Sam, a longtime singer-songwriter who started out in the Christian field, went secular, and then became the soundtrack composer for "Gilmore Girls," has now joined the pledge-drive movement with her "Long Play" project, in which listeners are asked to spend $52 in advance for five EPs and a full album of material, garnished with videos, journals and other special material. This 2009 song is part of that, but she's thoughtfully made it available to Amazon for individual download as well. It's the Nativity story rendered in the kind of low-fi approach Sam has been following on her last couple of major-label discs, and it's not bad at all. I've been a Sam fan for a while, so I'll be interested to see how she does with the "Long Play." Sam previously did a version of "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" that is difficult to find, though her arrangement was used by Bruce Cockburn on his Christmas album. UPDATE: "It Came" is on Sony's Acoustic Christmas, which is out of print but still turns up at retail during Christmas. Sam's "Long Play" EP with "Cold Dark Night" also has another original, "It Doesn't Feel Like Christmas," plus "It Came," "Silent Night," "Away in a Manger" and "O Holy Night." That EP will only be available to "Long Play" subscribers for the time being. FURTHER UPDATE: "It Doesn't Feel Like Christmas" was given away free on her website as of Dec. 23, 2009. Go here. Stylewise, it's a bit of a throwback to her Martinis and Bikinis album, poppier than her last couple of albums. And then there's this video of her doing "Away In a Manger":Recently in Rock and Pop Category
Sam, a longtime singer-songwriter who started out in the Christian field, went secular, and then became the soundtrack composer for "Gilmore Girls," has now joined the pledge-drive movement with her "Long Play" project, in which listeners are asked to spend $52 in advance for five EPs and a full album of material, garnished with videos, journals and other special material. This 2009 song is part of that, but she's thoughtfully made it available to Amazon for individual download as well. It's the Nativity story rendered in the kind of low-fi approach Sam has been following on her last couple of major-label discs, and it's not bad at all. I've been a Sam fan for a while, so I'll be interested to see how she does with the "Long Play." Sam previously did a version of "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" that is difficult to find, though her arrangement was used by Bruce Cockburn on his Christmas album. UPDATE: "It Came" is on Sony's Acoustic Christmas, which is out of print but still turns up at retail during Christmas. Sam's "Long Play" EP with "Cold Dark Night" also has another original, "It Doesn't Feel Like Christmas," plus "It Came," "Silent Night," "Away in a Manger" and "O Holy Night." That EP will only be available to "Long Play" subscribers for the time being. FURTHER UPDATE: "It Doesn't Feel Like Christmas" was given away free on her website as of Dec. 23, 2009. Go here. Stylewise, it's a bit of a throwback to her Martinis and Bikinis album, poppier than her last couple of albums. And then there's this video of her doing "Away In a Manger":
The self-proclaimed "hardest working band in snow business" from Chico, Calif., brings us an eponymous album of holiday tuneage. Can't quite run down when this was released; their MySpace page went up in 2005 but the publicity suggests this is new for 2009. It's your basic modern power-pop ensemble rocking out through a dozen tunes from the Christmas season. Most tunes are familiar but there are some originals, like "Walking With the Ghost of Christmas," "Christmastime Is Here (Again!)," "Christmas From Berlin," "Hanukkah Mambo" and "Christmas Is Lonely (When You're a Jew)." The chosen people do well on this album, Hanukkah Alert, with three tunes, including their own fancy-dance tempo version of "Hanukkah O Hanukkah." These guys know how to rock the holiday, with spontaneous-sounding performances that encourage dancing and acting out. The classic carols get jerked around a little bit, and "We Three Kings" has a mock-portentious delivery worthy of an old-school prog band. A surprising take on the Ramones' "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)" turns it into a 50s ballad, and just so a certain blog knows, they cover "Last Christmas" as well. This album makes me wish I was in Chico for the holidays. Here, have a taste:
Mellow-voiced Mia likes her synths, as this 2009 EP demonstrates. She takes the poppy dance floor approach to a pair of classics, "Santa Baby," and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," the former having perhaps a bit too mellow approach vocally but the latter kicking things up a notch with just a light dusting of distorted guitar. The original "December 25 (New Love)" is more of a midtempo love ballad, not bad in total, with two mixes offered.
Here's a young band from Santa Monica who chose to make their first album a Christmas album, thereby angling for the affection of Mistletunes readers, a small but influential group of people. I'd like to think they're Mistletunes readers themselves, because this is exactly the kind of album this website was created to promote -- irreverent rock 'n roll about the holiday, the good and the bad, balancing sentiment and snark, and you can dance to it too. (The band issues a preemptive mea culpa on their MySpace page: "Although most of the songs are fast, there are one or two lame slow ones. Sorry.") Three of the tunes are noted as "Explicit," including "Santa," the title of which thoughtfully leaves off the expletive preceding the jolly elf's name in the chorus of this song that rags him for not being cool and never showing up. "It's Christmas Again" depicts a lover's quarrel in which "just for tonight, I'll tolerate you." And when the singer shops for "A Gift As Nice As You," he ends up getting her a gift card. "Uke Medley" appears to be a couple of songs, one called "I'd Like To See You On Christmas," the other "Leave a Little Light On," performed on multiple ukeleles. And "Unwanted Guest" dispatches its topic with relief and glee. Great songs, rambunctious performances -- well, what are you waiting for?
Another rock band I hadn't heard about before, they apparently cut the theme song for NBC's new show "Community." Hope they get more out of that than The Rembrandts did for their more popular NBC comedy. Leaving that aside, they put up a single for download and it's a nice one, no relation to the Mariah Carey tune, a bit of a shuffle not too dissimilar to Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody" with a bit of a 70s vibe to it. "Without you here, that shit don't mean a thing" is possibly Christmas quote of the year for 2009, by the way. This was free at iTunes; apologies if it isn't by the time you read this.
I'm not familiar with these rocket guys, but this single on iTunes is a solid rock 'n roll version of the classic song that takes nothing from the Phil Spector version. Nice job, guys.
This popular a cappella group is already on record with two Christmas albums, and this year they're attracting attention with a fresh (and free) rendition of "White Christmas." This is a bit glee club to my ears (can you tell I haven't been captivated by that new Fox TV show?) and the group has done much better stuff on its albums, but you can decide for yourself.
Alternate Root is a magazine dedicated to Americana, roots and alt-country performers, and for 2009 they issued a holiday compilation with a twist -- it's 25 songs contributed by the magazine's readers. Sort of a multimedia letters section for the magazine, if you will. It's a free download as well. Of course, many of the readers are pro musicians, so this isn't exactly the local high school production of "American Idol" we're dealing with. It's a lot more country than we normally get into at Mistletunes, but since it's free you can pick and choose the tunes as you will. Grub Dog Mitchell's "Rockin' In My Stockin'" is as advertised, a solid rootsy rocker; Carolyn Sills goes 60s girl-group on a tribute to "George Bailey"; Penny Jo Pullus contributes a new version of her "Silent Night, Lonely Night" she did with the Muddpuppies on the Here Comes Another Christmas: Greetings from the Salt City album from around a decade ago; and Lance Norris' "Santa Copped a 'Tude" is a Bob Dylan parody originally heard on the holiday disc by The Stools. Jaime Michaels goes a little more acoustic pop with his "Winter Song" and Steve Fisher puts a bluegrass backing to "Hoovertown," a Depression-era story of sharing strength and woe at Christmastime. Because country is a big part of this, we get cry-in-your-beer tunes like "Jon's Silent Night" by Jon Byrd and "Mommy, Why Was Santa Crying?" by T. Edwin Doss. A little more fun is available from Chief Greenbud's "Let's Get Blazed For the Holidaze," Cody Prevost's "Santa's Got a New Ride" and Candye Kane's "Put the X Back in Xmas," and she discovers "Santa Is a Swinger Now" to a Western swing backing. You'll want to at least sort through this collection, although if you're a regular Alternate Root reader you probably will love this without reservation.
This has actually been out before, on Hi-Fi Christmas Party Vol. 2, but the band has put it up for free download this holiday season. It's a strong power pop outing, somewhere between Revolver-era Beatles and early Cheap Trick in execution, helped by a catchy melody and lyrics that poke and prod the materialism that can infest the holiday. Waterstone Guitars hosts a direct link, but you can just go to the band's website and join their mailing list.
Yeah, I mentioned Jill earlier this month, but I just found this video of her version of Robert Earl Keen's funny Christmas song. A lot of folks insist Keen's version is better, but I prefer Jill's because it's, well, less country, not to mention that it benefits from Jill's winsome style of delivery as well. No offense to Keen; I like his version fine. He got a parody children's book out of the song, while Jill got this video, which she apparently didn't know was still out there, according to her blog. This video, by the way, is almost a forerunner of the "literal video" craze, to my eyes anyway. UPDATE: Sorry, couldn't embed it. You can still see it here, however.
Thanks to Howard Cogswell for bringing this to my attention. Sir Paul took his stadium tour to Cologne, Germany this week, and avid audience video bugs caught him in the act of reviving his 1979 holiday single. No doubt audiences in Dublin and London next week will be similarly regaled. No vouching for the quality, of course, but this seems to be the best of three versions of this on YouTube. UPDATE: Send an official Beatles e-card this year featuring a snippet from the 1966 fan club flexi-disc. Hat tip to Beatles Examiner.
For those of you with a strong taste for irony, here's a live acoustic performance of "Little Drummer Boy" in which nobody actually plays any sort of percussion instrument. Don't take that as a flip review, though, Mike's a good singer and guitarist and this is a neat performance. Available where you buy your downloads, or you can send it as an e-card as well.
If you're a fan of the band that cut across genres from girl-group to new wave to hip-hop, you'll want this free download of a traditional Christmas song that sounds like it could have been the flip side of "Hanging On the Telephone." So go on, what are you waiting for? Apparently this 2009 performance is a come-on to remember the band when it reunites for a new album in 2010. You'll need to give up an e-mail address for their mailing list, but this one's worth it too.
Laura Vane is a British singer (shout out to Brighton, y'all) whose band includes folks from the UK and Netherlands, and they've come together to sing and play old-school soul music. Without seeing the band, I tried to guess what obscure '60s band I was listening to. Now I know (with help from Martin Johns, who tipped me to this). The song in question is a free download for 2009, but you have to join the band's mailing list to get it. I don't think it's too much to ask for a great honkin' holiday noise like this one.
We highlighted these guys' cover of "Christmas Time (Sure Don't Feel Like)" not long ago, and it turns out they have an original holiday song of their own to feature for 2009. It's a nice mid-tempo pop number with slide guitar, and you can check it out right here:
I've been a little slow getting to this, and with good reason -- this is a free download album with 53 songs on it. Count 'em, 53. As a result, in my last few bouts of posting I kept telling myself, "Oh, I'll get to that when I have a little more time to deal." Well, you know how that goes. So I said it's time to get it posted. Suburban Sprawl is an alt-rock-indie label, and not a very big one, though one might assume the exact opposite with 53 artists involved. So I won't bother unpacking all of that and just get to the music, which in overall quality is pretty darn good across the entire collection. Things kick off with "Twas the Night Before Christmas" done to the tune of "Chopsticks" by The Barrettes and continue in fine style with such tunes as Love Axe's original "Baby, I Wish It Was Cold Outside," Panic & Sharon's electro-pop "Christmastime Is Here," ChrisMas' dance-floor-ready "S.A.N.T.A.," Daniel Zott's Claus lament "Look What You Did, You Little Jerk," Buffay's hip-hop takeoff "Merri Chrissmiss 2 My Dik," which requires a Parental Advisory (ya think?), Coach Mahler's "Hanukkah Blues," Bethlehem Girls Choir's unique medley of "All I Want For Christmas Is You" by Mariah Carey and "Here Comes Your Man" by The Pixies, and so on through all 53 selections. Suburban Sprawl has done this for multiple years, and they're all at the free download site, so do a little discovering of your own.
These guys are a pop-rock band from Worcester, MA, and this comic Christmas song isnt't too hard to penetrate in terms of meanings. (Think looking up at mistletoe, it'll come to you.) Unfortunately, they've only got up for listening on their MySpace page for now, but hopefully we'll have this to look forward to for next year.
Yes, L.A.'s finest came together in 2009 to record this single with two classic carols. "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" features what sounds like double-tracked Exene singing in a rather poppy style, but the instrumental track and the guitar solo are vintage X. "Jingle Bells" is John Doe and Exene duetting the vocal, again sounding like the band everybody knows and loves. Amazon has a listing for it but no way to purchase it, so head over to iTunes for a copy.
Westerberg, once of the iconic Replacements, put out an EP called D.G.T. earlier in 2009 that includes the title song, a version of the country classic "Streets of Laredo," and this classic carol, done in an uptempo, Replacements-worthy arrangement. You have to download the whole EP to get the carol, but Amazon only charges 79 cents for it.
Jourgensen, founder of industrial band Ministry, got together with Mark Thwaite of The Mission to create this almost pop Christmas rocker, though there's plenty of industrial drone in the background to keep folks from getting too comfortable. From 2009.
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.
Thea, a British singer-songwriter with eight albums to her credit, decided 2009 was the year to release a Christmas album. She offers us eight original songs and a thought-provoking pair of covers: Yoko Ono's "Listen, the Snow is Falling," and Elvis Costello's "The St. Stephen's Day Murders." She renders each in versions similar to the original versions but manages to put her own stamp on them. Disc opener "Sol Invictus" is performed with a vocal choir, offering an almost foreboding welcome to winter, and "Thea Gilmore's Midwinter Toast" shakes off the regrets of the past year with a look forward to the new one. "Cold Coming" treads similar ground in a more uptempo way, with the lyrics to this song contributing the album's title. Here it should be noted that while Gilmore appears to be following the approach of Sting and Tori Amos toward a "winter" album, there are overt references to Christmas as well, starting with "This Is Christmas," the album's likely single, with wry lyrics including a first-verse shout-out to "Jona Lewie on the radio" along with a George Harrison-styled guitar break. "Book of Christmas" is an instrumental with that annoying vinyl record noise gimmick. "Drunken Angel" is a title borrowed from Lucinda Williams, but the thrust here is holiday-oriented, again looking back on past regrets and thankful for what blessings made it through. All told, a serious look at the holiday, but one with depth and humor.
I didn't notice at the time, but Jill reissued her extended Xmas EP It's the Thought That Counts in 2005 and added this excellent little meditation on Christmas desire and shoplifting to the playlist. (She also subtracted some non-Christmas tunes.) The great thing about Jill is not that she can render these downtempo emotions with a crooked smile, but that you can hear her doing it on the record. Get her version of the backstory of this song here, and get our previous take on Jill's Christmas oeuvre here.
Another Christian rock band (lots of 'em this year), this 2008 version of the classic carol is a fairly ordinary approach, though the counter-singing in the background is a nice touch. UPDATE: For 2009, the single becomes an EP, adding versions of "O Come Emanuel" and Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You." Good versions of both.
The Layaways are an indie-rock band from Chicago with a pop sensibility, and they started out in the Christmas realm with a three-song EP in 2006. For 2009, they added seven more tunes, including two originals, and fleshed it out into this album. Though these guys are pop-rockers, the whole tone of this album is mostly midtempo and pensive. The title song is a swaying original, and the other original, "Greeting Card," is an acoustic guitar ballad about a struggling relationship at the holiday. "O Christmas Tree" almost starts out like a Flight of the Conchords version with unadorned drums and guitars, and "Auld Lang Syne" has a similar approach. "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," ironically, is a little dour-sounding. "Joy to the World," "Angels We Have Heard On High," "Silent Night," "Away in a Manger" and the reprise of "Joy" called "Repeat the Sounding Joy" are all instrumentals. A little more in the way of uptempo numbers would have helped this collection, but taken all together it's not a bad little album. You can download a couple of numbers free at the band's website, linked above.
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.
This track has been knocking around unreleased for years, but it finally turned up as a graft onto the first domestic release of Ronnie's Last of the Rock Stars album, originally out in 2006 overseas and just available in 2009 stateside. The song originated with Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, and Ronnie gives it a vintage reading that would have been a strong rock ballad 50 years ago but today to most ears sounds just middle of the road. Nevertheless, Ronnie did a nice job on it, and she ought to chase down the folks who helped Darlene Love do her 2007 Christmas album and let them work their magic on a full Christmas disc by her. UPDATE: Martin Johns takes issue with "originated" in regard to the Frankie Lymon version; Frankie recorded the song in 1957, while Tommy Edwards recorded it in 1953. Thanks, Martin, don't be a stranger!
Sonicflood is a Christian contemporary rock band with a Christmas album for 2009, and where many of the Christian acts in recent years have made their religious side less overt (probably to keep from being the band kids' parents tell them they ought to like), these guys keep the testimony front and center. Some of these songs were already part of a previous Sonicflood disc, A Heart Like Yours, including the Christmas disc's title song, "This Is Christmas," "Noel (Glory To Your Name)" and "Ring the Bells." They add originals "The Gift of Love" and "Hope Has Kissed the Earth" along with "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," "O Come Emmanuel," "O Holy Night" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." The approach is shiny happy modern chart-friendly pop-rock, with flourishes that will remind you of acts from U2 to Bon Jovi. But it's no accident that they chose only antique carols to go with their originals; those songs, like their own, are heavy on the Biblical story of Christmas. A slight nod to the secular aspects of the holiday might have given the album a bit more variety in tone and approach. Nevertheless, their fan base will go big for this.
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.
The Damaged Goods label remains a mainstay of the British punk scene, and their artists have had a fairly active Christmas life -- indeed, a number of the label's holiday works have featured on Mistletunes in the past. For those who haven't been following the Damaged saga, this collection, a paid download from the label's site, will bring you up to speed quickly -- and enjoyably. The site has previously reviewed such items as Holly Golightly's "Christmas Tree On Fire," Wild Billy Childish's "Christmas 1979," TV Smith's "Xmas, Bloody Xmas," Goldblade's "City of Christmas Ghosts" featuring Poly Styrene, and Severe's version of "Stop the Cavalry." Add to that the Singing Loins' "Ding Dong Merrily On High," an almost skiffle-like tune that cops from traditional carols; Helen Love's much poppier take on the Ramones' "Merry Christmas (I Don't Wanna Fight Tonight)"; another Holly Golightly song, the sweet ballad "Little Stars," done with the Greenhornes; Cuckooland's punked-out "Silver Bells"; Monkhouse's thrashy "Guinness and Wine," necessary holiday beverages for many; and Buff Medways wraps things up with "Merry Christmas Fritz." Thee Headcoatees are billed as providing their version of the Sonics' "Santa Claus," but my copy came with a different song by the band that has X-rated lyrics and is not about Christmas. I've tipped the label.
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