Head over to Moshi Moshi Records to get your copy of the compilation A Christmas Gift for You From Moshi Moshi Records along with Slow Club’s Christmas, Thanks for Nothing. Both EPs are mainly jaded affairs, looking at the sad side of the holidays, but nevertheless, they’ll keep you company better than any overly jolly/supersized pop star stuff can.
A Christmas Gift for You
A Christmas Gift for You features Summer Camp’s fine, off kilter version of the 80’s New Wave hit “Christmas Wrapping” from the Waitresses. James Yuill (featuring Rod Thomas) brings on an ambient noise/acoustic guitar with dance beat version of “Winter Wonderland.” Ingo Star Cruiser kicks up a bouncy pop for “Just Like Christmas,” while Idiot Glee’s “White Christmas” pulls back and creeps out on falsetto backing vocals that mimic the sound of playing the saw. Hot Club de Paris sound a bit like Barenaked for the Holidays (Barenaked Ladies) on “Will You Still Be in Love With Me Next Year?” a 2007 single reissued here with the wry vocal intact. Finally, the Wave Pictures offer the jangle pop of “We Dress Up Like Snowmen,” a combination of the Violent Femmes and Ezra Furman.
Slow Club at Christmas
As I said of both of these releases, Slow Club’s take on Christmas is a jaded affair, but one that invites you in for the fun anyways. The Christmas, Thanks for Nothing EP opens with the vacant room, piano-led “All Alone for Christmas.” That track then gives way to the reverb ready, spot on performance of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” which preserves that 60’s feel of the Phil Spector-penned tune. It’s a perfect choice for the reverb-drenched, 60’s pop Slow Club.
Christmas continues, though, with the walking acoustic guitar of “It’s Christmas and You’re Boring Me,” which reveals the dark side of the holidays. The underbelly continues on the title track which says, “Christmas, thanks for nothing/You’ve made a doubter out of me,” vamping on the second part of the line. It’s a good warning that the Christmas season may not always make believers out of people, but it may chase them away from the true reason for the season. This may be why Slow Club’s organ/distortion version of “Silent Night” sounds a bit vitriolic. Finally, “Christmas TV” shows Slow Club’s hopeful boy-girl vocals so that even though they’re singing that “it’s brutal,” there’s still a light in the darkness.
Slow Club at Christmas
Slow Club’s Christmas release is a good reason to go back and talk about their album, Yeah, So, which saw it’s stateside release this past March.
“It Doesn’t Have to Be Beautiful,” they sing, but it is. The music is definitely beautiful. And so is the video for that track. A rockabilly-hint, reverb guitar, and train track punk acoustic, the song invites you to sing along as it builds and builds to a high point of 60’s pop charm.
Elsewhere, Yeah, So brings together a beautiful sound from Charles Watson (vocals, guitar) and Rebecca Taylor (vocals, guitar, percussion). “When I Go” is a folk guitar and close harmonies. “Giving Up On Love” seems Beatlesque, and that Lennon/McCartney air appears again on the piano ballad “There is No Good Way to Say I’m Leaving You.” On “Trophy Room,” follow the fingers of the guitar plucking out the rhythm as if Bob Dylan in an Elliot Smith song while channeling 60’s pop vocals.
The truth is, I can’t find enough good words to describe the joy that Yeah, So brings. Slow Club walk a line between folk and rock, 60’s charm and current indie vibe.
