speed of dark

As usual, Christmas songs hit the sound systems of retail establishments before Thanksgiving. If you're like me you've been sick and tired of the same old carols for years. I'm always looking for new gems and different twists on the old standards.

The good news is that there is a whole album's worth of goodies available this season, and the proceeds contribute to an excellent cause. Caleb at Hard To Find a Friend blog conceived the truly brilliant idea of asking indie artists to contribute an original, never-released track for a Christmas compilation album to benefit Toys For Tots.

Have a look at the resulting tracklist below. It contains some names very familiar to indie music lovers and others not so familiar. After you listen, you'll want to look up the ones you don't know. This could be a bunch of throwaway tunes, but they are NOT. There could be stinkers, but there AREN'T. Trust your Gramma: everything on this compilation is good quality.

1. Prayers & Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers - Shepherd's Song
2. Quiet Company - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
3. Great Lake Swimmers - Gonna Make it Through This Year
4. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin / Sweetwater Abilene - The Wheels Are Off
5. Chris Walla - Coventry Carol
6. David Karsten Daniels - In The Bleak Midwinter
7. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
8. The Winston Jazz Routine - Through the Snow
9. Via Audio - My Boo
10. The Long Winters - Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas (Sometimes)
11. TW Walsh - Drop the Bomb
12. Ohtis - American Christians
13. Aaron Robinson - End of the Year
14. The Cotton Jones Basket Ride (Michael Nau of Page France) - White Christmas
15. American Music Club - Please Please
16. Johnny Bertram - Merry Christmas (You Won't Get What You Want)
17. Rosie Thomas - Christmas Time is Here
18. Sleeptalker - This is Christmas

The bands' styles aren't exactly the same, but they are analogous, and the differences serve to add to the interest, not subtract from it. The covers blend well with the original songs. There is a nice ebb and flow to the order. This an album you'll play from beginning to end, not pick out one or two favorites.

Quiet Company, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, and The Cotton Jones Basket Ride make their hoary old numbers feel fresh, while the new compositions by The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers, Great Lake Swimmers, and Johnny Bertram feel like new favorites. Quiet Company have done an especially good job of stripping the sappy sentimentality that usually leaves me trembling with loathing from "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." I especially like the treatment of "White Christmas" with its gentle guitar, soft brush on the cymbals, and snaredrum snap. "Merry Christmas (You Won't Get What You Want)" is an unexpected new beauty, and "Gonna Make It Through the Year" is as good as anything Great Lake Swimmers have ever done.

Via Audio's "My Boo" is perfect for winter lovebirds. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin add a little humor to the mix without becoming stupid. "Coventry Carol" is probably my very favorite of the traditional carols, and while I've heard more beautiful versions, Chris Walla's is very interesting and perhaps closest to the original. The final track, "This Is Christmas" by Sleeptalker begs to become a new classic. I can't imagine anyone of any age not being charmed by it.

Here's another track from Sleeptalker to prove my point:
Sleeptalker: South For the Winter from simplifysimplify (2007)

And you can have all this goodness for only $7. Seven bucks! Think what great Christmas gifts this would be for your indie-loving friends. I bought five of them myself, and if that isn't a recommendation for you, I don't know what is.

Since we're providing only one promo track from this charity benefit CD, I have added links above to each band's MySpace page so you can sample their sound. Don't be afraid--check them out. See? I told you this music is good! Kudos to Caleb for the concept and realization of an excellent holiday collection.

Buy EXCLUSIVELY at Hard To Find a Friend blog