This slipped out in December 2011 and I only got to listen to it once before I promptly forgot I had it. This is the second time I've stumbled over a musical collective from Philadelphia that has made a career of performing Christmas-oriented tunes. The Elves have been plugging away at this since 1993, first issuing indie cassettes and later CDs of their work, and they have several albums out, of which this is the most recent release. On their CDBaby page they list their influences as Bauhaus, the Flaming Lips and the Bonzo Dog Band, so I draw from that they wish to be perceived as doomy, spacey and not particularly serious. They definitely have a lo-fi approach, which has made it a bit of a bear to follow the lyrics. "Curb Alert Christmas" is about digging gifts out of the things people leave for spring and fall cleanup, "Broke For Christmas" is the companion piece to that one, "Xmas Is For Everyone" lists the folks for which the title does not hold true, and "The Ex Back in Xmas" is, I think, about hooking up with a former significant other, then going your separate ways. The title song "Coal" is a lengthy suite of several movements dedicated to the properties of, well, coal, both metaphorical and lyrical. "Yulezella" is a parody drug advertisement with progressively ludicrous symptoms to watch out for, "A Christmas Song" may or may not actually be that, "Day 359" is a Flaming Lips-influenced dirge that may be the most generic way possible to reference Christmas, and "The Happiest Noel" is a Lou Reed impression with the great lyric, "Sure as Dick Cheney's going to hell... this will be the happiest noel." This is not necessarily a collection you'll put on while you put up the tree and wrap presents, but it definitely has moments of interest. Click the cover to pick it up from Amazon.
Coal, Hot Buttered Elves (Tape Hiss Recordings)
This slipped out in December 2011 and I only got to listen to it once before I promptly forgot I had it. This is the second time I've stumbled over a musical collective from Philadelphia that has made a career of performing Christmas-oriented tunes. The Elves have been plugging away at this since 1993, first issuing indie cassettes and later CDs of their work, and they have several albums out, of which this is the most recent release. On their CDBaby page they list their influences as Bauhaus, the Flaming Lips and the Bonzo Dog Band, so I draw from that they wish to be perceived as doomy, spacey and not particularly serious. They definitely have a lo-fi approach, which has made it a bit of a bear to follow the lyrics. "Curb Alert Christmas" is about digging gifts out of the things people leave for spring and fall cleanup, "Broke For Christmas" is the companion piece to that one, "Xmas Is For Everyone" lists the folks for which the title does not hold true, and "The Ex Back in Xmas" is, I think, about hooking up with a former significant other, then going your separate ways. The title song "Coal" is a lengthy suite of several movements dedicated to the properties of, well, coal, both metaphorical and lyrical. "Yulezella" is a parody drug advertisement with progressively ludicrous symptoms to watch out for, "A Christmas Song" may or may not actually be that, "Day 359" is a Flaming Lips-influenced dirge that may be the most generic way possible to reference Christmas, and "The Happiest Noel" is a Lou Reed impression with the great lyric, "Sure as Dick Cheney's going to hell... this will be the happiest noel." This is not necessarily a collection you'll put on while you put up the tree and wrap presents, but it definitely has moments of interest. Click the cover to pick it up from Amazon.
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