Twelve Songs of Christmas

Season Seven Starts Soon

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. 

New Orleans Hip-Hop for Christmas with Raj Smoove and 504icygrl

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. 

 

Mother Mother ”Cry Christmas”

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. 

 

Christmas Down Under with Imogen Clark

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. 

”Holly Happy Days” with The Indigo Girls

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.

”A Dave Brubeck Christmas” with Matt Lemmler

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.

Merry Christmas from Japan with ”Holly Jolly Xmasu”

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. 

Christmas with the Blue Man Group

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.

A Soul Christmas with Eli ”Paperboy” Reed

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.  

A D.C.Go-Go Christmas with Chuck Brown

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.