Mistletunes

Welcome to the reimagined Mistletunes

2010-02-28T18:25:01Z

This redesign of our much-loved Christmas rock music site is a work in progress -- much of the original content remains at the old site, so if you can't find what you like here, go over there and sniff around. Read more about the changes in the extended entry. ]]>

Website redesigns tend not to be of all that much interest to folks, so I doubt anybody remembers my previous promises/threats to upgrade Mistletunes at some later date. Well, here is the redesigned site -- or some of it, anyway. I wanted to put it on a content management system to make it easier for me to post new entries, and such a system puts everything on a database that makes it easier to browse the whole site by clicking on categories.

Plus, we've got live comments for the first time ever, so folks can post their questions and answer each other if they like. And they won't have to wait for me to read my e-mail, scratch my noggin, Google around and then finally get around to posting their question and my answer. (You'll have to create a TypePad or Movable Type login to comment. Sorry about that, but it's to prevent comment spam from overwhelming the site. UPDATE: I've since discovered this site can also accept sign-ins from LiveJournal, Vox and OpenID, so I've enabled those as well.) There's also an RSS feed now, so users will know when the site has been updated.

All certified Good Things, as I'm sure you'll agree. Now for the part of the story where things are a little Less Good: I simply don't have time to transfer 12 years of content into the new site before going live with it. This means the old Mistletunes site will remain live for the time being. All new content will appear only on the new site, so determined searchers will find that I'm asking them to switch back and forth in the near term. To reach the old site, click on this: http://www.mistletunes.com/oldsite.html. So far I've moved all the 2008 entries from the old Recent Releases page onto this site to fatten it up, but the migration is going to be protracted as I'm going to be concentrating on new postings for the new season. UPDATE: After poking around in the user logs, I've discovered that people are trying to search things with the new search window. Unfortunately, it only works with content in the new site; you'll have to use the search on the old site to find stuff there. Eventually, this problem will go away when I get everything moved over.

Sorry about the complicated birthing process, but I intend for the site to live a long time, so change was necessary. Thanks for bearing with me during this difficult, but hopefully rewarding, transition.

"Cold Dark Night," Sam Phillips (Littlebox)

2010-01-16T15:14:03Z

Sam, a longtime singer-songwriter who started out in the Christian field, went secular, and then became the soundtrack composer for "Gilmore Girls," has now joined the pledge-drive movement with her "Long Play" project, in which listeners are asked to spend $52 in advance for five EPs and a full album of material, garnished with videos, journals and other special material. This 2009 song is part of that, but she's thoughtfully made it available to Amazon for individual download as well. It's the Nativity story rendered in the kind of low-fi approach Sam has been following on her last couple of major-label discs, and it's not bad at all. I've been a Sam fan for a while, so I'll be interested to see how she does with the "Long Play." Sam previously did a version of "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" that is difficult to find, though her arrangement was used by Bruce Cockburn on his Christmas album. UPDATE: "It Came" is on Sony's Acoustic Christmas, which is out of print but still turns up at retail during Christmas. Sam's "Long Play" EP with "Cold Dark Night" also has another original, "It Doesn't Feel Like Christmas," plus "It Came," "Silent Night," "Away in a Manger" and "O Holy Night." That EP will only be available to "Long Play" subscribers for the time being. FURTHER UPDATE: "It Doesn't Feel Like Christmas" was given away free on her website as of Dec. 23, 2009. Go here. Stylewise, it's a bit of a throwback to her Martinis and Bikinis album, poppier than her last couple of albums. And then there's this video of her doing "Away In a Manger":

"Yuletide Zeppelin I," Mojochronic (self-issued)

2009-12-24T19:32:26Z

I keep hearing folks going nuts over this, and Robert Drake just played it on WXPN-FM in Philly this afternoon, so I figured folks who don't find their way over to the old site might appreciate having it up front here today. There's a part two if you can't get enough from this one, by the way. If I don't post any more for the next couple of days, Merry Christmas from Mistletunes. (I will be back to posting soon though, so keep on coming back.)

Hark! The Fab Four (self-issued)

2009-12-24T02:23:10Z

The Fab Four, a fairly well-known Beatles tribute band, created two full albums of Christmas goodness for 2002 under the titles A Fab Four Christmas and Have Yourself a FAB-ulous Little Christmas for Laserlight, a budget label, but apparently they didn't stay in print long, if the complaints of some fans are anything to go by. Last year, the band took matters into their own hands and reissued the two discs in a single wrapper, a clever one too, one that parodies the U.S. version of the Help! album. The Fabs cut a wide swath across the history of the Beatles -- the two CDs, in their original packaging, are even color-coded the same as the famous Beatles 62-66 and 67-70 collections (see below) to tip off committed listeners -- and their vocal impressions, particularly of Paul and John, are pretty authentic. (One might also note the red album has a strong resemblance to Beatles 1.) Some of the more inventive arrangements include "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" via "When I'm 64" and "Honey Pie," "Silent Night" as "Norwegian Wood," "The Christmas Song" as "Here, There and Everywhere," "Good King Wenceslaus" sung to "Tell Me What You See" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" as "Within You Without You." An extra treat on Fabulous is "Dear Santa," a cut from Ringo Starr's Christmas album done to the arrangement of "Oh! Darling." Now that the band has this at its website, there should be no more complaints -- go grab it. Happy Krimble, indeed.

A quick hit for a holiday parody legend

2009-12-24T02:17:11Z

I don't know how I managed to not know about these guys, but Bah and the Humbugs are a nearly quarter-century legend in the Philadelphia area. They're going to be playing live on Philly's alt-rock radio station, WXPN-FM, on Christmas Eve; check their page for more details. Looks like they've been making parody holiday songs in the vein of the Capitol Steps for quite a long time, so check them out. (I'm using this post as a sort of string around my finger to go back and do a more considered post on them at a later time.)

The Yule Logs, The Yule Logs (self-issued)

2009-12-24T01:41:21Z

The self-proclaimed "hardest working band in snow business" from Chico, Calif., brings us an eponymous album of holiday tuneage. Can't quite run down when this was released; their MySpace page went up in 2005 but the publicity suggests this is new for 2009. It's your basic modern power-pop ensemble rocking out through a dozen tunes from the Christmas season. Most tunes are familiar but there are some originals, like "Walking With the Ghost of Christmas," "Christmastime Is Here (Again!)," "Christmas From Berlin," "Hanukkah Mambo" and "Christmas Is Lonely (When You're a Jew)." The chosen people do well on this album, Hanukkah Alert, with three tunes, including their own fancy-dance tempo version of "Hanukkah O Hanukkah." These guys know how to rock the holiday, with spontaneous-sounding performances that encourage dancing and acting out. The classic carols get jerked around a little bit, and "We Three Kings" has a mock-portentious delivery worthy of an old-school prog band. A surprising take on the Ramones' "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)" turns it into a 50s ballad, and just so a certain blog knows, they cover "Last Christmas" as well. This album makes me wish I was in Chico for the holidays. Here, have a taste:

"The Elf That Jacked Christmas," The Skandles (self-issued)

2009-12-24T01:27:31Z

Not just another band from L.A., The Skandles work the music-comedy beat at DailyComedy.com and also on their own MySpace page. So what's up with this? Think Chipmunks go gangsta and you got it nailed. Lyrics available on MySpace as well. Expurgated and unexpurgated versions are out there, depending on who's on your mix disc list. But why make you wait? Check it out for yourself, NSFW:

X-Mas, Mia Sable (Moduristic)

2009-12-24T01:17:36Z

Mellow-voiced Mia likes her synths, as this 2009 EP demonstrates. She takes the poppy dance floor approach to a pair of classics, "Santa Baby," and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," the former having perhaps a bit too mellow approach vocally but the latter kicking things up a notch with just a light dusting of distorted guitar. The original "December 25 (New Love)" is more of a midtempo love ballad, not bad in total, with two mixes offered.

I Guess It's Christmas, Life Without Chairs (Kind Of)

2009-12-22T02:49:01Z

Here's a young band from Santa Monica who chose to make their first album a Christmas album, thereby angling for the affection of Mistletunes readers, a small but influential group of people. I'd like to think they're Mistletunes readers themselves, because this is exactly the kind of album this website was created to promote -- irreverent rock 'n roll about the holiday, the good and the bad, balancing sentiment and snark, and you can dance to it too. (The band issues a preemptive mea culpa on their MySpace page: "Although most of the songs are fast, there are one or two lame slow ones. Sorry.") Three of the tunes are noted as "Explicit," including "Santa," the title of which thoughtfully leaves off the expletive preceding the jolly elf's name in the chorus of this song that rags him for not being cool and never showing up. "It's Christmas Again" depicts a lover's quarrel in which "just for tonight, I'll tolerate you." And when the singer shops for "A Gift As Nice As You," he ends up getting her a gift card. "Uke Medley" appears to be a couple of songs, one called "I'd Like To See You On Christmas," the other "Leave a Little Light On," performed on multiple ukeleles. And "Unwanted Guest" dispatches its topic with relief and glee. Great songs, rambunctious performances -- well, what are you waiting for?

"All I Want For Christmas Is You," The 88 (88 Records)

2009-12-22T02:30:53Z

Another rock band I hadn't heard about before, they apparently cut the theme song for NBC's new show "Community." Hope they get more out of that than The Rembrandts did for their more popular NBC comedy. Leaving that aside, they put up a single for download and it's a nice one, no relation to the Mariah Carey tune, a bit of a shuffle not too dissimilar to Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody" with a bit of a 70s vibe to it. "Without you here, that shit don't mean a thing" is possibly Christmas quote of the year for 2009, by the way. This was free at iTunes; apologies if it isn't by the time you read this.

"Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," A Rocket To the Moon (Fueled By Ramen)

2009-12-22T02:24:14Z

I'm not familiar with these rocket guys, but this single on iTunes is a solid rock 'n roll version of the classic song that takes nothing from the Phil Spector version. Nice job, guys.

"White Christmas," Rockapella (self-issued)

2009-12-22T02:14:30Z

This popular a cappella group is already on record with two Christmas albums, and this year they're attracting attention with a fresh (and free) rendition of "White Christmas." This is a bit glee club to my ears (can you tell I haven't been captivated by that new Fox TV show?) and the group has done much better stuff on its albums, but you can decide for yourself.

Yulenog 5: Traditional vs. Original, Nathan Kuruna and friends (Hot Cup)

2009-12-22T01:54:35Z

Yulenog collections have featured here at Mistletunes in past years, and sure enough 2009 brings us another one. The modus operandi is that Kuruna and friends, most of whom appear to be jazzers of one stripe or another, put together a collection of holiday novelties. Some of this year's better ideas on this collection include the hip-hop number "Santa, Do You Like Dat Booty," complete with auto-tune vocal; "Santa's In-Box (Spamta Claus)," a spoken-word recitation of e-mail come-ons with holiday overtones; "Virgin Mary," a grungy rocker featuring a supreme being's pickup lines; "Great White Surprise," an original with the flavor of Jesus & Mary Chain; "Chuck D's Christmas Carol," another rap Christmas take based on the Public Enemy blueprint; and from "Dreamgirls," a holiday takeoff, "And I Am Telling You I Am Still a Virgin." The performances of traditional carols are perfunctory, though, with the nadir being "The First Noel" done with a chorus of off-pitch pennywhistles. As usual, there are a lot of great ideas here, although you may do some skipping around to get to them.

"Christmas Time For the Jews," Darlene Love (Saturday Night Live)

2009-12-20T03:11:02Z

No one's seen fit to make this terrific parody song available for use by the fraternity of Christmas disc mixers (everyone who has took it from a video cap of the show on which it originally ran, complete with audience laughter), but we can at least enjoy it this way.

The Alternate Root Holiday Sampler, various artists (Alternate Root)

2009-12-19T18:40:56Z

Alternate Root is a magazine dedicated to Americana, roots and alt-country performers, and for 2009 they issued a holiday compilation with a twist -- it's 25 songs contributed by the magazine's readers. Sort of a multimedia letters section for the magazine, if you will. It's a free download as well. Of course, many of the readers are pro musicians, so this isn't exactly the local high school production of "American Idol" we're dealing with. It's a lot more country than we normally get into at Mistletunes, but since it's free you can pick and choose the tunes as you will. Grub Dog Mitchell's "Rockin' In My Stockin'" is as advertised, a solid rootsy rocker; Carolyn Sills goes 60s girl-group on a tribute to "George Bailey"; Penny Jo Pullus contributes a new version of her "Silent Night, Lonely Night" she did with the Muddpuppies on the Here Comes Another Christmas: Greetings from the Salt City album from around a decade ago; and Lance Norris' "Santa Copped a 'Tude" is a Bob Dylan parody originally heard on the holiday disc by The Stools. Jaime Michaels goes a little more acoustic pop with his "Winter Song" and Steve Fisher puts a bluegrass backing to "Hoovertown," a Depression-era story of sharing strength and woe at Christmastime. Because country is a big part of this, we get cry-in-your-beer tunes like "Jon's Silent Night" by Jon Byrd and "Mommy, Why Was Santa Crying?" by T. Edwin Doss. A little more fun is available from Chief Greenbud's "Let's Get Blazed For the Holidaze," Cody Prevost's "Santa's Got a New Ride" and Candye Kane's "Put the X Back in Xmas," and she discovers "Santa Is a Swinger Now" to a Western swing backing. You'll want to at least sort through this collection, although if you're a regular Alternate Root reader you probably will love this without reservation.