I have talked about music I like before. I like a range of music. The Insyderz are one of the bands that I really enjoy. Their music has changed some over the years, and I think it has gotten much better.
They started in 1996, and are from the Detroit, Michigan area. They were a part of the third wave ska era of music. I was already listening to Five Iron Frenzy (FIF) and the O. C. Supertones and my brother actually was the one that kind of introduced me to them. He bought their first album, Motor City Ska, and I heard him playing it and asked if I could listen to it. I enjoyed it. Not as much as FIF or the Supertones at the time, but they were another Christian ska band and that was a fun thing to listen to. They had a rougher sound to them at the time and the music wasn’t a clean sounding as some of the other bands out there. (I found out years later that this was because they had lots of issues with production on their early albums). In the late 1990’s praise and worship was huge and they released two praise and worship albums, Skalleluia! And Skalleluia Too!. They had some original music and some covers of some of the big praise and worship songs of the day. I will always remember seeing their music video for “He Has Made Me Glad” on TV. It was such a fun video:
I know that Joe, the lead singer, doesn’t really like Skalleluia Too!, because he felt like it was the label asking for a quick money grab album, but I like some of those songs as well. “In the Secret” and “All that I Am” are such good renditions of those songs. They even won a Dove award (the Christian music version of the Grammys) for their version of Awesome God that was on the first Skalleluia album. That is certainly something to be proud of. Their Fight of my Life came out in this timeframe as well, but I didn’t pick that one up for some reason. I have heard some of the songs on that album and they are good, but I still never bought the album. Maybe I should look into it again sometime…
I got to seeing live at “The World Famous, The Nile Theater” in Mesa, AZ, during college. I drove up from Tucson for that show. They were with FIF and I think The W’s on that tour. I think it is the only time I got to see them live. It was a great show. I had a great time.
Then came Soundtrack to a Revolution in 2003. This was a great album. It had a bit of a hard sound to it, but kept the fun of ska in their music. The songs were a lot more polished. It was truer I think to the sound they were always looking for in their albums. The songs on this album are great. “Call to Arms” is a great let’s get out there and make a difference as Christians, and it may be hard so be ready. “Seeing Voices” is about how the Holy Spirit is there guiding him and gives him power in life. “God Almighty” is about the power of God, and how he is there to help us through His power, but we must lay ourselves out to God to allow His power to flow through us. The last song on the album, “Shame on Me”, is an honest song about how sometimes we say one thing and do something else that doesn’t honor God. It is so true. These are just a few of the songs on this album and I love them all.
Then they broke up in 2005. I was disappointed, but FIF had already broken up and ska was really something that had gone away. I kept listening to the music I had, and enjoyed it.
BUT THEN in 2011 they launched a Kickstarter campaign to do a new album. I jumped on that right away, and supported them. They just barely made it to the amount they wanted (apparently one of the band members kicked in a decent amount at the last minute to make sure it made it to completion). In 2012 the album was released. I got a cool shirt that says I backed them on kickstarter and was the first person to donate (of course everyone got the same shirt, but it is a talking point when I wear it). This was the album “The Sinner’s Songbook”, and it is an amazing album. It is rock, ska, slow, and fun. From beginning to end I enjoy this album. Not quite as much as Soundtrack as an overall album, but individually this album has some of their best songs. It was everything I was hoping for in a new album from them. It starts off with “Angle of Death” asking people, “Are you ready to die?”. Just like we should be asking others about their eternal destiny, but we don’t. So, this song is a reminder that we need to be ready at any time. “Sinner’s Songbook” is a song with Reese from FIF and Mojo from the Supertones. This is all about walking through those hard time and thinking about how we are all alone, but we really aren’t. To have the other two big Christian ska lead singers sing on this song with Joe makes me smile. “Our Darkest Hour” is about being at the bottom, and how we scream out to God, and we need Him to restore us. “The Dirty Work” is a softer song talking about how we are all “ugly”, none of us are perfect, and we can still work for the Lord. How we may never something big, flashy, famous, but that it doesn’t matter. We can all be used by God, even though we are not perfect. “Like Drawing Blood from a Baby” is a song Joe wrote during a period when his daughter got super sick. He wrote it in a couple week while he and his wife didn’t know what was going on and they weren’t sure is she would survive or not. He speaks from the heart about how unfair it is that his young daughter was hurting so much, and he had done so much in his life that deserved to be punished and he was fine. Having daughters, I connect with this song. I can’t image what I would be like to have my child in the hospital and not knowing what was going to happen. There are a few covers on the album that are pretty good too like “All Creatures”.
These last two albums were powerfully written albums. The words had a lot of meat and truth in them. That is something I really like in music. I don’t get that feeling from a lot of the music that is coming out of the Christian scene right now. There doesn’t seem to be any deep thought. I am sure I sound old.
They recently got back together again to do a show in Michigan and they are going to Furnace Fest later this year. I can’t go since it is in September, in Alabama, and I am teaching, but it would be cool to seeing them play again live. I will just have to be happy seeing facebook videos that get posted from shows they do.
I also hope they keep making music. I know the members have really gone their own way and they have lives outside of music. That is great for them. But I do wish that this resurgence of interests they have right now may persuade them to consider make some more new music to put out there.
I know their music isn’t for everyone and I get that, but what do you think of The Insyderz?