So the turkey feast has passed, and now the Christmas season is upon us in full force, and with it, crappy Christmas music. These times have inspired me to raise this thing from the dead, in hopes that, by sharing the music that brings a smile to my face in the bleak midwinter, you folks might find something that makes your December a little brighter.
Let's get this pratty started.
Released in 1998 by BEC Records, which was an imprint of Tooth & Nail Records. So yeah, this is a Christian Rock compilation. Independent Christian rock—T&N was basically the biggest mover and shaker in the chrindie scene of the 90's, for better or worse.
Let's listen.
The OC Supertones — "Joy to the World" Ska ska ska ska! Back when Ska Punk was all the rage, the 'Tones were one of the Big Three ska bands in the christian rock scene. ** They had a lot of member turnover throughout the years—this particular track is interesting because it's the same personnel as on their album Chase the Sun (which, IMO, was the beginning of a downward spiral in quality that they didn't recover from until Hi-Fi Revival) but they're playing more in the style of their previous album Supertones Strike Back. It's catchy and fun.
Joy Electric — "Winter Wonderland" JE's best work was her synth-pop / synth-rock albums, but here she does a pleasantly bouncy techno-pop take on the song. It fits, because sometimes those monosynths just sound cold and wintery.
Okay, I lied, Joy Electric is actually a dude. A manly masculine male with a quite high singing voice. Also, he's the brother of the guy from Starflyer 59.
Chasing Furies — "O Come Emmanuel" CF was criminally underappreciated. They put out one home run of an album that apparently didn't sell very well (I got my copy off the clearance rack), and they recorded this track, and then they fell off the face of the earth. (The lead singer, Sarah Macintosh, put out a solo album about a decade later.) This is one of my favorite Christmas hymns; this isn't quite my favorite cover version, but it's good.
Starflyer 59 — "A Holiday Song"' What's odd is that this isn't an original recording. This is exactly the same as track 5 of Sf59's album The Fashion Focus. While this technically wasn't the first Starflyer track I ever heard, this was the first one to catch my attention and make me investigate them further. And now, half a decade later, I'm the one who wrote our article about them.
Anyway, this is pretty cool, catchy track. Gotta love that farfisa.
Five Iron Frenzy — "You Gotta Get Up" This song was the reason I wanted this compilation back in the day. At the time (i.e. back before I discovered Starflyer 59), FIF was my favorite thing ever. This track (a Rich Mullins cover) was recorded between Our Newest Album Ever and Quantity is Job 1 EP—their two best releases, as far as I'm concerned—so it's vintage FIF from the high point of their career. It did not disappoint.
Sarah Masen — "Heaven's Got a Baby" Unfortunately, this song did disappoint. The song itself is fine (I have proof that that; we'll get to that on another album), and the instrumentation is fine (love that accordion), but Sarah's voice... She's trying too hard to be cute, and it's just irritating. Oh, crap, what if that's her natural singing voice? Whatever, I don't like it at all. Seriously, when I copy this album to my iPod, this is the one song that I leave off.
Plankeye — "Away in a Manger" I don't care much for the original song, but these guys make it listenable. Can you tell that, immediately prior to this, the band had been reduced to two members? Frank Lenz played guest drums for them. He played guest drums for everyone.
Almonzo — "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" Ah, Almonzo. No one knows who they are. Seriously, they only recorded a handful of tracks, released on compilations for southern California-based indie record labels, and all their band members are listed by pseudonyms. This particular track doesn't sound merry at all, but somber is okay, too. The organ and cello certainly help.
Pep Squad — "Feliz Navidad"' Mariachi punk. This is stupidly wonderful. (I have their album Yreka Bakery, which is nowhere near as good as this one track.)
Bon Voyage — "Holly Jolly Christmas" Apparently, they decided that the best way to cover a song made famous by Burl Ives was to get a band fronted by the Anti-Burl-Ives. If there ever was a line separating country music from Dream Pop, this song blurred it like crazy. For the record, this band is a Starflyer 59 side project.
Seven Day Jesus — "O Holy Night" This may well be my favorite Christmas hymn. The melody, the lyrics, just beautiful. I don't care for any of Seven Day Jesus' original songs. Yet, somehow... It's easy to play it safe with this song, and produce a completely mediocre take on it. Seven Day Jesus did not play this one safe. The singer dude sounds like he's wearing his heart on his sleeve, and the delivery borders on narm at a few points, but somehow it works.
One-Eighty — "Mele Kalikimaka" The ska-punk parts with singing are great. Unfortunately, they only make up about a minute of the song.
Switchfoot — "Evergreen" Man, this is old Switchfoot. Before "Meant to Live". Before "I Dare You to Move". Before Jerome joined the band. Before "New Way to Be Human", even. It's... okay. I may be a crotchety old Switchfoot fan, but I'm not one of those COSF's who think The Legend of Chin was perfect and it's been all downhill from there.
House of Wires — "Do You Hear What I Hear?" Another techno band, this time covering one of the most-hated Christmas carols, ever. This version is okay.
Fold Zandura — "Asia Minor" This band is interesting. Fold Z was comprised of Jyro Xhan (formerly of the industrial band Mortal), Jerome Fontamillas (also of Mortal; he would later join Switchfoot) and Frank Lenz (the guy who, as I mentioned above, played drums for everyone). The first two guys produced Starflyer 59's first album, and the last guy would eventually join Starflyer 59.
Unfortunately, the song itself isn't nearly as interesting. And I can sorta see how it's supposed to be Christmas-y (it's about the wise men, right?) but I never would have figured that out if it weren't on a Christmas compilation.
The Huntingtons — "It's Always Christmas at My House" These guys clearly want to be the Ramones. (Fun fact: they also covered "Merry Christmas, I Don't Wanna Fight" for Flying Tart records' Christmas in Heaven compilation.) This song is kinda fun, but it wears out its welcome around the 56th or 57th chorus.
It's at this point that I realize this is a long string of okay tracks, and begin wondering why I'm still listening to this album.
The Dingees — "We Three Kings" Oh, right, this is why I'm still listening. An atmospheric and all-around great dub track by a weird band that also played punk and ska. Love love love it.
More weird connections: This saxophonist used to play for the Supertones, and this drummer would eventually play guitar for the 'Tones, and later, for the metal band Demon Hunter. After said drummer's departure, Frank Lenz played drums on their albums. Ronnie from Joy Electric played synths on this track, and one of the girls from One-Eighty sang the chorus. That's the thing about the southern California chrindie scene: you start reading the album liner notes, and you realize that everybody knows everybody.
Puller — "Saviour of the Fools" And, another merely okay song to finish the album. I appreciate it more after reading the story behind why Mark Lewis wrote it
, and I've heard from some other people who feel this song really spoke to them, but it never really spoke to me like that.
If you only listen to one track, listen to: "Heaven's Got a Baby".
That's what you get for skipping to the end.
