Month: November 2016

Xmas Dance Party: week of rock (Sunday)

It’s our day of thrash. Rock has grown up but never quit rebelling.

Garage rock has an axe to grind, Santa’s Little Rockerz recall mojo nixon with their rockabilly meets monotonous noise release “Rockin’ with Rudolph.” That boogie woogie piano is monster, but their spirit is pretty pissed off.

More garage, The Fleshtones chant “Super Rock Santa.” Harder to dance to, impossible not to pogo to.

Light metal might be a descriptor for Firing Blanks with their “Rockin’ at Christmas.” This has the hallmarks of rage, but won’t break the lease. Pretty, pretty, pretty.

Also lightened up, Iron Maiden metal up a previous mention (Gary Glitter’s) “Another Rock and Roll Christmas.” Yeah, i guess we didn’t need to go there.

Smudging up the Elton John singsong “Step into Christmas” The Business make punk work out of nonsense. Hats off, chaps.

The Degraders fill my list with “Christmas Twist” (to which i could not in fact dance the twist). All the major garage and metal vitamins are here, kids.

CDM Chartbreakers mock and honor punk with “Rockin’ Little Christmas” an eandearinglittle ditty you just might walk across the room to.

Xmas Dance Party: week of rock (Saturday)

Rock also stems from country, boogie woogie comes from swing and blues after all. But country has tried to reclaim rock with varying degrees of success.

To clue you in, Cordell Jackson beats the hound dog with “Rock ‘N’ Roll Christmas,” an almost hillbilly country styling of swing. It’s class revolt, so take a step back and revere rock heritage.

Some down home chet atkins pickin’ canevoke rockabilly, but i hear old school country in “Rockin’ Boppin’ Christmas” by Mississippi Queen. Don’t be a square, bubba.

Brooks & Dunn are at their best with “Rockin’ Little Christmas” but is it rock? Nice beat… can dance to it… uh, no.

On the other boot let’s admit, we dig the trailer trash joy of some of that country. So let’s pause for the claus: Trailer Choir country rock “Rockin’ the Beer Gut“–one of those songs that’s funny but still kind of touching. Good old boys.

Overplaying the country (despite the saxophone) Knightsbridge keeps “Rockin’ Little Christmas” little. It’s a dance for two.

Honky tonk plays well into the rock. Christian Serpas & Ghost Town team up for a “Rockin’ ol’ Christmas.” And i believe this would call for a repeat on the jukebox.

Country style rock (a la The Dead, Allman Bros.) mellows the beat with apt guitarification. Twangy singing and–here–zydeco accordian (!) really string it out. “Rock ‘n’ Rolling Santa” by Swamp Doctor and Margherita, cher, doncha know.

Xmas Dance Party: week of rock (Friday)

Pop rock infiltrated hipster and class struggling revolters as soon as it started, so the scared middle class could feel in fashion.

Check out the big band safety Benny-Lee & The Ken Tones supply with the “Rockin’ and Rollin’ Santa Claus.” Strictly for the schmo from Kokomo.

There’s always room for bubblegum. Gary Glitter swamps up disco, bebop, and country for his “Another Rock and Roll Christmas.” Is he singing or heaving?

Retro Aussies ‘Ol 55 sneak a touch of boogie woogie soul into over-electricalated over-drummed “Rockin’ Xmas.” Little lateral move needed for this dance, just bopping in place would be fine.

Xmas Dance Party: week of rock (Thursday)

Rockabilly may have been jump jive swing western electric at one time, a grandpappy to rock ‘n’ roll, but today it’s music enslaved to a particular rhythm–hang the music, lyrics, character, syncopation… i mean, c’mon, dance!

Now, the bona fide uncut stuff sounds like Little Joey Farr and “Rock ‘N’ Roll Santa.” Note the lawless guitar, rule-breaking sax, and cry baby vocals for future reference.

Even better jailbait sultriness from Cathy Sharpe’s “North Pole Rock ‘N’ Roll.” It’s just that dirty. And so should be your dancing.

More originality from Chuck Blevins and “Sleighbell Rock.” This is the music your grandparent conceived to.

CUPIDS  sneer and snarl “Merry Christmas & Happy Rollickin’ Rollin’ New Year” with panache. Hey that sounds like somebody i’ve heard before!

Ah yes, Elvis. He’s rock–sort of (actually he’s in a genre called Elvis). So all impersonators stop here. Shakin’ Stevens gives us what Elvis can’t–one more Xmas tune. “Rockin’ Little Christmas Time” is mid-60s The King. It wails, woo!

So, there’s also Dennis Kolb, swiveling the pelvis for “Rockin’ Christmas Stocking.” Some authentic licks, but it’s all in fun.

One more Elvisinator: Ken Donelly Band with “Rockin’ into Christmas.” Nice recognizable beat. Any similarities to music previously played is purely intentional.

But let’s biker serious, as rockabilly is wont to do. Shotgun modulates “Rockabilly Santa” like their cool depended on it. Someone’s been practicing!

The Time Burners squeeze “Rock Rockin’ Christmas” like a moonshine soaked rag they need to get the last drop out of. But, a bit by the numbers for a song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bPj1Jpa5x0

Xmas Dance Party: week of rock (Wednesday)

Load me up with soulful rock!

Just to keep the beat, let’s tip the panama to doo wop as a precursor to rock. No better way than to acknowledge The Hepsters “Rockin’ and Rollin’ with Santa Claus.” It’s a gas.

More doo wop? At your service! Barry and the Highlights twist us into rock inevitability with “Xmas Bell Rock.” My oh my.

The white version would be Jon Cobert relying on brass for his R+B in his “Rockin’ Soul Christmas.” White folks do have soul, it just costs more.

Maybe it’s just me, but i hear Kashief Lindo’s reggae and i hear R+B. Try “Rockin’ Christmas” and tell me what you think.

Huey ‘Piano’ Smith and the Clowns from 1962 deliver “Rock ‘n’ Roll Santa Claus” on time with postage due. It’s R+B! (and maybe a touch of garage disonance)–

Xmas Dance Party: week of rock (Tuesday)

The explosion of Christmas novelty, music availability, counterculture–rock ‘n’ roll all overlap. So, let’s take a few days to celebrate rock and xmas.

Let’s start near the beginning. The first songs to be called rock were just boogie woogie with a harder guitar line. Have you heard The Moods’s “Rockin’ Santa Claus“? Then you know.

Sandy Baron swings jive into rock with “Swingin’ Santa Claus.” It’s authentic, but not memorable.

Slowing the rock roots way down, “Rockin’ Christmas” plays retro like it’s a fun Vegas show with in-crowd references. But Valentine Green has some loungey-big band chops and makes old-timey rock seem cute.

Can you call boogie woogie rock ‘n’ roll and be done with it? Well, plenty do. The Jeff Archer Group cram some Jerry Lee licks into their “Rockin’ Christmas Boogie” but still sound like Friday night at Shari’s.

More retro wave riders include Robert Wells and Little Mike Watson. Their “A Very Merry Rockin’ Good Christmas” just sounds a bit tired.

Can you call it rock when you can’t understand the words? (Well i presume you can’t.) Try The Renovators with “Rockin’ Good Christmas in Hebrew.” You may feel guilty afterward, but you may dance uncontrollably as well.

The Tractors sound boogie woogie still, but increase the insistency of the beat in this orignery stylin’ of “Rockin’ This Christmas.” Dance to the revolution of the evolution.

Xmas Dance Party: jive

Jive is an over-encompassing category of jazz dancing that begins with Cab Calloway and ends with rock’n’roll sock hopping. (In ballroom it’s black dancing, all that stuff African Americans did better that we want to appropriate for competetive struttin’.)

Miss Gail and the Jumpin’ Jam Band’s “Santa’s Jingle and Jive” sounds like an instructional for the impaired; it’s clear and clearly enunciated. But it has a spark.

Let’s honor Dave Rudolf with cool and beyond

for his “Santa’s Got a Zoot Suit.” This pachuco identifier isn’t the same ethnicity of jive, but it has all the symptoms. It’s jumpin’.

Much as i love discovering nuggets on the internet in addition to my collection, some are irresponsibly posted as that song without provenance. Why, that’s like publishing a paper without scholarly citations! Yet, Kelvin Pratt’s offering of “Santa Jive” is way too cool to pass up, even without who did it when. You gotta hear this one. Straight from the fridge, dad.

Xmas Dance Party: doo woppety doo

Honestly, who can dance to male harmony?

But doo-wop creates a slow motion bellyrubbing sensibility that drives a man and a woman (or whatever) together for some kinetic connection. Call it dance.

Eddie Floyd has some jazzy finger-snapping playfulness in his “Doo Wop Christmas.” But could i dance to it? Oh, yeah. Just.

I don’t know if doo-wop is too street corner to credit, but some boss tunes get the disrespect of mislabeling. The Martels want you to think it’s a “Rockin’ Santa Claus.” when in fact it’s a doo woppin’ Santa Claus. Dig it. Granted we’re digging the roots of rock, but–oh, bother–what a messy gardening metaphor!

The Marshall Brothers call it boogie woogie, but you know the right steps to this early R&B clearly DOO WOP number: “Mr. Santa’s Boogie.” Jive, you turkey!

Let’s get it right: “Doo Wop Christmas” by The Van-dells has the lively scat and vocal braiding that really rocks. Time. To. Dance.

Xmas Dance Party: boogie woogie

Boogie Woogie began before the turn of the century with a lot of piano banging and chord changes. It means much more now, but it’s always been a call to dance.

For a taste of the low down dirty original feeling, The Chicago Kingsnakes clang-a-lang-a-lang-a-lang on “Boogie Woogie Christmas” from the superior album Holiday Boogie. Feel that repetitive carpal tunnel beat? Yeah, that’s right.

Jazzier, but still rowdy, Jimmy Maddox gets virtuosoistic all over the 88 keys with “Boogie Woogie Christmas Card.” Check out those changes: is he more than one man?!

Brain Setzer (and band) have retro-fitted tunes like “Boogie Woogie Santa Claus,” modernizing the licks, but still, nicely, beholding to the big band smooth-interchange of instruments. Mabel Scott beats the blues off that cat.

Deana Carter does a country version of another “Boogie Woogie Santa Claus” but she vamps the siren intimacy in keeping with big band sexiness. Kind of a waste of talent.

Jimmy Rankin wails out a Canadian country electric “Boogie Woogie Christmas” by the numbers. He’s selling it, but–Canadian boogie woogie, eh?

Strangely, this wild renegade music is so old and institutionalized we have children’s versions. Paul and Teresa Jennings of Music K8 have quieted down some screaming sounds for “Blitzen’s Boogie.” There’s a cool song in there somewhere.

For some (updated) jellyroll-style boogie woogie, bet on The Tractors.”Santa Claus is Coming (in a Boogie Woogie Choo Choo Train)”is the piano you have been looking for. I mean, damn.

Xmas Dance Party: be bop

Be bopping is something that you know it when you know it. It’s fancy jazz jive dancing, but ‘small’ big band classy. It’s post-swing, pre-doo wop.

Try out Earney Vandegriff’s “Be Bop Santa Claus.” Are you not caught on it to? Slide, cat. Ball that jack.