Stories and Thoughts – Page 4

How Music Helped Me Overcome

on March 21, 2020March 21, 2020 By rockonpurposecontributor 1 Comment

We're honored to share this guest feature from Rock On Purpose lead contributor Matt Durlin's son.

The Grace of the Outsider: The Women of Rock and Roll

on March 8, 2020March 8, 2020 By Mary Nikkel

I glimpsed in them this incredible new reality I'd never even fathomed before, a world where a woman's empathy and strength were inextricably connected, a world where your soul wasn't required to shrink itself into silence.

ROP Throwback: Chasing Furies “With Abandon”

on March 5, 2020March 5, 2020 By Jessi Zilka 1 Comment

For the short lived family band Chasing Furies, their 1999 album With Abandon—the only piece of work they’d release as a group—fused the angelic vocal qualities of dream pop with instrumentation laced with both shoegaze and jangle rock fundamentals. They created a distinctive sound that most artists in similar industry circles avoided.

The Spiritual Importance of Mainstream Rock

on January 28, 2020September 10, 2020 By rockonpurposecontributor

Nothing More taught and empowered me to bleed the anger and bitterness and process through it. They called injustice out for what it was. They screamed for me. They shared my broken spirit. I learned to feel again through them after years of being told not to.

ROP Throwback: Blindside’s ‘Silence’

on January 22, 2020January 22, 2020 By Jessi Zilka

18 years after its release, Silence still holds as much tangible emotion and spirit within its 13 tracks as it did in 2002.

Remembering Brian Healy

on January 19, 2020September 10, 2020 By rockonpurposecontributor

If you’ve ever been to our house in the past 20 years, you might have noticed this picture on the bookshelf in our computer room. Who is that strange man in what looks like a “family portrait” with my wife Lisa and our kids, Chris and Catie? That man is Brian Healy of Dead Artist [...]

The Rearview Mirror: The 2010s in Rock

on January 16, 2020January 16, 2020 By rockonpurposecontributor 1 Comment

At the end of one decade and the beginning of the next, the Rock On Purpose staff took some time to reflect on the albums that shaped the musical (and personal) landscape for them over the past 10 years.

The Albums That Defined 2019

on January 8, 2020September 10, 2020 By Mary Nikkel 1 Comment

Many years over the past decade, it has been a struggle to find enough albums to round out a satisfying end-of-year list. 2019 bucked that trend in a powerful way, offering up a wide range of outstanding albums in every sub-genre of rock and metal.

Joy Invincible: Switchfoot’s Fantastic Traveling Music Show

on November 4, 2019November 4, 2019 By Mary Nikkel

Switchfoot presented the tour as a way to thank their fans for more than 20 years of music. Really, it also ultimately served as proof of why this group can easily fill out auditoriums after over two decades. The songs cast a little light on the things that survive the shipwrecks, the things that outlast the storms: love, hope, redemption, melody, community. The resilience of those things through all the worst chapters we live is truly a joy invincible.