Parkington Sisters "Christmastime Is Here"

Though it may be Christmastime, as a rule I'm pretty stingy.  At least when it comes to giving out my email address.

Yes, you can get yourself tons of coupons and free shipping and samples and discounts and gift cards and hoo-hah, if you acquiesce to the demand that you get on somebody's mailing list.

No interested.  I get enough junk mail.

But every once and a while, it's worth it.

Like when you can get a free Parkington Sisters Christmas EP.

Enjoy!  And listen for their version of "Christmastime In Here" in rotation at mvyradio.

Lianne La Havas "Age"

Monday was the last day that most of the folks I know in Record Promotions will work for 2013.  The trade publications are closed, and no one really works records over the holiday.

That makes it a good time to start cleaning out the iTunes "Going For Adds" playlist that I keep.

I am constantly adding songs to that playlist throughout the year.  I'm adding songs I've been asked to consider for MVY airplay, and I want to be able to listen to them multiple times.  As I decide "this one isn't for us," I delete them off the list.

Some songs hang around longer than others.

And when I get to the end of the year, I always find a song or two that I didn't put onto the station and probably won't, but never deleted because I kinda like them.

Like this one.  La Havas has an interesting voice.  And this song's about about loving a much older man (not unlike one of my favorite Aimee Mann songs, "Mr. Harris").

Maybe it won't be a hit, but maybe you'll add it to your playlist.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Nick Lowe "Christmas At The Airport"

When I was a kid, here's what we did on Christmas Eve and Day.

On December 24th at about 2pm, we loaded into the station wagon and drove 2 hours toward western Massachusetts, to get a 4pm "Christmas Pageant" Mass, hosted by Father Brian Flatley, a friend of my Dad's.

By 5:30, we were in Stow at Uncle Joe and Auntie Peg's house for an extravaganza with my Mom's extended family.

Back in the car by 10pm.

Nearing midnight, we had reached home in Newburyport, but I went right back out the door to my friend Brian's house, where their Christmas Eve party was just winding down.

Home by 2am.  Back up now later than 7am.

After presents and breakfast, we were in the wagon once again, this time to Burlington, MA, for a check in with my sister's Godparents.

Then on down the road to Natick, for a meal at my Dad's brother's house.

By nightfall, we were making an end-of-the-run stop at my mother's Aunt Clem's, where we had circled back to seeing a few of the relatives from Joe and Peg's.  And for a number of years, my Great Grandmother was in a nursing home across the street, so we popped in there too.

Then the long quiet ride home.

You can think about Santa and snow and pie and holly and pine needles and mistletoe and even office parties, when you think about Christmas.

But what the bulk of the holiday really involved, was traveling.  And I know this is true for many of you, who spend hours, if not days, in transit just so you can enjoy a little Holiday time with family.

Nick Lowe faces that reality of the holidays on his new Christmas record, with this typically jocular ditty about "Christmas At The Airport."


Hear the song on Youtube.

The Hold Steady "Killer Parties"

Attention songwriters!

There are Christmas songs about snow and snowmen.  About good presents and bad presents.  About Santa and Rudolph and all kinds of Christmas characters.  Songs about happy Christmases and sad Christmases.  Even songs about Christmas sandwiches.

But to my surprise, there are no songs (that I could find) about office Christmas parties gone wrong.

I mention this, because the mvyradio staff party was last night, and I was looking for a good hangover-office-Christmas-party tune.  And it doesn't seem to exist.

A good song often works because the theme is relate-able.

Well, this theme should resonate, as most of us have gone to a work party and either gotten too drunk, or watched someone in our office get too drunk.

So get on it, songwriters.  This could be your ticket.  Write the right song, and it will get played every December!

In the meantime, here's a song about a non-holiday-affiliated hangover.

"If she said we partied, then I'm pretty sure we partied.  I really don't remember."


Hear the song on Youtube.

Henry Rollins "Twas The Night Before Christmas"

Here's another Weekend Post:
I love Henry Rollins, especially when he's in storytelling mode.



That being said, I'm not sure this one puts me in the the Christmas spirit.


Hear the story on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are fun to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

The Vandals "Oi! To The World"

Here's another Weekend Post:
It's gonna be a punk rock Christmas . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are fun to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

Bruce Springsteen "High Hopes"

One of Bruce Springsteen's under-appreciated talents is his ability to pick covers.

Think of songs like "Jersey Girl," "Trapped," "Raise Your Hand" or "My Ride's Here."  The average person---and even many true Bruce fans---has no idea that Springsteen didn't write these tunes.

Bruce has always covered songs that not only fit his familiar themes (like his Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger covers) and his love of previous eras (like his Elvis and Little Richard covers).

But he is also very successful at finding songs the sound like he could have written them.

Such is the case with his new single, "High Hopes," originally performed by The Javalinas.  Check out these lyrics:

Monday morning runs to Sunday night
Screaming slow me down before the new year dies
Well it won't take much to kill a loving smile
And every mother with a baby crying in her arms, singing
Give me help, give me strength
Give a soul a night of fearless sleep
Give me love, give me peace
Don't you know these days you pay for everything
Got high hopes
I got high hopes

Pretty Springsteen-y, no?


Hear "High Hopes" on Youtube.


Hear the original version of "High Hopes" on Youtube.


Hear "Jersey Girl" on Youtube.


Hear "Trapped" on Youtube.


Hear "Raise Your Hand" on Youtube.


Hear "My Ride's Here" on Youtube.

Christopher Dennis "The Christmas Sandwich"

Seven full days after Thanksgiving, I went to the refrigerator.

The mashed potatoes were long gone.

The vegetables hadn't lasted more than a day or two past the holiday.

And the last bit of turkey had been eaten yesterday.

There was only stuffing.

But it was stuffing with sausage and apples in it.

I LOVE stuffing.  So I wasn't about to waste it.

Yes, I ate a stuffing sandwich, with a little mayonnaise.  That's right, a bread sandwich.

I point this out because Thanksgiving has the reputation of being a Sandwich holiday.   But as the song points out, Christmas can provide a pretty spectacular sandwich too . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

Robert Clary "Alouette"

I've mentioned before that I was a strangely adult-like small child.

In the past I've attributed it to things like being the oldest child in my family or the youngest child in the neighborhood, or being a very verbal child, or having parents that modeled an older-school behavior.

One thing that definitely played a role was TV, but I don't know if this is a cause or an effect.

Today, if my kids want to watch TV, there are endless choices.  Endless age-appropriate choices.  We have 4 PBS stations.  Plus DVDs.  Plus the internet and Netflix.  Our kids can watch kid shows.

When I was a kid, the choices were not so abundant.  And if there wasn't a kids show on TV, you watched something that wasn't a kids show.

Actually, most of my peers just went outside or to their rooms, and played.

But I loved TV of all kinds.

And thought I might have only been 7 or 8 or 9 years old, I spent hours and hours watching shows that were neither geared for my age-group, or even my decade.

The UHF channels in the afternoon would air series from the 60s that an elementary school kid in the 80s should have had no business watching.  But I loved shows like McHale's Navy and That Girl and Adam-12 and such.

I'm guessing a lot of the jokes and context and even plot sailed right over my head.  But I know I absorbed quite a bit, too.

Because when my 2nd grade teacher asked if anyone knew the song "Alouette," I said yes.

Here's why I know I was a "strangely adult-like child."

When my teacher seemed surprised that I knew the song and could sing it, she asked---pressed even---where I had heard it.

And I distinctly remember thinking that she had to think it was inappropriate and strange that suddenly the class discussion was about to be taken over by an 8 year old who was going to explain the plot-line of an episode of "Hogan's Heroes."  But explain I did, about how Lebeau (Robert Clary) was singing the song as part of a ruse to distract some Nazis during a prison camp talent show.

My teacher seemed unfazed (and now that I have a child in elementary school, I realize that teacher hear all kinds of embarrassing/inappropriate stuff from kids about things their parents do or say) by how the discussion had turned, and she went about teaching the class the song.

But I was keenly aware that most of my peers had no idea what I was talking about, and that once again, I was an 8-year old talking like---and to---an adult, not a kid.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Rhett Miller "Here It Is Christmastime"

Ahh, the delightful Rhett Miller (and The Old 97s too).

He seems to have become a part of Christmas in my family.

Last year, I gave my sister the new Rhett Miller live album.

And the year before, a bunch of us within the family bought tickets to see The Old 97s, for each other, so we could all go together.

Will there be gifts along these same lines this year?  You bet, but I don't want to say who's getting what, what with Christmas still 2 weeks away.

But Rhett himself seems to enjoy the holiday.

Below is a Christmas video he posted last year.

And this week, I downloaded a new, free Christmas song called "Christmas Is Coming" from this site, which you can get too.

Oh, and if you want to give anyone the Gift Of Rhett . . . he's on the solo tour, hitting Johnny D's in Somerville at the end of February.


Here the song on Youtube.