Epic Christmas Crap

There are a lot of super annoying Christmas songs out there, and I could go off on how hundreds of them grate on my nerves. But this one in particular makes me want to rip my ears out. The only reason I am posting it is because I have a companion song to it which I actually find fascinating.

According to our friends over at Wikipedia, Alvin and the Chipmunks, started out as a puppet show in the 1950s. Ross Bagdasarian created the novelty record "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)" in 1958. The record was highly successful, selling more than 4 million copies in seven weeks, and it launched the careers of its chipmunk stars. It spent four weeks at Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart from December 22, 1958, to January 12, 1959. It also earned three Grammy Awards and a nomination for Record of the Year.

Record of the year??? And you thought Amy Winehouse (2008 Record of the Year winner) was bad.

"The Chipmunk Song" was recorded on audiotape at half of the normal speed, then played back at double speed which made the voices an octave higher in pitch at normal tempo. Here are the two for comparison.

Double Speed (The Chipmunks): The Chipmunk Song.mp3

Half Speed (Human Singers): The Chipmunk (remix).mp3
I found the "slow" version last year on the internets somewhere from a DJ called "Mr. Fab."

High Cost of Living

Spin magazine just came out with their 20 Best Songs of 2008. I'm not going to pretend to be down with what the cool kids are listening to, but I do have to comment on one song in particular. Spin's #10 song is "High Cost of Living," by Jamey Johnson. This is a great, great country song about regrets caused by drug and alcohol abuse.

I appreciate the fact that Spin is trying to cross musical genres. There is a lot of alternative rock and hip-hop on this list, most of which I don't know, but I'm glad they threw in a country tune too. And a damn good one at that.

I'll have my 20 Best Songs list up some time before the new year. I'm still trying to figure out my top ten albums of 2008. So far I have it narrowed down to 33.

High Cost of Living.mp3
Buy: That Lonesome Song (2008)

College Radio

College radio had a huge influence on developing my musical tastes in the 1980s and early 90s. Growing up in small town Wisconsin, I listened to WRST from the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh. They even let some of my high school friends DJ, usually at 4a.m. on Thursdays. My only other source of alternative music came from friends who had older siblings in college, and they passed on what they heard at their local college stations to we high school underlings.

Another recent article in the New York Times talks about how college radio is maintaining its presence, and in some cases thriving, despite the availability of a wide range of music on the internet. Most of these stations are student-run, and allow students to DJ whatever they feel like during certain programming hours. And, according to the article, some actually do influence the success of indie bands, many by integrating their broadcast with a streaming webcast. While commercial radio is run by huge conglomerates and so-called professional "DJs" have no influence on the playlist, its great to see that young people still want to get involved with local radio.

In the future I am going to say a lot more about college radio, but in the meantime here are a few tracks that I discovered by college radio in the 1980s.

Hüsker Dü - Never Talking To You Again.mp3
Buy: Zen Arcade (1984)

The Smiths - Cemetry Gates.mp3
Buy: The Queen Is Dead (1986)

They Might Be Giants -Ana Ng.mp3
Buy: Lincoln (1989)

And here's a song by the Replacements from their most produced record, but a great song regardless. I will have much, much more to say about the Replacements at a later date. Man, I remember seeing this on MTV's 120 Minutes. And now its VH1 Classic? I'm old.
Buy: Don't Tell a Soul (1989, reissued with bonus tracks 2008)

Doors Convergence

A few days ago I read an unusual article in the New York Times on how The Doors lead singer Jim Morrison, who would have turned 65 on Dec. 8, appeared in two NYT obituaries in last week. Jim's father George Morrison passed away on Nov. 17 at age 89. Elmer Valentine, the founder of the Los Angeles club Whisky a Go Go where The Doors were once the house band, died on Dec. 3 at age 85. Author Verlyn Klinkeborg ponders what may have happened if these two men had ever met. Read the article here.

Light My Fire.mp3
Love Me Two Times.mp3
The End.mp3
Buy: The Very Best of the Doors (2007)