HOLIDAYS 09 - WEEK 2

Good morning, and welcome to week two.

Not a very festive picture at right. For those who don't recognize the evil geniuses, that's The Monarch and the woman who at the time of recording today's song was known as Dr. Girlfriend, but is now known as Dr. Mrs. The Monarch. If you didn't already know all that, you should be watching The Venture Bros.

For several years, the good people over at IGN gave away free mp3s of [adult swim] characters singing Christmas tunes. Today's little gift is one of those.


(Dec. 8) The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend - "Peace on Earth / Little Drummer Boy" Released for free online back in 2004. Yes, the raspier voice is Dr. Girlfriend. Buy The Venture Bros. swag (DVDs / CDs / clothing).

(Dec. 9) The Knife - "Reindeer" The Knife are an electro-pop band from Sweden. This song was released for free on the inter-web back in 2006, as a Christmas gift to the fans. Buy Silent Shout regular or deluxe.

(Dec. 10) The Fratellis - "Lonesome Anti-Christmas Blues" Scotland's Fratellis are currently on hiatus. This was issued as a non-album single last year, before they (hopefully temporarily) went their separate ways. Buy Costello Music.

(Dec. 11) Tiny Tim - "Santa Claus Has Got The AIDS This Year" Tiny Tim was always an interesting performer, but where the hell he got the idea for this one I don't know. Apparently, this was issued as a single in the mid-eighties, while he was attempting to revive his career. Maybe he was courting some controversy. Whatever the reason this is one of the most bizarre holiday tunes I've ever come across. Buy something completely unrelated, to get that song out of your head.

(Dec. 12) The Ramones - "Merry Christmas (I Don't Wanna Fight Tonight)" Not exactly a hard one to hunt down this time of year, but I needed something with a bit more classic cool to cleanse the pallet after that Tiny Tim tune. This one originated as a non-album b-side of "I Wanna Live" in 1987, but has since found its way onto several hits packages and Christmas compilations. Buy Weird Tales of The Ramones box set.

(Dec. 13) Candypants - "The Happiest Time of the Year" I don't know heaps about Candypants. They're from L.A., and they put a very cool album out back in 2000. This very festive song wasn't on that album. That's all I know. Buy the album.

(Dec. 14) Tom Waits - "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis" (Live) Yeah, everybody posts this song everywhere this time of year. At least I'm taking a slightly different approach - this one's recorded live during his appearance on Austin City Limits, more than 30 years ago. Buy every Waits product you can get your hands on, if you know what's good for you.

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H08 - TOM WAITS

Tom Waits - "Silent Night" I was going to post "Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis", but that one is usually all over the blogs this time of year. Then I remembered that Tom had recorded this one for a charity album back in 1989. I thought the lesser known song was more appropriate for mine, though "Christmas Card. . ." is still a favorite of mine.

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PRIMUS

Primus are a funk-rock band from California. They had a string of alternative hits in the nineties with songs like “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver”, “My Name Is Mud” and “Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver”. The latter of which they played on David Letterman’s show, while dressed as penguins (as pictured).

Fronted by the distinctive bass playing of Les Claypool, they’ve toured with acts as wide ranging as U2 and Public Enemy.

Along the way they released a bunch of albums and eps, but not a whole lot of non-album tracks. Here’s pretty much all I’ve found:

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Primus - “Poetry and Prose” From The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience.
Primus - “Bastardizing Jellikit” A live version of “Jellikit” was released on their first album, Suck On This. This is a studio remake, from the Airheads soundtrack.
Tom Waits and Primus - “On The Road” (Jack Kerouac) Primus and Waits have often collaborated, most notably when Tom provided the voice of Tommy the Cat on Sailing the Seas of Cheese.
Primus with Ozzy Osbourne - “N.I.B.” (Black Sabbath cover) For those who aren’t Sabbath fans, the initials stand for “Nativity In Black”, which is also the name of the tribute album this comes from.
Primus - “Master of Puppets” (live Metallica cover) If you saw the documentary Some Kind of Monster, you already know Les went to high school with some of the guys from Metallica. Here he plays a short instrumental version of one of their tunes.
Tom Waits with Primus - “Big In Japan” Another collaboration with Waits. From his album Mule Variations.
Primus - “South Park Theme” The creators of South Park were fans of the band, and when they found out Les was a fan of the original South Park short, they asked him to write the theme song to the series.
Primus - “Mephisto and Kevin” From the South Park album Chef Aid.

Primus discography:

Suck On This, 1989 (buy) (live)
Frizzle Fry, 1990 (buy)
Sailing the Seas of Cheese, 1991 (buy)
Miscellaneous Debris, 1992 (buy) (covers ep)
Pork Soda, 1993 (buy)
Tales from the Punchbowl, 1995 (buy)
Brown Album, 1997 (buy)
Rhinoplasty, 1998 (buy) (covers ep)
Antipop, 1999 (buy)
Animals Should Not Try To Act Like People, 2003 (buy) (dvd and ep)

TOM WAITS

Here’s another one of those if- you- haven’t- heard- of- him- you- should- just- stop- trying- to- pretend- you- know- about- music posts.

Tom Waits was born in California in 1949. He began his professional recording career in 1973, with an album of bluesy beat-poet style songs. Over the years he has evolved into an avant garde singer-songwriter (and actor) whose style spans the range of jazz, folk, blues, experimental, rock and funk. And probably a few more that aren’t popping to mind at the moment. But then, you already knew all that.

A couple years back, he released a three disc set of rarities (highly recommended), but as expansive as that was, there’s still quite a bit that didn’t get covered in that set. Here’s a few other things for those die hard fans:

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Tom Waits - “The Fall of Troy” (solo radio session) Recorded March 31st, 1998 at KCRW studios. Released on Rare On Air, Vol. 4.
Ken Nordine with Tom Waits - “Thousand Big Bangs” Taken from Ken’s album Devout Catalyst.
Tom Waits - “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” (live James Brown cover) Recorded at Massey Hall. Toronto, Canada. October 7, 1987.
Tom Waits - “It’s Alright with Me” (Cole Porter cover) From the tribute album Red Hot + Blue.
Thelonious Monster with Tom Waits - “Adios Lounge” From Thelonious Monster’s self titled album.
John Hammond with Tom Waits - “I Know I Been Changed” (traditional) Released on John’s album Wicked Grin.

Tom Waits discography: (while all of these are recommended, my top five are *)

Closing Time, 1973 (buy)
The Heart of Saturday Night, 1974 (buy)
Nighthawks at the Diner, 1975* (buy) (live)
Small Change, 1976 (buy)
Foreign Affairs, 1977 (buy)
Blue Valentine, 1978 (buy)
Heartattack and Vine, 1980 (buy)
One From the Heart, 1982 (soundtrack)
Swordfishtrombones, 1983 (buy)
Rain Dogs, 1985* (buy)
Frank’s Wild Years, 1987 (buy)
Big Time, 1988 (buy) (live, but they chopped out all the monologues)
Night On Earth, 1992 (soundtrack)
Bone Machine, 1992* (buy)
The Black Rider, 1993 (buy)
Mule Variations, 1999* (buy)
Blood Money, 2002 (buy)
Alice, 2002 (buy)
Real Gone, 2004 (buy)
Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards, 2006* (buy) (rarities collection)

For further info, I recommend the Tom Waits Library.