Episode 1999: Bonus: Low Profile Holiday Mixtape

Just in time for Christmas Eve, here is my gift to you all.  It’s a holiday mixtape featuring artists who have been featured on Low Profile over the years!  This is definitely not a traditional Christmas mix, you’re going to hear a lot of new songs with just a few tweaks to some old familiar tunes from the sort of esoteric artists you’ve come to expect from this show.  There’s even a couple exclusives!

This is an updated version of the physical cassette tape that I sent out to all the patreon supporters in December of 2020.  If you’d like to join their ranks and help support the show, please visit patreon.com/lowprofile and give whatever you can to keep this show on track.    

The track listing for this episode is below.  And now, the play button!

01.  Chris Mastheim “Christmastime is Here”  

 Nick Krgovich has released a bunch of holiday music under the pseudonym Chris Mastheim.  This is the lyrics to the Vince Guaraldi classic, set to a remix of the Twin Peaks theme song.  A homespun mashup, ready for your local grocery store’s holiday playlist.  

 From the album Chris Mastheim Is Here.

 02. Margo Guryan “I Don’t Intend to Spend Christmas Without You”  

 This song isn’t really about Christmas, rather about the 25th of December.  

 From the album 25 Demos.

 03. Karl Blau “Dance of the Seaweed Kites”  

 From his dub cover album of Tchaikovsky,

 The Coconutcracker, this is a new interpretation of a holiday favorite for generations.

 04. Cornershop ft TRWBADOR  “Every Year So Different”

 This somewhat melancholy tune at least tries to brighten things up in its refrain.  For me, it’s all about Cornershop frontman Tjinder Singh’s ever-present, not-so-secret weapon: the gift of groove.

05. Larry Norman “Christmastime” 

 Christian rock’s original badass’ scathing commentary on commercialism, resounding like a long-haired Linus Van Pelt and rocking out like Marc Bolan.  

 From the album So Long Ago in the Garden.

 06. Jib Kidder “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”  

 As Sean Schuster-Craig puts it, he released his 2003 Xmas album “into any left out pair of shoes left out” at the radio station where he worked at the time.

07. Gary Wilson “Sled Ride Tonight”

 A melancholy love song from his album It’s Christmas with Gary Wilson.

08. Amps For Christ “Cherry Tree Carol”

 This is an old folk song about Joseph being a total dick to the Virgin Mary, and then getting a sick burn.

 From the Kill Rock Stars LP The Oak in the Ashes.

09.  Cody Trout Band “Can’t Wait for Christmas”  

 The band Heatwarmer, incognito.  The lyrics say it all.

10. Steve Hindalong and Chris Colbert (AKA Skinny and Crisco Bear) “Tis the Season of Excess”  

 According to Steve, “the skinny Santa’s sort of the anti-Santa.  Instead of ‘what you you want, little boy or little girl’… he admonishes everybody for their excessiveness.”  Steve Hindalong has won multiple Dove Awards for his work in Christmas music, and this is not one of those songs.

 From the 1996 compilation Christmas in Heaven.

 11. Swamp Dogg “Santa’s Just a Happy Fat Fart”  

 Father Christmas really seems to have it made, not that I’m jealous or anything, but…

 From the album An Awful Christmas and a Lousy New Year,

12. Klaus Nomi “Silent Night”

 From the so-called “unfinished opera” Za Bakdaz, here’s a particularly lively dance version of a traditional hymn from the late space diva Klaus Nomi

13. Gretchen Christopher “Christmas is You”

 After Gretchen Christopher, chanteuse of the Fleetwoods, recorded her interview for Low Profile outdoors on the deck, Andrew Ebright returned to her home and recorded this performance of one of her most recent songs exclusively for the show.  

14. Sean O’Hagan “Kabon’s Christmas”

 In much of Sean’s music, particularly the High Llamas, it’s not unusual to hear the sound of sleigh bells no matter the topic.  This tune is the only one I can think of that mentions them by name.  

15. Julian Koster “Hark The Herald Angels Sing”

 The Music Tapes frontman accompanies himself on nothing but sleigh bells and musical saw.  In other words, metal AF.  From his album The Singing Saw at Christmastime.

16. Cory Ledet “C’est temps noel”

 Zydeco dynamo Corey Ledet gets bilingual on us in this holiday original, burning up the keys on his accordion!

 17. Ashley Eriksson “It’s Cold Outside”

 “Thinking about sound and vision.  Honey, it’s cold outside.” Recorded on a Yamaha PSR-37 keyboard.  (Exclusive track)

18. Miles Davis (vox by Bob Dorough) “Blue Xmas (To Whom it May Concern)”

 More critique on the commercialism that creeps in around the end of the year from our hero Bob.  

 From the Miles Davis album Sorcerer