Carpark Records
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I don’t have the time for this today. Two of the biggest releases of the season, each popping up in succession on my Bandcamp feed. I’m not going to give away the other one yet (those in the know… know already), so I’ll start with the biggest news – a full-length holiday record from Dean Wareham (Galaxie 500/Luna/Dean & Britta), Britta Phillips (Luna/Dean & Britta), and Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3). While this was not necessarily expected, it is not exactly a surprise. Dean & Britta have long-dipped into holiday music, with Luna’s “Egg Nog” being a particular favorite. Dean did a Lagniappe holiday session a few years back on Aquarium Drunkard, and the pair also booked a full, holiday-themed livestream concert a few years ago (which was wonderful). However, the spiritual ancestor to this release is most certainly the holiday 7″ from back in 2007, “He’s Coming Home,” which features all three of these folks – and was absolutely killer. I’ll drop the press release below.
From Dean & Britta’s Bandcamp:
In a season where we all seek comfort, tradition, and a return to a home of sorts, a trio composed of indie music’s foundational members have gifted us A Peace of Us—an album of diverse holiday tunes filtered through their musical imaginations. Dean & Britta, well-known from their work defining a genre with Galaxie 500 and Luna, join Spacemen 3’s Sonic Boom, another bastion of indie’s collective adolescence, to bring to life a collection that draws from early ‘60s pop, garage, country, James Bond soundtracks, Christmas carols, and electronica. Dean Wareham recalls a sentiment from his DJ friend Chris: “You can experience all the emotions of Christmas through music: love and hate, joy and heartache, nostalgia, regret, anticipation, and frustration.”
Their venture into a holiday album was organic, spurred by a few cover tunes over the years, a Christmas special during the pandemic, and finally collaborative sessions between Dean & Britta in L.A. and Sonic Boom in Portugal. The trio all contributed vocals, with guitars by Wareham, bass and keyboards by Phillips, effects, and mixes by Sonic. The result is an album of exploration as well as comfort, “like Bing Crosby…on acid,” Britta adds, the tracklist a reminder that the holidays are complex and tragicomic.
As is often the case with holiday merriment, the album has a soft undertone of the bittersweet. Wareham sings one of David Berman’s final songs, “Snow is Falling in Manhattan,” one Dean believes is “destined to be a holiday classic.” Its lyrics foreshadow Berman’s tragic death: “Songs build little rooms in time / and housed within the song’s design / is the ghost the host has left behind.”
The Christmas blues surface again with Willie Nelson’s “Pretty Paper,” rendered here as a duet between Britta and Sonic Boom, their pulsing synth-heavy production updating the song for a darkened nightclub rather than a bright honky tonk. This collection steers clear of the usual Christmas chestnuts, but fans of classic indie haze may find a new favorite in “Peace on Earth / Little Drummer Boy” (created for Bing Crosby and David Bowie’s 1977 TV duet). Wareham notes that “Our favorite version is the German one by Marlene Dietrich, so that was our jumping-off point.” All three sing this one together: Wareham’s tenor, then Sonic Boom’s thrumming baritone, and finally Phillips’ soothing contralto making the plea for peace.
If collaboration is the fuel, peace and mutual understanding is surely the fire, and A Peace of Us has us gathered around it. “Christmas is mostly for children anyway,” says Dean. Sonic adds, “Or the inner child in all of us. Goodwill to all men. Hopes and fears for the year to come. And light in the darkness. Where this festival began.”
I must say, this record sounds incredibly promising. I already know that it features both “Old Toy Trains” and “He’s Coming Home,” both stellar tracks, the first single – a cover of Willie Nelson’s “Pretty Paper,” is an electropop gem. One might say they found some wonderful new wrapping on this track… you could call it pretty for sure. And a cover of David Berman’s “Snow is Falling on Manhattan!” Not the first time Dean & Britta have tackled it, as it was featured on a Section26 compilation a few years back… curious if they’ve reworked this in a similar fashion…
The anticipation is killing me, and boy was this an expensive holiday music day.
Christmas Underground 