This surf music label sporadically comes up with a Christmas compilation, and 2016 is the year for the latest entry. Some of the individual tunes we've seen before, like "Lump of Coal" by the Barbary Coasters, "Hot Rod Hanukkah" by Meshugga Beach Party, "Groovy Old Saint Nick" by Los Straitjackets, and "Ye Merry Gentlemen" from the Falcons is from a decade-old album. The majority of these tunes are surf-style instrumentals, with a bit of late-50s-early-60s balladry mixed in, as in disc opener "Christmas in July" by Martin Cilla. Black Flamingos give us "How the Gurch Stole Christmas," their spelling not mine, which taps on the mood if not the precise melody of the Grinch's theme song, while the Twang-o-Matics go more spaghetti western on "Staffan Var En Stallendrang," a Swedish tune I could get very little about from Google Translate. The Other Timelines bring us "Public Access Christmas Special," a neat guitar-organ duet, the Crazy Aces give us a medley of popular carols called "Crazy Acemas," and the Kanaloas do "X-Mas Palm Tree." The Nutcracker gets a couple of different takes as Fronkensteen's "Nutty Sweet" is essentially a cover of "The Nutrocker," while Travelers of Tyme bring a bit of the tiki hut to "Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy." More familiar carols are performed by Aqualads, "Angels We Have Heard on High," "Santa Claus Is Coming to Surf" by the Takeoffs, and "Jingle Bells" by Tiki Joe's Ocean. Vocals aren't completely ignored here, as Whoa Nellie Vera and Johnny recast the Johnny B. Goode story as "Little Johnny Got a Japanese Guitar For Christmas," The Beagles take on "Snoopy's Christmas" with a "Hang On Snoopy" chorus, and the best cut here, "Xmas Is a Bust" by the Ogres, is a snarky original with more of the garage sound about it. Apparently only available from the label's website, no download or streaming at this time. UPDATE: "I Saw Three Ships (Mr Rebel Version)" by Urban Surf Kings was recorded new for this collection; I erroneously assumed it was from a previous album by them.
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This surf music label sporadically comes up with a Christmas compilation, and 2016 is the year for the latest entry. Some of the individual tunes we've seen before, like "Lump of Coal" by the Barbary Coasters, "Hot Rod Hanukkah" by Meshugga Beach Party, "Groovy Old Saint Nick" by Los Straitjackets, and "Ye Merry Gentlemen" from the Falcons is from a decade-old album. The majority of these tunes are surf-style instrumentals, with a bit of late-50s-early-60s balladry mixed in, as in disc opener "Christmas in July" by Martin Cilla. Black Flamingos give us "How the Gurch Stole Christmas," their spelling not mine, which taps on the mood if not the precise melody of the Grinch's theme song, while the Twang-o-Matics go more spaghetti western on "Staffan Var En Stallendrang," a Swedish tune I could get very little about from Google Translate. The Other Timelines bring us "Public Access Christmas Special," a neat guitar-organ duet, the Crazy Aces give us a medley of popular carols called "Crazy Acemas," and the Kanaloas do "X-Mas Palm Tree." The Nutcracker gets a couple of different takes as Fronkensteen's "Nutty Sweet" is essentially a cover of "The Nutrocker," while Travelers of Tyme bring a bit of the tiki hut to "Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy." More familiar carols are performed by Aqualads, "Angels We Have Heard on High," "Santa Claus Is Coming to Surf" by the Takeoffs, and "Jingle Bells" by Tiki Joe's Ocean. Vocals aren't completely ignored here, as Whoa Nellie Vera and Johnny recast the Johnny B. Goode story as "Little Johnny Got a Japanese Guitar For Christmas," The Beagles take on "Snoopy's Christmas" with a "Hang On Snoopy" chorus, and the best cut here, "Xmas Is a Bust" by the Ogres, is a snarky original with more of the garage sound about it. Apparently only available from the label's website, no download or streaming at this time. UPDATE: "I Saw Three Ships (Mr Rebel Version)" by Urban Surf Kings was recorded new for this collection; I erroneously assumed it was from a previous album by them.
As much as I'm a sucker for old-school soul records, you'd think I would have known about this series of albums based on flea-market rescues of seriously obscure soul Christmas records before this. So I'm indebted to friend of the site Sean Delany, who broke his skein of painstakingly compiled and art-directed holiday mix discs in 2015 because he was busy curating this third collection in the series for Tramp Records. Sean's detailed liner notes indicate that at least some of these records were vanity releases, on a level with all those indie punk rock singles that never got beyond 1,000 copies and were probably only heard regionally in their day. Cleveland Robinson's "Xmas Time Is Here Again," for example, was released on Nosnibor Records, and you don't need to be a fan of word games to work out how the label got its name. Despite the low-budget origins of these songs and the herculean effort to make decent quality reproductions of these ancient vinyl artifacts, there's enthusiasm and spirit in all these recordings. My favorites are "Dear Santa" by Syng McGowan & the Fanettes, "Sock It To 'Em Santa" by Joe Shinall, "Happy Birthday Jesus" by Sam Sweetsinger Bell, the smoking instrumental "Santa Soul" by Rocki Lane and The Gross Group, the synth-bass-led funk workouts "Black (Soul) Christmas" by Timi Terrific & the Redheads and "Disco Claus" by The Bionic I, and the almost garage-soul "Santa's New Bag" by Rudi and the Rain Dearz. Definitely the best historical collection I've encountered this year, even if the Grammy Award voters haven't seen fit to nominate it.
This organized charity in the Georgia/Florida area continues its annual drive to raise money for charity with musical outreach, and Volume 6 arrives for the 2015 holiday season. The musical style is, as always, mostly rootsy rock, which suits this site's mission statement. Sara Rachele kicks things off with the sprightly original "When the Fire Goes Out Tonight," the group von Grey offers the contemplative ballad "Cozy Tranquility," Mark Bliesener performs a nicely country-rock "It's Finally X-Mas Day," Eric Durrance contemplates "A Southern Christmas," and Martha's Trouble, about whom see more on this very site, donates their previously released "This Christmas." That wraps the original tunes on this collection; covers include the Electric Sons' semi-march treatment of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," Charlie Oxford's traditional treatment of "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)," the Galavanters' Booker T-styled instrumental of "Jolly Old St. Nicholas," Michael Logan's solo acoustic "I'll Be Home For Christmas" and Amy Gerhartz's similar piano treatment of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." Another fine collection from Rock By the Sea to benefit good causes.
Britain's Cherryade label reaches the milestone 10th collection for 2014, although things are a little different nowadays. The label has not been quite so active in the past couple of years, so where past collections were composed predominantly from contributions by the label roster, the most recent Cherry Christmas discs reach farther afield for songs. As with Cherry 9, the current collection received curation assistance from Gareth Jones, host of a popular music podcast, and it's very much in keeping with the previous nine editions in terms of giving us the alt-indie view of the holiday season. Indeed, the current collection resembles the mix discs compiled by obsessed music hobbyists, and of course (see sidebar of this site) you'll never hear me say a discouraging word about that. A couple tunes have appeared in other places, like Los Campesinos!' "Kindle a Flame In Her Heart" and Very Most's "Wombling Merry Christmas," and some of you might have encountered others that I've missed until now. Kicking off the limited issue (100 discs, no download) is The Thyme Machine's "Driving Home For Christmas (Presents)," a fun indie-rock song about trying to visit family after forgetting to bring the presents. Among the obvious covers are Simon Love's version of "Santa's Beard" by They Might Be Giants, a grungy take of "Back Door Santa" by Ho3, and a slow, meditative version of the Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping" by The Lost Cavalry. Town Bike does an alt-rock, girl-groupy "Worst Christmas Ever," Happy Fangs also mines grunge for the perfect extended holiday season rave-up "All I Want For Christmas Is Halloween," and Stephen Hudson & the Flat Pandas re-experience the trauma of learning "The Truth About Christmas." Melancholy creeps in with "The Shopworker's Lament" by The French Defence, "I Hope It Snows Tonight" by The Swapsies and "Under Christmas Lights" by Da Mighty D.a.Kid. Musical/spoken word hybrids are offered by Monkeys in Love with "Secret Santa Party #1 (In Comic Sans)" and Helen Arney with "Traditional Family Christmas Argument." Pocket Gods, who have been on numerous Cherry Christmas comps, appear here with "Moobular Bells," which I thought might be the Mike Oldfield classic done with cows but it's not, it's an original done on tubular bells. Quiet Maurader expresses love for turkeys and vegetarian meals with "It's Xmas, So It's OK (To Go and Hug a Turkey)," Sunny Intervals offers a sweet holiday duet with "Christmas In Your Sights," Partly Llama gives an antique folk reading of "The End of the Journey," and Jack Hayter gets his holiday shop on in "Xmas Eve in the Pound Shop," which I'm assuming is the British version of that US institution, the dollar store. The Twelve Hour Foundation wraps up with the instrumental "Christmas Follows Shortly," which actually it does, as I'm writing this anyway.
This is mostly Jewish humor for other Jews, but with Hanukkah bearing down on us I thought I should hurry this onto the site. Rachel Bloom is a comic and actress who cuts lots of short videos for use on YouTube and other sites, and she gathered up a bunch of friends to throw together this short collection of Hanukkah-centric goodies. Highlights include "Chanukah Honey," a parody of "Santa Baby" with a NSFW twist in the very last line; "Happy Epic Chanukah," a heavy metal take on the story of the holiday; "Foreskin Angels," less about the holiday and more about, well, you know; "Judaica," an electro-pop tribute to shopping for Jewish heritage goodies while traveling; "Let Me Be the Cantor In Your Temple," a bit of Wild Man Fischer-inspired ranting (and oh, is that what the kids are calling it this year?); "What Would Hashem Do," a light-hearted look at the extreme punishments described in the Old Testament; and "Think About All the Dead Jews," a klezmer version of "finish your peas, the starving children in India would love them." There are three "Elders of Zion" spoken-word bits that are probably more funny if you're Jewish, as they snark on Jewish stereotypes. Here, check out "Chanukah Honey":
This came out in 2012, and it's an interesting bit of historical analysis cast as a double-disc set in which one disc is Hanukkah and the other is Christmas. The Idelsohn Society is a volunteer historical group that studies Jewish history via music, and they've done a very nice job of presenting it, although the heavy lifting was done in the extensive annotation, which includes an essay by Greil Marcus among others. There aren't any big surprises in the song selections, which cut across all pop genres on the Christmas disc, and of course every Christmas song was performed and written by Jewish artists. The Hanukkah disc has very little pop sensibility, although Woody Guthrie's "Hanukkah Dance" is here as well as Don McLean's "Dreidel," the latter reprised by Luther Dickinson, Jeremiah Lockwood and Ethan Miller in an almost soundalike arrangement for some reason. Most of the rest is more traditional Hanukkah music. The Christmas disc has very little rock, but they did manage to get the Ramones and Bob Dylan in, and Lou Reed delivers a spoken holiday greeting. Theo Bikel performs the folky "Sweetest Dreams Be Thine" and a comedy piece "The Problem" directly addresses the competition between the two holidays. The rest is old-school pop music by Mel Torme, Dinah Shore, Benny Goodman, Danny Kaye, Eddie Cantor, Eddie Fisher, The Ames Brothers, Mitch Miller and that noted klezmer band Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. I bring this to your attention not because it provides a source for your mix discs, but because it's an interesting look at the two holidays together. (Although in 2013 Hanukkah actually starts on Thanksgiving....) The art links to an Amazon download, but you may wish to check the society's site if you're interested in all the annotation or the hardcopy version.
UPDATED POST. I'm guessing some of you know Nick, but for those who have let him slip off their radar, well, he's way different than he was in the Brinsley Schwarz, Stiff Records, Rockpile or 80s solo days. He's adopted a style that straddles country, old-school rock, blues and even sometimes pop jazz, with him crooning Nat King Cole-style over top. If you've been listening since the mid-90s, this will be no surprise, and thus you already know what the sound of this album is going to be. But as the comments at the YouTube site reveal, a lot of folks were hoping for a Rockpile reunion or a Stiff Records revival instead, and folks, this ain't that. As sedate as the album is compared to all that, it's still an excellent piece of work, just not a power pop masterpiece. Nick provides three new originals, including a jazzy ballad co-written with Ry Cooder called "A Dollar Short of Happy," which could exist happily on one of Nick's recent non-holiday outings. Nick also writes the bouncy "Christmas at the Airport" and the stark acoustic ballad "I Was Born in Bethlehem." Ron Sexsmith contributes a new original, "Hooves on the Roof," in which Nick exercises his higher vocal register and his snapping fingers, and Nick adds such out-of-copyright favorites as the folky "Rise Up Shepherd," the rockabilly-infused "Children Go Where I Send Thee," the kiddie favorite "The North Pole Express" in a vintage rock treatment, and a Huey "Piano" Smith & the Clowns arrangement of "Silent Night." Covers of more recent vintage include Boudleaux Bryant's "Christmas Can't Be Far Away," a hit for Eddy Arnold (!), Roger Miller's "Old Toy Trains," a samba version of Ross Bon & the Mighty Blue Kings' "Just To Be With You (This Christmas)," and the album closer, Roy Wood's "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day," stripping away the Spectorisms in favor of an arrangement that owes equal parts to Nashville pop and Jamaican ska. I'm a Nick Lowe fan, so I don't want to recommend this too highly to those who prefer to hold me to the Mistletunes motto of rockin' Christmases for all. Nevertheless, I suspect I'm going to be listening to this a lot on the holidays. Order from Amazon (CD & LP) by clicking the cover, or go to Yep Roc's site for package deals that include swag like snow globes, greeting cards, wrapping paper and such.
The Kevin and Bean compilations were a Christmas fanatic's tradition through the 1990s to the mid-2000s, particularly those who like their holidays to include rock 'n roll. I've posted several of them to this site over the years, limited by the fact that the nerve center and home office of this Internet holiday way station is far to the east of the these United States, while the radio station from which these compilations emanate is hard by the West Coast of this selfsame country, making purchase of hardcopy albums difficult and/or expensive. As I'm still getting content moved over from the old static version of the site to the current content-managed site, I stumbled over the fact that I still had a Kevin & Bean comp hiding on my desk that had never been posted before, so here it is. This one, from 1997, is billed as a "greatest hits" version, compiling the best of the series from the early to mid-1990s, all of which had previously been released on cassette. This collection added a few new items to the playlist in honor of the series' switchover to CD. Just as all the others did, this mixes music from rock bands and spoken word items from comedians and celebrities. A couple of rarities that don't show up much nowadays from this album include Squirrel Nut Zippers' "Santa Claus Is Smoking Reefer" and Snoop Dogg's two songs "Christmastime in the LBC" and, with Nate Dogg, "Twas the Night." Smashing Pumpkins' "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and Stone Temple Pilots' "Christmastime Is Here" were done live, Third Eye Blind's "One of Those Christmas Days" sounds like it was done live in the studio, and John Wesley Harding banters with Kevin & Bean on "Feel the Warmth." Poe, she of "Angry Johnny" fame, pulls off a seriously intentioned version of "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" that almost breathes life back into that overplayed novelty. Smash Mouth does an Elvis impression on their "Blue Christmas," Soul Coughing plays "Suzy Snowflake," ska stars Reel Big Fish take on "Mele Kalikimaka," Mighty Mighty Bosstones offer "Christmastime," and Presidents of the United States contribute "Christmas Piglet." Songs that have turned up elsewhere more frequently are Sugar Ray's "Little St. Nick," Everclear's "Santa Baby," Tori Amos' "Little Drummer Boy" and Beck's "Little Drum Machine Boy." A group called Mmm offers their version of "Me and Mrs. Claus," a parody of the Billy Paul hit, though not the same parody done by Bob Rivers. Spoken word contributions come from Johnny Cash, Jon Stewart, Bobcat Goldthwait, Cindy Crawford, Henry Winkler, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, Gene Simmons and Jenny McCarthy. As you might guess from the title, R-rated language crops up occasionally. I've linked the cover art to an Amazon page that will connect you to 3rd-party sellers who have new and used versions of this disc.
This Manchester label has been like clockwork in putting out a new collection every year for eight years. This 2012 version kicks off with Otalgia's "Dear Santa," in which a brief snippet of "Silent Night" gives way to a punkish letter to the jolly elf with a pessimistic outlook. Chandler D Obelisk performs "Away in a Pret a Manger," what appears to be a satiric poke at a narrator who thinks he's being imposed upon to help a needy person at Christmas time. Laura Skilbeck channels "Friends" character Phoebe with her song "Films About Christmas," Steveless offers "Madvent," a profane parody of "Good King Wenceslaus," and the Paraffins Featuring Chloe Philip give us "Christmas in Glasgow," a synth-pop complaint about a holiday "fiasco, with chicken from Tesco." The Drain on the Balcony's "A Christmas Trilogy" is a medley of three songs, including another parody of "Wenceslaus," Float Riverer do an acoustic, non-Dickens oriented "A Christmas Carol," and Partly Llama also stay acoustic for their "Running Back For Christmas." The Pocket Gods, veterans of numerous Cherryade comps, offer two tunes, a punked-out "Silent Night" and their own "Jesus the Time Traveler," a dirgy, fuzzed-out plea for salvation. The Low Countries offer "Carry On Christmas," in which St. James is looking down on the proceedings from heaven eating crackers while the vicar prepares a holiday dinner, or I think that's what they're on about, anyway. Collider Featuring Jason Dixon presents "Little Drummer Boy" as a drone, throwing in "Peace on Earth" as well, and Lance Romance sings about "The Boy Who Saved Christmas." Cherryade is only making this available from their website, and they've only pressed 100 copies, so it's entirely possible this is sold out already.
Well, not exactly a gift, since you have to buy it in hardcopy or download versions from the label, which is based in Spain. UPDATE: Click the album cover to get it from Amazon. This 2012 collection kicks off nicely with Attic Lights' tune "Why Should Christmas Be So Hard," a sentiment increasing numbers of people have been subscribing to lately. It's got a nice production straddling Brian Wilson and Phil Spector, a good opener considering the album title. Guille Milkyway and the Jelly Jamm Sound Orchestra go uptempo with the sprightly "Holding Hands Around the World," The Yearning offer a sweet orchestral ballad, "I Just Wanna Hold Your Hand (On Christmas Day)," The Magic Theatre perform a tribute to "Christmas Lights," The School goes retro with the heavily 60s-sounding "Let Me Be the Fairy On Your Christmas Tree," and they return with another girl-groupy song, "You're Coming Home Tonight." Bells lead the "X-mas Song," an original by Edine Avec Lisle Mitnik Et Son Orchestre, and yes, that's spelled correctly. BMX Bandits sing "Let's Make Christmas Love," which instrumentally recalls Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys but with baritone vocals. The Primitives, which may be that same 80s band I'm thinking of, complain "You Trashed My Christmas," and YouDoMeToo go synth-poppy on "Bells To Ring and Jingle." And since this collection originated via a Spanish label, we have a number of tunes in that language, like "La Luz Del Mundo" by Single, "El Viaje Majico De Santa Claus" by Modular, "Los anillos De Alcyone" by La Casa Azul, "Te Espero En Navidad" by Axolotes Mexicanos, "Donde Todo Sigue Igual" by Band Å Part and, just to throw a spanner in the works, Fitness Forever go Swedish with "Su Sventom Kaledom," although it's an instrumental. It's a great collection, whether hardcopy or download. There may be some vinyl left at the website, but it's supposedly a limited edition. Check out The Yearning's song:
Striving Artists is, obviously, a theater company based in Massachusetts that puts on live plays for the public. They have a tradition of doing holiday musical revues, and for 2012 they decided to take the next step and record their holiday work for wider dissemination. They must have been working on this for a long time, as there are 51 separate tunes on this album -- Sufjan Stevens, call your service. Producer Greg Luzitano especially has been a busy guy, as he's also the main artist or co-performer on 13 of these tunes -- enough for his own album, in addition to producing the whole collection. The artistic choices are fairly eclectic, but almost all in the pop-rock realm. The producer calls this "an indie album" with "a lot of energy," but don't confuse it with indie rock; these are theater performers, so there's a lot of live theater technique in regard to the singing, as well as a lot of the kind of piano you hear when people are auditioning for a musical. That said, there's still a fair number of interesting moments in this collection, starting with the choice of the a capella "Our Prayer" from the Beach Boys' Smile as the opening cut and the first attempt I've heard to cover Paul Simon's recent "Getting Ready For Christmas Day," which filters out the sampled preacher of the original in favor of a verse of "Silent Night." My other favorites from the collection include Carol Grossi Smolinsky doing "Do You Hear What I Hear" to the Bo Diddley beat, Johnbarry Green's reimagining of "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch" via ZZ Top, Luzitano's cover of Barenaked Ladies' "Elf's Lament" and his sprightly version of "O Come All Ye Faithful," Greg and Stacy Geer's choice to rock up "Baby It's Cold Outside," Ron & Amy Cook's extension of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" as done by Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan into a medley of "We 3 Kings" and "Go Tell It On the Mountain," Shannon Baker's choice of Paul McCartney's "Footprints," Jeff Desautels' ukelele rendition of "The First Noel," a nod to the Iz Kamakwiwo'ole version of "Over the Rainbow," Savanah and Abigail Shaughnessy's syncopated "Jingle Bells," and Madeleine Carbonneau's tropical-sounding "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear." The length of this collection is probably the worst thing about it, but there's lots of listenable music on here. It's for sale as a double CD or download, and there are previews posted on their website.
These guys are so DIY they shot the video on an iPhone 4. This 2012 rendition of this antique carol is fun if only because it starts out sounding like they're going to play Tom Petty's "Breakdown," and having the piano in the foreground kinda suggests Ben Folds in a cover band. Nice job. You can download the audio track from the band's site, and of course the video's on YouTube.
Coming off 2011's fab holiday album Winterland, the band had intended to buff it to a nice sheen with some additional cuts for the 2012 Christmas season, but they ended up with enough material for an entirely separate album, which is what this is. Like last year's disc, this shows off the band's evolution from strictly garage to a more late 60s pop rock sound, and while there's plenty of Christmas here, the band is also going for more of a "winter" vibe here, which was also the theme of Winterland. Songs like the ballads "Myth of the Season" and "Hag of the Barren Trees" address some of the pagan heritage of winter celebrations, while the rockers "The More You Change," "Open Up the Box Pandora," and the David Bowie cover "Sell Me a Coat" are not so much about the holiday as they are set in the colder season. Same goes for the instrumental "Couples Skate." "Rise of the Snowflake Children" is a nice psychedelic garage chant, "Christmas Ain't For Christians (Anymore)" is a set of deathbed reflections from a prison and a hospital with exquisite guitar and flute backing, the title song is a cool putdown of a charlatan, and the album closes with "Pretend It's Christmas," an acoustic ballad asking the listener to look on the bright side. Not sure I can pick between last year's and this year's albums, both are equally good to my ears. Here, have a taste of "Open Up the Box Pandora."
You know how "Wicked" is "The Wizard of Oz" told from the point of view of the WIcked Witch? This 2011 collection is sort of the unrepentant Scrooge's view of Christmas, if Scrooge was a gay 21st century singer-songwriter with a sense of humor. Really, this is as anti-Christmas as it gets, and is pretty entertaining for all that. The undeleted expletives start with "Christmas Waltz," where Erin plays it straight while the background chorus mocks her and swears in answer verses. Erin then goes into the many reasons why "Santa Is an Asshole," from being a pervert with kids in his lap to being an anti-Semite because he's only for Christian children. Those two songs also get "Kleen mixes," though it seems unnecessary to bother. "Go Tell It" reimagines the old hymn by superimposing pop culture personalities on the chorus in place of the usual Jesus. "Fa La La" provides a litany of tragedies, real and imagined, in place of the usual "Deck the Halls" lyrics, over guitar and ukelele. "Visions I've Had" is a humorous take on druggy experiences set to "Angels We Have Heard On High." Obnoxious family reactions to one's gay partner are the subject of "It's a Very Queer Christmas" and "Frozen Smiles." "Christmas Love It or Leave It" is a poke in the eye to cultural conservatives who equate patriotism and Christianity, and "You Wish Us a Happy Holiday" is a witty reposte to the people who complain about having to say Happy Holidays. I'm guessing Erin is deadly serious about the sentiments on display here, but there's enough humor that broad-minded folks will find it listenable, not to mention worthy of a space on your holiday playlists. Stop by her site to learn more about her Dec. 18 webcast based on this album.
This album was possibly the most eagerly awaited of rock Christmas albums in 2011, based on my unscientific observation of prerelease buzz, and it was worth the wait. (You have to wait until next week to get it from conventional stores, but the band is already shipping it from their website as a download, CD or vinyl.) For those not familiar, the band, named for John Lennon's character in his only non-Beatles movie appearance, is equally planted in the nouveau-garage scene and as an old-school British Invasion ensemble -- much like their New Jersey neighbors the Smithereens, two of whom guest on the Grip Weeds' cover of "2000 Miles." The band's own "Christmas Dream," which opens the album, also has a bit of the 'Reens sound as well. An unexpected guest on lead vocals is Mark Lindsay, who sings the band's original "Santa Make Me Good," a cool bluesy romp with a catchy harmonica break. "For the Holidays" is a nice minor key original, keying off the intro from XTC's "Dear God" and building into a baroque arrangement with harpsichord, flute and strings. Their previously released original "Christmas, Bring Us" is also here, a fine tune as we've previously mentioned. They get a little psychedelic on "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and turn "Welcome Christmas" into an outtake from "Tommy." The 70s get more love from their cover of Jethro Tull's "A Christmas Song," a fairly faithful take on ELP's "I Believe in Father Christmas," and I don't think I've previously come across a rock band cover of "Merry Christmas All," a song from the famous (and compulsively repackaged every few years) Salsoul Orchestra disco Christmas album of the 1970s. The Grip Weeds pulled out all the stops to make this a distinctive, original, rock 'n roll take on Christmas, and a just world would reward them richly for having done so.
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This surf music label sporadically comes up with a Christmas compilation, and 2016 is the year for the latest entry. Some of the individual tunes we've seen before, like "Lump of Coal" by the Barbary Coasters, "Hot Rod Hanukkah" by Meshugga Beach Party, "Groovy Old Saint Nick" by Los Straitjackets, and "Ye Merry Gentlemen" from the Falcons is from a decade-old album. The majority of these tunes are surf-style instrumentals, with a bit of late-50s-early-60s balladry mixed in, as in disc opener "Christmas in July" by Martin Cilla. Black Flamingos give us "How the Gurch Stole Christmas," their spelling not mine, which taps on the mood if not the precise melody of the Grinch's theme song, while the Twang-o-Matics go more spaghetti western on "Staffan Var En Stallendrang," a Swedish tune I could get very little about from Google Translate. The Other Timelines bring us "Public Access Christmas Special," a neat guitar-organ duet, the Crazy Aces give us a medley of popular carols called "Crazy Acemas," and the Kanaloas do "X-Mas Palm Tree." The Nutcracker gets a couple of different takes as Fronkensteen's "Nutty Sweet" is essentially a cover of "The Nutrocker," while Travelers of Tyme bring a bit of the tiki hut to "Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy." More familiar carols are performed by Aqualads, "Angels We Have Heard on High," "Santa Claus Is Coming to Surf" by the Takeoffs, and "Jingle Bells" by Tiki Joe's Ocean. Vocals aren't completely ignored here, as Whoa Nellie Vera and Johnny recast the Johnny B. Goode story as "Little Johnny Got a Japanese Guitar For Christmas," The Beagles take on "Snoopy's Christmas" with a "Hang On Snoopy" chorus, and the best cut here, "Xmas Is a Bust" by the Ogres, is a snarky original with more of the garage sound about it. Apparently only available from the label's website, no download or streaming at this time. UPDATE: "I Saw Three Ships (Mr Rebel Version)" by Urban Surf Kings was recorded new for this collection; I erroneously assumed it was from a previous album by them.As much as I'm a sucker for old-school soul records, you'd think I would have known about this series of albums based on flea-market rescues of seriously obscure soul Christmas records before this. So I'm indebted to friend of the site Sean Delany, who broke his skein of painstakingly compiled and art-directed holiday mix discs in 2015 because he was busy curating this third collection in the series for Tramp Records. Sean's detailed liner notes indicate that at least some of these records were vanity releases, on a level with all those indie punk rock singles that never got beyond 1,000 copies and were probably only heard regionally in their day. Cleveland Robinson's "Xmas Time Is Here Again," for example, was released on Nosnibor Records, and you don't need to be a fan of word games to work out how the label got its name. Despite the low-budget origins of these songs and the herculean effort to make decent quality reproductions of these ancient vinyl artifacts, there's enthusiasm and spirit in all these recordings. My favorites are "Dear Santa" by Syng McGowan & the Fanettes, "Sock It To 'Em Santa" by Joe Shinall, "Happy Birthday Jesus" by Sam Sweetsinger Bell, the smoking instrumental "Santa Soul" by Rocki Lane and The Gross Group, the synth-bass-led funk workouts "Black (Soul) Christmas" by Timi Terrific & the Redheads and "Disco Claus" by The Bionic I, and the almost garage-soul "Santa's New Bag" by Rudi and the Rain Dearz. Definitely the best historical collection I've encountered this year, even if the Grammy Award voters haven't seen fit to nominate it. This organized charity in the Georgia/Florida area continues its annual drive to raise money for charity with musical outreach, and Volume 6 arrives for the 2015 holiday season. The musical style is, as always, mostly rootsy rock, which suits this site's mission statement. Sara Rachele kicks things off with the sprightly original "When the Fire Goes Out Tonight," the group von Grey offers the contemplative ballad "Cozy Tranquility," Mark Bliesener performs a nicely country-rock "It's Finally X-Mas Day," Eric Durrance contemplates "A Southern Christmas," and Martha's Trouble, about whom see more on this very site, donates their previously released "This Christmas." That wraps the original tunes on this collection; covers include the Electric Sons' semi-march treatment of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," Charlie Oxford's traditional treatment of "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)," the Galavanters' Booker T-styled instrumental of "Jolly Old St. Nicholas," Michael Logan's solo acoustic "I'll Be Home For Christmas" and Amy Gerhartz's similar piano treatment of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." Another fine collection from Rock By the Sea to benefit good causes.
In response to the e-mails I've received about the site's dormancy, well, we're back for another season. Personal issues have kept me from getting an earlier start, and you probably noticed the most recent posts are items that have been lurking in my notes for a while. The James Brown Complete post is intended to replace the original James Brown Christmas post from the old version of the Mistletunes site that went away several years ago due to the fact that it was laughably incomplete. Anyway, keep an eye out -- we're tracking Patty Smyth, the Felice Brothers, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Robby the Elf and a few others, though the first few posts after this one are likely to be tunes and artists we missed last year. Anyway, welcome back, and tell your friends.
Britain's Cherryade label reaches the milestone 10th collection for 2014, although things are a little different nowadays. The label has not been quite so active in the past couple of years, so where past collections were composed predominantly from contributions by the label roster, the most recent Cherry Christmas discs reach farther afield for songs. As with Cherry 9, the current collection received curation assistance from Gareth Jones, host of a popular music podcast, and it's very much in keeping with the previous nine editions in terms of giving us the alt-indie view of the holiday season. Indeed, the current collection resembles the mix discs compiled by obsessed music hobbyists, and of course (see sidebar of this site) you'll never hear me say a discouraging word about that. A couple tunes have appeared in other places, like Los Campesinos!' "Kindle a Flame In Her Heart" and Very Most's "Wombling Merry Christmas," and some of you might have encountered others that I've missed until now. Kicking off the limited issue (100 discs, no download) is The Thyme Machine's "Driving Home For Christmas (Presents)," a fun indie-rock song about trying to visit family after forgetting to bring the presents. Among the obvious covers are Simon Love's version of "Santa's Beard" by They Might Be Giants, a grungy take of "Back Door Santa" by Ho3, and a slow, meditative version of the Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping" by The Lost Cavalry. Town Bike does an alt-rock, girl-groupy "Worst Christmas Ever," Happy Fangs also mines grunge for the perfect extended holiday season rave-up "All I Want For Christmas Is Halloween," and Stephen Hudson & the Flat Pandas re-experience the trauma of learning "The Truth About Christmas." Melancholy creeps in with "The Shopworker's Lament" by The French Defence, "I Hope It Snows Tonight" by The Swapsies and "Under Christmas Lights" by Da Mighty D.a.Kid. Musical/spoken word hybrids are offered by Monkeys in Love with "Secret Santa Party #1 (In Comic Sans)" and Helen Arney with "Traditional Family Christmas Argument." Pocket Gods, who have been on numerous Cherry Christmas comps, appear here with "Moobular Bells," which I thought might be the Mike Oldfield classic done with cows but it's not, it's an original done on tubular bells. Quiet Maurader expresses love for turkeys and vegetarian meals with "It's Xmas, So It's OK (To Go and Hug a Turkey)," Sunny Intervals offers a sweet holiday duet with "Christmas In Your Sights," Partly Llama gives an antique folk reading of "The End of the Journey," and Jack Hayter gets his holiday shop on in "Xmas Eve in the Pound Shop," which I'm assuming is the British version of that US institution, the dollar store. The Twelve Hour Foundation wraps up with the instrumental "Christmas Follows Shortly," which actually it does, as I'm writing this anyway. Missed this when it came out in 2013, but it's a free download from the shoemaker and is still up for downloading, as I just grabbed it the other day. Just seven tunes by indie artists, opening with old school soulsters Roxy Roca doing "It's Not Christmas Without You," rockers Warm Soda feeling abandoned on "Without You By My Side," Fresh Daily & Black Spade rapping about "Holiday '93," Mother Merey & the Black Dirt making a delta blues out of "Run Rudolph Run," Workout doing the punk rock thing on "Jingle Bells," The She's revisiting the 80s girl-group revival on "December Tide," and Low Fat Getting High going all thrashy punk on "Deck the Halls." You never know when Converse might update their website, so grab it now.
This is a recording I knew about from the time I started Mistletunes back in 1997, but I never saw a copy of this 1995 EP from that day until this one. I finally stumbled over it in the iTunes Store recently, and of course you can click to grab it from Amazon. Apparently, the group's pianist/vocalist Beth Sorrentino retained the rights and has reissued it under the combined monicker "Suddenly, Tammy! & Beth Sorrentino." The band originated in Lancaster, PA in the 1990s and after some indie singles was signed to Warner Bros., which issued the original EP. Sprightly takes of "Linus & Lucy" and "Plant the Halls," substitute "Deck" for "Plant," rock out nicely, the original "Snowman" is a melancholy ballad with a touch of toy piano, "There In My Head" is another ballad in a slow-motion sort of Tori Amos arrangement, "Whole Lotta Girl" is a strong uptempo pop-rocker, although I can't make out enough of the lyrics to suss the Christmas connection, "Merry" is a yearning solo piano ballad, and things wrap up with "Rock 'n Roll With Santa Claus," a nice bit of hard rocking nonsense quoting favorite old Christmas sayings. The downloadable modern version adds three non-holiday songs. According to a fan-run band site that is still up, "Snowman," "Whole Lotta Girl" and "Merry" were on other Suddenly, Tammy! albums, one of which was never released.
I had heard that the 2012 entry in this label's annual sequence of Christmas music collections was supposed to be the last, so imagine my surprise to find they not only did a new one this year, but that they've revamped the website a bit to make this, and previous years' albums, easier to find. Where previous collections had 40 or more songs, this year's wraps up at just 27 selections, including the album-ending goof "The Paincakes Sell Out," 41 seconds of tribute by The Paincakes to the famous album of the otherwise same name by the Who. This is more of an indie-rock collection, though some Americana shows up in the playlist as well. This year's batch opens with the Kickstand Band paying tribute to Pia Zadora with "Hooray For Santy Claus," Javelins crank the reverb on their guitars for the instrumental "This Time of Year," The Next Door Neighbors recycle "Jingle Bell Rock's" arrangement with "Open For Christmas," Love Axe takes the New Testament literally in "Jesus Came From Heaven," PreciseHero notes that "Martian Kids Need Santa Too," Blaire Alise & the Bombshells rock out an ode to "Mistletoe," Carjack/Pupils do a rock cover of "Christmas in Hollis," Jeremy Porter & the Tucos check off some modern pop culture points in "The Most Wonderful Day of the Year," Six and the Sevens evoke the old garage hit "Baby Please Come Home" in "Please Come Home For Christmas," and ScreechGING Weasel rocks out "The Government Don't Get Shit For Christmas." There's more, but you can examine the free download for yourself.
A couple of months ago I rendered a heartfelt farewell to Stubby's Christmas, which had announced it was going static back in July. In the course of doing research for a post, I saw a link to a Stubby review of the record I was covering, clicked through and, lo and behold, the review had been written only a couple of weeks ago. Apparently he picked up the thread again in December. So feel free to keep visiting for as long as Stubby keeps posting, and I'll keep my website obituaries to myself for the time being.
This is mostly Jewish humor for other Jews, but with Hanukkah bearing down on us I thought I should hurry this onto the site. Rachel Bloom is a comic and actress who cuts lots of short videos for use on YouTube and other sites, and she gathered up a bunch of friends to throw together this short collection of Hanukkah-centric goodies. Highlights include "Chanukah Honey," a parody of "Santa Baby" with a NSFW twist in the very last line; "Happy Epic Chanukah," a heavy metal take on the story of the holiday; "Foreskin Angels," less about the holiday and more about, well, you know; "Judaica," an electro-pop tribute to shopping for Jewish heritage goodies while traveling; "Let Me Be the Cantor In Your Temple," a bit of Wild Man Fischer-inspired ranting (and oh, is that what the kids are calling it this year?); "What Would Hashem Do," a light-hearted look at the extreme punishments described in the Old Testament; and "Think About All the Dead Jews," a klezmer version of "finish your peas, the starving children in India would love them." There are three "Elders of Zion" spoken-word bits that are probably more funny if you're Jewish, as they snark on Jewish stereotypes. Here, check out "Chanukah Honey":This came out in 2012, and it's an interesting bit of historical analysis cast as a double-disc set in which one disc is Hanukkah and the other is Christmas. The Idelsohn Society is a volunteer historical group that studies Jewish history via music, and they've done a very nice job of presenting it, although the heavy lifting was done in the extensive annotation, which includes an essay by Greil Marcus among others. There aren't any big surprises in the song selections, which cut across all pop genres on the Christmas disc, and of course every Christmas song was performed and written by Jewish artists. The Hanukkah disc has very little pop sensibility, although Woody Guthrie's "Hanukkah Dance" is here as well as Don McLean's "Dreidel," the latter reprised by Luther Dickinson, Jeremiah Lockwood and Ethan Miller in an almost soundalike arrangement for some reason. Most of the rest is more traditional Hanukkah music. The Christmas disc has very little rock, but they did manage to get the Ramones and Bob Dylan in, and Lou Reed delivers a spoken holiday greeting. Theo Bikel performs the folky "Sweetest Dreams Be Thine" and a comedy piece "The Problem" directly addresses the competition between the two holidays. The rest is old-school pop music by Mel Torme, Dinah Shore, Benny Goodman, Danny Kaye, Eddie Cantor, Eddie Fisher, The Ames Brothers, Mitch Miller and that noted klezmer band Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. I bring this to your attention not because it provides a source for your mix discs, but because it's an interesting look at the two holidays together. (Although in 2013 Hanukkah actually starts on Thanksgiving....) The art links to an Amazon download, but you may wish to check the society's site if you're interested in all the annotation or the hardcopy version.
Readers who have been here in the past know that I occasionally nudge folks to patronize Amazon and iTunes because this site has an affiliate relationship with those two companies that yields a bit of cash toward the site's hosting fees. In recent years, the site has been making it easier for folks to do this by linking album art to one of those two places, at least for stuff that is actually sold there. Well, recently the iTunes store changed its affiliate service provider, and through preoccupation with other matters I let the deadline slide by without re-upping. So as of Oct. 1 this year, Mistletunes only has an affiliate relationship with Amazon, and I think I'll leave it that way going forward, as there's so much stuff for sale there that it's easy for readers to click through from here and leave a tip for the site on pretty much anything that comes to mind. Unfortunately, some of the album art links are still pointing at iTunes, and I'm pretty sure that means the links are busted. Where I find them, I'll fix them, but if you discover one, feel free to come back here and click through the Amazon logo for whatever you're looking for. Oh, and let me know so I can re-link to Amazon.
UPDATED POST. I'm guessing some of you know Nick, but for those who have let him slip off their radar, well, he's way different than he was in the Brinsley Schwarz, Stiff Records, Rockpile or 80s solo days. He's adopted a style that straddles country, old-school rock, blues and even sometimes pop jazz, with him crooning Nat King Cole-style over top. If you've been listening since the mid-90s, this will be no surprise, and thus you already know what the sound of this album is going to be. But as the comments at the YouTube site reveal, a lot of folks were hoping for a Rockpile reunion or a Stiff Records revival instead, and folks, this ain't that. As sedate as the album is compared to all that, it's still an excellent piece of work, just not a power pop masterpiece. Nick provides three new originals, including a jazzy ballad co-written with Ry Cooder called "A Dollar Short of Happy," which could exist happily on one of Nick's recent non-holiday outings. Nick also writes the bouncy "Christmas at the Airport" and the stark acoustic ballad "I Was Born in Bethlehem." Ron Sexsmith contributes a new original, "Hooves on the Roof," in which Nick exercises his higher vocal register and his snapping fingers, and Nick adds such out-of-copyright favorites as the folky "Rise Up Shepherd," the rockabilly-infused "Children Go Where I Send Thee," the kiddie favorite "The North Pole Express" in a vintage rock treatment, and a Huey "Piano" Smith & the Clowns arrangement of "Silent Night." Covers of more recent vintage include Boudleaux Bryant's "Christmas Can't Be Far Away," a hit for Eddy Arnold (!), Roger Miller's "Old Toy Trains," a samba version of Ross Bon & the Mighty Blue Kings' "Just To Be With You (This Christmas)," and the album closer, Roy Wood's "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day," stripping away the Spectorisms in favor of an arrangement that owes equal parts to Nashville pop and Jamaican ska. I'm a Nick Lowe fan, so I don't want to recommend this too highly to those who prefer to hold me to the Mistletunes motto of rockin' Christmases for all. Nevertheless, I suspect I'm going to be listening to this a lot on the holidays. Order from Amazon (CD & LP) by clicking the cover, or go to Yep Roc's site for package deals that include swag like snow globes, greeting cards, wrapping paper and such.The Kevin and Bean compilations were a Christmas fanatic's tradition through the 1990s to the mid-2000s, particularly those who like their holidays to include rock 'n roll. I've posted several of them to this site over the years, limited by the fact that the nerve center and home office of this Internet holiday way station is far to the east of the these United States, while the radio station from which these compilations emanate is hard by the West Coast of this selfsame country, making purchase of hardcopy albums difficult and/or expensive. As I'm still getting content moved over from the old static version of the site to the current content-managed site, I stumbled over the fact that I still had a Kevin & Bean comp hiding on my desk that had never been posted before, so here it is. This one, from 1997, is billed as a "greatest hits" version, compiling the best of the series from the early to mid-1990s, all of which had previously been released on cassette. This collection added a few new items to the playlist in honor of the series' switchover to CD. Just as all the others did, this mixes music from rock bands and spoken word items from comedians and celebrities. A couple of rarities that don't show up much nowadays from this album include Squirrel Nut Zippers' "Santa Claus Is Smoking Reefer" and Snoop Dogg's two songs "Christmastime in the LBC" and, with Nate Dogg, "Twas the Night." Smashing Pumpkins' "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and Stone Temple Pilots' "Christmastime Is Here" were done live, Third Eye Blind's "One of Those Christmas Days" sounds like it was done live in the studio, and John Wesley Harding banters with Kevin & Bean on "Feel the Warmth." Poe, she of "Angry Johnny" fame, pulls off a seriously intentioned version of "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" that almost breathes life back into that overplayed novelty. Smash Mouth does an Elvis impression on their "Blue Christmas," Soul Coughing plays "Suzy Snowflake," ska stars Reel Big Fish take on "Mele Kalikimaka," Mighty Mighty Bosstones offer "Christmastime," and Presidents of the United States contribute "Christmas Piglet." Songs that have turned up elsewhere more frequently are Sugar Ray's "Little St. Nick," Everclear's "Santa Baby," Tori Amos' "Little Drummer Boy" and Beck's "Little Drum Machine Boy." A group called Mmm offers their version of "Me and Mrs. Claus," a parody of the Billy Paul hit, though not the same parody done by Bob Rivers. Spoken word contributions come from Johnny Cash, Jon Stewart, Bobcat Goldthwait, Cindy Crawford, Henry Winkler, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, Gene Simmons and Jenny McCarthy. As you might guess from the title, R-rated language crops up occasionally. I've linked the cover art to an Amazon page that will connect you to 3rd-party sellers who have new and used versions of this disc.This Manchester label has been like clockwork in putting out a new collection every year for eight years. This 2012 version kicks off with Otalgia's "Dear Santa," in which a brief snippet of "Silent Night" gives way to a punkish letter to the jolly elf with a pessimistic outlook. Chandler D Obelisk performs "Away in a Pret a Manger," what appears to be a satiric poke at a narrator who thinks he's being imposed upon to help a needy person at Christmas time. Laura Skilbeck channels "Friends" character Phoebe with her song "Films About Christmas," Steveless offers "Madvent," a profane parody of "Good King Wenceslaus," and the Paraffins Featuring Chloe Philip give us "Christmas in Glasgow," a synth-pop complaint about a holiday "fiasco, with chicken from Tesco." The Drain on the Balcony's "A Christmas Trilogy" is a medley of three songs, including another parody of "Wenceslaus," Float Riverer do an acoustic, non-Dickens oriented "A Christmas Carol," and Partly Llama also stay acoustic for their "Running Back For Christmas." The Pocket Gods, veterans of numerous Cherryade comps, offer two tunes, a punked-out "Silent Night" and their own "Jesus the Time Traveler," a dirgy, fuzzed-out plea for salvation. The Low Countries offer "Carry On Christmas," in which St. James is looking down on the proceedings from heaven eating crackers while the vicar prepares a holiday dinner, or I think that's what they're on about, anyway. Collider Featuring Jason Dixon presents "Little Drummer Boy" as a drone, throwing in "Peace on Earth" as well, and Lance Romance sings about "The Boy Who Saved Christmas." Cherryade is only making this available from their website, and they've only pressed 100 copies, so it's entirely possible this is sold out already.
Well, not exactly a gift, since you have to buy it in hardcopy or download versions from the label, which is based in Spain. UPDATE: Click the album cover to get it from Amazon. This 2012 collection kicks off nicely with Attic Lights' tune "Why Should Christmas Be So Hard," a sentiment increasing numbers of people have been subscribing to lately. It's got a nice production straddling Brian Wilson and Phil Spector, a good opener considering the album title. Guille Milkyway and the Jelly Jamm Sound Orchestra go uptempo with the sprightly "Holding Hands Around the World," The Yearning offer a sweet orchestral ballad, "I Just Wanna Hold Your Hand (On Christmas Day)," The Magic Theatre perform a tribute to "Christmas Lights," The School goes retro with the heavily 60s-sounding "Let Me Be the Fairy On Your Christmas Tree," and they return with another girl-groupy song, "You're Coming Home Tonight." Bells lead the "X-mas Song," an original by Edine Avec Lisle Mitnik Et Son Orchestre, and yes, that's spelled correctly. BMX Bandits sing "Let's Make Christmas Love," which instrumentally recalls Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys but with baritone vocals. The Primitives, which may be that same 80s band I'm thinking of, complain "You Trashed My Christmas," and YouDoMeToo go synth-poppy on "Bells To Ring and Jingle." And since this collection originated via a Spanish label, we have a number of tunes in that language, like "La Luz Del Mundo" by Single, "El Viaje Majico De Santa Claus" by Modular, "Los anillos De Alcyone" by La Casa Azul, "Te Espero En Navidad" by Axolotes Mexicanos, "Donde Todo Sigue Igual" by Band Å Part and, just to throw a spanner in the works, Fitness Forever go Swedish with "Su Sventom Kaledom," although it's an instrumental. It's a great collection, whether hardcopy or download. There may be some vinyl left at the website, but it's supposedly a limited edition. Check out The Yearning's song:
Yes, that's Coach, as in the fashion house. They've made this song and video the linchpin of a 2012 holiday advertising push. But longtime readers of the site know that we don't hold monetization of one's musical assets against an act, or even blanch at straight-up advertising jingles if they're original and half-decent. This is a great piece of modern-day pop that steals as many musical readymades as it can on the way to polishing up a traditional classic. Check the band out here. Thanks to Howard Cogswell for pointing this out to us, the video anyway; there's no separate audio available as far as I can see. UPDATE: Doh! If you click More Info on the video, it says to download the song from Coach.com. Unfortunately, it isn't that simple. Here's the correct link.
Striving Artists is, obviously, a theater company based in Massachusetts that puts on live plays for the public. They have a tradition of doing holiday musical revues, and for 2012 they decided to take the next step and record their holiday work for wider dissemination. They must have been working on this for a long time, as there are 51 separate tunes on this album -- Sufjan Stevens, call your service. Producer Greg Luzitano especially has been a busy guy, as he's also the main artist or co-performer on 13 of these tunes -- enough for his own album, in addition to producing the whole collection. The artistic choices are fairly eclectic, but almost all in the pop-rock realm. The producer calls this "an indie album" with "a lot of energy," but don't confuse it with indie rock; these are theater performers, so there's a lot of live theater technique in regard to the singing, as well as a lot of the kind of piano you hear when people are auditioning for a musical. That said, there's still a fair number of interesting moments in this collection, starting with the choice of the a capella "Our Prayer" from the Beach Boys' Smile as the opening cut and the first attempt I've heard to cover Paul Simon's recent "Getting Ready For Christmas Day," which filters out the sampled preacher of the original in favor of a verse of "Silent Night." My other favorites from the collection include Carol Grossi Smolinsky doing "Do You Hear What I Hear" to the Bo Diddley beat, Johnbarry Green's reimagining of "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch" via ZZ Top, Luzitano's cover of Barenaked Ladies' "Elf's Lament" and his sprightly version of "O Come All Ye Faithful," Greg and Stacy Geer's choice to rock up "Baby It's Cold Outside," Ron & Amy Cook's extension of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" as done by Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan into a medley of "We 3 Kings" and "Go Tell It On the Mountain," Shannon Baker's choice of Paul McCartney's "Footprints," Jeff Desautels' ukelele rendition of "The First Noel," a nod to the Iz Kamakwiwo'ole version of "Over the Rainbow," Savanah and Abigail Shaughnessy's syncopated "Jingle Bells," and Madeleine Carbonneau's tropical-sounding "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear." The length of this collection is probably the worst thing about it, but there's lots of listenable music on here. It's for sale as a double CD or download, and there are previews posted on their website.These guys are so DIY they shot the video on an iPhone 4. This 2012 rendition of this antique carol is fun if only because it starts out sounding like they're going to play Tom Petty's "Breakdown," and having the piano in the foreground kinda suggests Ben Folds in a cover band. Nice job. You can download the audio track from the band's site, and of course the video's on YouTube.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the last thing I expected this year was that Sufjan, who already has a five-CD box set of Christmas music in the racks, would release a second, entirely different five-CD box set of Christmas music for 2012. And yet, here it sits on my desk twixt keyboard and monitor. I've only had the time to listen to the entire thing once, and then only while doing something else, so I couldn't make any specific notes about individual tracks. But my initial impression of the collection is almost identical to what was written here, minus the specific descriptions of songs from the first collection. This time around, we get 58 songs, which, added to the 42 on the previous album, gives Sufjan a nice round 100 Christmas recordings, although there are several songs that appear more than once in different versions. This time around we also get pages of Christmas stickers, a monochrome poster, origami tree ornaments and a booklet featuring lyrics and chords to all the songs plus two extensive essays by Sufjan, one in which he exhaustively chronicles and critiques the tradition of the Christmas tree, and the other in which he decries the commerciality of Christmas and the paradox of copyright applying to traditional holiday celebrations, concluding with a promise that all the songs he wrote for this new collection will be released to the public domain. Ironically, I feel a bit conspicuous going on at length about this sprawling musical and artistic project; at a certain level I feel like this album is almost better appreciated not as a playlist on your iPod but as an exhibition at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. The various performances range from community chorus-level performances to songs more typical of Sufjan's previous recordings, so I'm clearly not going to give you a complete rundown. I liked "Lumberjack Christmas," "Carol of St Benjamin The Bearded One," "Barcarola (You Must Be a Christmas Tree)," the faintly psychedelic "Christmas Woman," the garage-y sounding "Mr. Frosty Man," the silly "Ding-A-Ling-A-Ring-A-Ling," "Christmas in the Room," which sounds like it's being sung to someone on their death bed, "X-Mas Spirit Catcher," depicting the very start of the Nativity story, "We Need a Little Christmas," which could be an outtake from "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol," and the beatbox-y "Happy Karma Christmas." "Christmas Unicorn" is kind of cool but could be cooler if it weren't 12 minutes long -- the lengthy quote from "Love Will Tear Us Apart" probably could be scoped down for starters, although it's an inspired touch. And I like that Sufjan covered Prince's "Alphabet St." for no reason I can see that relates to the rest of the album. Christmas completists and Sufjan fans probably already have this, and I've linked to Amazon via the cover art as usual, but for the rest of you I'm going to link to a streaming site and to a Noisetrade page that gives you a free 12-tune sampler so you can draw your own conclusions. (Go to the Noisetrade link just to see the "infomercial" Stevens has made for this collection.)
Coming off 2011's fab holiday album Winterland, the band had intended to buff it to a nice sheen with some additional cuts for the 2012 Christmas season, but they ended up with enough material for an entirely separate album, which is what this is. Like last year's disc, this shows off the band's evolution from strictly garage to a more late 60s pop rock sound, and while there's plenty of Christmas here, the band is also going for more of a "winter" vibe here, which was also the theme of Winterland. Songs like the ballads "Myth of the Season" and "Hag of the Barren Trees" address some of the pagan heritage of winter celebrations, while the rockers "The More You Change," "Open Up the Box Pandora," and the David Bowie cover "Sell Me a Coat" are not so much about the holiday as they are set in the colder season. Same goes for the instrumental "Couples Skate." "Rise of the Snowflake Children" is a nice psychedelic garage chant, "Christmas Ain't For Christians (Anymore)" is a set of deathbed reflections from a prison and a hospital with exquisite guitar and flute backing, the title song is a cool putdown of a charlatan, and the album closes with "Pretend It's Christmas," an acoustic ballad asking the listener to look on the bright side. Not sure I can pick between last year's and this year's albums, both are equally good to my ears. Here, have a taste of "Open Up the Box Pandora."If you're not familiar with Fred, he's an Internet phenom, making YouTube videos of his 6-year-old self singing and rapping in Chipmunks-style vocals about his dysfunctional home life. It went viral to the point where he's made three TV movies for Nickelodeon. Fred's a fictional character by the way, portrayed by Lucas Cruikshank. Although this 2009 joint is aimed at kids, I prefer to think of this more as a novelty act for the folks who come to this website, particularly the song "Christmas Is Creepy," where he goes all Notorious A.L.V.I.N. on the holiday. "Christmas Cash" is not bad in the same vein, and the EP is filled out with "Fred's One Squirrel Open Sleigh (Jingle Bells)" and "Fred's 12 Days of Christmas," which are the familiar carols from the Fred character's point of view. As with all novelties, shelf life could be a problem, especially if you have kids who are into this, but one song on a mix disc couldn't be too big a problem, right?
Yep, it's been a quarter of a century since this series of rock and pop Christmas compilations supporting Special Olympics kicked off. As you'll read elsewhere on the site, there are two discs for 2012, and this is the one that cuts across the swath of popular music, which means rock, straight pop and country. Train kicks things off with a nicely rocked-up "Joy to the World," Cheap Trick puts some tinsel on their biggest non-holiday hit with "I Want You For Christmas," Dave Matthews Band revisits "Christmas Song" from VSP 3, done by Dave and Tim Reynolds back then, and Jason Mraz offers a sprightly acoustic "Winter Wonderland." That's pretty much it from the rock angle, although Martina McBride does a fairly credible "Please Come Home For Christmas" that has more Memphis than Nashville in it. Of the pop stuff, Francesca Battistelli offers a sweet midtempo "December 25," Jordin Sparks tackles "Do You Hear What I Hear," Christina Aguilera does that Christina diva thing on "O Holy Night," OneRepublic's single from last year "Christmas Without You" contributes to the cause, Grayson Sanders has a good original, "Something In the Air," Wonder Girls do "Best Christmas Ever" and Jewel and Michael Buble do their usual thing on "Angels We Have Heard on High" and "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas," respectively. The rest is from country artists, Rascal Flatts with "Mary Did You Know," Vince Gill with "Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song)" and Amy Grant with her "Tennessee Christmas." Downloaders should note only five songs are available separately; fortunately Cheap Trick's song is one of them, along with Train, Sanders, Sparks and Wonder Girls.
As you probably guessed from reading the title, this is a label compilation of power pop Christmas tunes from 2010. It's a good collection and it's also a charity fundraiser for the Susan Giblin Foundation, a central Pennsylvania group that promotes medical care and protection of animals. Power pop obsessives should be warned that some of these songs have appeared elsewhere, like John Wicks' "Star of Bethlehem," "Chris Hillman Christmas" by the Britannicas, "Santa's Calling" by the Sun Kings and "Channukah Guy" by the Goldbergs. But if you don't have those songs, they're all worth having. "Chris Hillman" has that 60s country-rock feel as it takes pokes at Wilco and the Eagles, while the Goldbergs and Sun Kings, sharing members between the two groups, offer their Beatles-inflected songs, and Wicks, the former member of the Records, performs a stately ballad for the holiday. Maple Mars starts things out nicely with "Christmas Time In the City" and the Smith Brothers back them up with "Every Day Is Like Christmas," both mid-tempo classic pop-rock. Parallax Project hopes to catch a girl on the rebound in "All I Want For Christmas (Is a Chance)." Keith LuBrant takes the tempo upward on "The Christmas Spirit," as does Strand on "The Christmas Gifts," the latter borrowing chords from the Romantics' "What I Like About You." Frank Royster's "Christmas Is Fun" and William Duke's "Say Hello To Christmas" round out this collection, and like I said it's a great collection of power pop. Get it from Amazon or the label's website. Those who go to the website might still be able to get a free additional disc thrown in, A Christmas Gift, which is more of the same power pop/rock Christmas goodies, including both sides of the Click Beetles' single, plus songs from the Kavanaughs, Celadore, Penguin Party and, my favorite band name here, Brilliant Fanzine. It's a custom-burned disc, so it's probably not available elsewhere.
Gareth's Indie Grotto has a Christmas-themed indie-rock-pop podcast the readership might want to listen to. It originates over in Old Blighty, so if you're listening after 6 in the evening, don't turn it up too loud, it's 11 p.m. over there. (Kidding.) If you listen real close-like around the 26-minute mark or so, you'll hear the voice of Rudolph answering a few questions about this very website. Check it out.
You know how "Wicked" is "The Wizard of Oz" told from the point of view of the WIcked Witch? This 2011 collection is sort of the unrepentant Scrooge's view of Christmas, if Scrooge was a gay 21st century singer-songwriter with a sense of humor. Really, this is as anti-Christmas as it gets, and is pretty entertaining for all that. The undeleted expletives start with "Christmas Waltz," where Erin plays it straight while the background chorus mocks her and swears in answer verses. Erin then goes into the many reasons why "Santa Is an Asshole," from being a pervert with kids in his lap to being an anti-Semite because he's only for Christian children. Those two songs also get "Kleen mixes," though it seems unnecessary to bother. "Go Tell It" reimagines the old hymn by superimposing pop culture personalities on the chorus in place of the usual Jesus. "Fa La La" provides a litany of tragedies, real and imagined, in place of the usual "Deck the Halls" lyrics, over guitar and ukelele. "Visions I've Had" is a humorous take on druggy experiences set to "Angels We Have Heard On High." Obnoxious family reactions to one's gay partner are the subject of "It's a Very Queer Christmas" and "Frozen Smiles." "Christmas Love It or Leave It" is a poke in the eye to cultural conservatives who equate patriotism and Christianity, and "You Wish Us a Happy Holiday" is a witty reposte to the people who complain about having to say Happy Holidays. I'm guessing Erin is deadly serious about the sentiments on display here, but there's enough humor that broad-minded folks will find it listenable, not to mention worthy of a space on your holiday playlists. Stop by her site to learn more about her Dec. 18 webcast based on this album.
This duo has been doing a free Christmas song every year for more than a decade, and for 2011 this stutter-stop rocker led by piano and reverb guitar is an impressionistic take on the holiday that worms its way into the old brainpan. It's free from their site, along with every other Christmas song they've ever recorded.
This album was possibly the most eagerly awaited of rock Christmas albums in 2011, based on my unscientific observation of prerelease buzz, and it was worth the wait. (You have to wait until next week to get it from conventional stores, but the band is already shipping it from their website as a download, CD or vinyl.) For those not familiar, the band, named for John Lennon's character in his only non-Beatles movie appearance, is equally planted in the nouveau-garage scene and as an old-school British Invasion ensemble -- much like their New Jersey neighbors the Smithereens, two of whom guest on the Grip Weeds' cover of "2000 Miles." The band's own "Christmas Dream," which opens the album, also has a bit of the 'Reens sound as well. An unexpected guest on lead vocals is Mark Lindsay, who sings the band's original "Santa Make Me Good," a cool bluesy romp with a catchy harmonica break. "For the Holidays" is a nice minor key original, keying off the intro from XTC's "Dear God" and building into a baroque arrangement with harpsichord, flute and strings. Their previously released original "Christmas, Bring Us" is also here, a fine tune as we've previously mentioned. They get a little psychedelic on "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and turn "Welcome Christmas" into an outtake from "Tommy." The 70s get more love from their cover of Jethro Tull's "A Christmas Song," a fairly faithful take on ELP's "I Believe in Father Christmas," and I don't think I've previously come across a rock band cover of "Merry Christmas All," a song from the famous (and compulsively repackaged every few years) Salsoul Orchestra disco Christmas album of the 1970s. The Grip Weeds pulled out all the stops to make this a distinctive, original, rock 'n roll take on Christmas, and a just world would reward them richly for having done so.
Caity Karczewski complimented us for providing Robin Farren with a forum, and now she'd like a little help with two songs she keeps hearing from the speakers overhead. I thought the second sounded like Colbie Caillat but I played that one and it wasn't even close. And no, I wasn't familiar with "Wizard Rock" either, but it sounds like a cousin to "filking," in which folk singers do sci-fi song parodies. Add your guesses to comments or you can e-mail the site.
1. The first sounds like an early 2000s low-fi band, a few young male vocalists singing "Christmas is my favorite holiday" in a sort of off-key, upbeat pop/rock sound. (I don't know if you are familiar with 'Wizard Rock' [bands whose music is based off of the Harry Potter series] but they sound like the wizard rock band Gred & Forge.) Their chorus is simply a repeated "Christmas is my favorite holiday."
2. The second song is a sugary female vocal, and she sings, "Meet me tonight by the mistletoe" then she says something like "move in fast and kiss me slow," and then: "I'll make this clear right from the start, all I want for Christmas is your heart." It is really catchy and I'd love to get a hold of it. I would be ever so grateful if you knew who these artists were. UPDATE: Credit Howard Cogswell with the answer to this one. It's by Cheryl Aranda, and you can buy it on Bandcamp for $1. You can stream it first, of course.
I've often been amazed at the things that gather the most interest at this site -- and how some things posted long ago suddenly attract interest from someone. Several years ago Linley Logan wrote to the site asking for some information about an old jazz and blues Christmas compilation on Stash Records, a label that started sometime in the 70s and specialized in antique blues and jazz. The company ceased to exist before the CD era, but hobbyists interested in that kind of music still consider the label's reissues as touchstones.
As you no doubt expect, I don't know much about that era of music, but I posted the question and gathered some information that I posted as an answer to the letter. Today, all these years later, Vinessa writes in with the full roster off the vinyl album. As Bob Bailey originally noted, the cassette version had a version of "Silent Night" as a bonus track, but no info has popped up about that song.
SIDE A
- Merry Christmas: Lightning Hopkins (voc. el g); Donald Cooks (b); Connie Kroll (d). 29 July 1953
- Santa Claus Blues: Clarence Williams' Blue Five; Louis Armstrong (c); Charlie Irvis (tb); Don Redman (cl); Sidney Bechet or Buster Bailey (sop); Clarence Williams (p); Buddy Christian (bj); Eva Taylor (voc). 8 October 1928
- Santa Claus, Bring My Man Back: Ozie Ware with Duke Ellington's Hot Five: unknown (t); Barney Bigard (cl); Ellington (p); Billy Taylor (b); Ozie Ware (voc). 30 October 1928
- Santa Claus Came In The Spring: Putney Dandridge and His Swing Band: Red Allen (t); Ben Webster or Teddy McRae (ts); Teddy Wilson (p); Lawrence Lucie (g); John Kirby (b); Walter Johnson (d); Putney Dandridge (voc). 2 August 1935
- Santa Claus is Coming to Town: Harry Reser and His Orchestra: unknown personnel, except for Tom Stacks (d, voc). 24 October 1934
- Christmas Night in Harlem: Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra: Don Goldie, Charlie Teagarden (t); Jack Teagarden, Jack Fulton (tb); Benny Nonacio, John Cordaro, Chales Strickfadden, Frank Trumbauer (reeds); Roy Bargy (p); Mike Pignatore (bj, g); Art Miller (b); Herb Quigley (d). 17 April 1934
- Winter Wonderland: Ted Weems and His Orchestra: Art Weems, Andy Secrest (t); ete Beilamn (tb); Dick Cunlifee, Rosy McHargue, Parker Gibbs, Red Ingle (reeds); Jack O'Brien (p); Cliff Covert (g, vn); Country Washburn (b); Ormand Downes (d); Gibbs (voc). 11 November 1934
- Jingle Bells: Benny Goodman and His Orchestra/The Rhythmakers: Pee Wee Erwin, Nate Kasebier, Jerry Neary (t); Red Ballard, Jack Lacey (tb); Toots Mondello, Hymie Schertzer, Art Rollini, Dick Clark, Benny Goodman (reeds); Frank Foeba (p); Allan Reuss (g); Harry Goodman (b); Gene Krupa (d). 6 June 1935
SIDE B
- Swingin' Them Jingle Bells: Fats Waller and His Rhythm: Herman Autrey (t); Gene Sedric (ts); Fats Waller (p, voc); Al Casey (g); Charles Turner (b); Slick Jones (d). 29 November 1936
- Merry Christmas Baby: Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra: Walter Williams, Bennie Bailey, Duke Garrette, Ed Mullins, Leo Sheppard (t); Al Grey, Bennie Powell, Jimmy Cleveland, Lee Higaki (tb); Bobby Plater (as, arr); Jerome Richardson (as); John Board, Custis Lowe, Lonnie Shaw (ts); Ben Kyard (bar s); Milt Buckner (p); William Mackel (g); Roy Johnson (b); Ellis Bartee (d); Sonny Parker (voc). 27 October 1950
- Santa Claus Got Stuck in My Chimney: Ella Fitzgerald: instrumental and vocal group backing including Charlie Shavers (t); Hank Jones (p); John Collins (g); Roy Brown (b); Charlie Smith (d). 26 October 1950
- Cool Yule: Louis Armstrong and the Commanders: Louis Armstrong (t, voc); Billy Butterfield, Andy Ferretti, Carl Poole (t); Lou McGarrity, Cutty Cutshaw, Phil Giardina, Jack Satterfield (tb); Hymie Schertzer, Al Klink (reeds); Bernie Leighton (p); Carmen Mastren (g); Sandy Block (b); Ed Grady (d); Camarata (arr, dir). 22 October 1953
- 'Zat You, Santa Claus: same as above
- Christmas in New Orleans: Louis Armstrong with Benny Carter's Orchestra: Louis (t, voc); Manny Klein, Pete Candoli, Vito Mangano (t); Trummy Young, Si Zentner (tb); Skeets Herfurt, Harry Klee (as): Babe Russin, Don Ruffel (ts); Billy Kyle (p); Arvell Shaw (b): Barrett Deams (d); Benny Carter (arr, dir). 8 September 1955
- The Night Before Christmas (A Poem): Louis Armstrong, a capella, 1971.
