it even saved a girl’s life.

Agee said the girl had decided to kill herself and went to a friend’s MySpace page to leave a short goodbye. When she heard the Stellar Kart song playing on the page, she stopped and listened all the way through. She started to cry, then called that friend to talk about what she just heard, instead of following through with her original intent.

“It kind of validated everything we’ve done. We don’t make tons of money, and we spend a lot of time away from our families,” Agee said. “It’s tough to keep going, then you hear stories like that. Even if she’s the only one, it makes all that we’ve done worth it.”

 
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