They don’t have a record deal yet, but I’ve got to mention SHIM.
You might be interested in checking out Atheists for Jesus. 
It’s been a while since I was a Christian, but the best that I used to listen to regularly were:
[ul]
[li]Waterdeep/Don Chaffer - Folksy/bluesy/funky jam band. Very talented musicians, great to catch in concert. I think they might have broken up, though. Sink or Swim is probably my favorite studio album from them (To Chase Away the Birds is a close second), and Live at the New Earth is a great live album.[/li]
[li]Stavesacre - Started by some members of the near-legendary Christian hardcore band The Crucified, the first two Stavesacre albums (especially Absolutes are my favorites, lots of good energy and catchy hooks. Somehow they morphed into an Emo band. I don’t like emo, but maybe they’re still good. I dunno.[/li]
[li]Fleming and John - Kind of an acquired taste; very inventive and catchy songs, Fleming’s voice flitters between angelic and banshee-like; when she’s on, she’s amazing, when she’s off she’s like fingernails on a chalkboard. But the times that she’s on are worth it, IMO. The Way We Are is their best, but Delusions of Grandeur is also very good.[/li]
[li]Chasing Furies - another band that might have broken up. Nice, atmospheric vocals, decent songwriting. With Abandon is their only album, i think.[/li]
[li]Tourniquet - Early on, this was one of the most inventive and technically sound Christian metal bands out there. Drummer/songwriter Ted Kirkpatrick was the main creative genius and the only band member to stay with the band throughout the entire lifespan. Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance is probably their best, with Psycho Surgery a close second. I don’t care as much for their later work, but I’m sure it’s technically good. [/li]
[li]Betrayal - Another defunct band, I’m afraid. Christian metal with a bit of a darker feel to it. Their songs are hit and miss, The Passing is just a touch better than Renaissance by Death overall, but individual songs on RBD (Stroll Through a Wicked Age, Escaping the Altar) are among their best.[/li]
[li]Over the Rhine - Just plain good music here. One of the Christian bands (along with Waterdeep, should they ever reform) that I still would seek out or see live if the chance presented itself. Good Dog Bad Dog is my favorite from them, but I don’t really think they have any bad albums.[/li]
Lamb of God - Just kidding. If you’re Christian and you play LOG for your Christian friends they will start forming prayer groups for your soul.[/ul]
Try the Velvet Underground’s third album - Velvet Underground . I’m not saying that it’s an obviously Christian album (although “Jesus” and “I’m Beginning to see the Light” feature), but there is a spiritual yearning running through the whole thing. The fact that it is one of the best albums ever is a bonus.
If you’re interested in metal, there’s a band called Trouble who were most active from 84-95, and are still quite highly regarded among doom metal fans–think Black Sabbath, but Christian (they were often referred to as a “white metal” band, in contrast to the Satanist “black metal” bands). Psalm 9 , their first record, is a metal classic.
Whoops, screwed up the link, it’s Trouble Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More | AllMusic
I’m fond of Switchfoot, although their music is outrageously repetitive. Also, I have some affection for the Newsboys, though I don’t think they’re very well-loved on the music scene and it’s certainly true that they need more bass.
The thing, Christian bands often avoid being called Christian at all, and indeed go to great lengths to be mainstream. For example, I don’t actually know thatBorne (their wiki) is Christian, but I do know that their international iTunes Single of the Week, “The Guide”, makes absolutely no sense as anything other than a praise song, and the language they use on MySpace is exactly what a very, very Christian person would use when trying to avoid being explicitly Christian (if than makes any sense 
)
To be fair, the song is in some senses a standard love song, which brings me to my personal rant: why do the lyrics in current Christian music suck so bad? Basically there are converted love songs and songs about how life sucks, and not a whole ton else. Lyrics are generally strings of clichés tossed together in a cheap attempt at stream-of-consciousness. Ick. I would pay just about anything for good lyrics – and it would be completely awesome if some group decided to start using actual scripture again (with editing for musicality, of course. I don’t have the skill to create such a song myself, unfortunately.)
One last note: props to Riley Armstrong , a fun and quirky alternative Christian musician from Vancouver (I think – I actually heard him live back in the States.) Only about half his songs are about Christian themes, and they’re fairly quirky. The others are about completely random topics (like sleep deprivation and having a famous girlfriend, which he doesn’t.) He’s extremely entertaining.
Heh. And then there are (in the words of Christian rock legend Camarillo Eddy) “those shmaltzy feel-good pieces of crap that we all know even God hates.”
I don’t know if it’s a matter of Christian record labels that discourage creativity or straying from the formula, or whether it’s because there are so many artists in the biz for reasons other than that they have something artistically to say, or because so much Christian rock is made by and for youngsters with underdeveloped musical/lyrical tastes and little life experience, or what.
But maybe this belongs in a different thread: Christian rock that does suck donkey balls.
Actually, I don’t think it’s a matter of sucking so much as repeating over and over and over. Though I strongly believe that, upon entrance to Heaven, all musicians who do covers of group praise songs will be forced to rip out their vocal chords and throw them straight to Hell.
[probably the most offtopic post I’ve ever made except in MPSIM flirt threads]That reminds me of an experience listening to the aforementioned Juliana Theory (which didn’t really seem like x-tian, but the post did say they became more alternamainstream.)
The song went:
I thought “cool! They are making the music pretend to skip to emphasize that everything’s repeating over and over!” Then after about a minute I realized the CD was skipping.
(Same thing happened to me listening to a Mr Bungle CD, at a moment when it wasn’t really apropos of anything, unlike the above example. But I still listened to it for a minute since that’s the sort of thing they’d do :smack: )
I’ve been wondering what to do for a first post, and thought this might be as good a time as any to register and share some musical knowledge. However, I wasn’t sure if you’d already gotten enough recommendations for the time being…
If you feel like you want to explore a slightly (or really, substantially,) different side of Christian rock, there are bands and artists that, in their time, were as heavy as Sabbath, as folky-delicate as Joni Mitchell, or as brimstone-laden as a Jonathan Edwards sermon. These were some seriously real underground bands; more subversive than anything that was on the radio, and dedicated to their music and message, even with basically no hope of making it big. In other words, it was Christian rock that was actually revolutionary (and that definitely didn’t felch goat balls 
). If you’re still interested in hearing new suggestions, I’d be happy to post several, with soundclips when possible…
Admittedly I don’t listen to a lot of Christian rock (what I’ve heard I mostly haven’t liked), but here are two favorites that I didn’t see mentioned above (or managed to miss):
Alice Cooper. Yeah. Don’t believe it? Listen to Brutal Planet, Dragontown, and The Last Temptation and tell me they’re not Christian rock. Alice knows how to make music, and it just happens to have a Christian message. That’s my favorite–the stuff that doesn’t hit you over the head with teh J3sus.
Steve Taylor. His stuff was from the 80s and early 90s so it’s got that style to it, but if you like your Christian rock with a heavy dose of satire, Steve’s your man.
Take Six has some great a capella Christian albums, some harder-rocking than others.
I have a few songs by Selah that I like, in particular “You Raise Me Up” and “The Broken Road.”
Josh Turner is more country, but has some great Christian-themed songs, including “Long Black Train.”
Hard rocking a capella?
I don’t believe you.
-FrL-
You must have faith.
Apparently, there are some Steve Taylor tracks available for free download here and here.
If you like Steve Taylor, he has contributed lyrics and production to at least a couple albums each by the Newsboys (pop/rock) and Guardian (harder rock).
(Steve also produced Sixpence None the Richer’s self-titled album, with its ubiquitous single “Kiss Me,” for what it’s worth, but he didn’t really do much to influence its sound.)
I’ll second Daniel Amos. They went from being a country and western band (Daniel Amos, Shotgun Angel) to rock and roll (Horrendous Disc) to new wave (Alarma) to God knows what they’re doing now. And I do suspect that that is where the poster here named Kalhoun got her name.
Well now, don’t be shy. Welcome! 
And procede.
Antestor.
Try Cliff Richard