To download a PDF version of the project's onesheet
From the hellfire of Reverend J.M Gates "May the Coffin Be Your Santa Claus", to the haunting howl of The White Stripes' gun-control anthem "Candy Cane Children", JINGLE BELL ROCKS! is a pop culture pilgrimage into the odd and irreverent universe of alternative Christmas music.
In the liner notes to his delightfully twisted, self-titled holiday compilation A John Waters Christmas, the cult film auteur exclaims: "Just when you think you can't stand to hear another Christmas carol, here I come with a holiday treat that will make you actually appreciate the insanity of the Yuletide season."
Insanity indeed. The holiday season is a pungent, volatile concoction of the ridiculous and the sublime, the sacred and the profane. But you won't find those sentiments in the nostalgic musical overload that assaults us when Christmas rolls around each year.
So just where are these songs -- obscure oldies and new incantations alike -- that embrace today's eclectic, ironic, often criticized, but still beloved holiday? They can be hard to find.
And it's a Christmas miracle, of sorts, that this treasure trove of dark, surreal, and subversive Xmas tracks were even recorded.
With titles like "Santa Claus Was A Black Man," a 70s funkadelic romp, the biting social satire of Stan Freberg's "Green Chri$tma$" or the frightening, homemade holiday freakout "My Santy Claus Has No Ho Ho Ho", it?s no wonder the major record labels wouldn't touch them and mainstream radio wouldn't play them.
These are the songs that even Santa Claus forgot.
For decades, these bootlegs, b-sides and sundry Xmas oddities were the exclusive domain of music biz insiders, circulated within the industry by aficionados like Eddie G, Tom "Grover" Biery, and Andy Cirzan, whose collections boasts well over 5,000 of the rarest, most amazing songs around.
From the nightmares of aspiring song poem dreamers like Heather Noel to punk rock icons The Ramones, artists have been challenging the classic chestnuts of old for decades and these lost songs are being rediscovered by fans and inspiring a new generation of musicians who are messing with tradition and redefining Christmas music on their own terms.
JINGLE BELL ROCKS! unearths this underground subculture, featuring the irreverent insights and heartfelt confessions of a chorus of Christmas music fanatics.
We'll go behind-the-scenes for the insane Xmas antics of KROQ's Kevin & Bean; and hear from celebrated L.A. DJ and musicologist Dr. Demento; James Austin, VP of A & R at Rhino Records (the hippest retro record label in the world); pop music critic Jody Rosen; and an array of recording artists including bebop legend Bob Dorough, who wrote and sang the caustic "Blue Xmas (To Whom It May Concern)" -- a landmark collaboration with jazz giant Miles Davis.
Equal parts social history, pop culture pilgrimage and revealing character study, JINGLE BELL ROCKS! follows this motley crew of merry misfits as they confront the Christmas music mainstream, reinventing the seasonal soundtrack for the 21st century.
