Derek’s set and discussion time is 80 minutes long, but hey, don’t you have some holiday coming up? This has to be better than watching the Lions get pasted on Thanksgiving, right?

Michael Spencer, who styles himself as the Internet Monk, wrote today about Christian counter-cultural music. Sound like any wee bald laddies we know?

Listen to Derek Webb’s take on a Dylan-esque voice, and notice how the mainstream Christian music industry attempted to pigeonhole him for being too political. Webb continues to be at the center of a different kind of Christian art; a socially conscious, challenging voice of a counter culture that resists the “mainstreaming” of the Christian artistic voice into the Christian ghetto. “We Don’t Have A Savior On Capital Hill” isn’t going to make it on K-Love anytime soon.

Monk decries the mainstream evangelical culture, speaking further about the “Christian ghetto” and name-dropping the Square Peg Alliance:

Christian radio will not play these voices. They will not be leading the bouncing worship songs at your next youth event. They are not entertaining the sheep into a state of altered- and largely insensitive- consciousness.

You will find them at Square Peg Alliance and Paste Music. You’ll hear them cited as “indy folk” more than Christian. You’ll have to endure the question “But is that really Christian music?”

Evangelicals have now produced a massive consumeristic niche ready to buy, wear and applaud whatever fits in its pre-described mold of entertainment oriented discipleship and warm, fuzzy, evangelical experience.

We figure that most of you are nodding your heads vigorously. We were.

[Hat Tip to Chris Hubbs via email.]

For all of our Nashvillian readers Derek posted about some media play for Noisetrade over on the NoiseTrade Blog

for our friends in nashville, we understand that noisetrade is going to get a mention on this monday’s morning edition, which airs every weekday morning locally on npr. if you’d like to listen, check the listings at the local npr website (http://wpln.org/). i’m told you can even listen on their website after the fact (and i hope so, since i’ll be on the road…). thanks to nashville public radio for their support!

We will definitely be checking out the website to see if it goes up after it airs and will keep you guys posted.

The NoiseTrade blog just added some pretty sweet news about an opportunity for Derek to get the word out about NoiseTrade.

Derek Webb, will be part of a panel discussion entitled “21st Century DIY” at this year’s Next BIG Nashville 2008 Conference. Derek and the other panel members will discuss “The New Tools and Services available for independent or independent minded artists and representatives. Reps from websites, third party service providers and new media companies discuss the new slate of tools available for independent artists and music businesses.” Panelists include:

Derek Webb / NoiseTrade
Clint Smith / Emma
Dave Jaworski / Passalong Networks
Lou Plaia / ReverbNation
Chris Stacey / Mozes, VP, Music Industry
Jeff Price / TuneCore

MODERATOR: Kevin Brown / Echo

Panel discussion is from 10-11am on September 12th.

We here at DW.net agree that this is “sure to be a stimulating discussion about the past, present, and future of music marketing and distribution.”

More information at http://www.nextbignashville.net/.

Noistrade now has a blog! Derek has started posting a blog keeping us “noisetraders” up to date on all the various happenings around the NT universe. New artists and web buzz are just a few of the things popping up on the blog. Be sure to check it out.

Also of note is Derek’s post (!!! yes he actually posted on a blog!) in which he says that they are “a month in with over 50 artists and just under 30,000 albums downloaded.” He also mentions some new things coming up, some within the week. We here at dw.net will keep you guys updated!

I was delightfully surprised to see NoiseTrade pop up on 2 blogs that I subscribe to this week:

Eliot Van Buskirk’s Listening Post (on Wired.com) ran a nice feature on Derek and NoiseTrade. Similarly, Daniel Radosh gave props to DW on his blog.

When NoiseTrade gets a mention at Deadspin or Engadget, then I’ll really be impressed.

I think it’s safe to say that this pretty well skewers everyone involved—which, if you think about it, is really Derek’s point. You may not agree with the point, or with how its expressed in this highly sarcastic video, but you have to agree that it gets made loud and clear.

[Me? I liked it.]

From derekwebb.com

For Performing Songwriter’s 15th Anniversary Collectors’ Edition they have published, with Derek’s inclusion in the special feature, the Top 100 Indie Artists of the last 15 years. A highly respected industry magazine, Performing Songwriter caters to the true music fan, featuring the stories, artists, instrumentation and craft behind those who both write and perform their music.

Their quoted as saying:
“Performing Songwriter is just a humble and heartfelt attempt at creating a place for songwriters to come together in a safe community where they’re understood and supported and heard by those who love music.”

As you can imagine, this is a huge honor and we wanted to share this information with you. Please check out the site and more importantly please support Performing Songwriter in this issue and in the future.

He made it into the “visionaries” category with none other than Radiohead. Check out the issue to see what that have to say about Derek. Congrats DW!

Now, y’all know that we love Derek and like to post positive things about him. That said, this thing I’m about to post, it’s terribly negative … but it’s so bad, it’s almost funny. Back a couple weeks ago, Derek and Sandra played down in Birmingham, and I went to the show. We found the following review in a copy of Birmingham’s City PaperBlack & White. Warning—it’s brutal:

On her own, Sandra McCracken is a quirky pop songstress with tons of personality. On his own, Derek Webb looks like a refugee from “Prison Break” without the charisma or reasonable sense of outrage. Together, they’re a lovely folk duo with one strong voice and another that’s nicely muted. Webb might also be distracted from his usual bizarre Christian content, where the Bible is a mere sliding scale with less historical weight than yesterday’s horoscope. Judge for yourself if the moments of beauty and weirdness are worth the duo’s slumming in Americana territory.

I’ve read that four or five times now, and I still have no words.

Additionally: A friend from the area wrote in to let me know the reviewer’s name [which I'll decline to mention] and to correct me on the name of the paper. Apparently, writing interviews like this is the reviewer’s schtick, to get notice.

On Feb. 18th (Yeah i know I’m behind lol…) One of the songs from Derek and Sandra’s new EP, The Ampersand EP was mentioned in the “Listen Up” section of USA Today’s website.

“When the Summer’s Gone, Derek Webb & Sandra McCracken: If the couple in Sixpence None the Richer’s Kiss Me were celebrating their 10-year anniversary now, they might be singing this song.”

Kudos to Derek and Sandra! We here at dw.net hope the good press continues.