If you're not familiar with Alice, she goes back to the beginnings of the 70s punk uprising in Los Angeles with her band the Bags. After working as an artist, educator and activist over the years, she's come back under her own name as a recording artist. For 2019, she revisits her roots with this slamming little blast of punk calling out facism and racism with the holidays as a backdrop. Great stuff. No availability through Amazon, but it's on iTunes and Bandcamp.
November 2019 Archives
You've known these guys separately for a while now, and Sting of course has a Christmas album under his belt already. For 2019, his current tour partner Shaggy joins him in a reggae cover of the venerable holiday hymn with just a little bit of toasting over it. I'm down with this, as I'm in favor of anything relating to this song that doesn't sound like midnight mass.
There's been a slow-rolling trend toward glamorizing Hanukkah over the past couple of decades, mostly as a way of setting it up as the Jewish equivalent of Christmas. My Jewish friends have reminded me on numerous occasions that Hanukkah is actually a minor holiday on their religious calendar. This may explain why collections such as this 2019 compilation are comparatively rare. Some familiar names are on board, some less familiar, but it's an eclectic grouping. I was initially bumfuzzled by opening track "Oh Hanukkah" by Jack Black, as his solo vocal initially felt a bit Tenacious D-like performance-wise. Once the backing vocalists kicked in, I was a lot more comfortable with it. He comes back at the end of the collection with "Chad Gadya (Passover Bonus)" in a similar performance. It's left to Adam Green to inject a little humor with his original story song "Dreidels of Fire." Yo La Tengo, the band that's known for holding Hanukkah residencies with lots of special guests, offers a new original called "Eight Candles" in a sort of French chanson whisper-song arrangement, HAIM covers Leonard Cohen with "If It Be Your Will," and Flaming Lips offer up a typical-for-them original, "Sing It Now, Sing It Somehow." Alex Frankel brings us the synth-pop "Hanukkah in '96," Buzzy Lee continue in that vein with "Give You Everything," Tommy Guerrero performs the original ballad "Dedication," Watkins Family Hour goes bluegrass on "Hanukkah Dance," Craig Wedren sings his original "Sanctuary," and Loudon Wainwright III brings his typical levity to "Eight Nights a Week." All told, it's a kind of public radio-friendly approach to Hanukkah, and you don't have to be Jewish to enjoy this.
Longtime indie-Americana label Merge got a bunch of folks who record under its banner to contribute to this 2019 Christmas album, offering some interesting original takes on the holiday along with a fair number of covers. The Essex Green makes a folk-rock appeal for a "Green Christmas," Mike Krol's "Won't Be Alone Tonight" is a fine power pop ode to holiday love and happiness, Coco Hames is a spurned singer in "Keep Your Christmas," Mac McCaughan and Annie Hayden offer a warm ode to the snow in "Down We Go (Sledding Song)," and Fruit Bats offer a folk music narration of the Nativity in "Baby In the Hay." Merge notes that Telekinisis' "Christmas Time Is Here (Uh Oh)" was pitched to Cheap Trick for their Christmas album a couple years back but failed to make the lineup; it's just as well, as this uptempo holiday rocker fares just as well in this band's performance. Mikal Cronin gives his original "Christmastime Heist" a touch of Phil Spector in the intro before dialing it back in the verses; it's about the singer's past experience starring in a Christmas musical. Eric Bachman offers the downbeat "I Was Made for Losing You," Will Butler's "Love Asked Me To Stay" appears to have been answered with a firm "no," and Tracyanne and Danny gently ask the musical question "Santa, Don't Say No." Among the covers, Hiss Golden Messinger recruits Lucinda Williams for a cover of John Prine's "Christmas In Prison," William Tyler strips down Big Star's "Jesus Christ" for an acoustic instrumental rendition, Apex Manor goes country-folk on "White Christmas," and the Shout Out Louds conclude things with a etherial arrangement on a downtempo "Blue Christmas." Thank Merge for bringing us a fine anthology of current artists waxing emotional on the holiday.
The hip-hop performer brings his style of music to Christmas for 2019. It's a mix of originals and covers, starting with Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas," and you could imagine that a 2019 Donny Hathaway playing this song for the first time would sound exactly like this. He brings in guest singers Candice Boyd to take lead on "Carol of the Bells" and RaVaughn to sing Stevie Wonder's "Someday at Christmas," but takes back the mic on "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)," "Merry Christmas Baby," and Marvin Gaye's "I Want to Come Home For Christmas." Originals include break-up song "Just Ain't Christmas," the explicit "Talk About It," "Open Mine Tonight," and the Caribbean-flavored "Christmas Vibez" with Satori & Dre Island. The tempos are mostly medium ballad to slow jam, with the outlier being "Merry Christmas Baby," which puts a modern spin on the original blues beat. I like this a lot, though I'd drop "Talk About It" from any office party playlists due to language, which includes use of the n-word.
I hadn't encountered Molly before this. She's an Austin, Texas singer-songwriter with a couple of albums and singles to her credit over the past couple of years and she chose to make album number three a Christmas collection for the 2019 season. It's mostly covers, but she wrote two originals, the uptempo shuffle "Holiday Dreaming" and the ballad "New Year Love." She betrays an interest in wrapping up the season quickly though, as the latter original is joined by versions of ABBA's "Happy New Year" and a dirge-y rendition of "Auld Lang Syne." Other tunes include a country arrangement of "Snowqueen of Texas," which I just learned is a John Phillips original first done by the Mamas and the Papas; a solidly pop-rock cover of "Last Christmas" with talking and singing added by actors John Early and Kate Berland; and she dragged in a bunch of kids for "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Most of the album is pop balladry, as seen in "The Secret of Christmas," "Hard Candy Christmas," "I'll Be Home For Christmas," "The Coldest Night of the Year," and "What Do the Lonely Do at Christmas?" Molly is a fine singer and she gives every song here a worthy performance, but I'm more likely to recommend this to folks who like traditional pop music.
Sorry to have gone missing for almost a week. A problem developed on the server end of this website causing me to be unable to upload new posts. After a couple of championship rounds with tech support and customer service, the problem has been resolved, and it even saved the site a couple of bucks. Hopefully there will be no more technical problems going forward, although I'm going to have to consider switching from Moveable Type to Wordpress since the former now charges serious money for upgrades and support, and I'm about two versions behind.
If you use Facebook at all, somebody in your feed has posted a Randy Rainbow political parody song at some point in the past few years. He's managed to parlay this into a career, with YouTube videos, downloads and even live concerts. And for 2019, he's gone Christmas with this album. There are a few famous friends along for the ride, like composer Marc Shaiman on the title song and assisting with incidental music, Kathy Griffin & Alan Cummings playing counselors on "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," Lorna Luft guesting on "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," and John DiDomenico providing the Donald Trump impression on "Trump's Favorite Things." This latter tune is the only thing on the album that resembles the snarky parody videos mentioned earlier; the rest is strictly from showtunes-ville, which is not within the Mistletunes mission statement, but many people will like this well enough.
Also from 2019's crop of Snowflakes Christmas Singles, this band of Los Angeles indie-rockers give us a nice mid-tempo original that is described as a tribute to the women who plan and carry out every family's holiday celebrations. Flip it over and you get an acoustic cover of "Winter Wonderland" that owes a little to the Everly Brothers. Nice work here. Click the cover for vinyl from Amazon or download from Bandcamp.
Another of the Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club's 2019 releases, this French band claims heritage of their country's chanson movement, the "ye-ye" sound of the Sixties, and various psychedelic and electronic movements. Not surprisingly, these are French language tunes, so I'm at a bit of a loss to describe what they're about, although the Bandcamp page pegs this tune as being about Christmas Eve, "when the magic happens." It's a kind of lo-fi tune that mixes acoustic and electronic sounds behind female vocals, and it definitely holds your attention. The flip is "Chanson Pour Les Enfants l'Hiver" ("Song For the Children of the Winter"), a cover song that combines the poetry of Jacques Prevert with the music of composer Joseph Korma. This one is more of a breathy synth-pop ballad. Both tunes are compelling enough for you to check them out. Click the cover to get vinyl from Amazon or download from Bandcamp.
Once again the Netherlands' Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club drops a cluster of new singles on the holiday for 2019. This one, by the Swedish husband-and-wife duo Us and Them, is a sweet acoustic ballad evoking the nostalgia of coming home for the holidays. They back it with a faithful-to-the-original cover of Tori Amos' "Winter." As it's a singles club, you can get this on vinyl at Amazon by clicking the cover, or digitally via Bandcamp.
This up-and-coming indie-popper did an EP called 2019 with the premise that each song was aimed at a particular holiday in the year, some originals, some covers. She chose "Last Christmas" as her Christmas-adjacent tune for the collection, and it's a lovely uptempo punky cover. Check it here and click through for a download.
If you're familiar at all with Los Lobos, you know these guys run the gamut of all the various rock-era musical styles at one time or another, from power pop to funk and soul, and then they mix in their own Central American Hispanic heritage to boot. Indeed, they've done a couple of albums of traditional Mexican-Spanish folk music during their career. So no surprise, this 2019 album gives us a heaping helping of traditional holiday music from North, Central, and South America, heavy on the folk styles of those regions. You'd probably gather as much from the song titles: "La Rama," "Reluciente Sol," "Amarga Navidad," "Arbolito de Navidad," "Las Mananitas," "La Murga," "Regalo de Reyes" and the title song. I can't contribute a whole lot about these songs because my Spanish is good only for getting me to la biblioteca. I can say that when I listen to authentic folk music normally, it feels like homework, but Los Lobos makes these songs go down smooth. "Arbolito" is fun because it throws in a cheesy combo organ that evokes your favorite 60s garage band records, "Reluciente Sol" has a nice horn figure that is less mariachi and more Stax in sound, and "La Murga" takes me back to their previous tune "Kiko and the Lavender Moon." Lest you think this is one of those Putumayo world music collections, they give us the Freddy Fender cover "It's Christmas Time in Texas," heavy on the accordion, a cool reimagining of the popular novelty "Donde Esta Santa Claus," and to top everything off, they close with "Feliz Navidad." If you've somehow gotten this far in your life without experiencing Los Lobos, this holiday collection makes a pretty good entry point.
Southeastern seaboard artists once again come together under this charitable group's umbrella to provide us with fine Americana-flavored rock and pop music for our enjoyment and for the support of good causes. Things kick off promisingly with the band Film's fine cover of Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody," David Ryan Harris takes a funky acoustic tack on "Little Drummer Boy," Book Club pay tribute to the Everly Brothers by covering their "Christmas Eve Can Kill You," Steve Everett offers the acoustic holiday lament "Kiss a Girl," as in what he wants for Christmas, and Kevn Kinney of Drivin' N' Cryin' takes an idiosyncratic folkie approach to "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)." Mary Karlzen's "It's Christmas Once More" makes another appearance here, as does the Five Star Iris version of "The Dreidel Song," which was around in 2003 under the band name Another Man Down, but it's the same version. JD Eicher does a live solo acoustic version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," Scott Munns covers Alabama's "Tennessee Christmas," Jenn Bostic offers the bluesy "It's Christmas Time," Todd Wright featuring Ryan Wright together perform the piano ballad "Snow," and things wrap up with a couple of familiar carols, Francisco Vidal putting a little jazz to "Let It Snow" and Besides Daniel harmonizing a pop-folk arrangement of "Do You Hear What I Hear." Click the cover to get it from Amazon or go to Bandcamp.
There's been a dropoff in curated holiday compilations over time, no doubt because it's hard to make any money by selling physical copies and because dealing with a dozen or two different artists' recording contracts makes things even harder. Case in point, the 2019 edition of this long-running series by British indie label Cherryade, which is only available by going to Bandcamp and pre-ordering the physical CD for postal delivery. They thoughtfully provide a supercut of song previews, but the entire collection is pointedly NOT available to stream or download. For that matter, the compilation is limited to 200 copies, so you might want to act quickly if you're curious to hear 25 obscure indie-pop takes on the holidays. Some of these tunes may be available other ways, and a number of the acts here are frequent flyers on the Cherryade Express. I've been a longtime follower of this series, and you'll no doubt recall reviews of past editions posted in this very location. As with the others, some tunes are wildly amateurish and others more polished, but indie rock fans will certainly find lots to like with the current collection. Of the available tunes, I'm enjoying Ballard's "I Miss Christmas," The Yellow Melodies' "Mi Navidad," Frank Sexuality and the Negative Emotions' "It's Christmas All Around," a Festival of Lights anthem from The Holiday Scene called "Eight Dates a Week (Song For Hanukkah)," The Popguns' "In Red and in White," The Hannah Barberas' "Oh Santa Claus," Cool Sweet Deal's indie-soul "A Very CSD Christmas," GOOFY18's crunchy "Put an End to Sorrow," a goofy nerd fantasia by Sci-Fried called "Star Wars Christmas," Fonda 500's "Christmas Sunshine," and Goddammit Jeremiah's "What If Santa Claus Is Just 20 Ferrets in a Red Suit?" Well, what if? This is out November 22 and is likely to sell out quickly, so be advised.
As the music business evolves (or devolves, depending upon whether you're trying to make a living from it), we're seeing a lot more artists who are packaging new Christmas albums with winter tours highlighting the music from those albums. Enter popular bluesman Keb' Mo' and this 2019 album collecting a group of familiar tunes alongside some freshly written holiday classics. Start with the original title tune, a solid R'nB ballad, and move on to the bouncy "Better Everyday," the witty "Christmas Is Annoying," the jazzy "One More Year With You," and, trigger warning for kid-sung songs, "When The Children Sing," which is actually not terrible, owing to the fact that they made a point of getting kids who can carry a tune. Keb' also takes on "Please Come Home For Christmas," the blues classics "Santa Claus Santa Claus" and "Santa Claus Blues," and he duets with Melissa Manchester on "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm." Completists like me will carp that Keb' didn't include his past holiday tunes "They Call It Christmas" and "Jingle Bell Jamboree," especially since he titled his tour after the latter tune. But if you've got them, feel free to drop them into the playing sequence for yourself.
Josh is an indie-rock singer-songwriter who's made a pretty good career out of producing records with the warm sounds of the singer-songwriter heyday of the early-mid 1970s. Interestingly, he relocated to Spain sometime in the past 15 years and has become pretty well known over there. For 2019, he brings his songwriter's pen and nine new songs to this fine collection of new holiday tunes. (If you purchase through his label, there's a bonus EP available with a few covers, including "All I Want For Christmas," "Up On the Housetop," and "Let It Snow," along with a few demos for the new record.) Things start promisingly with the bouncy "Mediterranean X-Mas," and move quickly onto the meditative "Red Suit," the jazzy shuffle "New York Holiday," the snappy "Easy Man," the nostalgic "Sleigh Brother Bill," the New Year's story "Lights of Town," the Chris Isaak homage "Letters in the Mailbox," the deceptively uptempo "Holiday Heartbreak," and album closer "Christmas Songs," a tribute to those that came before this album. Hopefully, some future singer-songwriter will cite tunes from this album when he or she gets around to writing a similar song years from now. It's worth remembering.
This self-described "viral YouTuber" and actress (she's been on "Orange Is the New Black" and "She's Gotta Have It Too") wrote this mid-tempo holiday tune for 2019. It's a contemporary hit radio-friendly piece with electronic rhythm backing and it's quite the catchy little thing. Her press clippings indicate this is her third year in the Christmas scene, after 2017's "Unwrap Your Heart" and 2018's "White Christmas." UPDATE: Looks like she had "Puppy For Christmas" in 2014, "The Nice List" in 2015, "Don't Forget Your Pet on Christmas" in 2016, and "Ugly Christmas Sweater Party" in 2017, too. You're close to an album, Gina.
- Last year there was a lot of rumor-mongering about a Christmas album by the Detroit band Electric Six. Turns out such a thing was loosed on the public in 2018; however, it was only made available to the band's fans who took part in the Kickstarter campaign to fund it. It turned out to be a double-disc set, one Christmas and one an acoustic session featuring non-holiday tunes. Amazon and iTunes show no trace of it, but Discogs notes its existence without showing any availability. Perhaps the band will roll it out at some later time.
- This year's big Christmas hype is John Legend reissuing last year's Christmas album, adding a newly woke version of "Baby It's Cold Outside" duetted with Kelly Clarkson that addresses the past #metoo criticisms of the song. We'll leave it to you to decide how you feel about it; I'm fine with this myself.
This came out in 2018 but I just caught up to it now. It's a grungy little indie-pop number that takes its time sneaking up on you. Don't know much about the band except that they hail from somewhere in Illinois and that all their stuff appears to be up on Soundcloud, although you can download or stream this from all the usual suspects.
Hi readers! Really sorry we haven't gotten this blog off the launching pad for 2019 yet. Until about an hour ago, your humble host hasn't been able to access the software running this site because big chunks of the content management system got deprecated due to age and my attempts to post new articles were greeted with short but confusing error messages. After lengthy seances stretching over several days with Mr. Google as my swami, I was finally able to kick-start the blog into a semblance of functionality, and that's why you are able to read this digital mea culpa. As a side effect of my having to pretend I knew what I was doing throughout this ordeal, the various design elements (colors, fonts, the site's longtime graphic banner) went AWOL, but the past 20-some years of content remain accessible and readable. Since there was a strong possibility my tinkering around under the hood could have killed the blog outright and left nothing but a smoking ruin where the URL is, I'm going to have to accept this result as the best possible outcome.
I have actually composed some new posts for stuff that's out this year, and starting tomorrow you'll be able to read them. I'd start sooner, but, well, I feel like I've spent a week picking orders in an Amazon warehouse (subtle plug for you to start your Amazon shopping sprees by clicking here), so I'm going to pour myself an adult beverage before I climb into bed. Tomorrow's coming soon enough.
