Just to prove what an old man I am, I used to prowl the import sections of my favorite record stores for releases on the then-only-British Island label, from Sparks and Robert Palmer to Brian Eno and Bob Marley. This is about as far from those days as you can get. Yeah, we insufferable music snobs are supposed to get our noses out of joint over teen idols like The Beeb, but hey, if we're all about the music, shouldn't our opinion stand or fall on that? So here it is: this is your basic modern R'nB workout, which is the basis for many of today's top pop chart songs. I can't claim to be an expert on whether Justin really has the pipes or whether he's been autotuned and ProTooled to a fare-thee-well -- the real tell for me is the fact that you seldom hear him singing by himself, other than on "Silent Night." If your thing is chart music circa 2011, this stands up -- in part because a big contingent of chart stars make guest appearances here. Usher duets on "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)," Busta Rhymes raps "Drummer Boy," Boyz II Men sing "Fa La La," The Band Perry adds the country touch on "Home This Christmas," and, the big get, Mariah Carey shows up for a rendition of her mega-holiday-smash "All I Want For Christmas Is You." The lead single, "Mistletoe," is a nice piece of work, although our pal Stubby notes it sounds kinda like a Jason Mraz song was plagiarized for the cause, and I tend to agree. The disc comes in standard and enhanced versions with four extra songs and video content, although only the standard edition is downloadable. Can't leave without mentioning that Justin plans to donate proceeds from this album to a number of popular charities, listed at his website. Not exactly what this site's readers are looking for, but I'm sure some of them have teenaged sisters and daughters.
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Just to prove what an old man I am, I used to prowl the import sections of my favorite record stores for releases on the then-only-British Island label, from Sparks and Robert Palmer to Brian Eno and Bob Marley. This is about as far from those days as you can get. Yeah, we insufferable music snobs are supposed to get our noses out of joint over teen idols like The Beeb, but hey, if we're all about the music, shouldn't our opinion stand or fall on that? So here it is: this is your basic modern R'nB workout, which is the basis for many of today's top pop chart songs. I can't claim to be an expert on whether Justin really has the pipes or whether he's been autotuned and ProTooled to a fare-thee-well -- the real tell for me is the fact that you seldom hear him singing by himself, other than on "Silent Night." If your thing is chart music circa 2011, this stands up -- in part because a big contingent of chart stars make guest appearances here. Usher duets on "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)," Busta Rhymes raps "Drummer Boy," Boyz II Men sing "Fa La La," The Band Perry adds the country touch on "Home This Christmas," and, the big get, Mariah Carey shows up for a rendition of her mega-holiday-smash "All I Want For Christmas Is You." The lead single, "Mistletoe," is a nice piece of work, although our pal Stubby notes it sounds kinda like a Jason Mraz song was plagiarized for the cause, and I tend to agree. The disc comes in standard and enhanced versions with four extra songs and video content, although only the standard edition is downloadable. Can't leave without mentioning that Justin plans to donate proceeds from this album to a number of popular charities, listed at his website. Not exactly what this site's readers are looking for, but I'm sure some of them have teenaged sisters and daughters.
The European indie label is back with another compilation of its own artists taking on the holiday. It's a little thinner than the two previous collections, just 11 songs, but if you've heard the previous ones you know what to expect -- lo-fi indie pop-rock. Adam and Darcie kick things off with a cover of Joni Mitchell's "River," Alli Millstein offers "White White Christmas," a ballad with just a taste of old doo-wop touches, Kate and After's "Snow Angel" reappears here, Boca Chica goes country with "Not On Christmas Eve," the Gorgeous Colors rush the kids to bed with "Hurry Up Children, Santa's Coming," Natalie Prass gets jazzy with "No Better Time," Sixties pop comes to the fore with "Snow Blitz" by Paisley and Charlie, and the Very Most return with "Christmas In July Comes Earlier Each Year," a keyboard-and-melodic-percussion instrumental that ramps up into a righteous noise with faint vocals toward the end. An interesting collection you should look into. Only available for purchase from the website for now, but the 2008 and 2009 collections are at Amazon.
We've briefly mentioned this Beatles tribute band in the past, as their "Joy To the World" based on "Please Please Me" has turned up in movies and on TV. (And we also noted the Fab Four had done nearly the same exact thing.) What amazes me is that it's taken me this long to get their full album from 2005 to the site. Apparently, the group had needed several years to put together an LP's worth of tunes together, as the members live in far-flung locales. As per the liner notes, they recorded batches of this in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2005. Aside from the one coincidence noted above, The Butties have nothing to worry about concerning their originality, even given the existence of previous works in this vein like the Fab Four and the Rubber Band's now-hard-to-find Xmas! The Beatmas! "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" meets "Twist and Shout," "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" is rendered as "Can't Buy Me Love," they do "O Little Town of Bethlehem" once as "In My Life" and again as a medley with three other carols all set as the various movements of "Happiness Is a Warm Gun." Another highlight is the "Sgt. Pepper" reprise and "A Day in the Life" done as a medley of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" and "Up on the Housetop." Once more, I have to restrain myself from spoiling all the surprises. You can get this as hardcopy from CDBaby or from iTunes by clicking on the album cover. By the way, you might not be surprised to find that two of the Butties are with the Blanks, the band that appeared on "Scrubs" singing commercial jingles a capella.
Because the band's name is also a succinct description of who they are, it appears this 2010 EP's name has no alternate meanings pertinent to the U.S. political scene. Pity. Most of these seven songs are pretty short, almost musical Christmas haikus. The meditation on burning a plastic tree and its effect on climate change in "Plastic Trees" is a bit ambiguous. "Blinded" is about that old neighborhood standard, the excessive display of outdoor holiday lights and the accompanying noisy soundtrack -- ironic, as this entire EP is fairly mellow chamber-pop, at least until the oscillator solo kicks in on this particular track. "Don't" offers a brief list of things to avoid on the holiday, "Sinking More" should actually have been "Drinking More," as that as much the refrain of this bouncy little number as anything else. "Traces" worries that "if you eat too much you might explode," and "Girl With the X-Ray Eyes" is a foreboding conclusion to this collection. Download this free from the group's website starting Dec 1.
Here's another free album of mashups for 2010. FSO is an Australian outfit, if I'm reading the tip e-mail correctly, and this collection of sample-mongering knits together a wide selection of rock and non-rock, Christmas and non-Christmas material into nine fairly listenable songs that obsessives can pick apart to identify their constituent parts, or can just play in the background at a Christmas party. In fact, the almost mellow results FSO gets here stand in contrast to the more in-your-face mashups constructed by the DJs and musicians on the Santastic collections. As a result, you may have trouble identifying particular numbers from this for your mix discs. Nevertheless, this is a good example of the current state of the mashup art. I especially like how old middle-of-the-road music gets spruced up when it's laid over 70s era R'nB beats on many of the songs here. Download it from the website.
Three British songwriters collaborated to write and produce this perfectly enjoyable 70s-sounding holiday song for 2009. The Stars are Mike Read, Elliot Frisby and Roy Wood -- yes, the author of "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day," going for the Christmas market one more time, this time in service to the Shooting Star Children's Hospice, for which this single was released as a fund-raiser. I couldn't get my hands on it last year, but it appears to have migrated to the usual download sites this year. While Roy isn't singing lead on this, you can hear a little of his musical approach in the arrangement. Elliot Frisby solos on the B-side's acoustic ballad "Christmas Day."
Fans of the Double Crown label are already up to speed with the first two volumes, so here's another one for 2010. As in the past, the artists featured are from the label, mostly in the early 60's guitar combo sound that stretches from Duane Eddy to the surf music scene. Much of this is instrumentals, kicking off with The Razorblades' "Morgen Kinder Wirds Was Geben," as you might expect from a German band. The Excelsiors take a lot of delightful liberties with "Good King Wenceslas" and The Frankie Handwax Experience superimposes "We Three Kings" over Jimi Hendrix's "Manic Depression." Previously released items from the label show up here, like "Greensleeves" from King of Hawaii's Chrismas disc and The Barbary Coasters' "Secret Santa." Burt Rocket gets a little Joe Meek/Telestar on us with "Santa's Hot Rod," The Balboas throw in a vocal with "This Is Santa Claus," and also resorting to the microphone are The Polkaholics with "Sausage and Sauerkraut For Santa," a rock/polka hybrid. Tiki Joe's Ocean goes exotica on us with their version of "Jingle Bells," and OJ Watson and the Ludlow Ramblers do "We'll Be Home With Bells On," which is straight old-school country, and Peter Curry and Dick Chiclet wrap things up with a twangy "Old Anxiety," better known as "Auld Lang Syne." This is right in line with the previous two collections, and if you grab it from the mothership (assuming your local record store doesn't have the hard copy, that's the only place online that has it) there's an additional song downloadable from the site, "Silent Night Twist" by The Beechwoods, which is just a little sedate for twisting but more uptempo than the song is usually performed. The Balboas did a video, like to see it? Here we go:
I went looking for this thinking it was going to be some kind of Star Trek-related novelty (yes, I know the "true" fans like to be called "Trekkers"; in my world a Trekky is somebody who insists on being called a Trekker) but no, Trekky is a record label of indy folk-pop-rockers based in Chapel Hill, N.C., and this is a Christmas record made by what appears to have been the label's entire roster as of this album's 2006 release. It's 12 familiar songs and carols done in a sort of chamber-pop setting with a few inventive touches to the arrangements and a certain spontaneity of performance. It's not bad, but there's not much in the way of rock 'n roll attitude here, other than a nicely rocked-up version of Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You." If I had to do the Venn diagram, I'd put Bright Eyes to one side, Polyphonic Spree to the other, and overlay these guys a little toward the Bright Eyes side. A visit to the website shows that the Orchestra plays gigs in the label's hometown region at Christmas time, so this album does serve as a souvenir for the folks who encounter them live.
It's the old joke about what Jews do on Christmas day, which is clog the movie theaters and Oriental restaurants, according to urban legend. Brandon does a nice earnest-nerdy take on this piano-led novelty from 2008. (Brandon's bio on his website traces the song a bit farther back to 2006, when he made a video of it.) This gets a kind of backhanded Hannukah alert. Oh, and take a look for yourselves:
Sheryl's been to the holiday well before with a few tunes in the Very Special Christmas series, but this full album is all new, though she revisits "Blue Christmas" here in a bluesier version than the Very Special performance and does a studio version of "Merry Christmas Baby" as opposed to the live performance she shared with Eric Clapton. As this endeavor was commissioned by Hallmark for 2008, it stands to reason that this is going to be something that regular Hallmark store customers would be comfortable with, but Crow manages to avoid going too middle of the road here, falling back on blues and soul readymades in a lot of cases, even recasting "O Holy Night" as an R'nB showstopper. "Go Tell It On the Mountain" gets the requisite gospel treatment, though "I'll Be Home For Christmas" and "There Is a Star That Shines Tonight" are definitely for the Hallmark crowd. After you bring a copy of this home, you can download "Hello My Friend Hello," which may or may not be a Sheryl original but is another mellow Christmas ballad. I would have preferred a little more like her version of "Run Rudolph Run" from VSC, but I understand why that wasn't likely. UPDATE: This album is back in the racks for 2010 at Target with a different cover, and "Hello My Friend Hello" is promoted to the new disc's track listing.
This Bellingham, WA record label specializes in garage/surf bands, and this CD had been previously compiled in 2000. We missed it then, but we have it now, reissued for 2006 with three additional cuts over the original. As we've compiled a number of surf-oriented Christmas tunes over the life of this site, we're not particularly surprised that several items, like Jon & the Nightriders' "Sleigh Ride," Urban Surf Kings' "We Three Kings," Death Valley's "Carol of the Bells" and "Little Drummer Boy" by The Bonesharks, have been done in similar ways by other artists elsewhere. But with 19 tracks to choose from, that's not necessarily a disqualifying point. Some of the more fun tracks on this CD are the Tacoma 4's "Christmas is a Drag" and The Boss Martians' "It's Christmas Time," the latter previously on the Santa's Got a GTO compilation, both in the non-Beach Boys car/surf vein; "Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto" by Frigg A Go Go, a straight rock version of the James Brown arrangement; "Hang On Rudolph," a witty appropriation of the "Rudolph" and "Sloopy" songs by The Ebeneezer Scrooge Appreciation Society; The Firebirds' "Living Doll," a plea for Santa to bring a girlfriend; and "Rocknuts," The Lunatics' version of "Nutrocker" done entirely with surf guitars. Also notable is "Sigue Sigue X-mas," an upbeat surf "Jingle Bells" with spoken word samples ladled over it from old TV shows, and yes, of course from "It's a Wonderful Life." "Jingle Bells" returns in a spaghetti Western version from The Bitch Boys, and the whole thing wraps up with The Surfites' "Santa Claus Goes Surfin'," a straight-up surf instrumental worthy of Dick Dale or The Surfaris. Doesn't appear to be in print, although Amazon has it via 3rd parties and the label had cut-price copies as of this update.
This Philadelphia-area label puts up what appears to be a selection of regional artists for 2003. I'm guessing regional based on the triple appearance of Philly alt-popsters Grey Eye Glances, covering "Little Drummer Boy" in a multi-percussionist world music mode and providing two originals, "On Christmas Night" and "Our Own Place and Time," a nice pair of mid-tempo holiday tunes. Two tunes by the Swarthmore College Alumni Gospel Choir, a jazzed-up gospel "Go Tell It on the Mountain" and the original "Road to Calvary," also highlight the Brotherly Love connection. Huffamoose generates a conditional Hanukkah Alert from its rewritten "Winter Wonderland" called "Hanukkah and Christmas Hand in Hand." Motorbaby lulls us with "Silent Night" before rocking it out about halfway through. It's Only Roy appears twice with "Santa's Bag," in which the Beach Boys meet Phil Spector, and the DX7 piano ballad "Glad to Be Home for Christmas." Kyf Brewer's "Christmas in New York" rocks out some light social commentary, "Sing For Christmas" by Andy Pratt lightly evokes a bit of Roy Wood and Cliff Hillis gives us the mid-tempo "On a Day Like Christmas." Other original ballad takes on the holiday include "Pax" by Jake Holmes and "Bells" by Ben Arnold. And The Contes give us a faithful cover of the Kinks' "Father Christmas." I'm still trying to figure out what Jim Boggia's deal is in playing what sounds like the original "Chipmunk Song" on a phonograph, however, and there are a few other tunes that make this collection a little more eclectic than necessary. Still, a great compilation for folks who are interested in original Christmas tunes. UPDATE: Dean Sciarra of It's About Music tips me that Boggia actually painstakingly recorded all the parts on "Chipmunk Song" himself. Remains available from Amazon as disc or download, but if you go to the label website you can get the disc for a penny, plus postage & handling. Seriously.
Indie-rock-pop compilation from 2001, reputed by its website to be a limited edition. There are 22 cuts, not counting about 10 brief "Christmas messages" from some of the musicians. Quality ranges from professional to "Hey, my dad has a garage, let's start a band," so I'll just tip you to the better tunes. Paula Kelley, whose Nothing/Everything CD has been well reviewed, does a sweet "Blue Christmas" and Miss July has a cute original in "First Noel (Revised)." Orchid Pool puts a nice guitar figure and flutes behind "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear." Capsela has a quirky take on "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)," and The Otter Pops' "Brothers" is the textbook definition of quirky with its ukelele and kazoo backing. Jumprope's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is well played but mostly lounge-like with the electric piano dominating. The Wee Turtles are amateurish but endearing with "By Golly, They've Dehydrated Christmas!" And Pinkie brings "sha-la-la" backing vocals back with "Pretend Like It's Christmas Day." The rest you can rate for yourself, assuming you can find a copy of this. There were 300 copies and they sold out the year they were released; no 3rd party links through Amazon exist at this time.
"A collection of ethereal/gothic/industrial bands" is how the overline squib on this album describes its participants, as well as those who contributed to volume one in this series. The liner notes also tell us this 1999 effort exhibits "a lighter perspective" than the 1995 original. Ethereal is the best word for this CD; they go for the solemn, the spiritual and the antique, best examples being El Duende's "Gaudete, Gaudete," Siddal's "In the Bleak Midwinter" and The Machine in the Garden's "Coventry Carol." Rhea's Obsession does an Arab-folky "We Three Kings" and returns later in the album with the "Huron Indian Carol," which veers more toward the Deep Forest side of things. There is a modern sheen to these performances that comes mostly from being recorded mostly in 1999, except for Human Drama's "I Believe in Father Christmas," the ELP standard that appeared on Stuff This In Your Stocking nearly a decade earlier. I don't know what the Shaker song "Lord of the Dance" by Unto Ashes has to do with Christmas. The Cruxshadows do a Depeche Mode-sounding "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," and London After Midnight contribute an original "Christmas Song." Faith & Disease do "Silver and Gold" from the famous "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" special of 1964. Hanukkah alert goes to Sofia Run's version of "Nerotai Hazarurim (Little Candles)." There was a Vol. 3 in 2001, Excelsis 3: A Prelude, featuring nine songs by Lovespirals, Audra, Lowsunday, Frolic, Faith & Disease, Mirabilis, Unto Ashes, and two by Lynn Canfield. The same year, the first three were packaged in a box set. And in 2007, a single-disc compilation of all three, A Dark Noel, was released. All except the box set remain freshly available from Amazon, but the box is still for sale at a discount from Projekt's website. The company returned to the Christmas scene in 2012 with Ornaments, a double-disc set.
This is where marketing overtakes music making, as most of these tunes are previously released. Still, like Rhino's Bummed Out Christmas, you have to admit it's a great idea. It couldn't hurt that there's an actual band called Trailer Trash from Minneapolis-St. Paul with two cuts on this 1999 album, "Don't Believe in Xmas," the Sonics classic that borrows heavily from "Too Much Monkey Business," and "Daddy's Drinkin' Up Our Christmas," a suitably country lament. The New Duncan Imperials provide us with "Santa Claus Is a Lie," complete with a children's chorus, and The Blue Moon Boys do "Santabilly Boogie," which is, not surprisingly, rockabilly. "Christ, It's Christmas Again" comes courtesy of the Geisels, a drum-less rocker. From the previously released pile, there are a couple of cuts by Leroy and Big People from Yuletunes, Mack Rice's "Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin'," John Prine's "Christmas in Prison" and Mojo Nixon's "Trim Yo' Tree." UPDATE: An interesting pair of digressions popped up when I moved this over from the old site. This album, same cover, was also released as Redneck Christmas Party in 1999. Also, the band Trailer Trash had an album of their own in 2005, All Lit-Up For Christmas, although it appears, based on an Amazon listener review, that it's erroneously listed as a various artists compendium. It has a variation of the same cover as the other two, tinted a greenish yellow instead of blue. There's 11 songs, including the two from Trailer Trash Christmas. Trailer Trash apparently have a Twin Cities reputation for rowdy Christmas parties, and this latter album is a souvenir of that. Of the three albums mentioned, Lit-Up is the only one actually available new; the other two show up only via 3rd parties at Amazon.
This is the sequel to Ho Ho Hospice, the double-disc set of a few seasons back that compiled a couple holidays' worth of modern original rock and pop Christmas songs into a single convenient package. Like its predecessor, Holiday Heart benefits the St. Barnabas Hospice and Palliative Care Center in New Jersey, a nonprofit hospice, and this 2005 collection is also a 2-CD set. And like before, you'll probably find the 44 tunes here a melange of tunes you might have heard before with others being, at the very least, new to you. Some that are new to me, and pleasant surprises too, include "Why Christmas (The Longest Day of the Year)" by Paula Kelley, "Merry Christmas I Love You" by Mark Bacino, "12 Days" by the Bitter Hearts, "Christmas Lights" by the Montgomery Cliffs, "It Must Be Christmas" by the Renovators, "So Glad It's Christmas" by Dan Pavelich and the Brazilian vibe of Project: Pimento's "That's Christmas." Some tunes previously mentioned on this site include those by Catherine Harrington, Mary Karlzen, Ron Sexsmith and Huffamoose. I think I detect a mellower vibe on this collection, with a bit more country/folk and plain old pop and a little less rock. Still, this is a great bargain and you're sure to find some favorites on it. UPDATE: Like its predecessor, it's out of print, but the cover links you to 3rd-party sellers on Amazon who have it for ridiculously cheap prices at this writing.
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. Oops, that's Rosanne Cash's version on that disc; how I made that boo-boo I don't know, but thanks to seanmusic14 in comments for snapping us back to accuracy. 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":
Like the previous volume, this 2007 collection is being sold as a benefit for pediatric AIDS. This time around, there are a bumper crop of performers resulting in 26 cuts, good value for money. Dave Mellillo kicks things off with a rocked-out version of Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas," followed quickly by "January," a New Year's cruncher by Tyler Read. (Usually you save the New Year's cuts for the end.) Sugarcult gives the Ramones treatment to "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," It Dies Today gives the thrash treatment to "Feliz Navidad," and homage-style arrangements are featured on Action Action's "Father Christmas," "Wonderful Christmastime" by June, and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" by Hot Rod Circuit. Among the original tunes is Spitalfield's "It's Cold Out There" and "Not Giving In" by Rediscover, a couple of Beth Orton-ized acoustic ballads; "Stay" by Down To Earth Approach features the singer apologizing to a Christmas tree for cutting it down; "Gary the Green-Nosed Reindeer" by MC Lars is an acoustic hip-hop romp in which Gary, Rudolph's half-brother, makes his holiday bones when he saves Xmas from Osama bin Laden; and quite a bit more, actually. This was sold mainly as a download from the label only, but the label site is inactive; the album art is linked to 3rd party sellers. CDs remain available in which Vols. 1 and 2 are packaged together. Either way, a good deal for alternative rock holiday music.
I've been a little slow getting to this, and with good reason -- this is a free download album with 53 songs on it. Count 'em, 53. As a result, in my last few bouts of posting I kept telling myself, "Oh, I'll get to that when I have a little more time to deal." Well, you know how that goes. So I said it's time to get it posted. Suburban Sprawl is an alt-rock-indie label, and not a very big one, though one might assume the exact opposite with 53 artists involved. So I won't bother unpacking all of that and just get to the music, which in overall quality is pretty darn good across the entire collection. Things kick off with "Twas the Night Before Christmas" done to the tune of "Chopsticks" by The Barrettes and continue in fine style with such tunes as Love Axe's original "Baby, I Wish It Was Cold Outside," Panic & Sharon's electro-pop "Christmastime Is Here," ChrisMas' dance-floor-ready "S.A.N.T.A.," Daniel Zott's Claus lament "Look What You Did, You Little Jerk," Buffay's hip-hop takeoff "Merri Chrissmiss 2 My Dik," which requires a Parental Advisory (ya think?), Coach Mahler's "Hanukkah Blues," Bethlehem Girls Choir's unique medley of "All I Want For Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey and "Here Comes Your Man" by The Pixies, and so on through all 53 selections. Suburban Sprawl has done this for multiple years, and they're all at the free download site, so do a little discovering of your own.
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Just to prove what an old man I am, I used to prowl the import sections of my favorite record stores for releases on the then-only-British Island label, from Sparks and Robert Palmer to Brian Eno and Bob Marley. This is about as far from those days as you can get. Yeah, we insufferable music snobs are supposed to get our noses out of joint over teen idols like The Beeb, but hey, if we're all about the music, shouldn't our opinion stand or fall on that? So here it is: this is your basic modern R'nB workout, which is the basis for many of today's top pop chart songs. I can't claim to be an expert on whether Justin really has the pipes or whether he's been autotuned and ProTooled to a fare-thee-well -- the real tell for me is the fact that you seldom hear him singing by himself, other than on "Silent Night." If your thing is chart music circa 2011, this stands up -- in part because a big contingent of chart stars make guest appearances here. Usher duets on "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)," Busta Rhymes raps "Drummer Boy," Boyz II Men sing "Fa La La," The Band Perry adds the country touch on "Home This Christmas," and, the big get, Mariah Carey shows up for a rendition of her mega-holiday-smash "All I Want For Christmas Is You." The lead single, "Mistletoe," is a nice piece of work, although our pal Stubby notes it sounds kinda like a Jason Mraz song was plagiarized for the cause, and I tend to agree. The disc comes in standard and enhanced versions with four extra songs and video content, although only the standard edition is downloadable. Can't leave without mentioning that Justin plans to donate proceeds from this album to a number of popular charities, listed at his website. Not exactly what this site's readers are looking for, but I'm sure some of them have teenaged sisters and daughters.
It's that time when posting more and more holiday music has to bow to actually enjoying the holiday. Thanks for visiting this modest Internet way station, offering your tips and actually using the comments section. In the upcoming months I will be moving the rest of the content over from the old site to the new one, so that readers will get better use out of the search window on the main page. Plus, I've got a pile of mostly historic stuff on my desk that needs to join the site, so you'll be seeing that stuff on the main page as I process a few thoughts on each one and post it all. In the meantime, feel free to leave your tips and ask or post questions, keeping in mind that this is the ho-ho-home of a rock 'n roll Christmas.
Anyway, as I started out to say, Merry Christmas from Mistletunes.com. Tell your friends about us. And enjoy this old chestnut, which I often tell people was the start of the rock 'n roll Christmas genre. (This performance is not actually from 1947 as the singer says, just the song is. UPDATE: Ignore this parenthetical, YouTube took away this version so I found another.) Take it away, Charles Brown and your quartet:
I've noted in the past that Elvis Costello has mostly resisted Christmas songs except for his co-write with the Chieftains, "The St. Stephen's Day Murders." He's also on record as having performed "Baby It's Cold Outside" with Anne Sophie Von Otter, though that was a live performance and no recording is known to exist. Well, here's an Elvis Costello Christmas medley for you all, endorsed by the man himself as I found it on his website:
UPDATE: On Dec. 21, 2010, Costello performed solo in Chicago, playing "The St. Stephen's Day Murders" and also "Winter Song" by Alan Hull.
Those of you who don't mind dropping a sawbuck on Mojo magazine, the much-loved music monthly from England, might wanna grab the January 2011 issue, as the usual CD rubber-cemented to the front of the book is Mojo's Festive Fifteen, by which they mean Christmas songs. The rundown includes everything from the familiar (Chuck Berry's "Run Rudolph Run") to the obscure (Superchunk's cover of John Cale's "Child's Christmas In Wales," Sea of Bees' "Feliz Navidad" and Hannah Peel & Tunng's "Hey Santa," all specially recorded for this disc), with other contributions from Irma Thomas, Joe Tex, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Marc Almond, R.E.M., Sufjan Stevens and The Free Design. There's even a slightly deranged lounge version of Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody" by Tony Christie. The magazine's worth the money even without the disc most months, so three unique songs are probably worth the trouble.- WXPN-FM, home of the "World Cafe," put up four songs by local Philadelphia artists for download this week. They are "Reindeer Game" by Ben Arnold, "Song For Solstice" by Hoots and Hellmouth, "Silent Tonight" by Madi Diaz and "Wake Up December" by Talain Rayne. While we're considering downloads, Paste Magazine rounded up 50 free downloads from various spots on the Web, including their own site, from obscure to familiar -- including familiar from this very site. Oh, and while I was writing this I stumbled on Silber Records' collections of Xmas tunes, also free to download. UPDATE: I'm inserting this here because it's free through the good graces of Stella Artois beer. It's "Les 12 Jours De Noël" by Rosi Golan and Human, and yes, that means "12 Days of Christmas." It's strictly lounge-jazzville, but if you still want it, help yourself. FURTHER UPDATE: And Mayer Hawthorne has a free download of "Christmas Time Is Here."
- And finally, the oft-mentioned 2010 Mistletunes mix is on its way to a select group of people, but everybody can check out the cover art, playlist and liner notes here.
And so it was that the musicians struck up their instruments to make a mighty noise in celebration of the Christmas holiday. As you'll see if you have the disc in hand, 24 of the biggest such noises comprise this year's Mistletunes mix disc. If you don't, well, this is where a strong imagination comes in handy. Thanks for visiting, and now, onward to the 2010 Claus-town rundown:
"Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy," Bowling For Soup -- These guys are known for their snarky lyrics, particularly on the song "1985," in which the band babe of that year is today's soccer mom. Here they grab an old country standard by Buck Owens and make a punk rock anthem out of it.
"We Three Kings," Blondie -- Sounds like an outtake from their salad days, but this actually went out late in 2009 as a teaser for an album that is now scheduled to come out in 2011. No one expects Melchior, Balthazar, and Casper to be hanging on the telephone while the man from Mars eats up bars, cars and guitars, but here you have it.
"Wish List," Neon Trees -- Here's a strong rocking power pop original from a band that quite frankly hadn't been on my radar until now.
"Fruitcake," The Superions -- This is Fred Schneider from the B-52s, as if you could miss him, along with a couple of musician friends helping him do a side project dedicated to the holidays. And since fruitcakes lend themselves to mockery, who better to sing about them, right?
"Squat," Shelby Lynne -- This isn't on her new Christmas album, and I can't imagine why not; it's a real-life story that fits the diminished expectations of this current year.
"Shut Up and Let It Snow," The Ting Tings -- The original version of this song once was an iPod commercial; for BBC Radio, the hit-making duo stripped things down to just acoustic guitar and tinseled up the lyrics.
"Christmas Day With Me," Laura Vane and the Vipertones -- Old-school soul is especially well-loved in Europe, and this British-Dutch ensemble thoughtfully gave away this original holiday dance tune to its website visitors.
"Party Hard," Little Isidore -- This guy apparently haunts the doo-wop revivals, but this number manages to sound old and new all at the same time. Hey, did anybody spike the eggnog yet?
"Boots," The Killers -- This big-sounding rock ballad incorporates samples from "It's a Wonderful Life" while the lyrics paint an impressionistic view of that popular movie's storyline. Folks who actually bought this single are helping to fight AIDS in Africa, by the way.
"Getting Ready For Christmas Day," Paul Simon -- Come on, lots of Jewish guys do Christmas songs. Here the iconic singer-songwriter gets help getting right with the holidays from samples of a 1930s preacher. Paul has a little experience here, as he and Garfunkel did a double-sided holiday single back in the day that never came out but did land on their box set. And then there was the social commentary of "Silent Night/7 O'Clock News."
"Tiny Tree Christmas," Guster -- A sweet little number that creeps up on you with little cat feet. Appropriate, since this band once did a version of "Carol of the Bells" in which they meowed the entire thing.
"Christmas Tree," Lady Gaga -- This actually came out a couple of years ago before she became the name above the headline, so consider this my attempt at catching up to the hype.
"In the Snow," Rumbar Girls -- Shameless hype for an Austrian rum company, but it's still fun. Puts that whole Train/Coca-Cola thing into perspective, and it makes Lady Gaga look like B.J. Leiderman, the guy who wrote the theme music for NPR's newscasts.
"I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas," MC Lars featuring Jaret Reddick -- A great bit of white-boy hip-hop in service of the holiday and the environment. Let's all stand outside Sen. Inhofe's office and blast this to him, like John Cusack did with Ione Skye in "Say Anything."
"Miracle," Matisyahu -- This disc's nod to Hanukkah is this excellent reggae number specifically about this holiday by the noted conservative Jew and reggae singer.
"James Brown Died On Christmas Day," Hands and Knees -- A perfect observation that needs to be brought up a little more often, especially in regard to the Godfather of Soul's extensive Christmas catalog. And it's a bit unexpected to hear this notion voiced by a lo-fi indie rock band.
"Ain't No Chimneys In the Projects," Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings -- A perfect follow-up to the previous song, in which this Sixties-obsessed soul band tells a story similar to that of James' iconic "Santa Claus Go Straight To the Ghetto."
"Northpole 4-5789," The Yule Logs -- These guys are actually a Christmas band year-round, and this parody of the old Marvelettes hit on Motown is off their second album.
"Mary," RPM -- And while we're on the topic of parodies, the Jersey Boys themselves see their big hit "Sherry" remade into a holiday song by what apparently is a Christian band. It's a note-perfect 4 Seasons tribute.
"George and Andrew," The Boy Least Likely To -- This quirky band knocked out an entire Christmas album this year, and this original song is a tribute to and a parody of the holiday hit "Last Christmas," with lyrics referencing the members of Wham. This is one for the insufferable music snobs out there.
"This Child," Donnie Iris and the Cruisers -- These Pittsburgh-area hitmakers also did a full Christmas album this year and this is the obvious single from it, a strong power-pop outing on an original song that references several classic carols.
"Christmas Soon," JP, Chrissie and the Fairground Boys -- A great piece of work from the leader of the Pretenders and singer-songwriter JP Jones, whose album chronicles the rise and fall of their personal relationship together. A strong example of Chrissie Hynde's classic sound filtered through a more Americana approach.
"Gonna Have a Party," Saint Etienne -- This cult club-music band from Britain has been making Christmas songs on the sly for years, and this is a fresh outing guaranteed to fill the dance floor.
"Merry Something To You," Devo -- Because making the last song on a Christmas mix a New Year's concoction is such a cliché, I thought I'd finish up with this snarky nod to every belief tradition by the Akron spudboys. They did forget to mention Festivus, though.
The European indie label is back with another compilation of its own artists taking on the holiday. It's a little thinner than the two previous collections, just 11 songs, but if you've heard the previous ones you know what to expect -- lo-fi indie pop-rock. Adam and Darcie kick things off with a cover of Joni Mitchell's "River," Alli Millstein offers "White White Christmas," a ballad with just a taste of old doo-wop touches, Kate and After's "Snow Angel" reappears here, Boca Chica goes country with "Not On Christmas Eve," the Gorgeous Colors rush the kids to bed with "Hurry Up Children, Santa's Coming," Natalie Prass gets jazzy with "No Better Time," Sixties pop comes to the fore with "Snow Blitz" by Paisley and Charlie, and the Very Most return with "Christmas In July Comes Earlier Each Year," a keyboard-and-melodic-percussion instrumental that ramps up into a righteous noise with faint vocals toward the end. An interesting collection you should look into. Only available for purchase from the website for now, but the 2008 and 2009 collections are at Amazon.
We've briefly mentioned this Beatles tribute band in the past, as their "Joy To the World" based on "Please Please Me" has turned up in movies and on TV. (And we also noted the Fab Four had done nearly the same exact thing.) What amazes me is that it's taken me this long to get their full album from 2005 to the site. Apparently, the group had needed several years to put together an LP's worth of tunes together, as the members live in far-flung locales. As per the liner notes, they recorded batches of this in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2005. Aside from the one coincidence noted above, The Butties have nothing to worry about concerning their originality, even given the existence of previous works in this vein like the Fab Four and the Rubber Band's now-hard-to-find Xmas! The Beatmas! "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" meets "Twist and Shout," "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" is rendered as "Can't Buy Me Love," they do "O Little Town of Bethlehem" once as "In My Life" and again as a medley with three other carols all set as the various movements of "Happiness Is a Warm Gun." Another highlight is the "Sgt. Pepper" reprise and "A Day in the Life" done as a medley of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" and "Up on the Housetop." Once more, I have to restrain myself from spoiling all the surprises. You can get this as hardcopy from CDBaby or from iTunes by clicking on the album cover. By the way, you might not be surprised to find that two of the Butties are with the Blanks, the band that appeared on "Scrubs" singing commercial jingles a capella.
Because the band's name is also a succinct description of who they are, it appears this 2010 EP's name has no alternate meanings pertinent to the U.S. political scene. Pity. Most of these seven songs are pretty short, almost musical Christmas haikus. The meditation on burning a plastic tree and its effect on climate change in "Plastic Trees" is a bit ambiguous. "Blinded" is about that old neighborhood standard, the excessive display of outdoor holiday lights and the accompanying noisy soundtrack -- ironic, as this entire EP is fairly mellow chamber-pop, at least until the oscillator solo kicks in on this particular track. "Don't" offers a brief list of things to avoid on the holiday, "Sinking More" should actually have been "Drinking More," as that as much the refrain of this bouncy little number as anything else. "Traces" worries that "if you eat too much you might explode," and "Girl With the X-Ray Eyes" is a foreboding conclusion to this collection. Download this free from the group's website starting Dec 1.
We've had XO compilations in the past, so we're happy this management company thought to gift us with the link to Vol. 3 for 2010, once again free to all comers (with convenient links to Vols. 1 & 2 as well). Among the mix disc candidates from this collection are Triggers' "A Very Triggers Christmas," a nice 80s pop-rocker that has just the slightest taste of Van Halen's "Jump" in the way guitars and keyboards are used; "Riptide-Yuletide" by Prayer For Animals, a nice surf-rock instrumental workout for about two-thirds of its length, then it drops to midtempo with vocals the rest of the way; "McAdenville (Christmastown)" by The Winter Sounds takes a more 80s synth-rock tack to put across its nostalgic lyrics; Campfire OK provides a Hanukkah Alert with "The Dreidel Song," which is laid over another folk-rock song that I can't immediately identify, but it's a dramatic reworking nonetheless; and Piney Gir is represented twice here, with "A Cheery Christmas" and "Snow Snow Beautiful Snow," both old-school pop music workouts. Other cuts include "Holiday Song" by Captain Nowhere, an angular punk recitation; "Presents in June" by Pictures of Then, a slow holiday ballad; Paper Tongues' vocal rendition of "Carol of the Bells": and "A Christmas Stalking" by Transient Songs, another slow tune led by a mourning slow guitar and chanted vocals. An 11th song listed on the album art appears to have missed the cut for some reason; it wasn't in the zip file and it can't be played individually at the site any more. Oh well, can't sneeze at 10 free songs, can we? (More if you download all three volumes.)
Here's another free album of mashups for 2010. FSO is an Australian outfit, if I'm reading the tip e-mail correctly, and this collection of sample-mongering knits together a wide selection of rock and non-rock, Christmas and non-Christmas material into nine fairly listenable songs that obsessives can pick apart to identify their constituent parts, or can just play in the background at a Christmas party. In fact, the almost mellow results FSO gets here stand in contrast to the more in-your-face mashups constructed by the DJs and musicians on the Santastic collections. As a result, you may have trouble identifying particular numbers from this for your mix discs. Nevertheless, this is a good example of the current state of the mashup art. I especially like how old middle-of-the-road music gets spruced up when it's laid over 70s era R'nB beats on many of the songs here. Download it from the website.
Three British songwriters collaborated to write and produce this perfectly enjoyable 70s-sounding holiday song for 2009. The Stars are Mike Read, Elliot Frisby and Roy Wood -- yes, the author of "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day," going for the Christmas market one more time, this time in service to the Shooting Star Children's Hospice, for which this single was released as a fund-raiser. I couldn't get my hands on it last year, but it appears to have migrated to the usual download sites this year. While Roy isn't singing lead on this, you can hear a little of his musical approach in the arrangement. Elliot Frisby solos on the B-side's acoustic ballad "Christmas Day."Fans of the Double Crown label are already up to speed with the first two volumes, so here's another one for 2010. As in the past, the artists featured are from the label, mostly in the early 60's guitar combo sound that stretches from Duane Eddy to the surf music scene. Much of this is instrumentals, kicking off with The Razorblades' "Morgen Kinder Wirds Was Geben," as you might expect from a German band. The Excelsiors take a lot of delightful liberties with "Good King Wenceslas" and The Frankie Handwax Experience superimposes "We Three Kings" over Jimi Hendrix's "Manic Depression." Previously released items from the label show up here, like "Greensleeves" from King of Hawaii's Chrismas disc and The Barbary Coasters' "Secret Santa." Burt Rocket gets a little Joe Meek/Telestar on us with "Santa's Hot Rod," The Balboas throw in a vocal with "This Is Santa Claus," and also resorting to the microphone are The Polkaholics with "Sausage and Sauerkraut For Santa," a rock/polka hybrid. Tiki Joe's Ocean goes exotica on us with their version of "Jingle Bells," and OJ Watson and the Ludlow Ramblers do "We'll Be Home With Bells On," which is straight old-school country, and Peter Curry and Dick Chiclet wrap things up with a twangy "Old Anxiety," better known as "Auld Lang Syne." This is right in line with the previous two collections, and if you grab it from the mothership (assuming your local record store doesn't have the hard copy, that's the only place online that has it) there's an additional song downloadable from the site, "Silent Night Twist" by The Beechwoods, which is just a little sedate for twisting but more uptempo than the song is usually performed. The Balboas did a video, like to see it? Here we go:I went looking for this thinking it was going to be some kind of Star Trek-related novelty (yes, I know the "true" fans like to be called "Trekkers"; in my world a Trekky is somebody who insists on being called a Trekker) but no, Trekky is a record label of indy folk-pop-rockers based in Chapel Hill, N.C., and this is a Christmas record made by what appears to have been the label's entire roster as of this album's 2006 release. It's 12 familiar songs and carols done in a sort of chamber-pop setting with a few inventive touches to the arrangements and a certain spontaneity of performance. It's not bad, but there's not much in the way of rock 'n roll attitude here, other than a nicely rocked-up version of Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You." If I had to do the Venn diagram, I'd put Bright Eyes to one side, Polyphonic Spree to the other, and overlay these guys a little toward the Bright Eyes side. A visit to the website shows that the Orchestra plays gigs in the label's hometown region at Christmas time, so this album does serve as a souvenir for the folks who encounter them live.
Looks like curating Christmas collections agrees with Ken Kessler, longtime friend of this site. His first collection, Volume 1, appeared on this site last year, and for 2010 he's back again with Volume 2. This year's collection is intended to benefit Sweet Relief, the charity that helps working musicians cover their medical bills (I should add American musicians, owing to this country's history of offering only the shabbiest of safety nets to its citizens, particularly the ones who don't work for Fortune 500 companies or in government). Like Volume 1, the collection casts a wide net for listeners, with lots of ballads in the early going, but this year's collection has more rock 'n roll moments. Many of these songs have been out before, but only in limited editions or for fans. Vertical Horizon's version of "I Believe in Father Christmas" makes a fresh appearance here, Belinda Carlisle contributes her 80s version of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," Deep Blue Something contribute an unreleased version of "Little Drummer Boy," and the modern-day version of 60s party band the Swingin' Medallions does a Christmas update on the old Bruce Channel song with "Hey, Hey Santa." Ken also snagged cuts released only last year by Bootlegger ("Coming Home For Christmas") and Sleeping At Last ("Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"), along with what is likely to be a cut from Dave Stewart's long-promised Christmas album ("White Christmas") and the North Pole All-Stars, made up of regulars from Little Feat, with their "Santa Gotta Get Some," a song that was recorded to help pay down the medical debt following the death of band member Richie Hayward last year. Kathy Sledge, who with her sisters did "We Are Family," pops up here with her version of "The Christmas Waltz," and Chase Stevens contributes an original, "First Christmas Apart." There's more, which Ken helpfully lays out for you at his MySpace page. All told, a good album for a good cause, with plenty of possible mix disc choices.
It's the old joke about what Jews do on Christmas day, which is clog the movie theaters and Oriental restaurants, according to urban legend. Brandon does a nice earnest-nerdy take on this piano-led novelty from 2008. (Brandon's bio on his website traces the song a bit farther back to 2006, when he made a video of it.) This gets a kind of backhanded Hannukah alert. Oh, and take a look for yourselves:
I always wondered why friend of this site Martin Johns didn't have his own site, as he was always a step ahead of all the other Christmas music sites (including this one) in knowing what was new and wonderful. He did maintain a shadowy presence at a couple of sites, and his tips and corrections have always been welcome here. Now, finally, it's his pseudonym on the shingle at Stubby's Christmas and if you like this place, you should definitely bookmark his as well. It's only been up a short time, but he already seems to have the hang of blogging. (I'd also like to mention that, although I haven't tried it myself, the Web platform Stubby's is built on, Weebly, looks pretty cool, if you'd like to build a site of your own and don't feel like spending the next two years at a tech school learning how to code.) UPDATE: On the topic of new websites, Nice Guy Eddie likes him some rock 'n roll Xmas as long as it's on vinyl. Stop by his place and check out the goodies.
I'm a little late getting started with the new season's postings for personal reasons, but not to worry, I should have some goodies for the kids within the next week. Also, the progress report on the site upgrade is that most of the material from the old site is now packed inside the current site. The exceptions: all the rock 'n roll from the old site's 1990s and 2000s pages, all the stuff from the two compilations categories on the old site, the miscellaneous section and the old site's letters and the "Yule blog." With the introduction of comments, I thought the letters section had become obsolete, but some folks have still been sending letters anyway, so under categories I created a "Letters to Mistletunes" section. It's still not populated with the old site's letters, but it eventually will be. Recent letters since the site upgrade are there, however. So if you want to nose around the old site, once again, the link is here.
Sheryl's been to the holiday well before with a few tunes in the Very Special Christmas series, but this full album is all new, though she revisits "Blue Christmas" here in a bluesier version than the Very Special performance and does a studio version of "Merry Christmas Baby" as opposed to the live performance she shared with Eric Clapton. As this endeavor was commissioned by Hallmark for 2008, it stands to reason that this is going to be something that regular Hallmark store customers would be comfortable with, but Crow manages to avoid going too middle of the road here, falling back on blues and soul readymades in a lot of cases, even recasting "O Holy Night" as an R'nB showstopper. "Go Tell It On the Mountain" gets the requisite gospel treatment, though "I'll Be Home For Christmas" and "There Is a Star That Shines Tonight" are definitely for the Hallmark crowd. After you bring a copy of this home, you can download "Hello My Friend Hello," which may or may not be a Sheryl original but is another mellow Christmas ballad. I would have preferred a little more like her version of "Run Rudolph Run" from VSC, but I understand why that wasn't likely. UPDATE: This album is back in the racks for 2010 at Target with a different cover, and "Hello My Friend Hello" is promoted to the new disc's track listing.
Once again, thanks to Direct Current for the tip, although I first saw mention of a possible Xmas disc from her in Parade magazine, of all places. The disc features two originals and, based on DC's posting, appears to be eclectic enough to satisfy this site's general non-interest in country music. UPDATE: Courtesy of Hip Christmas, Shelby sent out a humorous promo-only holiday song in 2003 called "Squat"; as near as I can tell, it won't be on the new album, though it probably ought to be. Decide for yourself, the song's right at the link.
On an unrelated note, we've got at least half the old site's album reviews transferred over to the new site, with hopes of finishing the job before the upcoming holiday season arrives. This means you'll be able to use the new site's superior search engine to look for things, rather than the old site's rather diffident search provider.
This Bellingham, WA record label specializes in garage/surf bands, and this CD had been previously compiled in 2000. We missed it then, but we have it now, reissued for 2006 with three additional cuts over the original. As we've compiled a number of surf-oriented Christmas tunes over the life of this site, we're not particularly surprised that several items, like Jon & the Nightriders' "Sleigh Ride," Urban Surf Kings' "We Three Kings," Death Valley's "Carol of the Bells" and "Little Drummer Boy" by The Bonesharks, have been done in similar ways by other artists elsewhere. But with 19 tracks to choose from, that's not necessarily a disqualifying point. Some of the more fun tracks on this CD are the Tacoma 4's "Christmas is a Drag" and The Boss Martians' "It's Christmas Time," the latter previously on the Santa's Got a GTO compilation, both in the non-Beach Boys car/surf vein; "Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto" by Frigg A Go Go, a straight rock version of the James Brown arrangement; "Hang On Rudolph," a witty appropriation of the "Rudolph" and "Sloopy" songs by The Ebeneezer Scrooge Appreciation Society; The Firebirds' "Living Doll," a plea for Santa to bring a girlfriend; and "Rocknuts," The Lunatics' version of "Nutrocker" done entirely with surf guitars. Also notable is "Sigue Sigue X-mas," an upbeat surf "Jingle Bells" with spoken word samples ladled over it from old TV shows, and yes, of course from "It's a Wonderful Life." "Jingle Bells" returns in a spaghetti Western version from The Bitch Boys, and the whole thing wraps up with The Surfites' "Santa Claus Goes Surfin'," a straight-up surf instrumental worthy of Dick Dale or The Surfaris. Doesn't appear to be in print, although Amazon has it via 3rd parties and the label had cut-price copies as of this update.
This Philadelphia-area label puts up what appears to be a selection of regional artists for 2003. I'm guessing regional based on the triple appearance of Philly alt-popsters Grey Eye Glances, covering "Little Drummer Boy" in a multi-percussionist world music mode and providing two originals, "On Christmas Night" and "Our Own Place and Time," a nice pair of mid-tempo holiday tunes. Two tunes by the Swarthmore College Alumni Gospel Choir, a jazzed-up gospel "Go Tell It on the Mountain" and the original "Road to Calvary," also highlight the Brotherly Love connection. Huffamoose generates a conditional Hanukkah Alert from its rewritten "Winter Wonderland" called "Hanukkah and Christmas Hand in Hand." Motorbaby lulls us with "Silent Night" before rocking it out about halfway through. It's Only Roy appears twice with "Santa's Bag," in which the Beach Boys meet Phil Spector, and the DX7 piano ballad "Glad to Be Home for Christmas." Kyf Brewer's "Christmas in New York" rocks out some light social commentary, "Sing For Christmas" by Andy Pratt lightly evokes a bit of Roy Wood and Cliff Hillis gives us the mid-tempo "On a Day Like Christmas." Other original ballad takes on the holiday include "Pax" by Jake Holmes and "Bells" by Ben Arnold. And The Contes give us a faithful cover of the Kinks' "Father Christmas." I'm still trying to figure out what Jim Boggia's deal is in playing what sounds like the original "Chipmunk Song" on a phonograph, however, and there are a few other tunes that make this collection a little more eclectic than necessary. Still, a great compilation for folks who are interested in original Christmas tunes. UPDATE: Dean Sciarra of It's About Music tips me that Boggia actually painstakingly recorded all the parts on "Chipmunk Song" himself. Remains available from Amazon as disc or download, but if you go to the label website you can get the disc for a penny, plus postage & handling. Seriously.
Indie-rock-pop compilation from 2001, reputed by its website to be a limited edition. There are 22 cuts, not counting about 10 brief "Christmas messages" from some of the musicians. Quality ranges from professional to "Hey, my dad has a garage, let's start a band," so I'll just tip you to the better tunes. Paula Kelley, whose Nothing/Everything CD has been well reviewed, does a sweet "Blue Christmas" and Miss July has a cute original in "First Noel (Revised)." Orchid Pool puts a nice guitar figure and flutes behind "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear." Capsela has a quirky take on "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)," and The Otter Pops' "Brothers" is the textbook definition of quirky with its ukelele and kazoo backing. Jumprope's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is well played but mostly lounge-like with the electric piano dominating. The Wee Turtles are amateurish but endearing with "By Golly, They've Dehydrated Christmas!" And Pinkie brings "sha-la-la" backing vocals back with "Pretend Like It's Christmas Day." The rest you can rate for yourself, assuming you can find a copy of this. There were 300 copies and they sold out the year they were released; no 3rd party links through Amazon exist at this time.
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.
Continue reading Welcome to the reimagined Mistletunes.
"A collection of ethereal/gothic/industrial bands" is how the overline squib on this album describes its participants, as well as those who contributed to volume one in this series. The liner notes also tell us this 1999 effort exhibits "a lighter perspective" than the 1995 original. Ethereal is the best word for this CD; they go for the solemn, the spiritual and the antique, best examples being El Duende's "Gaudete, Gaudete," Siddal's "In the Bleak Midwinter" and The Machine in the Garden's "Coventry Carol." Rhea's Obsession does an Arab-folky "We Three Kings" and returns later in the album with the "Huron Indian Carol," which veers more toward the Deep Forest side of things. There is a modern sheen to these performances that comes mostly from being recorded mostly in 1999, except for Human Drama's "I Believe in Father Christmas," the ELP standard that appeared on Stuff This In Your Stocking nearly a decade earlier. I don't know what the Shaker song "Lord of the Dance" by Unto Ashes has to do with Christmas. The Cruxshadows do a Depeche Mode-sounding "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," and London After Midnight contribute an original "Christmas Song." Faith & Disease do "Silver and Gold" from the famous "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" special of 1964. Hanukkah alert goes to Sofia Run's version of "Nerotai Hazarurim (Little Candles)." There was a Vol. 3 in 2001, Excelsis 3: A Prelude, featuring nine songs by Lovespirals, Audra, Lowsunday, Frolic, Faith & Disease, Mirabilis, Unto Ashes, and two by Lynn Canfield. The same year, the first three were packaged in a box set. And in 2007, a single-disc compilation of all three, A Dark Noel, was released. All except the box set remain freshly available from Amazon, but the box is still for sale at a discount from Projekt's website. The company returned to the Christmas scene in 2012 with Ornaments, a double-disc set.
This is where marketing overtakes music making, as most of these tunes are previously released. Still, like Rhino's Bummed Out Christmas, you have to admit it's a great idea. It couldn't hurt that there's an actual band called Trailer Trash from Minneapolis-St. Paul with two cuts on this 1999 album, "Don't Believe in Xmas," the Sonics classic that borrows heavily from "Too Much Monkey Business," and "Daddy's Drinkin' Up Our Christmas," a suitably country lament. The New Duncan Imperials provide us with "Santa Claus Is a Lie," complete with a children's chorus, and The Blue Moon Boys do "Santabilly Boogie," which is, not surprisingly, rockabilly. "Christ, It's Christmas Again" comes courtesy of the Geisels, a drum-less rocker. From the previously released pile, there are a couple of cuts by Leroy and Big People from Yuletunes, Mack Rice's "Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin'," John Prine's "Christmas in Prison" and Mojo Nixon's "Trim Yo' Tree." UPDATE: An interesting pair of digressions popped up when I moved this over from the old site. This album, same cover, was also released as Redneck Christmas Party in 1999. Also, the band Trailer Trash had an album of their own in 2005, All Lit-Up For Christmas, although it appears, based on an Amazon listener review, that it's erroneously listed as a various artists compendium. It has a variation of the same cover as the other two, tinted a greenish yellow instead of blue. There's 11 songs, including the two from Trailer Trash Christmas. Trailer Trash apparently have a Twin Cities reputation for rowdy Christmas parties, and this latter album is a souvenir of that. Of the three albums mentioned, Lit-Up is the only one actually available new; the other two show up only via 3rd parties at Amazon.
This is the sequel to Ho Ho Hospice, the double-disc set of a few seasons back that compiled a couple holidays' worth of modern original rock and pop Christmas songs into a single convenient package. Like its predecessor, Holiday Heart benefits the St. Barnabas Hospice and Palliative Care Center in New Jersey, a nonprofit hospice, and this 2005 collection is also a 2-CD set. And like before, you'll probably find the 44 tunes here a melange of tunes you might have heard before with others being, at the very least, new to you. Some that are new to me, and pleasant surprises too, include "Why Christmas (The Longest Day of the Year)" by Paula Kelley, "Merry Christmas I Love You" by Mark Bacino, "12 Days" by the Bitter Hearts, "Christmas Lights" by the Montgomery Cliffs, "It Must Be Christmas" by the Renovators, "So Glad It's Christmas" by Dan Pavelich and the Brazilian vibe of Project: Pimento's "That's Christmas." Some tunes previously mentioned on this site include those by Catherine Harrington, Mary Karlzen, Ron Sexsmith and Huffamoose. I think I detect a mellower vibe on this collection, with a bit more country/folk and plain old pop and a little less rock. Still, this is a great bargain and you're sure to find some favorites on it. UPDATE: Like its predecessor, it's out of print, but the cover links you to 3rd-party sellers on Amazon who have it for ridiculously cheap prices at this writing.
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: Like the previous volume, this 2007 collection is being sold as a benefit for pediatric AIDS. This time around, there are a bumper crop of performers resulting in 26 cuts, good value for money. Dave Mellillo kicks things off with a rocked-out version of Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas," followed quickly by "January," a New Year's cruncher by Tyler Read. (Usually you save the New Year's cuts for the end.) Sugarcult gives the Ramones treatment to "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," It Dies Today gives the thrash treatment to "Feliz Navidad," and homage-style arrangements are featured on Action Action's "Father Christmas," "Wonderful Christmastime" by June, and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" by Hot Rod Circuit. Among the original tunes is Spitalfield's "It's Cold Out There" and "Not Giving In" by Rediscover, a couple of Beth Orton-ized acoustic ballads; "Stay" by Down To Earth Approach features the singer apologizing to a Christmas tree for cutting it down; "Gary the Green-Nosed Reindeer" by MC Lars is an acoustic hip-hop romp in which Gary, Rudolph's half-brother, makes his holiday bones when he saves Xmas from Osama bin Laden; and quite a bit more, actually. This was sold mainly as a download from the label only, but the label site is inactive; the album art is linked to 3rd party sellers. CDs remain available in which Vols. 1 and 2 are packaged together. Either way, a good deal for alternative rock holiday music.
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.)
I've been a little slow getting to this, and with good reason -- this is a free download album with 53 songs on it. Count 'em, 53. As a result, in my last few bouts of posting I kept telling myself, "Oh, I'll get to that when I have a little more time to deal." Well, you know how that goes. So I said it's time to get it posted. Suburban Sprawl is an alt-rock-indie label, and not a very big one, though one might assume the exact opposite with 53 artists involved. So I won't bother unpacking all of that and just get to the music, which in overall quality is pretty darn good across the entire collection. Things kick off with "Twas the Night Before Christmas" done to the tune of "Chopsticks" by The Barrettes and continue in fine style with such tunes as Love Axe's original "Baby, I Wish It Was Cold Outside," Panic & Sharon's electro-pop "Christmastime Is Here," ChrisMas' dance-floor-ready "S.A.N.T.A.," Daniel Zott's Claus lament "Look What You Did, You Little Jerk," Buffay's hip-hop takeoff "Merri Chrissmiss 2 My Dik," which requires a Parental Advisory (ya think?), Coach Mahler's "Hanukkah Blues," Bethlehem Girls Choir's unique medley of "All I Want For Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey and "Here Comes Your Man" by The Pixies, and so on through all 53 selections. Suburban Sprawl has done this for multiple years, and they're all at the free download site, so do a little discovering of your own.
