We are the War on Christmas (Music)
K&F Records
Buy: iTunes
Woah. German folk band The Green Apple Sea are recording their forth album, and have released a track ahead of the early 2014 release. A bleak, but beautiful song, this song walks the line between simple and grand, as the lyrics’ pointed realism are engulfed by a rising chorus. I can’t wait to hear more.
Bottom Line: This is a lock. 5/5
Self-Released
Buy: Bandcamp
Colourmusic has put together a very enjoyable, at times silly, collection of 7 original Christmas tunes for the 2013 Christmas season. As an added bonus, those of you who love a good piece of vinyl will be pleased – a limited translucent green vinyl edition is also available! There is really nothing on this record that I particularly dislike, and some tracks that I very much enjoy. I feel as though you could put this on at a party, and nobody would be a big whiner and ask you to change it.
Bottom Line: Certainly listenable, and you might just love it. 3.9/5
Self-Released
Buy: Free!
The Christmas Club is back for another year! Sneaking up on me in my Soundcloud feed, The Christmas Club’s most recent release for 2013 (they have already done an… interesting… version of Fairytale of New York) is a cover of Dylan Thomas & John Cale’s “Child’s Christmas in Whales.” The result is an excellent version of a wonderful song. While I may still be partial to the Superchunk version, The Christmas Club have found that grittiness that this song needs to really seal the deal. I’ll be looking forward to whatever else they have instore for us this holiday season. They will likely be setting up a donation for City Harvest again, so if you like it and download it, be sure to check back to see how you can help.
Bottom Line: A well-produced, excellent cover of a wonderful song. 4/4
Self-Released
Buy: Bandcamp
I don’t consider this a blog that is there to inform you of HOT NEW MUSIC. The goal of Christmas Underground is more to ferret out those hidden gems that might have passed you by, or give an alternate take on a record that others have likely loved… not necessarily posting new stuff coming out with any real voracity.
However, I did come across a rather intriuging cover of Joni Mitchell’s “River” that I thought I might share. Yes, yet another cover of “River.” However, I think Haze does a pretty great job with this song. Stripped down, with layered backing vocals that for a split second reminded me of Glasser, she takes “River” and with slight changes, does appear to make it her own. While the song normally bores me, she does little things to keep me engaged.
Bottom Line: While I’m not a huge fan of the song to begin with, Haze does it justice with a excellent arrangement. 4/5
Be sure to head over to the Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club blog to check out the latest posts. There is a rundown of all the singles, A + B side tracklists, and I COULD NOT BE MORE EXCITED.
PREORDER HERE: http://snowflakes.bigcartel.com/product/all-4-singles-of-the-2013-edition-of-the-snowflakes-christmas-club
P.S. – Don’t buy them all before I get some money together. I will be quite sad.
I will no doubt be talking more about this upcoming project as it unfolds, but just to wet your appetite, a repost below from their website, with handy hyperlinks to the featured bands. Thank you Robert for sending this my way, and best of luck with this AMAZING project.
From snowflakes-christmas-singles.blogspot.nl
In November, the four singles of the Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club, edition 2013, will be released.
All singles come in a full colour picture sleeve on white vinyl, limited to 500 copies. On the A-side, the singles will have an original, on the B-side a cover.
On the first single, London folk/blues duo Smoke Fairies, joined on violin by Neil Walsh, sing about how celebrating Christmas with friends and loved ones makes one feel at home in their ‘Simple Feeling’. On the flipside they do a haunting and beautiful rendition of ‘I Wonder As I Wander’, a Christmas carol written by singer John Jacob Niles, based on some lines of a folk song he once heard a little girl sing in a small village in Appalachian North Carolina.
Stockholm, Swedens’ indie poppers The Garlands have rearranged and rerecorded their ‘Christmas Song’, prevously released as a download only in 2008, for the second single. This Chrismas love song has the sound of the swinging 60s, with bells, piano, sweet harmonies and all. Their cover of ‘I Don’t Intend To Spend Christmas Without You’, written in 1967 by Margo Guyan for French actrice, singer and dancer Claudine Longet, is a perfect fit with their original song, has the same hip 60s vibe, but still with a indiepop bite.
The third single has chamber popband The Miserable Rich from Brighton with an uplifting original, ‘Everything You Want’, in which singer James is out to buy a Christmas present for this lover and finds himself – and the present – with friends in the pub at the end of the day. The Miserable Rich cover the antiwar protest song ‘Stop The Cavalry’, written and made into one of the most loved Christmas songs from the early 1980s by Jona Lewie.
Surf pop band The Silhouettes from Amsterdam are featured on the fourth single. The Silhouettes have written an very Christmas sounding song, about looking forward to sit with your lover ‘Under The Mistletoe’. They back it with a surf version of the Christmas standard ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’, written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane and first sung by the legendary Judy Garland in the classic 1944 musical ‘Meet Me In St. Louis’.
Pre-orders going up later this month!
Check http://snowflakes-christmas-singles.blogspot.nl/ or http://www.facebook.com/Snowflakes.Christmas.Singles for updates!
Christmas Underground 