Gratis julelåt fra Sirkus Eliassen

Hurra! Nå har Sirkus Eliassen-nissen vært på besøk hos NRK P3 og levert årets julepresang i form av den nyskrevne julelåta "Julefri". Gutta bak årets nest beste låt, "Æ vil bare dans", overbeviser også i julegenren. Dette er koselig fjolleri med en god melodi, catchy så det holder selvsagt. Den kan lastes ned helt gratis her.

Smalltown Romeo feat. Shad K - Boom Ha

I had no idea who Smalltown Romeo was before stumbling upon the incredible 2010 single "Boom Ha" featuring a Canadian rapper called Shad K (born Shadrach Kabango). Here's what I learnt on Smalltown Romeo's Soundcloud page:

Smalltown Romeo is a funk mongrel. A dance music mutt. The bastard spawn of legendary Canadian party-rocking club owners Smalltown DJs and upstart disco dude – the young, gifted and brown – Wax Romeo. Finding common ground where sweaty club nights meet hippy forest raves, the threesome has joined forces to make and play fun, funk-focused dance tunes. House, disco, party jams – landing their sound somewhere between Giorgio Moroder and Mark Ronson. Hearts will be stolen. Asses will be shook. Other unmentionable things will happen.

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Mariah Carey feat. Jimmy Fallon and The Roots - All I Want For Christmas

A few nights ago Mariah Carey visited the Late Night With Jimmy Fallon show and performed a feelgood version of "All I Want For Christmas", backed by the host himself and The Roots who played on kid-sized toy instruments, and also featuring a kid choir. The result? Pretty good, with big smiles all around.

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Erik's musical Advent calendar - December 11

Bruce Cockburn - "Mary Had A Baby"

"This traditional Christmas song is more a spiritual than a carol", says the Allmusic website, quite correctly. The song's rhytmic style is decidedly the same as many a black spiritual of the 19th and 20th centuries, and Canadian singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn's excellent version of this song about the birth of Baby Jesus is true to that. It's a fabulous version, where Cockburn is aided by a gospel choir, cowbells and the works, that was included on his 1993 seasonal album simply named Christmas.

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Tracey Thorn - Joy

Finally here's the video for "Joy", the lead track off Tracey Thorn's fabulous new Christmas record Tinsel And Lights, and one of two self-composed tracks on it. "Joy" is a Christmas song for adults who love Christmas in the same way as they did when they were children, but for other reasons, namely that when the Christmas lights are gone, so may the brief moment of happiness be and sadness and/or the mundane everyday life returns. But Christmas shimmers, if only just for a little while, and that's cause for celebration. The video for the song was shot in the French town of Lille, where evidently there are lots of lights right now. Made me want to go.

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I've reconsidered - "Fairytale Of New York" version IS great

A few days ago I posted a well-intentioned but somehow a bit critical review of the Katzenjammer/Ben Caplan/Trondheim Soloists version of the Pogues/Kirsty MacColl evergreen "Fairytale Of New York". Although I liked the version right away, I noted that the new version is "not great, but pretty good". Boy, was I wrong! After listening to it several more times, it has dawned on me that this is great as hell, mostly due to its genius arrangement, but also the singers' voices. The contrast between the Katzenjammer girls' angelic voices and Caplan's gruff baritone, is as fascinating as the Shane MacGowan/Kirsty MacColl duet, and when augmented by a string orchestra and nothing else, the song transcends itself, becoming somehow bigger than life. So there you have it. I'm sorry if I led some people astray suggesting this was merely good. It's not. It's plain awesome!

Below you'll find two links to the song, one to the music video, one for their joint performance on Norwegian TV show Senkveld last Friday. Happy Christmas indeed!

Music video

Senkveld performance

Foto: WiMP/Karina Rønning

Neil Finn is finishing first solo album in 12 years

Crowded House frontman Neil Finn is about to finish his third solo album and plans to wrap the recording in January. He hopes the album will be released in 2013, but as he says to Billboard.com, "I've become used to not really prediciting when records will come out". Meanwhile he's gaining attention for the theme song for the first Hobbit soundtrack called "Song Of The Lonely Mountain", in every way an atypical Finn song, but fine nonetheless. The as yet untitled new album is Finn's first solo release since 2001's brilliant One Nil.

Full story and listen to "Song Of The Lonely Mountain" here.

Phoenix' returns with new album in April

Excellent French popsters Phoenix will likely release the follow-up to their 2009 album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix in April, if Daniel Glass, head of the band's label Glassnote Records, is to be believed. It was during a Spotify event last Thursday that Glass revealed that the record was completed and scheduled for an April release.

Stiff LIttle Fingers - Alternative Ulster

For some reason I felt like listening to some old punk, and the choice fell on Belfast stalwarts Stiff Little Fingers and their bitingly angry second single, 1978's "Alternative Ulster". This was recorded at the height of "the troubles" in Northern Ireland, and the message was clear from singer Jake Burns and his young compadres: "An alternative Ulster, grab it, change it, it's yours!" The single was included on the band's classic debut album, Inflammable Material (1979). The live clip below shows the band at its youthful best.

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Erik's musical Advent calendar - December 10

Roy Orbison - "Pretty Paper"

Pave the way for one of the best voices to ever sing a song. Any song. Roy Orbison's 1963 recording of Willie Nelson's "Pretty Paper" is one of the truly, undeniably great (make that GREAT) Christmas songs. It's also one of the saddest songs you can imagine, helped along in that respect by Orbison's haunted, vulnerable singing. Willie himself recorded "Pretty Paper" in 1979 for his Christmas album of the same name, but it's The Big O's version that is the definitive one.

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