Midge Ure from The Rich Kids, Ultravox and Visage co-wrote and produced "Do They Know it's Christmas" 40 years ago this week on November 25, 1984. He recently released a new live album, Live at the Royal Albert Hall 04.10.23, so we talked about that, touring, the Blitz club and his memories of the sessions for "Do They Know it's Christmas." 

In this episode, I talk a little more than usual to contextualize the song and the interview. We talk about the new 40th anniversary mega-mix, which is due out Friday but the video is already out. I'll talk more about it next week.

I also mention the documentary Band Aid the Song that Rocked the World, where Midge Ure tells the story of the song in 2004. 

I also found it interesting to think about this next to USA for Africa's "We Are the World." Band Aid led the way, and the American version feels very American because, as the Netflix documentary The Greatest Night in Pop showed, it threw cool out the window and simply marshaled the biggest names in music that they could get, whereas Geldof and Ure bet on the cutting edge of British pop to not only raise money but make charitable donations cool. 

Next week I'll talk a little about the 40th anniversary mega-mix and some developments that have sprung up around it. 

In the episode, I mentioned this year's playlist. I envision it as an alternative to the all-Christmas radio stations and recommend you listen to it on shuffle so you don't know what's coming next. It will also grow as I hear more songs that I want to share or listen to and decide what's missing.

Once again, I'm also making a special, listeners-only downloadable Christmas mix. If you want one, email me at alex@myspiltmilk.com and I'll send it over. 

Husband and wife duo Dean & Britta have a sound that suits contemporary Christmas music beautifully. They've done a few movie soundtracks including 13 Most Beautiful, an album of songs commissioned by the Andy Warhol Museum to perform songs beneath Warhol's silent films shot between 1964 - 1966. 

Their sound is evocative but spare, with deeply reverbed guitars and melodic touches that bring '60s scenes to mind without being stuck there. On A Peace of Us, they and frequent collaborator Sonic Boom from Spaceman 3 work a similar magic. It's easy to envision it as part of the soundtrack to an evening during the Christmas season, entertaining enough to get your attention and hold it, but it doesn't demand your time and focus. 

As Britta Phillips and Sonic Boom - Pete Kember - explain, that's in part because the album is an expression of their relationship, and something they have been working on in bits and pieces since 2007 when Dean & Britta recorded a 45 with "Old Toy Trains" and "He's Coming Home." Kember talks about how he suggests covers, and how that too is part of their relationship.

In the episode, I reference my 12 Songs conversation with the Drive-By Truckers' Jay Gonzalez.

The episode also premieres a new Christmas song by the folk-rock band Dawes. I'm very entertained by the seasonal story-song "Christmas Tree in the Window," and you can stream it or download it at Dawes' Bandcamp page.

I'm also happy to feature a new song by Gina Birch, who you know from the British post-punk band The Raincoats or from her art career, if you know her at all. (I recognize those are very specific bona fides, but they're meaningful to me) This holiday season, Birch covered Yoko Ono's Christmas song, "Listen, the Snow is Falling," which appeared as the b-side of "Happy Xmas (War is Over)." You can download it at her Bandcamp page.

Finally, at the end of the episode I talk about the version of "Do You Know How Christmas Trees are Grown" by Jackie DeShannon. It's available in the main digital marketplaces, so you can check it out first and see if it's for you.   

Saxophone player Boney James has two Christmas albums, Boney's Funky Christmas and Christmas Present. Both make sense as the place where jazz and R&B meet, and that was transparently the case when he recorded his first album, Trust, in 1992.

We talk about those early years in addition to his Christmas music, and we discussed having an album of new music in the can that he wasn't at liberty to talk about or play. Since we recorded the interview, the album's title--Slow Burn--and its release date were released, along with two songs. It's due out October 18, and we feature one new song from it, "Butterfly," with guest spots by Cory Henry and Marcus Miller.

I wrote a piece on James based in part on this interview for My Spilt Milk.

The episode ends with a Christmas song from British punk band/cult fave Helen Love. If anybody knows where I can get an mp3 of this half of a split single, please let me know. The song is too awesome not to be in my collection. 

Our surf Christmas episode inadvertently laid the groundwork for this week’s, which focuses largely on Calypso Christmas music. New Orleans’ Charlie and the Tropicales released Presents for Everyone, an album of Calypso Christmas songs, in 2023.

This week I’m talking to trombone player and bandleader Charlie Halloran about the album, Calypso Christmas music, Mighty Sparrow, tiki bars, and being a working working musician in New Orleans. We talk briefly about an indispensable Calypso Christmas album, A Calypso Christmas, which includes classic tracks by Lord Kitchener, Lord Nelson, The Mighty Spoiler and more. You can find it in the digital marketplaces.  

You can get Presents for Everyone on vinyl on Charlie and the Tropicales’ Bandcamp page, and you can also find a digital version of their new album, Jump Up, which we hear in today’s episode. We also talk about Mighty Sparrow Christmas music, which is available through the digital download stores.

I finish this episode with another New Orleans project, Haunted House Party and music from last year’s The Spirits of Christmas. The DJ-oriented beat tape for the holidays is also available in all formats including vinyl on the Haunted House Party Bandcamp page. 

 

In 2021, I interviewed Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick, a band I've only grown to appreciate more over the years. They released their first three albums--Cheap Trick, In Color and Heaven Tonight--in 18 months, and Dream Police followed a whole year later. They toured constantly at the time, which makes that productivity all the more impressive. 

In 2017, they released a Christmas album, Christmas Christmas, an album that's easy to like and easier to admire after Petersson talks about the inspirations for the songs. 

I talked to Petersson because the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers had a new album out, In Another World, and the conversation was a lot about what a band that tours as much as they do does when COVID forces it off the road. 

I don’t usually get to end a conversation on Christmas music with memories of radio legend Art Bell and his late night deep dive into the paranormal, After Dark with Art Bell. But that’s what happened when I talked to Mark Christopher Lee of the British lo-fi indie rock band The Pocket Gods. It took a lot of discipline not to end the show with After Dark’s theme, “Chase” by Giorgio Moroder. Instead, the episode ends with “Merry Christmas to the Drunks, Merry Christmas to the Lovers,” a new-to-me track by the Edinburgh indie band ballboy. 

My conversation with Lee on The Pocket Gods covers a lot of ground as we talk about influential British DJ John Peel, Phil Spector, John Cage, and the way Lee morphed the band into a conceptual art project that explored how musicians do and don’t get paid in a streaming ecosystem dominated by Spotify. 

Late in the conversation, we talk about Lee’s forays into documentary films. You can find Weird: The Life and Times of a Pocket God, Inspired: The 30-Second Song Movie, God Versus Aliens, and The King of UFOs: Royal UFO Secrets Revealed at Tubitv.com or the Tubi Roku app. 

All of the music on today’s show is available at the iTunes Store, but 2021’s A Quantum Christmas Song, which is more than 115 hours long, can only be purchased as a full album and requires more than 8 GB of disc space to download. I think Mark will understand if you choose to stream rather than buy that one. 

Michela Mussolino introduced me to a new body of Christmas music this week. The New Jersey-born Memphis resident specializes in Sicilian folk music, and she recorded an album of predominantly Sicilian Christmas songs in 2022 on La Notti Triunfanti. 

We talk about how someone arrives at that specialty, the deep history behind some of these songs, and how moving to Memphis affected some of the songs on the album. 

In the episode, Michela talks about “Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle” being one of the best loved Italian Christmas songs, so I chose Andrea Bocelli’s version to give you a taste of it. 

For more on Michela, visit MichelaMusolino.com. 

I have so little surf Christmas music in my collection that I turned to WTUL DJ Hunter King, host of "Storm Surge of Reverb" to see if there was a substantial body of surf Christmas music. As I expected, the answer is yes. 

We talk about old and new Christmas surf, Hunter's relationship to Christmas music, and vinyl because it almost goes without saying that as a surf music fan, he's a vinyl guy.

In the episode, I mention my insane Dick Dale interview--really a monologue--and it's so dizzying it's worth your time. 

I was pleasantly surprised how easy much of today's playlist was to find. A lot is on Bandcamp, and I found The Avalanches' Ski Surfin' at the iTunes Store. I only had to ask for mp3s from Hunter for The HE 5, and you can find their excellent version of "Auld Lang Syne" on the 2015 Psych-Out Christmas compilation. I assume Iggy Pop's version of "White Christmas" was the album's sales pitch, but I got it for the versions of "Silent Night" and "Jingle Bell Rock" by New Orleans' Quintron and Miss Pussycat. 

Finally, in the closing notes I mentioned the best-of shows I did after reaching episode 100. Here's the first of that series.

The new season of Twelve Songs starts with an interview with Thomas Mertz, one of the founders of the social media game Whamageddon. To win the game, you must go from December 1 to Christmas without hearing Wham!'s "Last Christmas." Hear it and you're out. People play on social media on the honor system, but for Mertz, the fun is in the way the game has created a community. 

Since he is in Denmark, he and his friends have a slightly different Christmas canon, and when they started playing almost 20 years ago, "Last Christmas" had the kind of ubiquity in Denmark that "All I Want for Christmas is You" now has in the United States. 

We talk about Wham!, "Last Christmas," social media and Christmas music among other things, and I have scattered versions of "Last Christmas" throughout the episode. Covers are acceptable, so I have saved Wham!'s version to the very end and given listeners fair warning so that if people hear this episode in December, it won't put them out. 

I don't stop to identify the versions in episode, but this episode's playlist is (in order):

"Last Christmas" - Carly Rae Jepsen "Last Christmas" - Lucy Dacus "Last Christmas" - Cano Caoli "Last Christmas" - Sweet Crude "Last Christmas" - Leo Moracchioli "Last Christmas" - Aloe Blacc "Jus Det Cool" - MC Einar "Last Christmas" - Stardeath and the White Dwarfs "Last Christmas" - Wham!

Last Christmas, I promised that 12 Songs would return with Christmas in July 2024. Since July 25 falls on a Thursday, it seemed like an appropriate day to return with the first episode of the new season. Here are a few notes on the upcoming season including a song that hints at a direction we'll go in the first month. 

Season six of 12 Songs comes to a close with some of the highlights from the 2023 holiday season and a conversation with DJ/producer/business guy Raj Smoove and rapper/producer 504icygrl about the new Christmas in New Orleans EP. Raj and Icy talk about Christmas, community, business, and the historically awkward fit between hip-hop and Christmas music. 

In the episode, I mention the Daily Beast story I wrote on Cher's Christmas and Christmas music in October, the streaming version of my Christmas playlist, Bill Adler's Xmas Jollies 2023 and Jim Goodwin of ChristmasUnderground.com's I'm an Igloo playlist.

If you haven't already done so, please subscribe, follow, or do whatever you have to do to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed. That way, you'll know when we return in time for Christmas in July. 

 

Today's show is a lot about the backstage of the music business  as the Vancouver-based alternative rock band Mother Mother talks about finding a darker angle on Christmas music with "Cry Christmas" and their version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas."

This week Ryan Guldemond of the band and I talk about how a rock band finds a way to do Christmas music in a way that's authentic, as well as why a band like Mother Mother would even do one in the first place.

In this episode, I also talk about new Christmas releases by Sara Noelle, My Morning Jacket, and music writer Kevin McGrath, who compiled Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Vol. 3 in time for this season. If you like their music, you can go back and hear my interview with Sara from earlier this season and Kevin from last season. 

I also mentioned in the show that listeners can still request my free playlist by writing me at alex@myspiltmilk.com. You can also hear my "Twelve Songs of Christmas Christmas" mix on Apple Music and Spotify. 

 

Twelve Songs goes to Las Vegas this week, first to talk with Sally Olson and Ned Mills of the tribute act Carpenters Legacy about The Carpenters and their Christmas music. This year, they took their affection for both subjects to the natural conclusion and recorded "Christmas Time with You," a Christmas song made in the mold of the Carpenters. 

After that, I talk to comedian and ventriloquist April Brucker, who released a song sung by her and her puppet May Wilson, "Merry Christmas I'm So Glad I Didn't Marry You." We talk about ventriloquism, novelty songs, and the age-old tradition of using Christmas music to draw attention to your thing, whatever that thing is.

In the episode, I mentioned ChristmasUnderground.com and my interview with its creator, Jim Goodwin. I also talked about the Holly Jolly X'masu podcast focused on Japanese Christmas music, and mentioned my interview with its host, Scott Leopold. Also in the hype department, I talked about appearing on Gerry Davila's Totally Rad Christmas podcast to talk about "Do They Know it's Christmas " by Band Aid Mk I and Band Aid Mk II. 

The episode closes with a great version of "Christmas Time is Here" by Kelli Jones and Daniel Coolik from the EP A Very Melancholy Christmas. 

This holiday season, Imogen Clark released "Not Christmas Here," talking about how all the wintery signs that Christmas is coming don't mean as much to her because she's from Australia. In the Southern Hemisphere, it's hot in December and white wine is their egg nog. 

The song is a bit of looking ahead for Clark because she’s moving to the States next year. It’s also her fourth Christmas song, so we spoke recently about them, Christmas in Australia, and Australian Christmas favorites. 

In the episode, I mention "A Twelve Songs of Christmas Christmas," a five-hour streaming playlist on Apple Music and Spotify that, if shuffled, will give you the effect of an all-Christmas music radio station minus the songs you've heard to death. 

I also mentioned the 2023 Twelve Songs mix, which you can get free if you email me at alex@myspiltmilk.com to request it. It is a shorter, programmed mix, and it includes some songs that aren't on any of the streaming services including some great indie and Japanese Christmas songs. 

This episode has been a few years in the making, but I was finally able to find a quiet moment in the busy lives of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers of The Indigo Girls. 

In 2010, they released Holly Happy Days, a holiday album that's very much an Indigo Girls album with their musical, personal, social and spiritual values shaping the songs in the way that they do on everything else the duo has released. 

We had a good conversation not only about the album but how it fits into the long arc of their career--25 years when it was released.

Along the way, we get a little electronic bacon crackling while Amy is talking. I got it figured out fairly quickly, but there was no good edit point unless I dumped that section of the conversation, and I thought what she said was worth a few moments of crackle. 

In the episode, I mention that this year's Christmas music mix is available. Send me a request at alex@myspiltmilk.com. 

In the episode, I also mentioned an interview I did with Amy Ray for MySpiltMilk.com and my 12 Songs interview with Terre Roche.

Unfortunately, jazz pianist Dave Brubeck is no longer around to talk about his 1996 solo piano album A Dave Brubeck Christmas. Craft Recordings reissued the album this Christmas season, but Brubeck died in 2012 so I asked New Orleans piano player Matt Lemmler to help me get a handle on the album.

The resulting conversation is a deep dive into Brubeck, Louis Armstrong, and jazz piano. We talk about his most famous song, "Take Five," and detour to talk about A Charlie Brown Christmas because it really is that seminal a recording. Lemmler also helps us understand stride piano, a style Brubeck explores on his Christmas album.

One quick note: This is the rare episode of the podcast recorded me and my interview subject in the same room. That created a few audio complications, most of which I dealt with but there may be a few I couldn't catch. Thanks in advance for your patience, and I know how to prevent them in the future. 

You can find A Dave Brubeck Christmas wherever you buy or stream music, and you can find Matt and his music at MattLemmler.com.

I listened to one episode of Scott Leopold's "Holly Jolly Xmasu" podcast and I was sold. As a Stereolab and High Llamas fan, I felt like there had to be a High Llamas Christmas song, and Scott found one on Christmas Songs, which also included a great Bossa nova version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," a very unusual jazz piano take on "Sleigh Ride," and the ambient pop of Takako Minekawa on "Listen, the Snow is Falling." 

Fortunately, much of that album--but not all of it--was available to purchase in the States. Much of the music he plays and all but one song that we play today aren't available for stream or download in the States. 

Today, Scott and I talk about and play Japanese Christmas music, Japanese Christmas, and how he got into it. Collectors will recognize the contours of his story if not the specifics. 

Blue Man Group started in 1987 as a performance art concept by guys who also harbored rock 'n' roll dreams. It has grown into an institution that has ongoing shows in Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, New York and Berlin. As of October, Blue Man Group now also has a Christmas EP, Overjoy to the World.

Today Blue Man composer Jeff Turlik and performer Bhurin Sead talk about all things Blue Man Group including how songs are written and recorded for a band known for playing percussion instruments made of PVC, and how holiday music fits into their shows.

I love when episodes overlap. Today, soul singer Eli "Paperboy" Reed talks about--among other things--his love of Huey "Piano" Smith's Christmas album, which we recently featured. 

Reed has a new album, Hits and Misses: The Singles on YepRoc Records, and today we're talking about that and his Christmas music, including a snappy version of "Last Christmas" by Wham!

Along the way, we talk about a couple of tracks that weren't available on mp3, "What Do the Lonely Do at Christmas" by The Emotions and Reed's "Party Hard for Christmas." The link will help you get you to the first track, but he and/or his management appear to have taken down "Party Hard for Christmas." You'll hear why in the episode.  

Chuck Brown has been dubbed "The Godfather of Go-Go," the distinctive Washington D.C.-based funk sound that has its own aesthetics and culture. This week, New Orleans' musicologist and go-go aficionado Melissa Weber shines some light on go-go and Brown because in 1999, he released The Spirit of Christmas.

Weber is an archivist at Tulane University, and in New Orleans she DJs at WWOZ and throws parties under the name she's best known by, DJ Soul Sister.

We talk about Brown, his Christmas music, and the 1991 compilation, Let's Go-Go Christmas. 

New Orleans venerates its R&B royalty from the early days of rock 'n' roll, and many of them stayed active until they died, including Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Eddie Bo, Snooks Eaglin and Earl King. Huey "Piano" Smith was not one of them; he lived the last third of his life until his death earlier this year out of the limelight.

Since Smith also recorded one of my favorite Christmas albums, 1962's Twas the Night Before Christmas, I invited journalist John Wirt on the show to talk about Smith--his heyday, his heartbreaks, his later years, and his Christmas album, which comes with a story that I learned reading John's 2014 book, Huey "Piano" Smith and the Rockin' Pneumonia Blues. 

Capitol Records tried to cash in on the '90s lounge revival with its "Ultra-Lounge" series--albums that pulled tracks from the label's vaults that fell under some of the umbrellas that came to associated with lounge including crooners, mambos, space-age sounds, and tiki bar music. In 1996, it released Christmas Cocktails, with series compiler Brad Benedict pulling together holidays songs from those genres.

It was so successful that Capitol released Christmas Cocktails Vol. 2 in 1997, then Christmas Cocktails Vol. 3 much later in 2012 with a different, more pedestrian creative team. By that point, Benedict and the Ultra-Lounge creative team had gone on to Shout Factory Records for the "Wonderland" series, three similar compilations of Christmas music that had different label libraries to draw from.

Christmas Cocktails was influential at the time and is still fondly remembered, so this week I'm discussing it with the King of Jingaling, Brad Ross MacLeod from one of the OG Christmas mp3 blogs, falalalalala.com.

We talk about his site, lounge, reissues, nostalgia, the contemporary music that bridged these songs from the late 1950s and early '60s with the music of the '90s when the first two volumes came out.

Along the way, we talk about Peggy Lee, who I discussed in an episode with her granddaughter Holly Foster-Wells in 2021.   

The name "Sara Noelle" sounds like something made up for Christmas music, but she had been a recording artist since 2010, 10 years before she released her first Christmas track, "Christmas at Sea."

Since 2020, the ambient folk artist has made a tradition of releasing new Christmas music each year, and it's not a reach to think her songs would make sense on David Lynch's Twin Peaks Holiday Special. Noelle's songs aren't haunted, but the electronic atmospherics paired with her treated voice make her songs sound like they come from somewhere else, even while they sound very human.

 We talked about her Christmas music, New Mexico, and her recent releases, a cover of The Beta Band's "Dry the Rain" and her most recent album, Do I Have to Feel Everything? We also discussed a creative writing journal she edits, Lyrics as Poetry, with writing from members of the rock 'n' roll community. 

Earlier this season, I interviewed The Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood about his ambivalent relationship with Christmas music. This week I talk to the Truckers' long-time guitarist Jay Gonzalez, who takes a different path to a similar place. We talk about his relationship to the band as a full-time member since 2008 who isn't Hood, Mike Cooley, or long-time drummer Brad Morgan, and his love of Christmas songs that might or might not be Christmas songs.

Along the way, I play music from his Roll Up a Song by Gonzalez Smith and Jay Gonzalez Inflatable Orchestra Vol. 1.  

In 2018 when I launched Twelve Songs, I published "The 12 Songs Manifesto," a statement of my core beliefs about Christmas music. 

Now that we're in our sixth season and have a lot of listeners who weren't around back then, I thought it was worth revisiting and documenting in podcast form. I flesh out my thoughts, add a few and revise a few that no longer seem as crucial to me. And, I have music by Luther Vandross, Rockin' Sidney, Paul McCartney, Alexander O'Neal, The Bird and the Bee, SUNBEARS! and more to put some musical meat on those bones. 

There was one late edit that some of you will notice. There is no Number Eight in my manifesto, not because I didn't have one but because I discovered while looking for an image to accompany this episode that the musician I featured had been found guilty of some extremely un-Christmas-y behavior. It was too late in the process to redo the whole passage, so I simply cut it. 

Chris Marchand's blog post "On the Importance of Sad Christmas Songs" makes the argument its title promises, using "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" as Exhibit A. Podcaster and writer Chris Marchand last appeared on Twelve Songs to break down Sufjan Stevens' Christmas albums, and this week he returns to talk about "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." 

The song written for Judy Garland to sing in the movie Meet Me in St. Louis was too bleak in her mind for the situation, so it was revised to be merely guarded and tentative. We have her version, a performance of the original lyrics, and a few that followed to see how artists handle the song's mood and message.

 

Last week, I started the story of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," taking the song from being written by Haven Gillespie and J. Fred Coots, to the first version by banjo player/bandleader Harry Reser, to the version that popularized the song by Eddie Cantor. 

This week, the song grows up with the help of Phil Spector, The Crystals, and Bruce Springsteen.

"Santa Claus is Coming to Town" is an orphan, a Christmas song without a singer attached. "White Christmas" has Bing Crosby, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" has Andy Williams, and "Happy Holidays" has Peggy Lee. But who sang the early version of the Christmas classic that casts a shadow over all the versions that follow? Nobody. 

This week and next week, I'll tell the story of the song, from its writing to its place in the Christmas canon today. I'll tell the story of the song growing up, starting this week with its early days.

"Player's Ball" is a contemporary Christmas classic, but it's not very Christmas-y by design. Today, Big Boi of OutKast talks about why the song is the way it is, and how it ended up being the first solo release from the group. 

After that, we have an encore segment from 2018. At the time, I talked to writer David Dennis Jr. about the song. Today, David's resumé has expanded somewhat. He recently launched the podcast Rap Stories, which features interviews with rappers about albums important to him. Last year he released the book The Movement Made Us, in which he helps his father tell some of the stories of his early days as a worker in the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi. David is also a regular participant on ESPN's Around the Horn. 

In 2021, I talked with music journalist Alison Fensterstock and singers Dayna Kurtz and Alexandra Scott about versions of Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby." That was a good conversation, but I still had questions and found some of my answers in other less famous Christmas songs recorded by Kitt. Those songs and some others in her repertoire filled in some blanks that we'll explore today. 

This episode is based on an essay I wrote for The Daily Beast than ran on Christmas Day 2022. 

The Roches' 1990 We Three Kings is the Christmas album you'd expect from the folk trio as sing a set of holiday classics gorgeously, often a cappella, and occasionally with their tongues ever so delicately in their cheeks. 

Terre Roche remembers their Christmas shows, the Caroling Carolers, and getting shooed off the sidewalk in front of Trump Tower in a conversation about singing with her sisters.

The occasion for the conversation is Christmas and the release of Kin Ya See That Sun by Terre and Maggie Roche. It's a book that reflects on their first foray into the music business with humbling results. Terre talks about being young women in music in the early 1970s and some of the challenges they faced. 

In the episode, Terre talks about a video of one of Suzzy's introductions to "Good King Wenceslas." 

I also mention my Christmas mix, which I'll send you. Write me at alex@myspiltmilk.com to get one. You can also find Jim Goodwin's indie Christmas mix at ChristmasUnderground.com, and Brad Ross-McLeod's old vinyl Christmas mix at FaLaLaLaLa.com. 

We also heard "Marshmallow World" from Nikki Yanofsky, which you can hear now on all the streaming services.

This week's episode features indie Christmas music--indie hip-hop with DJ and producer Amerigo Gazaway, British indie rock with Les Bicyclettes de Belsize's Charlie Darling, and British music journalist Kevin McGrath, who compiled 108 indie Christmas tracks for Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Volume 1 and Volume 2. All of their music is available now on Bandcamp. Right now, Amerigo is also selling a limited edition vinyl pressing of his A Christmas Album paired with a vinyl pressing of the accompanying remix album with vocals. 

During my conversation with Amerigo, we talk about his collaboration with rapper Mega Ran, who appeared on 12 Songs in 2020. While talking about his search for indie Christmas music, McGrath mentioned visiting the Christmas Underground website. Last week, I talked to Christmas Underground's Jim Goodwin on the show.

With Christmas approaching, it's time when I have more good conversations than I have weeks until December 25. Today, I have two conversations that I really enjoyed, one with Dennis Diken of rock band The Smithereens, and one with Jim Goodwin, who runs the indie rock Christmas website ChristmasUnderground.com. The Smithereens' 2007 Christmas album Christmas with The Smithereens was released on vinyl this holiday season, and Goodwin has been busy posting new and new-to-you indie Christmas tracks that he found on Bandcamp.

During the episode, I mentioned this year's Christmas music mix, which you can get by writing alex@myspiltmilk.com. For those who would rather stream music, I have posted a four-hour holiday playlist on both Spotify and Apple Music. Not only will you not hurt my feelings if you shuffle it; you'll make the experience better. I didn't sequence the songs because at that length, I can't feel like there's a right or wrong sequence to the songs. Besides, I shuffle it when I listen to it, and it helps keep it fresh for me.

British pop/soul singer Joss Stone released Merry Christmas, Love earlier this year, and it's a bit of a departure for her as she set out to make a "posh" album, something on the surface very different from the music she's known for. 

It's still very much a personal project, down to the influence of her daughter and the son she was pregnant with while recording the album. We talked about the ways that personal choices show up in a project as big and orchestrated as Merry Christmas, Love. 

In this episode, Alex also talks about The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, The Old 97s, and two British indie Christmas compilations, Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas Vol. 1 and Vol. 2.

I've been out of the country, so this week is an encore presentation with two very different artists--pop instrumental piano player Jim Brickman and Jeff Plate, the long-time drummer for the arena rock band Trans-Siberian Orchestra. When I conducted these interviews in 2020, I was really interested in how COVID-19 would affect two acts that have made holiday season tours a meaningful part of their business. I could imagine Brickman's music translating to a live-streamed show, but TSO delivers sensory overload with four forms of fire (if I remember correctly) and a lighting rig that itself moved like a Transformer regardless of what the lights attached to it did.

I also interviewed long-time TSO musical director Al Pitrelli in 2018 during the first season of 12 Songs.  

In 2020, I had a good conversation with Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips about the surprising amount of Christmas music they have, starting with Atlas Eets Christmas, which they recorded and credited to "Imagene Peise." We talked about that album's origins, which make sense when you hear them, as well as the Christmas on Mars project and a host of other holiday one-offs the band has recorded.

I ran this conversation that fall, but since I'm on family vacation this Thanksgiving week, I'm re-running this episode. 

This year's "Twelve Songs of Christmas" Christmas mix is available now. Write me at alex@myspiltmilk.com and I'll send you a folder with the file and a song list. You may know some of the songs from the show, but I think it's a safe bet that most of these songs or versions will be new to you. 

 

Laurie Berkner had one of those days when we got together to talk. A plumber came to work on her bathroom while we did our interview, and his work is the occasional backdrop for our conversation. 

Still, the children's music artist talked at length about the making of her second Christmas album, Another Laurie Berkner Christmas, and the way making music for children affects her art. She's part of a generation that grew up with rock 'n' roll and makes music true enough to its spirit that parents who themselves love music use her music as a first step in that direction for their kids.

In our conversation, we talk about musicality, faith, and the song she'd love to do but won't. It's a lot of fun and shines a little light on the children's music world.  

In 2020, I interviewed Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker of the indie rock band Low, whose 1999 album Christmas is one of the great indie Christmas albums, and a bold one because rock bands didn't record Christmas music at the time--at least not like that. Maybe they'd contribute a track to a label promo compilation, but they wouldn't tie their financial and artistic futures to such an unlikely project. 

Low's music at the time was dubbed "slowcore," and while it wasn't necessarily slow, they did stake out a very individual musical space that was driven by introspection and meditation more than energy. 

When I interviewed Alan and Mimi, they were sitting at a table at home in Duluth, Minnesota, and even though we were on opposite ends of a Zoom call, the coziness of their space and the conversation gave the conversation a vibe I'll remember. 

I'm re-posting this interview because on the weekend, Mimi Parker died of ovarian cancer. People have been sharing photos and memories of Mimi on social media, so I wanted to add our conversation to the demonstrations of love for her, the band and the way they moved through the world. 

Vince Guaraldi scholar Derrick Bang wrote the liner notes for the 2022 Super Deluxe edition of the soundtrack for A Charlie Brown Christmas, and this week he talks about the 1965 cartoon, Guaraldi, and the soundtrack album sessions included in the digital and CD packages. 

The digital version is out now and up on streaming platforms, and it includes the original 1965 mix, a new mix, and all of the sessions that have been found so far. The CD version also includes a Blu-Ray disc with the animated special, and it's due out December 2. The two-record vinyl version includes the album's original mix and a record with highlights from the sessions. 

I've talked about Guaraldi and A Charlie Brown Christmas on 12 Songs with Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips, Kristin Chenoweth, George Winston, and The Ornaments, and I wrote about Guaraldi's impact last year for The New Orleans Advocate. 

If you want to read more by Bang, you find his film writing at his Blogspot. 

Last year, Canadian folk artist Bruce Cockburn belated launched a tour celebrating 50 years in music. When we ran an excerpt from this interview last Christmas season, we started off talking about the tour. Since he's not on tour now, I cut some of that material but did start with a conversation on how someone with 50-plus years in the business relates to the music he wrote decades ago. 

We focused our attention on Christmas, his 1993 album of Christmas music. We talk about its humble origins and the versions that inspired some of his takes. To let you in on the conversation, I also included Sam Phillips' version of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon's "Christ was Born on Christmas Morn," which Cockburn recorded as "Early on One Christmas Morn."  He also talks about why he chose to sing the Huron Christmas carol "Jesus Ahtonnia" in its native language.

It's a good conversation that fits the album into conversations about faith and life, and what can happen over the course of more than 50 years. 

On November 25, he will have three new releases—the digital album Rarities, which features songs previously on the Rumors of Glory box set along with tracks recorded for tribute albums to Gordon Lightfoot, Pete Seeger, Mississippi Sheiks and Mississippi John Hurt. He will also release vinyl versions of 1997’s The Charity of the Night and 1999’s Breakfast in New Orleans, Dinner in Timbuktu. You pre-order all of them now from his label, True North Records.

In 2008, the garage rock legends The Fleshtones released a Christmas album, Stocking Stuffer, and in true Fleshtones fashion, they made Christmas sound like them. Since 1976, they have delivered a brand of garage rock influenced by punk, R&B and soul with more than a hint of glam in their style and sound. 

In this interview from 2021, singer Peter Zaremba talks about the album, its origins, and what was most important to them while working on it. He also talks about where the audiences for '60s-inspired rock 'n' roll are and how those communities come together. He reveals the bands that inspired the way they covered some of the songs, and those bands help explain why nobody sounds quite like The Fleshtones.

One of my favorite Christmas albums of 2021 was Merry Christmas from José James, which featured the jazz vocalist in a classic quartet that included pianist Aaron Parks. 

We talked in 2021 and ran part of the conversation last holiday season, but we covered a lot of ground, some of it COVID-related but a lot of it focused on James and the way he bridges musical genres. We chew on jazz, hip-hop, and some of the subtle challenges involved in making Christmas music. The music's good, but I also love the way he turns conventional narratives and hierarchies on their head. It's tempting to give jazz musical primacy--certainly here in New Orleans--but he talks about how hip-hop set him on his jazz journey.

If you want more Christmas music news, follow 12 Songs on Facebook, and if you miss any episodes, you can find them at your podcast provider or TwelveSongsOfChristmas.com. 

The world met Julian Koster as part of the Elephant 6 Collective in the 1990s, when he played a variety of instruments with Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power, and his own projects, The Music Tapes and The Orbiting Human Circus. In 2008, he released The Singing Saw at Christmastime, and part of the conceit is that the saws actually do the singing. He's not playing the saws; he's encouraging them to sing.

That element of whimsy is part of the fun of Koster's projects and our conversation, though he brought engineer Nesey Gallons on the call with him to be a lifeline when Koster starts to drift too far out. 

Our conversation covers some ground, from an unexpected appearance by Leadbelly to a Christmas interlude courtesy of Japanese filmmaker Akira  Kurosawa. Koster and Gallons also turned me on to a Folksways compilation of Ukrainian Christmas songs. The song we hear is "The Miracle of the Birth."

The Cowsills answer a number of pop culture trivia questions, starting with "What real life family pop band inspired the 1970 television show, The Partridge Family?" They had hits with "The Rain, The Park, and Other Things"--best known for the refrain, "I love the flower girl"--and "Hair," but the experience took a toll on family members, particularly Susan Cowsill's older brothers. She was a kid along for the ride and still under 10 when it hit, but as she talks about during our conversation, her teenaged brothers with rock 'n' roll dreams had a hard time dealing with what they became. 

The Cowsills are a starting point for today's conversation because while Susan and her brothers worked for a few decades to establish themselves as solo artists, she regularly performs now as The Cowsills with Bob and Paul, and the three of them have a podcast now, The Cowsills Podcast. This summer, they performed on the Happy Together Again tour, and from November 1-December 10, they'll be guests on the Andy Williams Christmas Show at the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri.

There are musicians who might have a hard time adjusting to a Branson residency, but Susan compartmentalizes her creative endeavors. She was part of the Americana/indie pop supergroup The Continental Drifters and she still plays solo gigs in New Orleans in support of solo efforts, but after all these years, singing with her brothers remains a powerful, important of her musical life.

Today we talk about the Christmas music she made and the Christmas music she loves. 

Documentary filmmaker Mitchell Kezin released the movie Jingle Bell Rocks! in 2013. In it, he focused on the human side of Christmas music, whether with the musicians who make the music--much the same way we do on 12 Songs--or by talking to collectors about the music they're passionate about. Last year, I talked to Kezin about the movie and his Christmas music collection, and ran part of the conversation during the holiday season. 

This week, I'm running a longer, more complete version of that conversation, where we talk about collecting, the song that got him started on Christmas music, and the lengths he went to get one of the interviews for Jingle Bell Rocks. 

Right now, Kezin is at work on his 2023 "Merry Mix," the name he gave to his series of Christmas music compilations. You can get a hold of Kezin and see the songs he has used on previous compilations dating back to 1998. It's a dizzying compendium of songs you don't know by artists you haven't heard of, but they're consistently entertaining.

 

This week I'm talking with blues artist Jontavious Willis, who recently released his album West Georgia Blues. 

I wanted to talk to Jontavious not because of his Christmas music--he doesn't have any yet--but because he's doing something that I've been trying to pay attention to as people make contemporary music in traditional forms. We go a little longer with Jontavious talking about the blues in general to help get at that thought a bit. 

But we also got to a number of his favorite blues Christmas songs, and I like that he's not doctrinaire in his choices, folding in Rev. J.M. Gates, The Emotions and James Brown among others. Early on he mentions Minnie Ripperton, and it takes a bit before I get to her, but I played "Christmas Love" by the Rotary Connection, which featured Minnie Ripperton on lead vocals.

In the episode, I also mentioned that I did a guest spot recently on the Totally Rad Christmas podcast, which focuses on Christmas in the '80s. We talked about "Do They Know it's Christmas" by Band Aid and Band Aid II from 1989 with a version of the song produced by the British pop hit making team of Stock Aiken Waterman. It's a fun conversation and worth the time. 

Finally, Jontavious mentioned Lowell Folsom's "Lonesome Christmas," then rolled on to other songs so I never got to include a song by him. If you haven't heard it, here it is.

Twelve Songs returns after a life-induced hiatus with a good interview with Ray Benson from the Austin-based Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel. We talked in the spring when the band was coming to New Orleans to play Jazz Fest, and you can see my story focusing on the band celebrating 50 years in the game with its Half a Hundred Years album and tour. That tour is always going on or soon to restart, so check your local listings because if they aren't coming to town, they'll get there sooner or later.

We talk about COVID, which became very real for the band when members of the band were hit hard by it earlier this year. We also talk about his long-time musical friend Willie Nelson, Benson's admiration for his "Pretty Paper," and hear Christmas music by the band, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, The Resentments (on a song by one of my favorites, Jon Dee Graham), and Folk Uke, which features Willie Nelson and Arlo Guthrie's daughters.  

In 2014, Molto Groovy Christmas remade holiday favorites inspired by Italian and French movie soundtracks from the 1960s. Tracks also reference Esquivel, Jimmy Smith’s soul-jazz, and other out-there sounds, and the project as a whole is defined by unlikely, psychedelic textural juxtapositions over gently funky grooves. The album came with a mystery, though. The cover reads, “Roman Coppola and Alessandro Cassella presents,” but it’s not until you open the package that you discover who actually made the music. That task fell to Italian musician and producer Carlo Poddighe, who arranged the songs and played all the parts.   This week, Carlo Poddighe tells the story of the album and talks about the fun and the challenges that accompany having a studio full of the vintage gear needed for a project like this one.    Molto Groovy Christmas isn’t on Spotify or Apple Music, but CDs and mp3s are available through Amazon and a few vinyl copies remain for sale at the album’s Bandcamp page.    Poddighe talks about the influence of a number of Italian soundtrack composers including Ennio Morricone, the best known in the United States. A Morricone track is included, as is a track from the 1995 album Vampyros Lesbos Sexadelic Dance Party, a very psychedelic collection of soundtrack music that prompted renewed interest in European soundtrack music from mid-‘60s to the early ‘70s.  If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe to Twelve Songs wherever you get your podcasts so that you don’t miss an episode.   

Twelve Songs returns to regular programming this week with writer Annie Zaleski joining me to talk about Wham!’s “Last Christmas” and our favorite versions of it.    On Christmas Day last year, Zaleski told the song’s story at Salon.com, which is just one of the places where she has covered pop music and Christmas music over the years. She also wrote a book on Duran Duran’s Rio for the 33 1/3 series.    The song has become a fascination of mine for a lot of reasons, one of which is that I’ve only really come around to it in the last few years. For a long time, I understood those who played Whamageddon online during the holiday season, but eventually the durability of the song and its stylish, bonkers, of the moment video won me over.    Annie and I also talk about cover versions by Jimmy Eat World, Carly Rae Jepsen, Manic Street Preachers, and Lucy Dacus. The episode closes with one of my favorites from last year by Japanese noise rock band Boris. If it speaks to you, you can find it at Boris’ Bandcamp page.    In the conversation, I mentioned the video for the version of "Last Christmas" by the Japanese rock band Chai, and Annie and I break down Wham!'s video. 

When I started to look back at the highlights of our first 100 episodes, I envisioned it taking an episode or two, but once I started, I couldn’t keep the number down that low. Here we are with the fifth and final installment, and I can easily envision another episode or two of interviews conducted before 2021. 

This week’s episode includes a few interviews that were special for me, including Steven Drozd of Flaming Lips, 11 Acorn Lane, guitar hero Steve Lukather, jazz vocalist Jacqui Naylor, ZE Records’ Michael Zilkha, Latin ska band Mento Buru, and singer Danny Boy and label exec John “JP” Payne of Death Row Records. There’s something special in each of these for me. Some were people I had really wanted to talk to, others were really good, provocative conversations, and in the case of the Death Row interview, it led to a story I wrote for The New York Times. 

Next week, I’ll get to work on the next 100 with a new conversation. If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe, like, follow, or do what you have to do with your podcast provider to get Twelve Songs in your podcast feed weekly.