Christmas music is playing in our home all day, everyday...I love it. Tree lights get plugged in first thing in the morning before the day breaks and stay on all day. They are LED but still I am a bit energy selfish when it comes to Christmas...lights and songs make me soo happy.
For the past few weeks I have been playing some CD's by an artist I found at the library. They have names like Joy, Peace and DIng, Dong! no joke. All are by Sufjan Stevens, recorded under his label Asthmatic Kitty, and they are amazing. Soft, lovely and interesting. I also like the classics like Bing and the Charlie Brown soundtrack but they can start to get to be a bit much when you play them over and over like I tend to. Hubby would gladly whip my last year's favorite Kenny G, Faith CD into the fire and would certainly attest to my listening addictions.
This is what I want for Christmas! Please Santa, I've been mostly good. If you want it too it's available from my Chapters Indigo sponsor link on the left sidebar for $26.99. All commissions go to World Vision.
Here is a little loot I snagged off the Asthmatic Kitty web page as I really should be working on my holiday cards...hope Sufjan doesn't mind:
Forget the 50 States. Christmas is a bigger concept. As some of you may or may not know, for the past few years, as a holiday tradition, Sufjan has embarked on an extraordinary experiment to record an annual Christmas EP. It started in 2001, the year of Epiphanies, and continued onward (skipping only 2004), culminating into an odd and idiosyncratic catalog of music that has only existed in the Asthmatic Kitty archives (and on a number of file sharing sites). The recording process took place every December, for one week, usually at home, provoking collaborations with friends, roommates, and musical peers. Armed with a Reader’s Digest Christmas Songbook (and a mug of hot cider) Sufjan & friends concocted a musical fruit cake year after year, implementing every musical instrument they could find lying around the house: banjo, oboe, Casiotone, wood flute, a buzzy guitar, hand claps, sleigh bells, Hammond organ, and some tree tinsel. Did we mention sleigh bells? It doesn’t take much to capture that Creepy Christmas Feeling, does it? Recorded, mixed and mastered at home, the EPs themselves were often assembled in the kitchen, stapled together, and sent out with stickers and stamps to loved ones across the globe, year after year, with little Christmas cards that read: “Merry Christmas. You are something special. Santa Claus loves you. And so do I.” And then, one day, some of these songs showed up online. Curious little web zines and fan sites posted mp3s. People started asking questions. What is this I hear about Sufjan doing the boogey to the elf dance? Where can I get these Christmas goodies? Well, not wanting to be the Grinch, we decided to deck the halls, if you know what I mean.
But let’s back up a bit. Having an inherent aversion to the standard Christmas carol, Sufjan indulged in the project initially as an exercise to make himself “appreciate” Christmas more. It was a tough childhood, but you can’t be a Christmas Curmudgeon forever, can you? What he discovered, for better or for worse, was a fascinating canon of Yuletide hits, some emotionally rewarding, some painfully cliché. Jingle Bells. Silent Night. We Three Kings. The whole nine yards. The musical undertaking led Sufjan (and his coterie of friends) to reckon with a holiday that celebrates, above all things, the spirit of excess--Santa Claus, popcorn balls, mistletoe, and Kmart blue light specials, to name a few. What does it all add up to? A headache, a hangover, and sentimental ruminations of Baby Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and all those animals in the manger. Is there any other holiday that so seamlessly mixes the sacred and the profane?
Recording traditional favorites alongside unique originals, Sufjan has, over the course of five years, constructed an odd, impressive, and compelling collection of Christmas hits (and some misses) that will either warm your heart or make you throw up eggnog all over the bath mat (depending on your constitution). Asthmatic Kitty Records is preparing to release ALL of the material (newly mixed and mastered) in one generous box set, due in stores November 21, just in time for the holiday shopping craze. The box set (titled “Songs for Christmas”) will be chock full of surprises, including the following novelty items (if you don’t mind us ruining the surprise):
• Five individually packaged CD EPs!
• Five Christmas stickers!
• Extensive liner notes and short stories by Sufjan Stevens!
• An original Christmas essay by Rick Moody!
• An animated music video and comic strip by Tom Eaton!
• A Christmas Songbook with lyric sheets and chord charts--so you can sing along too!
This is one cool fellow and his bio and web page are a fascinating read. My guest writer (see yesterday's post) Noah is an ipod maniac now. We go to the library and he signs out heaps...listens and downloads things that speak to him and his quirky little heart. The first thing he ever picked and still is captivated by, is a series of Songs for the Chinese Zodiac...I never noticed until I started my new Sufjan fetish that they are also by Sufjan Stevens. Noah was very matter of fact when I popped in the first CD: "Oh yeah, that's Sufjan, he's good." I'm a proud Momma now, I want my boys to have a lot of Sufjan spirit in them...step out of the norm, be unique and find their own creative niches. I want them to be happy individuals,
Our individuality is all, all, that we have... blessed in the twinkle of the morning star is the one who nurtures it and rides it, in grace and love and wit....
—Tom Robbins
