Countdown to Christmas Eve

V is for: Various Artists, Yule Be Miserable (Verve, 2006)

Holidays are a double-edged sword. For some people, Christmas is a great opportunity to get together with friends/family and roast chestnuts over the open fire blah blah blah... For others, it's the most depressing time of the year because they have no one to give presents to nor anyone to give presents to them blah blah blah... Some people are just scrooges. 

If the album cover picture of a wasted, passed out Santa (with ciggy still lit) doesn't give it away, this disc is intended for the latter two varieties of people--those who perhaps don't enjoy this time of year as much as say, Buddy the Elf.   

Let's put it this way: The notoriously depressed, cynical and neurotic basket case Harvey Pekar wrote the liner notes to this album. He's awesome, by the way. This is really a pretty good album though, with some old school swing and blues tracks from Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, B.B. King, Billie Holiday, and Count Basie. I like Christmas just fine, but the same old rehashed versions of the same old rehashed versions of Christmas standards really start to wear on me around this part of December. This is a welcome, refreshing respite. For the most part, it sounds like a big ol' glass o' whiskey in a smoke filled bar. Not exactly standard Christmas fare.

Surely you've got to know somebody who would benefit from receiving this album for Christmas. Let me guess how the "gift exchange" would sound:

YOU: "Hey, I got you a little something just to let you know I was thinking of you.  Merry Christmas!"

THEM: "Piss off."

YOU: "Alrighty then."

But, that's what the holidays are all about. 

Thanks to my friend Art Ordoqui for reading the blog and suggesting this album. Art is the program director for the HandsOn Northeast Georgia and Community Connection 211 nonprofit organizations, so I think it's fair to assume that he knows a thing or two about helping out the downtrodden and needy Athenians during the holidays (and year-round for that matter). Click the links to volunteer for something, including a day of service in honor of R.E.M. and all of the great things they have done for Athens. Also make sure you check out the HandsOn blog to see what's new with them.