Category: Music

You get a bit of a super-sized edition this week.

Just like last year, I’ve put together a holiday album for the last Friday Music before Christmas, which you can download from YouSendIt by clicking on the cover below. Sadly no individual song links this year, either grab the entire album or don’t — but I do provide liner notes, below. Then, after the Yule goodies, I’ve got a handful of non-holiday tracks for you — your regularly-scheduled Friday Music.

First up:

Click to download album

Here’s the tracklist:

1) Leon Redbone & Zooey Deschanel – “Baby It’s Cold Outside.” I’ve become a raving fanboy for actress Zooey Deschanel’s voice. Her new album with M. Ward, under the group name “She & Him” will feature on a future Friday Music, I’m sure of it.

2) The Moonglows – “Hey Santa Claus.” Uptempo holiday-themed four-bar blues. Apparently, Santa has a lot of Babies to Bring Back Home, if these sorts of songs are any indication.

3) Bobby Lloyd and the Skeletons – “Do You Hear What I Hear/You Really Got Me.” Love this — a non-electronic mash-up. The band blends a holiday classic with a Kinks classic, and does it well.

4) Marah – “New York is a Christmas Kind of Town.” It really is — this time of year is probably when I miss it the most.

5) Pearl Jam – “Santa God.” Eddie Vedder reminiscing about when Santa was God. Still is, Eddie. Still is.

6) The Ting Tings – “Shut Up & Let It Snow (Live on BBC1).” The Ting Tings do an accoustic holiday filk of their hit song. Goofy and fun.

7) And What Will Be Left of Them? – “Have Yourself A Filthy Little Christmas.” Love the lyric “hope you choke on cheer.” Ah, punk.

8) Fleet Foxes – “White Winter Hymnal.” An absolutely beautiful song by the new Seattle-based Indie darlings.

9) The Bellrays – “All I Want to do is Shag for Christmas.” Soul-revival garage band does a smokin’ tune, double-entendre referencing the dance style and…um… the other kind of shagging, too.

10) The Ronettes – “Sleigh Ride.” Pretty traditional, but I love me some Phil Spector wall-of-sound, and the ring-a-ling-a-ling-a-ding-dong-ding is a household favorite.

11) Derek B – “Chillin’ With Santa.” Christmas hip-hop breakbeat. Fun.

12) National Lampoon – “Kung Fu Christmas.” From National Lampoon’s 1974 comedy album, written by Christopher Guest & Paul Shaffer– a spot-on perfect parody of the earnest ghetto soul of the early-70s. The lyrics. Listen to them.

There you go — Happy Holidays. Now for our usual mix of eclectica:

First, for , who has recently become a Smallville fan via DVD (we’ve just finished season one): Remy Zero – “Save Me.”

Massive guilty pleasure time. This is a track from Britney Spears’ new album, and, again, the producers have done a bang-up job — a blistering glam-disco track that makes you want to dance. I only wish it was someone other than La Spears, so I could try to retain some level of cred here. Ah well. Britney Spears – “Womanizer.”

More music that’s been drifting through my Far West inspiration playlist: Beck – “Farewell Ride.” (I discovered this when it was used as a promo for the series finale of The Shield.)

My all-time favorite Bauhaus track. Some little gothlings preferred the spooky crackle of Bela Lugosi’s Dead, but I cranked this one: Bauhaus – “Dark Entries.”

Lastly — I’m a big fan of the soundtrack to To Live and Die in L.A., composed by Wang Chung. Here’s one of my favorites from the soundtrack: Wang Chung – “Wait.”

There you go. Enjoy.

First, let me get this out of the way — I haven’t posted any Christmas music so far this year. This is mostly due to the disturbing trend here in the US of radio stations switching over to an all-Christmas-music format (usually starting in November). Hell, just in the area I live, we can get something like 6 stations (between KC and Topeka) that are nothing but holiday music, 24-7. It’s ridiculous.

That said, I like the stuff that you don’t normally hear. So, here’s one. Most of you probably recognize the hook from this track, at it formed the sample basis of Run-DMC’s “Christmas in Hollis”, which gets played a bunch. The original song is much, much better. Soul horns and thinly-veiled sexual innuendo… that spells “Christmas” to me! Clarence Carter – “Back Door Santa.”

As I mentioned last week, I’ve been absolutely addicted to Amanda Palmer’s solo album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer? So much so, that I’m going to hit you with two of my favorite tracks from it. GO GET THIS ALBUM. F’reals, yo.

Amanda Palmer – “Leeds United.” I can’t quite figure out what the song has to do with the football team, but I *love* it. The horn section especially slays me.

Amanda Palmer – “Guitar Hero.” Another track with killer instrumentation once it kicks in. The guitar on this track is played by East Bay Ray from the Dead Kennedys.

Now to embarrass The Minion. When she was wee, she was a full-on fangirl of the boy-band and girl-band movement of the turn of the century. This was one of her favorites. Now, to embarrass myself: I liked this one quite a bit, too. Not the singing — the girls were, as in most of these cases, disposable studio talent. No, I was in absolute awe of the producers, David Frank and Steve Kipner — who crafted the most BADASS backing track I’d ever heard. The constant fluttering staccatto beat? KILLER. Dream – “He Loves U Not.”

In high school, I was given the most dastardly of brainworms — an *unlabeled* mix tape. There were songs on there that I loved, yet I had no idea who they were, nor what album they came from. This was one of them, which I finally tracked down. The Church – “Unguarded Moment.”

One of the better tracks from the soundtrack to Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. The song itself is OK, but truly serves as a showcase for guitarist Nuno Bettencourt’s classical-influenced solos. Still some of the most amazing guitar work out there — I only wish they had spotlighted it more. Extreme – “Play With Me.”

This is interesting. Some neo-folk/alt-country kinda stuff which strikes me as very Firefly. Alela Diane – “White As Diamonds.”

Enjoy. As always, if the links give you trouble, try copy-and-pasting them, or just right-clicking and download.

Yes, it’s back. The Minion complained. Apparently, the Friday Music is popular with the college crowd. Who knew?

Bunch of nifty stuff this week.

First off, I’ve been devouring the soundtrack to Repo! The Genetic Opera, in preparation for seeing the film during it’s second swing through Kansas City in two weeks. This is the track that has burrowed its way into my brain the most — a lovely ditty about the drug Zydrate, sung by the Graverobber (Terrance Zdunich) — with an assist from Shilo (Alexa Vega) and Amber Sweet (Paris Hilton): Repo! The Genetic Opera – Original Cast: “Zydrate Anatomy.”

Listening quite a bit to this, as well — My Brightest Diamond, a project of multi-instrumentalist, classically-trained vocalist Shara Worden. It’s brilliant stuff, mixing indie rock, string quartet, and more. My Brightest Diamond – “Golden Star.”

Here’s a track that’s been used recently for the TV commercials of the XBox zombie apocalypse game, Left 4 Dead. So, regardless of what the song is actually about, I now firmly associate it with images of people being chased through a city by hordes of zombies. Good times. Steel Pole Bath Tub – “Train to Miami.”

A lovely bit of indie-pop from a Liverpool group, whose debut album came out this year. It has a very early-80s vibe to me, in its vocal style — but back then it probably would have been drenched in synth. I think the modern instrumentation suits it better: Wave Machines – “I Go I Go I Go.”

19-year old UK soul revival chick Adele — another attempt to recreate Amy Winehouse without the trainwreck personal life and heavy drug use. The production is by Mark Ronson, so it’s good stuff: Adele – “Cold Shoulder.”

Of course, the soul revival stuff reminds me of just how jaw-droppingly good the original music was. Here’s a track that’s as old as I am — released in the summer of 1969 — and it’s aged a damn sight better than I have: Marlena Shaw – “California Soul.”

A nasty little mash-up from the brilliant DJ Earworm, with NSFW lyrics — combining Eurythmics, Avenue D and a few others: DJ Earworm – “Don’t Mess With Orgasmatron.”

Another excellent mash-up, featuring Angelo Badalamenti’s theme from Twin Peaks, dialog from the show, and the Jackson 5. SUPREMELY creepy and well-done. In fact, there’s an entire album of this stuff available for free over at mashedinplastic.co.uk. Here’s a sample: Colatron – “I’ll Be There In Twin Peaks.”

Lastly, a beautiful Mongolian folk song, played on accoustic guitar — it’s a long track, but the song starts to serious kick ass about 2:30 into it, and then in the 4th minute, he starts the vocals. Wow. The artist is a guy named Gangzi, who apparently is the sound guy at Beijing’s only “metal” club. 刚子 – 日出 (Copy and paste this one)

There you go. Hope you like ’em.