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A Smooth Soul Hip Hop holiday tune from Japan? Free? In Japanese? Oh, yeah, it don't get no better than that. Take a listen to Louvre's "New Year's Eve (With You)" and get the song free from Soundcloud. (Come on, you know you love it.) |
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 It seems I nearly always forget about Mr. Boyd's annual Christmas treat until well after the holidays. And then I just don't feel like blogging it (though I download them faithfully). Well, not this year, by God.
Ballard C. Boyd is a writer and director (currently working for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, I hear). In his spare time, he likes to do a little Uke Pop (who doesn't). This is another case of someone who really enjoys making Christmas tunes and that joy comes through the speakers and takes up residence in your heart and head. Sometimes we get an original Ballard C. Boyd Christmas tune and sometimes not. On this year's joy filled platter, "There's Noel In Christmas". we get two tunes we know from the Spector Christmas album and what may well be the first recorded cover of JD McPherson's "Twinkle (Little Christmas Lights)". If Ballard is indeed working on The Late Show, now, "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" seems especially appropriate. Darlene Love used to give us an annual appearance on the show while Letterman was hosting--welcoming in the holiday with her seminal Christmas song. I hear tell Mr. Boyd may have recorded that one in The Ed Sullivan Theater. Good for him. The third song is a whistling version of "Marshmallow World". Three great songs that go great together. All of Mr. Boyd's previous Christmas EPs remain available and free. And you'll find them all at his website. 
01) Alice Bisi (Oh, Alice) - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
02) Hund - I'll Be Stoned For Christmas (Dent May cover) 03) Naughty Betsy - All I Want For Christmas (Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover) 04) Barbados - Just For A Place In Your Heart 05) Elizabeth Morris (Allo Darlin) - The Season (Padda remix) 06) OAK - Holiday (The Get Up Kids cover) 07) Husky Loops - Shy Guy 08) Baseball Gregg - Cyber Monday 09) Steven Lipsticks And His Magic Band - Christmas Thieves 10) Boys Age - Hey Oooh 11) X-Ray Picnic - Northern Exposure 12) Flood Regions - Leprechaun On The Moon 13) Yellow Yonder - The Runner 14) mesic - A Long December (Counting Crows cover) 15) RACE - Jesus Was A Communist (Reagan Youth cover) 16) Iron Only - Airplanes 17) SMASH - Switching Light 18) Qlowski - I Do not Wanna Be Capitalized 19) Wolther Rabbitt - Then there are secrets between us (demo) 20) Homelette - Song For U 21) Le Man Avec Les Lunettes - 15 Dollars For A Sandwich 22) Dj Bitterness - I Get Drunk Like Pizzul Because It's Xmas Without You 
Isn't that one of the best things you've ever heard? I don't even know if its a Christmas song. And I don't even care. And they're from Japan, believe it or not. Just wow. Mind blown.
A lot of our annual gifties have gone away. No Santastic this year. No Suburban Sprawl. No Alternate Root. No Cigar Box Nation. And this will be the last year for our annual present from Beta Radio. On the bright side, we still have Sofia Talvik's annual Christmas song, our stocking stuffer from Joe Algeri (the JAC), and the always superb collection from XO Publicity. My all-time favorite, though has to be "A Polaroid For Christmas". And they're back again this year with one of their biggest and best. Polaroid is an Italian music blog and, every year, the host of the blog asks bands and artists from all over the world if they might like to do a Christmas song--cover or original (or at least a song to keep one company whilst trimming the tree). And from that simple request comes some of the absolutely, hands down, no question BEST Indie Christmas music you will ever hear anywhere. Every year! It's unbelievable how good this stuff is. Some will make it into the circuit via Bandcamp or Soundcloud, but many/most will not. And it's free to download. Every year! We are truly living in blessed times (well, as far as free Indie Christmas music goes). There's always a little something for everyone--nice little Indie Pop tunes, Shoegaze, Electronica, LoFi Indie Rock, Alt Folk, Dream Pop, Punk Country...seriously, they'll run the gamut. Now...it's getting a bit late and, normally, I'd just go later and break it down for you. But Mrs. Katz (not her real name) has another doctor's appointment tomorrow (Shhh. I didn't tell her this time), so I need to get to bed. And, to tell you the truth, I listened to this whole thing and, if I were to list my favorites, I'd be listing about 20 of the 22 tracks. So I'm going to let you find your own favorites (it's all free, after all). I will mention my very, very favorites real quick--tracks 1, 5, 10, 11, 20 and 21. Go get the whole shootin' match from Polaroid. And should you find yourself wanting to dig deeper into the artists and their music (like Boys Age up there), Polaroid has everything all linked up for you.  A young Hip Hop Pop artist from Boston, Ben Mader followed the Justin Bieber path to success, building a strong following through YouTube before signing a label deal. With the video of "Listen To Your Heart", he gained over 1000 followers within a week. But Ben also performed whenever the opportunity arose, up and down the east coast, building an even greater following. He did all this while still in school as he's, what, 17 or 18 right now. Ben's debut EP, "Lost In The Moment", was released in May of this year and the lead single "Don't Know How To Dance" has done very well.
"Christmas Time" is a fun Rap/Hip Hop Pop tune--not just free of expletives, but free of attitude. Ben's got no problem poking a little fun at himself. He won me over when Santa got his name wrong. "Ho Ho Ho! Is That Ben Matter?" Ben corrects Santa with "No, Santa. Its May-der but it don't matter." As I said, fun. And free via Soundcloud. And that's a great combination. 
I've had this one bookmarked for about a week and just never got back to it. And I saw it on one of the other Christmas sites (or possibly in a Twitter feed)--can't remember who--which reminded me of what a nice little tune it is. Wish I could remember which site had it; I like to give credit where credit's due.
Ice Cutters are a versatile band from Wales (that's Wales UK, not whales, OK). They write new music in Pop, Rock, Country, Blues, and Americana. "Baby Don't You Cry Too Much" is done in a retro late 50s/early 60s Pop Vocal Group style (think the Belmonts or The Four Seasons...or even one of the early R&B groups). I like it. It's snappy. And I like snappy. Feel free to punch on over to Soundcloud for the download.  Sometimes, looking for the freebies, you begin to give up hope. *Sigh* There just isn't anything out there to get really excited about. Or so you begin to believe. And you slog your way through hundreds of very bad covers of "Blue Christmas", "White Christmas", and other colors of Christmas that leave you feeling green with illness. And then........IT'S A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!! (Cue the choir of heavenly angels.) Something so fresh, so different, so original, so good that it sparkles like the first snow in sunlight and completely restores your faith in the music of the season. God bless us all, everyone!
The group is Lost Tapestries--primarily a partnership between Sergio Pizzorno (Kasabian) and comedian Noel Fielding. They'd thus far released just one record--"The Luxury Comedy Tapes", a "soundtrack" for Fielding's television show--and that was in 2012. Their music combines Rock, New Wave, Psych and Comedy. So you'd have to figure a Christmas record from these dudes would either be bloody brilliant or a total pudding. Well, bloody brilliant it is. "Can't Wait For Christmas" is somewhere in the ether of Daft Punk, Men Without Hats, KC & THe Sunshine Band, Roy Wood's Wizard, and the Goons. And I know I must be missing more. Oddly enough, we did report on Lost Tapestries sophomore effort last year. It was expected to drop last year, but didn't. This is the song that features the great actor Idris Elba doing a rap--pretty much off the cuff. At the time, Idris said "I'm telling you, man, this song is a hit." And he was right!!! Grab this IMMEDIATELY!! It's a free download from Soundcloud. They already blew through their download cap once, so there's no guarantee they won't blow through the second as well. Go! Now! Get it!
"I must say Joe's bravado and sheer stupidity never ceases to amaze me."--Mal Hope, rock music critic (allegedly)
First, a quick PARENTAL ADVISORY as "Holiday On Mars" does contain one "s" word (although it clearly belongs and you've certainly heard far worse on basic cable).
It's not really officially the Christmas season until that Power Popping fool Joe Algeri makes an appearance. Joe's been making annual Christmas records since long before Jesus was born (although they seemed to lack any real substance in the pre-Christ years). In fact, many religions hold that Joe was the very first Rock musician...in that he played music using only rocks. One day in the era of cavemen, Joe was setting up for a big gig for all of the members of his cave tribe. The biggest stone slipped and, though many of the tribe tried to stop it, that stone just kept rolling along. And thus were born the Rolling Stones. To lose the stone was tragedy enough, but it had rolled over the foot of one member of Joe's rock band. Thereafter, that band member would be remembered as the first rock musician to get stoned. Joe next invented the bass...er, base...something he put under the stones to keep them from rolling. It's been many years since then and I won't bore you with Joe's discovery of electricity. Suffice it to say that it's a hair-raising tale. About every other year, I take a stab at trying to be as witty as the "liner notes" for Joe's annual Christmas record (which create the mythos of the recording sessions), but I always fall well short. At my best, I'm merely a half-wit. Joe (aka The JAC) doesn't need the humor, though, because these Christmas treats are always so damn good. The latest is "Holiday On Mars", a spacey Rock number that features 12 musicians from 5 different countries (The Christmas Crew) and, this year, a theremin (cuz you can't do a space age Rock tune without a theremin). The tale of the taping and all the credits and lyrics are at Bandcamp. Also at Bandcamp is Joe's collection of past Christmas delights, "I See Things Differently", though none from the before Christ years (at that time, cavemen were more concerned with preserving their lives than preserving audio tapes; who knew Radio Shack would be extinct in 2000 years?). It's there for you to be had, astronauts and astronettes. But, first, Joe had a few words. A portion of "Holiday On Mars" is in French. They had just finished recording that part of the song when...well. you know. I'll let Joe put it in his own words (with which, FWIW, I agree completely).
"Given recent world events, a song that laments the frenetic pace of modern life and the irritation of a commercialized festive season might seem like nothing more than a whine about very first world problems. We had just finished the French part of “Holiday On Mars” when the tragic events of Paris unfolded...
But the terrorists can just go screw themselves; I wasn’t going to change this year’s Christmas song for any reason. We will remain free to sing about whatever we damn well please including embracing, promoting, ignoring or even criticizing any religious practices and traditions. Peace to you this festive season, enjoy the holiday on Mars." |
The FREE ListHere we hope to direct you to some of the Christmas music on the web that can be yours absolutely free. We will not direct you to mp3 or sharity sites, here, but only to artist sites, label sites, and other authorized and unquestionably legal locations. Archives2010 FREE List Categories
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