Johnny Cash, probably the biggest and most influential country star of the 20th Century (or at least the second most important, for those who consider Hank Williams the most important), recorded four Christmas albums in his life, but his first Christmas record was a 7” single. On the A-side, it featured his version of the song 'The Little Drummer Boy'. The B-side was a non Christmas Cash original, 'I'll Remember You'. The single was recorded by Cash a year after he had left Sun Records for Columbia Records, and it was released for Christmas 1959. It did quite well, as it rose up to 64 in the Billboard Pop Charts. One year later, it also charted in the Billboard Country Charts, reaching 24 as highest position. Cash included the song also on his first Christmas album. 'The Christmas Spirit', that was released in 1963.
The song itself already had a long, and somewhat obscure history, although the first recorded version only dated back 4 years earlier than the Johnny Cash version. The song was written by St. Joseph, Missouri, classical music composer and teacher Katherine Kennicott Davis (1892-1980) in 1941 and was originally titled 'Carol Of The Drum'. The song was based on a traditional Czech carol and Davis published it as a song for amateur and girls' choirs. The manuscript was set as a chorale, the tune in the soprano with alto harmony, while tenor and bass parts produce a drum rhythm, and an added keyboard accompaniment 'for rehearsal only'. Although many people have tried to trace the original Czech carol the tune is based on, so far no one has succeeded. Still, it was Katherine Davis herself who claimed that the tune was based on a Czech carol, so there is no reason to doubt this is indeed the case. Katherina Davis was not exactly new to the songwriting business, as she was the composr of more than 600 hymns and songs for choirs.
Fourteen years after the song was written, it was finally recorded, by the Austrian Trapp Family (the family that was partly inspiration for The Sound Of Music), under its original title 'Carol Of The Drum', shortly before they retired. Two years later, the Jack Halloran Singers were the second to record the song, with a slightly altered arrangement, for their Dot Records album 'Christmas Is A-Comin'. It was Dot Records' Henry Onorati who introduced the song to his friend Harry Simeone. In 1958, Harry Simoneone was contracted by 20th Century Fox to record a Christmas album, and he decided to include the song. Simeone made a few small changes to the arrangement, retitled it 'The Little Drummer Boy', and recorded it with the Harry Simone Chorale for the album 'Sing We Now Of Christmas'. As both Simeone and Onorati probably felt they had gold in their hands, they claimed joint composition credits with Davis.
They were right, as both the album and the song were a big hit. The song was released as a single at the end of November 1958, and rose to 13 in the Billboard Pop Charts. In fact, the single scored in the charts for 5 years in a row, from 1958 to 1962. In 1963, the album was rereleased under the title 'The Little Drummer Boy: A Christmas Festival', which shows how popular the song had become. Another proof of the popularity of the song is that the Jack Halloran Singers re-released their 1957 Christmas album in 1959 with a new title: 'The Little Drummer Boy'.
Johnny Cash was one of the first of many other artists to record the song, one year after the Harry Simeone Singers had turned it into a hit. On the label of the 7”, that was put out by Columbia Records, the song was only credited to 'Simeone', again underlining how much the song had become identified with Harry Simeone, and how fast original songwriter Katherine Davis had been forgotten.
The song has six short couplets. The lyrics are very simple and straightforward, and tell the story of a poor boy who does not have a gift for Jesus, but plays his drum for him. In the first two couplets, the poor boy is addressed by what appear to be the three wise men, on their way to Jesus, to bring him gift, to join them ('Come they told me'). In the third couplet, the boy himself stands before Jesus, and tells him he is poor, like Jesus is ('Baby Jesus, I am a poor boy too') and has no gift to bring. The he asks if he may play his drum for him, instead. He gets the approval from mother Mary ('The Mother Mary nodded') and the boy plays his drum ('I played my best for Him'). And Jesus likes it: 'Then He smiles at me – me and my drum', as the song concludes. In most early (and also many later) versions, there are barely any instruments used in the recording – it's mostly voices, who sing both the lyrics and do the rhythm – the rhythm, that resembles the drum of the poor drummer boy.
Johnny Cash' version does differ from the version of the Harry Simeone Chorale in the instrumentation. It does have the 'tingling bell' that is sounded several times in the song, although not as many times as in the Harry Simeone version. Together with the tingling bells, a simple guitar stroke can be heard through most of the song. And instead of voices doing the drum rhythms, the Johnny Cash version has a real drum sound, a Indian tom-tom, which gives it a bit of a tribal feel. It is funny to know that a few years later, Johnny Cash became very interessed into native Indian culture, also starting to use this influence in his music. To echo the female 'pa dum da dum'-chorus, some light piano keys are included. The light chorus and piano keys contradict with the bass-baritone voice of Johnny Cash. Instead of singing the lines, it is almost as if he is declamating the words, which makes him sound like a preacher from the deep south, who warns his parish members for all bad things the future is going to hold for them. It gives the song a much darker sound than the light Harry Simeone Chorale-version.
In that way, the Johnny Cash version fits in well with the personality of its interpreter: on one side 'the man in black', the angry outlaw who did not want to fit in, with his drinking habits, drug taking, his temper and restlessness and with the weight of his sins resting heavy on his shoulders; on the other side the devote christian with a strong love for God and an evenly strong longing for a quiet family live with his wife and kids. The tension between these two sides of Cash can be felt in the song. Just as the little drummer boy, he felt he was not worth to come before the Lord, but at the same time, he felt the Lord would always welcome him, as Mary and Jesus welcomed the poor boys' drumming. The later Christmas albums of Johnny Cash and the annual Christmas TV special he did for CBS throughout the 1970s would only show the God-loving, family man-part of his personality (his second Christmas album was even called 'Christmas with the Johnny Cash Family'), and because of that, miss the sharp edge and danger hat makes Johnny Cash best work stand out. In his version of 'The Little Drummer Boy', both sides are present, which is what makes it such a strong version of this song. As also Christmas has two sides – it is not only a joyful celebration, but it also give hope to those who are doing not so well, and are longing for better times.
The Numero Group is a
Chicago-based reissue label, that was founded by Tom Lunt, Rob Sevier
and Ken Shipley in 2003. In 2015 they decided that after 12 years, it
was finally time for a Christmas release. The label has a very mixed
back catalog as far as music styles go. It includes heavyweights like
Codeine and Unwound but also a lot of soul and funk releases. But
neither heavy rock nor funk you'll find on this Christmas single –
not at all, I would say.
The Shades, as that is the
band that is responsible for the Christmas single, was a teen girl
group from Etna Green, a little town in Indiana, situated between
South Bend and Ft. Wayne. The group consisted of Cinda Stouder
(guitar, vocals), Janice Gard (bass, vocals), and Suzannah Blodgett
(drums, vocals), and released a first 7” in 1964, on the local
Metropolis label, 'Denny' b/w 'I Won't Cry'. When the 7” was
released, the girls were still very young, around 15-16 years old.
What was rather special about this 7”, was that the girls had
written the two songs themselves. Most teen girl bands around that
time were mainly faces and voices, while the songs were written and
the music was played by men. But that was not the kind of teen girl
band The Shades were, they wrote and played their own songs. 'Denny'
was an uptempo rock & roll influenced song, while 'I Won't Cry'
was a more moody song, a song that stood the test of time very well,
I think.
In 1966, the girls
travelled all the way to Chicago, to record four songs in the RCA
Studios, two Christmas songs, the classic 'Santa Claus Is Coming To
Town' and an original they had written themselves, 'Prancer's Got
Some Red Spots', plus two non-Christmas songs, 'Send Him Back Home To
Me' and 'Tell Me Not To Hurt'. The four songs were released on two
7''''s on the Elkhart, Indiana label Fujimo Records. One of these
7”'s contained both Christmas songs, of which the original
'Prancer's Got Some Red Spot' was considered the A-side. The song was
played quite a lot on local radio stations in Indiana.
These three 7”s were all
The Shades recorded. Despite their local focus and the band being
very young, The Shades managed
to travel to Europe, and play a show in front of an audience of 5000
people in, of all places... my hometown of Amsterdam. The show in
Amsterdam was the result of them winning a contest. I've tried to see
if I could find more info about this show, but unfortunately, without
success. This must have been some experience for the girls!
I don't know when the band
exactly came to an end, but it will probably have been not too long
after them releasing the two 7”'s. After the band broke up, Cindy,
Janie and Suzie went on to other things, Cindy was a postmaster for
many years, Suzie a nurse practitioner and Janie first worked fifteen
years for a manufacturing company, but then decided to go back to
school, which led her earning a master degree in psychology.
Unfortunately, Janie's career as a psychologist never came off the
ground, due to she losing her sight. Janie died in 2008, less than
two weeks before her 60th birthday.
The Numero Group reissue
has turned the sides, with now 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town' on
the A-side and the novelty song 'Prancer's Got The Red Spots' on the
B-side. It comes in a nice picture sleeve, showing the girls sitting
in a big Christmas package. The A-side starts with a 'Hey, it's him
again', followed by a 'Oh-oh', and then goes into a jangly guitar
sound, until the girl voices fall in. It's the jangly guitar sound,
that sometimes even sounds a bit offkey (at least on my copy of the
7”), that sets this version apart of many of the other cover
versions of this song. At the end of the songs, the girls make some
remarks, and one of them is also listing what she wants... and I am
not totally sure, but it seems she also wants a... Beatle? Well, it
was 1966 after all, and I can imagine the girls were inspired by the
British beat invasion. The B-side was a song in the style of many of
the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s novelty songs about all kind of
Christmas related animals and creatures.. The song tells us about a
serious problem Rudolph notices: Prancer has some red spots, which
means he can't prance tonight, as the red spots were caused by the
measles, concludes a docter... Prancer is of course very
disappointed, but after Santa Claus assures him he can lead next year
and after he realizes he doesn't want to pass the measles to all the
girls and boys, poor Pancer accepts his faith, and stays home... the
song sounds rather basic, but that is also its charm. All in all, a
very nice single that has been rescued from obscurity by the fine
folks at the Numero Groups, something The Shades definitely deserved!
Those girls kicked ass!
You can listen to the
'Prancers Got Some Red Spots' on Youtube:
And here you can listen to
The Shades version of 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town':
Without doubt, one of the
best Christmas albums of the year is 'It's A Holiday Soul Party' by
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. After two Christmas singles, the
terrific 'Ain't No Chimneys In The Projects' from 2009 (with BinkyGriptite's 'Holiday Breakdown '09' on the flipside) and last years
'Just Another Christmas Song (This Time I'll Sing Along)', with 'Big
Bulps', featuring Saun & Starr, on the B-side, this album is the
first Christmas full length for Sharon Jones and 'her' Dap-Kings. All
the aforementioned hits are featured on this album, and also their
2015 single, '8 Days (Of Hanukkah'). Although it is featured on a
Christmas album, technically speaking, it is not really a Christmas
song, as it is about a Jewish celebration, that also happens to take
place in December.
I was not familiar with
Hanukkah, to be honest, and only learned about this celebration
through what I read on Christmas music blogs (which proofs reading
about Christmas music makes you a smarter person – so you'd better
continue reading this blog). Although we do have a large Jewish
community in Holland, this fest is not as general known as it seems
to be in the US – at least not under the name 'Hannukah' , although
I also doubt if I ask 'the man on the street' about the light fest,
that he will know what I am talking about. Of course, I educated
myself a little bit about Hanukkah, and now I know that Hanukkah
celebrates the victory of the Maccabees over the larger Seleucid army
and a miracle that happened during this time, where the menorah (lamp
stand) of the Temple in Jerusalem remained lit for eight days,
although the supply of olive oil was just enough for one days. This
is the reason why Hanukkah is celebrated for eight days. During the
celebration, each day a candle is lit, which makes the candle holder
with nine candles (the one in the middle is lit first, and all the
other candles are lit using the fire of the central candle) the most
wellknown symbol of the Hanukkah celebration.
The title of Sharon Jones
song '8 Days (Of Hanukkah)' is referring to this aspect of the
celebration. The song starts with a shouted and funky
'1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8' and continues with the more soulful sing-a-long
'Days of Love, Days of Hanukkah, Everyone of them glows with love',
and after repeating the 8 day count again, continues in this soulful
way, to tell us what happens on each of the eight days. The second
day, when the dreidel (a four-sided spinning top) is spinned, seems
to be Sharon's favorite, because in the second half of the song, it's
the dreidel that gets all the attention. The B-side is called 'What
Does Hanukkah Mean To You?', and there we get the opportunity to tell
Sharon what Hanukkah means to us... it's basically the same song,
with only the chorus present, and the opportunity for us to sing what
each of the 8 days means to us – that is also what Sharon ask of
us, after having thanked us for turning the record... a cool way of
making this more than just an semi-instrumental version of the song!
The song was – of course
– released on the great Daptone Records, and came on blue vinyl
(but, alas!, it is totally sold out) and on traditional black vinyl
(still available!). There is a lyric video of the song to be found on
Youtube, I think it's really nicely done, and helped me to understand
the song and the Hanukkah celebration even better. All in all,
another cool Christmas single from Sharon, and I hope over the next
years, many more will follow!
Watch the video on Youtube:
And get the 7” from all
the better indie record shops or directly from the label, here:
Discogs is a great source
to keep track of new (Christmas) releases, and this is one of the
7”'s I 'discovered' doing my daily Discogs check. I don't speak
Finnish, but I do know that in Scandinavian languages the word
Christmas resembles the English word 'Yule' (that is probably based
on the Scandinavian word for Christmas), and when I noticed a split
release between two bands that was called 'Joulussplitti', it was not
difficult to translate this to 'Christmasplit', so I knew there was a
record to check out.
I had never heard of the
two Finnish bands on the record, Panssarijuna (which translates as
'Armoured Train') and U.F. Ojala (which turned out to be the name of
the main member of the band). Panssarijuna is from Helsinki, the
Finnish capital, and U.F. Ojala from Tampere, the third largest city
of Finland, and, Wikipedia tells me, the largest Scandinavian city
that is not a costal city. Cool, I learned at least one new thing
today! Finland typically seems like a country where the probability
to have a white Christmas is among the highest in the world, and as
they have long and dark winters, I can imagine they can use a lot of
cheery Christmas songs, to lighten up the dark days of Christmas.
Well, cheery Christmas
songs is not what you are going to find on this split 7”. The 7”
comes in a sleeve that has a picture of what seems a somewhat shabby
kitchen, with a man that sits before a fireplace. Not that you see
much of this man, as a big elf (or gnome) is drawn over the photo (in
the style with suggests it was done by a -say- 10 year old kid), and
is in front of the man. On the back we see a bearded and very
Scandinavian looking guy standing besides a Christmas tree, a picture
that looks as if it was taken in the 1970s. The names of both bands
have been handstamped in gold on the cover, which give the cover an
even more class-y appearance. Both songs have been recorded this year
(nice to see, as many of this year's Christmas 7”'s have songs
recorded in previous years).
U.F. Ojala is a band of
four members, but seems to be the project of the band's songwriter
Teemu Ojala, also a member of punk/hardcore band Haistelijat and
garage rock/punk band The Achtungs. Both these bands have been around
since the early 2010s. U.F. Ojala seems to be around for a shorter
time – they have released one 7” so far, also in 2015, and I
think they have been playing since 2014. Their song is called
'Aattokeikka'. Google Translate can't make any sense of that, so I
don't have a clue what the word means (if it means anything). The
song starts out with a chorus singing 'Ho ho ho' for some time,
accompanied by bluesy guitar work, a chorus that returns several
times in the song, and helps giving it a Christmas-feeling, despite
the lack of bells or any other Christmas sounding sounds, and the
fact that we non-Finish speaking humans can't understand that what
they are singing about is Christmas-related. The singer sounds as if
he had a very long night, with a lot of drinking going on (and I
don't main the drinking of apple juice here), with a lot of things
that went wrong, and is now telling us how bad it was... but I might
be completely wrong here.
On the flipside,
Panssarijuna have a song called 'Paska Lahja', and this means 'Shit
Gift'. The band, who are around longer than U.F. Ojala – their
first EP is from 2011 – describe their sound as 'trauma blues'.
They list blues, country, punk, folk and rillumarei (a Finnish music
style, around in the 1940s/50s, and using an accordina as the main
instrument) as their main influences, and the trauma is mainly coming
from the subject matter of the lyrics. What exactly this shit present
is that singer Johnny Wittu has gotten from Christmas remains covered
in the Finish language for me, although it seems to have something to
do with Barbie - I read somewhere it is about a 'socialist Barbie', a
Barbie that could be re-packaged for every Christmas. The song itself
is uptempo, with melodic and fast guitarwork, and a singer that
sounds somewhat like the U.F. Ojala singer, but on a moment much
earlier in the day. The band made a video for the song, that shows
what are probably the members of the band either partying hard or
suffering from the consequences of their partying – and yeah,
Barbie is there too. The end of the clip is rather psychedelic and a
bit scary...
The song '2000 Miles', that was so
beautifully covered by Nancy Wallace last year, was originally a hit
in the United Kingdom for The Pretenders. It peaked at number 15 in
December 1983 and has since then slowly become one of the most
popular original Christmas songs of the 1980s. From the lyrics, it is
clear that '2000 Miles' is not a song for those for who Christmas is
in the first place a joyful celebration with family and friends. It
is for those people who have experienced the other side of Christmas,
a song for people who are estranged from the ones they love knowing
that, despite all the hope they had, they won't be together with them
this Christmas. The song is very much related to the drama that
happened to the band in 1982 and 1983.
The Pretenders were formed in 1978 in
Hereford, England, by Chrissie Hynde, who was originally from the
United States, Ohio to be precisely, but had moved to London in 1973
to work for the New Musical Express. She was also working in the shop
of Malcolm McLaren en Vivian Westwood, and was involved with both
early incarnations of The Clash and The Damned. After first having
played in some punk bands and having recorded some of her own songs
as demos with a temporary backing band, Chrissie Hyndre found a
steady line-up with James Honeyman-Scott on guitar, Pete Farndon on
bass, and after trying out another drummer first, Paul Chambers on
drums. With this line-up, The Pretenders recorded their self-titled
first album, which was a big commercial and artistical success. After
a second LP, simply called 'The Pretenders II', a drama for the band
started to unfold, which put the band on a hold for some time. First,
Chrissie fired Pete Farndon and two days later, guitar player James
Honeyman-Scott died of a drug overdose. One year later, in 1983, Pete
Farndon died in a drug related accident. Chrissie Hyndre wrote '2000
Miles' for James Honeyman-Scott and knowing this, sentences like
'He's Gone', 'I miss you' and 'I'll think of you, where ever you go'
get a even more dramatic meaning. Chissie sings it beautifully,
accompanied by the melodic guitar tones of Pretenders' new guitarist
Robbie McIntosh.
'2000 Miles' was produced by Chris
Thomas, and also appeared on The Pretenders' album 'Learning To
Crawl', that was released the following year, in 1984. The single was
released in the UK on 7” in two different editions: one with an
ordinary cover, and one with a gatefold cover. In the US, '2000
Miles' was not released as a single in itself, but as the B-side to
the single 'Middle Of The Road'. The single came with a video, in which
Chrissie Hynde was dressed as a member of the Salvation Army, and she
sang the song in the middle of a snowy landscape. The UK pressing of
the 7” came in two editions: one with an ordinary sleeve (ARE 20)
and one with a gatefold sleeve (ARE 20F).
In 1995, a new recording of '2000
Miles', recorded live with The Duke Quartet at Jacob Street Studios,
London was released as a CD single, with as second track, another
Christmas song, “Happy Christmas”. That was a bit of a misleading
title, as 'Happy Christmas', also recorded with The Duke Quartet, was
a sad sounding, somewhat bluesy song.
Besides Nancy Wallace, there have been
others who covered the song, which include Coldplay, KT Tunstall,
Natalie Imbruglia and, on 7”, the Holly Cole Trio in 1989, Syd
Straw, who combined it with another early 1980s Pretenders hit, 'I Go
To Sleep', in 1992 and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, in 2010. And very
recently, The Unthanks released the 7” as the A-side of a 7” that
was part of their 10th Anniversary 'Memory Box'.
The first bunch of
Christmas singles has arrived, and most others that I know of have
been ordered, so it's time to start writing a blog entry about the
2015 Christmas singles. As many of you music lovers will know,
especially those of you who are into vinyl, the rise in the demand
for vinyl records has put a lot of pressure on the relatively few
still existing record pressing plants. This means that the waiting
times for vinyl have risen considerable, some of the bigger pressing
plants taking half a year to press a record. These long production
times are a big problem for many labels, especially for the smaller
ones, and for bands, who can't be certain anymore that the records
they need for touring will be ready in time for the tour. But it's
also a problem for time-dependent release like Christmas releases. A
production time of half a year means that masters should be ready to
be send out to the pressing plant around April, if you want your
records in shops in time for Christmas (which is the end of November
at the latest). When you also know that in the last few years,
although sales for vinyl in general have risen extremely, the sales
of 7” singles have gone down considerably, you know that the number
of Christmas singles may not be as large as it used to be a few years
ago. So far, I counted 19 2015 Christmas singles, while there were 30
in 2014 and 43 in 2013. Although I still hope some more singles will
be added this year, it does show that the future of the Christmas
single on 7” vinyl is uncertain. But let's not be too negative...
this year brought us almost 20 new Christmas singles so far, so
that's still quite some records to enjoy!
4 Past Midnight: It's
Christmas Time Again (Orchestrated Dystopia Records, Scotland)
4 Past Midnight is a
longrunning punk band from Glasgow, Scotland. They exist since 1989,
which means they are going strong already for more than 25 years.
That's what I call real dedication, and what else should you expect
from a punk band! The band seems to have a tradition of Christmas
songs... in 2013, they released a 2-song CD, 'Nobody Should Be Lonely
On Christmas Day', with all proceeds going to Childline, a telephone
service that gives children advise about a wide range of subjects. So
the heart of these lads is in the right place! Anyway, in
January 2015, so a little bit too late for Christmas, they released a
2-song digital single through Bandcamp, and this single is now but
out on a white 7” by Orchestrated Dystopia Records, a small DIY
label from the Midlands. It comes in great looking cartoon artwork,
by Landon L. Armstrong. The A-side of the single is called 'It's
Christmas Time Again'. It starts really quiet, with a nice
piano/keyboard melody, and after 25 seconds, the guitars join in,
later we hear some clocks, and it turns into a great Christmas punk
song. The lyrics describe all the joys of Christmas and there is a
great sing-a-long chorus. This is how a Christmas punk song should
sound! The B-side is called '4PM Christmas Medley' and it takes parts
of the lyrics of 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town' and Shakin' Stevens' 'Merry Christmas Everyone' over a midtempo punk/oi backing, while towards the last part of the song, the band members get their presents, like Gibson guitars, a
Rickenbacker and a new drum kit from drummer Peter 'but it doesn't
make him sound any better, oh dear'... hehe... and in the end, they
are getting drunk and pissed... as they are Scottish punks...
All in all, a great
single, that comes with a printed CD-R including both songs, and even
a lyric sheet, so you get really something worth for your money.
And check out the video
for 'It's Christmas Time Again' here:
Mariah Carey: All I Want
For Christmas Is You 2000 (SME Records / Bootleg, Germany?)
Of course, one could
question if I should include 'unofficial' records here, especially if it are lathe cut ones, so are also probably only around in a very small run.
Still, I choose to do so, as I like how the record was done, and
besides, it's the first time these two mixes of Mariah Carey's all
time Christmas classic 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' are
available on the 7” format. Everybody probably knows that the
original version of this song was the biggest Christmas hit of 1994,
and is now considered as one of the most popular Christmas songs,
maybe even the most popular Christmas songs of the 20th
Century. Personally, I don't think this song beats the classics that
were recorded in the 1940s,1950s and 1960s, what probably are the
glory days of Christmas music, songs like 'White Christmas' (as
recorded by Bing Crosby), 'The Christmas Song' (as recorded by Nat
King Cole) or 'It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year' (as recorded
by Andy Williams) were written. But no one can deny it's nevertheless
a great catchy Christmas song that definitely is for the late 20th
century what the classics just mentioned were for the mid 20st
century.
Anway, in 2000 a remix of
the song was released on CD, in Japan. The remix, the so-called So So
Def Remix, was done by Jermaine Dupri (the remix was named after his
record label), and it featured rapper Lil Bow Wow, who had been
working before with Jermaine Dupri. The remixed version starts with
Lil Bow Wow refusing to go to bed, while Jermaine tells him to go to
sleep as Santa Claus is coming, but it doesn't impress Lil Bow Wow,
as he doesn't believe in Santa Claus. After the introduction, a
stripped down version of Mariah's song starts, with an electro
sounding beat, and apart from that, mainly Mariah's soulful vocals,
and Jermaine commenting on the song (mostly saying things like
'com'n' and 'yeah'). The single came with a cartoon video, that is
definitley worth watching, with a sexy Mariah assisting Santa Claus,
to proof to Lil Bow Wow that Santa Claus really exists...
The B-side of this single
has the new version of 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' that Mariah
recorded for their second Christmas LP, 2010s 'Merry Christmas II
You' – the so-called 'extra festive' version. The SoSo Def Remix
sounded like a version for a hiphop party, the 'extra festive'
version sounds very well suited for a Walt Disney movie, with more
orchestration and an even stronger Phil Spector influence than the
original.
It's unclear for me how
many copies of this lathe version were pressed, or where it is from.
As most sellers offering it on Ebay were from Germany, I expect it
was made in Germany. There were two versions, with two different
covers, based on the two different covers of the 2000 Japanese
maxi-CD's. The record (that is totally transperant, and has labels
that match the cover artwork) comes with an inlay, that has the
artwork of the 2010 digital single version.
Another re-release, but
this time an official one, is Eazy-E's 'Merry Mutha****** Xmas'. The
track originally appeared on Eazy-E's 1992 12” EP “5150 Home 4
Tha Sick”, as the last of five tracks, and was as controversial as
Eazy-E himself was. Raised in Compton, California, dropping out of
school at 10, selling drugs as a teenager and becoming part of the
notorious N.W.A. (Niggers With An Attitude), Eazy-E is sometimes
labelled as the godfather of gangsta rap. Not really a title to be
proud of, if you ask me, but I am sure there will definitely be
people that disagree with me here. But well, I was raised in a small
village in The Netherlands, and not in a dangerous neighborhood in
one of the biggest cities in the US, so what do I know about
gangsters anyway...
The song starts out with a
kid asking Eazy-E to read a story, and he wants to start a story
about himself (not many hiphoppers have a lack of ego), but then a woman
comes in between, and is going to tell the kids a story about Santa
Claus instead – although this Santa Claus is from muthfukkin
Compton... and what then follows is a medley that mixes some wellknown
Christmas melodies and quite cool sounding hiphop parts and with an orgy of four letter words, drugs praise, promiscuity and a
lot of humor. We hear Jingle Bells, Deck The Halls, All I Want For
Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth, Twelve Days Of Christmas, O
Tannebaum and We Wish You A Merry Christmas... not a song for daytime
radio, I guess... still, musically, I think it's quite a good song…
and it ends with 'and they all went to prison, and lived fucked-up
lives ever after.'...
Listen to it here, but but
sure your kids are not near when you do! :)
Hvitmalt Gjerde: Dine
Lepper Smaker Jul (Nordpolen Musikklubb, Norway)
Last year, NordpolenMusikklubb put out their first Christmas single, a great song by
1960s Norwegian female singer Sonja. Nordpolen Musikklubb was started
to release one Christmas 7” every year, and I was very glad to see
there is indeed a new 7” out! This time, they choose for a more
contemporary artist, the band Hvitmalt Gjerde, which translates to 'White Painted Fence'. Rather original name for a band, I think.
The band is from Minde,
which is part the Årstad borough in the city of Bergen, the second
biggest city of Norway, known because of its university and it's very
active music scene. Hvitmalt Gjerde started out as a 4 piece, but
lost a member over the years, as they are now only a 3 piece.
According to their own description, they play surf rock inspired by
60s pop, psychedelica and garage rock. As you probably would have
guessed from the name of the band and the title of the single, the
band sings their own native language. On photos, the band members
look quite young, which they probably are, as the band was started in
2007 in high school. But they are definitely no school band anymore!
Their Christmas single is
called 'Dine Lepper Smaker Jul', which translates to 'Your Lips Taste
Like Christmas'. It won't come as a surprise that it's a love song:
'Snow is falling outside the window... but all I want is you'. Just
for the record - the lyrics are not as cheezy as this one line may
indicate. Not that I speak Norwegian, but Google
Translate is a great help. And even if the lyrics were cheezy, no one
outside of Norway would notice it, anyway. It's a great song, and I
definitely hear a big surf influence in the guitar work. It has a
nice melody, that sticks in your head.
I really liked the artwork
of last year's Nordpolen Musikklubb single, and I think this year,
the artwork is again great. All in all, a highyl recommended single
(that comes on white vinyl). But I guess, if you want a copy, you
have to hurry, as I understand it is going fast. I got my copy by
just contacting the label throught their Facebook page, so if you are
interested, I suggest you do the same...
In the meantime, check out
the song on Youtube – they (or whoever made the video) have used
parts of the Peanuts Christmas movie, so it's not only fun to listen
to, but also fun to watch:
André Hazes: Eenzame
Kerst / Met Kerst Ben Ik Alleen (Music On Vinyl, The Netherlands)
Well, for understanding
the lyrics of this 7”, I don't have to use Google Translate, as
they are in Dutch – and I happen to live in The Netherlands! It's
another Black Friday release, and another re-release... it's one of
the complaints people usually have about Record Store Day releases
(besides them being overpriced): more and more it are repackaged
re-releases of old songs, instead of new limited music of current
artists. But still, we buy, so I guess the record labels will
scontinu putting out re-releases. This little transculent green vinyl
record compiles the two biggest Christmas hits of Dutch singer André Hazes: 'Eenzame Kerst' (Lonely Christmas) and 'Met Kerst Ben Ik
Alleen' (I Am Alone At Christmas). No, it are no jolly Christmas
songs that we have here. I don't know if there has ever been an
election of the best Dutch language Christmas song, but if there was,
I guess André Hazes' 'Eenzame Kerst' would be the number 1. And
although I am not really that much into this Dutch folkloristic music
style, that people name 'smartlappen' (difficult to translate in
English, but if you know that 'smart' is the Dutch word for 'grief'
or 'sorrow', you get an idea...), I cannot deny the quality of this
particular song. André Hazes wrote the song himself, recorded a
demo, and send it to Willly Alberti, then one of the most famous
singers from Amsterdam, to ask if he was interested to record the
song. Willy Alberti liked the version Andre recorded so much, that he
suggested that André would sing the song himself. So he did, and the
song was released in 1976, as a split 7' with a non-Christmas song
sung by Willy Alberti. 'Eenzame Kerst' became a hit (number 5 in the
Dutch Top 40), and was the start of a career that made André Hazes
the most popular Dutch singer of the 20th Century. Six
years later André, who was a big star by then, released another
Christmas single, 'Met Kerst Ben Ik Alleen', for which he used the
melody of Abba's 'The Day Before You Came'. That was another
Christmas hit for him but, personally I think it can't really stand
in the shadow of 'Eenzame Kerst'. That song tells the story of a man
in prison, who is there because he stole to be able to give his
children bread, and he feels very sad as there is another man
celebrating Christmas with his wife and kids. All his fellow prison
mates got presents from their children, but he got nothing... so,
yes, a real 'smartlap'... he is even using the word 'smart' in the
lyrics, and he sings it with so much grief... you might say he is
overdoing it, but I say: he was just living it. That was probably
what made him so popular – people believed what he sang. Do you
want to know how popular André Hazes was in Holland? His funeral
ceremony (he died because of heart failure in 2004) was attended by
48.000 people, and the live TV broadcast was watched by 6 million
people (including 1 million from Belgium) – that is one third of
the complete Dutch population....
Listen to 'Eenzame Kerst'
here:
And watch the (not so good
quality) video of 'Met Kerst Ben Ik Alleen' here:
IKON: Gruss Vom Krampus /
Little Drummer Boy (Snowflakes Christms Singles Club, The
Netherlands)
Melbourne postpunk band
IKON was started at the end of the 1980s as Death In The Dark by
school friends Chris McCarter and Dino Molinaro, influenced by bands
like Joy Division and New Order. The band changed its name to IKON in
1991. Since then, IKON released seven albums, the last 'Everyone
Everything Everywhere Ends' in 2014. The band, that still features
the two original members alongside David Burns and Clifford Ennis,
has done several tours through the years, and has become one of the
mainstays of the worldwide darkwave/gothic/postpunk scene. IKON's
sound has developed through the years, incorporating acoustic and
electronic elements in their dark, postpunk-inspired rock sound.
Despite Christmas in Australia usually being sunny and hot, IKON is
going to make Christmas 2015 a very dark, cold and even scary one.
The A-side tells the story of Krampus, the Christmas devil, the
helper of Saint Nicholas (aka Santa Claus) according to the folklore
of the Alp countries, who punishes children that have misbehaved. The
B-side turns the Christmas classic 'Little Drummer Boy' in a scary
sounding darkwave song. On special request of the band, the single
comes in two versions: 200 copies on snow white vinyl and 200 copies
on blood red vinyl.
Expect a video for 'Gruss
Vom IKON' in about one week (filming starts this week!).
Juniore: De Saison / Pour
Noel, Cette Année (Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club, The
Netherlands)
Snowflake 9, the third
single of the 2015 edition of the Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club
(or the third snowflake of 2015, as the label of the A-side says),
features two songs by Juniore, from Paris, France. Juniore is the
brainchild of Anna Jean, a singer who lent her voice to songs of
Parisian electro acts like Jackson, Jérôme ''Tacteel" Echenoz and
Bot'Ox. Juniore, in which Anna Jean is joined by four other female
musicians, is something competely different: surf, psychedelica,
french female sixties pop and space age music are all blended
together by producer Samy Osta (Rover, La Femme, Louis Chedid), while
Anna Jean sings stories about being sleep deprived, restless or
falling out of love. Anna's mysterious voice is reminiscent of 60s
muses, think Nico meets Françoise Hardy. Juniore released three
singles so far, and their Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club single is
the fourth. For this single, they have composed a reverb drenched
dreamy original about the Christmas season ('De Saison'). On the
B-side, the band gave one of the biggest Christmas hits ever, Mariah
Carey's 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' a total makeover– it now
sounds like a psychedelic pop song from the sixties, sung Françoise
Hardy in the small wee hours of the night. The single comes on snow
white vinyl and is limited to 350 copies.
Snowflake 10 features two
songs by Tele Novella, from Austin, Texas. Self-described as
"psych-pop, indie-pop, macabre-pop, pop-pop. The pop kind",
Tele Novella is Natalie Ribbons, Jason Chronis, Matt Simon and Sarah
La Puerta and was formed in 2012, some time after Natalie's previous
band Agent Ribbons and Jason and Matt previous band Voxtrot broke up.
Influenced by bands like Os Mutantes, Aislers Set, Velvet
Underground, The Bachs and Belle and Sebastian, Tele Novella
self-released their debut 7" 'Don't Be A Stranger' late 2013 -
the record was met with raving reviews and sold out very quickly.
Early 2014 saw their second 7", 'Trouble In Paradise', released
on American Laundromat Records . That year, the band also contributed
to the Wes Anderson tribute compilation on the same label, and they
released a 5-song cassette EP on Lollipop Records. Early 2016, Tele
Novella will release their debut album. The A-side of their
Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club single, 'Christmas Spirit', is a
song that is a much a Halloween as a Christmas song – it's catchy,
it's a bit silly, it's a perfect song to singalong too and it's over
before you know it. On the B-side, Tele Novella cover Marvin Gaye's
'Purple Snowflakes', and make it sound as an authentic 1960s
recording. The single comes on snow white vinyl and is limited to 350
copies.
Someone in Australia is at
the moment working hard to make a video for 'Christmas Spirit', so
watch for news about this soon!
Terminal Gods: Boundless /
Driving Home For Christmas (Snowflakes Christms Singles Club, The
Netherlands)
Snowflake 7 (yes, this is
the first snowflake of 2015!) features two songs by Terminal Gods, a
gothic rock band from London. Formed in 2011, the band has released
three singles and a EP on their own label Heavy Leather Sex
Productions, and will release their debut album in Spring 2016. The
sound of Terminal Gods is heavy influenced by the early 1980s gothic
rock scene, notibly The Sisters Of Mercy (due to the baritone vocals
of Cowlin, the atmospheric guitar work of Maisey and the cold sounds
of the drum machine), although the most recent single 'Road Of The
Law' demonstrate that the band is more and more developing a sound of
their own. 'Boundless', the A-side of their Snowflakes Christmas
Singles Club, shows a total new side of the band, and sounds almost
like a ballad, but one with a punch. And figure out for yourself what
the lyrics are about... or who... The B-side is a cover of one of the
most popular Christmas pop songs from the 1980s, Chris Rea's 'Driving
Home For Christmas'. Terminal Gods turn it into an almost industrial
sounding postpunk song. The single comes on snow white vinyl and is
limited to 350 copies.
And there are more singles
– I will write more about these when I have received them, but below I'll give you an overview, and tell you were you can get the singles...
ballboy: Kingfisher Bluez
Christmas Single 2015
For the fourth year,
Canadian label Kingfisher Bluez is releasing a Christmas single. This
year, Scottisb one-man band Ballboy has the honor to add his song
'Merry Christmas To The Drunks, Merry Christmas To The Lovers' to the
Kingfisher Bluez Christmas singles collection. Just like the previous
years, this record is a benefit for 1-800-SUICIDE and Crisis Centre
BC, and it comes in a beautiful cover. You can order it here:
https://kingfisherbluez.bandcamp.com/album/kingfisher-bluez-christmas-single-2015
Justin & The Cosmics
ft The Georgettes / Pony Boy: Father Christmas / (Please Don't Leave)
On Christmas Eve
Menace Beach / Cowtown:
Holidays Are Heavy / Wonderful Christmas Time
Part of the Too Pure
singles club. Menace Beach do an original, Cowtown cover Paul
McCartney's Christmas hit from 1979. I guess this record will be
available through all the wellknown UK indie shops.
Phoenix with special guest
Bill Murray: All Alone On Christmas Day
Came out December 4, and I
already saw it offered on Discogs for $ 27... also in the UK shops
where I saw it offered, it was quite expensive – but all proceeds
go to UNICEF, so that's at least a good thing. This single was
released on the occasion of the Netflix Bill Murray Christmas show
that will be broadcasted later this month. The 7” will be available
through your local independent record shop.
Roger Rivas: Christmas
Time
Last year, Roger Rivas,
organ player of The Aggrolites, recorded two Christmas covers
ska/rocksteady style: 'Deck The Halls' and 'Jingle Bells'. Now
Chicago ska/reggae label Jump Up Records put them out on vinyl.
Sharon Jones & The
Dap-Kings: 8 Days (Of Hanukkah)/ What Does Hanukkah Mean To You?
Sharon Jones & The
Dap-Kings don't need an introduction, of course. They released a
great album this year, and this is the single of the album. It's a
song about the Jewish light fest, so technically it's not really a
Christmas song, but let just put all holidays of December together.
You can get this 7” from all the better indie record shops and
directly from the label, here:
http://shop.daptonerecords.com/collections/frontpage/products/8-days-of-hanukkah-what-does-hanukkah-mean-to-you
The Courteeners: Winter
Wonderland
Britian indie rockers The
Courteeners released a charity Christmas single (for Shelter),
'Winter Wonderland' (not a cover of the Christmas classic, but an
original). Unfortunately, the 7” will be available in January, when
Christmss 2015 is over, but you can pre-order it anyway here (and
also buy the digital version if you want to have the song before
Christmas): http://thecourteeners.tmstor.es/cart/product.php?id=26723
The Shades: Santa Claus Is
Coming To Town / Prancer's Got Some
This single is a
re-release of a sixties girl group that I never heard of, on the Numere Group label. I heard 30
second clips of the songs, and I really liked them. The single is
available through all the better indie shops. I hope to have it soon,
so I can give you more information about it.
Tweedees: Winter's Day
Tweedees are a J-Pop
from... Japan, of course. Another song that is not to be found on
internet, only a 45 second clip, and a promotional clip on Youtube
that does not really seem to feature the song. The 45 seconds I heard
reminded me a lot of Pizzicato Five, and I really love that band (I
named the label after one of their songs), so I am really looking
forward to the moment the Tweedees single with hit my mailbox... it's
not easy to get the single if you are not from Japan, I managed to
find a (rather expensive) copy on Ebay, but you can always give it a
try and see if you can order it from one of the Japanese mailorders
selling it.
U.F. Ojala / Panssarijuna:
Joulusplitti
Two bands from Finland...
I think the right translation of the title of the single should be
Christmasplit... the record is on it way to me, so I hope to write
about this single soon. If you search the songs on Youtube, you will
find some funny videos. Both labels that put it out are selling it on
Discogs, choose for yourself which one you choose: http://www.discogs.com/sell/release/7806129
Yoko Ono & The Flaming
Lips Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
The last one is the vinyl
version of the collaboration of Yoko One with notorious Christmas
music lovers The Flaming Lips, a cover of one of the classic rock
Christmas songs of the last century. Should be available in all the
good indie stores.
That's all!
This blog entry will be
update when I got a 7” in and have found a time to write a longer
piece about it.
2012 was a very good year for Christmas singles, if you ask me. Several very strong Christmas singles have been released that year, and I am pretty sure I will feature some of those later in this blog. But my favorite Christmas single of 2012 was definitely the single by UK indie pop band Allo Darlin'. Allo Darlin' is fronted by Elizabeth Morris, who lives, like the rest of the band, in London, but she is orginally from Australia. She is not exactly the first Australian musician who leaves Australia for England, as the UK has much more opportunities for aspiring musicians than the big country down under.
Allo Darlin' started as Elizabeth's solo recording project and her very first recording was a Christmas EP (self released on CD-R), recorded in her bedroom, with Elizabeth's voice and a ukelile as the main instruments. Later, Allo Darlin' became a real band, when Elizabeth was joined by fellow Australian Bill Botting on bass and jumps, Paul Rains on guitar (and sometimes lapsteel) and Michael Collins on drums, both of who are originally from Kent. After some great 7”'s with clever lyrics ('Henry Rollins Don't Dance' from their first 7'is a personal favorite), including a re-recording of the song 'Spend New Year's Eve With Me' from the debut Christmas EP on the B-side of the single 'The Polaroid Song', Allo Darlin' released its first self-titled album in 2010 on Fortuna Pop, followed after two years and much touring by their second album, 'Europe'. Both albums I can really recommended.
I first heard about the band's Christmas single at the show they did in Paradiso, Amsterdam, in November 2012. One of the last songs they played was announced as being from their soon-to-be-released Christmas single. That song, titled 'Kings And Queens', did not sound like a Christmas song. At home, I checked the internet, and I found out this single was part of the Where It's At Is Where You Are 7 singles club – 7 singles released on the 7th day of 7 months in 2012. The Allo Darlin' was the seventh and last single in the row, and was scheduled to be released on the 7th of December 2012. The 7” was supposed to have three songs, besides 'Kings And Queens', the last song on side B, also 'Only Dust Behind' on side A and 'Dear John' as the second song on side B. 'Dear John', the only song that could be listened on the Bandcamp of the label, was a sweet song, but it also had no Christmas references. Still, being a big fan of Allo Darlin', I ordered the single – and I was happy to, because all 777 copies, pressed on red vinyl, were gone very soon.
I received the single in time for Christmas, and found out the only song I did not know yet, 'Only Dust Behind', was indeed a Christmas song – and what a song it was! It did not have a Christmas sounding title, nor any bells, but it did have great lyrics, and a sound effect in the instrumental parts of the song, that I could not really define (in my fantasy, I could imagine it was the sound of stars travelling through the sky, or the sound of the view of fireworks). Together it really gave the song a Christmas feel. In the lyrics, Elizabeth paints a typical London Christmas picture, with rain instead of snow, a man on the Underground with a Santa head, singing songs of The Pogues and a yuppie girl with champagne, on 'an afternoon that feels like morning'. But it all is okay, as 'last night, we were shooting stars, we were leaving only dust behind'.... the musical accompaniment is sparse and simple, and it sung by Elizabeth in a soft and somewhat flat voice, which works very well with the music and the lyrics, and give the song a melancholic feeling – and Christmas is the time of the year one is allowed to feel melancholic. But not for too long, of course, as Christmas is a celebration of light! Anyway, instead of telling you what the lyrics are about, it's better to let the lyrics speak for themselves...
When the afternoon feels like morning
And my ears ring like a song
And my hair smells of smoke
And I can taste
the drink on the back of my tongue
Put down your phone
Turn off the TV
And come on over to me
And if I was ready
to get lost tonight
in the street filled with rain
reflecting the Christmas lights
And if I was ready
to get lost tonight
in the street filled with rain
reflecting the Christmas lights
Dear sister,
Don't let me down
And meet me on the Underground
There is a man over there
With a Santa hat on
Singing all the Pogues songs he knows
There is a girl over there
Who looks like a laywer
Throwing champaign up in her hair
And if I was ready
to get lost tonight
in the street filled with rain
reflecting the Christmas lights
And if I was ready
to get lost tonight
in the street filled with rain
reflecting the Christmas lights
Last night we were shooting stars
We were leaving only dust behind
All three songs on the 7” were recorded by Giles Barrett in the Summer of 2012 in Soup Studios. The other two songs are also great so this is a Christmas single, that will be on my turntable many times, both at Christmas time and and other times through the year!
Fortunately, for everyone that was too late to get the single, the songs can still be listened on the Bandcamp page of the band: Allo Darlin 7777777 Single Bandcamp
We have entered November,
which means the Christmas season is coming nearer, and for me, the
hunt for Christmas singles – both old and new – has started
again. More about the new singles Christmas 2015 will bring us later.
First we go back to last christmas. Last year I was not really that
active on the blog, mostly due to being busy with the Snowflakes
Christmas Singles club (sending packages out – made me feel a bit
like Santa Claus! - and promoting the Hannah Peel and Nancy Wallace
singles), so there was no overview of the Christmas 7” singles that
were released last year. But I am going to make up for it now! Here
you get the overview of all 2014 Christmas 7''s, so you know what you
may have missed (and what you have to start searching for).
Alexander Lindbäck: Santa Is Real (Safe And Sound Recordings, Norway)
Alexander Lindback is a
Norwegian drummer, who played in the alt.rock band Ping, and also
drummed for Roger Græsberg & Foreningen, Sister Rain, Folque and
American Suitcase and played guitar and banjo for Seven Doors Hotel.
Names that don't ring any bells with me, but when you are from
Norway, they probably will. Alexander also does solo perfomances as a
singer-songwriter and is the label boss of Safe And Sound Recordings.
Despite all these activities, he still found the time to record a
Christmas single last year – 'Santa Is Real'. Those of you who know
the Louvin Brothers will have noticed the resemblance of the cover
art and name of the single with the Louvin Brothers' 1959 album
'Satan Is Real', a classic gospel/bluegrass album, with a cover that
caused a lot of controversy when it was released back in the late
1950s. Alexander's 'Santa Is Real' has a clear country/bluegrass vibe
too, but at the same time, has its tongue planted firmly in the cheek
– it is a sad song (and it is sung in a very very sad way) by a man
who is sitting in jail, because he has forgotten to take his pills,
and now his whole families is dead, and the dog is hanging from the
Christmas tree... it's a hilarious song, with a simple but very
effective video. On the B-side, there is the same song, but in a
special 'Prison Cell Remix' – which is basically a acoustic
version, as all Alexander is allowed in the cell is his guitar. The
single comes on red vinyl.
Watch the video here:
Ben Kweller: It Ain't Christmas Yet (The Noise Company, LLC, USA)
In 2014, Record Store
Day's Black Friday brought quite some Christmas 7”'s, both
re-releases and new singles. One of the new singles was Ben Kweller's
'It Ain't Christmas Yet'. Some of you might know from the 1990s trio
Radish, a band that released three album (the last on major label
Mercury) and had quite some succes with their single 'Little Pink
Stars', notably in the UK. I also have that 7”, that was pressed on
clear vinyl with pink glitters, somewhere. After Radish broke up, Ben
started a solo career, and has released five albums so far, the last
one on his own label 'The Noise Company'. Ben Kweller started out as
a singer/guitar player, but has learned to play so many instruments
through the years, that he now plays all the instruments on his
records himself. On his Christmas single, that was recorded in
Austin, TX and released on Ben's label the Noise Company, he also
did so, expect for the drums, that were done by his former Radish
bandmate John David Kent – it is a rocking song, with some cool
guitar playing, that showcases Ben's grunge past and rock present.
And he is right, it ain't Christmas yet... on the B-side there is
'Here Comes Santa Claus', which is, of course, a cover of the famous
Gene Autry song, and was also included on the 2014 movie 'A Merry
Friggin' Christmas'. It sounds like a punk band from the late 1970s,
and is, like a good punk song should be, very short – only around
1.20 minutes. The record came in a regular edition of 800 (on red
vinyl) and a special limited edition of 200 on splattered green and
pink vinyl... as a tribute to Radish' biggest hit, maybe?
Bessie Smith: At The Christmas Ball (Columbia / Legacy, USA)
Another 2014 RSD Black
Friday release was one that I was very enthousiastic about when I
found out it was released on 7”: Bessie Smith's classic 'At The
Christmas Ball'. It was recorded and first released (as a 78 rpm
shellac record) in 1925 (that is 90 years ago!) and has Fletcher
Henderson at the piano. The song was written by Butch Thompson and
F.W. Longshaw, and was totally in line with the quite scandalous
image jazz still had in these days. This Christmas ball sounds more
like a wild party than a ball, with wine and beer, people that should
watch out for their rep, and changing your partner for someone else
if you don't like him anymore... it was sung in the poweful way
Bessie Smith is known for – she led a tragic life in a society that
was still filled with racial prejudices and discrimination, but will
always be considered – and rightly so – as the Empress of the
Blues. The single has the non-Christmas song 'Jazzbo Brown From
Memphis Town' on the B-side. 3000 copies of the single were pressed
on transculent red vinyl (which looks very beautiful) and due to the
large number of copies being pressed, it's still easy to find for a
rather cheap price.
Listen to 'At The
Christmas Ball' here:
Bloodshot Bill: Stuffin' Her Stockin' (Norton Records, USA)
Christmas ain't Christmas
without at least one Norton Christmas single, and fortunately, they
did bring a nice 45 to put in your loved one's stocking. Canadian
one-man band Bloodshot Bill made a video for the song 'Stuffin' Her
Stocking' in 2011, and it is this song that is featured on the A-side
of the single. It's only around 2 minutes long, and it's a raw and
raunchy rock 'n' roll song. It's difficult to understand what exactly
Bill is putting in his baby's stocking, but it seems Santa had a good
time visiting Bill's place. The B-side 'Naughty Or Nice' is even
shorter, and clocks in at 1:41. It's another rocking song, but just a
little bit less raw and over the top. And you decided for yourself if
Bloodshot Bill has been naughty or nice on this record... I think I
choose both...
Watch the 2011 video here:
Boca Doce: Natal É Quando Um Marujo Quiser... EP (Raging Planet, Portugal)
Last year, we had a quite nice Christmas single from Portugal, Miguel Angelo with 'O Tua Natal', and this year, we have another not, but in a quite different style and in a, unfortunately, very small run. It's by Boca Doce, from the Portuguese harbour city Cascais - so it makes sense that Boca Doce, who play fast punk, are inspired by the sailor's life. There EP is called 'Natal É Quando Um Marujo Quiser...' - Google Translate has difficulty finding a proper translation, but I guess it translates as 'When Christmas is what a sailor want...'. Although the lyrics are all in Portuguese (a language that goes really well together with fast punk I think), there is no missing out that this is a Christmas record, and it has you singing along before you know it - despite the fact you don't have the slightest idea what they are singing about. They also do a skapunk version of 'Silent Night' - in Portuguese and a short redention of Jingle Bells. There were only 33 vinyl copies pressed of this EP, and as it is such a limited run, and the vinyl is transparent, I guess it's lathe cut vinyl. The CD version is still aviabale through on the Bandcamp of the label Raging Planet - there you can also listen to all the songs.
You can also listen to the track 'A Todos Um Bom Natal' ('To All A Merry Christmas') on Youtube:
Broloaf / Sanitation Squad: Season's Beatings (Stomping Ground Records, USA)
2014 did bring less punk
Christmas singles than 2013 did, but here is one – it's a split
between punk/hardcore band Broloaf from Scottsdale, Arizona and
punk/metal band Sanitation Squad from Phoenix, Arizona and it's
called 'Season's Beatings'. On the Bandcamp site of Broloaf, you
can listen to the two songs of their side of the single. The first
song is a hardcore punk stomper called 'I Wanna Party With You!' and
although they will probably want to thrash your Christmas party, this
song is not really a Christmas song. The second song, 'Buy It, You
Scum' seems to be, judging from the intro... I can't really figure
out what the song is exactly about, due to the gruff vocals, so let's
say it's a comment on the overcommercialisation of Christmas... it's
punk, after all! Sanitation Squad on the other side has one song,
'Slashing Through The Snow'. Santa Claus is fed up with going through all the Christmas letters, snaps, gets some booze and, to quote the band, decides to spread some holiday fear, instead of holiday cheer! It's a great fast drivin' punkrockin' hardrock song (equal parts Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Misfits), which even has a little bit of 'Carol Of The Bells' in the break. A year after the record came out, Sanitation Squad put a funny video for this song online. It even features a cameo of Broloaf - those guys indeed look scary, so I can imagine Santa Claus backs off when he meets them...
Free Throw / Oso Oso: Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer / Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) (Soft Speak Records, USA)
I was just saying that
2014 did not bring that many punk Christmas singles, but here we have
another one. It was put out by Soft Speak records, the label that
released the 4-way Christmas split featuring You Blew It!, Dikembe,
Have Mercy and Kittyhawk just before Christmas (well, the digital
version, that was – the vinyl version was not out before January
2014). That record sold out pretty quick, and their 2014 Christmas
record even sold out quicker. It was part of a series of split 7''s
the label released during 2014, coupling two bands doing cover
versions. The December issue was a split between Free Throw, a
punk/emo band from Nashville, TN and Oso Oso, a band from Long
Island, NY, that was first called Osoosooso, and that mixes punk,
hardcore and emo like bands like Get Up Kids did. In line with the
idea behind the series, Free Throw and Oso Oso both cover a Christmas
song. Free Throw do a absolutely over the top cover of Elmo &
Patsy's 1984 novelty hit 'Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer', while
Oso Oso punkify Darlene Love's Christmas classic 'Christmas(Baby
Please Come Home)'. A very good 7” all in all, and already much
sought after.
Hannah Peel (featuring Benge): Find Peace / I Believe In Father Christmas - Rebox (Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club, The Netherlands)
As you probably
know, I also run a Christmas label (the Snowflakes Christmas SinglesClub), and in 2014, I managed to release two Christmas singles by two
of my favorite female artists. The first of the two was by HannahPeel. I have been following Hannah since she released her 2010 debut
EP, 'Rebox', on which she did 'rebox' versions (rebox as in covering
songs using a music box) of 1980s synthpop hits by the likes of OMD
(one of my favorite bands in the early 80s), Soft Cell, New Order and
Cocteau Twins. That Hannah (who is a very talented
multi-instrumentalist) is capable of much more than playing covers on
a music box, she proved on her 2011 debut album 'The Broken Wave', in
which she mixed all kind of influences into a distinct sound of her
own. Her 2013 'Nailhouse' 7” EP and the 2014 'Fabricstate' 10” EP
(featuring the award winning song 'Chloe') were both regular visitors
of my turntable. So I was very excited when Hannah agreed to record a
Christmas 7” for the Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club. Hannah is
delving more and more into electronic music and has been working
together with electronic producer Benge – also on the A-side of the
single, the experimental and atmospheric 'Find Peace'. A real 21th
century Christmas song, but with a universal and perpetual message.
As that is what Christmas should really be about – to bring
peace... that was what Jesus was born for in the first place... on
the B-side, Hannah did a rebox version of Greg Lake's classic 'I
Believe In Father Christmas'. Later, in a future blog entry, I will
tell you more about the background of this great song... Hannah's
version is played on a music box, but also adds some subtle
electronics, and in this way, it served as a forerunner of Hannah's
2015 EP, 'Rebox 2', that mixed music box covers and electronica with
great effect.
Fashion photographer Piers
Vernon-Kell filmed a very beautiful video for 'Find Peace', that can
be watched on Youtube:
Hard Left: Skinheads Home For Christmas (Future Perfect, USA)
A hard mod band doing a
Christmas song, how would that sound? Well, listen to 'Skinheads Home
For Christmas' by Hard Left, and you know... Hard Left is from
Oakland, California, and has members from Lunchbox, Fire Party,
Boyracer and Black Tambourine – more indie /DIY and underground
bands than bands you would associate with the skinhead culture. “Hard
Left hearken back to the early days of punk to tell stories about NOW
and to motivate the listeners.” is what the band themselves write
on their Bandcamp. This might sound serious, but given the name of
the band and the way the two songs of their Christmas 7” -
'Skinheads Home For Christmas' and 'Yesterday Heroes' (a cover of
John Paul Young/Bay City Roller's, although it totally sounds like
Sham 69) are played, indicate that we should not take this band too
seriously. Starting off with a 'right ' in a very cockney English
accent, not exactly played tightly, sung with very gruff skinhead
style vocals and of course including the chorus sung in football tyle
chants, 'Skinheads Home For Christmas' was the 2014 Christmas hit for
all the boot boys. The record was released on Future Perfect Records and came in a ripoff 1970s RCA sleeve, a
tribute to the glam bands that clearly also inspired this band.
Harris And His Christmas Avengers: Get Down Auld Lang Syne (Funk Night Records, USA)
Each year also brings one
or two funk or soul Christmas 7”'s, and last year it was Funk NightRecords that took care of this job, and released a funky Christmas
stomper by Harris And His Christmas Avengers, 'Get Down Auld Lang
Syne'. The songs starts with organ played 'Auld Lang Syne' as a
intro, but after 25 seconds turns into a funky organ swinger to do
all kind of cool dance moves to. The record comes on red vinyl and
has a stereo version of the song on one side of the record and a mono
version on the other side, for the authentic 60s funk listening
experience. I don't have the slightest idea who are behind Harris And
His Christmas Avengers, but I wouldn't be surprised it involves some
members of other bands who have recorded for Funk Night Records. To
be honest, after the intro, it doesn't sound much like a Christmas
song anymore, but who cares, it definitely is a good song!
Listen to the song on
Youtube:
Ice Choir: Pure Holiday (Cascine, USA)
You may know Kurt Feldman
as the drummer of Slumberland recording artists and shoegaze
revivalists The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, or as the frontman of
the new-defunct Depreciation Guild, but he is also the man behind IceChoir. First started, as so many 'bands' these days, as a solo
project, Ice Choir is a now a four man band. With a sound mainly
inspired by slick 80s synthesizer pop (Someone dares to mention
Spandau Ballet? Well, why not, as some of their singles were quite
good I think), Ice Choir released a two song Christmas single called
'Pure Holiday' last year. With a stylish cover that totally fits the
music, Ice Choir offers two quiet pop songs about the Christmas
season, 'It's Different Now' and 'Cut Down The Tree'. 'It's Different
Now' starts with a Christmas clock banging, which is followed by a
intro that could easily go into the most comemercial sugarly
Christmas popsong imaginable, but fortunately, it's not that bad. Not
at all, as it's actually a very good song. Typically a song that
should be played around midnight, on a low volume, while your room is
lighted by candle light. The B-side is a slower affair, despite the
rather aggressive title.
All the proceeds of these
recordings will benefit the Coalition for the Homeless, so pick up a
copy (vinyl or digital) if you don't have it yet.
Kim Gray: Kingfisher Bluez Christmas Single 2014 (Kingfisher Bluez, Canada)
Canadian indie label
Kingfisher Bluez has started a tradition a few years ago to put out a
Christmas 7”, housed in a very nice cover showing a building in
Christmas style, so you can built your own Christmas town collecting
all these singles. 2014's edition was recorded by Kim Gray, who is
the singer of the Vancouver garage rock band Skinny Kids. He wrote a
new song, 'Santa Knows (I've Been Bad), and it has all the right
ingedrients: Christmas bells, who-ho-ho's, shalala's and a little bit
of melancholy. It is recorded in the typical lo-fi style that many of
Kingfisher Bluez artists do, which adds to the charm and DIY feel.
Unfortunately, because something went terribly wrong at the pressing
plant, the sound quality of the vinyl is very bad. But you can still
listen to it on the Bandcamp of Kingfisher Bluez to get an idea how
it should have sounded on vinyl. It has great artwork and all
proceedings go 100% to charity, so still reason to get a copy. Now
it's only waiting what Kingfisher Bluez will come up for this
Christmas!
Kirsten Bell, Agatha Lee Monn and Katie Lopez / Josh Gad: Frozen (Walt Disney Records, USA)
How popular Record Store
Day and vinyl have become over the last few years is illustrated by
the fact that even Walt Disney is starting to release vinyl versions
of their soundtracks. One of the biggest Walt Disney movie smashes of
the last few years was the animation movie 'Frozen'. Not really a
Christmas movie, but it has a lot of snow and ice, so it does have a
connection to winter, and seems very well fit to being watched during
the Christmas days. One of the most popular songs of the movie, 'Do
You Want To Build A Snowman', sung by Kirsten Bell, Agatha Lee Monn
and Katie Lopez (all representing one of the two sisters who star the
movie, Anna, at a different age), was put out as a picture disc 7”
for Black Friday, with 'In Summer', sung by Josh Gad, playing Olaf,
the snowman, on the B-side. Five thousand copies of the single were
pressed, which is really a lot for a 7” these days – so it won't
be too difficult to find. And now it's only waiting for a real
Christmas animation movie-related picture disc 7”: 'What's This?'
and 'Making Christmas' from 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' – idea
of Black Friday Record Store Day 2016?
See a clip from the song
'Do You Want To Build A Snowman?', taken from the movie, here:
Mick Foley: Crazy Christmas (BCR Los Angeles, USA)
Another 2014 Black Friday
Record Store Day release – like I said, there were many Christmas
related releases last year – is another somewhat curious record, as
it does not contain any music, but a story, 'Crazy Christmas',
written and told by Mick Foley. I had never heard of Mick Foley, but
hey, I am from Europe, and we rather watch football, cycling or
tennis than wrestling. Of course, I did some research, and learned
that Mick Foley was, besides being a professional wrestler for a long
time (and now being in semi-retirement) is also an author, comedian,
actor, voice actor and someone with a week spot for Christmas...
well, not really a weak spot, of course, but a little bit less strong
spot... he even wrote some children's Christmas books, like
'Christmas Chaos' and 'A Most MIZerable Chritmas'. On this record,
Mick tells a Christmas story he has written for his son, and it is
about how he and his son come to the rescue of Santa Claus, in which
Mick's physical strength helps get the problems that Santa Claus is
faced with, solved. I won't tell you more about the story – no
spoilers here! It's nice to see someone continuing the old tradition
of the spoken word Christmas record... in line with 'The Night Before
Christmas', probably the most famous of all Christmas stories put on
record. Not that I will play it often (nor do I play 'The Night
Before Christmas Often'), but it's a nice addition to any Christmas
singles collection, also because of the nice cover art. Not to be
found on Youtube, so if you want to hear how the story goes, you have
to buy the 7”. There are plenty of copies available anyway.
Miles Davis: Blue Xmas (Columbia, USA)
I was quite enthousiastic
about the Bessie Smith reissue for Black Friday, but for me the most
anticipated release for Black Friday was without doubt the Miles
Davis Xmas single, 'Blue Xmas (To Whom It May Concern)'. It was the
first time this song was put out on a 7”. It came on blue vinyl (of
course), with an inlay with a blue photo of Miles. The song first
appeared on the Columbia Record's 1962 album 'Jingle Bell Jazz',
which was a collection of jazz Christmas songs by some of the most
popular artists on Columbia (like Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck,
Lionel Hampton and Carmen McRae), all recorded between 1959 and 1962.
'Blue Xmas' was recorded in 1962, especially for this album. Miles
Davis asked bebop singer and songwriter Bob Dorough, whose 1956 debut
album 'Devil May Care' he really liked, to write a Christmas song for
him, and so he did – Bob Dorough also did the vocal duties on the
recording. Miles Davis was first not that much into the idea of
recording a Christmas song ('What the fuck am I supposed to play for
them? White Christmas?' he is reported to have complained to Bob
Dorough), and it seems Bob Dorough was inspired by this dislike of
Miles Davis for traditional Christmas songs in writing the lyrics,
judging from phrases like 'All the waste, all the sham, all the haste
and plain old bad taste'. Despite the rather cynical and negative
lyrics, the song worked out great, and can is considered to be one of
the most original and best jazz Christmas songs ever (at least by
me). On the B-side of the single, Miles Davis plays the title track
of Bob Doroughs debut 'Devil May Care'. This is another single that
was pressed in a very large quantity of 5000 copies. It also easy
available for a cheap price, do yourself a favor and pick it up! Now
I see how many of last years Black Friday Christmas singles are still
around for discount prices, it doesn't surprise me that this year's
Black Friday will barely bring us any Christmas 7”'s
(unfortunately; so far, I counted only one, Easy E's 'Mutahfukkin
Christmas', another re-release). In the end, it turns out to be not
the money making machine the majors probably had hoped for.
Listen to the song on
Youtube:
Mr Plow: The Greatest Christmas Ever Seen (Pink Box Records, UK)
A totally different thing
is the Christmas single that was recorded by a singer-songwriter
called Mr Plow. He resides in the UK, and has recorded three singles
and three albums, all released on Pink Box Records. Mr Plow started
out playing murder ballads, which gives a good indication of his
style... a mixture of folk and country, with a very dark undertone.
His Christmas song, 'The Greatest Christmas Of All', is also not a
cheery Christmas song. On the contrary. The single is a benefit for
Refuge, an charity supporting victims of domestic violence, and that
is also what the song is about. It's a very sad sounding song. The
B-side has a cover version of 'Away In A Manger', a song that fits Mr
Plow's style well. It's a beautiful record for a worthy cause, and
you still can get it from Rough Trade in the UK. And it
comes on 'snow and ice' vinyl...
Watch the video of 'The
Greatest Christmas Of All' here:
Nancy Wallace: January / 2000 Miles (Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club, The Netherlands)
The second single that was
released as part of the Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club was
recorded by Nancy Wallace. Nancy Wallace is a English folksinger,
born into a family of folk musicians in Suffolk, and first came to
notice as a singer with The Memory Band, being featured on
self-titled debut album of the band (2004) and the band's second
album 'Apron Strings' (2006). Later, she joined the ranks of The OwlService. Nancy's solo debut came in 2005 with the 'Young Hearts' EP,
a wonderful collection of disco classics set to simple folk
arrangements. In 2009, Nancy Wallace released her first album, 'Old
Stories', a mixture of traditional English folk songs and Nancy's own
compositions, on Midwich Recordings. I discovered Nancy as the singer
of the great murder ballad 'The Red Barn' (although it's more a
uptempo folk song than really a ballad), featured on the 2011 Owl
Service single "3: All Things Being Silent", and kept
following her since them. Early 2014 she released a great solo single
'You Restless Skylines / Pockets', part of the 'You Must Listen
Series' on Stone Tape Records. That record, one of my favorite of
2014, made me ask Nancy to record a Christmas single, that she
happenly agreed to. Problem was that she was in the proces of moving
to Montreal, Canada, where her husband, painter Trevor Kiernander is
from. In the end, she recorded the two songs, two beautiful acoustic
folk songs (original 'January', about missing her family, and The
Pretenders Christmas hit '2000 Miles' turned into a folk song) at
home in Montreal. The video of 'January' was filmed on a snowy day in
Montreal, one of the few that December. But at least was good Nancy
was living in Canada now, what the probability of being able to film
a snowy Christmas video in the UK early December is of course next to
zero...
You can watch the video here:
Presents For Sally: Everytime A Bells Rings An Angel Gets Its Wings (self-released, UK)
Presents For Sally is a
band from the UK, that gets their inspiration from the late 1980s /
early 1990s shoegaze sound. The band released a very limited (only 50
copies) but still available Christmas single, 'Everytime A Bell Rings
An Angel Gets Its Wings', that comes individually hand stamped and
wrapped in wrapping paper, so it looks really nice. Unfortunately,
the vinyl is not the best quality, so the record doesn't really sound
that good when you play it. But you also get the songs in digital
format when you buy the single from the Bandcamp of the band, and it's very nice package all together - it even came wrapped in Christmas gift paper! The
title track is an atmospheric song, with a piano and synthesizer
sounds as the main ingredient for most part of the song, that
explodes with some great guitar work in the last minute. The B-side
is called 'Cuntry Song', that is rather introspective, but doesn't
really sound like country, and also isn't a Christmas song I think.
Watch the video here:
Pulled Apart By Horses / DZ Deathrays: Merry Christmas Everybody / Lonely The Christmas (Too Pure, UK)
In 2013, Too Pure released
a split single by Seize The Chair and Best Friend, of which the Best
Friend song 'When Christmas Comes' was a Christmas song. In 2014, Too
Pure released a proper Christmas split single, as part of their
singles club, with both bands on the split doing a Christmas song –
both covers of classic 1970s Christmas rock songs. Pulled Apart ByHorses is a alt.rock band from Leeds, England and do a quite wild
cover of what probably is the best (or at least the most known)
Christmas rock song ever, Slade's 'Merry X-Mas Everybody'. On the
B-side, the Australian dance-punk duo DZ Deathrays cover another glam
rock band, Mud, who's 'Lonely This Christmas' was one of the other
biggest Christmas rock hits from the 1970s. The DZ Deathray version
starts quietly, but in the end the band looses it and the song goes
over the top. The single comes in cool artwork. Hopefully Too Pure
will release another Christmas (split) single for Christmas 2015!
Residents, Uninc.: Santa Dog (Superior Viaduct, USA)
One of the weirdest
Christmas singles ever made is without a doubt the debut release of
the band that was credited as Residents, Uninc. on that record, but
became widely known as the avantgarde band The Residents... the band
that nobody knows the identity of, as the heads of the members are
always hidden in big eyeballs. Of the original 'Santa Dog' double
single (as that is what I am talking about) only 500 copies were
pressed, of which about 100 were mispressed and 300 were mailed out
as presents to family and friends. To give you an idea how limited
this record was.... and how sought after it now is, the few copies
that are on the market being sold for around 1000 euros. Those of you
that are not familiar with the record – the record appears to be a
compilation, with the four songs credited to Ivory & The
Braineaters, The College Walkers, Delta Nudes, Arf & Omega
featuring The Singing Lawnchairs, and the artwork resembles an
insurance agency's Christmas card. But in fact, all 'songs' were
played by The Residents. The first track, titled 'Lightning', was in
fact the title track 'Santa Dog' – and was re-released under that
title as a 7” in 1978. The original double-7” finally got a
re-release in April of last year, on US label Superior Viaduct, with
all the artwork intact. A great way to finally get this avantgarde
Christmas classic! I am not going to describe the music, just listen
to it below.
The complete single:
Run DMC: Christmas In Hollis (Get On Down, USA)
And here is another Black
Friday Christmas re-release: the legendary 1987 Christmas single by
Run DMC, 'Christmas In Hollis', probably the best Christmas hiphop
song ever. Co-produced by Rick Rubin, containing a sample of Clarence
Carter's 1968 Christmas single 'Back Door Santa', and referring to
the area in New York where the band members grew up, Hollis, part of
Queens, it is an example that even relatively 'modern' music styles
like hiphop can come up with songs that become Christmas classics...
this re-release on Get Down Records came with the original Profile labels jukebox style
(Profile was the label that had also released the song on their 1987
'Christmas Rap' compilation, that featured some other quite
interesting takes of hiphop artists on Christmas songs), a RSD
sticker and a audible postcard... unfortunately, this made the
package rather expensive. And most of the people who like this song
probably already have the original 7” (the UK pressing with the
Keith Haring artwork, or the 1988 US split single on Profile, with
another great hiphop track on the B-side, 'Let The Jingle Bells Rock'
by female rapper Sweet Tee).
Check the great video of
the song here:
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings: Just Another Christmas Song / Big Bulbs (Daptone Records, USA)
I really love SharonJones & The Dap-Kings' 2009 Christmas singles, 'Ain't No Chimneys In The Projects', a great uptempo funk song with very good lyrics,
one of the true classic Christmas songs of the 21st
Century. As you probably know, the band released a full length Christmas
album this year. Last year, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings released
a Christmas 45 on Daptone Records (of course), 'Just Another
Christmas Song (This Time I Sing A Long)'. The song starts with the
tune of Jingle Bells and then goes into a midtempo funk rhythm.
Sharon mentions many Christmas hits in the song and she promises us
that this time she'll sing along, and in the process creates another
great Christmas song. The B-side 'Big Bulbs' features Shaun and Starr
and is mainly bells, a ragtime rhythm, some horns and the voices of
the three women. Simple, but effective. Both songs are also included
on the LP 'It's A Holiday Soul Party'. The 7” came in a limited
edition on spruce green vinyl (whatever that means), and in a regular edition on black
viny. You need the LP, but also pick up the 7”, so you can also
play these two songs on your jukebox!
Here is the A-side to
check out:
And here the B-side:
Sonja: Jeg Gleder Meg Ikke Til Jul I År (Nordpolen Musikklubb, Norway)
The NordpolenMusikklubb (translates as the North Pole Music Club) is another
Christmas singles label, that released its first 7” in 2014, and is
planning to release one Christmas 45 every year. The label is from
Norway, and also focusses on Norwegian artists. Their first release
'Jeg Gleder Meg Ikke Til Jul I År' (which according to Google
Translate means 'I'm Not Looking Forward To Christmas This Year') by
the Norwegian singer Sonja (full name Sonja Bjønness), who was 16
when the song was recorded in 1963. The lyrics were written for a
song contest by psychology student Bodil Sivertsen (21 at the time),
and after she had won, the music 18-year student Torvinn Midtli was
asked to write the music – which he did in a very short time. The
song was recorded December 5th,
1963, and featured some of the most well-known Norwegian musicians as
accompanions of Sonja. 'Jeg Gleder Meg Ikke Til Jul I År' is an
uptempo beat song, a bit in the style of the early 1960s beat girls
(think Sandy Shaw), with a chorus that invites to sing a long and
with spoken couplets. Despite the probably not so optimistic lyrics,
listening to it, brings me in a good mood. The song was not really a
big hit, it sold 150 copies and then, after Christmas was over, ended
up on the shelves. Sonja recorded a total of 4 singles, and gave up
singing in 1965. The B-side has another, non-Christmas, song ('For En
Tabbe', which translates as 'What A Mistake') by Sonja. The single
came in 300 copies, but beautiful cover artwork and on white vinyl.
And it's good to know that 2015 will bring another Nordpolen
Musikklubb Christmas release!
Unfortunately, the song is
not to be found on the internet...
The Brooklyn Attractors: Christmas Inna Babylon Vol. 1 (Jump Up Records, USA)
Nothing beats a nice ska
or rocksteady version of a Christmas song, and fortunately enough,
the Chicago based Jump Up Records released, specializing in original
Jamaican ska, reggae, rock steady, and calypso was there to give us
'Christmas Inna Babylon Vol. 1', with two classic Christmas songs
getting the rocksteady treatment by the Brooklyn Attractors, a
Brooklyn all star jazz reggae band – 'Jingle Bells' and 'God Rest
Ye Merry Gentlemen'. That the Brooklyn Attractors are really an all
star band is clear from the bands that the members are recruited
from: Westbound Train, New York Ska Jazz Ensemble, the Void Union,
Stubborn Allstars, Dub is a Weapon, the Rocksteady 7, Beat Brigade
and even the legendary Toasters! As for the two songs - 'Jingle
Bells' is played in a slow rocksteady tempo, making it sound like a
chill out track, with quite some solo work, proving it are indeed
musicians that put in some jazz influences in their performance and
know how to play their instruments. 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen' is
retitled into 'God Rest Dem Irie Gentlemen', and is played in the
same jazzy rocksteady style as the A-side, with some cool horn parts
and even a flute solo. Some of the best reggae/rocksteady
interpretations of Christmas standards I heard in a long time. The
record was limited to 250 copies, and is still available from the
label. And of course, now it's hoping this year will bring us Volume
2!
The Magic Numbers: I Don't Care If It's Christmas (Roadworks, UK)
There haven't been many
'big names' releasing new Christmas vinyl 7” singles in 2014.
Probably the biggest name were The Magic Numbers, the UK
indie/pop/rock band from Hanwell, comprising two pairs of brothers
and sisters. The band has been playing from 2002 on, and have grown
quite popular over the years – leading to more than 60.000
folllowers on Facebook, that should say something. In December 2014
the band released a Christmas single, 'I Don't Care If It's
Christmas'. A special limited edition 7” version was pressed to be
sold at the UK shows the band played in December of that year. The
artwork was inspired by the artwork of the band's 2014 album 'Alias',
that showed small pictures of people. The artwork of the Christmas
singles showed small pictures of men with big white beards... the
song itself is a rather melancholy song – it has a refrain that
starts with 'Honey Honey', so I can't help thinking of Abba listening
to it... but although it's a pop song, the guitars are too loud for
Abba anyway. It's a good song, with a funny ending, that will make it
not suitable for radio play in some on the lesser open minded
stations... only a pity that it has not been made more widely
available, as it seems impossible to track down a copy of this 7”,
for those who not have been at any of the shows of the Christmas tour
of the band.
The Christmas single of
the Misfits, 'Horror X-Mas', that was released in 2013 on three
different colors, in three different versions (a double 7” version,
and two single 7” versions, each with a different B-side, 'Blue
Christmas' or 'Island Of Misfit Toys', and all with the Misfits
version of Thurl Ravenscroft's 'You're A Mean One, Mr Grinch' on the
A-side), was re-released in 2014, in (again) three different
versions. A double 7” version, on green/red vinyl, that was sold
during the Misfits October 2014 tour and after the tour, online, and
two black vinyl versions, one with 'Island of Misfit' toys on the
B-side, and the other with 'Blue Christmas' on the B-side. Only for
the Misfits completists, or people that haven't picked up the
original versions (that are also slowly going down in price on
Discogs, by the way).
Listen to the A-side of
the singles here:
and to the B-sides here:
and here:
The Ornaments: What A Merry Christmas It Was (self-released, USA)
Since a few years, more
and more bands that want to put out a 7”, but are not able to sell
hundreds of copies, choose for a small scale release using lathe cut
vinyl. As these records are handcut, and very limited, they are not
easy to track down. As far as I know, 2014 brought us one lathe cut
7” - a square one, nontheless, by The Ornaments. Thanks for
Christmas Underground for bringing this record to my attention! The
Ornaments is a duo from Madison, Wisconsin, that was started with the
aim to record a Christmas 7” and play on show every December 'til
the end of time'. Well, will see how soon the end of time will be
there. The 'What A Merry Christmas It Was' is the first 7', and it
features two songs: 'Santa's Extensial Crisis' and 'Christmas
Dinner', both originals. The A-side is a typical lofi sounding indie
song, that is quite enjoyable. The B-side is a piano ballad, which
sounds rather sad, but beautiful. There are only 10 copies of the 7”
cut, so be very fast if you want one. Or just listen to the songs on
the Bandcamp of The Ornaments. And now it's waiting for their 2015
effort...
The Satin Chaps featuring Tony Starlight / The Apollo Four: 2 Instant Holiday Classics (self-released, USA)
One of the jolliest
Christmas 7'''s of 2014 was released by two bands from Portland, OR:
The Satin Chaps and The Apollo Four, who indeed released '2 Instant
Holiday Classics', as they called their split single. On the A-side,
The Satin Chaps were joined by 'Portland lounge legend' Tony Starlight, for a swingin' 'Hey, Mrs. Santa Claus!', with handclaps,
uptempo drummin', bells and some nice brass. On the other side, The
Apollo Four play an even faster and equally swinging instrumental,
'Jupiter Jingle'. It comes in a nice 60s style colourful sleeve and
on three colours of vinyl: red, green and yellow, a total of 300
copies. Definitely one of my favorite Christmas 7”'s of 2014.
The Woggles: Santa's Coming (Ho Ho Ho) / Back Door Santa (Wicked Cool Records, USA)
The Woggles recorded
'Santa's Coming (Ho Ho Ho)' in 2007, and filmed a very funny video a
year later. It took another six years before the song was finally
pressed on vinyl, by their label Wicked Cool Records – the label
run by Steve van Zandt (that we all beter know as Little Steven).
Atlanta, Georgia's The Woggles are not exactly new comers to the
scene, they already put out records and tour the US for over 20
years, playing garage rock with rhythm & blues and some surf
influences. Their 'Santa's Coming (Ho Ho Ho) also has a rhythm &
blues vibe, and it's no coincidence the band covers Clarence Carter's
'Back Door Santa' on the B-side of the single. The single is really
beautifully packed, in a sleeve, with some of the Christmas
decorations being cut out, so that the red or green vinyl (the two
colours the 7” has been released on) shows. One of my other
favorite 2014 Christmas singles!
Watch the funny 2008 video of the A-side here:
Vice Squad: Christmas Hangover (Shout Proud Records / Last Rockers Records, Germany)
The last 2014 single is by
a band that is even longer around than The Woggles, much longer, to
be exactly, since 1978... it's Bristol punk bank Vice Squad, fronted
by Becki Bondage. Vice Squad has already been recording Christmas
songs for quite some time, releasing a row of Christmas CD EP's from
2009 to 2012. On their 2014 EP, that is called 'Christmas Hangover,
four songs from their CD's are put together on a 7”, and it are all
Christmas classics: 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town', 'Merry Xmas
Everybody', 'Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree' and 'I Wish It Could
Be Christmas Every Day'. 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town' is retitled
to 'Santa Claws Is Coming To Town', and the lyrics are changed a bit
(with a few oi!'s thrown in for good measure), because, after all,
Vice Squad still is a punk band... 'Merry Xmas Everybody' is played
in a fairly straightforward way, replacing the electric guitar by an
acoustic one. 'Rockin' Around The Xmas Tree' has been speeded up
compared by the original, and again, the slightly changed lyrics and
the oi!-chants make it a proper punk song. Vice Squad's version of
Wizzard's hit even has horns! The EP, that has been put out by Shout Proud Records, is limited to 150 copies, of
which 50 are on green vinyl and the other 100 on black vinyl.
Listen to 'Rockin' Around
The Xmas Tree' on Youtube:
Sons Of Old Town Collective: X-Mas Extravaganza Vol. 1 (Sons Of Old Town Collective, USA)
And just when I though I
was finished... Stubby's delved up a 2014 7” that I did not know
about yet... so this post is one with an encore... with a total of 4
songs, nontheless. The record in questions is a collaboration of
various Nashville, TN's alt.rock/indie artists, who call themselves
Sons Of Old Town. On the 7”, John Davey, Wilderness Alive and CoryTaylor Cox all contribute a original Christmas song, respectively
'Home In A Midwest Minute', 'The 12th Day Of Christmas'
and the more folkish 'Holiday Optimism'. On the last track, 'Here We
Come A-Carolin', they all join together in an acoustic version of
this traditional. The record, that is titled 'X-Mas Extravaganza,
Vol. 1', is pressed on transculent green vinyl, with a total of 200
copies.
