Christmas CD Reviews (2010 Edition)

Last year saw a veritable sleigh-load of Christmas and holiday albums for families. This year's list of CDs is smaller, but there are a few disks that came out this fall and winter that your family may enjoy...

My favorite was A Slugs and Bugs Christmas from Slugs and Bugs, AKA Randall Goodgame and Andrew Peterson, who were behind Slugs & Bugs & Lullabies. If you are interested in Christmas just from a secular perspective, you can skip the rest of the review, as this disk is definitely geared toward the crowd who attends church on more than just Christmas and Easter. The first song, "Happy Birthday Jesus," makes that clear, as do a number of other songs. (That song also features one of the niftier arrangements I've heard in some time, blending a modern bluegrass song with a kids' chorus taking on "The First Noel.") As you might expect from songwriters who've had some songs featured on VeggieTales videos, it's not entirely serious -- on what other Christmas album are you going to hear a song about roasting mice for eating ("Pass the Ketchup" -- it's not macabre, really)? While the shifting between secular and explicitly Christian feels a little uneven at times, at its best (like on "I Spy" or the amazing "The Camel Song"), the disk deftly mixes popular Christmas culture with its spiritual underpinnings with humor and grace.

Video: "Fish and Mice" - Holly Throsby

This video, the first from Holly Throsby's excellent album See!, is pretty much what I'd expect a live-action video from the album to look like -- cute normal-looking kids, rough around edges, but with stellar production values. And the crafty fishes (it is for "Fish and Mice" after all) look like something that every preschool should be attempting. Holly Throsby - "Fish and Mice" [YouTube]

Listen To This: "Silent Night / Sing a Song of Christmas Cheer" - Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke

Given that Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke's Rise and Shine was my second favorite kids music record of 2010, you would expect that I'd treat the news that they'd recorded a couple Christmas tunes for Little Monster Records with great excitement. Even better, the tunes themselves don't disappoint. You will not dance to another Christmas song with more abandon than to "Sing a Song of Christmas Cheer." And their take on "Silent Night" is somehow simultaneously a little punk and a little reverential. Together they're just $1.29... And if you're not sure about it all, for the price of an e-mail, pick up "Silent Night" for free using the link below...

Christmas 2010 Family Music, Part 3

The only thing more amazing to me than the fact that it wasn't enough to have part 1 and part 2 of Christmas music is that I'm already prepping Part 4. Folks, Christmas is less 100 hours away! Anyway, to the music... First off, free music from The Jimmies. There is never a bad time for free music from the Jimmies, but a holiday-themed EP during the, er, holidays? OK, perhaps the cover of "Chanuka, oh Hanukkah..." is a little late, but the rest is A-OK. The cover of "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" is best described as country-lounge-punk, but I most dig their cover of "Sleigh Ride." Anyway, download, wait for it, Mama Said NOG You Out here.

Rudy Trubitt, one of the Bay Area's Sippy Cups, has a holiday tune for your listening/downloading pleasure. It's his take on "The First Noel," and "boatload of holiday horns, as he describes it, is right. Very nice. Download or stream it here or below:

Rudy Trubitt - The First Noel by rudytrubitt My first comment when I heard that the The Not-Its recorded their version of WHAM's "Last Christmas" without the "romantic" element, was to wonder whether they left out the element where it stunk, too. (Sorry, that song holds about 2 plays worth of interest for me each year, and I think I hit that before we ever reached December.) But, hey, the Not-Its' version is short, tuneful, and funny. Plus, you can download/listen for free here or below.

Last Christmas by The Not-Its! Peter Apel is offering a very high energy take on "Jingle Bells," streamed for free or downloaded for the price of an e-mail. He's also got a free Jingle Bells ringtone, which I'm guessing would sound odd in July, but, hey, it takes all kinds. More info here.

Share: "Sing-a-Long With Lloyd, Vol. 1" - Lloyd Miller of the Deedle Deedle Dees

Here's a nice early Christmas (or late Hanukkah) present -- a free album from Lloyd Miller of New York's Deedle Deedle Dees. It's a bunch of recordings from Miller's community sing-a-longs in Brooklyn this November. They're chaotic, and I'm pretty sure that if he'd have done this in December (or January, or June) it would've sounded different. They're also lots of fun (who wouldn't to sing along with the version of "Wheels on the Bus"?), and I don't think that changes from month to month. Pick it up here for the price of an e-mail, or just stream it below.

Interview: Recess Monkey

Longtime readers will know that we're big fans of Jack Forman, Daron Henry, and Drew Holloway -- AKA the Seattle trio Recess Monkey -- here at Zooglobble HQ. Great songwriting, engaging live act, down-to-earth guys, not-entirely-overbearing handpuppet band manager, the band's got it all. They're busy busy busy all the time -- they're recording their next album with producer Tor Hyams this month while probably planning even more cool stuff with the Seattle-based Kindiependent collective -- but still found time to answer a few questions. So without further ado, please enjoy. Zooglobble: What were your earliest musical memories? Jack Forman: I remember going on long road trips around Indiana, listening to Beatles and Johnny Mathis 8-tracks with my parents. I think Anne Murray was in there too. My mom was always extremely musical, and my dad thought he was, so they encouraged me to try instruments out. Daron Henry: My first musical memory is listening to "Here Comes the Sun" while sitting on my grandparents' kitchen counter. I think that I was 4. As a kid I was always dancing...so much so that my first grade teacher called me "The Dancing Bear" after a Captain Kangaroo character. Drew Holloway: I'll never forget the look my Dad gave me when we came out of Record Revolution in King of Prussia, PA with a copy of Van Halen's 1984. I begged him to get the record after watching "Jump" on MTV hundreds of times. He must have seen potential in my augmented air guitar (playing a broom up on our couch) that helped him overlook the striking cover! My father's finger tapping on the dashboard to the AM radio hits we listened to on the way home from baseball practice and his openness with his record collection (The Beatles, Beach Boys, Jim Croce and Chet Atkins) are truly etched as early musical memories for me.