Category Added in a WPeMatico Campaign

,

Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick (an encore presentation)

In 2021, I interviewed Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick, a band I’ve only grown to appreciate more over the years. They released their first three albums–Cheap Trick, In Color and Heaven Tonight–in 18 months, and Dream Police followed a whole year later. They toured constantly at the time, which makes that productivity all the more impressive.

In 2017, they released a Christmas album, Christmas Christmas, an album that’s easy to like and easier to admire after Petersson talks about the inspirations for the songs.

I talked to Petersson because the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers had a new album out, In Another World, and the conversation was a lot about what a band that tours as much as they do does when COVID forces it off the road.

Listen to this episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas
Author: Alex Rawls
Title: Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick (an encore presentation)
The Twelve Songs of Christmas

/by
,

A UFO-Friendly, Spotify-Protesting Christmas with The Pocket Gods

I don’t usually get to end a conversation on Christmas music with memories of radio legend Art Bell and his late night deep dive into the paranormal, After Dark with Art Bell. But that’s what happened when I talked to Mark Christopher Lee of the British lo-fi indie rock band The Pocket Gods. It took a lot of discipline not to end the show with After Dark’s theme, “Chase” by Giorgio Moroder. Instead, the episode ends with “Merry Christmas to the Drunks, Merry Christmas to the Lovers,” a new-to-me track by the Edinburgh indie band ballboy.

My conversation with Lee on The Pocket Gods covers a lot of ground as we talk about influential British DJ John Peel, Phil Spector, John Cage, and the way Lee morphed the band into a conceptual art project that explored how musicians do and don’t get paid in a streaming ecosystem dominated by Spotify.

Late in the conversation, we talk about Lee’s forays into documentary films. You can find Weird: The Life and Times of a Pocket God, Inspired: The 30-Second Song Movie, God Versus Aliens, and The King of UFOs: Royal UFO Secrets Revealed at Tubitv.com or the Tubi Roku app.

All of the music on today’s show is available at the iTunes Store, but 2021’s A Quantum Christmas Song, which is more than 115 hours long, can only be purchased as a full album and requires more than 8 GB of disc space to download. I think Mark will understand if you choose to stream rather than buy that one.

Listen to this episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas
Author: Alex Rawls
Title: A UFO-Friendly, Spotify-Protesting Christmas with The Pocket Gods
The Twelve Songs of Christmas

/by
,

“La Notti Triunfanti” with Michela Musolino

Michela Mussolino introduced me to a new body of Christmas music this week. The New Jersey-born Memphis resident specializes in Sicilian folk music, and she recorded an album of predominantly Sicilian Christmas songs in 2022 on La Notti Triunfanti.

We talk about how someone arrives at that specialty, the deep history behind some of these songs, and how moving to Memphis affected some of the songs on the album.

In the episode, Michela talks about “Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle” being one of the best loved Italian Christmas songs, so I chose Andrea Bocelli’s version to give you a taste of it.

For more on Michela, visit MichelaMusolino.com.

Listen to this episode of The Twelve Songs of Christmas
Author: Alex Rawls
Title: “La Notti Triunfanti” with Michela Musolino
The Twelve Songs of Christmas

/by