No Coal Lumps Please!

Five Indie Holiday CDs That Aren't Complete Crap

originally published December 20, 2006

1. 

   Santa Claus hipsters, rejoice! A Christmas-crazy brother among us, Sufjan Stevens, drops the mother lode of cool with a box set that lets everybody in on his super special secret buddy list. His ambitious "50 states" project aside, you’ve got to admire a fellow who, with friends, takes a week in December every year to craft, like little fruitcakes of love, limited-edition 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 and tender covers of classics, to witty, proud and whimsical originals, the joy and somber nature of the season shines 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 plump Asthmatic Kitty Records collection, overflowing with stickers, a comic strip, a Christmas family portrait painting with Stevens playing Santa, essays, extensive liner notes, and the animated video for “Put the Lights On the Tree.”

   Want to sing and play along? No problem - lyric sheets and chord charts are included.

2. 

   Ten years since they treated fans to their first holiday CD The Darkest Night of the Year, the members of Over the Rhine return with Snow Angels on the Great Speckled Dog label. Somewhere between Billie Holiday, Nat “King” Cole, the Cowboy Junkies, blues voodoo and an Appalachian church’s serenity simmer the amber honey confessional waltzes of duo Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler.

   Candlelit with snowflakes falling, these 11 perfect originals are playful, unashamedly romantic, and heartrendingly 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 in “Goodbye Charles.”

3. 

   Another reason to turn down the lights and set the tree to a slow, gentle twinkle is Aimee Mann’s fragile magic in One More Drifter In the Snow, a perfect antidote to the blare of the season. In this Super Ego Records release, Mann and producer/ 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 Mann's 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?”

4. 

   For the most gifted of musicians, you really can take it with you - that is, if your instrument is a finely-tuned voice in perfect harmony with others. From the first cascade of notes, when a cappella group The Mighty Echoes breaks out in even the moldiest of chestnut carols in Doo Wop Around the Christmas Tree, you 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’ deep cavern of bass, two favorites get their in-synch treatment - Darlene Love’s hit “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” and John and Yoko’s “Happy Xmas (War is Over).” Perhaps, we can all sing that one together, real soon. Look for this dreamy, snowstormy delight on Brooklyn International Records.

5. 

   Last call for eggnog with three fingers of schmaltz! Forever lost in tiki wonderland and smoky, red crushed velvet caverns of swank, Richard Cheese is back with his first CD of Christmas shenanigans in (what else?) Silent Nightclub. Opening with the sound of dashing sleigh bells that morph into a finger-snapping spin through the Dead Kennedys’ “Holiday In Cambodia,” the smarmy anti-consumerist manifesto might not play well at the corporate Wal-Mart Christmas party, but heck, Jello Biafra’s rant from 1980 sounds spot-on a quarter of a century later.

   Okay, the world could do without another cover of “Jingle Bells” (yes, unfortunately the novelty one with the barking dogs), but you’ve got to giggle at Cheese's 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 its way on to this Surfdog Records’ release alongside a fresh handful of Cheese's signature lounge-lozenge covers: Rush’s “The Trees,” Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus,” and a falling-rain croon of the Modern English hit “I Melt With You.” My must-hear favorite? Slip into the deadly serious, bossa nova and brushed-drums groove of Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby,” hilariously nodding to pianist Bobby Ricotta with “check out the hook while Bobby revolves it.” Might it be time to get cheesy for the holidays?