The holiday approacheth... and there *is* listenable music (plus: bonus Xmas misery!)

I posted a few weeks back about the misery that accompanies the Yuletide each year – the salesmanship (on many levels), the creation of an American mythos of the holiday, and the music... oh yes, the music. I of course first and foremost want to draw your attention to my “Xmas misery megamix” here, but I also wanted to add a few “footnotes” and draw some attention to some older pieces you'll find on this blog.

First, there's the question that some folks might've asked themselves after reading my celebration of the imaginative ways that songwriters have celebrated/chronicled the emotional underside of the holiday: “well, what DO you like in terms of Xmas music?” Four years ago I celebrated three brand new (well, they were then) Xmas songs. I still love all three of these tunes – one by Tim Minchin, one by the mighty “Sherwin Sleeves,” and the last by Andy Ditzler (with a no-budget music vid by Funhouse deity George Kuchar). Watch them here.

Each year there's generally one new Xmas song that I do enjoy, usually because it's catchy or amusing. This year I'd nominate a tune by “Loose Tapestries,” the band headed up by the Mighty Boosh's Noel Fielding and Sergio Pizzorno (of Kasabian). The gent doing the midsong rap is none other than actor Idris Elba. The whole thing is damnably catchy (even if the video is unashamedly “Gilliam-esque” – perhaps to promote Terry's new autobio?):

I also direct your attention to another blog post I put up in 2011 (a busy holiday that year!), concerning Jewish comedians doing songs about Xmas: the Albert Brooks (his track wasn't a song but it was a 45!), Marty Feldman, and Jerry Lewis. I uploaded to YT the Feldman and Lewis songs. Listen to 'em all here.

Now for a few “footnotes” to my Xmas misery playlist. First, a “glitter” pop band doing a Fifties-sounding “I'm sad during the holidays” ditty. I didn't want to include “Blue Christmas”-esque items in the misery megamix but was intrigued to find this sucker after I wrote the piece. The band Mud were best known for their hit “Tiger Feet” (in which the singer praises his gal's “tiger feet” – I have no idea....). Here the lead vocalist does his impression of a classic r'n'r singer (in 1974) as he laments his upcoming solitude:

For a lovely statement of purpose, we have the British indie band Denim (whose leader formerly ran Felt – material jokes should be inserted here). Their Xmas tune was the wonderfully mopey “I Will Cry at Christmas." The song has the singer rejecting his lover, so he's not as innocent as the title suggests. Catchy, poppy misery:

And because everything I've offered up thus far in this entry is pretty damned upbeat and catchy, here's a song that is mostly gloomy atmosphere, Suicide's “Hey Lord” from 1981. This is some heavy Yuletide depression, truly the antidote to (I summon its sprightly soul again) Andy Williams' “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”:

Please do check out my original, extremely entertaining Xmas misery megamix post here.

As the merry-bells keep ringing, Happy Freakin' Holidays to you! 

Thanks to Steve Korn and Merry Brosnan for two of the musical suggestions above.

What time of year is it, kiddies?

America is at a crossroads. (Then again, America's been at the same crossroads since the Fifties.) Terrorist attacks are dreaded in every major city on the planet. The American political process is now the purview of people saying the craziest shit imaginable – and people cheer them for doing so. Black Americans are fatally shot by the cops for being “suspicious” (or whatever pretext is created). American culture is cookie-cutter to the max, with comic book movies being the biggest hits at the box office, and the only really quality TV series being made for pay channels. Pop music ate itself long ago, and literature of any kind is now subject in institutions of higher learning to “trigger warnings,” telling the young folk that they may encounter objectionable words or concept that might offend them.

So what can we do in this time of strife, discord, and general miserable-ness? (See below for the next holiday's blast of seasonal annoyance.) We can laugh at a former TV spy being needled by volunteer clowns as he reads the U.S. constitution (and misses a line in the process). I suspect there will be no sequel to the recent U.N.C.L.E. "reboot."

Repeated viewings make this clip even more patriotic. (For me, the clown wiggling his nose is only the surface level -- the guy stroking his chin is the real deal.)

 

On a more somber, mawkish note, I thank you folks for reading this blog, watching the Funhouse TV show, and for being so generous in your praise for this work.

The Funhouse TV show will be undergoing a MASSIVE change in the next month. Our access organization is converting from the tape format that has been working *splendidly* for the last few years to only accepting digital files that may or may not play properly on-air (the last formats that were used by the org both had several different Playback troubles, so I'm assuming the same will occur with this conversion to digital broadcasting). The recent for the conversion? Because, well... things have to move on, and things just have to get screwed up again (they're been working too well for years now!).

I am doing my best – and spending an *inordinate* sum of money I don't have – to learn the new specs and will be giving in the best possible files I can create with the best possible technology. If the Funhouse show starts getting wonky in its on-air, it isn't for lack of hard work from myself, my camera folk, and my tech-guru (the master cineaste Paul G.).

So I'll close out with another thank-you to youse and yours for checking this stuff out. I enjoy doing it, and your positive feedback when it arrives makes it all worthwhile.