In this issue

• Hotels, beaches, owls, prawns, and Austrians

• What is a spiritual experience?

• 2004 is coming

• Tundra ponds

2004: what was the deal?

I’m thinking that some newsletter issues will focus on a specific year. I might explore the history, the music, maybe something personal, guest tidbits. If there is interest, this may become a regular practice.

So, let me begin with 2004. Any thoughts on what happened that year? Reflections on your life? Favourite albums? Something you learned? Historical curiosities? A fashion you hated? Please share!

Charismatic fires #2: God, experience, and emotion

Previously I mentioned how I have been sifting through my own past with charismatic Christianity to glean some of the wisdom of hindsight. In this column I want to look at the promise of experiencing God that is at the heart of the spiritual life in charismatic Christianity.

While there are different emphases, a main message of charismatic teaching is that anyone can encounter and experience God directly, through emotional peace and joy, bodily experience, healing, hearing God’s voice, and, it is hoped, mass revival. Charismatics use lots of language for this kind of encounter, including experiencing the work of the Holy Spirit, the presence of God, the love of the Father, the kingdom of God, Heaven invading earth, God’s favour, and simply “the supernatural.”

Bill Johnson, the popular pastor of Bethel Church in redding, California (one of a handful of extremely influential independent charismatic ministries), describes praying for such a “supernatural encounter” until, one night, he had one.

This is one of the main messages for Johnson and the charismatic movement: God is good and wants you to experience his presence in a similarly tangible way. The preaching, worship music, prayer practices, and so on, all encourage this. Whether the experience is flashy or peaceful, the emphasis on pursuing a physiological or emotional experience of God is usually central.

The promise of such experiences can be highly appealing, and can offer security and reassurance of belief in God. These experiences can also be dramatically transformative in a person’s life as wake-up calls, windows into a new way of living, or sudden convictions of the possibility of God’s existence.

But the more I’ve reconsidered charismatic practice, the more I believe that the emphasis on seeking and having these experiences is above all a distraction to spiritual growth. I’ll mention three main reasons I think this.

First, the practice of fostering ecstatic and emotive experiences as spiritually central can have a sort of infantilizing or debilitating effect on some people (obviously, everyone responds a bit differently). In my case, the more I had intense worship times and ecstatic prayer experiences, the harder time I had coping with the regular challenges of life. In real ways I was less patient, less at peace, and less self-controlled, despite the more peaceful and satisfying feelings during times of worship and prayer. Church and prayer became more stimulating while the rest of life became more difficult. I heard others say much the same. Despite the therapeutic healing potential of some of the more contemplative practices, it was not a sustainable path for maturity.

Second, related to the first, the constant pursuit of new spiritual highs can lead to some very addiction-like behaviours. It can foster a need to have an emotional high to feel normal. The charismatic movement is full of a lot of novelty—new themes, practices, songs—that is alluring but destabilizing. “What’s next?” is not a question that breeds contentment and mature formation over the long haul.

Third, the pursuit of emotive and physiological experience distracts from the truer experience of contemplation. It’s fine to feel warmth or fall over, but that may have little to do with developing the long-term term habits that lead a person toward union with God. St. Symeon the New Theologian claimed that ecstasy is for beginners.

Some Orthodox monastics talk about the heart as the centre of human union with God, but are careful to distinguish this from the heart of sentimentality and emotionalism as it is often understood. Rather, the heart is the deepest centre of a person, beyond emotion and intellect (or you could say spirit or soul; which term doesn’t really matter). In much of early Christian spiritual teaching, the spiritual and ascetic practices (prayer, silence, fasting, confession, generosity, participation in liturgy, etc.) are part of how a person participates in being open to the transformation of the Holy Spirit. In this a process, the ecstatic and emotive can be more of a distraction than a help: they are at the surface, not the depths of spiritual possibility. A person continually focused on that surface is will have a harder time going deeper (as Delirious? sang).

All this said, I’ve heard many of these points at different times from charismatic leaders. There are plenty of thoughtful charismatics out there aware of some of the pitfalls, even if the norms of charismatic spirituality usually go fundamentally unchallenged. And charismatics are praying a lot, practicing contemplative prayer, learning repentance, all which can be healthy indicators.

But overall I’ve found the charismatic movement a convoluted world, making promises that it can’t always deliver. When someone has a dramatic spiritual awakening, what comes next? The regular charismatic answer is another new experience. A better answer is a long path that promises less immediate satisfaction but more long term formation.

I try to keep in mind what my friend Jon told me during one of my more zealous and excitable times as a charismatic. “Your faith is inspiring, Paul, but you need to calm the f*ck down!” Sound spiritual advice.

2010s-2020s Emo is something special

"Emo" has to be the worst name for a music genre—an annoying abbreviation of an abbreviation ("emocore," for emotional hardcore). The dubious term has meant several different things, and has been disowned by nearly every emo band. And it suffers from a reputation for teenage emotionalism, nasal vocals, and silly fashions from its Hot Topic heyday in the 2000s.

I have nevertheless realized how ubiquitous emo sounds are in a lot of the music that I love. Some of my favourite bands of my youth—The Appleseed Cast, Sunny Day Real Estate/The Fire Theft, Further Seems Forever—are clear-cut emo bands. And many of what I would have considered "regular" Pacific Northwest indie bands are seeped in different emo sounds: Pedro the Lion, Death Cab for Cutie, Minus the Bear, early Modest Mouse, and Vancouver's late great In Medias Res. This emo music is in my blood.

1990s emo sounds have experienced a major revival in the last decade and a half, which I’ve only recently discovered. I am loving this music. Young bands have eschewed the poppy mall-emo of the Fall Out Boys and My Chemical Romances for the varied sounds of the Promise Ring, American Football, Mineral, the Get Up Kids, Elliott and the like. This new emo revival is the so-called "Fourth Wave" of emo (the first wave coming out of DC hardcore in the 80s, the second the alternative and indie rock sounds centred in Midwestern college towns in the 90s, and the third the pop-punk-inflected Dashboard Confessional-All American Rejects-Paramore radio emo of the 2000s). And, apparently, a fifth wave is going on now.

While these divisions are pretty dubious, a lot of this new 2010s-2020s emo revival music is wonderful. The classic ingredients of the best emo (and "generic indie rock") are in full swing: gorgeous twinkling guitar tones, big-sounding complex drumming, occasional twangy harmonies, feel-good technical clean guitar riffs, anthemic group vocals, strings and trumpets, and always emotional passion. Some of the music is mere imitation of 1990s sounds, with vocals a bit more polished and the recording quality better. But many bands have also learned a thing or two about melody that was often missing in the 90s. You can also hear some real innovations and new ingredients, from 2000s symphonic indie rock, to post-hardcore, to sweeping post-rock, to heartland rock. And I love hearing hints of Manchester Orchestra, The Weakerthans, mewithoutYou, and other beloved bands of the 2000s.

I've gathered a list of my favourite music from these new emo bands, all of the albums from 2010 or after (or, it looks like, 2014 or after). My main criterium is that I like to listen to these albums. There's so much out there, but I hope this provides a good overview.

1. The Hotelier - Home, Like Noplace Is There (2014)*
(from Worchester, MA)

The album opens with an accordion (or pump organ?) chord, loud then quiet vocals, and an emotional crescendo to some of the most gripping music I’ve heard in along time. The compelling album has walls of sound, mellow interludes, catchy pop punk riffs, hardcore breakdowns, and a song about a dog. I’ve been listening to this for only a little more than a month, and it already feels like a classic. (Bandcamp)

2. Rika - How to Draw a River, Step by Step (2014)
(from Flinsbach, Austria)

Gorgeous songs with reverbous, clean electric guitars, marching snare drum beats, and a symphonic background instrumentation. Perfect for driving through the Midwest or coastal New England (I imagine), or for waking up slowly. Rika is emo for people who like their Coldplay or Jimmy Eat World or Death Cab for Cutie a bit subdued but occasionally crescendoing. (Bandcamp)

3. Gulfer - What Gives (2015)
(from Montreal, QC)

Big, raw, unpredictable, anthemic emo with lots of noodling riffs and time signature shifts. This is my way of rocking out. (Bandcamp)

4. A Place for Owls - How We Dig in the Earth (2024)
(from Denver, CO)

This is beautiful, heartbreaking, hopeful music. Autumnal and mature with great melodies and lovely instrumentation. Great if you like faith and doubt, Manchester Orchestra and Bright Eyes, crying and healing. And saxophone!?

The band actually sent me an advance copy of their album for free (the release is on 11/1), but I was already planning to wait until this album came out to make this list. The early singles were very good, and it turns out so is the rest of the album. Check them out. (Bandcamp)

5. The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Harmlessness (2015)
(from Willimantic, CT)

This album takes a longer listen, but it is a great delight. The 2000s-indie rock version of the emo revival. It sounds like something made by friends of mine, maybe a band I could have joined in 2008, but much better. The album has really cool overlapping male and female vocal parts, unexpected tempo changes, and indeed, y2k-style crescendos. It’s Arcade Fire-style emo. This is maybe my favourite band of the emo revival. (Bandcamp)

6. Glass Beach - The First Glass Beach Album (2019)
(from LA/Seattle)

This is wild theatre kid music, if Rufous Wainwright was an avante garde Zoomer in a rock band. This has the singing style of the emo pop I usually find grating, but it is such a compelling listen. It invokes free jazz, show tunes, prog rock, video game music, chillwave, The Format, Steely Dan, Queen, Cursive, Copeland, Autechre, Blood Brothers, Owl City, space rock, autotuned R&B, elevator music, bedroom pop, the circus, the beach, Christmas, 2010s emo, and also none of the above. This is it’s own thing. (Bandcamp)

7. Sorority Noise - You're Not As ____ As You Think (2017)
(from Hartford, CN)

Sorority Noise moved mixes eclectic sounds with their emo, from anthemic rock choruses that sound like The National (and that allude to The Gaslight Anthem) to wry downtempo 90s grunge. But it’s all a background for the pain of overdose crisis and suicide tragedies. "When your best friend dies/And your next friend dies/And your best friend's friend takes his life." A couple of these songs are some of the best new emo tunes I’ve heard. Plus there’s also an acoustic version of the album. (Bandcamp)

8. Arm’s Length - Never Before Seen, Never Again Found (2022)
(from Quinte West, ON)

A slick, grippingly emotive, very listenable, energetic album dealing with tragic family issues. (Bandcamp)

9. Prawn - Kingfisher (2014)
(from Ridgewood, NJ)

If Arm’s Length and Sorority Noise are processing pain and tragedy, this is happy emo—good feeling strings, trumpet, big drums, big choruses. This is the only one of these bands I actually knew about at the time through a free sampler they released. (Bandcamp)

10. Wild Pink - Wild Pink (2017)
(from New York, NY)

I may be cheating here, but I think this album approaches, and maybe barely exceeds, the 50% emo threshold. Or not quite. This is heartland indie rock for fans of Tom Petty and The War on Drugs; mellow indie songs that also sound like the mellow emo stylings of yore. I listen to this band a lot. (Bandcamp)

(*This entry is included in the ongoing “My Top Music” column.)

Twilight of the shorebirds?

Last month I found a few plovers in the nearby marsh: a Black-bellied Plover (at the time of year when it has no black belly) and a Golden-plover, one of two possible species. The wing tips looking pretty long, and the more coastal Pacific Golden Plover being rarer, I thought that it was a pretty good candidate for an American Golden Plover (also rare, but in a more normal way). These birds are very similar.

I posted the record on eBird, the global bird sightings database, and the strict but friendly regional moderator (who may be reading this newsletter) said I needed some clearer photos and an actual count of the primaries (the feathers on the wing tip) projecting past the tail for the record to be accepted.

So, why not go back? I took the longer walk to the west side of the marsh, camped for a few minutes in the rushes, and got some usable pictures. And I counted four extending primaries: an American Golden Plover.

The American Golden-Plover, along with the Pacific Golden-Plover and a myriad of other shorebirds, breed in the ponds of the arctic tundra. According to the latest State of Canada’s Birds, shorebirds as a group have experienced some of the worst population declines at -43% since 1970. They are behind only the long-declining grassland birds, and basically tied with aerial insectivores like swallows (those groups are declining because of habitat loss and insecticide use). Arctic breeders (including these plovers and many shorebirds) are another threatened group, specifically because of changing habitats and insect hatch schedules with warming arctic temperatures. American Golden-Plover and Black-bellied Plover, the two that showed up on the muddy marsh, are both marked as having a “Large Decrease” in their populations in this study (there’s not enough information on Pacific Golden-Plover). You can read a summary of the report here.

So when I get a close view of an American Golden-plover, a Semipalmated Sandpiper, or any of the increasingly threatened shorebirds and arctic breeders, I wonder how long I might have to see them. When I watch birds, am I saying a long farewell to some friends? Older birders I’ve met wax about how much more plentiful the bird life was in the 70s and 80s. Maybe I’ll be talking about how in 2035 I saw my last American Golden-plover. I hope not. But it may not be long until “regular rarities” become true rarities.

Music mix of the issue: ‘motion

This is my introduction to part of the world of emo music. Songs are from the 90s to the 20s, and I avoided styles I particularly dislike. I included most of the bands mentioned above. There are only two or three breakup songs. While a few songs get a bit hollery, I excluded the hardcore side of emo for this playlist (if that’s what you like, let me know and I can send you recommendations).

Listen on Apple Music or Spotify, or, if you prefer, just imagine what it might sound like.

Stuff of the issue

• Onomatopoeia: Pitter patter

• Bird insult: Pine Grosbeak

• Book: Thomas Merton - New Seeds of Contemplation

• Highbrow takedown: "In other words, Hegel can only be understood when one is drunk on laughing gas.” -Simone Critchley, 2009

• Lichenized fungus: Cladonia Botrytes (Wooden Soldiers Lichen)

• Song: Samora Pinderhughes with Lucas Pino - Kingly

• Birding hotspot: Salmon Arm, BC - Salmon Arm Bay

-Paul