Yuletide Carols

Here in Iowa the temperature dropped about 40 degrees in the past 24 hours - par for the course this time of year. Good or bad, it reminds me we're perilously close to the holidays. Hear Music embraces that by releasing Holidays Rule on All Hallows' Eve -er - Eve, a new holiday compilation featuring Paul McCartney with a smoooooth version of The Christmas Song and The Shins' version of McCartney's holiday standard Wonderful Christmastime. Fun, Rufus Wainwright, Fruit Bats, and others also contribute to what sounds like a very eclectic yet deferential album that could very well soundtrack the Too Poppy household this holiday season.

Amazon MP3 | Samples | McCartney Stream

Although It's Been Said Many Times Many Ways

It's that time! Time for completely irrelevant and unnecessary holiday albums to celebrate Baby Jesus®. Yes, Beibster, I'm talking to you.

It Girl® Zooey Deschanel's She & Him jumps in with A Very She & Him Christmas. Let's get to it - one minute I love Zooey D. and thinks she's pure delight yet the next minute I want to stick a hot fireplace poker into my ears at the sound of her. It's an odd relationship complicated by extreme cuteness and that voice. That voice. That voice she overuses in superfluous singing moments in her movies and that voice that gets a bit old over the course of an entire album. That voice that transcends time and melds so well with M. Ward's incredible music. I said it's complicated.

Anyway, it sounds as if that voice is perfect for Xmas melancholic classics like I'll Be Home for Christmas and The Christmas Song. We heard hints of it in Elf, but here you get a full 12-song set. I'll keep it on shuffle with Bing Crosby so I don't get overwhelmed, but if you like your Christmas with a bit of gee-golly-I'm-cool hipness, She & Him is for you.

iTunes | Amazon MP3

Singing Out of Tune

Coldplay has released their new Christmas song called Christmas Lights.

Here's the video.

Here are the downloads.
iTunes
Amazon MP3

That's all I have to say.

Get Behind the Perfect Christmastime

Guster has found the spirit of Christmas and it is at Target! Guster would like you to share the spirit of Christmas at Target.com. Guster, Merry Christmas. Me gusta Guster.



MP3: Guster - Tiny Tree Christmas (via Target)

A Season That's So Divine

Brandon Schott sent out a lovely Christmas gift for friends and family - a demo called Another Christmastime. And all my friends and family got from me was a card.

Thanks, Brandon. Looking forward to a new year with a new album!

Happy Holidays, Too Poppers. We appreciate your continued interest.

MP3: Brandon Schott - Another Christmastime (demo)

And don't forget Brandon's Winter in the Sun!

The Choir of Children Sing Their Song

Norwegians having a wonderful Christmas time covering Paul McCartney:

via 'gum

Tis the Season to Be Jolly

Are you feeling a shortage of holiday tunes this year? After all, you can only take so much of those old, schmaltzy Johnny Mathis tunes. The Canucks are feeling the spirit and offering a full album of holiday tunage. Joyeux Noël!

Nettwerk Music Group and the Vancouver Sun is please to announce another free digital download album. It's Seriously Westcoast Vol.2 - Happy Holidays. Seasonally themed and features 15 songs from such artists as Barenaked Ladies, Sarah McLachlan, Medieval Baebes, Jars of Clay and many more.

Download here.

Christmas Time Is Here Again

The Smithereens have released a Christmas album because, well, they can.

"THE SMITHEREENS set out to re-invent the Christmas album and turn the genre completely upside down with this record," says Pat Dinizio, the band's lead vocalist and principle songwriter. "We made a real Smithereens rock & roll record that stands on its own, yet somehow channels the ghost of Christmas past, and in the process, also pays tribute to and reinvents some of our absolute all-time favorite rock & roll Christmas records. I don't think it's been done quite this way before, and hopefully it's an album you wouldn't mind listening to the other 11 months of the year."

Here's the tracklist:

1. WAKING UP ON CHRISTMAS MORNING Smithereens original, written by Jim Babjak
2. SANTA BRING MY BABY BACK (TO ME) Elvis Presley
3. MERRY CHRISTMAS, BABY The Beach Boys
4. ROCKIN' AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE inspired by Bill Haley
5. CHRISTMAS TIME ALL OVER THE WORLD Smithereens original, a Christmas remake of "All Revved Up"
6. CHRISTMAS The Who (from "Tommy")
7. 'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS inspired by Art Carney
8. RUN RUDOLPH RUN Chuck Berry
9. MERRY CHRISTMAS (I DON'T WANT TO FIGHT TONIGHT) The Ramones
10. CHRISTMAS (I REMEMBER) original, written by Dennis Diken
11. AULD LANG SYNE inspired by The Ventures and Dick Dale
12. CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE AGAIN The Beatles

Read more here. Download Christmas with the Smithereens here. Sample tracks at TheirSpace. Visit their website here. Evidently, according to iTunes, this album was originally released in 1994. News to me, and I'm a big Smithereens fan. Guess I'm just about 13 years late on this one.

In related news, the distinctive voice of the Smithereens, Pat Dinizio, has released another solo album.

Download the self-titled release here. Buy it from Amazon.com here. Sample tracks at HisSpace. Visit his website here.

It's Been a Hell of a Year

Look, I could be cynical and cranky about the holidays arriving too early and being too commercial, but the facts are: the squirrels have eaten through the jack-o-lanterns, I just turned back our clocks, a cold front passed through today bringing in a chilly wind from the north, and the mail carrier has delivered roughly two dozen catalogs over the last two days. Smells like the holidays are here in the Midwest - let's make the most of them!

So, that means it's not too early to drag out the holiday tunes. What's your cup o' eggnog, Bing Crosby? A Very Special Christmas? Mannheim Steamroller? Beatles rarities? Amy Grant? For a holiday all about tradition and comfort, I'll be the first to admit it's tough to feel the spirit in newly penned tunes. Brandon Schott's new holiday tune Winter in the Sun does what very few "modern" holiday tunes can do - the damn thing actually puts you in the mood!

Visit hisspace to hear for yourself. Rather than preserve some manufactured hipster cred like too many contemporaries try to do with their seemingly contractually obligated holiday tunes, Brandon embraces universal feelings with Winter in the Sun and actually celebrates Christmas and the warmth of the time. Literally. Living in Iowa, I'm dreaming more of a white Christmas than a winter in the sun, but the tune is so catchy and the theme so familiar that I have no problem relating. Winter in the Sun is bit of Beach Boy sunniness in a Ben Foldsian modern voice with Jellyfish eccentricities thrown in just because he can handle it. It's definitely modern, but he's earned a spot in my holiday rotation that is normally heavy on the classics.

Winter in the Sun will officially be released November 13 on iTunes. It'll be bundled with his stellar Golden State if purchased through his website. Merry Christmas.

Previously...

The Virgin Sings Her Lullaby

'Tis the season already?! It's going to be 90 today in Des Moines! Jesus! It's time to belt out your favorite holiday tunes, stick 'em on a CD, and puke them out to an adoring fanbase. I've rarely been a fan of holiday albums from pop stars, mostly because it's never anything all that special. Usually the original songs pale in comparison to the timeless classics. So I figure, why not just listen to the classics as done by those who made them famous?

With that said, I have to admit that I'm curious about Sarah McLachlan's first holiday CD Wintersongs. Her voice is spectacular and Pierre Marchand's production just might add some interesting elements to the religious classics like What Child is This? (my all-time favorite xmas tune), Silent Night, and O Little Town of Bethlehem. She's thrown in a couple originals including her old Song For a Winter's Night, which has long made music fans' cool holiday tune mixtapes, and the new Wintersong. The first single is her rendition of Joni Mitchell's River. I've yet to find any previews or downloads of the new album, but it comes out October 17 and do we really need to listen to holiday music before that? With her voice and song-styles, this might make for a good listen while loading (er, while Santa loads) the kids' stockings Christmas eve.

Also of interest for the same kinda crowd, a new holiday CD from James Taylor. And of note for Sarah fans, a new live double-disc set called Mirrorball: The Complete Concert comes out tomorrow. It's the full set from her concert in Portland that ended the tour, which included her best songs from her best albums Fumbling Towards Ecstasy and Surfacing. I saw her on this tour and she was astonishing.