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The CHIRP Blog
Luke Cimarusti writesCHIRP Radio Best of 2014: Luke C
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Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2014. Our next list is from volunteer Luke C.
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Tyler Clark presents: Local Mythologies writesTop 25 Christmas Songs of the Last 25 Years: #23 - Logan Whitehurst, “Me and the Snowman”
It's the holiday season, which means Christmas music. Lots and lots or Christmas music, most of which was written before the people listening to it were even alive. While "Jingle Bells" and "We Three Kings" are great, and resilient, we're devoting this year to finding the best Christmas song written since 1989. We continue today with #23, and an ode to winter friendship from the late, great Logan Whitehurst.
#23 - Logan Whitehurst and the Junior Science Club, "Me and the Snowman" (2004)
One of my favorite moments during the (criminally unheralded) 1987 television special A Muppet Family Christmas comes around Act II. After barging in on Fozzie's mom's house, the gang sets about preparing for an old-fashioned Christmas. Fozzie himself gets put on tree duty, but quickly forgets all of that when he comes across an anthropomorphic snowman with a taste for vaudeville comedy. The two joke their way through a loose rendition of "Sleigh Ride" before Fozzie runs off to tell Kermit about his new find. That scene usually gets cut in the home video release, owing to the high cost of music rights, but I always loved it.
Maybe Logan Whitehurst did, too. The talented singer-songwriter and former member of The Velvet Teen, who passed away eight years ago today at the (criminally young) age of 29, certainly appreciated the same kind of wide-eyed, back-slapping humor that Fozzie Bear embodies. It comes through on songs like this one, a feel-good slice of mid-'00s pop about, well, Logan and a snowman, hanging out and doing winter stuff. It's not explicitly a Christmas song, but in a season that values cameraderie and good will, it fits in better than most standards.
DS writesCHIRP Radio Best of 2014: Andrew Stola
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Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2014. Our next list is from CHIRP volunteer Andrew Stola.
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Tyler Clark presents: Local Mythologies writesTop 25 Christmas Songs of the Last 25 Years: #24 - The Hives and Cyndi Lauper, “A Christmas Duel”
It's the holiday season, which means Christmas music. Lots and lots or Christmas music, most of which was written before the people listening to it were even alive. While "Jingle Bells" and "We Three Kings" are great, and resilient, we're devoting this year to finding the best Christmas song written since 1989. We continue today with #24, and a duet from two unlikely collaborators.
#24: The Hives and Cyndi Lauper, "A Christmas Duel" (2008)
Come on a holiday journey with me for a minute. First, think of "Fairytale In New York," one of the Pogues' greatest songs and the tune that would probably top this list if it hadn't come out in 1987. Remember the couple from that song, the ones whose sentimental deathbed reunion can still wring boozy tears from all but the most flint-hearted of Scrooges? They're great, right? Now, imagine how they must've been years before, back when they were younger and healthier and still being total assholes to each other.
Such is the scenario suggested by "A Christmas Duel," a swaggering carol of infidelity and antagonism that features Howlin' Pelle Almqvist of Swedish garage journeymen The Hives trading suggestive, profanity-laced barbs with none other than Cyndi Lauper. In a genre loaded with high-profile, ill-advised duets (lookin' at you, Bing Crosby and David Bowie), this one is the definitely the least schmaltzy. No wonder it's also probably the most fun.
Clarence Ewing: The Million Year Trip writesCHIRP Radio Best of 2014: Clarence Ewing
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Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2014. Our next list is from DJ and Blog Manager Clarence Ewing. One of the reasons I like posting these end-of-year lists is it gives me the chance to read the choices of my fellow volunteers and discover a lot of great music I missed over the year. The hard part is finding the time and resources to listen to all this stuff. A nice problem to have, for sure. Now that Apple has decided to stop making iPods (one of the bigger and more symbolic stories in music news this year, IMO), will I soon have to worry about how I will carry around my entire music collection wherever I go, which I've decided is now my right? Walkman, it's time for a comeback! |