So very much to tell you about and so little time. Let's start with something to get you moving.
1. Snowballs & Highballs/Greensleeves
2. Tinseltown Nocturne/Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy
3. It Came From The North Pole/We Wish You A Merry Christmas
4. A Nightmare On Elf Street/O Holy Night
5. Swell Noel/Good King Wenceslas
6. Yuletide Moon/It Came Upon A Midnight Clear/O Little Town Of Bethlehem
7. Mistletoe A Go Go/Silent Night
PURCHASE FROM AMAZON
"Chistmas Eve" by Wonderlux is download only, as far as I can tell. There's very little out there about the group. They're Canadian, so there's that. And I do not believe they are affiliated with the Wonderlux who used to record for Flame Proof, but who the heck knows? What I do know is that they've hit upon a formula that sets them apart from other Surf Rock and/or Neo-Swing bands. Because its kinda both and then some. There's definitely a noir feel, a bit of Exotica and, though I never thought there was such a thing, I immediately found myself thinking of Wonderlux as a Surf Lounge band. Now that's weird, because Surf and Lounge are basically on opposite ends of that retro spectrum. It's all very Saturday night B-Movie, if you ask me. And I mean that in a good way. Its cool as hell, whatever it is.
The concept is the same throughout the record--take an original riff and mash it up with a Christmas standard--and it works amazingly well. You've got that original melody that you know so well, but then you've got this other thing going on in and all around it so that the package comes out sounding like a different thing entirely.
Anyway, it's cool and I dig it and I'm guessing a lot of other folks will, too. "Snowballs & Highballs/Greensleeves" was my personal favorite, though I can't say enough good things about "It Came From The Northpole" and "Mistletoe A Go Go" either. And for those of you who like putting together Christmas music mixes suitable for Halloween (and you know who you are), "Christmas Eve" is going to be very useful for you.
The concept is the same throughout the record--take an original riff and mash it up with a Christmas standard--and it works amazingly well. You've got that original melody that you know so well, but then you've got this other thing going on in and all around it so that the package comes out sounding like a different thing entirely.
Anyway, it's cool and I dig it and I'm guessing a lot of other folks will, too. "Snowballs & Highballs/Greensleeves" was my personal favorite, though I can't say enough good things about "It Came From The Northpole" and "Mistletoe A Go Go" either. And for those of you who like putting together Christmas music mixes suitable for Halloween (and you know who you are), "Christmas Eve" is going to be very useful for you.
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1. Christmas Wish
2. Santa Is Back 3. Eggnog Time 4. Christmas With You 5. Snow Bound 6. Snowflake Sky 7. Down The Chimney 8. Toboggan Jive 9. Up In Lights 10. By The Fireplace BAMTONE WEB SITE PURCHASE CHRISTMAS WISH AT BANDCAMP |
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As long as I'm doing instrumental albums, this is another that I stumbled across over at Soundcloud. It's from a Toronto based artist who goes by Bamtone. A composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, Bamtone's career has got a lot of different branches. He plays and tours with assorted groups, does his own musical thing as an artist, and he writes music expressly for movie soundtracks, TV shows and the like. Keeps him busy, I'm sure.
I'm not entirely certain "Christmas Wish" was intended to be a commercial record. And it might be that my affinity for it comes from my years in radio, combing through the production library for cool sounding commercial beds. These Bamtone tracks are all fairly short instrumental tunes and might have been whipped up for a production library. Some of them are ready made for a Target commercial. But they've got that joyous Christmas feeling to them that makes them more than that--to me at least. How much more Christmas spritely could you get than "Christmas Wish"? "Eggnog Time" feels a bit more like Christmas traveling music. "Up In Lights" has a certain nostalgic warmth to it. "By The Fireplace" is Sugarplums dancing in your head material. "Christmas With You" is a great Country-ish Pop number that somebody needs to write lyrics for. "Toboggan Jive" would be a great song title even if the song itself didn't live up to that title (but it does). And so on and so on. And let me tell you, its not all that easy to compose an instrumental that immediately makes you feel like Christmas. Sleigh Bells alone won't get you there.
As I say, I don't know that "Christmas Wish" was intended for commercial release, but I asked and he obliged by putting the set up on Bandcamp. I know the former and current DJs out there are likely to enjoy it as much as I do. As for everyone else, you ought to at least grab the title track. If that ain't Christmas, nothing is.
By the way, Bamtone's actual name is Briand Melanson and if you prefer your Christmas music with lyrics and vocals, he released an album last year with Danielle LeBlanc and Hailey Birnie. You'll find "Coast To Coast Christmas" at Amazon, iTunes and Bandcamp. I highly recommend "Our Winter's Memory".
I'm not entirely certain "Christmas Wish" was intended to be a commercial record. And it might be that my affinity for it comes from my years in radio, combing through the production library for cool sounding commercial beds. These Bamtone tracks are all fairly short instrumental tunes and might have been whipped up for a production library. Some of them are ready made for a Target commercial. But they've got that joyous Christmas feeling to them that makes them more than that--to me at least. How much more Christmas spritely could you get than "Christmas Wish"? "Eggnog Time" feels a bit more like Christmas traveling music. "Up In Lights" has a certain nostalgic warmth to it. "By The Fireplace" is Sugarplums dancing in your head material. "Christmas With You" is a great Country-ish Pop number that somebody needs to write lyrics for. "Toboggan Jive" would be a great song title even if the song itself didn't live up to that title (but it does). And so on and so on. And let me tell you, its not all that easy to compose an instrumental that immediately makes you feel like Christmas. Sleigh Bells alone won't get you there.
As I say, I don't know that "Christmas Wish" was intended for commercial release, but I asked and he obliged by putting the set up on Bandcamp. I know the former and current DJs out there are likely to enjoy it as much as I do. As for everyone else, you ought to at least grab the title track. If that ain't Christmas, nothing is.
By the way, Bamtone's actual name is Briand Melanson and if you prefer your Christmas music with lyrics and vocals, he released an album last year with Danielle LeBlanc and Hailey Birnie. You'll find "Coast To Coast Christmas" at Amazon, iTunes and Bandcamp. I highly recommend "Our Winter's Memory".
If you're not from New York or deeply devoted to the Punk and Punk Pop scenes, you may not be familiar with The Prissteens. But they had some magic going on in the late 90s. Imagine if you had a band that was a cross of the best qualitys of the Runaways and the best qualities of the Go-Go's. Sadly, like a lot of bands, it fell apart more quickly than it came together. Unless you've tried it, you have no idea how hard it is to keep a band together. Sooner or later, somebody is going to leave and that's like pulling a loose thread on an ugly Christmas sweater. It unravels pretty quickly. But you best believe, The Prissteens were very very good.
The Girlsville label has been polishing up the Prissteens catalog and putting the music back out there. Seriously, if you want to hear some really awesome stuff, check out the "Demos & Rarities" album from earlier this year (available on cassette or as a digital download). And those are just demos and rarities. The fully realized "Scandal, Controversy and Romance" album is even better.
Turns out there were a few rarities that were not on "Demos & Rarities", one of which being the previously unreleased "Christmas Is A Time For Giving", and what a great tune it is. The other songs on the EP are not holiday related, but re-mastered B-sides. "Teenage Dicks", in particular, is a great song, though it requires a Parental Advisory. No need for that on the Christmas song, though. Here's what you DO have to worry about. The digital only "Christmas EP" is only available until New Year's and then it goes bye-bye as though it were one of my mixes. I mean, who knows? Its such a great song, I can't imagine someone wouldn't want it for a compilation of some kind. But who knows when or if that'll happen? So there isn't a second to waste. Get on over to Bandcamp and get it while the gettin's good.
The Girlsville label has been polishing up the Prissteens catalog and putting the music back out there. Seriously, if you want to hear some really awesome stuff, check out the "Demos & Rarities" album from earlier this year (available on cassette or as a digital download). And those are just demos and rarities. The fully realized "Scandal, Controversy and Romance" album is even better.
Turns out there were a few rarities that were not on "Demos & Rarities", one of which being the previously unreleased "Christmas Is A Time For Giving", and what a great tune it is. The other songs on the EP are not holiday related, but re-mastered B-sides. "Teenage Dicks", in particular, is a great song, though it requires a Parental Advisory. No need for that on the Christmas song, though. Here's what you DO have to worry about. The digital only "Christmas EP" is only available until New Year's and then it goes bye-bye as though it were one of my mixes. I mean, who knows? Its such a great song, I can't imagine someone wouldn't want it for a compilation of some kind. But who knows when or if that'll happen? So there isn't a second to waste. Get on over to Bandcamp and get it while the gettin's good.
This new trend where there's no audio to check out until release day really gets on my nerves. Fortunately, a few of the songs from our next release existed in a previous lifetime. So just know that this version of the song is not the version on the coming album. Music, Maestro, please.
1. The Eyes of the Forest
2. Bitterness Burnt
3. Dark Eyes / The Dreamer's Wake
4. Winter Winds
5. Winter is King
6. Day thirteen: Sign
7. Above the Blue
8. Shrinking Violet
9. I Am Snow
HEATHER FINDLAY WEB SITE
PRE-ORDER CD FROM HEATHER
AMAZON LISTING (Pre-Order not yet available)
2. Bitterness Burnt
3. Dark Eyes / The Dreamer's Wake
4. Winter Winds
5. Winter is King
6. Day thirteen: Sign
7. Above the Blue
8. Shrinking Violet
9. I Am Snow
HEATHER FINDLAY WEB SITE
PRE-ORDER CD FROM HEATHER
AMAZON LISTING (Pre-Order not yet available)
Christmas albums that are less Christmas and more winter themed are all the rage these days. And that's fine. I enjoy fresh takes on the season and the artist gets the benefit of having a record that isn't locked down to one month a year. They tend to provide deeper subject matter, too, though I do admire an artist who can get to those deeper places and still get a shout out to Santa in the same song.
Heather Findlay was the primary vocalist for Mostly Autumn, which was a band that had one leg firmly planted in Progressive Rock and the other standing in surroundings more Folk like. They were sort of Renaissance meets Pentangle meets Fleetwood Mac meets Jethro Tull (the flute helps for that) with a dash of Carmen. They decided they didn't want to be hitched to a label that might try to direct their music, so they always released their albums themselves. Heather decided she wanted to try different things and left Mostly Autumn in 2010. I listened to a bunch of YouTube performance clips of Heather since she left Mostly Autumn and that Progressive Folk Rock thing just seems to be who she is. Just sayin'.
"I Am Snow," her forthcoming record, is expected to be released December 16. It'll be an Import in America (at least so far). Amazon has a listing but you can't yet pre-order from them. You can, however, pre-order from Heather and, if you order from her right now, your copy will be autographed. Several of the songs on the album were songs she wrote while with Mostly Autumn, including "Shrinking Violet", "Winter Is King" and "Above The Blue", the latter a song about the passing of a loved one. But there's certainly some newly written material on the record as well. If you miss your Progressive Folk Rock from the good ol' days, I expect you'll like "I Am Snow". I'm very intrigued, myself, on the cusp of buying...but I want to hear some samples first. Hope I don't have to wait until mid-December for those.
Heather Findlay was the primary vocalist for Mostly Autumn, which was a band that had one leg firmly planted in Progressive Rock and the other standing in surroundings more Folk like. They were sort of Renaissance meets Pentangle meets Fleetwood Mac meets Jethro Tull (the flute helps for that) with a dash of Carmen. They decided they didn't want to be hitched to a label that might try to direct their music, so they always released their albums themselves. Heather decided she wanted to try different things and left Mostly Autumn in 2010. I listened to a bunch of YouTube performance clips of Heather since she left Mostly Autumn and that Progressive Folk Rock thing just seems to be who she is. Just sayin'.
"I Am Snow," her forthcoming record, is expected to be released December 16. It'll be an Import in America (at least so far). Amazon has a listing but you can't yet pre-order from them. You can, however, pre-order from Heather and, if you order from her right now, your copy will be autographed. Several of the songs on the album were songs she wrote while with Mostly Autumn, including "Shrinking Violet", "Winter Is King" and "Above The Blue", the latter a song about the passing of a loved one. But there's certainly some newly written material on the record as well. If you miss your Progressive Folk Rock from the good ol' days, I expect you'll like "I Am Snow". I'm very intrigued, myself, on the cusp of buying...but I want to hear some samples first. Hope I don't have to wait until mid-December for those.
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1. Joy to the world 2. Christmas to the men 3. Under Bethlehem skies 4. The Bounty and the Snickers 5. Starting small PAUL BELL'S WEB SITE PAUL BELL ON FACEBOOK PRE-ORDER THROUGH BANDCAMP |
Paul Bell is a British Folk Pop singer and his "Merry Christmas" EP is due out on November 25. There's only the one song available for preview--"Under Bethlehem Skies"--but it's a good'un. Is it me or are British Folk singers better than American Folk singers? Maybe its the accent. Anyway, you can opt for CD or digital, if you're pre-ordering, but you might as well get the CD because there isn't that big a difference in price (the CD is 5 British Pounds which, as of this writing, is about $6.25 American). Or you can save money by buying a bunch. The options are all laid out at Bandcamp.
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1. Skyerne gråne (Gray Skies)
2. En rose så jeg skyde (Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming) 3. River 4. Mit hjerte altid vanker (My Heart Always Wanders) 5. Hjerte, løft din glædes vinger (Heart, Lift Your Wings and Rejoice) 6. O Holy Night 7. Silent Night 8. Det er hvidt herude (It's White Out Here) 9. Sneflokke kommer vrimlende (Snowflakes Are Blowing) 10. Så blev der stille (Then There Was Silence) VOCAL LINE WEB SITE PURCHASE CD FROM VOCAL LINE PURCHASE DIGITAL FROM AMAZON |
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Wouldn't you know it. I found something perfect for the International page. Trouble is even I don't go there anymore. Sigh. Well, I may drop this over there in time, but at least y'all can see it here. And hear it. And really it's the "hear it" I'm most concerned about.
A Cappella has become such a thing in recent years that groups--especially in this country--are all competing to have the newest and freshest arrangements. And that's a very good thing. But listening to Denmark's Vocal Line, you start to realize just how good a cappella can be done up the old fashioned way. Vocal Line consists of 30 singers and is more choir than group. They've been together since 1991. And they aren't at all above employing Jazz techniques, if it adds to the beauty of the sound. They kinda remind me a bit of First Call, which was an American CCM group whose breakthrough record was the a cappella "An Evening In December" in 1985. Most of their later stuff, which isn't always a cappella, does nothing for me. But, man, I loved that first album. And the title track is one of my "it isn't Christmas without" tracks.
Vocal Line's "It's Coming On Christmas" will be released on November 25. Hard copy CDs may make their way to the states eventually, but the digital version will be available through domestic Amazon (and probably iTunes) on that same release day. A lot of the album consists of traditional Danish and German carols. I've done my best with Google translate, but I'm sure it loses something. No mistaking the beauty of Joni Mitchell's "River", though.
A Cappella has become such a thing in recent years that groups--especially in this country--are all competing to have the newest and freshest arrangements. And that's a very good thing. But listening to Denmark's Vocal Line, you start to realize just how good a cappella can be done up the old fashioned way. Vocal Line consists of 30 singers and is more choir than group. They've been together since 1991. And they aren't at all above employing Jazz techniques, if it adds to the beauty of the sound. They kinda remind me a bit of First Call, which was an American CCM group whose breakthrough record was the a cappella "An Evening In December" in 1985. Most of their later stuff, which isn't always a cappella, does nothing for me. But, man, I loved that first album. And the title track is one of my "it isn't Christmas without" tracks.
Vocal Line's "It's Coming On Christmas" will be released on November 25. Hard copy CDs may make their way to the states eventually, but the digital version will be available through domestic Amazon (and probably iTunes) on that same release day. A lot of the album consists of traditional Danish and German carols. I've done my best with Google translate, but I'm sure it loses something. No mistaking the beauty of Joni Mitchell's "River", though.
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1. Jingle Bells
2. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year / Skating 3. A Place Called Home 4. Santa Baby 5. Count Your Blessings 6. River 7. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas 8. The Christmas Song 9. Bless Us All 10. There's Always Tomorrow MEGAN HILTY WEB SITE PURCHASE FROM AMAZON PURCHASE FROM CD BABY PURCHASE FROM iTUNES |
I know I'm forgetting something, nut we'll close with Megan Hilty. Lots more stuff that I'm leaving for tomorrow and the next day, plus some reviews upcoming. Got some good Rock N Roll still waiting.
Anyway, I don't think I need to spend any time explaining who Megan Hilty is. And I know a lor of folks have been waiting for this one. Personally, I prefer the tracks on the album that lean heavily towards Jazz (like "Jingle Bells"). A couple of the songs sound more Broadway to me. And that's fine. The woman is a huge star on the boards. I just like Jazz is all.
But here's the one thing you do need to know. There are hard copy CDs out there. But, for right now, those are only going to be available at Megan's concerts and shows (and I do not mean her Broadway shows). I don't think that's permanent. I'm just letting you know so you can plan accordingly. For the time being, the online retailers only have the digital version.
Anyway, I don't think I need to spend any time explaining who Megan Hilty is. And I know a lor of folks have been waiting for this one. Personally, I prefer the tracks on the album that lean heavily towards Jazz (like "Jingle Bells"). A couple of the songs sound more Broadway to me. And that's fine. The woman is a huge star on the boards. I just like Jazz is all.
But here's the one thing you do need to know. There are hard copy CDs out there. But, for right now, those are only going to be available at Megan's concerts and shows (and I do not mean her Broadway shows). I don't think that's permanent. I'm just letting you know so you can plan accordingly. For the time being, the online retailers only have the digital version.
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