DMZ

Why are they so special to me? 

You may we wondering why these are so special. There are are reasons. But first let me be clear about something.  Their first 2 albums, Awaiting Your Reply (1978) and Rainbows End (1979) are progressive rock masterpieces. If you don't have those, you need to hunt them down.  I know a great website where you can buy pre-owned copies. ; )

I remember buying that Resurrection Band - DMZ on cassette. It was the 3rd thing I owned, next to The Archers and a Petra - More Power To Ya (another great album). Rez was special.  It was Rock N Roll.  I was just what I needed at the young age of 15.  But the real magic happened the next year in Grayslake, IL at a small little startup festival in 1984 called Cornerstone Festival.  Rez was on the main stage and I believed came on before the 77's and Undercover.  I was front row barely able to see over the tall stage. The explosions from the front during Stu's White Noise had me hooked for good.  I attended every Cornerstone after that. Thankful that my entire family was from Macomb, IL and I had family in that little neighboring town of Bushnell, IL where Cornerstone eventually brought property and moved their festival to in 1990 and i was able to attend everyone, that was until Rez stopped playing.

Colours (1980)

Colours is considered by some music critics to be one of the band's defining works. 

Colours was Resurrection Band's first release for Christian label Light Records, which had up to this time been known as the primary record label for Andraé Crouch and similar gospel artists. Colours is also considered by some music critics to be one of the band's defining works.

Colours begins with the powerful Autograph,' which opens with a full two minutes of exciting guitar riffs before Wendi weighs in with her Grace Slick vocals. The album's title track is an offering of worship that concludes with the poetic refrain, *Whatever one could ask of faith, obedience will give / Together all express the love in hearts where Jesus lives." "N.YC." describes the harsh urban life in the mean streets of Chicago's big sister city, but 'Amazing" expresses wonder at the hope and help God offers those who are metaphorically or literally homeless. "City Streets" and "Beggar in the Alleyway" continue the social consciousness, an attribute of Resurrection Band's albums almost totally absent from other mainstays of Christian music at the time. American Dream" predicts an apocalyptic nuclear holocaust: It will happen / Just don't think about it!" It is significant for being the first of many songs that Resurrection Band would write about the moral rot at the center of America's political and media culture, indicating a much more progressive political worldview than most Christian musicians would dare sing about at the time. Overall COLOURS embraced a more radio-friendly hard rock and sound with this album, which is a mix of personal reflections on God's sovereignty and love.

SIDE A

1. "Autograph" – 4:03
2. "Colours" – 4:58
3. "N.Y.C." (Kaiser, Jim Denton) – 3:24
4. "Hidden Man" – 2:48
5. "Amazing" (Kaiser, Denton) – 2:22

SIDE B

1. "American Dream" (Jon Trott, Kaiser, Denton) – 3:24
2. "Benny & Sue" (Jon Trott, Kaiser, Denton, Stu Heiss) – 3:53
3. "City Streets" (Kaiser, Trott, Denton) – 3:22
4. "Beggar in the Alleyway" (Kaiser, Heiss) – 3:57
5. "The Struggle" (Kaiser, Denton, Heiss) – 3:45

Mommy Don't Love Daddy Anymore (1981)

Mommy Don't Love Daddy was Resurrection Band's second release for Christian label Light Records.  

Mommy Don't Love Daddy Anymore offers social commentary (on the American culture of divorce), but it does so on an immediate level, by describing one child's description of his family's dysfunction. Yet as powerful as it is, the songs becomes even more chilling to anyone who learns Glenn Kaiser's life story and realizes how autobiographical this detailed scenario is for him. Elevator Music humorously trashes american materialism In other words don't think for a minute you are getting a rock album without substance.  Truth, pain, grace and pure rock n roll all here.  A gut-full of guitar and gut wrenching pain all wrapped together.  Yes, thats what makes this album so special. The music itself is a masterpiece but when you add the read world complications in story form, especially the way that Glenn and Wendy weave in and out, it becomes one of those albums for a life-time. Which of course is why labeling it an an icon Christian Rock album might be the biggest understatement one could ever make. 

SIDE A

1. Stark/Spare (Kaiser/Heiss)3:42
2. Elevator Muzik (Kaiser)1:55
3. Alienated (Kaiser) 2:02
4. Can't Get You Outta My Mind (Kaiser) 2:52
5. The Chair  (Kaiser) 5:06
6. Can't Do It On My Own  (Kaiser) 2:50

SIDE B

1. First Degree Apathy (Kaiser) 3:03
   
2. Mommy Don't Love Daddy Anymore (Kaiser/Trott) 4:23
3. The Crossing (Kaiser/Trott) 3:48
4. Little Children (Kaiser) 2:36
5. Lovin' You (Kaiser) 3:29

DMZ (1982)

Mommy Don't Love Daddy was Resurrection Band's third and last release for Christian label Light Records.

D.M.Z. offers some of Resurrection Band's greatest musical moments beginning with "Military Man" a blistering opening track sung by Glenn about the loss of a soldier's humanity in the struggle to survive. "White Noise" Wendi's all-time best raw vocal on a song about the rhetoric of a culture that prioritizes stockpiling arms over feeding children. However the real magic begins with a ninety-second feedback-drenched guitar solo by Stu Heiss that is Resurrection Band's answer to Van Halen's “Eruption" and is generally considered to constitute the single greatest non-Phil Keaggy guitar moment in Christian rock. Area 312" (named for Chicago's area code) is a teenager's lament about the loneliness of the inner city.  It's a heavy album both lyrically and musically and one that we are sure glad graced our speakers almost 40 years ago.  To have it remaster for vinyl is a moment that so many of us though we would never see. 

SIDE A

1. Military Man (G. Kaiser, Jon Trott, Stu Heiss, Jim Denton) – 3:38
2. Reluctance – 2:11
3. Babylon (G. Kaiser, Trott) – 2:33
4. I Need Your Love – 3:22
5. Area 312 (Trott, Wendi Kaiser, Heiss, Denton) – 3:54

SIDE B

1. No Alibi – 4:39
2. White Noise - (Trott, Roy Montroy) – 3:41
3. Lonely Hearts – 3:00
4. The Prisoner – 2:54
5. So in Love with You (G. Kaiser, Trott) – 3:38