MxPx has long been known as a Christian punk band, though they've recorded a fair number of secular-sounding tunes along the way, including a surprising number of covers. They've also recorded a number of original Christmas songs over time, and for 2009 they've compiled them into an album for easier access. The title song kicks things off in the title spirit, kicks up a notch with "Christmas Day," which has been around for almost a decade, and they don't let up much in tempo for the entire 13-song playlist. Despite the punk readymades, they don't go in for "shocking" lyrics, and in fact their message across the disc is mostly positive and family-friendly. This is not to say they don't have a little fun, as in "Christmas Night of the Living Dead," in which the singer battles zombies, or the "Late Great Snowball Fight of 2006." They do jab at a recent Christmas classic in "So This Is Christmas?," though the message is one of doing the best with what you have. "You're the One I Miss (This Christmas)" is the requisite holiday love song, and "Christmas Party" celebrates the end of the preparations and the beginning of holiday fun. And they add a few lyrics of their own to disc-ender "Auld Lang Syne." All told, this is good fun to listen to all the way through, and it may keep Green Day from cutting a Christmas album anytime soon.
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MxPx has long been known as a Christian punk band, though they've recorded a fair number of secular-sounding tunes along the way, including a surprising number of covers. They've also recorded a number of original Christmas songs over time, and for 2009 they've compiled them into an album for easier access. The title song kicks things off in the title spirit, kicks up a notch with "Christmas Day," which has been around for almost a decade, and they don't let up much in tempo for the entire 13-song playlist. Despite the punk readymades, they don't go in for "shocking" lyrics, and in fact their message across the disc is mostly positive and family-friendly. This is not to say they don't have a little fun, as in "Christmas Night of the Living Dead," in which the singer battles zombies, or the "Late Great Snowball Fight of 2006." They do jab at a recent Christmas classic in "So This Is Christmas?," though the message is one of doing the best with what you have. "You're the One I Miss (This Christmas)" is the requisite holiday love song, and "Christmas Party" celebrates the end of the preparations and the beginning of holiday fun. And they add a few lyrics of their own to disc-ender "Auld Lang Syne." All told, this is good fun to listen to all the way through, and it may keep Green Day from cutting a Christmas album anytime soon.
I haven't been down with Putumayo's prodigious output of Christmas discs in the past, but they sent this one along and I noticed that most of the playlist has already been reviewed on this site, so I figured it was worth mentioning. Among the cuts from Mistletunes history are Leon Redbone's "Let It Snow," Big Bad Voodoo Daddy's version of "Zat You, Santa Claus," Brave Combo's "Jolly Old St. Nick," Christmas Jug Band's "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus," and Martin Sexton's "Holly Jolly Christmas." Add to that Johnny Bregar and his ukelele on "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," Deana Carter's swingy "Winter Wonderland," Sam Bush taking a "Sleigh Ride" with banjo, Debbie Davis and Matt Perrine bringing back the ukelele and adding accordion to "Mele Kalikimaka," Kate Rusby's "Here We Come A-Wassailing," and Lars Edegran with Big Al Carson doing "Frosty the Snowman" Dixieland style. The emphasis is on American roots music on this collection, with a bias toward making the playlist kid-friendly, and on that score it succeeds. And while it's not exactly balls-out rock 'n roll, it does have that hint of irreverence we're looking for here.
Fresh off their first compilation from last year. the Indiecater label is back with a new collection of alt-indie-rock-pop Christmas tunes from acts on their roster and from elsewhere. Adam and Darcie kick things off with a dreamy "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," Allo Darlin', fresh off Cherryade's compilation, keep a candle burning for ukelele music with this solo strum of what is normally a duet song, "Baby It's Cold Outside," and Betty and the Cavaleros go lounge with "Hey! I'm Your Gift Today." Loxly gives us an unspeakably tragic take on the life of "Mrs. Kris Kringle," in which she shaves his beard in his sleep, unpacks the sleigh and burns the kids' letters. I Hate You Just Kidding pick up the duet baton from Allo Darlin' with their own "It's Fun To Do Bad Things" for Christmas, The Garlands grab a little of that Pet Sounds magic for their original "Christmas Song," and Candyclaws gins up a kind of slapdash wall of sound for their tune "Snowdrift Wish." The band Sweet Jane puts "Silent Night" to a Velvet Underground-like backing, and Standard Fare does a kind of talk-sing on "Tinsel Politics," in which the family battles about where to go and what to do on Christmas are aired out. Not a lot of uptempo stuff on this collection, but at least these folks are being mopey about some thought-provoking topics. Get it from Indiecater's website.
Ken Kessler is a friend of the Mistletunes site, having contributed many tips about hot rocking Christmas tunes over the years, and we've also posted some of his questions about obscure recordings over the years. He's taken his Christmas obsession to the Web with an Internet radio station, The Sounds of Christmas, and for 2009 he's moved on to curate his very own Christmas compilation, proceeds from which will benefit the Hollywood Charity Horse Show. Not surprisingly, he named the collection after his radio station, and it's 15 selections from off the beaten path. Among the highlights is the first-ever CD release of the doo-wop a capella "Winter Wonderland" by Huey Lewis and the News, which was originally released to the fan club only back in 1984; a strong rocking version of "Santa Claus Is Back In Town" from Richard Marx; Stephen Bishop's "Rock Little Reindeer"; the Jimmy Buffett-styled "Christmastime on the Beach" by Roy Holliday; Hayseed Dixie's fabulous rock/bluegrass fusion "Misty Wonderland Hop," combining "Winter Wonderland" with the Led Zeppelin classic; Pete Hopkins' modern r'nb take on "(I'll Be) Home For Christmas"; and a cute, if a bit dated, novelty, DJ Ice Z Ice and the Fresh Elf doing an old-school rap in chipmunk voices with "The Night Before Christmas." William Shatner's "Good King Wenceslas" is his usual overly portentious dramatic reading over a musical bed, something that might get old fast if you're not a Denny Crane fan. The remaining songs on this album track much closer to middle of the road, including former Styx-man Dennis DeYoung's "When I Hear a Christmas Song," but as the album's for charity I assume Ken made his picks to attract a wider audience. Nevertheless, there are some good rocking reasons to go with this collection. For a deeper look at this disc, visit Ken's MySpace page.
Not everybody who pitches music to the site has read every word generated in the past, yet I'm occasionally surprised when something arrives here that isn't quite within the Mistletunes parameters. In this case, I've noted in the past that we don't do much with kids' music. Of course, kid music has over the past decade or so become a genre unto itself, as a wide-ranging cast of musicians discovers targeting the little ones can be lucrative. So when The Hipwaders sent me their 2009 Christmas disc without specifically telling me they were a kiddie band, I was a bit concerned, at least until I listened to it. Considering I've enjoyed kid-themed albums by bands like Barenaked Ladies and They Might Be Giants, I've established that the dividing line should be whether adults would be embarrassed to listen to the music on their own, and on this disc, The Hipwaders manage to land on the right side of the not-embarrassing line. Some of their gags, like "Santasploitation," are, after all, a bit over the heads of anybody who wasn't alive in the 1970s. I could see parents getting a little sick of this if they let their kids play it over and over, as it's relentlessly upbeat. Nevertheless, there's plenty of rock/pop crunch on such things as "Wake Up," "Yes, It's Christmas" and "Tinsel and Lights." "It's Wintertime" lays down some white-boy soul grooves, "Santa's Train" is an old-school country train song without the angst, and "Christmas Vicuna" has a slightly tropical groove set to a story of a vicuna that takes Rudolph's place at the head of the reindeer team. Good work, and the kids should dig it too.
With all the varieties of rock and pop out there nowadays, serious rock fans might feel the need to cleanse the palate with something from the old days. These guys may be from the modern day, but this 2008 disc is straight-up rockabilly, accent mark over the rock. They put that 50s spirit into an otherwise straight reading of "Jingle Bell Rock," embue "Here Comes Santa Claus" with some serious stomp, make Chuck Berry proud with a cover of his "Run Rudolph Run," and put their own stamp on the holiday with such originals as "Santabilly Boogie," "Blue Suede Santa," "Tangled Up" and "Up 'n At 'Em Old St. Nick." Oh, and clear the dance floor for their version of "Holly Jolly Christmas." Apparent disc closer "Blue Christmas," an uptempo version at that, hides a live version of "Santabilly Boogie," but you have to get past several minutes of jingling bells before it comes up. (Or you could just hit scan, or drag the cursor on your iPod's screen until you find it.) You gotta get it from these guys' website, but it's worth the trouble. Roll over Carl Perkins, and tell Brian Setzer the news.
I'm reviewing this unfinished project because I'm operating under the same constraints the rest of you are -- this is a free song a day from Dec. 1-25, 2008, from the label's website. So far, the band has offered thrashed-out versions of Jona Lewie's "Stop the Cavalry," "Blue Christmas," Mud's "Lonely This Christmas," "Little Drummer Boy," "Santa Baby" and the old Jim Reeves chestnut, "An Old Christmas Card." Well done, and the price is certainly right. Update: Add to the above "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," "C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S," Gary Glitter's "Another Rock 'n Roll Christmas," "Jingle Bells," "Wombling Merry Christmas," "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "Silent Night." And more to come. Further update: Add "Senor Santa Claus," "Frosty the Snowman," "Mary's Boy Child," "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" to the playlist. Finally: Fill out the playlist with "Merry Christmas Polka," "Silver Bells," "Once In Royal David's City," "When a Child Is Born," "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day," "Mistletoe and Wine," and "White Christmas." Check it out before the link goes dead. Update: Link's dead.
After several years of whispered promises, the band's long-awaited movie is here. Unfortunately, it comes to us without any new Christmas songs, unless you count Fred Armisen singing "Silent Night." The soundtrack CD consists entirely of instrumental background music from the film, which is kind of neat in a cheap sci-fi way, but it will never pass for holiday music. As for the film, you can tell it was made by a small crew of first-time moviemakers on a small budget, but since it was made as a kind of homage to cheesy old-school space movies, that's really not a handicap. The plot eventually revolves around people on a Mars station slowly losing their grip on Christmas Eve, including a guy who commits suicide in a Santa suit. The mood is attributed to a combination of a faulty oxygen supply and the notion that "humans weren't made to live in space." A mute alien lands at the station and takes over the Santa suit, and his presence appears to bring calm to the station. There are a lot of disjointed narrative points along the way, and the dialogue is weighed down by a surplus of delete-able expletives. Also, there's a bit of an obsession with vaginas, including people who have them for heads in a dream sequence. My guess is that folks who are excessively fond of 50s space and monster movies will catch a lot of homages -- I noticed the opening scene with the woman inside a plastic bubble bore a slight resemblance to "Barbarella" -- and Flaming Lips fans will find meaning in this that many others won't. The Lips do offer some additional Christmas music, but you have to go to their site and order the vinyl version, which throws in a single with "Silent Night," "It's Christmas Time Again" and "Lord, Can You Hear Me."
Part of Rhino's 50th anniversary commemorative reissue series on the Genius, this actually is not among his seminal Atlantic sides but is a latter-day compilation, roughly 1985, originally done for Columbia Records. As such, it's probably a bit too mellow compared with other recordings mentioned on this site; there's more mainstream jazz and soft blues to this than rock or rhythm 'n blues. Still, this is Ray Charles we're talking about; you cocktail music fans out there, this is the kind of music you ought to be listening to. The bonus cut of "Baby It's Cold Outside" is a duet with Betty Carter from a 1962 ABC single, but it fits right in with the later sides. Update: Another Christmas CD, Ray Charles Celebrates a Gospel Christmas With the Voices of Jubilation, is the soundtrack to a Christmas special released on DVD in 2003. Needless to say, it's more in the gospel line, and Ray throws in his highly touted version of "America the Beautiful" too. Ray's non-Atlantic works appear to be available through Concord Music Group now, including this album.
We've had hip-hop Hanukkahs on the site before, though they were fairly tongue-in-cheek. This one isn't playing the combination for laughs so much, although you can be forgiven for thinking that, as Cohen is the brother of "Ali G" himself, Sasha Baron Cohen. It's a collection of traditional folk songs for the holiday, many rendered in a kind of klezmer-funk fusion, making room for traditional instruments behind modern percussion and bass, and throwing in a bit of reggae and rap as well. "Hanukkah Oh Hannukah," "Dreidel," "Ocho Kandalikas," "My Hanukkah," and more all get this sort of treatment. As this Cohen brother (not to be confused with a Coen brother) is a composer and DJ, it's the approach you might expect. Coming along for the ride are international singing stars like Yasmin Levy, Jules Brookes, Y-Love, Dana Kerstein and Idan Raichel. All told, it's a lively compilation and an enjoyable listening experience.
America's favorite fake pundit steps away from the desk to host the greatest Christmas special of all time (just ask him). It is quite a hoot, as Colbert takes off on the old-school Christmas variety special that used to clog the airwaves at Christmas time back in the day. As one of the features of such shows was a cast of big stars "coincidentally" wandering onto the set, Colbert follows the blueprint with the help of Elvis Costello, John Legend, Willie Nelson, Toby Keith, Feist and Jon Stewart. Colbert himself gets things going with "Another Christmas Song," a big-band song about writing the perfect Christmas carol, and wraps up with "A Cold Cold Christmas," a song of lost love. Toby Keith sings "Have I Got a Present For You," which is the ultimate War On Christmas song (listening, Papa Bear?). Feist cracks us up with "Please Be Patient," a take-off on "Angels We Have Heard On High" in which supplicants praying are told "an angel will be with thee shortly," complete with an interlude of tinkertoy hold music. Willie Nelson sings "Little Dealer Boy," which riffs a tiny bit on the Bing 'n Bowie medley while offering some righteous bud to go alongside the frankincense and myrrh. Legend gets in a little Al Green rhythm with "Nutmeg," the perfect accent to your holiday eggnog. At least I think that's what he's singing about. Stewart sings "Can I Interest You in Hanukkah," which triggers the requisite alert, and Elvis Costello gets out of doing a Christmas song by bringing along his show-closer "What's So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding," here done by the whole cast. I should note that Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne was a co-writer of the original songs from this show along with David Javerbaum of "The Daily Show." The show's on DVD but there's a soundtrack disc as well. From 2008.
Yeah, bet you haven't thought about this guy since his "Saturday Night Live" days. Well, he's still out there, and he came back recently with this, which is more of a monologue over a musical bed of people singing the title to the tune of "100 Bottles of Beer On the Wall." It's about 14 minutes long, in keeping with his expressed wish to create "the worst Christmas song ever." The fact that he talks over the whole thing shows he at least has a bit of remorse at the notion once it gets under way. It's worth hearing, though, as he talks about how he came to write his other Christmas songs, "I Won't Be Twisting This Christmas" and "Santa's Lament." Visitors to his website had the opportunity to buy a CD with all three songs on it, but it's apparently sold out. This song can still be downloaded, however. Sarducci claims he's planning another Christmas song, "Frosty the Snow," about Frosty before he was made into a snowman. We'll keep an eye out for it.
You'll come for the surface noise, you'll stay for what sounds like a child's vocal but leaves a tiny bit of doubt, and the spoken word bit provided by a wanna-be hipster will close the deal on this 1960 single. And that's before the song's punchline puts the jolly elf in his skivvies. Yet another 365 Days Project archived this time by Bob Purse, available for download at the site.
More Beatles-related tomfoolery, this all-instrumental album recasts 12 Christmas standards as the tunes on a Bizarro World version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Essentially, Tom Marolda of the band The Toms lays the arrangements from the various songs off "Pepper" over the Christmas songs. So we get "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" done as both versions of "Sgt. Pepper," "The Christmas Song" as "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds." "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" as "Getting Better," and so on, until we get to a medley of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "Good King Wenceslas" in place of "A Day in the Life." He maintains the playing order of the original album for dramatic effect as well. While this is an imaginative idea and the album is listenable, the dramatic effect of the juxtapositions is minimal to these ears. Possibly this is the site's prejudice in favor of vocal music manifesting here, but there's a certain "Eureka!" factor we get when listening to the Rubber Band doing "Mary's Boy Child" as "Nowhere Man" that none of the songs on this album can duplicate. Nevertheless, this is fun to have around, and two bonus tracks, "Fake Christmas" by The Toms and "Surviving Christmas" by Horizontal Ladies Club, are good power pop that add value to this CD. UPDATE: Amazon only has collector's prices, but Not Lame appears to still have it in stock at popular prices.
This was out in 2003 but I had no idea it was a Christmas record at that time. "Bo Selecta" is a British TV show starring Avid Merrion on independent Channel 4. Haven't seen it, being on the wrong side of the Atlantic to do so, but I'm told it's sketch comedy with lots of celebrity impersonations and send-ups. This bit of whacked-out rap-rock makes a right cheeky noise, guv'nor, and if you can stand the singer's references to being so happy he wet himself, you might just get a kick out of this. Can't quite explain how Christmas becomes "Crimbo," but I assume it's the same impulse that causes the old country's tabloid headline writers to dub Sir Paul "Macca," Michael Jackson "Jacko" and anybody named Gary "Gazza." British import only and out of print, although oddly Amazon has a karaoke version. UPDATE: A second Bo Selecta Christmas disc features Patsy Kensit and Davina McCall in a slightly holiday-slanted version of "I Got You Babe." Naturally, having two women and one man singing the song leads to some menage a trois allusions.
With a title like that, how can anybody resist? This Tennessee-based ensemble has several albums of red-state novelties to its credit, and for 2007 they moved on to Christmas. Nashville journeymen have a history of collaborating with this bunch, possibly attracted by Antsy's songwriting skills. The leadoff batter for this batch, "Christmas at the Trailer Park," is good fun, a more in-your-face version of Robert Earl Keen's "Merry Christmas From the Family." "The King of Christmas" invokes Elvis without resorting to a bad EP impersonation, "She's Underneath the Mistletoe Again" invokes suspicions of a faithless girlfriend and "Mary Lou's Christmas List" is the saga of the singer's mom, who does her holiday shopping year-round with the help of the lay-away plan. (Mom's probably passed on by now, 'cause if natural causes didn't get her then Wal-Mart's ending its lay-away plan probably did.) Good novelties, but since this involves country music folks we get a big blast of bathos and excess sincerity on the traditional carol covers like "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," "Auld Lang Syne Revisited" and "O Little Town of Bethlehem," not to mention the things-were-better-in-the-old-days message of "The Elves' Strike."
This 1996 album is the male counterpart to the Venus Envy lesbian Christmas album, and while it has a few laughs along the way it also has more explicit sex language. But hey, this isn't anything new to anyone who's read the Starr report, right? Love goddess Judy Tenuta makes a cameo appearance. The band revisited Christmas with Homo For the Holidays in 2001, more of the same, with such song titles as "Out in the Bleak Midwinter," "Frozen Assets" done to "Baby It's Cold Outside," "GWM ISO..." and so on. This one's still available, the first one not so much.
From the era of "party albums," those sex-obsessed comedy recordings of the 60s made mainly by black "chitlin' circuit" comics, we get this 1999 collection from Blowfly, one of the best-known performers from that era. I don't have to draw you too much of a picture: we get 14 familiar Christmas tunes that Blowfly sings with X-rated parody lyrics. This is the kind of thing he's been doing for years, so if you're familiar with him you'll probably get a charge out of this. If you're not familiar with this sort of thing, proceed cautiously -- a lot of people won't find this nearly as funny as you might. UPDATE: There's a previous single, "Blowfly's Christmas Party" backed with "Blowfly's New Year's Party," made in 1980 for TK Disco, according to Goldmine's "Christmas Record Price Guide." There are 7- and 12-inch versions listed by vinyl dealers on various Internet sites.
Sometimes these budget compilations strike gold, as I've mentioned elsewhere on this site. This batch of tunes was custom-recorded on the cheap for the LaserLight label in 1997, so there is no actual roster of artists you might recognize. However, I've included this here because you might need a hard-rock version of "Dance of the Toy Soldiers," a Latin "Let It Snow," a rap "You Better Watch Out," a surf version of "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," or a reggae "Frosty the Sno Mon." A little on the sterile side performance-wise, but there are some good ideas here, and LaserLight is a bargain label.
The Christmas record of 1996, and possibly the decade. In a year when numerous music sales records set by The Beatles were smashed by The Beatles, the Rubber Band, a noted Danish Beatles copy band, put together 11 solid remakes of Christmas tunes set to arrangements of Beatles songs. "Please Please Me" becomes "Jingle Bell Rock," "I Saw Her Standing There" becomes "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," and their "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" is not based on Phil Spector's arrangement, but on "Eight Days a Week." Buy this and play "Spot the Arrangement" with your Beatle-fan friends. The performances are top-notch, although the voices don't sound that much like the individual Beatles, so they settle for getting the Liverpool accents and the attitude right. UPDATE: Apparently the boys were good enough to fool the Internet; there are folks around who swear their version of "Last Christmas" actually is the Beatles. END UPDATE. It's hard to find but absolutely worth the effort. The link to Amazon takes you to third-party resellers; CD Universe claims to have new copies. Larry Mancini of Isba Music Entertainment in Quebec informs us the album remains available direct from his firm for $15 US including shipping and handling. Write to Isba Music Entertainment Inc., 2860 Blvd de La Concorde east, Laval, Quebec, Canada H7E 2B4. That info is several years old, however; there's a website for Isba, but it currently features only Francophone singers.
Rivers has been a wacky morning show DJ for years, and he has his own website where you can hear fresh-baked parodies all the time. Back in 1987 he started issuing full albums of Christmas parody songs, and this is the first one. Topical parodies don't always wear well over the long run, so "O Come All Ye Grateful Dead-heads" ("O Come All Ye Faithful") might seem a bit quaint, and that goes for the parts of "The 12 Pains of Christmas" that sound like Archie Bunker, too. But other songs on this two-decade-old collection, like "Didn't I Get This Last Year" ("Do You Hear What I Hear"), "The Restroom Door Said Gentlemen" ("God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen"), "Wreck the Malls," "We Wish You Weren't Living With Us," and "I'm Dressing Up Like Santa (When I Get Out On Parole)" are timeless. The performances are impeccable, contributing to their ability to raise a smile even after all this time. Subsequent Rivers collections are also reviewed on this site.
It's Dan Hicks of Hot Licks fame, now gigging as Dan Hicks and the Acoustic Warriors, and this is old-style country-folk-swing adaptations of popular Christmas songs for the most part. Other names you might recognize on some of these recordings include Austin DeLone, Paul Rogers and Norton Buffalo. The Christmas Jug Band tradition began in 1976 as a live gig in Mill Valley, Calif., and Mistletoe Jam is the first time the group committed the music to disc, on vinyl in 1987. Trad carols like "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," "O Holy Night" and "Twas the Night Before Christmas" lay alongside musical parodies like "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Christmas Card," "Gee Rudolf, Ain't I Been Good To You," and "Rudolph the Bald-Headed Reindeer." The Mack Rice number "Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin'" joins "Somebody Stole My Santa Claus Suit" as pre-chosen novelties, and everything wraps up conventionally with "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve." Further albums in the series are mentioned elsewhere on the site.
This pair of beer-swilling Canadian brothers, created by SCTV alumni Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis, had such a cult following for their "Kanadian Korner" sketches on that show that they turned their success into a 1983 movie ("Strange Brew," rated by my old buddy Jim Damp as one of the great hangover movies, a genre that deserves its own website) and the album Great White North, from which comes this version of the holiday classic, in which they sing, "On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, a beer........." Subsequent verses concern their attempts to make this change to the lyrics scan correctly. Good fun if you're familiar with the sketches.
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MxPx has long been known as a Christian punk band, though they've recorded a fair number of secular-sounding tunes along the way, including a surprising number of covers. They've also recorded a number of original Christmas songs over time, and for 2009 they've compiled them into an album for easier access. The title song kicks things off in the title spirit, kicks up a notch with "Christmas Day," which has been around for almost a decade, and they don't let up much in tempo for the entire 13-song playlist. Despite the punk readymades, they don't go in for "shocking" lyrics, and in fact their message across the disc is mostly positive and family-friendly. This is not to say they don't have a little fun, as in "Christmas Night of the Living Dead," in which the singer battles zombies, or the "Late Great Snowball Fight of 2006." They do jab at a recent Christmas classic in "So This Is Christmas?," though the message is one of doing the best with what you have. "You're the One I Miss (This Christmas)" is the requisite holiday love song, and "Christmas Party" celebrates the end of the preparations and the beginning of holiday fun. And they add a few lyrics of their own to disc-ender "Auld Lang Syne." All told, this is good fun to listen to all the way through, and it may keep Green Day from cutting a Christmas album anytime soon.
I haven't been down with Putumayo's prodigious output of Christmas discs in the past, but they sent this one along and I noticed that most of the playlist has already been reviewed on this site, so I figured it was worth mentioning. Among the cuts from Mistletunes history are Leon Redbone's "Let It Snow," Big Bad Voodoo Daddy's version of "Zat You, Santa Claus," Brave Combo's "Jolly Old St. Nick," Christmas Jug Band's "Boogie Woogie Santa Claus," and Martin Sexton's "Holly Jolly Christmas." Add to that Johnny Bregar and his ukelele on "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," Deana Carter's swingy "Winter Wonderland," Sam Bush taking a "Sleigh Ride" with banjo, Debbie Davis and Matt Perrine bringing back the ukelele and adding accordion to "Mele Kalikimaka," Kate Rusby's "Here We Come A-Wassailing," and Lars Edegran with Big Al Carson doing "Frosty the Snowman" Dixieland style. The emphasis is on American roots music on this collection, with a bias toward making the playlist kid-friendly, and on that score it succeeds. And while it's not exactly balls-out rock 'n roll, it does have that hint of irreverence we're looking for here.Fresh off their first compilation from last year. the Indiecater label is back with a new collection of alt-indie-rock-pop Christmas tunes from acts on their roster and from elsewhere. Adam and Darcie kick things off with a dreamy "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," Allo Darlin', fresh off Cherryade's compilation, keep a candle burning for ukelele music with this solo strum of what is normally a duet song, "Baby It's Cold Outside," and Betty and the Cavaleros go lounge with "Hey! I'm Your Gift Today." Loxly gives us an unspeakably tragic take on the life of "Mrs. Kris Kringle," in which she shaves his beard in his sleep, unpacks the sleigh and burns the kids' letters. I Hate You Just Kidding pick up the duet baton from Allo Darlin' with their own "It's Fun To Do Bad Things" for Christmas, The Garlands grab a little of that Pet Sounds magic for their original "Christmas Song," and Candyclaws gins up a kind of slapdash wall of sound for their tune "Snowdrift Wish." The band Sweet Jane puts "Silent Night" to a Velvet Underground-like backing, and Standard Fare does a kind of talk-sing on "Tinsel Politics," in which the family battles about where to go and what to do on Christmas are aired out. Not a lot of uptempo stuff on this collection, but at least these folks are being mopey about some thought-provoking topics. Get it from Indiecater's website.
Had this up on the old site, but what the heck, let's see it again. The Philco Brothers are seen here covering this great tune originally by The Dogmatics, from the semi-legendary alt-indie-rock Christmas compilation Yuletunes.
This NY band's website hasn't been updated in a couple of years, but Kenn Rowell wrote in from England and told me I should have this on my site, and he's right. Don't know if this can actually be acquired at this point, but as long as YouTube has the video, we can all listen to, and watch, this cool 2004 song about a rock 'n roll landmark.
Ken Kessler is a friend of the Mistletunes site, having contributed many tips about hot rocking Christmas tunes over the years, and we've also posted some of his questions about obscure recordings over the years. He's taken his Christmas obsession to the Web with an Internet radio station, The Sounds of Christmas, and for 2009 he's moved on to curate his very own Christmas compilation, proceeds from which will benefit the Hollywood Charity Horse Show. Not surprisingly, he named the collection after his radio station, and it's 15 selections from off the beaten path. Among the highlights is the first-ever CD release of the doo-wop a capella "Winter Wonderland" by Huey Lewis and the News, which was originally released to the fan club only back in 1984; a strong rocking version of "Santa Claus Is Back In Town" from Richard Marx; Stephen Bishop's "Rock Little Reindeer"; the Jimmy Buffett-styled "Christmastime on the Beach" by Roy Holliday; Hayseed Dixie's fabulous rock/bluegrass fusion "Misty Wonderland Hop," combining "Winter Wonderland" with the Led Zeppelin classic; Pete Hopkins' modern r'nb take on "(I'll Be) Home For Christmas"; and a cute, if a bit dated, novelty, DJ Ice Z Ice and the Fresh Elf doing an old-school rap in chipmunk voices with "The Night Before Christmas." William Shatner's "Good King Wenceslas" is his usual overly portentious dramatic reading over a musical bed, something that might get old fast if you're not a Denny Crane fan. The remaining songs on this album track much closer to middle of the road, including former Styx-man Dennis DeYoung's "When I Hear a Christmas Song," but as the album's for charity I assume Ken made his picks to attract a wider audience. Nevertheless, there are some good rocking reasons to go with this collection. For a deeper look at this disc, visit Ken's MySpace page.
Some of you folks are fans of Internet radio, so I'm passing on this bit of news from AccuRadio, which has announced a veritable feast of Christmas-themed channels, including rock, r'nb, Latin and many others. The press release notes holiday-themed Internet radio channels currently available on the AccuHolidays.com website cover genres like rock, pop, country, jazz, classical, r'nb, and Latin, focus on various themes (such as "Old-Fashioned Christmas"), and even play nothing but many different renditions of a single song, like a "Chestnuts Roasting" channel which features hundreds of versions of the classic tune "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)." By early December, the website will offer a total of over 40 different channels, according to site officials.
While we're talking Internet radio, don't forget friend of the site JJRadio.com, the Web-based rock radio station that goes wild with Christmas offerings when the season draws nigh.
Not everybody who pitches music to the site has read every word generated in the past, yet I'm occasionally surprised when something arrives here that isn't quite within the Mistletunes parameters. In this case, I've noted in the past that we don't do much with kids' music. Of course, kid music has over the past decade or so become a genre unto itself, as a wide-ranging cast of musicians discovers targeting the little ones can be lucrative. So when The Hipwaders sent me their 2009 Christmas disc without specifically telling me they were a kiddie band, I was a bit concerned, at least until I listened to it. Considering I've enjoyed kid-themed albums by bands like Barenaked Ladies and They Might Be Giants, I've established that the dividing line should be whether adults would be embarrassed to listen to the music on their own, and on this disc, The Hipwaders manage to land on the right side of the not-embarrassing line. Some of their gags, like "Santasploitation," are, after all, a bit over the heads of anybody who wasn't alive in the 1970s. I could see parents getting a little sick of this if they let their kids play it over and over, as it's relentlessly upbeat. Nevertheless, there's plenty of rock/pop crunch on such things as "Wake Up," "Yes, It's Christmas" and "Tinsel and Lights." "It's Wintertime" lays down some white-boy soul grooves, "Santa's Train" is an old-school country train song without the angst, and "Christmas Vicuna" has a slightly tropical groove set to a story of a vicuna that takes Rudolph's place at the head of the reindeer team. Good work, and the kids should dig it too.And we'll only stand down when radio stations stand up and give us some more rockin' Christmas tunes. Welcome to 2006 and the first Mistletunes disc to be available to the public. We did this by creating an iMix (in a truncated form, unfortunately; 4 million songs and I managed to find nine that iTunes didn't have). Anyway, on with the show:
"Merry Xmas Everybody," Camp Freddy -- Don't know these guys, but they did a killer take on the old Slade chestnut from the early 70s, the golden age of British rock 'n roll Christmas chart singles.
"My Girlfriend (Forgot Me This Christmas)," The Click Five -- An entertaining original from this modern rock band. The title pretty much sums up the plot of this holiday rocker.
"She's Coming Home For Xmas," The Beautiful Losers -- This American/Japanese duo amalgamates folk, pop and rock in a way that should bring back the late 60s and early 70s for you folks who still remember that era.
"Hang On Rudolph," The Ebineezer Scrooge Appreciation Society -- Love it when folks do mash-ups the old-fashioned way, in this case singing the lyrics to "Rudolph" over "Hang On Sloopy" and, for good measure, "Louie Louie."
"Chanukkah's Da Bomb," Chutzpah -- We always look to include at least one ode to the Jewish holiday, and what goes better together than Hanukkah and hip-hop, eh? Matisyahu, eat your heart out.
"Frosty the Snowman ," Borigua Boys and DJ Mattox -- From a bargain collection of reggaeton Christmas music, and sung in Spanish to boot. You can almost hear Frosty melting in the Caribbean sun from the very start.
"The First Noel/Mary Mary," Sarah McLachlan -- And why wouldn't we take this opportunity to swing from the southern seas to the frosty wilds of Canada with Sarah? Especially since it's getting a little less frosty up there lately (Al Gore, white courtesy phone....). The India-style riffing and percussion starting in the middle is a nice touch.
"Get Behind Me Santa," Sufjan Stevens -- From his Christmas box set, seeing the obsession of Christmas music collectors and raising us five discs of holiday music. The antique carols are a little precious, but then so is this and we ran with it anyway.
"I Wanna Kiss You This Christmas," David Carswell and Megan Barnes -- Shambling, jangly power pop from the Team Mint Christmas collection.
"Christmas," Cowboy and Spin Girl -- A melodic holiday rock shuffle from this duo I found pretty much by accident on iTunes.
"Christmas in the Trailer Park," Antsy McClain and the Trailer Park Troubadors -- This guy is chock full of red-state novelties, and this one is a bit more rock than country, so enjoy yourselves.
"Jingle Bells," Richard Cheese -- The king of 80s new wave parodies set to cocktail lounge arrangements finally went all Christmas for the kiddies. I shouldn't say more, it's a one-joke arrangement but it's a good joke.
"Jingle Bell Rock," Pas/Cal -- From A Very Magistery Christmas, this is a rare attempt to do the song in a different arrangement than the familiar one.
"Snow Plus Christmas," The Pearlfishers -- I found this Scottish band on a German website, improbably enough. These guys throw together bits and pieces ranging from Pet Shop Boys to Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys on their album, A Sunflower at Christmas, and this is one of the upbeat numbers.
"Nuttin' But Spam," Robert Lund -- A 21st century take on the old novelty "Nuttin' For Christmas." Co-written by Manitoba M. Parsnip, Deadbeat F. Busybody and Mastered B. Goggles. (Kidding.)
"Calling on Mary," Aimee Mann -- Regular Mistletunes fans may notice that Aimee keeps showing up on our collections, but she keeps bringing the goods. This original song is from her first full CD of Christmas goodies.
"Christmas Tree on Fire," Holly Golightly -- An impossible-to-resist tune about a char-broiled Tannenbaum, on Valentine's Day yet. White Stripes fans may recall Holly from a guest shot on the Elephant album.
"Father Christmas," The Features -- Not the Kinks classic, this band delivers a great original stomper of its own for the holiday.
"Last Christmas," Jimmy Eat World -- The Wham song gets an intense reading from this popular band.
"A Great Big Sled," The Killers -- A fun original from this hip little combo, featuring a guest vocal from Toni Halliday. And who can disagree with this lyric: "Little boys have action toys for brains?" One look at the cover art from this collection and you'll probably apply that sentiment to some big boys too.
"Christmas Ain't Christmas," Smash Mouth -- The soulful O'Jays holiday tune gets a romping, stomping bar-band treatment from this bunch of romper-stompers.
"Merry Christmas Baby," Bootsy Collins -- Yes, the leader of Bootsy's Rubber Band himself. Here he takes the classic blues tune that arguably started the whole rock Christmas genre and turns it out all funky and stuff.
"Christmas in Fallujah," Jefferson Pepper -- Normally we like to go out on an uptempo note, but this wartime lament seemed like an appropriate way to wrap things up this year.
Here's the track list for my personal CD of Christmas tunes. This goes out to a small number of people, but a wide variety of ages and sensibilities, requiring me to factor out gratuitous vulgarity and controversial content, so I reluctantly left off "Merry Christmas Emily" by Cracker and "Bizarre Christmas Incident" by Ben Folds.
"Santa's Got a Brand New Bag," SHeDAISY - I was quite frankly stunned at this coming from a group ostensibly considered country. It's an original, not based on the James Brown tune, and it's a rollicking good CD opener.
"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," Fab Four - From one of their two new Christmas CDs, A Fab Four Christmas, the Beatles imitators lay this classic carol over the arrangement for "Help," with excellent results.
"Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas," The Eels - Keeping things uptempo in the early going, from the British benefit compilation It's a Cool, Cool Christmas.
"Do They Know It's (Snoopy's) Christmas," The Kustard Kings - A brilliant melding of one serious and one frivolous tune in a strong organ-led instrumental.
"Silent Night," Angie Aparo - From the 99X compilation, it's hard to find a good pop/rock version of this carol because it's so solemn that people usually just give in and do it straight. This version takes a less sedate look at the tune.
"BeClaus I Got High," Bob Rivers - The reigning king of Christmas parodies hooks the popular Afroman ditty up with the holiday on his White Trash Christmas CD.
"O Little Town of Bethlehem," from A Supervox Christmas - I'm always up for a little reggae, especially as this pairs off nicely against the previous tune.
"Merry Xmas Everybody," Oasis - Originally by Slade, this more sedate take by the Britpoppers is a nice change of pace.
"Angels Running," Cher - Yes, Cher. This is off Target's cheapie compilation, I don't know if it's on any of her albums. Even though it's not particularly Christmasy from a lyrical standpoint, it fits in nicely in this collection. It stands out simply because she's NOT shrieking her way through it like the vast majority of today's wannabe divas would.
"Donna and Blitzen," Badly Drawn Boy - A nice bit of holiday fluff from the "About a Boy" soundtrack, although I found it on the Seasonal Greetings compilation.
"Maybe This Christmas," Ron Sexsmith - The title song from the 2002 Nettwerk compilation, it's unassuming but grows on you.
"Mr. Mojo's Christmas," The Wise Men - I rave about this single elsewhere on the site, of course; a wonderful parody of The Doors.
"The Man Who Would Be Santa," Vertical Horizon - A nice midtempo original from the Aware Greatest Hits compilation.
"Merry Christmas Brother," Cynthia Gayneau - Another original, a little sappier, from Violent Femmes' Gordon Gano and his Hitting the Ground album, which is the soundtrack to a movie. It also features cameos from John Cale, Lou Reed, They Might Be Giants and a few others.
"God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," Crash Test Dummies - A bit of insincere cocktail jazz with the contrabass voice of Brad Roberts, but it works nevertheless.
"Blue Holiday," The Shirelles - I didn't even know this existed until I found it on the Santa Clause 2 soundtrack. The 60s girl group belts out this holiday ballad.
"The Wildest Christmas," The Boys Next Door - This is from a German compilation of 50s rockabilly Christmas tunes. It's a little poppier than that, though, and is concerned with Santa getting caught in the chimney. Good for giggles.
"Snow Day," Bleu - It's a shame this cool rocker is an independent release out of Boston, which means it won't get to be the children's winter anthem it deserves to be.
"Me and Mrs. Claus," Bob Rivers - Yeah, I know, the second cut from his latest album. There are certain people receiving this CD who will swallow their dentures when they hear this.
"Together at Christmas," moe - One of two originals on the band's just-released holiday album, and the more upbeat of the two.
"The Fruitcake Song," 5 Chinese Brothers - It's so rare to get a Christmas tune set to the Bo Diddley beat that I just lunge for them when I do find them.
"Boogie Woogie Santa Claus," Brian Setzer Orchestra - Rockabilly with horns. I used his "Jingle Bells" in a previous year's CD.
"Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," John Lennon and Yoko Ono - Besides being my personal favorite of all rock Christmas tunes, the Vietnam-era sentiment of the subtitle somehow manages to be relevant nearly every year. Or haven't you been reading the papers?
It's a new holiday, so let a man come out and burn a mix CD. Time for the 2004 rundown:
"Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy," Mag Seven -- Kicking it old school this year, I decided to open and close with a couple of "Nutcracker"-related items. This one's from Electric Ornaments, a 2000 indy-rock compilation on Idol Records.
"Single at Christmas," The Crossbank Strays -- This regional British band was shooting for an early '70s English pop chart vibe, specifically one as laid down by Roy Wood's Wizzard on their classic "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day." I'd say they came pretty close with this ode to dating over the holidays.
"Hey Santa," Chris Isaak -- The rockabilly crooner decided to take on Christmas this year, so here he is with this scratchin' little shuffle about the big guy in red.
"Back Door Santa," Jet -- I said pretty much everything about this cut back at the main Mistletunes site, except to add that it does this elderly hipster good to know that young white guys still want to be middle-aged black soul crooners when they grow up.
"Merry Christmas Darling," Mary Karlzen -- She's a country-rocker who knows a good opportunity to rock out when she sees it. Here she puts a beat to this Carpenters standard. Taste-tippers may recall she did a pretty sharp version of "Run Rudolph Run" several years ago, too.
"Wrap It," American Comedy Network -- A fine holiday parody of the Devo hit "Whip It."
"Elf's Lament," Barenaked Ladies -- These crazy Canadians went for broke this year with an entire CD of Christmas goodness. This is one of their originals, featuring their trademark understated wit on the topic of holiday ennui.
"Missile Tow," Mosquitos -- This is a free download from their website, or at least it remains so through the holiday, anyway. This trio has some fun mixing cultures both musically and lyrically -- hope Bill O'Reilly doesn't find out.
"Mr. Heatmiser," Big Bad Voodoo Daddy -- From their newly released Christmas CD, this cover of the song from the classic TV special "Night Without a Santa Claus" features the band laying down that brand of nouveau swing that made them semi-famous.
"Proper Crimbo!," Avid Merrion -- I'm never sure when I compile these CDs whether I have enough in the way of tunes that make listeners go "WHAT?" Having tracked this down from Britain, I'm confident there is at least one tune in this collection that will perform that function. Merrion is the star of "Bo Selecta," a comedy sketch show from England's commercial Channel 4 (which is why you're unlikely to encounter this on BBC America).
"Carol of the Meows," Guster -- Sure, the Jingle Cats did this, but how often does a real band do something like this with a straight face? The Boston pop-rockers dropped this at the iTunes Music Store.
"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," Aimee Mann -- One for the "Magnolia" fans in the audience. I can just see Bill Macy unwrapping his Christmas presents to this with his back to the living room window, as frogs rain down on the lawn .... (Guess you had to see the movie.)
"Lonely Without You (This Christmas)," Mick Jagger and Joss Stone -- A great performance from the soundtrack of the remade "Alfie." I love these big showy soul ballads.
"Pimp My Sleigh," Houseman (From Galactic) -- This is from a new collection of New Orleans-styled tunes called Christmas Gumbo, and it's one of the less likely places I would have expected to find this original novelty tune about, well, pimping your ride.
"I'll Be Home," Negative Space -- Another original, this modern rocker comes from The Central-PA Christmas Compilation.
"The Christmas Song," The Raveonettes -- Swedish garage rockers grab a famous title and graft their own catchy number to it. This should have been on last year's compilation, but I downloaded it from iTunes and promptly forgot I had it. We old people have to adjust to keeping track of tunes that don't arrive on CDs....
"First Snow of the Year," Hawksley Workman -- I love how he gets all emotional over the first snow but warns us in advance that he's likely to have a nervous breakdown if he's still shoveling this stuff off his walk in March. But then, he lives in Canada.
"Tired of the Hanukkah Song," American Comedy Network -- And so am I, and so, probably, are you. Tell Adam Sandler it's past time for him to write a Boxing Day song. No, wait....
"Do You Hear What I Hear," Copeland -- This guy takes the Beth Orton/Dido approach to the carol, mixing the folky singing with the electronica backing.
"Christmas Time is Here," Chomsky -- Couldn't resist the opportunity to use a more rocked-up version of this song, typically done as a ballad.
"I Got Coal," Deathray Davies -- I like how you can't tell whether they're going to break into Iggy Pop's "The Passenger" or Heart's "Magic Man" before they finally cut loose with an original musing on what it means to be naughty rather than nice. Can't wait for Bernie Kerik's cover version of this song.
"Mele Kalikimaka," Poptart Monkeys -- A neat modern acoustic rock arrangement for this classic tune about Christmas in Hawaii.
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," PETTY BOOKA -- When I think "Japanese female ukelele singing duo," I immediately think someone should record them performing a popular Christmas classic as a mambo. And you should too.
"It Doesn't Often Snow at Christmas," Pet Shop Boys -- These guys must have abandoned their native England for the south of France when they wrote this title. Props to the guy who e-mailed an mp3 of this to me, as it was done for their fan club and is otherwise completely unavailable to the public.
"Takin' Care of Christmas," Randy Bachman -- That's Bachman as in Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and this is that band's biggest hit song recast as a Christmas tune. Believe it or not, this predates "Christmas is All Around," the similarly re-tinseled Troggs song featured in the movie "Love Actually."
"Nutrocker," Shalini -- B. Bumble and the Stingers did this back in the early 60s as a follow-up to their hit "Bumble Boogie," a rocked-up version of "Flight of the Bumblebee." This, obviously, is the same deal applied to "The Nutcracker." Which is where we came in. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Here's an all-new compilation (OK, I recycled a couple of oldies from my cassette days, but the vast majority of you didn't know me then, so it's all good) from the various theatres of the War On Christmas. (That's a war Mistletunes mix disc recipients win every year.) For those of you only seeing this in a Web browser, the stockings on the disc cover at left have Joe McCarthy and Bill O'Reilly's names on them.
"Hanukkah and Christmas Hand in Hand," Huffamoose -- A cute, if a bit shambling, rewrite of "Winter Wonderland" tailor made for 2005, a year in which Christmas is also the first night of Hanukkah, a cosmic coincidence which may explain why I was literally carpet-bombed with great pop and rock takes on the Jewish observance this year. In honor of that, I've put a few more than usual Hanukkah selections on this year's compilation.
"Christmas in the Snow," Marah -- I hadn't been following this Philly band's career closely, so their recording of an entire Christmas album gave me an excuse to get a little deeper into them. This isn't a lot like their non-holiday records, but it is plenty of fun.
"Who Let the Elves Out," Robert Lund -- I don't think I have to draw you much of a word picture as to what this sounds like, now do I?
"Ocho Kandelikas," Hip Hop Hoodios -- Found this Hanukkah stomper on one of those Hungry For Music compilations (excellent charity if music looms large in your life, by the way). If the band's name leads you to believe this tune is a Latin groove set off with a hard rock bridge, well, you're right, but you probably don't do well on those parts of standardized tests where they ask you to correlate similes: "A is to B as C is to D...."
"Christmas in America," Melissa Etheridge -- A fairly obvious choice, I'll admit, but I've always had a soft spot for the girl. Besides, we need a "come home for the holidays" lament on the playlist, right?
"St. Patrick's Day," John Mayer -- Fooled me at first, too, but this is a well-written and sincere Christmas ballad from a few years ago. This year, of course, he's decided he wants to be a blues guy, but as we used to say, it's a free country, offer void where prohibited.
"Christmas Everyday," Rosie Flores -- This Tex-Mex spitfire fakes north and throws us a little Motown on this horn-led holiday original. Not to be confused with the song of the same title by Smokey and the Miracles, nevertheless it's right in the same sort of groove. (Are we still allowed to talk about "grooves" in the post-vinyl era?)
"The Man in the Santa Suit," Fountains of Wayne -- I forgot I had this slice of pop-rock heaven until the Wayne boys put it on this past year's odds 'n sods collection, Out-Of-State Plates. Love how the kids think the Santa dude looks like Jerry Garcia, rest his soul....
"Latke Clan," The Leevees -- Out of left field came these guys with Hanukkah Rocks, a whole album of power pop dedicated to Hanukkah, and Jewish-American culture in general. I picked this because it's more overtly about Hanukkah than some of the other tunes on their CD.
"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," Jack Johnson -- I like how Jack rewrote the last verse so Rudolph could toss a little bit of attitude back at the "other reindeer" who "used to laugh and call him names." Gives ol' Rudy a bit of street cred.
"A Change at Christmas (Say It Isn't So)," Flaming Lips -- Wayne Coyne, the Lips' leader, is reputed to be a bigger Christmas head than any five people who visit this site, so it's odd this is one of only two original holiday tunes the band has recorded. (They covered "White Christmas" once too.) Perhaps the band is saving the A-material for its long-rumored movie "Christmas On Mars."
"What Do Bad Girls Get?," Joan Osborne -- You'd have the blues too if the good girls were getting all your Christmas gifts. Damn dirty good girls.
"It's So Chic to be Pregnant at Christmas," Nancy White -- The rhetorical answer to the above question.
"Verhanukkah," Kisswhistle -- A great parody of the Elvis Costello song "Veronica" that also tells the story of the Jewish observance.
"Office Christmas Bash," The Fabulettes -- A humorous ode to the one social event of the year that can send your career into a permanent nosedive.
"The Santa Claus Walk," Dwight Twilley -- The power pop veteran provides us with a shiny new holiday dance craze. You can put away your copies of "Macarena Christmas" now. (Just so you know, there really is such a record.)
"River," Aimee Mann -- A fresh cover of Joni Mitchell's melancholy ode to the holiday season is always welcome, and Aimee is a really good candidate to deliver this message.
"Stop the Cavalry," Jona Lewie -- I can't push "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" at you every year it's pertinent, so this poppy little number delivers a similar message from a soldier's point of view. Because at Mistletunes.com, we support the troops.
"On Christmas I Got Nothing," Chuck Brodsky -- Who better to deliver the Hanukkah message than Bob Dylan? He's not returning our calls, though, so Brodsky leaps into the breach with this witty impersonation.
"Away in a Manger," The Fab Four -- Speaking of impersonations, see if you can tell what Beatles song the arrangement of this classic carol is based upon.
"Christmas Hot Rod Race," 52 Pickup -- Fans of Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen will recognize this as a repurposed "Hot Rod Lincoln." Now if we could just convince these guys to take a crack at "The Virgin Mama Hated Diesels."
"Silent Night," Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns -- As it's the quasi-title song of this collection, we needed a unique version of the carol -- let's face it folks, almost everybody does it exactly the same way -- so I reached back to this band's seminal Christmas album from 1962 for a New Orleans-style interpretation.
"'Zat You, Santa Claus?," The Brian Setzer Orchestra -- A little more New Orleans music before we leave you. The Louis Armstrong classic gets a fresh coat of paint from Setzer, along with one of his patented 32-bar guitar solos.
"Christmas Wrapping," The Waitresses -- Because there's nothing like hooking up for the holidays. (Am I a bad person for noting this song is 25 years old this holiday? It's old enough to hook up itself!)
With all the varieties of rock and pop out there nowadays, serious rock fans might feel the need to cleanse the palate with something from the old days. These guys may be from the modern day, but this 2008 disc is straight-up rockabilly, accent mark over the rock. They put that 50s spirit into an otherwise straight reading of "Jingle Bell Rock," embue "Here Comes Santa Claus" with some serious stomp, make Chuck Berry proud with a cover of his "Run Rudolph Run," and put their own stamp on the holiday with such originals as "Santabilly Boogie," "Blue Suede Santa," "Tangled Up" and "Up 'n At 'Em Old St. Nick." Oh, and clear the dance floor for their version of "Holly Jolly Christmas." Apparent disc closer "Blue Christmas," an uptempo version at that, hides a live version of "Santabilly Boogie," but you have to get past several minutes of jingling bells before it comes up. (Or you could just hit scan, or drag the cursor on your iPod's screen until you find it.) You gotta get it from these guys' website, but it's worth the trouble. Roll over Carl Perkins, and tell Brian Setzer the news.
I'm reviewing this unfinished project because I'm operating under the same constraints the rest of you are -- this is a free song a day from Dec. 1-25, 2008, from the label's website. So far, the band has offered thrashed-out versions of Jona Lewie's "Stop the Cavalry," "Blue Christmas," Mud's "Lonely This Christmas," "Little Drummer Boy," "Santa Baby" and the old Jim Reeves chestnut, "An Old Christmas Card." Well done, and the price is certainly right. Update: Add to the above "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," "C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S," Gary Glitter's "Another Rock 'n Roll Christmas," "Jingle Bells," "Wombling Merry Christmas," "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "Silent Night." And more to come. Further update: Add "Senor Santa Claus," "Frosty the Snowman," "Mary's Boy Child," "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" to the playlist. Finally: Fill out the playlist with "Merry Christmas Polka," "Silver Bells," "Once In Royal David's City," "When a Child Is Born," "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day," "Mistletoe and Wine," and "White Christmas." Check it out before the link goes dead. Update: Link's dead.
After several years of whispered promises, the band's long-awaited movie is here. Unfortunately, it comes to us without any new Christmas songs, unless you count Fred Armisen singing "Silent Night." The soundtrack CD consists entirely of instrumental background music from the film, which is kind of neat in a cheap sci-fi way, but it will never pass for holiday music. As for the film, you can tell it was made by a small crew of first-time moviemakers on a small budget, but since it was made as a kind of homage to cheesy old-school space movies, that's really not a handicap. The plot eventually revolves around people on a Mars station slowly losing their grip on Christmas Eve, including a guy who commits suicide in a Santa suit. The mood is attributed to a combination of a faulty oxygen supply and the notion that "humans weren't made to live in space." A mute alien lands at the station and takes over the Santa suit, and his presence appears to bring calm to the station. There are a lot of disjointed narrative points along the way, and the dialogue is weighed down by a surplus of delete-able expletives. Also, there's a bit of an obsession with vaginas, including people who have them for heads in a dream sequence. My guess is that folks who are excessively fond of 50s space and monster movies will catch a lot of homages -- I noticed the opening scene with the woman inside a plastic bubble bore a slight resemblance to "Barbarella" -- and Flaming Lips fans will find meaning in this that many others won't. The Lips do offer some additional Christmas music, but you have to go to their site and order the vinyl version, which throws in a single with "Silent Night," "It's Christmas Time Again" and "Lord, Can You Hear Me."
Part of Rhino's 50th anniversary commemorative reissue series on the Genius, this actually is not among his seminal Atlantic sides but is a latter-day compilation, roughly 1985, originally done for Columbia Records. As such, it's probably a bit too mellow compared with other recordings mentioned on this site; there's more mainstream jazz and soft blues to this than rock or rhythm 'n blues. Still, this is Ray Charles we're talking about; you cocktail music fans out there, this is the kind of music you ought to be listening to. The bonus cut of "Baby It's Cold Outside" is a duet with Betty Carter from a 1962 ABC single, but it fits right in with the later sides. Update: Another Christmas CD, Ray Charles Celebrates a Gospel Christmas With the Voices of Jubilation, is the soundtrack to a Christmas special released on DVD in 2003. Needless to say, it's more in the gospel line, and Ray throws in his highly touted version of "America the Beautiful" too. Ray's non-Atlantic works appear to be available through Concord Music Group now, including this album.
We've had hip-hop Hanukkahs on the site before, though they were fairly tongue-in-cheek. This one isn't playing the combination for laughs so much, although you can be forgiven for thinking that, as Cohen is the brother of "Ali G" himself, Sasha Baron Cohen. It's a collection of traditional folk songs for the holiday, many rendered in a kind of klezmer-funk fusion, making room for traditional instruments behind modern percussion and bass, and throwing in a bit of reggae and rap as well. "Hanukkah Oh Hannukah," "Dreidel," "Ocho Kandalikas," "My Hanukkah," and more all get this sort of treatment. As this Cohen brother (not to be confused with a Coen brother) is a composer and DJ, it's the approach you might expect. Coming along for the ride are international singing stars like Yasmin Levy, Jules Brookes, Y-Love, Dana Kerstein and Idan Raichel. All told, it's a lively compilation and an enjoyable listening experience.
America's favorite fake pundit steps away from the desk to host the greatest Christmas special of all time (just ask him). It is quite a hoot, as Colbert takes off on the old-school Christmas variety special that used to clog the airwaves at Christmas time back in the day. As one of the features of such shows was a cast of big stars "coincidentally" wandering onto the set, Colbert follows the blueprint with the help of Elvis Costello, John Legend, Willie Nelson, Toby Keith, Feist and Jon Stewart. Colbert himself gets things going with "Another Christmas Song," a big-band song about writing the perfect Christmas carol, and wraps up with "A Cold Cold Christmas," a song of lost love. Toby Keith sings "Have I Got a Present For You," which is the ultimate War On Christmas song (listening, Papa Bear?). Feist cracks us up with "Please Be Patient," a take-off on "Angels We Have Heard On High" in which supplicants praying are told "an angel will be with thee shortly," complete with an interlude of tinkertoy hold music. Willie Nelson sings "Little Dealer Boy," which riffs a tiny bit on the Bing 'n Bowie medley while offering some righteous bud to go alongside the frankincense and myrrh. Legend gets in a little Al Green rhythm with "Nutmeg," the perfect accent to your holiday eggnog. At least I think that's what he's singing about. Stewart sings "Can I Interest You in Hanukkah," which triggers the requisite alert, and Elvis Costello gets out of doing a Christmas song by bringing along his show-closer "What's So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding," here done by the whole cast. I should note that Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne was a co-writer of the original songs from this show along with David Javerbaum of "The Daily Show." The show's on DVD but there's a soundtrack disc as well. From 2008.
Yeah, bet you haven't thought about this guy since his "Saturday Night Live" days. Well, he's still out there, and he came back recently with this, which is more of a monologue over a musical bed of people singing the title to the tune of "100 Bottles of Beer On the Wall." It's about 14 minutes long, in keeping with his expressed wish to create "the worst Christmas song ever." The fact that he talks over the whole thing shows he at least has a bit of remorse at the notion once it gets under way. It's worth hearing, though, as he talks about how he came to write his other Christmas songs, "I Won't Be Twisting This Christmas" and "Santa's Lament." Visitors to his website had the opportunity to buy a CD with all three songs on it, but it's apparently sold out. This song can still be downloaded, however. Sarducci claims he's planning another Christmas song, "Frosty the Snow," about Frosty before he was made into a snowman. We'll keep an eye out for it.
You'll come for the surface noise, you'll stay for what sounds like a child's vocal but leaves a tiny bit of doubt, and the spoken word bit provided by a wanna-be hipster will close the deal on this 1960 single. And that's before the song's punchline puts the jolly elf in his skivvies. Yet another 365 Days Project archived this time by Bob Purse, available for download at the site.
More Beatles-related tomfoolery, this all-instrumental album recasts 12 Christmas standards as the tunes on a Bizarro World version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Essentially, Tom Marolda of the band The Toms lays the arrangements from the various songs off "Pepper" over the Christmas songs. So we get "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" done as both versions of "Sgt. Pepper," "The Christmas Song" as "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds." "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" as "Getting Better," and so on, until we get to a medley of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "Good King Wenceslas" in place of "A Day in the Life." He maintains the playing order of the original album for dramatic effect as well. While this is an imaginative idea and the album is listenable, the dramatic effect of the juxtapositions is minimal to these ears. Possibly this is the site's prejudice in favor of vocal music manifesting here, but there's a certain "Eureka!" factor we get when listening to the Rubber Band doing "Mary's Boy Child" as "Nowhere Man" that none of the songs on this album can duplicate. Nevertheless, this is fun to have around, and two bonus tracks, "Fake Christmas" by The Toms and "Surviving Christmas" by Horizontal Ladies Club, are good power pop that add value to this CD. UPDATE: Amazon only has collector's prices, but Not Lame appears to still have it in stock at popular prices.
This was out in 2003 but I had no idea it was a Christmas record at that time. "Bo Selecta" is a British TV show starring Avid Merrion on independent Channel 4. Haven't seen it, being on the wrong side of the Atlantic to do so, but I'm told it's sketch comedy with lots of celebrity impersonations and send-ups. This bit of whacked-out rap-rock makes a right cheeky noise, guv'nor, and if you can stand the singer's references to being so happy he wet himself, you might just get a kick out of this. Can't quite explain how Christmas becomes "Crimbo," but I assume it's the same impulse that causes the old country's tabloid headline writers to dub Sir Paul "Macca," Michael Jackson "Jacko" and anybody named Gary "Gazza." British import only and out of print, although oddly Amazon has a karaoke version. UPDATE: A second Bo Selecta Christmas disc features Patsy Kensit and Davina McCall in a slightly holiday-slanted version of "I Got You Babe." Naturally, having two women and one man singing the song leads to some menage a trois allusions.
With a title like that, how can anybody resist? This Tennessee-based ensemble has several albums of red-state novelties to its credit, and for 2007 they moved on to Christmas. Nashville journeymen have a history of collaborating with this bunch, possibly attracted by Antsy's songwriting skills. The leadoff batter for this batch, "Christmas at the Trailer Park," is good fun, a more in-your-face version of Robert Earl Keen's "Merry Christmas From the Family." "The King of Christmas" invokes Elvis without resorting to a bad EP impersonation, "She's Underneath the Mistletoe Again" invokes suspicions of a faithless girlfriend and "Mary Lou's Christmas List" is the saga of the singer's mom, who does her holiday shopping year-round with the help of the lay-away plan. (Mom's probably passed on by now, 'cause if natural causes didn't get her then Wal-Mart's ending its lay-away plan probably did.) Good novelties, but since this involves country music folks we get a big blast of bathos and excess sincerity on the traditional carol covers like "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," "Auld Lang Syne Revisited" and "O Little Town of Bethlehem," not to mention the things-were-better-in-the-old-days message of "The Elves' Strike."
This 1996 album is the male counterpart to the Venus Envy lesbian Christmas album, and while it has a few laughs along the way it also has more explicit sex language. But hey, this isn't anything new to anyone who's read the Starr report, right? Love goddess Judy Tenuta makes a cameo appearance. The band revisited Christmas with Homo For the Holidays in 2001, more of the same, with such song titles as "Out in the Bleak Midwinter," "Frozen Assets" done to "Baby It's Cold Outside," "GWM ISO..." and so on. This one's still available, the first one not so much.
From the era of "party albums," those sex-obsessed comedy recordings of the 60s made mainly by black "chitlin' circuit" comics, we get this 1999 collection from Blowfly, one of the best-known performers from that era. I don't have to draw you too much of a picture: we get 14 familiar Christmas tunes that Blowfly sings with X-rated parody lyrics. This is the kind of thing he's been doing for years, so if you're familiar with him you'll probably get a charge out of this. If you're not familiar with this sort of thing, proceed cautiously -- a lot of people won't find this nearly as funny as you might. UPDATE: There's a previous single, "Blowfly's Christmas Party" backed with "Blowfly's New Year's Party," made in 1980 for TK Disco, according to Goldmine's "Christmas Record Price Guide." There are 7- and 12-inch versions listed by vinyl dealers on various Internet sites.
Sometimes these budget compilations strike gold, as I've mentioned elsewhere on this site. This batch of tunes was custom-recorded on the cheap for the LaserLight label in 1997, so there is no actual roster of artists you might recognize. However, I've included this here because you might need a hard-rock version of "Dance of the Toy Soldiers," a Latin "Let It Snow," a rap "You Better Watch Out," a surf version of "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," or a reggae "Frosty the Sno Mon." A little on the sterile side performance-wise, but there are some good ideas here, and LaserLight is a bargain label.
The Christmas record of 1996, and possibly the decade. In a year when numerous music sales records set by The Beatles were smashed by The Beatles, the Rubber Band, a noted Danish Beatles copy band, put together 11 solid remakes of Christmas tunes set to arrangements of Beatles songs. "Please Please Me" becomes "Jingle Bell Rock," "I Saw Her Standing There" becomes "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," and their "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" is not based on Phil Spector's arrangement, but on "Eight Days a Week." Buy this and play "Spot the Arrangement" with your Beatle-fan friends. The performances are top-notch, although the voices don't sound that much like the individual Beatles, so they settle for getting the Liverpool accents and the attitude right. UPDATE: Apparently the boys were good enough to fool the Internet; there are folks around who swear their version of "Last Christmas" actually is the Beatles. END UPDATE. It's hard to find but absolutely worth the effort. The link to Amazon takes you to third-party resellers; CD Universe claims to have new copies. Larry Mancini of Isba Music Entertainment in Quebec informs us the album remains available direct from his firm for $15 US including shipping and handling. Write to Isba Music Entertainment Inc., 2860 Blvd de La Concorde east, Laval, Quebec, Canada H7E 2B4. That info is several years old, however; there's a website for Isba, but it currently features only Francophone singers.
Rivers has been a wacky morning show DJ for years, and he has his own website where you can hear fresh-baked parodies all the time. Back in 1987 he started issuing full albums of Christmas parody songs, and this is the first one. Topical parodies don't always wear well over the long run, so "O Come All Ye Grateful Dead-heads" ("O Come All Ye Faithful") might seem a bit quaint, and that goes for the parts of "The 12 Pains of Christmas" that sound like Archie Bunker, too. But other songs on this two-decade-old collection, like "Didn't I Get This Last Year" ("Do You Hear What I Hear"), "The Restroom Door Said Gentlemen" ("God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen"), "Wreck the Malls," "We Wish You Weren't Living With Us," and "I'm Dressing Up Like Santa (When I Get Out On Parole)" are timeless. The performances are impeccable, contributing to their ability to raise a smile even after all this time. Subsequent Rivers collections are also reviewed on this site.
It's Dan Hicks of Hot Licks fame, now gigging as Dan Hicks and the Acoustic Warriors, and this is old-style country-folk-swing adaptations of popular Christmas songs for the most part. Other names you might recognize on some of these recordings include Austin DeLone, Paul Rogers and Norton Buffalo. The Christmas Jug Band tradition began in 1976 as a live gig in Mill Valley, Calif., and Mistletoe Jam is the first time the group committed the music to disc, on vinyl in 1987. Trad carols like "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," "O Holy Night" and "Twas the Night Before Christmas" lay alongside musical parodies like "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Christmas Card," "Gee Rudolf, Ain't I Been Good To You," and "Rudolph the Bald-Headed Reindeer." The Mack Rice number "Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin'" joins "Somebody Stole My Santa Claus Suit" as pre-chosen novelties, and everything wraps up conventionally with "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve." Further albums in the series are mentioned elsewhere on the site.
This pair of beer-swilling Canadian brothers, created by SCTV alumni Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis, had such a cult following for their "Kanadian Korner" sketches on that show that they turned their success into a 1983 movie ("Strange Brew," rated by my old buddy Jim Damp as one of the great hangover movies, a genre that deserves its own website) and the album Great White North, from which comes this version of the holiday classic, in which they sing, "On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, a beer........." Subsequent verses concern their attempts to make this change to the lyrics scan correctly. Good fun if you're familiar with the sketches.
