Seattle may be the home office of rainfall, but it's also where Green Monkey Records is located, ground zero for a lot of fun lo-fi indie rock music-making. And the label is down with Christmas, as the multiple releases of holiday compilations over the years would indicate. Spontaneity is not in short supply here, as the producer's notes state he put a call out for contributions only at the start of October. For 2016, we get more of what made Green Monkey famous, with your contributions to the cause being donated to MusiCares. The Green Pajamas offer their version of a Mexican carol, "El Rorro," Captain Christmas and the Winter Solstice Singers take on "Christmas Boogie Woogie," originally found on the Anthology of American Folk Music Vol. 5, the Fastbacks punk up "Oh Come All Ye Faithful," Pleasure Island does a surf-oriented instrumental of "Winter Wonderland," and compilation producer Tom Dyer (who pops up on several of these songs) does a fairly straight reading of "Joy to the World." That's it for the covers. Cain Morehead and the Elves Bells rock out to "All Those Christmas Songs," Zelda Starfire breaks out the ukelele to proclaim in a deceptively upbeat way that "I Hate Christmas," Uncle Tiki puts in his holiday menu selections on the punky "The Potato Song," and Three Ninjas salutes their "Black Dog Family," which appears to be better than their real ones. Ed Portnow offers a shambling folkish "(Peace Can Happen) On Christmas," Free Creature puts original lyrics over a Fats Waller tune on the good-timey "Youse a Humbug," whose horn solo is simply "The Dreidel Song," the producer appears again with The Tom & Jim Yuletide Contraption on "(All I Want For Christmas Is a) Big Black Eye," and his family, The Dyer Spawn, offer the holiday nature strum "Wild Christmas." Steve Martinelli offers an ode to a "Pretty Cute Christmas Kitty," Guns of Nevada rocks out with their one-item Christmas list, "Liquor in my Stocking," The Fresh Prince of Brain Wizard offers us a spacey "Christmas In This Modern Age," the Write Brothers Sonic Soul Consortium give us a mournful ballad with the mouthful of a title "A Misspent Mercury Tear and a Cold Obsidian Heart," and Eric Padget wraps things up in a neat little package with "12 Drummers Drumming," which is nearly 12 minutes of exactly that. Run over to Bandcamp and grab this.
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