As a final little treat before the holiday hits us, how about the final installment of the Oldfolks Home Christmas/Holiday project. Shaun and Ricardo gave us four tracks and each had custom artwork. All they asked from you was to listen. not a bad deal if you ask me.

Anyway, here's the last one, White Christmas. Better than us try to tell you how the duo feels, this gracious thank you more than does the job! Merry Christmas and happy holiday to all:

This will be this year's final installment of Christmas at the Oldfolks Home.

We want to thank Ashley Bonar, Matt at Pigeon Row, Bryan and Shane at Herohill.com, Kerri-Lynn, Garland, Howie and Julie, Maria at Fuzzy Logic, and all those who lent us their talents on the music (see the notes included with every download!). We hope you have a wonderful Holiday Season (CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and that you've enjoyed our gifts to you.

This is week 4 of 4, with artwork by Garland Lam
.
Merry Whatever,
Shaun & Ricardo, Oldfolks Home

MP3:: Oldfolks Home - White Christmas
MYSPACE:: http://www.myspace.com/oldfolkshomemusic

Labels: Christmas, Oldfolks Home

Perhaps you've heard this already, but Christmas is on Friday. I hope you're ready. I got my annual watching of Christmas Vacation in last night, so I'm ready to get my Xmas on. And what better way to do that then with an Christmas-themed OSM?

I thought I'd done one of these before, but a search of the hill turned up no such thing. Which makes sense, because if I had, I'd certainly have known there was a Juice Crew Xmas posse cut and that Audio Two's first single was called Christmas Rhyme. Seriously though, Cold Chillin' Christmas is awesome, it flips the same organ sample that Heav D used for Don't Curse and there's not one, but two BDK verses. Shante and Shan are also fun to hear again, but no one beats Kane on a posse cut ("now once again let your hands applause, with this contribution to Santa Claus. To Frosty, to Rudolph, etcetera, etcetera, just remember these rhymes that we said to ya" That's gold! Perhaps even frankincense!) - that's just a scientifically proven fact. Audio Two's Christmas Rhyme is a little odd, sounding rather dated (it is from 1985 in fairness) with some odd R&B; Christmas Carol snippets thrown in for good measure, but it's the Audio Two, so it's still solid.

I wanted to ensure there were plenty of Xmas goodies in this post, so there's also the Kurtis Blow's classic Christmas Rappin' ("don't cha give me all that jive about things you wrote before I's alive, cause this ain't 1823, it ain't even 1970!" word Kurtis, way to not date yourself!), accompanied by a live video of it down below from British TV, which is a must-watch. There's also a solid Christmas jam from one of my favorite female MC's, Sweet Tee, and perhaps one of the most bitter Christmas songs ever, the infamous Santa Rap from the Treacherous 3 that is featured in Beat Street. Of course the video for that is down below, and it's also an absolute must-watch as Kool Moe Dee, sans wrap around shades, plays the role of a rather bitter Santa, and young Doug E. Fresh makes a nonsensical beatbox appearance.

Merry old school xmas!

MP3:: The Juice Crew - Cold Chillin' Christmas

MP3:: Kurtis Blow - Christmas Rappin'

MP3:: Sweet Tee - Let The Jingle Bells Rock

MP3:: Treacherous 3 - Xmas Rap f. Doug E. Fresh

MP3:: Audio Two - Christmas Rhyme

VIDEO::Kurtis Blow - Christmas Rapping (live on TOTP jan'80)


VIDEO:: Beat Street Santa's Christmas Xmas Rap

Labels: Audio Two, Beat Street, Christmas, Hip Hop, Juice Crew, Kurtis Blow, Old School Mondays

I've been saving some of the better xmas/holiday songs we've been getting sent with the intent of posting them next week as a run-up to Christmas, but this one seemed too good to save. If you need some musical comfort to wrap around yourself on this bleak, wintery night, Silence Your Drum from The Heavy Blinkers (and featuring Jenn Grant), is the perfect answer.

Jason MacIsaac and his Heavy Blinkers hold somewhat of a mythical position in the Halifax music scene, having received some hefty praise from some heavyweight sources in the past, so the news that they have a new double album called Health on the horizon is welcome news. And this Christmas song only reinforces that opinion, blending lush, layered instrumentation with Jenn Grant's amazing vocals telling the well-trod drummer boy story, but from Mary & Joseph's point of view - it's really quite stirring. Enjoy.

VIDEO:: SILENCE YOUR DRUM - THE HEAVY BLINKERS (featuring Jenn Grant)

MP3:: Heavy Blinkers - Silence Your Drum
MYSPACE:: www.myspace.com/theheavyblinkers

Labels: Christmas, Christmas Party, Halifax, Jenn Grant, The Heavy Blinkers

Week Three of Christmas at the Oldfolks Home. This week it's a, dare I say, sensual sax-y boy take on Frosty the Snowman. The duo continues to show that the box you try to force the Oldfolks Home into aint quite big enough... well that and they will knee you in the ribs if need be.

Frosty the Snowman
Frosty the Snowman, is a jolly, merry song,
Until he gets sick of the children, And the cop’s pull him over for being different,
And then he takes out someone’s eye with his carrot nose,
But just when things look their worst,
Ninja’s show up to burn the coals off his face.
We present, as a gift to you,
This is week 3 of 4, with artwork by Howie Tsui.

MP3:: Oldfolks Home - Frosty the Snowman
MYSPACE:: http://www.myspace.com/oldfolkshomemusic

Labels: Christmas, Oldfolks Home

Week two of Oldfolks Home holiday cheer. Week one was a look back at the joy of family, and naturally week two is a look at most people's favorite part of the holidays - FOOD. Honestly, I never expected the Winnipeg duo to cover a Hawksley tune, but the effort is much appreciated. So is the collage of color courtesy of Julie Fader.

So as always, deck the halls. It's Christmas time in Hollis herohill.

Almost A Full Moon
Songs about soup? For Christmas?

And one we didn’t write!? Please forgive us.

We hope you’ll enjoy this, so don’t be a hater!
This is part 2 of 4, “Almost A Full Moon” featuring art by Julie Fader.

MP3:: Oldfolks Home - Almost a Full Moon
MYSPACE:: http://www.myspace.com/oldfolkshomemusic

Labels: Canada, Christmas, Hawksley Workman, Music, Oldfolks Home

That's right folks, the snow is falling here in Hali and the eggnog is getting chilled. Normally that means a downturn in the blogconomy, but it also means lots of Christmas cheer and countless holiday cover songs. While those songs are fun and get us smiling, it's also a terrific chance to start lending a hand. to be honest, I can't think of a better cause than helping the homeless and the hungry, so I am happy as a kid on Christmas morning to let you know about a special charity record featuring a ton of talent.

The good folks at Zunior have put together a Holiday album and 100% of the retail sale price of this album will be donated to the Daily Bread Food Bank. Talk about putting your heart in the right spot! Here's the skinny:

A Peanuts Christmas: The 2009 Zunior Holiday Album is a song-for-song tribute to the famous album by the Vince Guaraldi Trio called A Charlie Brown Christmas. Each song represents a unique interpretation of the classic song featured on the original album.

Zunior got some heavyweights to record tracks for this - Jill Barber, Mike O'Neil, Ruth Minnikin, The Awkward Stage, Wayne Petti, Don Kerr and herohill favs, Construction & Destruction - and honestly, the Peanuts holiday special is my second favorite Holiday special (you can't beat the Muppets Christmas).

Zunior is offering up two free tracks, so obviously I don't want to give away any more, but if you can hear Jill Barber sing The Christmas Song and not get in the giving, holiday spirit, enjoy the huge Joe Dirt meteor sized lump of coal you are destined to get. For everyone else, lets do some good this year and pony up $8.88 for this terrific record and even more important cause.

MP3:: Jill Barber - The Christmas Song


MP3:: The Awkward Stage - Christmas Time is Here
BUY:: http://peanuts.zunior.com/

Labels: Charity, Christmas, Holiday, Jill Barber, Music, The Awkward Stage, Zunior