The culture war is rising like my heating bill. Macy's and other Federated department stores have banned "Merry Christmas" from their customer greetings this season, so as not to offend. All references to Christmas are being stripped from public spaces, replaced with candy canes (sugar!), snowmen, and foil-wrapped presents (buy now!). Before the political-correctness police turn everything to Muzak, or you're burned numb by the repeated bombardment of "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" on the radio, know that the best philosophy of the season is alive and well in an overflowing armful of new Christmas music. I say open up your heart! Open up your windows and play Christmas music loud and proud for the next few weeks, night and day! Like garlic to vampires, the sweet sentiment and saucy playfulness of a great holiday tune can drive back the chill of a hard world. Blare back! Bake some bread! Dance a little! There's nothing square 'bout it; hipster and holiday go together like warm cookies and cold milk. This year is rich with terrific new CDs to hunt down at your favorite record store. So kick the Grinch to the curb and turn it up a bit, eh?
• My pick for the best from Santa's sack has to be the wacky and soulful A John Waters Christmas, sharing the cult film director's fascination with novelty recordings that go beyond belief. Culled largely from eccentric self-produced recordings from the 1960s and 1970s, this collection is a weird box of chocolates with surprises in every bite. Highlights include the crabby "Here Comes Fatty Claus" by the naughty Rudolph & The Gang, the raised-fist funk of "Santa Claus Is a Black Man" from AKIM & The Teddy Vann Production Company, and the precocious Little Cindy, an early gospel-TV and radio child star, with her "Happy Birthday Jesus (A Child's Prayer)." Not just a pencil-mustached oddball, Waters mixes his smarmy with his sentimental side, with the a-cappella street-corner vibe of Stormy Weather's classic "Christmas Time Is Coming," Rita Faye Wilson's "Sleigh Bells, Reindeer, & Snow," and Alvin & The Chipmunks' infectious "Sleigh Ride." One song is a real tearjerker that surely didn't mean to turn out so creepy, but Roger Christian's tale of the crippled orphan girl, "Little Mary Christmas," drips with Sunday-school "little engine that could" spirit. This New Line Records CD is a fringe find, sure to please the most cynical holiday spirit.
• The third installment in the Maybe This Christmas series is another best pick to expand your Christmas CD collection this season. Entitled Maybe This Christmas Tree, the album benefits the Marine Corps' Toys for Tots charity and once again brings together a hip mix of "alternative" artists penning a new holiday tune or covering a favorite classic. Perfectly matched is the CD's opening track, with The Polyphonic Spree rejoicing in John Lennon & Yoko Ono's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)." Other cover treats include Ivy channeling Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown theme "Christmas Time Is Here" as a breathy lost outtake, and Death Cab for Cutie winding through Phil Spector's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," a hit for The Ronettes back in 1963. Reserved and surprisingly mellow, the Nettwerk Records set features soft takes on other surprising selections, with Pedro the Lion contributing a lonely piano croon of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" and Jars of Clay's take on John Denver's "Christmas for Cowboys." Other new surprises include the debut of Belasana - a new side project from members of The Juliana Theory and Sense Field - and Pilate's cover of The Pogues' "Fairytale of New York."
• One must-hear little gem is Christmas in July, a six-song CD EP from Judith Owen, showcasing her amazing voice. She gracefully sails and skips over a funky arrangement of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and the originals "The Dancing Tree" and "My Father's Voice," but watch out that Grandma doesn't freak out over the opening track - a hard-to-believe piano cover of Spinal Tap's "Christmas with the Devil," co-written by Owen's husband, Harry Shearer, a.k.a. bassist Derek Smalls. Why July? The singer says it's a Southern California thing, well illustrated by the hilarious inflatable Christmas tree photographed inside the Shearer home. Two more classics get her heavenly take: "Silent Night" with Julia Fordham and Mel Torme's "The Christmas Song." Look for this one on the Dog on the Bed Records label.
• Another classy, smart collection is Acoustic Christmas, from the Favored Nations imprint. The 10-track set is pure sugar-plum magic for guitar fanatics, as master players rip through selections such as Adrian Legg's vibrating interpretation of "Jingle Bells," Andy Timmons' finger-picking finesse of "Greensleeves," and Greg Koch's syrupy slack funk of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." One particular interpretation is the most jaw-dropping: Mimi Fox running the fretboard in her jazz-scaled sweep of "Winter Wonderland."
• The Barenaked Ladies serve up Barenaked for the Holidays, a Desperation/Nettwerk Records 20-track collection that runs through the obligatory short list of classics but gets tasty in the odd bits. Like a Beatles album, various members of the band bring original tunes to the table, with Kevin Hearn's excellent "Christmastime, Oh Yeah" and Ed Robinson's terrific "Footprints." Other highlights include the nutty "Deck the Stills" and two covers: Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmas Time" and the Band Aid hit "Do They Know It's Christmas."
• Do you need to subtly show someone how much you hate them this Christmas? The perfect stocking-stuffer for fewer than eight lost bucks is William Hung's holiday entry, Hung for the Holidays. (After catching Wonderland on cable TV, that title is not somewhere I want to go.) Yup, swinging for the fences in his full 15 minutes of fame after American Idol defeat, this decade's version of Mrs. Miller has his very own CD EP for the faithful, featuring a disturbing cardboard foldout ornament as a bonus. Like having to wear to school, at least for one day, that horrible handmade shirt your aunt gave you for Christmas in the ninth grade, perhaps the recipient of this stinker will actually sit through an entire listening, wondering "wha?" and thinking of you. I dig the spoken-word breaks and positive life affirmations, but Hung butchers Queen's "We Are the Champions" as a hidden "surprise" track.
• My pick for the best from Santa's sack has to be the wacky and soulful A John Waters Christmas, sharing the cult film director's fascination with novelty recordings that go beyond belief. Culled largely from eccentric self-produced recordings from the 1960s and 1970s, this collection is a weird box of chocolates with surprises in every bite. Highlights include the crabby "Here Comes Fatty Claus" by the naughty Rudolph & The Gang, the raised-fist funk of "Santa Claus Is a Black Man" from AKIM & The Teddy Vann Production Company, and the precocious Little Cindy, an early gospel-TV and radio child star, with her "Happy Birthday Jesus (A Child's Prayer)." Not just a pencil-mustached oddball, Waters mixes his smarmy with his sentimental side, with the a-cappella street-corner vibe of Stormy Weather's classic "Christmas Time Is Coming," Rita Faye Wilson's "Sleigh Bells, Reindeer, & Snow," and Alvin & The Chipmunks' infectious "Sleigh Ride." One song is a real tearjerker that surely didn't mean to turn out so creepy, but Roger Christian's tale of the crippled orphan girl, "Little Mary Christmas," drips with Sunday-school "little engine that could" spirit. This New Line Records CD is a fringe find, sure to please the most cynical holiday spirit.
• The third installment in the Maybe This Christmas series is another best pick to expand your Christmas CD collection this season. Entitled Maybe This Christmas Tree, the album benefits the Marine Corps' Toys for Tots charity and once again brings together a hip mix of "alternative" artists penning a new holiday tune or covering a favorite classic. Perfectly matched is the CD's opening track, with The Polyphonic Spree rejoicing in John Lennon & Yoko Ono's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)." Other cover treats include Ivy channeling Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown theme "Christmas Time Is Here" as a breathy lost outtake, and Death Cab for Cutie winding through Phil Spector's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," a hit for The Ronettes back in 1963. Reserved and surprisingly mellow, the Nettwerk Records set features soft takes on other surprising selections, with Pedro the Lion contributing a lonely piano croon of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" and Jars of Clay's take on John Denver's "Christmas for Cowboys." Other new surprises include the debut of Belasana - a new side project from members of The Juliana Theory and Sense Field - and Pilate's cover of The Pogues' "Fairytale of New York."
• One must-hear little gem is Christmas in July, a six-song CD EP from Judith Owen, showcasing her amazing voice. She gracefully sails and skips over a funky arrangement of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and the originals "The Dancing Tree" and "My Father's Voice," but watch out that Grandma doesn't freak out over the opening track - a hard-to-believe piano cover of Spinal Tap's "Christmas with the Devil," co-written by Owen's husband, Harry Shearer, a.k.a. bassist Derek Smalls. Why July? The singer says it's a Southern California thing, well illustrated by the hilarious inflatable Christmas tree photographed inside the Shearer home. Two more classics get her heavenly take: "Silent Night" with Julia Fordham and Mel Torme's "The Christmas Song." Look for this one on the Dog on the Bed Records label.
• Another classy, smart collection is Acoustic Christmas, from the Favored Nations imprint. The 10-track set is pure sugar-plum magic for guitar fanatics, as master players rip through selections such as Adrian Legg's vibrating interpretation of "Jingle Bells," Andy Timmons' finger-picking finesse of "Greensleeves," and Greg Koch's syrupy slack funk of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." One particular interpretation is the most jaw-dropping: Mimi Fox running the fretboard in her jazz-scaled sweep of "Winter Wonderland."
• The Barenaked Ladies serve up Barenaked for the Holidays, a Desperation/Nettwerk Records 20-track collection that runs through the obligatory short list of classics but gets tasty in the odd bits. Like a Beatles album, various members of the band bring original tunes to the table, with Kevin Hearn's excellent "Christmastime, Oh Yeah" and Ed Robinson's terrific "Footprints." Other highlights include the nutty "Deck the Stills" and two covers: Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmas Time" and the Band Aid hit "Do They Know It's Christmas."
• Do you need to subtly show someone how much you hate them this Christmas? The perfect stocking-stuffer for fewer than eight lost bucks is William Hung's holiday entry, Hung for the Holidays. (After catching Wonderland on cable TV, that title is not somewhere I want to go.) Yup, swinging for the fences in his full 15 minutes of fame after American Idol defeat, this decade's version of Mrs. Miller has his very own CD EP for the faithful, featuring a disturbing cardboard foldout ornament as a bonus. Like having to wear to school, at least for one day, that horrible handmade shirt your aunt gave you for Christmas in the ninth grade, perhaps the recipient of this stinker will actually sit through an entire listening, wondering "wha?" and thinking of you. I dig the spoken-word breaks and positive life affirmations, but Hung butchers Queen's "We Are the Champions" as a hidden "surprise" track.
