A Playlist and a Save the Date

I burned you a mix CD

Happy spring! 🌷

I don’t know what happened to April—I spent half of it sick and half of it in a work-induced fugue state, and apparently going out to eat a lot if my bank account is to be believed. But May, so far, has been a chance to slow down, if only slightly. Enough to notice that it’s suddenly spring and everything is beautiful.

But May also means that I’m now only three months away from my book coming out!

You’re cordially invited

If I haven’t already bombarded you with this information, here it is: I have an official date and time for my book launch!

If you are in or near Toronto and able to come by, I’d love to see you there!

The launch will be happening August 14 at 7 pm, at Society Clubhouse (967 College St). I’ll be reading as well as a few friends who are going to dig deep in the archives of their evangelical childhood journals …

More info to come! 🎉

A little playlist, for fun

In other book news, a dear friend of mine has agreed to read the audiobook version of Jesusland (more on that eventually too!). She asked if there were any albums or songs I listened to while writing the book that she could listen to to get in the mood while reading, and I quickly went down a rabbit hole trying to remember what I’d listened to and when, and finding songs that correlated with both the writing of each chapter and referenced in the book—apparently Spotify has a deep catalogue of evangelical pop from the 2000s, who knew??

I often like writing to music, and I do try to match the vibe or even the content of what I listen to to what I’m writing. When I was working on this book, I found myself drawn to a lot of musical artists I enjoy who themselves grew up in a heavily religious environment. Somehow even songs that didn’t directly pertain to that experience seemed inflected by it.

I’ve noticed in the last few years—not only in music, but TV and movies and books as well—more of this kind of experience coming to the surface in a way I can relate really closely to. I guess because it’s only been the last decade or so that artists my age, in my generation, are putting out their work, and the particulars of the 2000s evangelical culture are actually being reflected by other people who grew up in it.

The upshot of this is that now I have a weird playlist that’s half introspective music by contemporary queer artists and half aggressively bubbly 2000s Christian pop.

But hey, I guess that contradiction is the whole point of this book! So listen below, if you dare!

(scroll down for some select annotations)

WOW! Hits to Read Jesusland To

Cartoons (Live) by Chris Rice

This song might have been the genesis of me thinking about how weird Christian pop culture is. And thinking about this song one day, wondering if it really existed or if I’d hallucinated it, and looking it up online, was basically the impetus for what ended up becoming the first chapter of the book.

Barlow Girls by Superchick

I will just never get over the line “Boys think they’re the bomb / ‘Cause they remind them of their Mom.” Which is too bad, because it’s actually kind of a bop.

The Baton by Katie Gavin

This song is sort of about intergenerational trauma—or at the very least, the ever-present trauma of being a woman—and the difficulties of trying to heal yourself, but I love the image of this healing as a collaborative project women are handing down to one another through the generations. I think lots of people who grew up in purity culture might resonate with that as I do.

I Don’t Want It by DC Talk

There’s an unfortunate surplus of DC Talk on this playlist, but I just couldn’t help it. Back up off me with less of that zest!

He Woke Me Up Again by Sufjan Stevens

This one’s for the hipster Millennial Christians who wore out Seven Swans on their CD players. (Still hits.)

American Teenager by Ethel Cain

I don’t know how this makes sense but this song is the exact antidote to “Jesus Freak” in my mind. Something about the sonic landscape of it jerks me back in time and I always feel like I’m overhearing my parents watch cable news in 2005 when I hear it.

Fictional California by Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine

Yet more Sufjan Stevens but I can’t help it … I listened to this song over and over while writing my book proposal because of the line, “open your mind / until it all falls out.” A direct rebuff of my Christian school teachers’ favourite quip (don’t let your mind be so open that your brain falls out!). Did I write this entire book because I resented that saying so much? Probably.

I So Hate Consequences by Relient K

I don’t talk much about Relient K in this book, but they were very ever-present for me as a teenager, so in tribute I’ve selected their whiniest song.

I Wish We’d All Been Ready by Larry Norman / Jordin Sparks

Larry Norman coined the phrase “left behind” in this song, and Jordin Sparks recorded a cover of his song for the 2014 remake of the Left Behind rapture movie, and I think that’s beautiful. It’s such a strangely happy-sounding song to be sentencing so many people to eternal damnation.

Heaven by Mitski

This is heaven to me now.

Breakfast in Hell by The Newsboys

For some reason I loved this song as a kid, and it might be the third-worst song ever made? (After “Jesus Freak” and “Cartoons”?) Anyway I thought it would be a nice note to end on. Enjoy your breakfasts (while you can).

Any favourite and/or horrifying 2000s Christian pop hits that I should add? Drop me your faves.🎶