I wasn't aware of Jonathan Coulton before, but he's apparently a prolific writer and performer of humorous songs, and he hangs around with such folks as They Might Be Giants and John Hodgman, so a cracked world view is definitely part of the scenery at Jon's house. I couldn't find this song in his discography, but he does have "Podsafe Christmas Song," a parody of the Chipmunks, and "Christmas Is Interesting." As for this, well, don't listen to it while watching the news, as I noticed a disturbing parallel or two, just enjoy the sci-fi satire. Hat tip to AMERICAblog for pointing me to this.
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These wacky folks have given us holiday novelties before, and for 2011 they're pushing this EP with four cool novelties, although the first song, "Uncle Pat," is more about the elderly relative telling war stories than anything to do with Christmas (except they drink eggnog while listening to him). Hanukkah Alert to "Eight Nights of Bowling," which may be the most original approach to the Festival of Lights I've yet heard. The title song depicts a fight between the Yule Log and the Eggnog, and "Omaha" considers the holiday in that Midwestern city as the singers really stress those long O's. High whimsy content here, which I strongly recommend. It's at Bandcamp and iTunes.
You know how "Wicked" is "The Wizard of Oz" told from the point of view of the WIcked Witch? This 2011 collection is sort of the unrepentant Scrooge's view of Christmas, if Scrooge was a gay 21st century singer-songwriter with a sense of humor. Really, this is as anti-Christmas as it gets, and is pretty entertaining for all that. The undeleted expletives start with "Christmas Waltz," where Erin plays it straight while the background chorus mocks her and swears in answer verses. Erin then goes into the many reasons why "Santa Is an Asshole," from being a pervert with kids in his lap to being an anti-Semite because he's only for Christian children. Those two songs also get "Kleen mixes," though it seems unnecessary to bother. "Go Tell It" reimagines the old hymn by superimposing pop culture personalities on the chorus in place of the usual Jesus. "Fa La La" provides a litany of tragedies, real and imagined, in place of the usual "Deck the Halls" lyrics, over guitar and ukelele. "Visions I've Had" is a humorous take on druggy experiences set to "Angels We Have Heard On High." Obnoxious family reactions to one's gay partner are the subject of "It's a Very Queer Christmas" and "Frozen Smiles." "Christmas Love It or Leave It" is a poke in the eye to cultural conservatives who equate patriotism and Christianity, and "You Wish Us a Happy Holiday" is a witty reposte to the people who complain about having to say Happy Holidays. I'm guessing Erin is deadly serious about the sentiments on display here, but there's enough humor that broad-minded folks will find it listenable, not to mention worthy of a space on your holiday playlists. Stop by her site to learn more about her Dec. 18 webcast based on this album.
It seems like the novelty recording sector has suffered more from the Internet than the rest of the recording industry. When every wise guy with a webcam can throw together some parody lyrics, pick up a guitar and make a video, which then goes on YouTube, you pretty much have to be Weird Al if you want to eventually be compensated for your efforts. And if you do go the full hardcopy route, the expectations are going to be high. Which brings us to The Waddles, a quartet of "ducks" performing 10 popular Christmas standards and one original, which of course is the title song of this 2011 album. They've tucked into the battle with a running series of videos at their webbed-feet-site that set up the "band" back story, including the escapades of their former drummer Pete Worst (get it?). Another feather in the band's collective cap is the attractive packaging of the physical disc, the art for which also looks good in an iTunes cameo. The title song is a reasonably good novelty tune with sentimental lyrics, and the other songs on the disc are familiar Christmas tunes as sung by a quartet of ducks. To get the most out of this, you'll want to check out the videos, which cover ground that isn't represented on the disc. This will probably go over best with young kids, though we typically don't cover the kids' music sector here at Mistletunes. Click on the disc to grab it from Amazon; they'll put it on your bill.
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.
Two songs from the recent "Family Guy" Christmas episode, "Christmastime Is Killing Us" and "All I Really Want For Christmas," are now for sale on iTunes. They're more musical theater entries than rock 'n roll, but I can't imagine that folks interested in what we put up here wouldn't want something from "Family Guy" for his or her mix disc. (I'm not usually a fan myself, and these tunes don't do much for me personally, but "Family Guy" does have its moments.)
This is essentially a Boston-speak parody of "Have Yourself a Merry Christmas," and the single features five versions, the original plus four remixes done by the folks behind the Santastic compilations, like dj BC, ATOM and Black Element. The original song was from 2004 and the remixes were released in 2009. There's some interesting reinterpretations here, though I suspect most folks tend to ignore the remixes in favor of the original song. But anything that puts shekels into the pockets of the Santastic folks is OK by me.
Pronounce the artist's name out loud. Get it? Music to chew on. Not surprisingly, this is a viral marketing stunt for the actual product mentioned above. For 2010, this artist has a five-song EP consisting of electro-pop versions of popular carols, with a vocal distorted in such a way as to suggest a cuddly critter is singing. Looks like it's aimed at kids, but it's silly enough to pass as a novelty. "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is rendered as a synth-polka, "Jingle Bells" gets a dance beat behind the machines, "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" is sprightly but not so danceable, "O Christmas Tree" ramps up the rhythm and they end by covering "Last Christmas," again with the dance-floor rhythms. I highly recommend the latter song for folks who remember the 80s -- or for those who want to flip out people who remember the 80s. Apparently these guys had a Christmas song out in 2007, "You Know It's Christmas," and the song was revisited as a duet with Felix the Cat in 2008. (You know, it seems like this stuff ought to be free since it's basically an advertising campaign.)
This is a fairly faithful cover of the Bing & Bowie duet, although with Black involved it means he gives it the Tenacious D treatment, with Segel sitting in for Black's regular collaborator Kyle Gass. And there's a fair bit of kibitzing that is reminiscent, but not identical, to the original TV performance. But if you haven't listened to the Bing & Bowie version lately, this will make you giggle. Sales benefit Blue Star Families, a non-profit that supports military families. Check it out via CollegeHumor.com:
While we're on the topic, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly were thinking along the same lines this year, so check this out from FunnyOrDie.com:
Maybe I haven't been sniffing down the right alleyways, but there's been a dearth of strong novelties this season, to my ears anyway. This is a well-made novelty for 2010, basically a 5-minute musical theater production about "real Americans" shutting down a hippie "solstice festival." It's a nice piece of work, but I gotta admit, I'm on the hippies' side, especially since the protagonists are armed with fiddle and banjo. As these guys are firmly on the good guys' side in regard to things like science and the treachery of the high finance sector, I'm willing to keep an open mind if they decide to revisit the holidays in the future. Flip side is "Christmas Ferret"; both sides are free from Bandcamp.
This is just silly. But that's a good thing. Who can object to Christmas hot pants, right? This 2010 number is a hip-hop ode to partying down for the holidays. The fact that the video shows a lot of middle-aged folks but darned few people actually wearing the garment in question only adds to the effect. Buy it from their website or listen to it here.
This is kind of funny, but it's undermined by the fact that Gaga actually did record a holiday single in 2008, "Christmas Tree."
These Austrian Spice Girls are offering up this seasonal disco polka number as a free download for 2010. It'll put a smile on your face even as you ask yourselves, "Really? Really!?" As you watch the video, provided here for your amusement, you discover this is essentially an ad for an Austrian rum company. It certainly trumps this year's Train/Coca-Cola alliance for shameless hype.
I promised last year more info about this entertaining holiday collective based in Philadelphia, and it turns out that 2010 is the group's 25th anniversary of creating self-penned Christmas tunes of the off-kilter and satirical variety. To celebrate, they've released a double-disc set of what they consider the greatest hits of their fine, fine, superfine career. But with a twist: these are re-recordings, with the idea that such a long-running act should, by now, have attracted a fan base among other musical acts, and so this is a Bah and the Humbugs "tribute" album in which the band impersonates 25 fictional bands doing "covers" of the Humbug oeuvre. They're serious about this humorous effort: the website features capsule bios and album covers by each of the 25 "acts" taking part in this project. I guarantee hours of semi-obsessive fun for the serious music followers as they determine who is being satirized here. I have the press release with all the answers, so no fair me giving away the game, although I doubt anybody could miss "Mr. Big Christmas" as an ELO parody or Area 25's "Here Come the Christmas Zombies" as a B-52s homage. There's even a mashup, "Currier vs. Ives (christmashup)." Lest you think this is all inside jokes for the insufferable music snobs among us, the project could stand just on straight piano and guitar readings of the songs themselves, with such titles as "Frostbite (The Flesh-Eating Snowman)," "Titanic Tannenbaum," "Jesus' Funky Christmas," "Attack of the 50-Foot Santa," and more, although the genre exercises unquestionably enhance the songs. Meanwhile, the entire history of the act, including previous releases, is available at the website, with a generous selection of downloads of their previous work on display as well, and even a few tastes of this record. The band is also in the habit of issuing Christmas Eve podcasts, which are available through iTunes as well as directly from the site. Their albums, including this one, are available direct from the group, and proceeds from this album will benefit the United Nations World Food Programme. So if you're just hearing about Bah and the Humbugs for the first time, get on over to see them -- there's a lot of catching up to do. Check out "Here Come the Christmas Zombies":
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 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.)
The Fab Four, a fairly well-known Beatles tribute band, created two full albums of Christmas goodness for 2002 under the titles A Fab Four Christmas and Have Yourself a FAB-ulous Little Christmas for Laserlight, a budget label, but apparently they didn't stay in print long, if the complaints of some fans are anything to go by. Last year, the band took matters into their own hands and reissued the two discs in a single wrapper, a clever one too, one that parodies the U.S. version of the Help! album. The Fabs cut a wide swath across the history of the Beatles -- the two CDs, in their original packaging, are even color-coded the same as the famous Beatles 62-66 and 67-70 collections (see below) to tip off committed listeners -- and their vocal impressions, particularly of Paul and John, are pretty authentic. (One might also note the red album has a strong resemblance to Beatles 1.) Some of the more inventive arrangements include "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" via "When I'm 64" and "Honey Pie," "Silent Night" as "Norwegian Wood," "The Christmas Song" as "Here, There and Everywhere," "Good King Wenceslaus" sung to "Tell Me What You See" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" as "Within You Without You." An extra treat on Fabulous is "Dear Santa," a cut from Ringo Starr's Christmas album done to the arrangement of "Oh! Darling." Now that the band has this at its website, there should be no more complaints -- go grab it. Happy Krimble, indeed. UPDATE: Or you could click on the Hark! cover and grab it from Amazon.
I don't know how I managed to not know about these guys, but Bah and the Humbugs are a nearly quarter-century legend in the Philadelphia area. They're going to be playing live on Philly's alt-rock radio station, WXPN-FM, on Christmas Eve; check their page for more details. Looks like they've been making parody holiday songs in the vein of the Capitol Steps for quite a long time, so check them out. (I'm using this post as a sort of string around my finger to go back and do a more considered post on them at a later time.) UPDATE: Amy Guskin of Bah and the Humbugs says I should soft-pedal the parody angle; while they have done one or two such numbers, the emphasis is on original holiday material. Hopefully we'll have that expanded post I promised soon, as they're getting ready to mark their silver anniversary in 2010.
Not just another band from L.A., The Skandles work the music-comedy beat at DailyComedy.com and also on their own MySpace page. So what's up with this? Think Chipmunks go gangsta and you got it nailed. Lyrics available on MySpace as well. Expurgated and unexpurgated versions are out there, depending on who's on your mix disc list. But why make you wait? Check it out for yourself, NSFW:
Yulenog collections have featured here at Mistletunes in past years, and sure enough 2009 brings us another one. The modus operandi is that Kuruna and friends, most of whom appear to be jazzers of one stripe or another, put together a collection of holiday novelties. Some of this year's better ideas on this collection include the hip-hop number "Santa, Do You Like Dat Booty," complete with auto-tune vocal; "Santa's In-Box (Spamta Claus)," a spoken-word recitation of e-mail come-ons with holiday overtones; "Virgin Mary," a grungy rocker featuring a supreme being's pickup lines; "Great White Surprise," an original with the flavor of Jesus & Mary Chain; "Chuck D's Christmas Carol," another rap Christmas take based on the Public Enemy blueprint; and from "Dreamgirls," a holiday takeoff, "And I Am Telling You I Am Still a Virgin." The performances of traditional carols are perfunctory, though, with the nadir being "The First Noel" done with a chorus of off-pitch pennywhistles. As usual, there are a lot of great ideas here, although you may do some skipping around to get to them.
No one's seen fit to make this terrific parody song available for use by the fraternity of Christmas disc mixers (everyone who has took it from a video cap of the show on which it originally ran, complete with audience laughter), but we can at least enjoy it this way.
We like our novelties here at Mistletunes, and I thought it was kismet that I acquired one singing saw holiday tune just as my e-mail brought news of a singing saw video. Go over to Stereogum.com and check out/download Julian Koster's "Let It Snow," a rather well produced pop take on the popular tune. Apparently, Julian has an entire disc, The Singing Saw at Christmastime, on Merge Records, but this tune isn't on it. Meanwhile, here's Natalia "The Saw Lady" Paruz, an actual classical harpist who also plays the saw, going unplugged to busk "Silent Night" in the New York City subway system. I note for the record that saw soloists tend to play covers; where are all the original composers for saw? Or socket sets, for that matter?
You've no doubt heard of the cash-in sequel. This 1996 single is probably the most naked cash-grab going; they basically took the original song and superimposed girl singers doing short lines from classic Christmas carols in between the verses. I haven't been this jealous since I missed out on a chance to direct an episode of "Cops." Just in case you weren't one of the first six million or so people to buy the original "Macarena," the Bayside Boys Mix version is also on this single. Or you can just watch this, though I take no responsibility should anyone click on this and later pluck their eyes out:
One rightly looks askance when an act scores a holiday-related hit, rushes out an album, then rushes out a second album the following year -- especially when it includes the hit from the first album. Straight No Chaser isn't the first act to follow this blueprint, but they're the latest. The hit in question, their still-entertaining medley based on "12 Days of Christmas," reappears here in a studio version, as opposed to the live version that powered the group's multi-million-hit YouTube video. But we've all heard that by now, so what's next? How about something similar based on "Can-Can?" Kicking off the new album is "Christmas Can-Can," a fairly strong medley in the same vein as "12 Days," this time relying on holiday parody lyrics for the can-can part of the song while jamming in a number of other holiday tunes, and "The Dreidel Song" reappears here too. Their version of "We Three Kings" is based on the theme from "Mission: Impossible," "Let It Snow" gets a fresh funky take, they cover Brian Setzer's "Hey Santa" and apply some of the same approach to "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," taking a few liberties with the lyrics and playing around with antique radio sounds. "Santa Claus Is Back In Town" sounds good in a capella, and they provide one original, "Who Spiked the Eggnog," a jazzy companion to "Hey Santa." The rest of the album, mostly classic carols, tracks a lot closer to glee club, but if you missed out on the "12 Days" craze last year, that and "Christmas Can-Can" are worth hearing. There's a special edition of the disc that adds a version of "Last Christmas," by the way.
Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky is quite the pop star among classical composers, with numerous "hits" to his credit, including "The 1812 Overture" (and how many patriotic Americans know a dad-blamed Roosky wrote this piece often performed for the Fourth of July?), "Swan Lake," "The Sleeping Beauty," and his now-associated-with-Christmas opus "The Nutcracker Suite." It's so popular that you have to be pretty far into the woods not to be able to take in a live performance within commuting distance of your home sometime between mid-November and New Year's Day. Of course, most performances tend to be fairly literal readings of the score, with a few of the more adventurous jurisdictions offering George Balanchine's famous choreography to go with it. For those looking for a little holiday spice with their cracked nuts, the Invincible Czars, pride of Austin, Texas, have obliged with their more irreverent, rock-jazz-country-Latin-tinged arrangement, which they've performed for charity every year since 2004 and released on disc in 2007. I'm just catching up with it now, and though I'm not a Nutcracker maven, I can assure you the Czars do justice to the work of old Mother Russia's favorite son. It takes some serious chops to put down something like this, though, so not surprisingly, these folks are mainstays of Austin's serious and academic musical scene -- they just manage to do a decent job of keeping that news from the listener. Though it's billed as a "rock" version of the classic ballet, this isn't the two-guitars-bass-drums version -- the Czars take a more multilayered view of things, with a wide spread of instrumentation and a taste for throwing in everything from classic carols to square-dance rhythms. If you're in the Austin-Houston area, you might want to punt TSO and Mannheim this year and catch these folks instead.
I've never seen more than a few minutes of the actual TV show, so apologies if I overlook anything about this 2009 album that's crucial to the Aqua Teen Hunger Force backstory. If Wikipedia's right, though, continuity isn't this Cartoon Network franchise's strong suit. Indeed, the characters -- and the plot, come to that -- are, shall we say, easily distracted, with "Twas the Night Before Jesus" being Exhibit A. What starts out as the story of the Nativity is quickly embellished with a bearded baby that can shoot lasers out of his eyes while his parents are killed and he's forced to attend wizard college... and this is only about a quarter of the way into the song. Things kick off with a version of "Feliz Navidad" in which a character asks, two lines in, whether they can sing it in English, which leads to them singing "meat navi-wad" and rattling off numerous fast-food specialities. An attempt to render "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" as a hip-hop anthem is similarly distracted with Boxy Brown's disquistion on a new Scott Stapp album and whether Jesus was black. In the "things that make you go hmm" department, "Santa Left a Booger In My Stocking" is a duet between Meatwad and Neko Case. Yes, that Neko Case. Also landing in the original tune department is "I Sure Hope I Don't Have to Beat Your Ass This Christmas," a misanthropic affirmation of the holiday's virtues. Then there's "Frosty the Red-Nosed Snowman," a tribute to Meatwad's easily distracted persona. I laughed a lot at this record and I'm not even familiar with the show, so I imagine this will have some entertainment value beyond the show's fan base.
I was surprised to stumble upon this after all these years -- it's from 1986 -- as I assumed I knew everything there was to know about the purveyors of the historic, Dr. Demento-approved novelty smash "Fish Heads." It's gay-friendly, silly, and still likely to outrage listeners in this supposedly modern day. From their album Sicks.
The long-running acoustic-folk-swing-rockabillly-Dixieland-Americana and yes, jug band combo made up of well-known San Franciscan musicians is back for 2009 with an album recorded live over the past couple of seasons, compiling parody songs, some originals, and a fair amount of jug band jamming. In other words, the same M.O. exhibited over their four other albums. Things kick off with the instrumental "Shoot 'Em In the Pants," swinging into some originals, including "Carolin'," "This Christmas Night" and "Santa's Going Crazy This Year." "Jolly Ol' Soul" features Dan Hicks taking off on "My Blue Heaven," and later "Santa, the Man," based on "Song For My Father." Tim Eschliman gets into the act with "High Stack o' Presents" based on "High Blood Pressure," plus "Santa's on the Mainline," from the song originally about Jesus. Country Joe McDonald stops by with "Dirty Claus Rag," and the crew brings us a blues boogie, "Christmas in the Bottle," about an alcoholic holiday. As an antidote, they also bring us "Xmas Anonymous." All told, another light-hearted romp from some West Coast experts in old-school American music.
Don't know much about these folks except they're from Seattle and they apparently recorded this in 2007. It's apparently done with good intentions -- some of the proceeds are earmarked for homeless aid charities in their home city -- but as a novelty/comedy take on the holiday, the laughs are few and far between. A casual listen reveals a mostly instrumental large soul band take on some Christmas tunes, well performed, but much of what's intended to be humorous is either too obvious or way too obscure. A double dose of David Rose's "The Stripper" is supposed to be mashed up with Christmas songs, but you have to listen with both ears and a copy of the score to pick them out. Then there's the medley of "Holly Jolly Christmas/Jingle Bell Rock" in which the hook is that it's being sung by "Elf-ish Presley and his Elves," a bad pun on the band name and a run-of-the-mill Elvis impression. There are some high points here, however. The most inspired number is "Jesus Super Freak," a slowed-down gospelly takeoff on the Rick James tune whose punchline takes a moment to sink in. "Carol of the Tubular Bells" mashes up the carol with the Mike Oldfield tune that served as theme to "The Exorcist." "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)" gets a Santo & Johnny arrangement, "Tiffany Sequence M.22" jams "Deck the Halls" into some sort of 70s TV ad theme (sounded a bit like "Music To Watch Girls By") and "Out of Presents" plays the old Marketts surf tune "Out of Limits" over "Up On the Housetop." Kind of uneven from a novelty standpoint, its best use is as background music.
Like Flight of the Concords but wish they were more, say, female? Welcome Garfunkel and Oates, nee Riki Lindhome and Kate Micucci, native Pennsylvanians who found their way to LA and acting careers specializing in comedy. I doubt I have to explain the name to music fans, nor will much annotation of this excellent video be necessary once you watch it all the way through. "Present Face," this 2008 ode to the disappointment following the opening of a Christmas fruitcake or other unwelcome gift, unfortunately is not on their Music Songs album. UPDATE: However, it did finally become available on its own to download.
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