Day 9 of our 12 Days of Christmas series comes from Rochester-based Christmas collective, The Abominable Snowband. Formed two holiday seasons ago, the band reappears soon after Thanksgiving pie and disappears after the final broadcasting of A Christmas Story. Their slightly chilled out version of "Run Run Rudolph" is quite nice, doing justice to this seasonal surf classic. Although it looks like the band is being put back in the attic, there's always next year.  

The snow in Buffalo has finally seemed to stop just as the city seemed to remember where their plows were parked, but our Christmas coverage keeps on truckin. For Day 2 of buffaBLOG's 12 Days of Christmas, we look to Rochester's The Demos for some holiday spirit. Our summer party alumni recently released their pleasantly touching rendition of "Silent Night." As for the "11 O'Clock News" part of the song title, well, someone was listening to some NPR during the recording. Also, lead singer Jay Milton is dressed as a rabbit. So there you go.

I will keep this short.  It's Christmas morning.  I am sure you are busy opening gifts and such, but since you took the time out of your holiday morning to check in on the blog, I might as well give you one more holiday treat.  Back in 2009, Fucked Up, along with Andrew W.K., TV on the Radio's Kip Malone, GZA, comedian David Cross, and many others, teamed up to cover Band Aid's "Do They Know Its Christmas."  The cover stays pretty faithful to the classic original, excluding a classic Cross ad lib.  This seems like as good of a song as any to end our 12 Days of Christmas series.  Thanks for having a little fun with us this holiday season.  Merry Christmas.

Christmastime at the Greco home means copious amounts of vino, necessary breaks from eating and very loud conversation. What to do for this buffaBLOG post? I thought to myself. Christmas is a time of tradition, so what would be more appropriate than a top ten of my favorite holiday oldies. What warms your heart more, than Black Velvet and Sambuca while cutting down the Christmas tree, than Sinatra? I hear Dean Martin through the stereo and I picture a dinner table, family, and a closeness that is like no other.

But, let's face it. Traditions change. A week before Christmas it was nearly 50 degrees, this year for Christmas Eve our family is having a Mexican themed celebration (my excitement is unmanageable and I am in the midst of creating the ultimate playlist), and people are no longer trucking through snow, throwing an occasional snow ball eventually finding the immaculate tree of perfection, rather they are stopping at local centers to buy them.

Many reach an odd sense of acceptance. Maybe these will become new and wonderful traditions. Yes, the mistletoe that we have had hanging no longer dangles in the doorway and the room of my youth is starting to transform into my mother's newfound walk-in closet, but there's a hip-hop influenced remix of "The Nutcracker Suite" playing from my speakers. Wonderful smells waft from the kitchen and a grooving remix of Kay Starr's "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm" has me bouncing, a Bass ale with a yuletide tree backdrop sits before me.


If you need an upbeat change of pace as you drive about from party to party, check out this Christmas Remixed album. 

While Bruce Springsteen's cover of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" fit's right in with all of the other Christmas songs on the radio, Hendrix's will stand out for its distorted guitar which is something not usually found in a traditional Christmas song. This is one of the only song's to help get you in the mood for a psychedelic Christmas.

                   

I love Christmas as much as anyone, but Christmas music? That seems a bit sappy for me. That's why A Fine Frenzy's 2009 EP Oh, Blue Christmas was so refreshing for me. It's not without a bit of holiday cheer, but it also addresses the darker side of the holidays. "Redribbon Foxes" mourns a lost love, while "Wish You Well" talks of a brother who no longer speaks to the rest of the family. When she gets to the traditional stuff, like "Christmas Time Is Here," it feels well-earned. Alison Sudol's lovely voice doesn't hurt either, as she lends an ethereal tone to every song here.

I am still adjusting to this whole, "it doesn't snow in December anymore," thing so it has been somewhat difficult to get in the Christmas spirit. So I went to bed last evening with some reservations about today's post. Someone out there must have been aware of my concern as they sent 3 friendly spirits to help me find the perfect indie holiday jam. The ghosts were actually rather friendly, and took me on a whirlwind tour of indie Christmas songs past, present, and future. Before I warn you about the carols of 2042 (and I need to warn you because they were made for cyborg ears and will actually destroy a human ear drum), the ghost of recent Christmas past helped me dig up this cover by Belle and Sebastian.

The ghost took me back to 2002. In his bedroom, a plucky 18 year old religiously checked the website of his favorite bands to get any information he could on new music or tour dates. Said 18 year old just finished his first semester of college and was sitting around on a snowy afternoon (it still snowed in those days) and came across an exciting bit of news, his favorite band would be playing a Christmas concert on the BBC's venerable John Peel radio show. At first, the boy was despondent, how could he possibly hear a show airing in England in a room in Buffalo? Hope was lost...

But, what was that you say? The concert was streaming, and it was streaming at that very moment? Why, it is a Christmas miracle! So, the boy quickly turned on the stream and listened to his favorite band put on a bit of holiday cheer. Christmas was saved! (Thankfully, the ghost did not take me back to 2005, when I ruined Christmas. It is a very long story, and I apologize to that reindeer.)

Ten years later, and with the help of 3 ghosts,I am leave you with one song from that concert, Belle and Sebastian's jazzy rendition of "O Little Town of Bethlehem." Happy holidays everyone!

Like The Flaming Lips themselves, Christmas On Mars isn't for everybody. As one might expect from a movie made with family and friends (including Fred Armisen and Adam Goldberg) in a backyard and in an abandoned cement factory; it's not, strictly speaking, a cinematic masterpiece. Set on a doomed human base on Mars, in the future on Christmas Eve, it's hilarious watching foulmouthed chaps from Oklahoma musing on their existential despair with thick Oklahoma accents and bad teeth. Hope and help arrives in the form of a green extra-dimensional alien played by Wayne Coyne who repairs the vital oxygen and gravity systems (by glowing at them), helps Major Syrtis (played by Lips multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd) navigate his way through a space madness induced nervous breakdown, and ends up in a Santa suit before departing happily ever after in a spaceship he stores inside himself. 

While the acting and script is frequently.... rough, the film still works. There are nods to Soviet and French New Wave cinema that give it a pedigree beyond "drugged out rock and roll movie nonsense," while the film's special effects and visual set pieces are ambitious and exceedingly well executed, elevating the film beyond the DIY homemade movie genre it firmly and proudly belongs to. Plus, for a do-it-yourselfer, it benefits from a bold score steeped in film score history from musical genius, Steve Drozd, that's alternately disconcerting and hauntingly beautiful. Christmas On Mars is a series of minor and major triumphs: for the humans in the movie on the receiving end of a quasi Christmas miracle; for Steve Drozd who was going through a REAL rough patch when the film was shot in the late 90's and early 00's, but pulled through to find married happiness and fatherhood (and more feats of musical genius); and for Wayne, who finished his artistically ambitious whacked out backyard movie.


Yes, Christmas On Mars is totally ____ed up, but damn, everybody tried so hard, and it's just so much fun to watch that it's become a holiday tradition that makes me feel warm, fuzzy, and weird. This rather clever trailer gives you a taste:



The rest of my Flaming Lips Christmas includes a tour of the rest of the Lips Christmas oeuvre, which I'm including for your holiday consumption and consideration:

"Christmas At The Zoo," from Clouds Taste Metallic, 1995. Animal lovers will love this, while music lovers will love the glorious wall of sound and the fact that it's a Christmas song that doesn't suck. I'm also keen on the fact that the Lips included it on an official album as opposed to a b-side or an outtake. Album space is valuable real estate, and for me it shows a genuine commitment to Christmas to include a Christmas song like this.



"White Christmas" live from 1999. There's something wonderfully sweet about this stripped down rendition of the Bing Crosby holiday standard. Steven Drozd's keyboards are symphonic, and Wayne is utterly sincere in his effort. I'm sure Bing approves.




"A Change At Christmas (Say It Isn't So)," 2003. This live in-studio track, which was included on the Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell ep, is gorgeous and devastating in it's honesty about the human condition. Wayne's right, why does everything have to go back to "normal" after Christmas? Why can't the peace and goodwill towards your fellow humans go out the window at 12:01 AM on Boxing Day? It's a damn shame that we can't hold onto it a little longer. Drozd's keyboards and arrangement are again sublime.





The Flaming Lips Christmas. Enjoy.

Day 2 of our 12 Days of Christmas series is upon us, and we looked to a Buffalo artist (sort of) for today's tune.  For those keeping note, we turned you on to Matt Script, a Buffalo native turned Chicago resident and his collection of looping folk tunes, this past summer.  Earlier this week, Script released his excellent cover of Lindsey Buckingham's "Holiday Road," a tune best known for its inclusion on the soundtrack to the holiday movie classic and ever quotable National Lapoon's Christmas Vacation.  Script's one man performance features his own looping beats and harmonies as he casually delivers the laid back cover in an even better sweater.

The Canal Street String Band - Breaking Up Christmas by buffablog2

Now, before I am ostracized for saying this, please take in to consideration I do not completely dislike the holiday, it's just that Christmas is not my favorite.  People everywhere are consumed by the warm and fuzzy feelings and personally, I am jealous of it.  I just do not have the same feelings as everyone else.  However, one thing that really gets me going and just happens to work for two different holidays, is my love for Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas."  A movie, that yes takes place in Halloween town with it's inhabitants longing to celebrate something different...Christmas!  Everytime I watch Jack Skellington's first trip through the Christmas Tree shaped door, I get closer and closer to being a full blown Christmas lover.  Jack, makes his way through Christmas town in complete awe of what magic and happiness Christmas brings these people and wishes he could have his own Christmas.  This Sunday, enjoy your families, friends, puppies, other pets etc...  I will be drinking White Russians, watching Jack Skellington and getting ready for The Christmas Party at Pearl Street!

Typically, when a band releases a Christmas album, you know you're in for some crap.  Washed up artists have been cashing in for years on that friend or co-worker who know nothing about you, so they resort to stocking your stuffing with another gimmicky Christmas album. 


Side Bar: Giving a Christmas related present to anyone on Christmas day is one of the most inconsiderate things you can do, as you've essentially given them something they can't use for a whole year, idiot.

Anyway, occasionally you'll hear an inspired Christmas album. Actually no, I take that back, this is the only one. Christmas music shouldn't be about boring traditions and cheap sentimentality, it should be about star shaped sunglasses and slap bass solos.  Bootsy Collins' Christmas is 4 Ever is the only Christmas album I can tolerate. Featuring rearranged covers as well as funky originals, Bootsy assembled a team of all star musicians to bring this album to life.  Go to the 4:35 mark of this song to hear Bootsy get on Santa's naughty list.

You can’t spell Christmas without “claymation”… well, maybe you can. But you shouldn’t! Those lumpy little critters in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer are symbolic of the season, and the songs they sing are classic. Sure, it's got some dated sensibilities - like how Rudolph’s dad tells the “women-folk” (his word) their place is at home. Or how Hermie’s desire to be a dentist is so taboo that it has to be a metaphor for his sexuality. But the underlying message is that there’s a place for everyone, we’re all special! If that doesn’t make you feel warm and fuzzy, I don’t know what will.