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Monday, December 1, 1997

Soundbites

Various Artists, "Santa's Got a GTO! Rodney on the Roq's Fav X-Mas Songs" (Dionysus Records) For years, Rodney Bingenheimer, otherwise known as Rodney on the Roq, has been hosting his late-night Sunday show on KROQ, as well as hosting glam and pop shows in the West L.A. area. Now, he brings together 20 bands and artists that he has supported for years for the recording of the sugary, poppy "Santa's Got a GTO!" This record full of rockin' holiday tunes is actually a tribute album to his mother, who died this year and left Rodney to solve her financial troubles, which "GTO" aims to relieve with its proceeds. Wow, how many albums are tributes to mom?

"GTO" is hardly your standard Christmastime fare. But that's what makes it so cool. For those of you sick of old, easy listening holiday music on KBIG and K-EARTH, Rodney gives us the power-pop holiday music, which borrows styles from '60s and '80s British pop. Featured on "GTO" are such Rodney on the Roq alumni as Frosted (with ex-Go Go Jane Wiedlin), the Wondermints, Nina Hagen and MethadOne Cocktail.

Many of the songs were written especially for this album, but some traditional favorites and covers show up. English dream-pop kings Ride re-write an old song in "Like a Snowflake." Geoyln juices up the traditional fave, "Deck the Halls." New British pop band Sugarfree cover "Last Christmas," a song Wham! covered in the '80s. But not all of the covers come off so wonderfully. Olivia Barash ruins "Silent Night" with all sorts of inappropriate guitar noise. Hanukkah songs include Silver Lake band Velouria's "'Til Next Hanukkah" and Yid Kids' "Santa Doesn't Come to Little Jewish Children's Houses."

Once you listen to "Santa's Got a GTO," you'll realize that this assortment of goodies has more sugar-sweetness than a box of candy canes. Cheer up this holiday season with Rodney. Mike Prevatt B+

Dordan, "A Celtic Christmas" (Narada) If you're the typical American suburbanite, you dig dancing the jig come Christmas season with some warm, spicy nog heatin' up your belly, as you partake in viewing some Yule log action on the telly and reflect on your carefree youth in Ireland, when you frolicked in the potato fields playing the flute for the surrounding villages. No? What's wrong with you, you culturally devoid, capitalistic, used piece of American suburban mall trash? Don't you have any notion of community roots to sink your teeth into? Has this blessed season become only a mishmash of shopping expeditions gone sour in the sterile indoor breeding grounds of fake pine smell and tacky red ribbons? Get some heritage this holiday season, even if you may happen to be Jewish or Muslim or Taoist and live on a commune of like-minded religious zealots.

No matter. Christianity is not a pre-requisite for listening to "A Celtic Christmas" by the four female members of the Irish group Dordan. When the fiddle twists out a melody or the harp spills through the flute and tambourine interludes, riding a transcendental wave of Celtic yodeling or whatever it is that they do, the tears will well up in your eyes and leave you screaming for a cradle of your own so that you may recreate the feeling that baby Jesus must have had upon the first few patterings of his tiny heartbeat. Or you may just want to go purchase plastic life sized lawn reindeer, you hopeless American consumer. Can't you see you're just playing into the sadistic hands of the Man? Aiiee. Vanessa VanderZanden A-

Various Artists, "A Home For the Holidays" (Mercury) This excellent collection contains many of the elements that have made the "A Very Special Christmas" albums so popular. It features a number of both traditional and original songs performed by a variety of successful artists from a variety of different genres. The collection was created specifically for charity purposes, here to support Phoenix House, a nation-wide substance abuse prevention organization. As the liner notes to the album mention, "after all the other designated issues of the day, drug abuse is something that hits home in the music industry."

Of the album's 17 tracks, seven have been released elsewhere, including Boyz II Men's medley of "Silent Night/Let it Snow," Tony Toni Tone's "My Christmas," "Bon Jovi's "I Wish Everyday Could Be Like Christmas," and Gloria Estefan's "Arbolito de Navidad." The other 10 tracks are brand new and include songs by guitarist Richie Sambora, new Australian pop band OMC, Boston ska-meisters the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and folk rock songwriters Suzanne Vega and Joan Osborne.

Clearly, many genres and styles have been included here, and the result is an album that will please any listener who is open to exploring genres that they don't usually listen to. Both the songs and album packaging are well-produced, and the proceeds go to support an excellent charity. Merry Christmas. Enjoy.

Jeff Hilger A

Hanson "Snowed In" (Mercury) It was inevitable. But look at it this way, you're not seeing a Spice Girls Christmas album this year, are you? Actually, Hanson is alright. The group may not rebel against corporate pop or curse parents in their distortion-less pop, but these younguns can sing, play and write a tune.

Which brings us to "Snowed In." Hanson has written three new songs and has included eight other familiar Christmas songs in a collection that is pretty darn hummable but falls a tad short of their polished pop album, "Middle of Nowhere." It's a different holiday record, but its lively mix of songs to which little girls all over will want to unwrap their Sing and Snore Ernies.

Some rollicking tunes include "What Christmas Means To Me," a cover of the Beach Boys' "Little Saint Nick" and Phil Spector's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)." Hanson's original songs on the album are typical of their styles, like the guitar and organ ditty, "Everyone Knows the Claus" and the wooing "Christmas Time." The only times Hanson really falls short is the bombastic "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" and singer Taylor Hanson's psuedo-sexy grunts, inappropriate for this particular theme. But in all, "Snowed In" is a fair album that certainly beats New Kids on the Block's funky, funky Christmas schlock anytime. Mike Prevatt B

VARIOUS ARTISTS

"Santa's Got a GTO!"