We first featured Bonnie & The Barrows in 2016, when they gifted us the wonderful "Christmas Brand New". The Chicago Alt Country band didn't do anything seasonal last year, but they're back again with a pair of Christmas presents for 2018. "Brighten Up My Year" is the A-side and, with lines like "I may get better, but I'll never be well", you know it's another winner. But let's give a little love to the virtual flip, "A Boy and His Truck". "A Boy and His Truck" is a spoken word Christmas story, which we don't hear much of anymore, told over steel guitars and a loping prairie rhythm. Every year, in a small town, the boy would fire up his truck and deliver presents to the children of the town. But, one year, the boy and his truck didn't show. You can imagine the disappointment. I'll let Bonnie & The Barrows tell you the rest of the story. But it's neato keen...and both sides can you be yours for one name-your-price at Bandcamp.
O Youth have their own version of an Advent Calendar, combined with the 12 Days of Christmas. Their annual name-your-price collections of Christmas music make one song playable each day up until Christmas, at which point you can grab the whole thing.
Based in Knoxville, O Youth describe their style as Art Punk or Doom Folk, but I think that's more of an inside joke than a genre description as I'm finding everything to be very accessible Indie Folk Rock, Indie Folk Pop, and some Alt Country. Their originals are great, but they breathe surprising life into the covers, too (and, more or less, doing them straight). This is the quintessential example of a group enjoying what they're doing so much that you can't help but enjoy it, too. As the title of "The Seventh Day of Christmas" might imply, O Youth has been at this for a while. So catch up on the first six "days" (from 2012-2017) and, come Christmas, you'll have 12 new packages to open. For you political animals, there's "When Trump Repeals Christmas" on the 2016 collection. And O Youth will always have a place in my holiday music hall of fame for covering the Coca Cola jingle "The Holidays Are Coming" on their 2017 set. I still have to go back and check the earlier "Days", myself. It's all waiting for you at Bandcamp.
Late in every season, all these great free comps come out and I almost never have time to listen to them all the way through. Well I listened to "The Chvrch of Santa" all the way through. It's the latest in a long line of annual Christmas offerings from Friends Friends Friends Records. The Nova Scotia "label" evolved from the Raw Rock Militia. That's why "The Chvrch of Santa" is only Friends Friends Friends IV, even though there are Christmas comps dating back to 2010. These days, the Raw Rock Christmas project works like this: early in November, they send out a call to anybody and everybody to send in their Christmas tunes. A month later, they've got an album. It's worth noting that, most years, a limited edition CD will follow (given the turnaround time and all, the CDs usually get listed a few days before Christmas).
Although I listened all the way through, I'm not going to do a track-by-track. But this year's set is a good one. There's our old friend Nicholas Burgess with "Santa Planet". And I'm always happy to see Katie King on these; I love her stuff. The Holly Jollies go all Neo-Beach Boys on "Daddy's Really Santa Claus". There's an acoustic "Father's Christmas" from Jeremy Waterman, a straight-up Folk cover of "If We Make It Through December" by Blue Acres, some very nearly Punk Country from Alex Babineau covering Buck Owens, and even some Second Line Jazz from The Super-Krewe, "Xmas Potpourri". But beyond Nicholas and Katie, my favorites were the two tracks from Rawrwar and the Indie Pop tune up top, Whisperhawk's "Merry Christmas (I'm Sorry)". Importantly, there wasn't a single track where I was even tempted to pick up the virtual needle and move on. Great work, as usual, Friends Friends Friends. Find "The Chvrch of Santa" on Bandcamp.
Jake Duda and his band are based in Minneapolis and they play Country, Bluegrass, Folk and Blues. And they clearly have an ear for a catchy tune and cheeky lyrics. "Corn Dogs For Christmas" was originally recorded as a Christmas card for family and friends last year. But it would not be contained. The title track has become something of a seasonal trucking anthem in the Mid-West. "Spanish Midnight Mass" is a banjo driven piece that speaks to getting drunk at Christmas and waking up in the midst of Spanish Midnight Mass with no clue how you got there. "The Kid And The Judge" are instrumental mood pieces...slices of Americana in their own right. And we're back to the bottle in "Talkin' Christmas Morning Blues" (or, more accurately, the morning after). I've always enjoyed this kind of music. It may not mean much to many of you, but Jake Duda and his band remind me a bit of Cincinnati's Jake Speed & The Freddies. And that's high praise from me. Good stuff...and free at Bandcamp.
Sometimes you find something that you almost wish you hadn't. Oh, not that the music on "Ring Them Bells" is bad. It's a fine collection of "lo-fi jugband junk, electro-country, 3AM melancholy, folksy baroque, 60s garage trash, [and] whistling choir". It's just that...
4-4-2 Music is a tiny label in Sydney, Australia. And, as a tiny label (they favor the word "boutique"), they do pretty much what they want. They aren't concerned with hitting the charts or having a "sound". They put out small quantities of CDs (sometimes CD-Rs) and, occasionally, vinyl. And, every year, they do a free or name-your-price Christmas compilation of their artists and friends on Bandcamp. It's the Christmas music the way they'd like to hear it. And that's the thing. Don't think I've ever come across any of these before and they go all the way back to 2008's "A Whale In A Manger". Where, exactly, am I supposed to find the time to listen to all that? Well, I did listen to "Ring Them Bells", so I suppose we start there. In addition to the groovy Electro Country take on "Do You Hear What I Hear" from Joshua Isaac, I very much enjoyed the lo-fi Indie Pop of the ABC Jugband, the banjo driven "Unto Us A Child Is Born" by the onestarband, and the straight Folk cover of Paul Kelly's "How To Make Gravy" from Blay. Kinda like the lo-fi Electronic title track, a Bob Dylan cover, from The Flying Go Go Girls. So I suppose, when I get to the older sets, I start with those groups. Right? In any case, there's enough good stuff on this one to warrant a name-your price download from Bandcamp. Below the tracklist, you'll see a video of "Nothing For Christmas", the ABC Jugband's contribution to last year's collection. And I was also happy to see a cover of "Closing of the Year" on the 2015 collection, "At Least I Bring You Hope".
More Christmas gifts from Noisetrade! Today it's, not one, not two, not three...but FIVE songs from "Love The Holidays"...the Old 97's new Christmas album. The Alt Country outfit, led by singer-songwriter Rhett Miller, has been together since the early 90s and have previously released a Christmas song or two, but "Love The Holidays" is their first full-length Christmas album. "Love The Holidays" is considered complete at 10 songs--9 originals and "Auld Lang Syne". But the group also tacked on a few Christmas covers, just for fun. The Noisetrade "Saint Nick's Picks" collection includes 4 of the originals, including the title track, and the Old 97's take on "Up On The Housetop". Noisetrade also did an interview with the Rhett Miller that you'll find here.
Back when I worked in radio, there was a Jingle company, Drake-Chenault, that would put together these great presentation records to sell you on their production packages. Drake-Chenault was very expensive and the small market stations I worked for couldn't afford their Jingles. But we loved the presentation records, which would often open with a bit of radio theater before the guy with the deep perfect voice would take over to introduce the assortment. Long and seemingly random story, I know, but one year Drake-Chenault's radio theater piece featured a radio station that switched formats to Punk Country (complete with ads for "S*#%-kicker Boots, the boots for kicking s*#% in corners"). There was no such thing as Punk Country, at the time, so this was all very funny back then (and, let's face it, "s*#%-kicker boots" would be funny any time). Now, Punk Country is actually a thing.
And, phew, finally getting to it, London's Dexy describe themselves as a Country Punk band (close enough). Don't know if that's true or not, just based on this single, "Xmas Lights", but I do love the sound. It's definitely at the crossroads of Alt Country and Indie Pop. "Xmas Lights" is not unusual in subject matter--a guy pining for his lost love at Christmas--but the music really lifts this one from ordinary to fantastic. Not that the lyrics don't have their moments.
I'm throwing out all the candles,
Pushed your presents back under the bed I read your letters And each sweet little word is ringing out Like a song in my head that I can't stand It's another Christmas alone again...
You can get "Xmas Lights" by Dexy for the price of your email at Noisetrade.
"It's a special kind of lonely in a strip club Christmas night." Yes, sir, if you're feeling bad this Christmas, we've got an EP, here, to make you sit up and say, "Hey, I got it better than THAT guy." And it's even worse; it's a strip club where a Stuckey's used to be. Dear Lord, that's depressing.
I've never encountered David Dearnley before, but now the Alt Folk singer-songwriter has me fascinated. David is from Hartsburg, Missouri. He describes himself and his music perfectly, with more than a little sarcasm, too. He says he's a "survivor of a good upbringing" and a successful career and marriage who now makes "pre-apocalyptic folk, and dystopian love songs". SIGN ME UP! All four of the songs on "Dystopian Christmas" are wonderfully dreary. But I think "Christmas In A Strip Club" is the most wonderfully depressing of the lot. It might be because I know people who DJ at strip clubs. And it's pretty depressing to begin with, but, yeah, a strip club on Christmas night? That's gotta be the worst. For everybody. Imagine having no place better to be on Christmas. And the twist of the song is he's there trying to recapture childhood memories because his family used to stop there...when it was Stuckey's. Man, that's too twisted. I love it. "Christmas On The Nod", naturally enough, is about a junkie's holiday. "Hell of A Holiday" is about using Christmas as a distraction to deal with life while using life as a distraction to get through Christmas. And "Hiding Places" is about hiding what you're truly feeling behind a smile. Technically, "Dystopian Christmas" is a collection of holiday songs from the past few years. "Hiding Places" would appear to be this year's addition. So long as depressing music doesn't depress you then, absolutely, you should download "Dystopian Christmas" from Bandcamp. It's name-your-price. This David Dearnley fellow is pretty darn good.
The first of, hopefully, many holiday samplers has arrived--this one from Paste Magazine. As Lie In The Sound correctly notes, the Paste Holiday Samplers had lost a little luster in recent years, but they've put together a solid package for 2018. Yes, I fully expected to see selections from the excellent albums from JD McPherson and Rodney Crowell as they've been everywhere this year (and the great thing for them is that, even if they gave away every track for free, you'd STILL want to buy the CDs...they're that good). Other major acts pitching in include The Mavericks and Old 97's. But we also get selections from the Soulful dishes being served up this year by P.J. Morton and Aloe Blacc. And, for Indie fans, there's great music here from Say Sue Me, Lola Kirke and Taken By Trees. And let's not minimize the selections from Lucious, The Gregory Brothers, Squirrel Nut Zippers, and Caroline Jones. Gee, I think that's everybody. Not a throwaway in the bunch, though some tracks will appeal more to one audience and others to another. But very nice balance on that score. Well done, Paste! Keep up the good work.
Missed her in 2014, caught up with her in 2015, remembered in 2016, and 2017 you know about. Ah, but it's 2018. And that means it's time to check in with Miranda Dodson and her "living" Christmas collection, "It's Merry Christmas Time".
This year Miranda has added two songs to the collection that now numbers 10. Miranda gives "White Christmas" an Indie Alt Country spin, but I was especially taken by her rendition of "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear". I mean, first of all, there's just something about the banjo and old carols. But if you don't absolutely lose it when the choir of angels join in, I think there's something wrong with you. Miranda says she grew up a choir nerd and it kinda shows, here. And that's a good thing.
Most of all, though, it's that voice. Miranda Dodson has a voice that could melt the hardest heart.
And it's also nice to be reminded of how good all of her earlier Christmas recordings are. "O Holy Night" still gets me every time. And her originals, "It's Merry Christmas Time" and "Christmas Glow" should be standards by now. Pick up the entire "It's Merry Christmas Time" collection from Bandcamp, or just add the songs you need to keep you up to date. By the way, any proceeds raised will go to VELA, a non-profit that empowers families with special needs children. So it wouldn't hurt to drop a dollar in the pot. Just sayin'. Might even get you off Santa's "Naughty List". Look for Miranda's next full-length album, expected in May 2019. And, hey, since I was out of commission last year, "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" is new to me, too. |
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