Another year nearly over, and already I’m looking forward to 2011 as there’s a whole load of stuff on the way that I’m already counting down the days towards.
This begins on the very first day of January, when Matthew Ryan releases his collaborative single with stargazey post-rockers Hammock, followed swiftly by releases from Daniel Martin Moore (Jan 19) and The Twilight Singers (Feb 15), plus upcoming live shows from Smoke Fairies, My Jerusalem and Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan. And that’s all during the first seven weeks…
I still have a few things to be updating this week and next (especially if Santa got my request for more vouchers) from both past and present, as trying to get back into the habit after doing that ‘Best Of’ that took me far too long! And as an attempt to channel the spirit of the season, this week’s Whatever will include a couple of Christmas songs that have been released this week from favourite artists of mine, an oldie but a goodie from a while back, and a couple of recent single releases that have been wedged in my subconscious all week.
Ed Harcourt – The Devil Came Down the Chimney
With it’s cheeky Coke-baiting “Hellidays are coming!” chant, this is a huge slab of Christmas fun as it’s the sort of story that kids of all ages want to hear rather than the TV Movie drivel we’ve been exposed to for the past week. For lovers and haters of the Christmas season alike, there’s much to enjoy from this charmingly-presented tale of someone other than Santa popping down the chimney and generally buggering the whole show up.
Matthew Ryan and the Christmas Toddies – It’s Christmas Time
After listening to this song, the listener is left in no doubt whatsoever that the time is, indeed, Christmas. And that comprises a large part of the charm of the song, which seems to been specifically created to be played at the end of a drunken evening, which extends to happy suspicions that this is also when it was performed. Its cheery simplicity and enthusiasm warm the cockles wonderfully, chanelling the festive spirit as well as the spirit of Joe Strummer. One to be dug out every year for certain, and can be dug out now for a price of your choosing from here.
Dread Zeppelin – All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth
A Christmas song from odd Zeppelin tribute act with a Reggae twist, fronted by an Elvis impersonator. What could possibly go wrong? Amazingly, very little with this fun song that takes a 1940s novelty song and turns it into, erm, a more up-to-date novelty song which riffs Zep’s How Many More Times and adds Elvis’ Viva Las Vegas to the end for very little apparent reason. Works so well as a Christmas song, if only because it can generally only stand to be played once a year. Thankfully, the one time it does get played is largely enjoyable.
The Go! Team – Buy Nothing Day
A band that can never fail to make me feel happy and very old such is their exuberance and brilliantly hooky noisy pop. This new single is a bit lighter on the aural bombast than their last album (although the drums are still cheerfully up there and out there), it’s still unmistakably the Go! Team who have re-emerged with yet another tune that effortlessly spans several decades of gleeful pop-noise. May seem a bit strange for this to come out when it’s bloody freezing outside when they so well evoke the middle of summer, but that could well be the point.
David Lynch – Good Day Today
It’s probably not unfair to say that David Lynch is someone who is always going to sound strange. Reminding me somewhat of some of Jeff Klein’s more experimenty autotuned stuff, this weird dance track gives Lynch’s voice just the right amount of tweaked otherworldliness to add to the amount that the man exudes naturally, and married to the childlike wishes of the song’s title, you leave the song feeling that you’ve been granted access to Lynch’s innermost thoughts but you’re not completely sure what else was going on – which of course in this case is a very good thing indeed.
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