DOWNLOAD: Woody Guthrie - Hanukkah Dance [Alternate Take] (1:24)
DOWNLOAD: Yo La Tengo - I Feel Like Going Home (live on KCMP) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: One on One with Jackie Hoffman (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Songs in the key of Hanukkah - Dreidel (MP3) (info)
DOWNLOAD: DJ BALAGAN - "Chalutzei Ketzev" (Israeli 70s Beat Mix) (MP3)

Hanukkah runs from sunset, December 21 to sunset, December 29, 2008. The first Day of Hanukkah is December 22. If you haven't figured it it out by now, that means Christmas happens during Hannukah this year.

Over the course of the eight days (and before and after), many candles will be lit and many Hanukkah-themed events will be happening in and around New York City. Many will involve music. Here are a few...

Yo La Tengo will be repeating their tradition of playing all eight nights of Hanukkah at Maxwell's in Hoboken. Not surpringly, advanced tickets are all already sold out at Ticketweb, but to quote the band, "Tickets may still be available in person at Tunes in Hoboken and/or Other Music in NYC". Stay tuned for opener information as it's announced. Yo La Tengo are also playing a show in New Jersey on New Years Eve.

Also playing eights nights (except not all of them are on Hanukkah because he's taking the Sabbath off): Matisyahu. Tickets are still on sale for these shows that take place at Webster Hall in Manhattan and Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Openers include The LeeVees, Asher Roth and Little Jackie.

Southpaw in Park Slope is hosting Jewltide 6 featuring DeLeon on Christmas Eve. "DeLeon plays 15th Century Spanish indie rock infused with the deeply mysterious and entrancing cadences of the ancient Sephardic tradition." Tickets are on sale. This show is also part of a larger DeLeon/JDub national Hanukkah tour. All dates at the very bottom of this post.

NYC event listings continued below...

Continue reading "a guide to NYC HANNUKAH shows & concerts, MP3's & stuff "

DOWNLOAD: Belle and Sebastian - Are You Coming Over For Christmas? (MP3)

The lovely new song that is streaming on the home page is called 'Are You Coming Over For Christmas?' and was recorded this week in Glasgow, being completed with three days to spare!

It is a brand new recording and the band's first studio output since last year's 'The Life Pursuit' album.

As well as the band members, it features guest vocals by Celia Garcia, double bass by Dave McGowan, saxophones and clarinet by James Swinburne and harp by Helen Macleod. It was arranged by Mick Cooke, engineered by Steven Clark and mixed by Stuart McCredie.

The track can be streamed from the homepage or the band's MySpace profile. As a special Xmas present, we will switch on the download function on the MySpace from midnight 'til midnight on Christmas Day. Happy Christmas! [Belle and Sebastian]

DOWNLOAD: Sloan Wainwright - Silent Night (MP3)

This was maybe going to be a post about how the-band-recently-signed-to-Secretly-Canadian Bodies of Water posted some free Christmas songs for download on their MySpace page, but then this message they posted on the homepage of their regular website seemed even more interesting...

12.21.07 - I can't understand why anyone likes these musical groups and singers:

Wilco
Jeff Buckley
Elvis Costello
The Police
Slint
Rush
Joni Mitchell
Steely Dan
Afghan Whigs

Perhaps you are offended by this. If so, I feel glad. You need to be shaken up. You need to have whatever skewed values you've cultivated over the years CHALLENGED. Listen again to this stuff - you will see that it is junk. (I say all this with the utmost sincerity, but I'm sure that in a year or two 'synchronicity' will be on heavy rotation in my house. This goes for all of these except for Steely Dan. I will never, ever like Steely Dan as long as I live.)

Check out the Bodies of Water take away show @ La Blogoteque (and while you're at it, check out the new Jens Lekman one too).

DOWNLOAD: Teddy Pendergrass - Happy Kwanzaa (MP3)

Download the 2007 BrooklynVegan holiday mix HERE (in case you missed it). And then check out this other site for links to even more free holiday music.

DOWNLOAD: Odawas - I Tell Lies (Odawas Remix) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Cracker - Merry Christmas Emily (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Pipettes - White Christmas (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Feist - Lo, How a Rose Ere Blooming (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: King of Prussia - Xmas on the Other Side (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Rump Posse - Carol of the Manbarks (MP3)

The Sounds (CRED)

* Free Parts & Labor show
* Public Enemy is playing Warsaw
* Clare & The Reasons are playing Southpaw
* The Sounds & Morningwood are @ Webster Hall
* A Twisted Sister Christmas show @ Irving Plaza
* The Sounds afterparty is at Hiro Ballroom
* The Musical Box @ The Tribeca Performing Arts Center

Maja Ivarsson of the Sounds looks like she would be really fun to photograph. What else?

* Sufjan Stevens @ Southpaw
* Sounds Familyre is giving away Christmas songs
* A City Harvest benefit @ Europa
* Mr. Scruff opens for Francois K at Deep Space at Cielo
* The Robert Glasper Experiment with Q-Tip @ Highline Ballroom
* Knitting Factory hosts Pittsburgh Slim

Pittsburgh Slim is the man behind that horrible "girls kissing girls" song. Reasons to go: You have Pittsburgh pride, you're thinking Jay-Z could show up, or you're hoping they might reenact the video in some way live on stage.

What else?

1) DOWNLOAD: It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year (MP3)
2) DOWNLOAD: Phofo - Light That Menorah (MP3)
3) DOWNLOAD: DJ BC vs. Adam Sandler - Chaukah Song (Goy Mix) (MP3)
4) DOWNLOAD: Doc Mo Shé - Hanukkah Homeboy (MP3)
5) DOWNLOAD: Chutzpah - Chanukkah's Da Bomb (MP3)
6) DOWNLOAD: Smooth-E - Hanukkah Hey Ya! (MP3)

Part 2 tomorrow. More holiday MP3s HERE. Night one events HERE.

DOWNLOAD: Super Furry Animals - Into the Night (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Super Furry Animals - Run Away (MP3)

Tickets are on sale (thx Jesse!) for a Super Furry Animals show at Maxwell's in Hoboken on January 23rd. That's one of two announced U.S. dates. The other is February 9th in San Francisco. Surely more dates will be announced soon.

Their latest album Hey Venus is currently out in the U.S., but only digtally and on vinyl. The CD (pictured) will include bonus material, and that's out on January 22nd (one day before the Maxwell's show).

SFA are also playing overseas - New Years Eve in London with Deerhoof, and XFM's Winter Wonderland on December 12th with We Are Scientists (who are also playing NYC on December 18th).

Check Superfurry.com on December 25th for a free MP3 of 'The Gift That Keeps Giving'. Check out a video below...

Continue reading "Super Furry Animals - CD release, US tour, Christmas song, New Years Eve in London"

DOWNLOAD: Robbers on High Street - Seasons Greetings (MP3)

The song is originally found on an American Song-Poem Christmas album called Daddy, Is Santa Really Six Foot Four? On Bar None Records. It was written by Raymond Moberly and performed by Teri Summers and the Librettos. Song-poems were a pop culture phenomenon in the 50s, 60s and 70s where normal people would mail in their poems to "professional musicians" who would then set music to the poems for a fee, usually a few hundred dollars.

01. Parenthetical Girls - If it's a time for Christmas (2:46)
02. Ween - Silent Night (1:40)
03. Andrew Dost (Anathallo) - Yeah, I Know, It's Christmastime (2:04)
04. The National Splits - Let's Wrap Each Other (2:15)
05. Louis Armstrong - Santa Claus Blues (2:51)
06. Scott Allen (Thunderbirds are Now) - Winters Wonderland (3:50)
07. The Knife - Christmas Reindeer (7:11)
08. Melt Banana - White Christmas (1:42)
09. Thick Pigeon - Jingle Bell Rock (1:30)
10. Steven Garvey - Dreidle, Dreidle, Dreidle (1:11)
11. nullsleep - silent night (2:25)
12. Wild Billy Childish & The Musicians of the British Empire - Santa Claus (3:26)
13. Holly Golightly - Christmas Tree's On Fire (2:54)
14. Deerhoof - xmas tree (2:30)
15. Palace Songs (Will Oldham) - Christmastime in the Mountains (1:30)
16. Woody Guthrie - Hanukkah Dance [Alternate Take] (1:24)

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I know it's too early for this, but inspiration hit, so I went with it. Download, support the artists, enjoy, and happy holidays (Thanksgiving or whatever).

DOWNLOAD: Wham - Last Christmas (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: ABCQ - It's Christmas Time (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: ABCQ - lumen de lumine (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: ABCQ - Snowbus (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: ABCQ - I wish you love (MP3)

Download a few mellow Christmas songs for your non-ironic holiday mix, courtesy of A Band Called Quinn. Kind of Rilo Kiley & St. Etienne - a bit cheesy. Would go well with some George Michael (Geri Halliwell's ex-friend), so I included that one as well. Yeah, I know - it's not even Thanksgiving yet. Speaking of Thanksgiving, SuperVegan lists some ways to have a vegan one in NYC. Want something more traditional? Watch the entire Charlie Brown Thanksgiving cartoon below....

Continue reading "a free pre-Thanksgiving Christmas EP by A Band Called Quinn"

DOWNLOAD: Sufjan Stevens - That Was the Worst Christmas Ever (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Sufjan Stevens - Sister Winter (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Sufjan Stevens - Ding Dong (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Sufjan Stevens - Com on! Let's Boogie to the Elf Dance! (MP3)

"Asthmatic Kitty is proud to announce..."

It's Christmas time again! That means tightly bundled scarves, lively debates on the merits of real/plastic trees, a litany of Christmas television specials, and finding the perfect retro Christmas wrapping paper.

And gifts of course! Who could forget the gifts!

That's why Sufjan Stevens is busy working on a very special gift right now, for a very special person. And in the spirit of Christmas, that person will give Sufjan a similarly special gift.

Here's how it works: write an original Christmas song, record it, and email the song to us. Asthmatic Kitty will pick a winner, and that person will trade rights to their song for rights to Sufjan's song.

Just like a gift exhange, Sufjan's song becomes your song. You can hoard it for yourself, sell it to a major soft drink corporation, use it in your daughter's first Christmas video, or share it for free on your website. No one except Sufjan and you will hear his song, unless you decide otherwise. You get the song and all legal rights to it. We get the same rights to your song.

By submitting your song, you also give us permission to stream it online.

Interested? Click here . . .

Sufjan Stevens just performed the "BQE" for three nights at BAM.

Check out creativetechs for links to Zip files of over 80 classic Halloween records turned into MP3s.