A year ago, Splendid ran a feature called Holiday Music
that Doesn't Suck. After working on it,
I was so sick of alt-holiday tunes that I swore not to
listen to any more of
them until Low licensed a song to the Gap. I figured that
vow would buy me a few
years' peace. More fool me.
Anyway, the plan at the time was to include the My Pal
God Holiday Record 2
in our feature, but
the gremlins that dog most independent labels decided that
Holiday Record 2
wasn't going appear in time for the holiday. We reviewed the
first My Pal God
Holiday Record instead, and figured we'd get the second
volume this year if
we didn't all perish in some fiery Y2K-related disaster
And sure enough, here it is. Like the first record,
2 contains a mixture of
original seasonal tunes, mostly Christmas and New Year
related, and a couple of
reinterpreted classics. The mood is quite secular, and as
long as you don't listen
too closely to the lyrics, you won't feel like too much of
an ass if you drag the
disc out and give it a spin in mid-July.
Following the cheesy seventies goofiness of Emperor
Penguin's "Erotic Xmas (Home
for the Holograms)", the Joshua Falken Trio's "Ornament"
paints an evocative picture
of the holidays, echoed by Pedal's Kitchens of Distinction-y
"On Xmas Day".
Neutrino and Del Rey take their own approach to holiday
classics, with Del
Rey's guitar-epic version of "Nutcracker Overture/Dance of
the Sugarplum Fairy"
making a strong impression. Neutrino's "Island of Misfit
Toys/Little Drummer
Boy" scores in its second half -- apparently no band alive
can screw this song
up. Camellia Lane's "Christmas", Port Vale's "The Snowmen"
and The Beau Grumpus
goBEAUlins' "Candy Your Cane" should get you bouncing and
humming along despite
the winter cold. And thank you, Drums & Tuba, for recording
a version of "Auld Lang
Syne" for the new millennium.
While it's an enjoyable listen, the My Pal God Holiday
Record 2 probably
succeeds more as a compilation than as a bona fide holiday
record, if only because
you'll have a tough time playing the French Kicks'
"Alabaster City" during Christmas
dinner without riling Grandma. But as a way to counter the
mind-numbing barrage of
commercialized, soulless Christmas music that'll be piped
into every office, mall
and car for the next few weeks, it's tops. Our culture may
have lost the ability
to produce good, enduring, schmaltz-free songs about Christmas, but it's
nice to know that people
are still trying to write them.
