Your Alt Christmas

It's that time of year. The time of year where no matter where you go, the FUCKING EXACT SAME Christmas songs are playing on a constant loop out of the really bad loud speakers that hang over you. You can't escape and eventually they start playing in your mind like tribal drums, and you half wish you saw your head open just to let the evil tunes leave your mind. Fear not, for although it may seem incredibly unlikely, many wonderful indie bands have managed to create memorable tunes that match the holiday times. And while I don't actually celebrate the holiday, I can appreciate the sentiment and songs all the same.



First in crafting wonderful holiday tunes is my beloved Los Campesinos! This is a band in my mind that can do absolutely no wrong, and this tune proves me right. "Kindle a Flame In Heart" is a the perfect example of what a Christmas pop tune should be, with a winter vibe, nostalgia lyrics of days past, and a stellar showcase of the band's new vocalist Kim. I would kill for this to become an actual holiday staple. As an added bonus, the band also craft a second holiday tune, "The Holly and Ivy" for those who subscribed to their incredibly awesome new zine Heat Rash, that included digital hymn sheets and art by Rob (Sparky Deathcap) Campesino! Now that's fan service.

Kindle A Flame In Her Heart by Los Campesinos!



My newest love, Parenthetical Girl, are no strangers to Christmas time songs as they have been releasing a steady stream of original and cover tunes in the forms of singles for years now. Recently, they decided to bring all the lose ends together and have released a digital compilation of all their Christmas tunes through their bandcamp. It is a nice balancing act, bringing attention to both the joy and pains of the season. Also, on a small side note, band member Zac Pennington has put together two Christmas mixes from his apparently extensive Christmas music collection over at the Parenthetical Girl's website.





Christmas time is also another chance to bring up my personal heroes Nosferatu D2 and their anti Christmas tune "It's Christmas Time (for God's Sake)". Well, it's less anti Christmas and more a realization of the pain the holiday tends to create for some people. It's heartbreaking, emotional, and point blank why I love this band. No wonder they decided to end their album on this note.

(mp3) Nosferatu D2-It's Christmas Time (For God's Sake)



I'm starting to release I have tendency to draw more closely to the depressing Christmas songs that seem to be crafted. Though I don't think the new Crystal Stilts Christmas song "Practically Immaculate" is actually suppose to be a sad Christmas song. Chances are it's just do front man Brad Hargett's monotonic voice that adds to the tone of the song. On the upside, cool Christmas style organ!

(mp3) Crystal Stilts-Practically Immaculate

And finally, a bit of an oldie from Oklahoma's favorite nut jobs, The Flaming Lips. Before the band decided to bless the holiday season with the LSD and drug induced surrealist film Christmas on Mars, the band actually crafted one of their best and underrated psych pop tunes "Christmas at the Zoo". The song of course being about what else...the band freeing all the animals at the zoo! OK, yes it is a bit silly, but would you rather hear this, or "Grandma Was Run Over by a Reindeer" for the one millionth time? I thought so.

Superman Revege Squad Sing The Dead Crow Blues

Nosferatu D2 is a band I really, really love after discovering them last year. And while I patiently wait and hope for them to get back together, Superman Revenge Squad is there in the mean time. After D2 stopped in 2007, front man Ben Parker picked up an acoustic guitar started playing with a celloist, and writing songs more bleak then his last band’s. He began to scribble lines about more than just girls and bands, but of death, love, pop music, and then more death. And he sings more in prose then ever, even breaking into spoken words midway through songs, and instead of it being pretentious, it just conveys the work even better. Now after a string of self-released albums, Superman will be releasing the Dead Crow Blues mini-album today on Records Records Records records. His most polished work to date, it’s still the has the same sense of pain and dark humor as ever. What other band could conceive the concept of what it might be like to have to talk to an ex-friend in heaven after you both die? Then write the song, have cello kick in just the right spots to rigger longing, title it “Fairweather Friend” and use it as the opener?

(mp3) Superman Revenge Squad-Fairweather Friends

The title track is even hollower, an instant poem sprung from the mind after seeing death literally and figuratively on your doorstep. The same feelings as Pavement’s “Here” are invoked, with every part of the song feeling so slightly out of step, with only that one beat to propel it.



Links:

Superman Revenge Squad’s Website
Get Dead Crow Blues here, from Records Records Records records

Album Review: Nosferatu D2-We're Going to Walk Around this City With Our Headphones on to Block Out the Noise

After the thousand or so listen I’ve given this record over the past few weeks, I’ve come to the only logical conclusion that his album will go down as one of the greatest musical tragedies of the decade. Nosferatu D2 were (are) brothers Ben and Adam Parker on vocals/guitar and drums, respectively. Forming in 2005 and stopping 2007, during which they played a scant 18 shows and recorded four demos. Now two years too late, Audio Anti-Hero (a label created just to release Nosferatu D2's material) has released the ten-track debut album from the band, taken from the band’s demos which have been mastered by Adam. My only request for this album is that it gets every ounce of press and critical acclaim that it deserves for the genius these two brothers managed to put into it is in surreal.

To understand what I’m getting at, please picture No Age for a second. Now have the drummer grow an extra four arms and two more legs. And then the have the band fronted by a fusion of Stephen Malkmus and Gareth Campesino. This the general idea of what Nosferatu D2 is. Rarely in a two piece does anything ever let up. But in D2 Ben actually is light on over using his guitar, giving the music a slightly striped down feel, but at the same time giving his jangly, post-punk style riffs more power. Adam’s drumming is also pulled off masterfully. There are times were you forget it is only one guy playing instead of three. Controlled yet completely wild and chaotic, it never becomes over shadowing or pompous. Even when the guitar stops for a few seconds and it is only Ben’s singing and Adam’s drumming, neither one outshines the other.

Still what hold these songs together, their glue, is Ben’s song writing. There are few times when someone can spew pain, hate and possibly tears and not only not come off as a total prick, but manages to be smart and-dare I say-poetic. This is one of those times. “A Footnote” sets fire to the belief that any of the music you like actually matters. “Springsteen” takes it one step further, a disgusted look at everything Ben grew up with, all vile, corporate, and mutated into something resembling his worst ex. “Broken Tamagotchi” is an evil hate message rapped in loneliness . When he yells “Found myself in a lonely place/ Cried Myself Awake”, he might as well be talking to a wall. The songs work, however, because of their wit. He realizes he’s just as much to blame as the people he is so upset at. That the imaginary profanities he slings are just as much for him as for his enemies. In “Colonel Parker” he demands the world in pure sarcastic wonder that the world worship him, but that the only person stopping him is himself. “Mojo Top 100 is a mockery at bad music journalism and poor music taste (and an apparent deep rooted hatred of Phil Collins), even though realizing the joy it has triggered in people. It all collides on the album’s final track “It’s Christmas Time (for god’s sake)” when he sees his world fall apart at the happiest of times. If it doesn’t make your emotionless hipster heart beat a little, I don’t know what will.

It is so tempting to use the word masterpiece here, as forced as it may seem. However, I know an album of the year contender when I hear it, and this is definitely it. This is pure, 100% heart on the sleeve indie rock, with not an ounce of fat or bullshit, and there is no reason why this album should not be in your hands by the end of this sentence. The quest to get these guys back together starts here.

(mp3) Nosferatu D2-Springsteen
(mp3) Nosferatu D2-It’s Christmas Time (for god’s sake)

Links:

Nosferatu D2 myspace
Buy the album here, at Audio Anti-Hero
Superman Revenge Squad (Ben Parker’s new band)