Year-round Yuletide oddities
Overlooked Kentuckian folk singer Chuck Picklesimer has a killer Christmas album all lovers of novelty must seek out: Dead Ninja Christmas.
Words not do him right good. You gotta hear him to believe him. When you pair his word salad with this ADHD video cobbled together by his own talented hands, however, it’s Katie, bar the door!
Not every traffic mishap has an unhappy ending.
The Road Kill Band are sad dads (still with the dream of a band) (playing for ungrateful drunks at the American Legion Hall). They don’t actually kill the deer they run over (in song) but wish they had in “Road Kill Christmas.”
Good listen.
Some living things are not meant to shuffle off this mortal coil at That time of year, but by virtue of their seasonal overexposure we understand–collision happens.
Back to good old Bob Rivers–AGAIN (he’s everywhere! He’s Everywhere!). His “I Came upon a Roadkill Deer” puts us in mind of the blessing of the holidays to be a kid: so Dad has to clean up the unexpected aftermath of driving in the dark over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house.
What else does death on Xmas put us in the mind for? Oh yeah, tree sacrifice!
Naturally, Bob Rivers lyrically plays out this deforestational dirge with his instrumental (a chainsaw solo!) “O Christmas Tree.” Message much, Bobby boy?
I’ve already referenced the more expose-styled “Kill a Tree for Christ” last Christmas Day. But the subject of whimsically cut down trees live on in Screaming Headless Torsos’ “Dead Christmas Trees.” (We’ll cover The holy symbol of the evergreen another time–it’s just their deaths concern us for now.)
SHT just dropped their odd new album a year ago, but this 2011 single marked an end to the five-year drought of releases for this south of the border touring group. It’s good stuff (and the video is branches of fun), but is it jazz?
So death extends beyond the human realm (and holy ghost territory). Now please consider the animals. And the punk music about them.
Punk music may turn the pathos of poverty into danceable jingles. And the drama of ordinary life magnified to federal cases.
I don’t know this Krishna Naloka 108, but when a bloke sings about turkeys for Christmas you can bet he’s Brit (a prerequisite for punk). And his music, it’s so catchy! “Let’s All Murder Turkeys (for Jesus)!”
A quick word from our sponsor: the hope for all humanity.
I’m sure some of you are thinking: with the crass modernization/commercialization of Christmas what about the death of all spirituality, the death of JC’s message, the death of the common good…? (You know: figurative death!?)
We got you covered, English majors everywhere.
Here on tax day we cash in all our chips and pay Caesar his due: a candied-up punk protest agin the the manufacturers and the media and The Machine with The Culture in Memoriam’s “Santa’s Song.” (Spoiler alert: someone jolly gets crucified!)
On the other hand, we all need to allow for sadness (i saw that in a Pixar movie).
So here’s a how-to self destruct from the Sick Puppies: “Killing Myself for Christmas.” It’s millennial rebellion! Take that Mom and Dad!
Since love loss leads so easily to commit seppuku, we need an anthem for suicide watch for the Nativity.
Please consider this Up With People version by Private Instigators: “Please Don’t Kill Yourself this Christmas.” Complete with a PA hotline phone number at the end.
I want to live–to open presents!
El Vez sings of love, loss, and the blues with his “Christmas Wish.”
Pete the Elf had to clue me to listen to the last second of the song to get the point blank point. Thanks, man.
Here’s the 600 pound gorilla killer sentiment concerning holiday stress: grieving a loved one during the merriest of times.
The imagery of Versus the World here with “Blue and Cold” borders on that fun rockabilly sendup ‘I Want My Baby Back‘ (NON-HOLIDAY NOVELTY SONG ALERT) where our forlorn survivor digs up his lost love to crawl back beside her and cover up, lowering the creaking coffin lid. Here our pathetic hero lives with his loss like she’s still there (Alan Rickman movie alert). Sorry to reference this all over the place: this is an original and shocking requiem and deserves a quiet listen.