Psych-Out Christmas, various artists (Cleopatra)

The folks at Cleopatra Records are celebrating Christmas 2013 with this brand-new collection of holiday tunes from the psychedelic side of the holiday ledger. Things kick off with Len Maxwell's "Christmas Monster Party (Intro)," a spoken word piece firmly rooted in the 50s-60s horror movie genre, and then we're off into a clattery, fuzzy "Christmas Time (Is Here Again)," the Beatles song as done by Elephant Stone. "Ticket To Ride" guitars kick off "It's Christmas Day" by the Cosmonauts, and Dark Horses perform "Jul Song," a slow number that I believe has some relationship to Norway, but it's all in English. Sleepy Sun rock up "What Child Is This," The Movements go for the drone with "Little Drummer Boy" and Candy Store go 60s pop with their version of "Frosty the Snowman." Dead Meadow take a Cramps-style approach to "Mele Kalikimaka," He 5 do an instrumental called "Jingle Bells" that is an apparent misnomer -- it's "Here Comes Santa Claus" by way of "For Your Love," The Vacant Lots cover Suicide's "No More Christmas Blues" and Sons Of Hippies put a psychedelic coating over the Zombies' "Time of the Season." Eli Cook covers the Freddy King classic blues "Christmas Tears," the Fuzztones do a faithful version of the Sonics' "Santa Claus," Psychic Ills put a Jesus & Mary Chain twist on "Run Rudolph Run," Quintron & Miss Pussycat offer a pair of exotica-influenced instrumentals, "Silent Night" and "Jingle Bell Rock," and Iggy Pop closes out the show with "White Christmas," although this is a different, more guitar-driven version than the one on the album An All-Star Tribute To Christmas. If you like your holidays grungy and psychedelic, you'll want this collection.