1. Silent Night and the Abduction
2. Merry Christmas From Outer Space
3. All I Want For Christmas Is A Spacesuit
4. Happy Birthday Baby Jesus, Merry Christmas Alf
5. A Festive Examination of a Human Specimen
6. Crop Circle Christmas
7. Baby, It's Cold In Space
8. They Brought Me Back
9. Silent Night and the Return
KYLE HARVEY ON FACEBOOK
BANDCAMP
2. Merry Christmas From Outer Space
3. All I Want For Christmas Is A Spacesuit
4. Happy Birthday Baby Jesus, Merry Christmas Alf
5. A Festive Examination of a Human Specimen
6. Crop Circle Christmas
7. Baby, It's Cold In Space
8. They Brought Me Back
9. Silent Night and the Return
KYLE HARVEY ON FACEBOOK
BANDCAMP
And now for something completely different.
Kyle Harvey is an Omaha songwriter and performer. He's spent a little time playing (filling in for a bit) with Noah's Ark Was A Spaceship and he's been featured on at least two of the "Christmas For Pine Ridge" CDs, which is how we come to be aware of him.
Now, speaking from personal experience, there comes a time on the calendar when, for the obsessive music collector, all the music starts bleeding together and sounding the same. That will not be a problem with "Merry Christmas From Outer Space". Mixtapers listen up; this may be just the kind of thing you hunt for every year.
I'm going to assume that Kyle's intention, here, is to provoke a reaction--it's a kind of performance art--and say that he succeeds. At one point, he had me banging the table in happy surprise and laughing out loud. If you don't like spoilers, just go to Bandcamp, discover this for yourself, and forego the rest of this review. Ordinary, I listen to an album with the track list handy, but I didn't do that here. For best results, I suggest you follow my lead on that. Just a suggestion.
The idea of "Christmas In Space" is certainly not a new one. Santa and his flying reindeer kind of lend themselves to that sort of mind wandering. Ever since mankind first started launching things into space, we've been treated to a pretty steady stream of such fantasies. We've had the film "Santa Claus Conquers The Martians" and the Dickie Goodman single "Santa And The Sattelite". There was Timmy Dinkins' "Christmas On The Moon" (Mr. Dinkins is still around, by the way, and still making music about astronauts). I know collectors have been fascinated by the cover art for Flo Price's 1979 LP "Christmas 2001: A Space Age Adventure" (the music itself is rather dull--sort of sad Christian children's music) and Flo even had a follow-up, "Christmas 2020". Just a couple of year's back, Eban Schletter joined the list with "Cosmic Christmas". And more than a few mixtapers have used Rob Townsend's 1962 single "Christmas Message From Space". So there ought to be a home out there for Kyle Harvey's Christmas Odyssey.
Harvey describes his music as "beardgaze", which basically means shoegaze from a guy with a beard. And it's that kind of sly straight-faced (for the most part) humor that greets us on "Merry Christmas From Outer Space". The opening "Silent Night And Abduction" is a bit longer than it needs to be and...well...icky. But the title track demonstrates that Harvey can write songs that could easily be respectable pop tunes if someone wanted to produce them that way. The faux rap lyrics to "All I Want For Christmas Is A Spacesuit"--delivered with the earnest sincerity of Eminem--are hilarious:
"This kinda sucks
I think they touched my butt
I'm tryin' to chill but these aliens are naughty"
Kyle Harvey is an Omaha songwriter and performer. He's spent a little time playing (filling in for a bit) with Noah's Ark Was A Spaceship and he's been featured on at least two of the "Christmas For Pine Ridge" CDs, which is how we come to be aware of him.
Now, speaking from personal experience, there comes a time on the calendar when, for the obsessive music collector, all the music starts bleeding together and sounding the same. That will not be a problem with "Merry Christmas From Outer Space". Mixtapers listen up; this may be just the kind of thing you hunt for every year.
I'm going to assume that Kyle's intention, here, is to provoke a reaction--it's a kind of performance art--and say that he succeeds. At one point, he had me banging the table in happy surprise and laughing out loud. If you don't like spoilers, just go to Bandcamp, discover this for yourself, and forego the rest of this review. Ordinary, I listen to an album with the track list handy, but I didn't do that here. For best results, I suggest you follow my lead on that. Just a suggestion.
The idea of "Christmas In Space" is certainly not a new one. Santa and his flying reindeer kind of lend themselves to that sort of mind wandering. Ever since mankind first started launching things into space, we've been treated to a pretty steady stream of such fantasies. We've had the film "Santa Claus Conquers The Martians" and the Dickie Goodman single "Santa And The Sattelite". There was Timmy Dinkins' "Christmas On The Moon" (Mr. Dinkins is still around, by the way, and still making music about astronauts). I know collectors have been fascinated by the cover art for Flo Price's 1979 LP "Christmas 2001: A Space Age Adventure" (the music itself is rather dull--sort of sad Christian children's music) and Flo even had a follow-up, "Christmas 2020". Just a couple of year's back, Eban Schletter joined the list with "Cosmic Christmas". And more than a few mixtapers have used Rob Townsend's 1962 single "Christmas Message From Space". So there ought to be a home out there for Kyle Harvey's Christmas Odyssey.
Harvey describes his music as "beardgaze", which basically means shoegaze from a guy with a beard. And it's that kind of sly straight-faced (for the most part) humor that greets us on "Merry Christmas From Outer Space". The opening "Silent Night And Abduction" is a bit longer than it needs to be and...well...icky. But the title track demonstrates that Harvey can write songs that could easily be respectable pop tunes if someone wanted to produce them that way. The faux rap lyrics to "All I Want For Christmas Is A Spacesuit"--delivered with the earnest sincerity of Eminem--are hilarious:
"This kinda sucks
I think they touched my butt
I'm tryin' to chill but these aliens are naughty"
I think my personal favorite track is "Happy Birthday Baby Jesus, Merry Christmas Alf"--all 17 seconds of it. It's like if you told your girlfriend you wrote her a song, picked up the guitar, sang "I love you like ice cream", put the guitar down and said, "Well, what do you think?" And the ironic point is it took me longer to say that than to listen to the track. But I'm not kidding when I say I enjoyed it and found it thoroughly affecting.
By the time "Crop Circle Christmas" rolled around, I was kind of into the whole concept and that one, complete with sleigh bells, sounded exactly like "Good King Wenceslas" to me--only banged out on the kitchen pipes.
But the next track is where I lost it. Remember, I was listening without the track list. And there was barely enough time to mutter "No..." before the robot voice joined in for the duet on "Baby It's Cold In Space". I don't know, maybe I'm mentally ill, but that was funny. Knee-slapping, rotflmao funny. And I think there are mixtapers all across America just waiting for a human/robot (or alien) duet of "Baby It's Cold Outside"--heck, every other combination has been done to death.
"They Brought Me Back" is another good pop song in shoegaze disguise--one I'd probably direct you to on the free list, if it were free--but not especially festive, though it did kind of remind me of a Richard O'Brien track (of "Rocky Horror" and "Shock Treatment" fame). And the set finishes pretty much the way it started, though not as long and not at all icky.
There are cool sound effects and alien dialogue throughout that mixtapers can make use of. And I know someone's looking for something like "Baby It's Cold In Space" even as we speak. At only 5 bucks, it's an easy buy. And, if the concept grabbed you at all, you should check out Kyle Harvey's "The End Of The World" while you're at Bandcamp. That's just 5 bucks, too. And, if you're curious what Kyle was doing before he lost his mind, I really and truly liked his 2003 EP "The Holidays In Spain". If you have any kind of appreciation for the whole shoegaze vibe, that one's really good. Just my opinion; your mileage may vary.
You can't approach Kyle Harvey's "Merry Christmas From Outer Space" the same way you'd approach a Michael Buble album. You just can't. This is the kind of record that would have parents, thoroughly exasperated, shouting "We sent you to college for this!?!" And that's why you gotta love it. Plus, you know, funny alien voices.
By the time "Crop Circle Christmas" rolled around, I was kind of into the whole concept and that one, complete with sleigh bells, sounded exactly like "Good King Wenceslas" to me--only banged out on the kitchen pipes.
But the next track is where I lost it. Remember, I was listening without the track list. And there was barely enough time to mutter "No..." before the robot voice joined in for the duet on "Baby It's Cold In Space". I don't know, maybe I'm mentally ill, but that was funny. Knee-slapping, rotflmao funny. And I think there are mixtapers all across America just waiting for a human/robot (or alien) duet of "Baby It's Cold Outside"--heck, every other combination has been done to death.
"They Brought Me Back" is another good pop song in shoegaze disguise--one I'd probably direct you to on the free list, if it were free--but not especially festive, though it did kind of remind me of a Richard O'Brien track (of "Rocky Horror" and "Shock Treatment" fame). And the set finishes pretty much the way it started, though not as long and not at all icky.
There are cool sound effects and alien dialogue throughout that mixtapers can make use of. And I know someone's looking for something like "Baby It's Cold In Space" even as we speak. At only 5 bucks, it's an easy buy. And, if the concept grabbed you at all, you should check out Kyle Harvey's "The End Of The World" while you're at Bandcamp. That's just 5 bucks, too. And, if you're curious what Kyle was doing before he lost his mind, I really and truly liked his 2003 EP "The Holidays In Spain". If you have any kind of appreciation for the whole shoegaze vibe, that one's really good. Just my opinion; your mileage may vary.
You can't approach Kyle Harvey's "Merry Christmas From Outer Space" the same way you'd approach a Michael Buble album. You just can't. This is the kind of record that would have parents, thoroughly exasperated, shouting "We sent you to college for this!?!" And that's why you gotta love it. Plus, you know, funny alien voices.
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