Cape Cod Rocks for Christmas, part 1
Here’s a tip of Santa’s cap to DJ Cat, host of WCIB’s local-music show, “The Cheap Seats,” and Mark Bryant of SeaSound Recording Studio in Plymouth, who came up with an idea in late October, recruited 19 bands, got them into a recording studio in mid-November and had CDs ready for distribution by the end of November. Kind of makes you wonder why it took Axl Rose 17 years to make “Chinese Democracy.”
The result of Cat and Bryant’s whirlwind effort is “A Christmas Miracle,” for which 19 Cape, New Bedford and Plymouth performers recorded new and old holiday songs. The disc also includes three bonus songs, previously recorded tracks by Entrain, Three Day Threshold & Summer Villains, and Chandler Travis Philharmonic. Jason Hart of Raspberry Productions came up with some nifty cover art.
There’s a nice mix of traditional songs (Cheryl Devaux’s version of “We Three Kings”), newer songs (Tripping Lily’s lovely cover of Mindy Smith’s “Santa Will Find You”) and originals (The Ticks’ “Xmas Song”).
The genres range, too, from Liz Solomon’s soothing treatment of Joni Mitchell’s “The River” to Randy and the Oak’s rockabilly version of the theme from “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” to Meat Depressed’s Ramones-like delivery on “Hooray for Santa Claus” (the theme song from the classic B-movie “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians,” which is best-known for two things: being a really bad movie and being Pia Zadora’s film debut).
Other acts contributing a song to the CD are Brian Hitchings & Jim Calandrella, Funktapuss, Jupiter Ray, the Jackson Wetherbee Band, the Sardonics, Sara Leketa, Scott Dangerfield & the Reindeer Riders, McCarthy & Legge, the Juicebox Graduates, the Greenheads, the Gobshites, the Jonee Earthquake Band, and Tex, Mad Dog & Cat.
Thanks to Bryant’s recording efforts and the mastering by Chris Blood of Sonic Trout Studios, this is a sharp, crisp-sounding disc. You’d never know that it was put together at record speed and on a tight budget, since part of its mission is to raise funds for Cranberry Hospice and Palliative Care at Jordan Hospital and Fragile Footprints, a Jordan program for children undergoing treatment for life-threatening illnesses.
The CDs are available at Pizza Prima (Route 28, Cotuit), Spinnaker Records (Main Streets in Falmouth and Hyannis) and Instant Karma Records (Route 6A, Orleans). They are $10 each with $2 going to charity (there may be a small retail handling fee).
There will be listening parties for the CD at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday (Dec. 2) at the Island Merchant, 302 Main St., Hyannis, and 5 p.m. Thursday (Dec. 3) at T-Bones Roadhouse, 22 Main St., Plymouth.