This promotional poster by
Philip Chudy turned out to
be disturbingly prescient

The other day, I was transported to a surreal yet somehow comforting place I hadn’t been in years. No, I didn’t drop acid or hit the clubs on ecstasy, I borrowed a turntable from a friend so I could listen to their exceptionally rare vinyl copy of a brilliantly eccentic triple album released in 1977 called Consequences. Somewhere in the obscure soundscape between seventies art rock, the hallucinatory audio comedy and Joycean satire of Firesign Theatre, the silliness of Monty Python, the otherwise non-existent art form Jazz Opera, and Bubble Gum Pop lies the unique experience created on this album by Lol Creme and Kevin Godley. You’ll be forgiven for never having heard of it; although it is in a way a masterpiece of its era, in this case “its era” means the days of lush and meandering exploration of sound and story in the form of a rock opera. The term “rock opera” doesn’t really do it justice though; it is in fact often referred to by its die-hard fans as a “movie for the blind”. Aside from the relative obscurity of its creators (something I’ll get back to below) and its daring and experimental approach, the release was probably more doomed to obscurity by the timing of its release. One of the more popular sounds in 1977 was the dull thud of dinosaur rock finally stumbling to its death, a sound only subtly masked by the sound of aging white guys hitting the studios to churn out the year’s biggest hits like The Grand Illusion by Styx, Billy Joel’s The Stranger, Point Of Know Return by Kansas, and that death certificate of rock and roll, Foreigner. At the same time, groups like The Sex Pistols, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, Blondie, and The Ramones were signaling the wave to come. Even if it weren’t so peculiar, it stood little chance of getting listened to at the time.

All the same, I’ve never understood the obscurity of the duo that created Consequences; you would probably know them best from their time with the British pop group 10cc when they produced the band’s biggest hit I’m Not In Love , or long after they left the band, from their club hit of the late eighties Cry (both videos below). But especially in the years between 1977 and 1980, they produced a series of utterly brilliant recordings (like L and Freeze Frame) which fused the musically sophisticated jazzy quirkiness of Frank Zappa with hook-laden excursions into almost Beatles-esque psychedelia, all framed with lush production and vocal harmonies that were later more or less cloned by Queen with much greater commercial success.

One of the most compelling things about Consequences is that it creates an eerie feeling of pre-existing backstory. As weird as its vocal characterizations (delivered by British actor Peter Cook) are, there’s a familiarity to it all. If you’ve ever seen the equally obscure film Buckaroo Banzai, you may have some sense of what I mean. And there’s a similar reason for this sense of stepping into a story that was going on before you got there; much like the writer of Buckaroo Banzai had gone through dozens of iterations of the script before it finally got picked up, Creme & Godley spent thousands of hours in the studio reworking the material. In fact, the release wasn’t originally intended to be a three disc, two hour epic; it started out as a promotional single for the guitar gizmo they had invented, aptly named the, uh, Gizmo. The rather fascinating expanded story of how this all happened can be found in Mr Blint’s Attic.

And if I’ve piqued your interest, now I have to apologize. Although the album was remastered and re-released on CD in 2000, the versions available on Amazon right now are over $200.00. If you’re prone to do so, you can probably find a torrent though, and although the medium hardly suits the “ambient radio theater” format of the material, all six of the full-length segments can be found on YouTube starting here.

You may know Godley & Creme from their eighties club hit Cry …

…or their influence on 10cc’s I’m Not In Love. Try to ignore the mullets and cheesy video montaging.

Here’s a clip where Lol Creme talks about their device the “Gizmo”

So ponder this. Are you even sure they’re an actual band? I’d argue they’re not, based on output and substance. I did my best to track down a way to buy a CD, and gave up. I eventually tried their MySpace page, and after getting annoyed with MySpace for trying to force me to update Flash and link my Facebook account, I suddenly realized that it was the WRONG PUSSY RIOT. It’s an Italian band from six years ago. Eventually I found and downloaded the collection called “Pussy Riot – Kill The Sexiest” [sic], and gave it a listen. Well, that didn’t take long. The longest of the songs clocks in at 2:11, and the total running time was 10:15. Probably the most interesting thing about it remains the rebellion behind it, not the music. As this review points out, some of content in these one-minute wonders is actually sampled from eighties punk, sort of completing a weird circle of irony.

Personally, I remain adamant in my support of Pussy Riot, merely on the basis of the absurd harshness of their sentence. But I’m perhaps much more impressed with the media savvy behind the “band” than even their ideology. One thing that never gets mentioned in major media pieces is that Pussy Riot is an offshoot of the Voina group, which was established in 2007. The band itself was really formed just last year, as a direct response to a decision by former President and current Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev not to run for re-election as president. As the husband of Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova points out in this Spiegel interview, it wouldn’t be especially prudent to go into detail about their long term planning and the details of their “marketing strategy”, but rest assured, one exists. From the brightly colored balaclavas to the harmless looking threesome that took the fall (with amazing resilience under oppressive prison conditions, by the way), there was a plan behind Pussy Riot. But not much of a “band”. Sheer genius in activism, and a worthy cause. I hope my fellow citizens here in the states don’t wait until things are as bad here as they are in Russia before they get this savvy and productive when it comes to standing up for freedom. And fuck twats like Vadim Nikitin of the NYT who offer up liberal elite analysis questioning westerners’ support for the group, comparing Pussy Riot to Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The issue here is resisting authoritarianism, not the kind of dumbass debates Americans are having right now, like whether or not Romney is testing well with black voters, or whether Obama plays too much golf.

If you haven’t actually listened to Pussy Riot, some clips are below, and you should have no trouble finding more tracks by Googling “Pussy Riot – Kill The Sexiest” [sic]. And since downloading the songs for free won’t do them OR your ears much good, visit FreePussyRiot.org to donate to the defense fund and generally keep up to date. Oh, and remember, there are eleven OTHER members now in detention. Let’s not forget THEM.

Vladimir Akimenkov, 25
Andrei Barabanov, 22
Fedor Bakhov, 31
Yaroslav Belousov, 21
Stepan Zimin, 20
Nikolai Kavkazski, 26
Mikhail Kosenko, 37
Maksim Luzyanin, 36
Denis Lutskevich, 20
Aleksei Polikhovich, 22
Artyom Savyolov, 33

You’ve probably seen the clip where Pussy Riot protests at the church. Before you get all indignant about the fact that they were protesting in a church, you may want to know what kind of bastard they’re referring to when they say “The Patriarch of the Church”. We’re talking about a church whose leader wears $30,000 Breguet watches which the church Photoshops out of images  to make it look like he’s not the rich vain suckup to Putin that he is.

Pussy Riot has been at this for a while. Here they are last December performing on the roof of “Detention Center No1″, which holds protestors arrested after the elections immediately prior.

And here’s the “exclusive release” presented by The Guardian:

The “fan video” that introduced me to Rebecca & Fiona

If nothing else, they seem to enjoy their job as much as their fans:

The fact that I don’t have a copy of my favorite new album – which I listened to twice today – says a lot about the current state of music marketing. More on that further on. First, I just have to say that I’m not sure I have the words to describe the soulful genius of Joan Wasser, and the music she’s been creating with her band Joan As Police Woman, a soulful genius that I’m glad to say she has maintained on her latest release The Deep Field. I tend to agree with whomever it was that said that “writing about music is like dancing about architecture”, and this often misattributed adage is especially fitting in the case of Joan Wasser, because the exacting structure and soaring contours of her work will indeed cause dancing. In your heart, your head, and your feet. The range of expression in her voice – from the plaintively longing, to the wryly knowing, to the joyous and capricious – is a rare treasure in contemporary pop. When you read reviews that use expressions like “full of meditative beauty…ravishing and lovelorn” (Mojo) and “achingly beautiful” (The Word), they really mean it. Wasser’s rich and sophisticated song constructions are the perfect roiling atmosphere for her voice to soar on and dive through, swooping through pain, joy, resurrection, reclamation, ecstasy, anger, and maybe even the occasional coy pout. “The Deep Field” maintains the momentum of her previous two releases Real Life and To Survive, perhaps kicking the overall dynamics up a notch with some perfectly restrained guitar wailing, slightly gritty electric piano, and more dynamic use of horns. The bass work is impeccable too; I was actually relieved to learn that there were five bassists used throughout. I think I would be frightened by a single bass player that could pull off that range of sounds and dynamics. I realize I probably sound like some kind of emissary from The Church Of Joan, so yes, I’ll admit that on top of the tremendous musical admiration, I’m a little crushy on her. How could I not be? The same seasoned but vulnerable beauty that permeates her music is reflected in her eyes and face. She’s like a bluesy neo-classical muse of emotion that can make you smile, cry, wallow in detached melancholy, or nod in knowing agreement at life’s complexly textured revelations. Keep the music coming Joan, I think I may eventually discover bliss via meticulously crafted songwriting if your creation stays on the upward arc it’s following. And the marketing reference I made at the outset? My only disappointment with Joan As Police Woman so far has been that I couldn’t procure the actual album (which I’d been eagerly waiting to do since January 3) yesterday, on what was broadly promoted as the release date. It turns out suddenly that the US release date is February 1 on Amazon, or April 12 if you buy directly from the Joan As Police Woman site. We sent a message to the “Management” e-mail address on the JAPW site yesterday to ask about the yawning chasm between the US and non-US release dates, but haven’t received a reply. I personally listened to the release on a friend’s iPod today, and it was only out of grudging fanboy respect that I said “no thanks” when he offered to let me copy his VBR mp3′s. I’ll be following up with the label to see what gives; this is not a particularly brilliant way to release music in today’s digital marketplace of torrent-happy fans. I myself might even justify paying for the album now, and securing a copy through other means prior to the official US release date. And as I said a few weeks ago, I’m all about buying indy music and not torrenting it these days. But let’s be real – it’s simply common sense that there will be a ton of sales lost in the US because of this, isn’t it?

I’ve often said that one of the reasons I love music so much is that it’s virtually indistinguishable from magic. How else do you explain the fact that by sending subtle vibrations into the air, you can make humans gyrate uncontrollably, tap their toes and fingers, or even march to war. While these audio-induced rhythmic nervous system reactions seem easily explainable as a simple stimulus/response process, you can also use these subtle vibrations to cause less predictable responses, like the release of salt water from their eyes. To me, the latter is perhaps the most intriguing result of these subtle vibrations of air, because although humans usually reserve this release of fluid from the eyes for moments of sadness or physical pain, when a person cries in reaction to a piece of music (unless of course they’re just crying because it’s a really horrible Justin Bieber song) it can be nearly impossible to determine if they’re crying because they’re happy or sad, inspired, proud of their country, or some mixture of all of these feelings and more. I got the idea to compile this list more out of curiosity regarding what makes *other people cry, but once I got going, I got a little obsessed, and perhaps a little embarrassed. I had forgotten, for instance, that I had a playlist called “Music To Hang Yourself By”, or that a song by a band with a name like “Goo Goo Dolls” could make me cry. A lot of more obviously sad songs have little effect on me; frankly, the best way to ensure that I don’t cry when I hear a piece of music is if the tune starts off by saying something descriptively sad in the lyrics. I find it more effective when the singer first claims they’re doing just fine, and then rips it up, implying with plaintive wailing – but never admitting – that suicide will be their only salvation. Below are just a few tunes that are likely to jerk a tear from my eye. I included a few obvious ones like “Hallelujah” and “Crying”, and a few cheesy ones for sentimental reasons, but omitted many, many more, mostly because I’d like to know what makes YOU cry. So give it up. What makes you weepy?

K.D. Lang – Hallelujah

Okay. Let’s get this one out of the way first off. K.D. Lang’s rendition at the Juno Awards pretty much puts the “who does the best version of hallelujah” question to rest.

INXS – Never Tear Us Apart

I don’t know if this is a tune that actually makes many people cry. It just happened to be a song that I and the only woman I ever loved listened to around the time she broke my heart forever. Thanks Deni. Okay, I exaggerate. She wasn’t the ONLY woman I loved, she was just the only one I loved that ripped my heart out and didn’t even have the decency to stomp on it. She just moved on. I’m better now, twenty two years later. Honest.

Godley and Creme – Cry

I have to be in a rather feeble frame of mind, but this one will still get me once in a while.

Joan As Police Woman – Start Of My Heart

Why are video producers so convinced that the close-up glam headshot is the only way to shoot a sad song?

Insensatez – Stan Getz & Maria Toledo

I think this is Maria Toledo singing, not Astrud Gilberto. It’s interesting that most people don’t realize “Insensatez” doesn’t actually mean “insensitive”.

Suzanne Vega – I’ll Never Be Your Maggie May

I play this whenever I get dumped. It gets a lot of rotation.

Roy Orbison & KD Lang – Crying

Watching KD Lang holding her pipes back so as not to frighten Roy off the stage brings a beautiful tension to this rendition…

Llorando – Rebekah Del Rio

Everything is more intense in Spanish. Especially crying. Rebekah Del Rio’s performance literally made my knees buckle once.

10cc – I’m Not In Love

This might only make me cry because I played it 7,632 times as a teen to convince myself that I didn’t care about the latest girl to dump me for that idiot whats-his-name.

Melissa – Allman brothers

Again, this may be some residual teen emotion that was burned into my neural pathways by smoking marijuana on depressing autumn days.

Sinead O’Connor – The Emperor’s New Clothes

Yup. Ol’ Shinehead made the list. People usually list “Nothing Compares 2 U” or however you spell it, but this makes “Nothing Compares 2 U” sound like a pep rally song in my opinion.

Goo Goo Dolls – Iris

Okay. I’m embarrassed. A cheesy song from the soundtrack of a horrible remake of one of my favorite movies. Maybe I cry out of disappointment in myself about the whole affair.

This Mortal Coil – Song to the Siren

If you were the right age in the 80′s, you almost certainly cried yourself out of jumping off the roof over a lost love listening to this. And then went out the next night, got wasted, and met someone new.

Tim Buckley – Song to the Siren

And if you did have that experience with This Mortal Coil’s version of Song to the Siren, you may have discovered years later that Tim Buckley’s version may be even better than the one you didn’t realize was a cover in the first place.

Jane Siberry – Calling All Angels

Most people think of “Pay It Forward” when they think of this tune, but it was used in the soundtrack of Until The End of the World much earlier.

Clair De Lune

There are a million versions that should at least make you moody, and Alexis Weissenberg’s version (used in The Darjeeling Limited) is one…

Phoner To Arizona

This is the only official video so far, which I think was a weird pick. It’s the first tune in the tracklist, but on the first listen I almost didn’t listen to the rest. Fortunately it’s not very indicative of the rest of the release.

Amarillo

This is someone’s fan video for one of the tunes that struck my fancy right off.

It all begins around the first of November, when you’re at the market staring at piles of deeply discounted mini chocolate bars left over from Halloween, and suddenly, like some sonic message from the dark side, “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town” pokes through the ambient shopping noise. By mid-December, you’ve probably subliminally absorbed so many Christmas songs that you find yourself spontaneously whistling “Walkin’ In A Winter Wonderland” while making love. So it’s natural that so many people groan at the idea of listening to Christmas music on purpose. Which is a shame, because thanks to the thousands of crassly opportunistic attempts to cash in on the Christmas spirit, there are literally thousands of tunes to choose from, in every genre, from several decades. We’ve previously tried to cover all the bases; over the past couple of years we Jewished you a merry Christmas with Oye To The World, suggested some Santastic mashups with Generation Xmas, and with Generation Triple X-Mas we got on Santa’s naughty list. So this year, we thought we’d try to get back on the “nice” list with some actually sane Christmas music ideas, and a few oddities thrown in for fun. If you’ve ever gone searching on the web for some new holiday music ideas, you may have had that Wikiphilia-like experience of suddenly realizing you just wasted three hours of your life mindlessly YouTubing weird Christmas tunes like we did. So we have to give considerable thanks to MistleTunes, Falalalala.com, and Check The Cool Wax for their passion and devotion to compiling and organizing thousands of offbeat and obscure holiday songs. They bring a lot of the spirit back to what should be one of the best parts of the holidays. The music! Hope you enjoy, and feel free to share your own playlist ideas.

Multi-Generational

First up, if you put these three collections on shuffle, you can pretty much relax and enjoy your company for a couple of hours. This combination pacifies several generations at once: The old geezers, the jazz & crooner snobs, and the almost-thirty hipsters who still think listening to the rat pack makes you cool. It’s also good to expose the even younger crowd to this stuff; by the time they’re fifty this will literally be classical music from a century long gone. Christmas Belles is awesome because almost all the ladies singing on it are instantly recognizable with just last names : Garland, Fitzgerald, Horne, Clooney, Vaughan, Kitt. Great stuff that puts Davis, Sinatra, and Martin in their place.

Lifetime Intimate Portraits: Christmas Belles	Christmas With The Rat Pack	A Merry Christmas With Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters

Christmas Contemporary 2009

This is a personal mix of mine from last year. It’s a little less broad in appeal, but I think I did a pretty good job of moving through some moods on a single CD-length mix. The inclusion of Paul McCartney’s nauseating “Wonderful Christmastime” seemed the only way to break up the genuineness of the John Lennon so things could move on to the syrup of “Father Christmas”. All the tunes are available on Amazon for $0.99USD, except the two mashups which you can download for FREE. Little preview widgets below too:

01 Brenda Lee – Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree 02 Beach Boys – Little Saint Nick 03 Bobby Helms – Jingle Bell Rock 04 Temptations – Little Drummer Boy 05 Ray Charles – Christmas Time 06 Ventures – Jingle Bells 07 John & Yoko – Happy Christmas 08 Paul McCartney – Wonderful Christmastime 09 Greg Lake – I Believe In Father Christmas 10 Vince Guaraldi Trio – Christmas Time Is Here 11 Tom Jones With Cerys From Catatonia – Baby It’s Cold Outside 12 Jackson Five – Santa Claus Is Coming To Town 13 Waitresses – Christmas Wrapping 14 A plus D – Give Da Jew Girl Toys (Direct MP3 Link) 15 Lenlow ¿Dónde Está Santa Claus (Direct MP3 Link)

A plus D – Give Da Jew Girl Toys Lenlow – ¿Dónde Está Santa Claus

Okay, call me a sap, but Hurts’ All I Want For Christmas Is New Year’s Day got me all weepy and sentimental, maybe because I’m so good at having crappy Christmases. Some people just want it all to be over with as soon as possible.

But not Julian Casablancas, who wishes it were Christmas every day

It’s The Little Things- Voicedude

The miraculous marriage of Trans Siberian Orchestra’s Christmas Canon and Blink 182′s All The Small Things, ordained with some classic Christmas film clips.

Pee Wee’s Sleigh House

Pee Wee Herman always brings a special magic to the holidays, especially when he wishes you “Feliz Blah Blah Blah” with Charo or Grace Jones pops out of his package.

Grace Jones – Little Drummer Boy

Charo – Feliz Navidad

	New York oldies station WCBS FM 101.1 put together The Ultimate Christmas Album in 1994. And again in 1995, 1996, and so on. In spite of their apparent failure to understand the meaning of “ultimate”, we still benefit, because these are in fact pretty decent Christmas oldies collections, and even if you’re not thrilled with each complete compilation they’re still great starting points for your own playlist.
WCBS FM Ultimate Christmas Album Volume 1	WCBS FM Ultimate Christmas Album Volume II
1. Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee2. Jingle Bell Rock – Bobby Helms 3. What Christmas Means To Me – Stevie Wonder 4. You’re My Christmas Present – Jimmy Beaumont & The Skyliners 5. White Christmas – The Drifters 6. Merry Merry Christmas Baby – Margo Sylvia & The Tune Weavers 7. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus – Jimmy Boyd 8. Baby’s First Christmas – Connie Francis 9. Silver Bells – Diana Ross & The Supremes 10. It’s Christmas Once Again – Frankie Lymon 11. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer – Gene Autry 12. Run Rudolph Run – Chuck Berry 13. Please Come Home For Christmas – Dion 14. The Chipmunk Song ( Christmas Don’t Be Late ) – Alvin & the Chipmunks 15. This Time Of The Year – Brook Benton 16. Christmas Ain’t Christmas (Without The One You Love) – The O’Jays 17. The Little Drummer Boy – Harry Simeone Chorale 18. I’ll Be Home For Christmas – Fats Domino 19. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town – The Four Seasons 20. This Christmas – Donny Hathaway 21. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer – The Cadillacs 22. Christmas Serenade – Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge 23. Silent Night – The Temptations 24. Christmas Auld Lang Syne – Bobby Darin 25. Another Lonely New Year’s Eve – Jimmy Beaumont & The Skyliners	1. Little Saint Nick – The Beach Boys2. White Christmas – Diana Ross & The Supremes 3. Here Comes Santa Claus – Gene Autry 4. Sleigh Ride – Johnny Mathis 5. Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer – Elmo & Patsy 6. A Christmas Long Ago (Jingle Jingle) – THE ECHELONS 7. Merry Christmas Darling – The Carpenters 8. Donde Esta Santa Claus – AUGIE RIOS 9. Merry Christmas Baby – Dion 10. Give Love On Christmas Day – The Jackson Five 11. Holly Jolly Christmas – Burl Ives 12. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge 13. Frosty The Snowman – The Beach Boys 14. Nuttin’ For Christmas – Barry Gordon 15. The Christmas Song – The Duprees 16. Pretty Paper – Roy Orbison 17. It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas – Bing Crosby 18. Merry Christmas All – Denise Montana & The Salsoul Orch 19. Dominick The Donkey – Lou Monte 20. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer – THE MELODEERS 21. Someday At Christmas – Stevie Wonder 22. It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year – Andy Williams 23. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! – Dean Martin 24. Happy New Year Baby – JO ANN CAMPBELL 25. After New Year’s Eve – The Heartbeats
WCBS FM Ultimate Christmas Album Volume III	WCBS FM Ultimate Christmas Album Volume IV
1. The Christmas Song – Nat King Cole2. All Alone On Christmas – Darlene Love 3. I’ll Be Home For Christmas – Larry Chance & The Earls 4. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town – Bobby Vinton 5. Jingle Bells – THE SINGING DOGS 6. Twinkle Twinkle Little Me – The Supremes 7. Winter Wonderland – Johnny Mathis 8. Sleigh Ride – The Ventures 9. Home For The Holidays – Perry Como 10. Christmas Vacation – Mavis Staples 11. The Bell That Couldn’t Jingle – Burt Bacharach 12. Feliz Navidad – Jose Feliciano 13. O Holy Night – Lou Christie/University Of Pittsburgh’s Men’s Glee Club 14. White Christmas – Bing Crosby 15. It’s Christmas Everywhere – Paul Anka 16. Chrissy The Christmas Mouse – Donald O’Connor/Debbie Reynolds 17. Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree – Dion 18. Happy Holidays – Andy Williams 19. Amen – The Impressions 20. We Need A Little Christmas – Percy Faith 21. Santa Baby – Eartha Kitt 22. All I Want For Christmas Is You – Larry Chance/Johnny Maestro/Bobby Jay/Joel Katz 23. All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth – Spike Jones 24. Christmas Time – Ray Charles 25. The Night Before Christmas – Fred Waring	1. Blue Christmas – Elvis Presley2. The Man With All The Toys – The Beach Boys 3. Merry Christmas Baby – Otis Redding 4. Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy – David Bowie And Bing Crosby 5. Christmas Is – Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge 6. Twistin’ Bells – Santo & Johnny 7. Merry, Merry Christmas Baby – Dodie Stevens 8. The Twelve Days Of Christmas – Ray Conniff 9. White Christmas – Patti LaBelle & The Bluebelles 10. If It Doesn’t Snow On Christmas Day – Gene Autry 11. Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town – Brenda Lee 12. A Baby Just Like You – John Denver 13. Gee Whiz, It’s Christmas – Carla Thomas 14. Christmas Eve In My Home Town – Bobby Vinton 15. You’re All I Want For Christmas – Brook Benton 16. Sleigh Ride – Leroy Anderson 17. Winter Wonderland – The Platters 18. What Can I Give You This Christmas – The Lettermen 19. Jingle Bell Rock – Larry Chance & The Earls 20. It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas – Perry Como 21. O Holy Night – Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge 22. Christmas Is – Percy Faith 23. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Lou Rawls 24. Silent Night – Frankie Lymon 25. Christmas Dragnet – Stan Freberg
WCBS FM Ultimate Christmas Album Volume V	WCBS FM Ultimate Christmas Album Volume VI
1. Wonderful Christmas – Paul McCartney & Wings2. Little Drummer Boy – The Tokens 3. Silver Bells – Elvis Presley 4. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town – Pointer Sisters 5. Christmas Time Is Here (Vocal Version) – The Vince Guaraldi Trio 6. The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You) – Johnny Mathis 7. Jingle Bell Rock – Hall & Oates 8. Blue Holiday – The Shirelles 9. Sleigh Ride – Andy Williams 10. A Christmas Love Song – The Manhattan Transfer 11. Mary’s Boy Child – Harry Belafonte 12. Christmas Wrapping – The Waitresses 13. There Is No Christmas Like A Home Christmas – Perry Como 14. I’ll Be Home For Christmas – The Beach Boys 15. Christmas Delight – The Four Tops 16. Deck The Hall – Nat King Cole 17. If Every Day Was Like Christmas – Elvis Presley 18. Silver Bells – Bing Crosby 19. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus – The Jackson 5 20. White Christmas – The Temptations 21. A Marshmallow World – Dean Martin 22. Silent Night – Gladys Knight & The Pips 23. Santa Claus Is Watching You – Ray Stevens 24. What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? – The Orioles 25. It’s Just Another New Year’s Eve (Live) – Barry Manilow	1. Last Christmas – Wham2. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town – The Beach Boys 3. Winter Wonderland – Aretha Franklin 4. White Christmas – Tony Bennett 5. Frosty The Snowman – The Jackson Five 6. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! – Andy Williams 7. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – The O’Jays 8. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing – America 9. The Christmas Song – Barry Manilow 10. The Children’s Christmas Song – Diana Ross And The Supremes 11. I’ll Be Home For Christmas – Johnny Mathis 12. Doo Wop Christmas – Kenny Vance And The Planotones 13. The Christmas Waltz – Doris Day 14. I Believe In Father Christmas – Greg Lake 15. A Night To Remember – Engelbert Humperdinck 16. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear – Tony Orlando 17. Happy Holiday/The Holiday Season – The Manhattan Transfer 18. Kissin’ By The Mistletoe – Aretha Franklin 19. Silver Bells – Any Williams 20. Frosty The Snowman – Jimmy Durante 21. White Christmas – Connie Francis 22. Come On A Sleigh Ride With Me… – Brian Hyland 23. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town – Perry Como 24. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Linda Ronstadt 25. May You Always – Harry Harrison

I was much more of an audio snob when I was a teen than I am now. At the peak of my snobbishness I had a Thorens direct drive turntable, a McIntosh (no, not MacIntosh) amp, and custom speakers that I built myself using components from a Seattle company called SpeakerLab. Aside from being able to blast my Aerosmith, Bowie, and Clash records at 120 decibels, I could then turn around, switch out the stylus, and throw on some immaculate Deutsche Grammaphon pressing of Beethoven, Bartok, Tchaikovsky or Arvo Pärt. Not too long after that the CD came along, and we were all so distracted by its signal-to-noise ratio and “accuracy” that it took us forever to notice how really bad they sound because of their sample rate. And in the 90′s, my snobbishness finally died a quiet death in the hands of a computer and a crappy file format known as mp3. The ability to compile and shovel around songs by the thousands and not need physical storage space seduced me. And the ability to choose from such a vast array became more important somehow than slowing down and really listening. This fact was painfully highlighted for me the other day when a friend and I were lamenting the dearth of classical music outlets these days. I don’t even know if there is one where I live, and my friend who lives in Chicago says they are a rarity even in a city of its size. So is classical music dying? Well, in a way, yes. The broad category referred to as classical has recently had extremely low unit-per-artist sales and accounted for around 3% of American music sales, and around 5% of global sales. And the trend has been to head steadily downward for some time. Adding to the genre’s woes, American orchestras are recently enduring severe budget crunches. So is this the end of the centuries-long line? Well, Universal and Sony don’t think so; they’ve launched Passionato and Ariama, respectively. Both sites offer CD’s and downloads in both mp3 and FLAC formats. Does this mean there’s hope? What do you think? Have you rocked any Amadeus lately? Is classical doomed? I personally predict an indie classical rock revival with renewed interest in the classics. But then, I’m an ELO fan.

Last year I publicly revealed the shameful pleasure I still derive from listening to 70′s symphonic rock band ELO, and was genuinely surprised by how many people still enjoyed their Beatles-esque pop genius. Well, today I have an even more shameful confession. I am a hopeless The Moody Blues fan. In spite of the fact that these guys were essentially a bunch of hairy-faced, classically-trained hippies who may be single-handedly responsible for the entire new age movement with their penchant for stoned, pseudo-spiritual peacenik poetry interludes and dreamy airbrush psychedelic album covers, they also happened to be amongst the most talented and innovative of all the 60′s/70′s art rock bands, with their brilliant early use of the mellotron and tight pop symphonics, provided mostly by the London Festival Orchestra. The Moody Blues especially stood out amongst many of their prog-rock contemporaries like Yes or Pink Floyd for the simple fact that they possessed a gift that few of these bands did: the ability to not sound like crap live. In fact, if you’re familiar with the studio version of Ride My See-Saw, I would defy you to be able to tell the difference between it and this live Paris club performance (also below) from 1970. The band churned out a string of hit singles and solid albums beginning with (video below) 1964′s Go Now – which could easily be mistaken for a song by Peter Bjorn & John or Grizzly Bear – and culminating with 1972′s Seventh Sojourn. Unfortunately, after creating a series of well-crafted stoner concept albums like Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Seventh Sojourn, and A Question of Balance, as well as resilient singles like Nights in White Satin, Tuesday Afternoon and I’m Just a Singer (In a Rock ‘n Roll Band), tragedy struck in 1978. No, there was no tragic aircrash, 1978 was the year the band decided to get back together and release Octave, which launched a series of middle-of-the-road pop dreck albums with aging rock star saccharine hits like I Know You’re Out There Somewhere. Personally, I do a good job of pretending – as I do with much of the 80′s – that their later releases never happened, and just enjoy the good stuff. Vids below.

Their 1964 hit “Go Now” could almost be mistaken for a Peter Bjorn & John tune:

This 1970 Paris club performance of “Ride My Seesaw” is a good example of their ability to pull off their sound live:

Sadly, tragedy struck in the late 70′s. They reunited, and started releasing mortifyingly cheesy material like “I Know You’re Out There Somewhere”: