Sounds of the Season: A Blackwatch Christmas Volume 8, various artists (Guestroom Records)

I'm just discovering that Fowler Volkswagen, a dealership in Norman, Okla., has been distributing an annual Christmas album for the past several years, and that they distribute free vinyl copies from their showroom. For those who aren't having their VWs serviced in Norman this season, their Bandcamp site provides digital access to the compilation, for that matter to the previous seven volumes as well. We'll concern ourselves with the 2018 edition here. Naturally, the participants are all regional bands and it appears nearly all of them contributed originals, so don't confuse Sports' slow funky tune called "Christmas in Hollywood" with the more profane version by Hollywood Undead. Beau Jennings sings of a "Dark & Stormy Christmas," sounding rather like a lost Cars outtake, Chair Model does a very '80s synth-pop treatment of their "Filthy Animal," and Duke Luther breaks out the vocoder for "Holiday High." Swim Fan goes slow jam on "Sasha Don't Take My Toys Away," Hot Cider keeps a similar tempo on the hip-hop "Melt Away," Spaceface featuring LABRYS offers more of a rock ballad, "Single Star," Daydrinker offers a spacey slow number, "Right Here," and James McAlister wraps things up with a synthesizer-orchestrated version of the hymn "In Dulci Jubilo." This is a pretty interesting collection, more so since you'd expect the music from Norman, Okla. to to be more bro-country than 90s pop, and it definitely encourages one to skip around the website and listen to the collections from previous years.