My ass is tired, yo. Seriously.
Ordinarily, I'd drop this on the Free page, cuz it's free. But it also happens to be very very good Indie Rock in that Coldplay kind of groove. And I like it. I like it a lot. Most New Years tunes are pretty disposable. Yes, even the ones we post here. Most of them are cute or clever for about 2 days and then we forget all about them. Empty calories. In fact, my favorite New Year's songs aren't even New Year's songs; they're just up-tempo, usually danceable, party tunes. Katy Perry's "Fireworks", Pittbull & Ne-Yo's "Time of Our Lives", the Black-Eyed Peas' "I Got A Feeling", J-Lo's "Waiting For Tonight"--those are the New Year's tunes I groove to. And you can only listen to so many covers of "Auld Lang Syne" and "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" (yes, I'm sure we'll have a few of those posted in the next few days). But "New Year" by Intake? That's golden. Give it a listen and pick it up free from Noisetrade. |
|
0 Comments
We're into November, now, and that means a lot of things. It means that, in arguments with the Grinch in your life over how soon is too soon for Christmas music, the Grinch is now--officially--wrong. Although some of us find any time of year the right time for some egg nog, ginger snaps (snickerdoodles work also), and Christmas tunes, officially, the Grinch has the edge in the argument until we get past Halloween. Sure, some will still argue that there should be a ban on Christmas music until at least December first (and some would impose draconian bans until Christmas Eve), but November 1 is the tipping point where WE outnumber them. So take that, Christmas music Grinch.
November means I have more work to do on this here web site and, specifically, more tunes will be showing up on the Free List page and, yes, there are a couple of newbies up there right now. So you're going to have to click through fairly regularly, now, to stay caught up. And November means that our good friends at Christmas A Go-Go are back in business! All hail Christmas A Go-Go! Gotta love them cats; they always have great stuff...most of which I miss. Stubby's may be the Mets of Christmas music, but Christmas A Go-Go are the Royals (damn it). They're just better than we are. They "keep the line moving" (and that is the last freaking time I ever want to hear that expression). I'm not ashamed to admit it (a little depressed, but not ashamed). Bitter about the World Series much? Just call me Mr. Coffee.
Anyway, proving they still got it, Christmas A Go-Go had this one up Monday morning. Kerry Pastine & The Crime Scene are a Colorado band that knows how to take a vintage sound and make it absolutely purr in modern times. Did I say purr? I should've said growl. These retro rockers absolutely got legs and they know how to use 'em. And Kerry Pastine is absolutely the right driver for this mean machine. Kerry and company leave the bigger names in the dust.
The set opens with a fairly awesome mix of Doo Wop and early Rock and Soul. We get a Blues favored Noir Rock outing with "Have I Been Naughty or Nice". And I don't care how stuck in the mud you may be, "Ride Santa Ride" is gonna make you move--don't try and fight it. That Sock Hop Blues Jumper reminds us that we were shakin' it off long before Taylor Swift was a gleam in her mother's eyes. More Noir Rock with a driving beat on "New Year's Day My Way". The gang's got Rockabilly covered and "Santa's Movin" has got a Bill Haley/Elvis Presley vibe. To close it out, "Happy New Year", a ballad that belongs among such iconic performances as Patsy Cline's "Crazy", Brenda Lee's "I'm Sorry" and Sam Cooke's recording of "A Change Is Gonna Come". Kerry Pastine & The Crime Scene really hit a home run with that one (crap, another baseball reference). Every song on "It's A Crime Scene Christmas" is an original and every one is a winner. The sounds are, at once, familiar and fresh, vintage and cutting edge. That's not that easy to pull off. The guitar playing of Pauly "Six" Shellooe is perfect. The stand-up drumming of Mike "Mad Dog" Minnick couldn't be better. Lance "Romance" Bakemeyer slaps that stand-up bass like a doctor bringing a new life into the world--with precision and passion. (Somebody in the mix is adding a little organ). And Kerry Pastine is Wanda Jackson, Patsy Cline, Grace Slick and Ann Wilson all rolled into one. What a great Christmas surprise "It's A Crime Scene Christmas" is. No hard copy on this, but the digital download should be available everywhere by the end of the week (official release date November 4). I think you'll get the best deal by ordering from the band via Bandcamp. Thanks again to Christmas A Go-Go for finding this one (and welcome back; we missed you). Every year since 2007, DJ Earworm (Jordan Roseman) has condensed the most popular music of the year into one bright and glorious Mash-Up. This year's mix is "Do What You Wanna Do", featuring Taylor Swift, Meghan Trainor, John Legend, Pitbull, Iggy Azalea and more. These mixes tend to be among the most popular plays of the year with this year's already surpassing 10 million views on YouTube. DJ Earworm says this year's batch is slower than those of some recent years due to the decline in the popularity of EDM. A free download of "Do What You Wanna Do" can be had via Soundcloud. I know some people comp New Year's Eve like it's Christmas. I dunno, doesn't really work that way for me. Doesn't mean I don't look for good New Years songs. Ideally, a good New Yeas Eve tune is one you can party to. And this might be the best of them this year. "Time Of Our Lives" comes from Pittbull's latest, "Globilization", and features Ne-Yo. Party on dudes (and be excellent to each other). Our thanks to Randy of Hip Christmas for bringing this one to our attention. According to Legacy's write-up, "Brand New Year" is Eric Carmen's first new recording in 15 years. It will be included on the upcoming "Essential Eric Carmen" CD, due for release this March. Nice to start the New Year with new music. Thanks Legacy. And thanks Randy.
Cynthia Lin has a pair of name-your-own-price Christmas downloads on Bandcamp--"Blue Christmas" from 2011 and "A Very Merry Christmas" from last year. Her current album, "Microscope" (featuring the song "Holiday"), can also be had on a name-your-price deal. And here's a pretty cool rendition of "All I Want For Christmas Is You" on Youtube.
One "Last Dance For New Year's Day"? We love our MashUps, here, and we were pointed in the direction of the French band Hot Couture by a poster (regularjoe) at the FaLaLaLaLa.com forums. "Last Dance For New Year's Day" is his latest and features mostly a MashUp of assorted Liza Michael covers--including U2's "New Year's Day", Kool & The Gang's "Celebration" and, of course, "Auld Lang Syne"--with Donna Summer's "Last Dance" and a few other drops. It's a free Soundcloud download. Hot Couture mixes their live band music with MashUps in a way that, to be honest, I don't quite understand, but the important thing is that they are a real band...that does MashUp mixes. I think. Hot Couture actually has nearly an album's worth of holiday MashUps available on Soundcloud, including "You Can Ring My Jingle Bells", "I'm Dreaming Of A Barry White Christmas" and "Let It Snow LMAFO". Not the best MashUps I've ever heard--those would be on the Santastic sets from djBC--but not bad. And certainly worth a free download. More about Hot Couture at Facebook and their home web site. We featured this video back on January 1, 2011. At the time, it was still a fairly obscure clip of a 2010 Indie Pop song from Ian Axel. Since then, the song has taken off a bit--appearing in the film New Year's Eve and the TV show The Amazing Race, among other things. Not hard to understand why, really. You don't want to start the New Year with hung over regrets of the year past, nor with fear and trepidation for the days ahead. You want to start the New Year off hopeful--making a bold statement and charging forth with confidence. If it wears off in a week or two, well, we can cross that bridge then. But it's important to start strong. Ian Axel's Indie Pop anthem also features Chad Vaccarino and, together, they now call themselves A Great Big World. "Our songs are your songs," they say and, just to prove it, you can grab "This Is The New Year" as a name-your-price Bandcamp download. And, if the song sounds like "more", you can get the whole album for the same Bandcamp deal. Just to add a little positive fuel to your New Year engine. Lots more free New Years tunes on the Free List, if you want 'em. Say everything you’ve always wanted Here's an awesome New Year's song from The Mercy Brothers. The Mercy Brothers are a pair of Boston artists, vocalist Barrence Whitfield and instrumentalist Michael Dinallo. Born Barry White (but we already had one of those), Barrence is best known from his energetic Blues Shout/Rockabilly work with Barrence Whitfield & The Savages. As one half of The Mercy Brothers, Barrence demonstrates that he's equally at home with acoustic Country Blues. "The New Year Blues" was included on the album "Strange Adventure", originally released in 2003. Like so much good American music, The Mercy Brothers were far more popular in Europe than the US and their album was reissued overseas in 2006 and 2008 with some bonus material. You can still get the album from CD Baby, though individual digital tracks are not generally available from the mainstream outlets any more. Unlike a lot of New Year's songs, there's no nostalgia for the old year in this one. "It's been hell to know ya," Barrence sings, "So good to see ya go. Can't get no worse, but, then, you know, it's been hell to know ya. So good to see ya go." I do know the feelin'. This performance was recorded at a radio station in the Netherlands in 2006. The acostics aren't the greatest, but the song is good enough to overcome those limitations. Anyway, I think it is. I dig this band. Ohbijou did one of the best covers of "Last Christmas" ever several years back. If I recall correctly, "New Years" is from 2009.
|
About usI love Christmas, music, and cats. What more do you need to know? FestiveFriendsFaLaLaLaLa The TwittersSantas Working Overtime Archives
September 2022
Categories
All
|