The celebrated singer-songwriter and actor, one of the early parade of "next Dylans," previously did a funny and still timely take on the holiday called "Suddenly It's Christmas" a couple decades ago, and another song, "Christmas Morning." For 2013, he redid the original live take of "Suddenly" in the studio with a backing band. As a companion piece, or shall we say B-side, he threw in this topical rewrite of "I'll Be Home For Christmas," using the holiday to take a potshot at Second Amendment absolutism. It's not bad, though it's a little heavy-handed compared to most of his work. But he apparently lives not terribly far from Sandy Hook Elementary, not that he needs any excuse to write any damn thing that comes into his fertile mind. Links are to Amazon, but you can also buy directly from Loudon's website.January 2014 Archives
The celebrated singer-songwriter and actor, one of the early parade of "next Dylans," previously did a funny and still timely take on the holiday called "Suddenly It's Christmas" a couple decades ago, and another song, "Christmas Morning." For 2013, he redid the original live take of "Suddenly" in the studio with a backing band. As a companion piece, or shall we say B-side, he threw in this topical rewrite of "I'll Be Home For Christmas," using the holiday to take a potshot at Second Amendment absolutism. It's not bad, though it's a little heavy-handed compared to most of his work. But he apparently lives not terribly far from Sandy Hook Elementary, not that he needs any excuse to write any damn thing that comes into his fertile mind. Links are to Amazon, but you can also buy directly from Loudon's website.
Don't let the label name fool you, Nerina is a British performer of some repute, an Ivor Novello award nominee in fact, although this 2013 EP is the first I've heard of her. This is typical pop-rock singer-songwriter fare, and indeed all five songs on this collection are originals of hers, even "Blue Christmas," a breezy number about Christmas melancholy. The collection kicks off with the upbeat "I Know What You're Doing For Christmas," goes jazzy-bluesy with the title song and straight to balladry with "A Christmas Lullabye," concluding with "I Wish," in which the singer misses a former lover at the holiday. While putting this post together I discovered Yes December, a 2011 EP by the artist. The title song is one of those "winter" ballads not necessarily about Christmas, "Two Figures in the Snow" is a piano ballad about loyalty, and she covers "Last Christmas" in a mildly samba arrangement. The two remaining songs don't sound particularly holiday oriented. "Lot Like Heaven" is a rock stomper and "Eleven" is a piano ballad of a very Kate Bush-ian cast. Of the two, the newer collection is the stronger one, but completists and fans with both will have enough songs for a full album from Nerina.
This is not so much a band as a Louisville, Ky.-based church emphasizing musical worship, but as they use rock forms to achieve their goals, and they've recorded Christmas music, we're going to look at them here. The album in the headline was released in 2011 and features a combination of popular carols and original songs. Performance-wise, this is very professional, following the styles of current pop-rock. "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" opens the disc in a strong upbeat rock style, "Go Tell It On the Mountain" takes a hard rock tack with only slight gospel overtones, as does "O Come O Come Emanuel," and "Silent Night" uses waltz time but plays up the rhythm and the crunchy guitars. The originals are heavily religious, of course, though performances like the semi-funky "O Glorious Hour," the mid-tempo "Knocking at Your Door" and the ballads "Joy Joy" and "This Is the Christ" are strong rock outings that will appeal to fans of contemporary rock bands. For completeness' sake, this is Sojourn's second Christmas-themed release; they put out Advent Songs in 2007, which in turn was, in their words, a revisitation of Songs For the Advent from 2003, again a combination of popular carols and church-written originals.
This is from 2012, released on New Year's Eve in fact, and well, words (almost) fail me. These guys bill themselves as Russian pirates performing punk rock, and indeed their personal website is in Russian, as are the songs. The St. Petersburg band does have a Facebook page in English, however, although it doesn't illuminate things much more. Soundwise, they do manage to mash up 70s punk rock with their Eastern European roots, in the manner of such acts as Gogol Bordello. Since I don't speak Russian, I'm having a bit of difficulty lining up any Christmas-style intentions with this collection other than the release date and the cover art. I do recognize bits of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" in one of the tunes, but that's about all. But what the heck, it's a free download, and you might just want to throw something outré like this into your mix.
OK, there is no such thing, it's just a bit from the Jimmy Kimmel show. But it's still a hoot, and props to Jenny Lewis for playing a cameo in it. (Of course, Mistletunes regulars know there have been many metal Christmas albums before this.)
I had heard that the 2012 entry in this label's annual sequence of Christmas music collections was supposed to be the last, so imagine my surprise to find they not only did a new one this year, but that they've revamped the website a bit to make this, and previous years' albums, easier to find. Where previous collections had 40 or more songs, this year's wraps up at just 27 selections, including the album-ending goof "The Paincakes Sell Out," 41 seconds of tribute by The Paincakes to the famous album of the otherwise same name by the Who. This is more of an indie-rock collection, though some Americana shows up in the playlist as well. This year's batch opens with the Kickstand Band paying tribute to Pia Zadora with "Hooray For Santy Claus," Javelins crank the reverb on their guitars for the instrumental "This Time of Year," The Next Door Neighbors recycle "Jingle Bell Rock's" arrangement with "Open For Christmas," Love Axe takes the New Testament literally in "Jesus Came From Heaven," PreciseHero notes that "Martian Kids Need Santa Too," Blaire Alise & the Bombshells rock out an ode to "Mistletoe," Carjack/Pupils do a rock cover of "Christmas in Hollis," Jeremy Porter & the Tucos check off some modern pop culture points in "The Most Wonderful Day of the Year," Six and the Sevens evoke the old garage hit "Baby Please Come Home" in "Please Come Home For Christmas," and ScreechGING Weasel rocks out "The Government Don't Get Shit For Christmas." There's more, but you can examine the free download for yourself.
We've had the Christmas collections by this online Americana music magazine before, and this year they've gone overboard with a massive download equivalent to about two full CDs of songs. "Americana," of course, means just about anything you want it to, from old-school country to gut-bucket blues to folk to early rock styles, although it's best used with artists whose repertoires cut across most or all of those categories. With 44 songs on the roster, I'm only going to be able to give you the highlights, but since it's a free download, you'll be able to fill in the blanks yourselves. Mary Gauthier's "Christmas in Paradise" is a sweetly sardonic tale of being homeless for the holidays, Jimmie Bratcher's "Man! It's Christmas" is upbeat and jazzy, Dave Hogan rocks out with "Christmas Every Day," Brian Ashley Jones channels Jimmy Buffett with "Let's Get Blazed For the Holidays," and yes, that's what he's talking about. Tom Mason & the Blue Buccaneers do a Celtic Western swing on "It's Christmas Day," Mike Surber goes all talky on "Talking Christmas Time Travel Blues," Jeff Maddox gives us a little Tex-Mex, appropriately, on "Merry Margarita," Over the Rhine contributes "Here It Is" from their second Christmas disc (a third is pencilled in for 2014), Calico the Band breaks out the slide guitars for the bluesy "Santa Have Mercy," FunkyJenn also treads the blues boards for "Just Me and the Mistletoe," Deborah Holland contributes an original western folky song "Hanukkah Oh Hanukkah" that gently pokes that holiday as well as Christmas, Annie Selleck goes pop for "Let's Make a Christmas Memory," the VooDUDES rock out on "I Won't Be Home For Christmas," and BumpKin Pie rewrites the Nativity as a boot-scootin' get-together on "Party In the Stable." Grab this while the link's still live.
