First off, and most importantly to me, The Cocktail Slippers. They have a new digital single, "It's Christmas," which is a tribute to the great Wall of Sound Christmas songs (and holds it own next to those classics). No Expiration readers know that I love this band, their last album, St. Valentine's Day Massacre, was one of my two favorite albums of 2009. They've gone through some lineup changes, but I think this single features the same people who were on St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Changing members is scary, but I definitely look forward to hearing their new music, it will be one of the albums I most eagerly anticipate in 2011, along with Social D's new one.
It turns out that David Bowie and Bing Crosby's incredibly uncomfortable looking "Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy" made a big impact on comedians. I have a new version of it by Jack Black and Jason Segel. See a cartoon video here. Meanwhile, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly did a new version for Funny Or Die.
Annie Lennox has a new album called A Christmas Cornucopia. For some reason I can accept this kind of thing more from her than I could from Sting. It's like, she's hard to criticize, and she does a great job on the songs I've heard so far.
I've been a fan of The Indigo Girls forever, but I was surprised for some reason to find out about their new album Happy Holly Days. It's cool.
Shelby Lynne is a great singer, despite winning a weird Grammy a few years ago (Best New Artist, although she'd released a number of albums by then) not a lot of people know about her. Or not enough people. I like her song "Ain't Nothin' Like Christmas" from her new album Merry Christmas (most of the album is covers, but "Ain't Nothin'" is an original).
Paul Simon just released a new single, "Getting Ready For Christmas Day." It's actually a great song, it reminds me of his upbeat but still very lyrical '70s stuff. It's modern sounding, because it features samples of a gospel preacher recorded decades ago. It's a great song, and I haven't enjoyed much of his recent material.
If you're a scroogy type, you may love Corey Taylor's single "X-M@$." He's the guy from Slipknot and Stone Sour, but this song sounds more like The Reverend Horton Heat. Watch the video here.
But let's end this on more of a positive note, kind of. You know I love me some Ms. Sharon Jones. She has a new single, "Ain't No Chimneys In The Projects." She's just great, and this is a really fun song. Check it out!
Even though Hanukkah is over, I have to give it up to Matisyahu, whose music I don't generally enjoy. But his Hanukkah single, "Miracle," is fantastic, and so is the video.
