Local Support 068: Thee Holiday Spectacular!

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Local Support 068: Thee Holiday Spectacular!

POSTED: Saturday, December 20, 2008, 10:29 PM

This post was originally published with the wrong byline. It was written by Jimmy Viola

[audio:http://stream.citypaper.net/music/localsupport068.mp3]

Ho ho ho. Welcome to the Local Support Holiday Spectacular. My new year's resolution: quit comparing Local Support artists to food.

The A-sides & Sun Airway kick off the podcast with the Christmas-themed "Santa Please" off of Peace On Earth: A Charity Holiday Album II. The song could very well be the last new music from the now-defunct A-Sides to ever grace our ears, so thank Santa or Xenu for one final treat.

Actually, I hate Christmas. Think about Santa for a second: A fat old man who lives in the coldest corner of the earth who, for one night, flies through the air on a sleigh pulled by eight horned beasts, knows where we sleep at night and everything we've done, bad or good, and whether its down our chimney, through our back door, or disguised as a relative, breaks into children's homes for milk and cookies. Regardless, Gang's "Little Drummer Boy" melted my Scrooge-like heart, partially because it sounded like a mix of Devo and Miss Piggy singing Christmas carols.

Lyrics like "Toyland Toyland Little Girl and Boy Land/once you pass its borders you can never return again", which Leopolde perform, but did not write, further the notion that Christmas is a pedophile's fantasy holiday. Musically speaking, their cover of the popular (and slightly creepy) song has the affect of riding a tilt-a-whirl through the fun house at Neverland Ranch after eating too much cotton candy. Effervescent, but also a bit unsettling and disorienting.

If you listen carefully, the down beats at the beginning of every four count for Paper Masques' "Auld Lang Syne" sound just like Facebook chat notifications. I keep checking my computer every four seconds to see if Paris Hilton has returned any of my messages. (She hasn't.)

For The Swimmers, another fixture on Local Support, the Christmas sound they sing of consists of upbeat, hard-rock drumming with deep brass and a synth lead similar to "Boys don't Cry".

If there was ever an epilepsy-inducing Christmas song, the honor belongs to Emotron. They score extra points for their lyrics on their electro-tinged "Santa Clause (I Still Believe in You)," which just so happens to be the theme song (at least in my mind) of a girl I dated in high school.

Brown Recluse Sings' "Purple Snowflakes," a song about Christmas in Chernobyl, sounds so fittingly rustic, melancholy, and like Dr. Dog on a rainy day, I checked the playlist to make sure I wasn't hallucinating from the radiation.

"I Know What Donnie Jeffcoat is Getting For Christmas" — an alien abduction. The Sw!ms yuletide tune evokes images of Christmas trees in outer space and elves on Mars.

Favorite song of the podcast goes to Atom & His Package for combining social satire on Right Wing Conservatives and pop culture, funny lyrics about being Jewish on Christmas, and synthesizer parts eerily reminiscent of Aqua. So Merry Christmas to all, and shove it, Bill O'Reilly.

Go download it now at citypaper.net/podcast.

The A-Sides & Sun Airway - "Santa Please" - Peace On Earth: A Charity Holiday Album II (c)
Gang - "Little Drummer Boy" - Cdr
Leopulde - "Toyland" - A Familyre Christmas-Vol. 2 (c)
Paper Masques - "Auld Lang Syne" - Oh Come All Ye earSnake (c)
The Bigger Lovers - "For Christ's Sake" - This Affair Never Happened... And Here are Eleven Songs About It

The Swimmers - "The Christmas Song" - mp3
The Emotron - "Santa Clause (I Still Believe in You)" - Chicken Ranch Christmas 2008
Brown Recluse Sings - "Purple Snowflakes" - mp3
The Sw!ms - "I Know What Donnie Jeffcoat's Getting For Christmas" - Festooned
The Classic Brown - "Comin' On Christmas" - AR8 (c)

Atom & His Package - "What WE Do On Christmas" - The My Pal God Holiday Record (c)
Pattern Is Movement - "O, Holy Night" - Peace On Earth: A Charity Holiday Album II (c)
Surefire Broadcast - "Let It Snow" - mp3
Johnny & The High Keys - "The Christmas Game" - Absolutely Allentown (c)
Adam Arcuragi - "The Christmas Song" - S/T

The Original Sins - "Bethlehem" - Bethlehem
Zelda Pinwheel - "Little Drummer Boy" - Oh Come All Ye earSnake (c)
Jet Weston - "Jingle Bells" - mp3
King God - "Synthetic Christmas" - mp3
The Castle Arms - "Forever Eve" - Arbor Records Christmas Collection 7 (c)

Eltro - "The Color Of Snow" - Happy Holidays From Miner Street, 1996 (c)

Duration: 1:20:08

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