​How many gift guides have you read that started off by reminding you that "the holiday season is fast approaching"? Probably too many by this point. If you're like me, you just get stressed out and close the tab before even realizing that some of them have awesome suggestions. Don't do that here: Although some of the following suggestions might require a little elbow grease and an understanding of simple wiring systems, any of these would be gifts that a music fan would be happy to receive. You're welcome.

More >>

Watching the live taping of the Jawbox episode of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon the other week, we were reminded of the utter weirdness of the late night TV variety show format. On TV, because Letterman et al have done it for so long and so well, it's come to seem normal, but make no mistake: these late night talk shows are basically just random sequences of insanely campy entertainment. With that in mind, please enjoy Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz swapping out their old SNL buddies for Julian Casablancas (not his first time attempting this cover) and the Roots for the old Saturday Night Live holiday standard, "I Wish It Was Christmas Today." At the end, Sanz and Fallon do a nice job imitating Casablancas imitating them. TV is complicated.

An Early Christmas Gift From 'Late Night With Jimmy Fallon' [ArtsBeat]

​The first and hopefully last time we'll spend a morning typing "Do They Know It's Christmas" into iTunes. Matador promises that the long awaited Band Aid cover, featuring what Fucked Up frontman Damian Abraham described to Pitchfork as "the best and the worst of the music industry," will hit the digital music store today. It's not there yet, but Consequence of Sound has the batting order: Ezra Koenig from Vampire Weekend, then Bob Mould, Tegan and Sara, TVOTR's Kyp Malone, Yo La Tengo, Kevin Drew, Andrew WK, and a special cameo from the Wu-Tang's GZA, whose half-hour studio session apparently resulted in exactly one minute of usable material. Worth it for the bare-chested Pink Eyes cover alone. [h/t Daily Swarm]

Listen I don't know who this "Santa Claus" is, but if you think I'm going to stick around until he gets here you're out of your mind.

(Bob's really giving it his all on "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" though.)

Rob Trucks's "Possibly 4th Street" expositions, in which he invites musicians to perform live and impromptu somewhere in New York City, run intermittently here at Sound of the City.

photos by Rob Trucks

Possibly 4th Street
Number 24 (Part One)
Bonerama

by Rob Trucks

This is how it's supposed to be done.

Just over a year ago, we accompanied the seven-piece, trombone-heavy, New Orleans-based brass band Bonerama to Midtown. They parked their van just south of Radio City, unloaded the trailer, and set out an empty snare case. Hundreds of sidewalk-blocking tourists, twenty minutes, and three songs later (including a memorable rendition of Led Zeppelin's "The Ocean"), the band is 70 bucks (a Possibly 4th Street record) and immeasurable goodwill richer.

More >>

photos by Liz Clayton, via the Yo La Tengo diary

Yo La Tengo
December 21 and 22
Maxwell's

"Don't be scared!" some dude catcalled at Georgia Hubley during one of the quiet parts of the first night of Yo La Tengo's annual Hanukkah spectacular at Maxwell's. "Oh, I'm not scared," she shot back. This isn't your 40-something record dork's dimunitive Yo La Tengo, anyway. (Maybe your 30something's.) After all, their next album is called Fuckbook. Playing side-by-side all night with Quasi/Jicks drummer Janet Weiss, Hubley and company settled into the nook-like stage they've been playing since before there was grunge.

More >>

group shot by Andrew Frisicano

Julian Koster, Rudolph, and Badger
Andrew Frisicano's Bushwick Apartment
Saturday, December 13th

Over an hour after the crowd gathered at Andrew Frisicano's Bushwick apartment, a small dog appeared at the top of the stairs and sniffed into the living room, leash dangling behind him. "That's Rudolph," said once/future Neutral Milk Hotel sawman Julian Koster, arriving a moment later, singing saw under one arm, banjo under the other. A friend carried a small thrift store organ. The Music Tapes leader wore holiday red Converse All-Stars and a matching turtle-necked sweater.

Frisicano and his roommates, who opened their apartment to anyone interested in coming, were one of the last stops on Koster's month-long saw-caroling tour, coordinated via cell phones and a Gmail account. They'd signed up a few weeks ago, only receiving notification that morning about Koster's imminent arrival. Sitting down in front of the Christmas tree--mostly traditional, with a wrestling belt around the base for good hipster-kitsch measure--Koster introduced the crowd to Badger, his saw. Rudolph curled up nearby, though never sat still for too long.

More >>

It may shock you to learn these people are just a little bit twee.

We have already established that the impending holidays make us a little emotionally frail around here, and have further indicated that Scottish arena-rock upstarts Glasvegas, still shiny and amniotic from the tongue-bathing they've received in the British press, are tentatively cool with us as well, despite their naked earnestness and garish U2/Coldplay ambitions. Unfortunately, these two weaknesses have now combined into a fearsome beast: The band is now hawking a special six-song Christmas EP called A Snowflake Fell (And It Felt Like a Kiss). I mean, get the fuck out of here.

And yet. Pre-order the grand reissue of Glasvegas' self-titled mega-schmaltz debut at "your local indie retail store" starting tomorrow -- or buy it straight off iTunes starting December 16 -- and thou shalt receive the EP free, featuring both the title track (thank god) and a song called "Fuck You, It's Over," which is trying way too hard, considering. And you thought Charlie Brown sounded fey.

Hey if you're like me, this week has been straight-up garbage, and for emotional ballast you're now compelled to luxuriate in the most beautiful and devastating piece of music in the western canon. If you don't share this opinion regarding A Charlie Brown Christmas, march down here to the Village Voice offices and I will fight you.* With all due respect to the annual Lousy New Holiday CD Roundup glut mandated by various publications at this time of year, this is the only Christmas album that really exists for me, with possible exemptions granted to the Muppets and the Kinks. I have given way more thought than is probably healthy to the precise brew of joy and pathos that makes good ol' Charlie Brown resonate so strongly, but what's killing me with this clip at the moment is actually the dialogue, the deathly quiet echo of it, plus the huge buildings dwarfing the kids as they trudge through the snow, etc.

Tell it to your blog, I know. Let's pick this up again next week.

* Don't do this.

"Unsilent Night"
December 15th

by Jesse Jarnow

Besides an occasional Yoko-style piano drop, the world of aleatoric sound composition rarely makes for engaging public work. Phil Kline's "Unsilent Night," on the other hand— a yuletide cavalcade in which arty marauders blast Kline's ambient piece in a boombox march from Washington Square to Tompkins Square—is one to be savored annually: no more, and no less. Changing subtly over its 45 minutes by Kline's own hand, its real shape is literal, the music expanding and contracting with the whims of the mob as it curls through the East Village.

More >>