Friday, December 21st, 2007
Sunday Friday Cleaning – Volume 81: Holiday Edition
I was going to save this one for Sunday as I did last year but the fact is as far as content goes, I got nothing in the hopper, the cupboard is bare, so I may as well clear this out and then take a bit of a proper holiday. Do some reading, watch some movies, listen to some music, whatever. So barring something remarkable happening over the next few days, I’ll probably be back at some point next week. Until then, have a happy and safe holiday. Cheers.
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Jenn Grant offered up a trio of seasonal songs via her MySpace. Jenn had a good year with the release of her acclaimed debut Orchestra For The Moon and will close it out with a show at the Drake Lounge on December 28.
MP3: Jenn Grant – “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” |
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Richard Hawley likewise released a fabulous album this year in Lady’s Bridge and shows he’s in the giving mood with this lullabye/carol. Imagine a troupe of Christmas carolers singing in this style? They’d get invited in for a lot more than a glass of eggnog, if ya know what I mean. |
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New York’s Daylight’s For The Birds ring in the holidays with a cover of John Lennon’s most famous contribution to the Christmas canon, done all trippy-like. They’re working on a follow-up to last year’s Trouble Everywhere with a sleepy eye towards a Summer 2008 release.
MP3: Daylight’s For The Birds – “Happy Christmas/War Is Over” |
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Belle & Sebastian recorded a special Christmas party/session for John Peel and the BBC way back in 2002 and the recordings – which have been circulating every since – have become a sort of indie-pop staple of the season. Here’s one track, I’m sure some very light digging will yield you the rest of it somewhere on the internets. |
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And finally, Cracker have left a double-shot of festive cheer under the tree, one with slightly sanitized lyrics suitable for soundtracking Christmas dinner and one maybe not quite so much. The song originally appeared on 2001’s Forever.
MP3: Cracker – “Merry Christmas Emily” (clean) |
Update: And head over to the resurrected (and zombiefied?) rbally for a selection of R.E.M. holiday fan club tracks.
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12/21/07 9:09 am
Have a cool xmas Frank, and thanks for another year full of great music and great writing about music…
12/22/07 12:56 pm
Zombiefied? Wow, that hurts . . . thanks for the shout though.
Peace.
12/23/07 3:11 pm
Thanks for reminding me to listen to my old Peel tapes again. The "six by seven" track is great. The original is one of my favourites by Bowie. Is it possible that the singer has some german roots? He sounds very familiar with the language. More familiar than Bowie was. Im a not sure if "Six By Seven" called their track "Heldon" as the Original was called "Helden" and was released by Bowie as 7" and 12" around 1980/81 (not quite sure about the exact date).
12/23/07 3:38 pm
hey Mike
the title is probably a typo on my part – the original file I had was named "Helden" but when I was looking for the discogrophy info, I found the spelling I used so I went with that. But I wouldn’t be surprised if the cover is of Bowie’s German version (assuming it exists).
12/24/07 1:22 pm
Good info, thx!
12/24/07 4:30 pm
Hey Frank,
it definitely exists, it was part of the soundtrack to a Film called "Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo", a film about a young female drug addict living on "Bahnhof Zoo" (which was/is a big train station in West-Berlin.
I noticed the German version doesn´t get named in Bowie discographies due to the fact it was a germany-only release.