Category: Bedroom Pop

VARIOUS - IT'S CHRISTMAS, VOLUME III

12/15/2018

"It's Christmas, Volume III" is the annual Philadelphia holiday collection, for which all proceeds go to support the ACLU. It's an assortment put together by Sure! (Will DeNola and friends) and contains mostly Pop, some of it lo-fi. The selections from Sam DeMartino and Molly Twigg are excellent, especially their cover of "Always Tomorrow" from the Rudolph soundtrack (there's one that doesn't get covered a lot), and Sure's "I Believe In Santa Claus" is worthwhile. But it's Sam DeMartino's solo effort, the Jangle Pop "Twinkle Lights" that's the standout of this collection. Can't really tell whether his lady love (the twinkle lights that complete his Christmas tree) is really coming home or if he's simply delusional, but let's not waste too much time over-analyzing a sweet and simple Yuletide love song that twinkles like the lights in it's title. "It's Christmas, Volume III", and it's two predecessors, are name-your-price at Bandcamp. And, just a reminder, any proceeds raised support the ACLU (and, boy, we need them now, more than ever; not for nothin', but they're putting numbers on the arms of asylum seeking children, now, before they ship them to that Texas concentration camp and we all remember the last time such a thing was done. I didn't use to be an "open borders" guy, but, in light of the inhumanity of Trump, I am now. I don't like to get political on a holiday music blog but this s#&! has gotten totally out of hand. These refugees and asylum seekers are better Americans than most of us will ever be, and Trump proves it every day.).

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VARIOUS - RING THEM BELLS

12/8/2018

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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".

NAME YOUR PRICE AT BANDCAMP

1.   The Vicars - All I Want For Christmas Is You
2.   Blay - Here We Come A Wassailing
3.   Anita Clare - How To Make Gravy
4.   Los Naranjitos - The Time When Old Rose Leaves Home (There Is No Christmas Like A Home Christmas)
5.   Joshua Isaac - Do You Hear What I Hear?
6.   The ABC Jugband - Last Christmas
7.   The Bells - For The Beauty Of The Earth
8.   the onestarband - Unto Us A Child Is Born
9.   St Jambience - On The Fifth Day Of Christmas
10. The Flying Go Go Girls - Ring Them Bells
11. Giggleswick St Saviour Olave VI Royal Latin School's Whistling Choir - What Child Is This? (feat Alberta Bottles)
12. The Christmas Story
13. The Silly Dilberries - Lord Keep Us Safe At Night

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HUSBANDS - XMAS 2

9/8/2018

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Husbands - "Chestnuts" OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO from Tanner Trammell on Vimeo.

1. bing it
2. silver butts
3. hello shoppers
4. macaulay
5. killarney
6. goop on ya grinch
7. studdard muffin
8. chestnuts
9. right christmas
10. tomorrow never snows

HUSBANDS ON FACEBOOK
NAME-YOUR-PRICE ON BANDCAMP

This was covered by Christmas Underground, last year. Of course, you may have been around last year, but I wasn't. Anyway, this deserves the extra attention. And, if I do decide to do a Stubby's mix this Christmas, something like this would almost certainly have to be on it.

You know, normally, when I go to listen to Christmas music online, I'm hoping for something really good. I want it to be good. I want to will it to be good. Naturally, I'm disappointed more often than not. And you sometimes wonder about unrealistic expectations.

But I desperately wanted to hate this. I dunno. One of the tags is "drone" and I'm not big on "drone". But another tag was "dream pop" and I love "dream pop". Alright, I'll give it a chance. I was determined to hate it. First note, boom, I hate it already. 10 seconds in, I'm scoffing. 30 seconds in, I'm thinking, "interesting." After about a minute and a half, I'm swooning. "Oh my God, this is the best thing I've ever heard! I love this! I want this! I need this!"

Husbands is an Oklahoma City band and, as the title might suggest, "Xmas 2" is their second Christmas set (2013's "Xmas" being the first). "Xmas" (which I only listened to after hearing "Xmas 2") shows a band with an idea. "Xmas 2" shows that idea fully realized. The record is meant to be listened to as an entire piece, drifting dreamily from originals to seasonal standards totally re-imagined so that they're completely familiar and completely new at the same time with soundscapes expertly weaved into the fabric such that they seem random and not random at all. My analogies always bug somebody, if not everybody, but the sensation of listening to "Xmas 2" most reminded me of hearing The Beatles' "Abbey Road" for the first time...except it's a Christmas album! And the true test of a record like this is "does it make me feel like Christmas"? And, boy, does it ever!

If you visit our Festive Friends, as we always hope you do, then you already grabbed this after Christmas Underground reviewed it last year. If not, nothing I say here matters. Just listen. And then download it. And then listen again. And again and again and ag--hey, it's Christmas already! Husbands, I'm not entirely sure what you guys are up to but, please, never stop.

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The FREE List

Here 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.

VARIOUS - IT'S CHRISTMAS, VOLUME III

VARIOUS - RING THEM BELLS

HUSBANDS - XMAS 2

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