Homeless For The Holidaze, An Ensemble of Lonesome Fellas (ELF) (SoundVision NW)

Don't know much about these folks except they're from Seattle and they apparently recorded this in 2007. It's apparently done with good intentions -- some of the proceeds are earmarked for homeless aid charities in their home city -- but as a novelty/comedy take on the holiday, the laughs are few and far between. A casual listen reveals a mostly instrumental large soul band take on some Christmas tunes, well performed, but much of what's intended to be humorous is either too obvious or way too obscure. A double dose of David Rose's "The Stripper" is supposed to be mashed up with Christmas songs, but you have to listen with both ears and a copy of the score to pick them out. Then there's the medley of "Holly Jolly Christmas/Jingle Bell Rock" in which the hook is that it's being sung by "Elf-ish Presley and his Elves," a bad pun on the band name and a run-of-the-mill Elvis impression. There are some high points here, however. The most inspired number is "Jesus Super Freak," a slowed-down gospelly takeoff on the Rick James tune whose punchline takes a moment to sink in. "Carol of the Tubular Bells" mashes up the carol with the Mike Oldfield tune that served as theme to "The Exorcist." "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)" gets a Santo & Johnny arrangement, "Tiffany Sequence M.22" jams "Deck the Halls" into some sort of 70s TV ad theme (sounded a bit like "Music To Watch Girls By") and "Out of Presents" plays the old Marketts surf tune "Out of Limits" over "Up On the Housetop." Kind of uneven from a novelty standpoint, its best use is as background music.