September in Song

It's Labor Day weekend and somehow Summer 2010 is officially coming to a close. For those of us in Chicago, it was as far-too-brutally hot a summer as it was a far-too-brutally snowy winter, so for once I can't say I'm all that sorry to see it coming to an end.

Weather-wise, early September is probably one of my favorite times of year. The humidity is gone and there's a crispness to the air that hints at the coming winter without reminding you how much you're actually going to hate that.

September is one of my favorite times of the year musically as well. Maybe it's the end-of-summer blues, but for some reason, many artists have chosen to write contemplative, slightly uneasy, moving, bitter or beautiful songs about the waning days of summer and all the emotions that can accompany that transition. Without further ado, here are my Top Five September Songs. Put 'em on your iPod and go enjoy these precious few weeks of glorious pre-fall weather.


5. Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day

We'll start with the most recent. This one is bitter to the max, overplayed on the radio to the max and not even really one of my personal favorites. But it is September-themed and most of the other songs on this list are a bit dated, so I thought I'd include something hip for the kids. Green Day gets angsty in a formulaic, high school way. Whatever they're crying about probably won't matter at all in a few years. Wake them up...or don't.


4. September by Earth, Wind and Fire

OK, now we're getting somewhere. Unlike Green Day's effort, this song can't get enough of September, which is more like how I feel about it. The song revels in how much fun Earth, Wind and Fire had in a particular September and compels you to remember it, too. Also, it's really catchy. Your foot is tapping right now. You didn't even notice.

Bonus: YouTube band Pomplamoose provides an equally foot-tapping cover!


3. September in the Rain by Frank Sinatra

If you get past the opening riff that sounds like an off-key version of the theme from Jeopardy, you'll hear Sinatra's pretty little rendition of this pop standard. It manages to be sentimental and wistful without being emo. Take a note, Green Day. This song originally appeared on what is arguably my favorite Sinatra album, Sinatra's Swingin' Session!!!. Any album that has three exclamation points in its title has got to be good.

2. September Grass by James Taylor

I came across this song randomly on Pandora and was taken in by the smooth guitar licks and the fact that James Taylor's voice hasn't changed at all despite his long, hard livin' career. This song came out in 2002, but Sweet Baby James has still got it and does a great job integrating wistful end-of-summer imagery into an easy listening love song.

1. The Summer Wind by Frank Sinatra

Ah, yes. Old Blue Eyes (and he was already past the September of His Years when he recorded this song) gives us the official song for the end of the summer. Any summer. Every summer. And he doesn't even have to mention September. The song's arrangement evokes exactly what Sinatra is singing about and even sort of sounds like that crisp wind blowing through the trees that I mentioned earlier. I can't explain it. Also, the song is used as part of the score in Matchstick Men, which by extension is a great movie to watch during this time of year. (but that's a separate list for a separate post)

What other end-of-summer songs should I be listening to? Now is the time!

'Nuttin' for Christmas' is actually quite somethin'

Courtesy of my animation buff brother, here is one last cup of Christmas cheer. It's a newly released animated short around a Christmas novelty song that I neglected to include in my previous post: Stan Freberg's immortal version of "Nuttin' For Christmas," which was originally released in 1955.

This animated version was single-handedly produced by animator Doug Compton and it's pretty brilliant. I've been listening to this song or many, many Christmases and Compton's animation closely matches what I've been picturing in my mind all this time. I like the fact that his interpretation gives the song new life and it really seems like this cartoon was meant to go with the song all along. It just took 55 years for them to come together...

Enjoy and Happy New Year!

The Fleeting Novelty of the Novelty Christmas Song

This is a big year for the most famous novelty Christmas song ever, as it is the 30th anniversary of the immortal, much-maligned "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer."

Good Morning America did a segment on the tune, but annoyingly doesn't allow you to embed their videos, so you'll have to go to their site to watch it.

After hearing the back story, I actually appreciate the song a little more now. I've followed a strict "turn it off" policy for the last several years, but seeing Dr. Elmo, an old retired veterinarian who recorded the song for his friends and never expected it to go anywhere, the whole thing is a bit more palatable. It's not his fault the radio drove his song into the ground.

Also, I had somehow never seen the 1983 music video.

Novelty songs are aptly named, as the novelty usually wears off after a few listens. Nevertheless, I've heard a few over the years that have stuck with me and are worth dusting off once every Christmas season.

In no particular order, here are my Top 5 Novelty Christmas Songs. Don't overdo it.

Top 5 Christmas Saxophone Solos

With hundreds (thousands?) of Christmas songs to choose from, there are a seemingly endless number of ways to classify them and lots of "Top 5 This" or "Best of That" lists to be made. This is the first of a few unorthodox classifications I'll be adding to the pile this year.

I realized a while back that there are quite a few Christmas songs containing truly great saxophone solos. The saxophone is one of those incredibly instruments that has been almost universally neglected by post-1970s mainstream music with rare exceptions by Dave Matthews and Bruce Springsteen. Nevertheless, the horn's ability to express emotion is rarely topped by other instruments, as anyone who has ever listened to classic jazz music can attest.

Fortunately the saxophone comes out of hibernation for Christmas and takes its rightful place in the alternatively joyous, wistful and nostalgic sounds of holiday music. A well-executed sax solo goes beyond a few pleasingly placed notes that complement the melody. The best saxophone solo will stand out from the rest of the song and say, "Notice me!", and you do. The length of the solo can vary, but long or short, you can feel it.

Surprisingly, some of my favorite saxophone solos appear in some well-worn Christmas tunes. Take a fresh listen and be blown away by the musicianship of the saxophonists.

Unfortunately, Playlist.com didn't have one of my all-time favorite saxophone solos in an embeddable form, so I had to go to the mixed bag of YouTube. Fortunately, the song was available. In typical YouTube fashion, however, Harry Connick Jr.'s version of Blue Christmas is inexplicably the soundtrack for a music video about Star Trek Voyager's Janeway and her addiction to coffee. Enjoy the solo!



P.S. Am I missing any awesome Christmas sax solos? Leave a comment and let me know!

Porky Pig Covers Blue Christmas

If you're in the right mood, you won't stop laughing at this.

Top 5 New Holiday Carols from Local Artists

One of the joys of the Christmas season is the onslaught of new Christmas music. Sometimes it's a newly discovered cover of a well-worn favorite and sometimes it's an original holiday ditty that strikes the right chords and pulls the right heart strings to earn a place in the annual yuletide rotation.

The official Christmas season is only four days old, but in this brave new world of incessant social media, I feel like my new holiday music horizons have already been expanded more than they sometimes are in an entire Christmas season.

Along those lines, the Chicago Tribune's Mark Caro is overseeing a "New Holiday Classic" contest that asked readers to write and perform original holiday songs and submit them via YouTube so that the general public could vote on them. From 110 entries, 12 finalists were chosen.

You can view all of the finalists here, but if you don't have time for that, you can check out my Top 5 below.

5. Christmas Everywhere by Elias Fey
It's country and catchy.



4. What Christmas Means by Dina Bach
Strong female voice? Check. Vibrant piano riff? Check. Heartfelt lyrics? Check.


3. Santa's Comin' Here by Dick Eastman
It's got a catchy chorus and a slight Doobie Brothers feel to it.


2. Just Can't Wait by Brad Smith
This guy's song sounds like a lost Barenaked Ladies track and he gets bonus points for using Calvin and Hobbes artwork.


1. CTA X-Mas Train by The Snow Angels
So it might not be the most musically or lyrically amazing new classic, but the fact that it's an ode to the CTA's magnificent Christmas train makes it the obvious winner of a contest looking for original Christmas carols from Chicagoans. And it's winning in the poll right now, too.


What's your favorite? Go vote for it!

Christmastime Means Time to Blog

Once a year, my blog finds a niche.

From Thanksgiving to about January 2, my attention turns squarely to the most wonderful time of the year and all the societal, cultural, spiritual, musical (and other adjectives ending in -al) aspects of the Christmas season. This renewed focus also usually leads to a more prolific period of blogging, so hopefully my prolonged absence hasn't squandered what little audience I had.

To kick things off, I want to start by examining a new musical release for the 2009 holiday season. I don't necessarily consider myself an expert on too many subjects, but Christmas music is one arena where I really know my stuff. My family has amassed a vast and eclectic collection of Yuletide tunes over the years, and I'm always looking for new music to add to the library.

The new Christmas music train pulled out of the station a tad early this year when Bob Dylan dropped his uncharacteristic album, Christmas in the Heart, a few weeks before Thanksgiving. I haven't heard all the tracks yet, but I highly recommend this scathing review that not only hilariously pans the album but also questions the popular assumption that Dylan is a musical genius.

For your viewing pleasure, please check out the music video of his take on "Must Be Santa" (a classic kids carol that was definitively recorded by Mitch Miller & The Gang way back in the day). Dylan's interpretation is laughable, as he sings/shouts the lyrics backed by a polka-sounding melody. The "plot" of the video is off-the-wall and Dylan's appearance is more than slightly disturbing. Is that hair connected to his hat?

Maybe that's just what musical genius looks like these days.

Hopefully my next post will actually get you in the mood for the holidays without making you shake your head in disbelief at what has become of a folk music icon. Until then, peruse my Christmas content from the past two years.

Ode to the Beatles

Like legions of Beatlemaniacs before me, I grew up on a steady diet of the Fab Four and there was no denying their ubiquity or their ability to write an infectiously catchy song.

Unlike the rest of the world, my introduction to the Beatles came via Alvin, Simon and Theodore. As a very young child, I received a combination cassette and record player for Christmas. The record player was the obvious winner in terms of fun, and my parents had graciously handed down a few of their favorite childhood albums. Mixed in among them was a particularly intriguing record entitled "Alvin and the Chipmunks Sing the Beatles Hits."

This was at the height of the 1980s Chipmunks Resurrection (Remember The Chipmunk Adventure? That's another blog post for another time...) and here I was unknowingly listening to a genuine Chipmunks artifact that had been released in 1964. All chipmunks aside, the songs they were singing were fantastic and already somewhat familiar to me from listening to the local oldies station. To this day, I can't hear the majority of those early Beatles songs (P.S. I Love You, Love Me Do, Do You Want To Know A Secret, etc.) without hearing the Chipmunks' version in my head.



Having only heard the Beatles catalog that the Chipmunks covered or the radio acknowledged, however, I didn't become a true Beatles fan until one fine summer in the middle of high school. I noticed my local library's extensive Beatles collection and decided to see if there were any other good Beatles songs that I hadn't heard before. Needless to say, there were a few. A few dozen, in fact.

I've spent most of the day with the Beatles in the background, pondering how a band could be so fantastically productive in such a short period of time. Without waxing too poetic, it seems like they have an appropriate song for nearly every emotion and every time of life. It's not just that you can find a happy Beatles song or a sad Beatles song. You can actually find a Beatles song that expresses the exact kind of happy or sad that you happen to be feeling at the time. I can't think of another musical group that even approaches that level of songwriting.

On a day like today, it's got to feel pretty good to be an ex-Beatle. The world is in awe of something you did more than 40 years ago and your creative contributions to culture are still affecting people on a daily basis. With the release of Beatles Rock Band and the remastered Beatles albums , all those never-played-on-the-radio musical gems are going to be revealed to a whole new generation of casual Beatles fans. Heck, I'm still discovering "new" Beatles songs that hadn't struck me before.

At a time when our country and our world are increasingly divided, it's encouraging to see that the Beatles haven't lost their ability to let us Come Together, at least for a day.

Potentially Related Posts:
How Rock Band Changed My Life
The Concert of a Lifetime

Madeline Peyroux: New Music For You

If you like old school ladies of song such as Ella Fitzgerald, I hope you've already discovered Madeline Peyroux. She has a few albums under her belt already, and her latest effort dropped today. (Whoa, I just used the word "dropped" in reference to an album. What's wrong with me? Let's move on...)

In addition to having a voice that sounds like the second coming of Billie Holiday and being one of Amazon's best-selling artists of all time, Peyroux produces songs with a bluesy, foot-tapping vibe that is immediately transfixing and transports you to a smoke-filled 1940s jazz club.

It actually transports me back to a college art classroom, since my senior year Basic Drawing professor apparently owned only two cds: Peyroux's excellent Careless Love and the Greatest Hits of the Police. At any rate, I fell in love and her new album sounds as fantastic as the first two.

Here are some of her older tracks to get you started:

Lord of the (Swing) Dance

I've always contended that I was born in the wrong generation. Despite my love for new technology and all the glorious innovations of the 21st century, my appreciation for the analog black-and-white era runs deep.

This is especially evident in my musical tastes. Here's a little test to illustrate my point. Name any song that was made famous by the following musical artists: Louis Prima, Bobby Darin, Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Sammy Davis Jr.

If you rattled off answers such as "When You're Smiling," "Beyond the Sea," "In the Mood," "Corner Pocket," "Take the A Train," and "Birth of the Blues" (respectively), I would be very impressed and interested in hearing your iTunes library. But I fear it's more likely that you came up rather empty, which means you've missed out on decades of classic American songs by legendary artists who helped invent American popular music.


This is starting to sound like a 3 a.m. infomercial...I'd better get to the point.

This isn't about music. It's about dancing. Having loved this type of music (big band, swing, jazz, easy listening or whatever you want to call it) for years, it wasn't until college that I realized I could up the ante by taking swing dancing classes and enjoy the music on a whole other level. Ever since that first Lindy Hop class, I've been a swing dancing fool.

Why is a show like Dancing with the Stars so popular? Sure, people are curious to watch washed-up D-List celebrities and retired athletes shake whatever's left, but I think the less obvious appeal of the show is the fact that it's just plain fun to watch people dance. It's evident that a lot of hard work and practice has gone into the endeavor and dancers (especially swing dancers) usually look like they're having a blast. With a little lobbying, swing dancing could probably become an Olympic sport.

Check this out:

I can't do anything resembling the moves in that video (I've taken Lindy Hop I three times, Lindy Hop II twice and a couple classes in East Coast Swing), but it sure is fun to learn new moves and string them together. So if you have any sense of rhythm whatsoever or at least a willingness to try, I highly recommend taking a dance class at some point in your life. You'll probably discover some old-as-the-hills-but-new-to-you music along the way as well. Impress your grandparents!

How Rock Band Changed My Life

It happens once or twice every decade. Something comes along and changes the course of your life forever. For some people it's finding a significant other, buying that dream house or the birth of a child. For others, it might be a new job or a winning lottery ticket.

For me, it's Rock Band.



Aside from taking up the majority of my waking hours from Christmas Day through New Year's, this simple little video game has forever changed the way I listen to music.

And that's not just empty hyperbole. Every time I turn on the radio, I become aware of all the little things going on in the background of each song that plays. I'm listening to music on the micro-level now. I can pick out the bass line and appreciate a creatively timed drum fill. Perhaps this is obvious to more musically inclined people, but I enjoy a wide variety of musical genres and I never used to hear it.

I like to tell people that I am classically trained in guitar from the Northwestern University School of Music. It's technically true--I took a Beginning Non-Major Classical Guitar class during my undergrad days. I paid extra for it, received half a credit and can still play the chords (or pluck the notes!) to Auld Lang Syne. Once a year, that comes in really handy. Unfortunately, that's also about how frequently I actually pull out my guitar.

I had dreams of being the next Jack Johnson, but the Hawaiian surf seems further away than ever in the midst of a record-breakingly cold winter, plus I'm pretty sure Jack Johnson knows more than four guitar chords.

He can definitely play the F chord, which has prevented me from even attempting more songs than I can count. Look at that picture. How can you move your hands into that position quickly enough to strum that chord, let alone hold the strings down to get a quality sound? It's madness!

Enter Rock Band.

Can you move your hands up and down a guitar fret board? Yes. Can you distinguish between green, yellow, red, blue and orange? Yes. Well, congratulations, you're Pete Townsend!

I know this isn't making me a better guitarist. Heck, it's not even helping me learn to read music. But I sure feel good when I'm shredding through the guitar solo in Ramblin' Man. And my drum fills on Spirit in the Sky are starting to sound mighty professional.

Best of all, Rock Band has given me a much greater appreciation for the musicianship that goes into the creation of a song. I have even more respect for the talent of musicians, and I feel like I'm finally listening to music the same way that they do--picking apart every layer of the composition and hearing how the layers recombine to create the same song that I've loved all these years. There's nothing fake about that.

Oh yeah, and I'm a pretty good singer, too.

We Three Kings: The Wolverine Version!

I was surfing the Windy Citizen today and came across a post entitled Five Christmas Songs to Make You Want to Shoot Yourself. The last song on the list is a true rarity--a version of We Three Kings astonishingly performed by Hugh "Wolverine" Jackman and two other Aussie performers.

Far from making me want to shoot myself, I find the video so misbegotten, unexpected and strange that it's actually very amusing. When is this from? Why was it made? And what's become of that giant "Merry Christmas" sign hanging above the orchestra? Honestly, the more I watched it, the more I liked the way they sing the song. So I used Zamzar to rip myself a copy of the audio and it will take a place of honor on my next Christmas mix cd. Though it probably won't be the same without seeing their synchronized arm gestures on every "WESTward leading" chorus. What fantastic choreography!



(Incidentally, check out the trailer for the new Wolverine movie. It looks like they're finally getting him right and I can't wait!)

An Animated Sleigh Ride

Alternative rock band Relient K released a decent Christmas album last year and added three new tracks to it this year. They also win the prize for cleverest Christmas album title with Let It Snow Baby...Let It Reindeer.

For a taste of their sound, watch the cheery music video below for "Sleigh Ride," one of the best tracks on the album and one of the best versions of that song. The video is pretty entertaining in a Looney Tunes sort of way, and Santa Claus is cast against type as a villain of sorts.

The Only Christmas Playlist You'll Ever Need

I came across a great site today that seems like both a fantastic replacement for muxtape and a fantastic way to share Christmas music. I get the feeling I'm going to start using this more often. The song catalog is as deep as the Internet itself and the interface is simple.

The following is a list of 21 of my favorite Christmas carols, hand-picked for your enjoyment and sequenced for variety. Hopefully there are a few gems on this list that you've never heard before. Enjoy!

DJ Europe's Christmas Bells Music Video

One of my favorite things about Christmas 2007 was the release of an unconventional new Christmas song called Christmas Bells by a fellow named DJ Europe. I blogged about the song last year, but never bothered to follow up with the music video.

So for your viewing pleasure, I proudly present the Christmas Bells music video. I dare you to find a trippier display of Christmas spirit or a zanier ensemble of Christmas characters. Why is that snowman sitting in Santa's lap? Why is there a male angel with a five o'clock shadow wearing a dress? While one might question his music video methodology, there's no denying the infectious quality of DJ Europe's ditty. Close your eyes if you must--you can at least enjoy the song!



What? You still didn't like it? Try watching it backwards.

Free Christmas Music from Amazon!

What's the only thing better than Christmas music? Free Christmas music!

Amazon.com is playing Santa this year with a few Yuletide tracks that are completely free to download. I suggest you snap these up:

1. Angels We Have Heard on High by Brian Setzer Orchestra
Download
Brian Setzer has two great Christmas albums and this track gives you a taste of the rock-a-billy big band style at which he excels.

2. Elf's Lament by Barenaked Ladies with Michael Buble
Download
I don't care what anyone says: Old school BNL was pretty fantastic. Their Christmas album is kind of a letdown on the whole, but this track delivers and the unexpected pairing with Buble actually works.

3. Love Came Down at Christmas by Jars of Clay
Download
This song is literally a classic--written in 1885 to the tune of a traditional Irish melody. You can hear a MIDI version of the original here.

4. We Three Kings by Dave Brubeck
Download
A jazzy rendition from a talented musician.

Want more? Check out the Free Christmas Music Blog for more (legal) site suggestions. I also recommend trying your luck in the Hype Machine.

Know of any other places to get free Christmas tunes? Leave a comment! But don't recommend anything illegal. Santa's watching.

The Best Christmas Album Ever

Let's face it...I've completely fallen off the blogging wagon. But now it's Christmastime and the season has reinvigorated me. Just like I did last year, every post from now until the New Year will have a Christmas theme. This year, I will focus specifically on sharing the best Christmas music, movies and Web sites with anyone who might come across my blog (or actually reads it when I actually post). Hopefully this will also get me to post more frequently. We'll see...

To get things started, I want to recommend the best Christmas album of all time: Harry Connick Jr.'s When My Heart Finds Christmas. The album was released in 1993 and is the most enduring legacy of Connick's career. It's also currently about $4 on Amazon, so do yourself a favor and buy it right now.

Harry Connick Jr. fancies himself a latter-day Frank Sinatra and his belting voice and swingin' big band do an admirable job transporting you back to the old school sound of Old Blue Eyes, which is exactly what you want in a Christmas album. In addition to interpreting classics like Sleigh Ride, he also writes some awesome original carols, culminating in the epic (It Must've Been Ol') Santa Claus, perfectly performed in his native New Orleans-jazz style. When my family first bought the cassette of this album, we would keep rewinding this song (remember rewinding?) and playing it over and over again.

One of my other favorite tracks is a song that rarely appears on Christmas albums, which is probably because it's technically not a Christmas song. Nevertheless, Connick's version of What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? is the definitive version of that song in my mind--even surpassing Sinatra's attempt.

Harry Connick Jr. has since released two more Christmas albums, but they can't live up to his original masterpiece. Harry for the Holidays has its moments (check out The Christmas Waltz), but his much-anticipated (by me) 2008 Christmas album--What A Night!--is a pretty big letdown. It lacks the charming arrangements and big band bravado of When My Heart Finds Christmas and the original songs are pretty wretched. I guess I can forgive him though, considering the undeniable greatness of When My Heart Finds Christmas. When you peak early, it's hard to top yourself.

So what's your vote for Best Christmas Album Ever?

New Site Discovery: Covering the Mouse

For me, the world of RSS feeds is a vicious cycle of unread information. I'm always finding new sites that I immediately subscribe to, but every time I log into my Google Reader, I'm taunted by the bold blue 1,000+, indicating that I have an impossible amount of catching up to do.

Nevertheless, I have found another cool Web site and I thought I would share it. This one comes from my brother, my family's avowed Disney fanatic.

The site is called Covering the Mouse and it features a new cover version of a Disney musical classic on an almost daily basis, so it's great feed reading material. The best part is that you can hear the entire song, and--if you know where to look in the site's source code--you can grab the file for future enjoyment.

Not all of the tracks are fantastic and some of them--like any cover version of a popular song--are only worth hearing to satisfy your morbid curiosity or because the recordings are so rare. Covering the Mouse is definitely worth a look though, and I found a few gems while trolling the site last night:

Chim-Chim-Cher-ee
from Mary Poppins
Performed by Louis Armstrong

Under the Sea
from The Little Mermaid
Performed by The Suburban Legends

Grim Grinning Ghosts
from The Haunted Mansion
Performed by Barenaked Ladies

Barack Roll: Best Use of the Internet Ever?

I just watched what should be the most viral video in Internet history, but it somehow still only has 600,000+ views on YouTube. Prepare to be Barack Rolled. Your life may never be the same again:



For any readers of this blog who are not familiar with the Internet-fueled prank of "rickrolling," it involves providing a link to one thing, but actually linking to Rick Astley's fascinatingly horrible 1987 chart-topper "Never Gonna Give You Up" or something that involves the song.

Exhibit A: This link to hilarious Muppet bloopers!

Events can also be rickrolled, as the song will begin playing while an Astley impersonator lip syncs along to the words.

Exhibit B: A college basketball game gets rickrolled.



Combining Obama and rickrolling? Sheer genius. Watch it again! You know you want to!

The Concert of a Lifetime

This photo is one of the most glorious things I have ever seen: Two of the greatest American songwriters of all time performing together live on stage. Anyone who wasn't at Billy's musical farewell to Shea Stadium yesterday really missed something incredible.

If I could assemble a fantasy lineup for a concert, Billy Joel and Paul McCartney would definitely be the headliners. (I might add Frank Sinatra in his 1950s prime, but I don't want to get greedy.) Just imagine the set list! Uptown Girl followed by Jet followed by We Didn't Start the Fire followed by Hey Jude followed by Piano Man? I'm getting chills just thinking about it.

The fact that these venerable troubadours performed together at all gives me hope that maybe the Billy and Paul Concert Tour isn't far behind. I think these guys could really rock Wrigley.

Now it's your turn. Who would perform in the Concert of Your Lifetime?