There's not a lump of coal in this season's stocking of new Christmas music, with five CDs from indie record labels worth finding.
Santa Claus hipsters, rejoice! A Christmas-crazy brother among us, Sufjan Stevens, drops a mother lode of cool with a box set that lets everybody be on his super-special-secret-buddy list. His ambitious "50 States" project aside, you've got to admire a fellow who takes a week in December every year to craft, like little fruitcakes of love, handmade CDs of holiday cheer. In Songs for Christmas, these five impossible-to-find CD EPs are now gifts to the whole world. From ice-melting instrumentals to tender covers of classics to witty, proud, and whimsical originals, the joy and somber nature of the season shine forth like the message of the holiday itself. An anomaly in the über-hip indie-rock world, the result is snark-free, soothing and decidedly Christian. There's plenty to unwrap in the Asthmatic Kitty Records collection, as the goodies include stickers, a comic strip, a Christmas family-portrait painting of Stevens playing Santa, essays, extensive liner notes, and an animated video for "Put the Lights on the Tree." Want to sing and play along? Lyric sheets and chord charts are included.
Ten years since the band first treated fans to a holiday CD, The Darkest Night of the Year, Over the Rhine returns with Snow Angels on the Great Speckled Dog imprint. The amber-honey confessional waltz of duo Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler combines Billie Holiday, Nat "King" Cole, the Cowboy Junkies, blues voodoo, and an Appalachian church's serenity. Candle-lit with snowflakes falling, these 11 perfect originals are playful, unashamedly romantic, and redemptive. One cover of sorts fits right in - a softly possessed interpretation of "Jingle Bells" into "One Olive Jingle" - and a piano instrumental finds inspiration from Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas music in "Goodbye Charles."
Another reason to turn down the lights and set the tree to slow, gentle twinkle is Aimee Mann's fragile magic on One More Drifter in the Snow, a perfect antidote to the blare of the season. In the Super Ego Records release, she and producer (and bassist) Paul Bryan paint a soft, sophisticated watercolor in winter white, with vintage instruments and an ear for the glistening, classy Christmas albums of the 1950s and jazzy 1960s. Highlights include a cool, fresh take on "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," the wistful "Christmastime"(penned by husband Michael Penn), and a cover of Jimmy Webb's "Whatever Happened to Christmas?" And is that special guest Grant Lee Phillips getting green and sneering in a wicked new vamp of Dr. Seuss' "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch"? This month Mann is performing her Christmas "variety show" in a dozen live concerts in eight cities. Surprise guests are promised, with some dates hosted by two of the sharpest comedians I can think of: Paul F. Tompkins and Fred Armisen.
From the first cascade of notes, when the a cappella group The Mighty Echoes breaks out the moldiest of chestnut carols in Doo Wop Around the Christmas Tree, I can't help but smile. Featuring tenor Jon Rubin of The Rubinoos, new second tenor John Lathan, British baritone hitmaker Harvey Shield, and Charlie Davis' bass, one of my favorites gets the lush, in-sync treatment on the new Brooklyn International Records CD: John Lennon & Yoko Ono's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)." Perhaps we can all sing that one together soon.
Last call brings eggnog with three fingers of schmaltz, baby! Forever lost in tiki wonderland and smoky, red-crushed-velvet caverns of swank, Richard Cheese, the showbiz kid, is back with his first CD of Christmas shenanigans in Silent Nightclub. Okay, the world could do without his "cover" of "Jingle Bells" (yes, the novelty one with the barking dogs), but I've got to giggle at his minute-and-a-half jumping-jazz spin through Band-Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas" and a show-stopping romp through "Christmas Time Is Here" from A Charlie Brown Christmas. One new original, "Christmas in Las Vegas," makes the Surfdog Records' release, with new must-hear lozenges of lounge: covers of Rush's "The Trees," The Dead Kennedys' "Holiday in Cambodia," and a falling-rain croon in "I Melt with You" by Modern English.
Television Alert:
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno hosts the fantastic K.T. Tunstall tonight, Seal on Friday, and Panic at the Disco on Monday; The Late Show with David Letterman boasts Beck on Thursday; Late Night with Conan O'Brien turns on TV on the Radio this Friday overnight and Dashboard Confessional on Monday overnight; The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson fires one up with Ziggy Marley this evening overnight; Jimmy Kimmel Live gets sassy with Corinne Bailey Rae on Thursday overnight and Mary J. Blige on Friday overnight; and Saturday Night Live's musical guest this weekend is Gwen Stefani.
New Releases Coming Tuesday, December 12:
... and like the winds, young grasshopper, are subject to change.
The Alarm Clocks - The Time Has Come (Norton) back to the basement with the band's first new recordings since 1966, also available on LP
An Albatross - We Are the Lazer Viking (Ace Fu) LP issue from this noisy Philadelphia collective
Barenaked Ladies - Barenaked Ladies Are Me: Deluxe Edition (Desperation/Warner Bros) expanded reissue with a bonus DVD
Mary J. Blige - Reflections: The Journey (Geffen) hits and rarities collection, featuring the new track "We Ride"
Julie Peel/The Caulfield Sisters - "Divine Candy" (American Laundromat) limited-edition blue-vinyl seven-inch single featuring respective covers of The Breeders' "Divine Hammer" and The Jesus & Mary Chain's "Some Candy Talking"
Daddy Mack Blues Band - Bluestones (Inside Sounds) juke-joint blues featuring a cover of Sam Cooke's "That's Where It's at"
Neil Diamond - 12 Songs (Columbia) expanded two-CD reissue featuring a disc of demo "song sketches" and a new track, "Delirious Love," with Brian Wilson
Eragon - original motion picture soundtrack (RCA) featuring "Keep Holding on" by Avril Lavigne
The Billy Gibson Band - Southern Livin' (Inside Sounds) 2005's "Beale Street Entertainer of the Year;" getting' funky with a cover of Booker T & the MG's hit "Hip Hug-Her"
Ghostface Killah - More Fish (Def Jam) with production by Hi-Tek, Pete Rock, and MF Doom
Taylor Hicks - Taylor Hicks (Arista) major-label debut for the American Idol winner, featuring two original songs and his "soul patrol" take on Marvin Gaye's "Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)" and a new song by Rob Thomas, "Dream Myself Awake"
Mya - Liberation (Motown) with guests DJ Kool and the Game
Sonic Youth - The Destroyed Room: B-Sides & Rarities (Geffen) featuring hard-to-find nuggets culled from an out-of-print soundtrack, an Alice Cooper tribute, and Grand Royal Record's "At Home with the Groovebox" experiment from 2000
Taking Back Sunday - Louder Now (Warner Bros) expanded reissue with live tracks and a bonus DVD
Charlie Wood - Lucky (Inside Sounds) boogie-woogie blues led by his mighty Hammond B3
