A handful of talented musicians were kind enough to do a last minute holiday cover song for all of us. Beautiful Bells might have won my heart over with probably the best experimental beat holiday song ever made. While Sun Hammer and Direwires duel it out over Silent Night, both takes will hold your patient ears with warming results. Toronto’s Warren Hildebrand aka Foxes In Fiction does an impeccable job of covering John Lennon and label mate Weed takes on the ever popular All I Want For Christmas and roughs it up perfectly with his notable garage sound. Last but not least the duo The Depot-Tones:
“Attached is a cleaned up, restored version of The Depot-Tones covering “Wonderful Christmas Time”. This was from a 7″ culled from the 45 dollar bin from Cousins Records during a recent digging expedition. The true identity of the Depot-Tones is shrouded in question, and every answer leads to five more questions. The best I’ve been able to figure out is the lead singer lived near Prospect Park and the rest of the band were all employees of the Chick-Inn drive in. This was a holiday promotional item sponsored by the Ypsilanti Chamber of Commerce and given away to customers. This is indeed excellence aged in cuban rum and virgin oak barrels and bottled in containers of crystal.”
Oh my god this is fucking brilliant. Happy holidays.
By your usual extremely high standards this is shockingly poor.
I’m having to listen to Mariah Carey to stop myself jumping out of the office window.
The Depot-Tones Christmas song totally reminded me of something from Tim & Eric.
sorry, that´s horrible.
You raised my hopes and dashed them quite expertly sir 🙁 They’re all trying to be way too avant-garde. How about less distortion and more proper singing?
OH< THE DEPOT TONES!
Nice nice nice! Thanks
Happy Christmas all u commenters!
the depot = max tundra + tim/eric == YES
some of these are very difficult to listen through all the way
thanks!
@some of the commenters above – i’m pretty sure amazon has all sorts of stuffy traditional carol CD compilations for sale if you want to PAY for something you can hear at the mall for free.. or you can have something unassuming, fun and different for free and not complain… whatever you like!
@Max: hey asswipe: how about you just shut the fuck up and be grateful for free music?
simply having a wonderful christmas time
Prospect Park?! The Chick-Inn?! Holy shit, that’s my town!
Wow this is the first time we’ve really had complaints like this, I want to remind you that these artists don’t make pop music nor would they especially for free. I asked the artists to have a free for all and enjoy themselves because the ISO50 readers/listeners have always had an open mind to everything posted.
Jakub, never mind the haters. The Direwires ‘Silent Night” is one of the most wonderful things I’ve ever heard!
I’m supportive of people doing things beyond what Christmas music usually consists of.
@Blake Barton: I like where your heads at
thanks to Jacub for providing and to the artists for the free tunes.
That said, I’m in the ‘sucks’ camp… sorry
Haters gonna hate y’all! Personally, i am SO very sick of the same holiday songs shoved down my throat since November 1st. These songs are obviously not as >joyous< but certainly not lackluster. Frankly- I can't wait for the season to be over, but these songs will DEFINITELY keep me afloat. THANKS! <3
i personally think all these artists did a beautiful job and i will enjoy listening to these songs rather than the bull shit shoved in my ears in every department store and small shop i’ll visit in the next couple weeks. well done jakub.
merry christmas
@PN i hope you jumped out the window by now.
MEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYY CCCCHHHRRRRIIIISSSTTTTMMMMMMMMAAASSSSSSSS
No sir ,I don’t like it.
And yes,.I am open minded.
Sorry.:-)
@Frank Omura sorry to disappoint. Mariah saved me. Sorry.
I’ll be honest, the only song I really enjoyed was the Foxes In Fiction song. That’s not to say that the other songs are not good to some people; it’s just that they didn’t come across as enjoyable Christmas songs. Some of them are a bit dark and, lacking in cheer so to say. I’m not criticizing the artists, or Jakub for doing the work and selecting them, and I point that out for one very obvious reason: Everywhere I turn these days on the Internet people are so thin-skinned…
I’m always shocked that people will so readily accept praise and adulation but will not accept the exact opposite, which from where I sit is always really strange. Negativity from someone gets them called a “hater” or worse. I don’t get it. If you accept praise, you have to accept the opposite otherwise neither one means anything.
The comment about being grateful for music you don’t like just because it’s free is kind of weird… I’ll give them all another listen and maybe they will sink in, but overall they just made me feel like darkness was setting in.
The Direwires’ Silent Night is actually really nice 🙂
i like track no. 1 and 3. track 2 is ok although past the 2:00+ is more interesting, but the rest is not my cup of tea.
Thank you and keep up the good work 🙂
sun hammer and direwires sounds really fantastic. somehow cold and metallic… drone. absolutely!
wish you all wunderful christmas!
greetings from germany
This is really kind of you to give away for free.
All these artists chipped in and took time away from their usual projects and didn’t expect anything in return which really highlights what the holidays are all about, in my mind.
Great job, everyone.
I like your attitude James B.!
the John Lennon cover gave me chills.
MG33-
Our thoughts exactly. We always try to foster open debate, including criticism of our work / posts. I personally find criticism more valuable than unqualified adulation.
But when things get nasty for no reason, that’s where I draw the line. I just feel like a lot of people slam something with no real insight and move on, which I don’t think is fair (not saying this was necessarily the case here, just in general I see this happen often). Baseless criticism and baseless praise are of no real value to anyone, but at least the praise isn’t hurtful.
At any rate, I am particularly inclined to defend the people who made this comp as they did so for no other reason than to give a gift to the listening community. Jakub and the artists featured put this together in their spare time and are giving it away for free. I’m not saying that elevates it above the level of criticism, but the gesture certainly doesn’t deserve to be met with outright vitriol. I guess if I were in the readership position here and had taken issue with something about the music, I would think that, if you were going to take the time to comment, common decency would dictate that I say something to the effect of “Not my cup of tea, but thanks anyways”. Making the implication that suicide was a more suitable option than listening to the music is just being mean for the sake of being mean. No constructive criticism was offered, only a hateful comment from a person hiding behind anonymity. So yes, in that case I think “hater” is a completely apt term.
yay. added to the work playlist for tomorrow!
HAhahahahaha i was totally going to post this as well! but you know what the best holiday song in existence is particularly if you have a reggae streak……………..drum rolll……………… donde esta santa clause…..you tube it, you will not be disappointed.
Love the cover art! Who did it?
I loved them all except Depot-Tones. They’re the perfect antidote to the normal sugary, sappy shallow christmas music you hear this time of year.
Thanks for the free music!
Every year, my grandmother gives me a fruitcake for Christmas and every year I say the same thing: “Fuck you bitch, I’m gonna have to go eat a bag of nails to keep myself from jumping out a window now.”
Then, she turns to me and says: “Lazer, what have I told you about overly dramatic and whiny attempts at proper criticism?” Then she slaps me.
And I say: “You’re right I guess I should have payed attention in grade school class when they were talking about not using other people to make myself feel better for my own.”
And she says: “That’s right. If you even knew how to make a fruitcake, let alone one as good as this, then you would understand the true work and nuance that goes into making a fruitcake.”
And I say: “I’m sorry Grandma WoodChipper. I’ll never post like an asshole again.”
I remember a time that I shared the comments on this blog with a friend because I was impressed how they were always positive. I recognize it’s a tough time of the year, but all these guys did was ask if some of their friends could whip up some quick covers. And some of you complain, and in mean ways at points. Think of these as gifts you don’t even have to exchange or listen to for that matter.
The fellas at this blog are volunteering their time and effort, and so were these bands. Maybe it’s not the mood somebody’s in right now, but keep the comments respectful or just keep it (to yourself). I praise these guys for more or less offering up consistently great songs, amazing exposure to new bands, and often enabling us free downloads. Keep it up, all you great cats at ISO50, I always appreciate your dedication to keeping us in the know. Thank you : )
I just reread all the comments and actually, other than some of the 1st few everything is still pretty good. I’m happy to see people defending this blog, it’s one of the best : ) Thanks again and Merry Holidays, ISO50 team… !
I enjoyed the EP. Thanks!
Haters, keep calm and carry on.
i really fucking love pancakes
wonderful stuff. thanks so much.
This music was ok. Merry Mixmas is another good collection of remixed Christmas songs for anyone that is interested.
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
Beautiful cover art! Check out what some Detroit peeps are doing along the lines of this:
http://love-detroit.com/
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This is pretty cool. Sure better than the same 30 xmas songs played over and over and over…
Some of them remind me of Low’s christmas disc, only grittier. The sun hammer cover could be an outtake from that album.
I wish there was more.
I enjoyed this. I did not particularly enjoy “The Depot Tones” because it sounded like one of Satan’s Minions was brought above the surface and offered to record that song while at a Carnival. Funny stuff 🙂
Any hints on who’s behind the cover art? As for the music – it was a nice listen, albeit a bit dark.
Love that Depot-Tones song. Couldn’t stop laughing. It’s going to be my Christmas anthem. Play it super loud