Happy new year, bonne année, glückliches Neues Jahr, gelukkig nieuwjaar, from all of us @ CAGG. Thank you for your visits and comments. See you in November 2012 !
Friday, December 30, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Various versions from Bandcamp. Here's one by the Asylum Street Spankers, from a Holiday album I seem to have missed completely:
From merry carolers Caleb & the Caroling Caravan:
Free version fom trio Gold, Frankincense & Myrrh (of course), a version that starts with a telephone conversation (of course)
From merry carolers Caleb & the Caroling Caravan:
Free version fom trio Gold, Frankincense & Myrrh (of course), a version that starts with a telephone conversation (of course)
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Sucks when Saint Nick steals your shit instead of dropping off gifts. Hence the fact that me and my boys went to the North Pole to buss a cap in datazz. Unfortunately, when we arrived at Santa's headquarters, he was strapped with major heat and had plenty of backup. Merry Christmas muthafuckaz! Don't play with guns!
No, not a cover of The Cure, but between Christmas and New Year's Eve, CAGG continues to post winter-, Christmas- and end-of-the-year-songs and -mixes on this blog. NOTE: some of the tracks aren't available anymore!
Thanks to CAGG-fan André, here's a gorgeous version of In the Bleak Midwinter by dreampop band Lanterns on the Lake. Download from HERE EDIT: Alas, it's gone, if you have it, let me know!
Unavailable for download, alas, is this version of Rocking Around the Christmas Tree by Swedish duo My Bubba & Me. EDIT: It's on Youtube now:
Funky funky Christmas Mix by Ronny Hammond. Stream and/ord download via Mixcloud via HERE
Dr Rubberfunk also mixed his fave funky seasonal songs together. Go HERE
Unavailable for download, alas, is this version of Rocking Around the Christmas Tree by Swedish duo My Bubba & Me. EDIT: It's on Youtube now:
Funky funky Christmas Mix by Ronny Hammond. Stream and/ord download via Mixcloud via HERE
Dr Rubberfunk also mixed his fave funky seasonal songs together. Go HERE
Friday, December 23, 2011
UK Girl duo Oh My! (Jade and Alex) recorded a great version of The Waitresses' disco wave-classic Christmas Wrapping. LIsten on Soundcloud. Go HERE. Or go HERE to download.
There've been several Christmas Wrapping covers this year. Like this one from Summer Camp. And this one from Dog is Dead. This one from Exohxo.
For the seventh year in a row The Blues Are Still Blue Presents:
Christmas Compilation 2011(download here)
001 Camera Obscura - The Blizzard
002 My Bubba & Mi - Pumpkin Pie
003 Summer Fiction - Christmas Eve for Two
004 The Kik - A Christmas Song For You
005 The Very Most - Wombling Merry Christmas
006 The Winston Jazz Routine - Through the snow
007 Caitlin Rose - You Never Come Home For Christmas
008 The Head And The Heart - Winter Song
009 Beta Radio - The Song the Season Brings
010 Birdy - White Winter Hymnal
011 Breathe Owl Breathe - Snow Blow
012 Chris Bathgate - Auld lang syne
013 David Bazan- Just Like Christmas (Low)
014 Marike Jager - Frosty The Snowman
015 Emmy The Great & Tim Wheeler - Christmas Day (I Wish I Was Surfing)
016 Megafaun - I Saw Three Ships
017 Renee & Jeremy - Sunny Christmas
018 Rick Fines - Country Christmas Blues
019 Rue Royale - What Next Dear One
020 She and Him - The Christmas Waltz
021 Smith & Burrows (& Agnes Obel) - The Christmas Song
If you like it, you gan still download my mix of 2010 and 2009 .
Merry Christmas!
I've been working at the distribution center of the Dutch postal service for the last couple of weeks, so I've been up to my neck in Christmas cards. For days on end, I've been listening to Sky Radio aka the Christmas channel, so yes I'm sick and tired of generic Christmas standards such as Feliz Navidad by José Feliciano.
As an antidote, I listen to this great Feliciano song. Works every time... I don't care if José thinks I don't know him now.
As an antidote, I listen to this great Feliciano song. Works every time... I don't care if José thinks I don't know him now.
Californian dream pop duo The Honey Trees made two seasonal tracks, that are downloadable for free via their Facebook and Reverbnation site. The, indeed honey-voiced Becky Filip is a real treat for these dark days.
Try:
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Dutch band Pondertone wishes you a Happy Christmas and a healthy and prosperous 2012... honestly.
As you've noticed, a lot of Holiday compilations are traditions already, like mistletoe and holly. Italian blog Polaroid posted their annual Christmas comp last week, featuring regulars like the the Ian Fays (another very good entry), Le Man Avec Les Lunettes and a really sparkling, spacey track by Welcome Back Sailors, a highlight if you ask me. Go HERE to download'm all.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Dutch popsoul band The Souldiers made a special Christmas song, and a video. This is how we do in Holland, baby.
'Another Catholic Christmas at the Federal Women's Reformatory in Alderson, West-Virginia for Iva Toguri' is probably the most intriguing title ever for a Christmas song. It's one of the tracks on the second installment of The Holidays Don't Have to Be So Rotten, a 'name your price' compilation on Flannelgraph Records. Only instrumental, moody, brooding tracks, by artists like Dolorean and Dirty Beaches (a personal fave). Try and find out more HERE
Monday, December 19, 2011
Local radio station KDHX in St Louis put together a varied mix of Christmas songs by local and national acts, all recorded live in the KDHX studio. Brave Combo probably is the best known band, the Funky Butt Brass Band was already featured on this blog. Really dig the Hammond-a-gogo-version of Jingle Bells by The Civil Tones, and the funny song by Lucky Old Sons. Most of the tracks are downloadable for free. Go HERE
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Pick up this year's mix of Jamaican Christmas goodies, AND all the other mixes John from Distinctly Jamaican Sounds blog made.
Originally by Margo Guryan, later redone by Claudine Longet and St Etienne, this cover of I Don't Intend to Spend Christmas Without You by Lovers & Poets is just as pretty.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Friday, December 16, 2011
Of course you check the greatest Christmas blog out there, Stubby's, as religiously as we do every day. But in case you don't, here's a round up of a few fantastic (FREE) songs you just can't afford to miss.
Norwegian producer Torkelson sprinkled his electronic magic all over Judy Garland's Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and then it sounded like this
UK Rapper Wiley never got the same attention as fellow grime-star Dizzee Rascal, but the latter never recorded a grand xmas song. Go here to check and download Cheer Up, It's Christmas
And finally, former Slits-guitarist Viv Albertine (pictured above) released a Christmas single that's just that. LOUD!
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Dutch jazz-pranksters Tin Men & the Telephone renamed themselves Tin Men & the Telephohohone for the season, 'cause they made a Christmas-album. But not as we know it. If you make tracks like these, you know that their version of classics like Jingle Bells and All I Want for Christmas sound, well, different.
But make no mistake, these guys are really, really good musicians. They invited singer Paul van Kessel (plus a very agitated route planning device) for their take on Chris Rea's immortal 'Driving home for Christmas'.
Really want to know who put the X in Xmas? See Wikipedia.
Let's put the X back in Xmas, Candye Kane and Country Dick once sang (see here).
Now the Dutch Tiny Little Big Band sings: You put the X in Xmas. Let's make Xmas mean something this year, I say!
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
In addition to this great compilation (sound quality debate aside, it IS a great compilation), Jan Kohlmeyer made a VERY funky Christmas mix for the Paris DJS blog. Go HERE to see the tracklist and download the mix for FREE.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
What's more fun than receiving Christmas wishes (or maybe even better: presents!) that are handmade by the sender? Our Twitter friends @karinjeurink (kazoo/vocals) and @martijnen (guitar/vocals) did just that: in 2010 they recorded their own cute little xmas video for all their friends. One year later it's here for everyone to enjoy:
Hiding under boxes of faded Christmas balls your mom keeps with the Christmas crafts you made back in grade school, Schnauzer Radio Orchestra pulled out an orange and brown Bakelite version of Winter Wonderland, complete with a SuperNES, a Stylophone, a Wurlitzer and an all girls 60s choir. What more could any mortal want for Christmas, besides a dry Martini and a big fireplace, I ask you.
In the words of keyboard player and all around Dutch cheese master Rob Geboers, "Do with this track as you please. Blog about it, remix it, give it away to your worst enemies, or just do a little nerdy dance to it."
Schnauzer Radio Orchestra - Winter Wonderland
Monday, December 12, 2011
I just looked back at some Christmas postings from 2006 and 2007 on Check The Cool Wax. I was surprised to find a lot of links to downloads still working. Click on the album cover above if you want to recapture a little of that childhood Christmas feeling. Get them while the links still work!
Merry Christmas!
Everyone's favourite Japanese girlie punkateers released a special Christmas single. Featuring their rendition of We Wish You A Merry Christmas, and their own Sweet Christmas. Gotta love these gals.
Shonen Knife - Sweet Christmas
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Paul Logister (born April 6 , 1964 in Heerlen) is a Dutch singer-songwriter. Paul was just another kid whose imagination was stimulated by the pop culture explosion of the 1960s.
Logister is - in his own words - a master of the pop song, from soulful ballads to country-style bouncersto out-and-out rockers. His song writing is clearly influenced by people like John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Joe Jackson and Chuck Berry. Now he comes up with a brand new single ‘Into white’. A nice seasonal track, but without the obligatory jingle bells and without mentioning the word 'christmas'.
Logister is - in his own words - a master of the pop song, from soulful ballads to country-style bouncersto out-and-out rockers. His song writing is clearly influenced by people like John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Joe Jackson and Chuck Berry. Now he comes up with a brand new single ‘Into white’. A nice seasonal track, but without the obligatory jingle bells and without mentioning the word 'christmas'.
As you may have noticed, the CAGG-crew loves black music, and Bandcamp. So when we bump into soulful xmas tunes on that great platform, we post 'm asap. John Black is a former Fishbone- and Miles Davis-sideman, who recorded this seasonal EP with covers and self-penned, bluesey songs.
Check:
The GED-label is a purveyor of fine soulful tunes, their seasonal comp features heroes like DeRobert & the Half-Truths.
Check:
Grillade. Never heard of before, but their Just a Sad Christmas song is D E E P.
Check
And finally, 'name your price' for this in fact nostalgic soulful Christmas song by, yes, The Nostalgics (no, not a cover of the Long Blondes track with the same title)
You rather hear something snotty and loud? Go here.
Check:
The GED-label is a purveyor of fine soulful tunes, their seasonal comp features heroes like DeRobert & the Half-Truths.
Check:
Grillade. Never heard of before, but their Just a Sad Christmas song is D E E P.
Check
And finally, 'name your price' for this in fact nostalgic soulful Christmas song by, yes, The Nostalgics (no, not a cover of the Long Blondes track with the same title)
You rather hear something snotty and loud? Go here.
No, not chosen by the CAGG-crew, but Florian Duijsens of Askmen.com. See here (and agree!). Via Twitter, Florian reminded me of a 'non shitty Christmas tune' that wasn't featured here yet. But should. See here. Or even better, go to Stubby's to find the FREE downloadlink.
By the way, when it comes to dubstep and Christmas, we think GLC said it best.
Friday, December 09, 2011
Here's how this works: Gijs posts a track from a Feist Inspired Playlist I made with Arja (see below). That reminded me of Ron Sexsmith, who wrote a song that Feist covered. Then I see this free Christmas album by Exohxo on Stubby's. That features a cover of Ron's Christmas track. So I wondered - are there more covers of Maybe This Christmas? Is Ron's song a Christmas classic yet? Well, he's getting there, I think. Covers from artists from all over the world, even a Swedish translation. It was used in a tv-series, there are various covers on Youtube.
Thursday, December 08, 2011
Nothing but great talents on this one. Stumbled upon it through Guuz and Arja's Perfect Feist Inspired Playlist. Beck + Wilco + Jamie Lidell + Feist = Awesome.
By the way, this is a cover of Skip Spence, better known as Jefferson Airplane's drummer. The original is worth your time, too:
If soulful or downright funky Christmas tunes are your thing (and they sure are mine), go to the wonderful Any Major Dude blog, to download a fresh, and various old compilations of the greatest x-mas songs ever recorded.
Go HERE if you like the boom-bap a little more. Including a rapping KITT car.
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Every month, Dutch music platform 3voor12 puts online a compilation of new Dutch artists, in various genres. This month, they asked bands and singers to send in Christmas track. Thirty-one did so. You can stream the comps via the Luisterpaal (CD1, CD2). Dutch hiphop, Dutch Americana, Dutch rock, Dutch electronica... it's all there (even Chris Rea is!) and most of it is pretty effing great. A few tracks are downloadable, like G.T. Thomas' Winter Birds, iET's Christmas Day, Jörgen Ben Jamin's Days of Christmas and That Band From Holland of course. THIS JUST IN: the gorgeous, Fleet Fox-y song It's Santa! by No Ninja Am I is also downloadable. Here.
Go see the video for Bertolfs English Roses (not a Christmas track, more a seasonal song) HERE
New wave Christmas classics. Can you name a seasonal track from, say 1977-1985? I just got acquinted with Basement 5's Last White Christmas from 1980, the last single from this British band that's best know for this track. Any more wavey suggestions?
Last year, blue-eyed soul singer Mayer Hawthorne recorded a beautiful version of Christmas Time is Here (yep, the Vince Guaraldi song). It's up for download again via Stones Throw. Also still available is Clare & The Reasons cover of Last Christmas, here.
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
FANTASTIC Christmas song by Diamond Rugs (= John McCauley, Ian Saint Pe (Black Lips), Hardy Morris (Dead Confederate), Steve Berlin (Los Lobos), Rob Crowell (Deer Tick), and Brian Dufresne (Six Finger Satellite)). [via Rollo & Grady]
Maya Solovey's take on Christmas is the kind of Christmas I long for all year. Warm and fluffy. Just listen to that sultry, soft voice of hers. Filles who sing in French, I can blog about that for years. In fact, that's what I did! Meb, from Canada, released another seasonal chanson (for free, or 'name your price') with the resonance-button up to eleven. Church-y!
Monday, December 05, 2011
Saturday, December 03, 2011
I've never related more to any song's lyrics. Ever. Wish the music of this Bicentennial Bear song was just as good, but I'll settle for kick-ass lyrics. Listen closely and you'll be rewarded with more funny lines than you can take. "I don't care who plays drums. All I want for Christmas is an Afghan Whigs reunion." Righteous.
Jamie Cullum & Eliza Doolittle sing a lovely version of Baby It's Cold Outside on Jamie's BBC Radio2 show. Up for download via Soundcloud (click below)
Jamie Cullum & Eliza Doolittle - Baby It's Cold Outside
Jamie Cullum & Eliza Doolittle - Baby It's Cold Outside
If Karen Carpenter had fronted Stereolab, it could've sounded like the songs of G.T. Thomas. This U.S.-born, Amsterdam-dwelling songwriter/arranger/producer released a very delicate, nifty album (go HERE), and wrote and recorded in a few weeks this lovely seasonal track. Enjoy.
Go HERE to download (free, or name your price)
As a fellow Christmas music addict, you DO follow kindred blogs like Stubby's, SWOT and M&B, right? Another bunch you want to check out are Big Rock Candy Mountain, for your daily dose of oddball, hard-rocking, psycho-bluesy Christmas songs. Also nice (yet kitschy) is Hi-Fi Holiday
Swedish rockers Mando Diao, best known for party songs like this one, made a sweet Christmas track with strings, flute and high-pitched organ. It's about a family hating each other during the holidays, so this sure will get you in the right mood ;)
Mando Diao - Christmas could have been good
Friday, December 02, 2011
Mr President, from France (no, not Mr Sarkozy, the band), will release a special Christmas track next week. It's an excellent dance track with lots of percussion, afrobeat-woodblock and screaming horns. LOVE this!
Mr President - It's Christmas Time (Soundcloud link)
Mr President - It's Christmas Time (Soundcloud link)
Photos Like Postcards from Darren Hayman on Vimeo.
Darren Hayman is an indie singer-songwriter who made a Christmas record (10 inch vinyl, the coolest of formats) with original songs. To promote that, he made a website on which free (!) Christmas songs are posted, by Hayman and his friends. Go HERE.
Thursday, December 01, 2011
You start throwing around some ideas for songs, and before you know it you end up with a Christmas album. It happened to Tom Smith (from Editors) and Andy Burrows (ex-Razorlight), Funny Looking Angels is one of the bestest seasonal releases of this year. A few covers, several smart originals. Dramatic, moody (single When the Thames Froze starts off with the word 'Goddamn'), but balanced. Short but sweet is the duet with angelic Agnes Obel.
The one compilation I was dying to hear, fell on my doormat today. And as it goes with things you want real bad, it's a bit of a letdown. The guys behind the Tramp-reissuelabel compiled a bunch of funky, soulful and hard to find Christmas songs from the 60s (bar two) by no-names like Detroit Junior and Rose Graham. Now, I love vinyl, I really dig the cracks and pops of an old black plate. But when you put vinyl to cd, you can do a better job then the Tramp-guys did for this comp. The sound is distorted, wobbles and is unbalanced. Could be that the source-records sound exactly like that, but I have a version of Gary Walker's Santa's Got a Brand New Bag (from a blog) that sounds waaay better then the one on the Tramp compilation. Be advised!
That said, there isn't a bad track on SS&FCP. The season never sounded so soulful
Lee Rogers - You won't have to wait till Xmas
We Three Keanes = record producer John Keane and his 17-year old twin daughters. They recorded a bunch of Christmas classics (ranging from O Come Emmanuel to Jingle Bell Rock). From the press-release: 'For years, the Keanes have made annual Christmas recordings for the entertainment of family and friends. This family tradition has evolved into O Christmas, Where Art Thou? a fully produced collection of nine traditional holiday songs rendered in a sparse, folksy style, with mostly acoustic instruments and tight three-part harmonies.' The cd is for sale via John's website.
Though a tad traditional for most Christmas-a-gogo ears, this version of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings, with some nice steelguitar, is a good one.
We Three Keanes - God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman/We Three Kings
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