Christmas Album #2

#2

Last week we spoke about rare traditions and how They're Not Listening isn't your typical blog. Well this week's album is not your typical music album, let alone Christmas album. It's not everyday that a band headed by the second incarnation of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Black Ranger releases a Christmas album. A pat on the back to the first person to figure out which other Power Ranger has some type of musical career going on in their post ninja karate action careers.

Johnny Yong Bosch (lead vocals and rhythm guitar) heads Eyeshine, an "edge rock" group out of West Hills, California. The group self described "edge rock" as being on the edge of sounding like punk, alt rock or on the edge of sounding like (insert cool band here). Most of the time they say they're "on the edge of sounding good." Maurice Salmin (drums, backing vocals, piano), Crystal Mesina (bass, backing vocals) and Ji Ho "Daniel" Lee (lead guitar, backing vocals) round out the current lineup.

Xmas, the groups 7th studio album since 2008, is a digital only release. And can be found on iTunes, Amazon and Eyeshine's website www.Eyeshine.net.

Similar to She & Him's album (reviewed last week), the eight song album features all cover songs of classic Christmas songs and carols. However there is nothing soft, sweet and cute about any of these tracks.

Eyeshine's description of "edge rock" makes perfect sense when you hear them. They sound kind of like a lot of well known bands. For instance take We Wish You a Merry Christmas, the opening track on the album. It's like they kidnapped Jim Adkins from Jimmy Eat World and told him to compose, play guitar and do backing vocals on the track.

Or the albums third track, Hark the Herald Angels Sing. You didn't realize Billie Joe Armstrong was a featured artist on this album did you? Well he's not and nobody else from Green Day helped on this track either.

Eyeshine takes some risk, taking traditional Christmas songs and turning them into Alt Rock anthems. They succeed at what many groups before them fail to do, acknowledging that Christmas isn't about being bigger, louder and faster. Christmas is about something more.

They give each song a different feel than ever before, but don't get caught up in making every song sound like them. It's like listening to 8 different groups perform 8 different songs all arranged for the same instrumentation. Jingle Bells and Come All Ye Faithful are great examples of this but Eyeshine is at it's best on Joy To the World.

Xmas is a fresh "edgy" new take on classic songs with tremendous re-listen value. It's good for the whole family and it won't get boring like Twisted Sister's "A Twisted Christmas" or most other rock band Christmas albums for that matter. Not bad at all for a guy who spent his earlier years riding around on a Mastodon Dinozord.

Christmas Songs

It is rare when you come across a blog with such traditions as They're Not Listening. For example not posting anything for months at a time and coming back for a few weeks only to disappear again. Another historical tradition being that nothing said here is ever useful. These are traditions that will never be broken. However for the next few weeks we take a step back from the traditional useless sports commentary and replace it with one of my favorite things...

Today we'll check out a couple tracks from the 2011 release A Very She & Him Christmas.

First of all you can't go wrong with Zooey Deschanel's "nostalgic 1950's, innocent, husky" voice in any song. Whether it's the Winnie the Pooh theme song, an adorable song made up on the spot to deal with an embarrassing moment from her quirky, adorable FOX show "The New Girl" or a very respectful and beautiful take on The National Anthem at the World Series. In Elf she says "the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear," and then sings an a capella version of Santa Claus is Coming To Town as the townspeople join in.

She & Him combines Zooey's vocals, piano and ukulele skills with M. Ward's guitar and production chops. This is their 3rd studio album, following the aptly named Volume 1 and Volume 2. A Very She & Him Christmas is a 12 track offering of some of the most well known and loved Christmas songs.

Their cover of Little Saint Nick originally recorded by the Beach Boys in 1963 is clever with Zooey providing backing vocals over her own solo. While it doesn't quite match up to Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem, it certainly beats Sugar Ray's "carbon copy" of 2001 and the awful attempt Captain and Tenille tried to do a few years back.

Their syncopated take on Sleigh Ride is fun and bouncy for a song that tends to smack you in the face every time you hear it. Like the entire album its mellow and not out of control, a step back from The Ronettes and the Boston Pops version, seriously how many times do we need to hear the trumpet half-valve glissando (no that's not Wikipedia) every year. I still prefer Relient K's version from 2007, that appeared on Yo Gabba Gabba! but this one certainly makes the cut.

She & Him take on a bunch of songs written 50-70 years ago and give them an update without making them sound to modern. Where they succeed they also fail, making old songs sound old isn't all that difficult. What can really be done with The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire), Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas or Silver Bells? For a pop culture icon who is often described as "adorkable," I would have liked to see She & Him take a few risks maybe with McCartney's Wonderful Christmastime or at least something a little more dorky then the same old classics.

I'm not saying that The Pogues "Fairytale of New York" was in the cards for this group and based on the chemistry lacking take on "Baby, It's Cold Outside" it probably would have never worked. Simply flipping the roles of the guy and the girl does not a great track make.

It's too fast paced and never really makes you feel like they are singing to eachother. What makes this song so fun is the developing story which you get none of in this version. You would be better off listening to Rainn Wilson and Selma Blair's GAP Commercial.

A Very She & Him Christmas is definitely worth the listen, it's calm and collected and very likely to be heard anywhere you go shopping (even though Border's doesn't exist anymore). They released it on Vinyl but I'm listening to electronic downloads, so the vinyl production quality doesn't really show up. If you want to hear new takes on the classics without screeching vocals, weird electric guitar synths or headbanging drumbeats this is your album. However, it's safe and bland at times . Zooey is one of the cutest things on the planet, if you are already a fan this won't change that. But if you aren't it probably won't change that either.