Monday, December 1, 1997
Soundbites
Various Artists, "Santa’s Got a GTO! Rodney on the Roq’s Fav
X-Mas Songs" (Dionysus Records) For years, Rodney Bingenheimer,
otherwise known as Rodney on the Roq, has been hosting his
late-night Sunday show on KROQ, as well as hosting glam and pop
shows in the West L.A. area. Now, he brings together 20 bands and
artists that he has supported for years for the recording of the
sugary, poppy "Santa’s Got a GTO!" This record full of rockin’
holiday tunes is actually a tribute album to his mother, who died
this year and left Rodney to solve her financial troubles, which
"GTO" aims to relieve with its proceeds. Wow, how many albums are
tributes to mom?
"GTO" is hardly your standard Christmastime fare. But that’s
what makes it so cool. For those of you sick of old, easy listening
holiday music on KBIG and K-EARTH, Rodney gives us the power-pop
holiday music, which borrows styles from ’60s and ’80s British pop.
Featured on "GTO" are such Rodney on the Roq alumni as Frosted
(with ex-Go Go Jane Wiedlin), the Wondermints, Nina Hagen and
MethadOne Cocktail.
Many of the songs were written especially for this album, but
some traditional favorites and covers show up. English dream-pop
kings Ride re-write an old song in "Like a Snowflake." Geoyln
juices up the traditional fave, "Deck the Halls." New British pop
band Sugarfree cover "Last Christmas," a song Wham! covered in the
’80s. But not all of the covers come off so wonderfully. Olivia
Barash ruins "Silent Night" with all sorts of inappropriate guitar
noise. Hanukkah songs include Silver Lake band Velouria’s "’Til
Next Hanukkah" and Yid Kids’ "Santa Doesn’t Come to Little Jewish
Children’s Houses."
Once you listen to "Santa’s Got a GTO," you’ll realize that this
assortment of goodies has more sugar-sweetness than a box of candy
canes. Cheer up this holiday season with Rodney. Mike Prevatt
B+
Dordan, "A Celtic Christmas" (Narada) If you’re the typical
American suburbanite, you dig dancing the jig come Christmas season
with some warm, spicy nog heatin’ up your belly, as you partake in
viewing some Yule log action on the telly and reflect on your
carefree youth in Ireland, when you frolicked in the potato fields
playing the flute for the surrounding villages. No? What’s wrong
with you, you culturally devoid, capitalistic, used piece of
American suburban mall trash? Don’t you have any notion of
community roots to sink your teeth into? Has this blessed season
become only a mishmash of shopping expeditions gone sour in the
sterile indoor breeding grounds of fake pine smell and tacky red
ribbons? Get some heritage this holiday season, even if you may
happen to be Jewish or Muslim or Taoist and live on a commune of
like-minded religious zealots.
No matter. Christianity is not a pre-requisite for listening to
"A Celtic Christmas" by the four female members of the Irish group
Dordan. When the fiddle twists out a melody or the harp spills
through the flute and tambourine interludes, riding a
transcendental wave of Celtic yodeling or whatever it is that they
do, the tears will well up in your eyes and leave you screaming for
a cradle of your own so that you may recreate the feeling that baby
Jesus must have had upon the first few patterings of his tiny
heartbeat. Or you may just want to go purchase plastic life sized
lawn reindeer, you hopeless American consumer. Can’t you see you’re
just playing into the sadistic hands of the Man? Aiiee. Vanessa
VanderZanden A-
Various Artists, "A Home For the Holidays" (Mercury) This
excellent collection contains many of the elements that have made
the "A Very Special Christmas" albums so popular. It features a
number of both traditional and original songs performed by a
variety of successful artists from a variety of different genres.
The collection was created specifically for charity purposes, here
to support Phoenix House, a nation-wide substance abuse prevention
organization. As the liner notes to the album mention, "after all
the other designated issues of the day, drug abuse is something
that hits home in the music industry."
Of the album’s 17 tracks, seven have been released elsewhere,
including Boyz II Men’s medley of "Silent Night/Let it Snow," Tony
Toni Tone’s "My Christmas," "Bon Jovi’s "I Wish Everyday Could Be
Like Christmas," and Gloria Estefan’s "Arbolito de Navidad." The
other 10 tracks are brand new and include songs by guitarist Richie
Sambora, new Australian pop band OMC, Boston ska-meisters the
Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and folk rock songwriters Suzanne Vega and
Joan Osborne.
Clearly, many genres and styles have been included here, and the
result is an album that will please any listener who is open to
exploring genres that they don’t usually listen to. Both the songs
and album packaging are well-produced, and the proceeds go to
support an excellent charity. Merry Christmas. Enjoy.
Jeff Hilger A
Hanson "Snowed In" (Mercury) It was inevitable. But look at it
this way, you’re not seeing a Spice Girls Christmas album this
year, are you? Actually, Hanson is alright. The group may not rebel
against corporate pop or curse parents in their distortion-less
pop, but these younguns can sing, play and write a tune.
Which brings us to "Snowed In." Hanson has written three new
songs and has included eight other familiar Christmas songs in a
collection that is pretty darn hummable but falls a tad short of
their polished pop album, "Middle of Nowhere." It’s a different
holiday record, but its lively mix of songs to which little girls
all over will want to unwrap their Sing and Snore Ernies.
Some rollicking tunes include "What Christmas Means To Me," a
cover of the Beach Boys’ "Little Saint Nick" and Phil Spector’s
"Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)." Hanson’s original songs on the
album are typical of their styles, like the guitar and organ ditty,
"Everyone Knows the Claus" and the wooing "Christmas Time." The
only times Hanson really falls short is the bombastic "Rockin’
Around the Christmas Tree" and singer Taylor Hanson’s psuedo-sexy
grunts, inappropriate for this particular theme. But in all,
"Snowed In" is a fair album that certainly beats New Kids on the
Block’s funky, funky Christmas schlock anytime. Mike Prevatt B
VARIOUS ARTISTS
"Santa’s Got a GTO!"