'FESTIVUS': AN INDIE POP CHRISTMAS FEATURING EDDIE ARGOS (OF ART BRUT), PINEY GIR, CORREATOWN, AND MORE, OUT NOW ON HIGHLINE RECORDS

Highline Records is presenting its first Christmas album 'Festivus,' a newly recorded, 15-track indie pop collection featuring Glam Chops (with Eddie Argos, also of Art Brut), Piney Gir (who was recently featured on NPR's Weekend Edition), Correatown (one of SPIN's "next big things"), the "beautiful" (Time Out) Real Tuesday Weld, and others.

The compilation skips between new wave (The Birthday Kiss, Piney Gir), Phil Spector-inspired pop (Hunks and Friends), synth-pop (Baubles), glam rock (Glam Chops), garage (The Werewandas), and 80s-inspired pop (St. Veit). Handclaps, harmonies, bells, and synths abound to warm up listeners during the holiday season.

'Festivus' Track List

1.      Christmas Time is Here - Correatown
2.      Just Because It's Christmas - Skiffle and the Piffles
3.      Every Day's a Holiday - Piney Gir
4.      Countdown to Christmas - Glam Chops
5.      The New Going Out - The Baubles
6.      Dearest Santa - Alphabet Backwards
7.      Song of December - The Real Tuesday Weld
8.      Everywhere at Once - Monnone Alone
9.      St. Veit - Still Flyin'
10.     Sentimental Christmastime - The Birthday Kiss
11.     Santa Claus is Not a Number - The Little Kicks
12.     Christmas Day (Time to Let You Go) - Russell (El Disastre)
13.     I Love You Santa Claus - The Werewandas
14.     The Magic of Christmas - Hunks & Friends
15.     Present and Correct - Alexander's Festival Hall

THE REASON WHY GRAMMY-WINNER SUSAN MCKEOWN IS A SINGER TODAY: HER PROFESSIONAL MUSICIAN MOM

Chief among the reasons why GRAMMY-winner Susan McKeown is a singer is her mother Jeannie McKeown Ryan, a profession musician in Dublin, Ireland.

"She would come home, get dinner ready, serve it on a circular table – there were seven of us! – then would stand up and unzip her house coat. She'd be wearing something wonderful underneath, and after putting on makeup and perfume would go to this magical other world, to perform. It was all very glamorous."

Jeannie was a Hammond organ demonstrator for a big music store, conductor of church choir, and an organist accompanying theatrical and variety shows in one of the city's main theatres. She received the Benemerenti medal from the Pope (the highest honor a woman can receive from the church) for long service, with over thirty years as organist and choir mistress. Susan's grandparents met in the Dublin church choir for which her mother became choir mistress at the age of 14. Susan's father ran a candy factory. "He played the Willy Wonka role," she jokes.

Susan was the youngest of five and showed the most interest in music.  "I remember singing before I ever learned to talk," she says. "Later, mam and I would sing in harmony with the songs on the radio." When Susan was old enough to join the choir, Jeannie gave her several solos, key moments in her musical development. She also recalls her mother's influence on her business sense, saying, "She was confident in herself as a woman and of her value as an artist."

Jeannie would use her maiden name of McKeown when performing and Susan took that last name when she emigrated to the United States, eventually having it changed legally. "I found a book at the Strand Bookstore a week after I arrived entitled Naming Ourselves, Naming Our Children and in reading it gave myself permission to take my mother's last name, and in so doing pass on the tradition through the women's line."

"I am so proud of her, privileged to have had her as my mother," says Susan, who made a 1999 album with Cathie Ryan and Robin Spielberg called 'Mothers: Celebrating Mothers & Motherhood,' featuring several songs that remember Jeannie.

Susan is passing on the tradition as well, giving her daughter her mother's last name, taking her on tour and fostering her growth as a performer. "She has traveled with me all over Europe and much of the U.S. She's forging her own way. She's already written her first album of songs at ten years old and they've very catchy."

CORB LUND CONFIRMS DECEMBER TOUR DATES, SOME WITH HAYES CARLL

WNYC SOUNDCHECK TAPES SEGMENT AS CMT.COM POSTS Q&A WITH CARLL AND LUND

'CABIN FEVER' ROCKETS TO #4 ON AMERICANA RADIO CHARTS

Fresh from taping WNYC Soundcheck on New York City's NPR affiliate, which will air in late November or early December, Corb Lund has announced tours runs of the west and the south in December. The latter dates are a co-headlining bill with Hayes Carll, with whom he duets on "Bible on the Dash." The two are also the subject of a Q&A on CMT Edge.

Meanwhile, 'Cabin Fever' has climbed the Americana radio charts, hitting a new peak of #4 this month.

Hayes Carll said, "Corb's actually lived the shit we all want to sing about, and writes the stories we all wish we'd lived."

CORB LUND DECEMBER TOUR DATES

Dec 14 – Sam Bonds Garage – Eugene, OR
Dec 15 – The Treehouse – Bainbridge, WA
Dec 16 – Hawthorne Theatre – Portland, OR
Dec 18 – Tractor Tavern – Seattle, WA
Dec 27 – Revolution Music Room – Little Rock, AR (w/ Hayes Carll)
Dec 28 – House of Blues – Houston, TX (w/ Hayes Carll)
Dec 29 – Antone’s – Austin, TX (w/ Hayes Carll)
Dec 30 – Antone’s – Austin, TX (w/ Hayes Carll)
Dec 31 – House of Blues – Dallas, TX (w/ Hayes Carll)

'Festivus' cover art

CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN MARKS THE BAND'S 30TH ANNIVERSARY WITH 10TH ALBUM 'LA COSTA PERDIDA' (429 RECORDS / JAN. 22)

BILLBOARD.COM TALKS BEACH BOYS & BIG SUR WITH THE BAND

CVB ENLISTS FUTUREBIRDS FOR HARMONIES ON NEW TRACK "NORTHERN CALIFORNIA GIRLS": (POSTABLE LYRICVIDEO)

Next year, Camper Van Beethoven will be celebrating both 30^th anniversary of their 1983 first concert and the release of their tenth album 'La Costa Perdida' (429 Records / January 22). The influential band and founders of the indie rock genre enlisted "spectacular" (HearYa) band Futurebirds to add harmony vocals on the first single "Northern California Girls." Here is a postable lyric video.

Meanwhile, Billboard.com ran a feature on CVB, for which David Lowery told the story of how the band began to write 'La Costa Perdida' together after it had to postpone a Big Sur show by a week due to weather. He also talks about the influence of the Beach Boys on 'La Costa Perdida.'

CVB's David Lowery says, "I love Futurebirds. They are from Athens, where we were mixing the record. Some of them were in studio next door working on an album."

Thomas Johnson of Futurebirds said, "We were honored to have a part on an album by a band as historic and influential as Camper. We'll never forget it. David is one of those special musicians who is just as good at engineering and producing as he is at songwriting, and it was really cool to get to conspire with someone that talented and accomplished."

HIGHLINE RECORDS proudly presents FESTIVUS Released November 16th

Christmas time may well be imminent, and the goose might verily be getting on the girthy side, but something has been missing from our hallowed winter festival the past few years: the worth-its-weight-in-solid-gold-vinyl Christmas Record.

London's fastest-rising indie label Highline Records is here to fill this festive chasm, with a whole compilation jam-packed with bona fide original Christmas classics-in-waiting, featuring a host of luminaries including Piney Gir, Art Brut's Eddie Argos, and The Real Tuesday Weld.

Says label head Heather Willensky, "I've been obsessed by Phil Spector's Christmas album since I was a youngster and thought it would be great to bring everyone in our Highline circle together to create something festive."

Kicking off with LA-based chanteuse Correatown's gentle, woozily joyous 'Christmas Time Is Here,' the album segues into an accordion-laced romp courtesy of the fantastically-monikered Skipple and the Pipples before settling on the ever-brilliant Piney Gir's 'Every Day's A Holiday', containing surely the finest Christmas riff since Slade gave Crimbo a firm glam boot up the derriere way back when.

Speaking of glam, Art Brut's rakish lynchpin Eddie Argos also makes an appearance on Festivus, as part of the stomping Glam Chops, whose mischievous offering conjures up images of a half-naked Santa dancing on his Lapland HQ desk, clutching a bottle of Harvey's Bristol Cream and singing raucously to The Sweet.

Jangling sleigh bells herald The Real Tuesday Weld's languid, jazzy 'Song Of December', while Hunks & Friends' 'The Magic Of Christmas' opens with the immortal whispered lines:

"Daddy, what's this?"

"It's a Christmas song!"

"But it sounds just like every other Christmas song…"

"That's the magic of Christmas!"

The Christmas magic of this compilation, of course, is that each song has very much its own character –and a most endearing one at that. FESTIVUS is not only here to bring back the lost art of the Christmas record, but also to take it to new levels of artistic merit and listener enjoyment.

FESTIVUS has been brought to you by Highline Records and Father Christmas, because you've been very good this year.

CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN BIO - LA COSTA PERDIDA

True to the freewheeling, joyfully schizophrenic swirl of rock, punk, ska, folk, world music and (insert next genre-bending style here) that has defined the Camper Van Beethoven aesthetic since the enduring lineup took shape circa mid-80s, La Costa Perdida, their debut on 429 Records and first recording since New Roman Times in 2004, brings a listener into the strange world of the northern California coast above San Francisco.

“I’ve played with a lot of other bands in between Camper Van Beethoven tours and recordings,” says Victor Krummenacher, “but there’s never the power, energy or camaraderie with anyone else that I have felt with these guys. There’s just something about playing with the guys you came up with that is unique, unpredictable and exciting at the same time. It’s always very intuitive with us, almost like we can read each other’s minds and know David’s harmonic facility so well that we instinctively know where the song is going to go.”

To which David Lowery adds, “All bands have strengths and weaknesses, and for us, often times, they are the same things. We always have so many musical ideas all going at once, and there’s always another melody playing as I’m singing. That’s a challenge, just knowing how to simplify, but I think we do that on La Costa Perdida better than any previous recording. I love the fact that it’s so concise stylistically and thematically consistent throughout.”

They can agree that, whether by design or not, the set of nine vocals and a single instrumental (the trippy, psychedelic jam “Aged In Wood”), shapes up as their California rock project. It’s every bit a celebration of Northern California (where the founding members, including Lowery and bassist Victor Krummenacher, first became musically active as students at UC Santa Cruz), anchored by their distinctive, eclectic sound and the visionary lyrics of frontman/founder David Lowery.

Sometimes those references are direct, as in the dreamy opening harmonies on “Northern California Girls” or the trippy, electric guitar driven declaration that they’re “Too High For the Love In.” The folksy  title track “La Costa Perdida” – is a Norteno -flavored ode to Lost Coast of California, a mostly undeveloped section of the California North Coast in Humboldt and Mendocino Counties. Jonathan Segel, who sweetens this album and all previous Camper projects with violin, guitar, mandolin and organ, says, “It’s as much a mythological idea of the Lost Coast as a real geographical place, the idea that the society of this region is separate from regular society.” All of this adds to the frolicsome mystique that’s been a band trademark since their debut album Telephone Free Landslide Victory, which featured their first successful single “Take The Skinheads Bowling.”

Lowery says that it was a serendipitous concert rainout in Big Sur that led them to gather in the living room at the Oakland home of Segel and start writing together. “Camper got an odd offer to play a few shows in an outdoor setting of the Henry Miller Library, in June 2011,” says the Richmond, Virginia based singer, who has also led the more mainstream rock band Cracker (which often tours with CVB) since 1991. “It never rains in that area, and when we had to postpone the shows a week, instead of scattering, going home and returning, we thought this would be a great time to start writing our next album. Jonathan has a ton of great instruments, we all have laptops and we basically wrote the record in a week. Between that and a later session a few weeks later, we emerged with almost two albums worth of material, some real upbeat, hard rocking and traditional punk rock songs.”

“Actually,” lead guitarist Greg Lisher adds, “the previous October, I had flown to Richmond to work with David, and over the course of eight days we exchanged a lot of great ideas and wrote some songs for future potential development. One of the songs that evolved to make the cut on La Costa Perdida was ‘Summer Days,’ which started with my chord progressions before he and I worked on the melody. We wrote a lot more songs at Jonathan’s place, and the coolest part of the experience was that it was the most organic Camper record ever. Back 20 years ago, David would essentially bring in material and we would write all our parts to what he had done. This time, most of the songs began with someone playing a chord progression and the others riffing off that until the melodies and harmonies took shape.”

Segel can’t pinpoint the exact time sequence of the postponement and writing sessions, but recalls that he and Krummenacher were already vibing on some new music outside the CVB experience ( in the two decades after CVB’s first break up in 1990, the two ran their own label Magnetic). “It was great that no one had to be anywhere else in the country that week, and we not only wrote many songs, but also recorded in my living room, doing many takes of the songs using acoustic guitar, violin, bass and electric guitar. While the Northern Cal idea was David’s, the vibe of many of the songs reminded me of the classic (1973) Beach Boys album Holland. As always, we came to these sessions from our own separate musical worlds, bringing different elements naturally, without any conscious thought.”

At last, it’s Krummenacher’s turn to chime in: “The coolest part of La Costa Perdida was the fact that everything flowed from the fact that these distinctive musicians and personalities sat in the living room. You wait for that first spark, and that moment when something starts and starts coming to life is the most honest, enjoyable element. With us, we just settle right back into that place where we’re getting along and communicating and the music flows. We literally worked on six ideas each per day. This was a very fertile time. Musically, I believe La Costa Perdida is our most mature, grown up recording to date. Traditionally, Camper has always maintained a nervous edge partially because we grew up in punk rock, like we were a punk band at heart that kept reinventing itself. Now we’ve got this organic feeling and our music sounds like four people are writing it. The songs have great energy, but we’re more relaxed and stately, and a lot more confident. The songwriting here has elements of vintage Camper along with grown up Camper.”

Though much of the tracking was done via Segel’s home studio setup (known as The Magnetic Satellite), further sessions were done at Electric Studio in Berkeley and Sharkbite Studios in Oakland. The bulk of the mixing was done by Drew Vandenberg and the band at Chase Park Transduction in Athens, Georgia, Lowery’s second home base. Though Frank Funaro is CVB’s live drummer for the handful of U.S. touring spurts that the band does between outside projects every year, the skins on La Costa Perdida were played by Michael Urbano, an associate of Segel’s who lives in Oakland.

Camper Van Beethoven paints its musical map of Northern California portrait with a lot of different hues and textures, starting with the Americana flavored opening singalong “Come Down The Coast.” After the anthemic, trip of “Too High For The Love In,” they submerge into a dark brooding realm before emerging into a hypnotic optimistic light on the garage rocker “You Got To Roll.” “Someday Our Love Will Sell Us Out” offers a sweet hodgepodge of almost everything CVB is about: ethereal vocals, booming drums, scorching distorted guitars, a soaring exotic violin, trippy ambience and psychedelic spontaneity.

“Peaches in the Summertime” has a Middle Eastern/Turkish melody (Lowery’s take, anyway) and borrows its late refrain from the 18^th Century folk song “Shady Grove.” “Northern California Girls” showcases the colorful vocal-guitar dialogue between Lowery and Lisher. “Summer Days” is perhaps the most poetic tune on La Costa Perdida--the lyrics empowered by an instrumental jam featuring guitar, violin, booming drums and symphonic magic. It touches on the idea of giving up one's humanity to live and work in a bustling city. The dusty, galloping, Spanish folk-inflected title track is followed by the wild, distorted and spacey sonic experiment “Aged In Wood” (an instrumental that doesn’t say anything in particular, yet still makes a statement). The set wraps with the sweeping, symphonic “Love For All Time,” a tune that each member of CVB calls a favorite for obvious reasons. Opening with lush sea sounds, the piece is one Lowery calls “the most complex on the record, a love song infused with the mythology of the stars and Greek and Roman gods with a Tom Waits-type vocal that fits perfectly.” Segel and his wife Sanna do the backing vocals on this majestic closer.

Camper Van Beethoven’s history begins in the mid-80s in Santa Cruz, California (up the coast a ways from Big Sur), when David Lowery and Victor Krummenacher formed the band, and—after Jonathan Segel joined the group--their jangly and stoned “Take The Skinheads Bowling” became an instant college radio staple. Their 80s discography includes Telephone Free Landslide Victory (1985), II & III (1986, the first featuring Greg Lisher), Camper Van Beethoven (1986), Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart (1988) and Key Lime Pie (1989). The band was one of the founders of the indie rock genre and one of the most eclectic bands of all time, known for a variety of folk, rock, punk, and world influences put into a playful blender. Krummenacher and Lisher formed Monks of Doom in 1986 and Krummenacher later began a solo career, recording several albums with guests like Dave Alvin. Segel played with Dieselhead, Sparklehorse and fronted his own bands Hieronymus Firebrain and Jack & Jill, later playing under his own name. Lowery released the solo album The Palace Guards on 429 Records in 2011.

NEW YORKER SUSAN MCKEOWN TO MAKE 92Y TRIBECA DEBUT WITH HEADLINING SHOW JAN. 5

GRAMMY WINNER'S FIRST AMERICANA ALBUM & FIRST ALL-ORIGINAL ALBUM 'BELONG' OUT TODAY

MCKEOWN TAPES INTERVIEW WITH PRI BOB EDWARDS

New Yorker Susan McKeown will make her 92Y Tribeca debut January 5. Meanwhile her new album 'Belong,' her first Americana album and the first on which she has written all of the music and lyrics. Her breathtaking vocals and the way that she finds new ways to write about matters of the heart make this a spellbinding album, which marks half of her life in the States for the Ireland-born vocalist. 'Belong' is out today on Hibernian Music.

McKeown recently completed an interview with Public Radio International's Bob Edwards, in a broad-ranging conversation in which she discussed poetry; mental health; the influence of her mother, an organist; and her love of her hometown of NYC.

WHO: GRAMMY-winning New York vocalist/songwriter Susan McKeown
WHAT: 92Y Tribeca debut and performance from first Americana album 'Belong'
WHERE: 92Y Tribeca, 200 Hudson Street, NYC, (212) 601-1000
WHEN: January 5, 2013
TICKETS: TBA

Camper Van Beethoven - "Northern California Girls" - postable radio edit lyric video

"ADVENTUROUS" (ROLLING STONE) & "DELIGHTFUL" (PITCHFORK) CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN READY FIRST NEW ALBUM IN NINE YEARS 'LA COSTA PERDIDA' FOR JANUARY 22 RELEASE ON 429 RECORDS

CREATORS OF INDIE ROCK GENRE CUT ALBUM TOGETHER IN ONE ROOM, DEPICTING CHARACTERS AND STORIES FROM NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Camper Van Beethoven – the beloved, genre-mashing musical unit and one of the bands that created the indie rock genre – has confirmed its first album in nine years with 'La Costa Perdida' (January 22 / 429 Records). The release will mark CVB's first album recorded as a unit with the band cutting songs organically with all in attendance and produced entirely by the band's members. 'La Costa Perdida' vividly depicts untamed characters and bizarre experiences on northern California's coastline, where the band began its musical adventures.

Camper Van Beethoven is: Victor Krummenacher (bass, baritone guitar), Greg Lisher (guitars), David Lowery (guitars and vocals), Chris Pedersen (drums), Jonathan Segel (violin, guitar, mandolin, organ, backing vocals) and new addition Michael Urbano (drums and percussion).

Camper Van Beethoven have long held a place as influential pioneers of indie rock. Pitchfork Media called Camper Van Beethoven "great… assiduous creativity… inventive… delightful." SPIN has praised the band's "depth and worldly flavors," continuing, of its recent run in the 21^st century, "The band still rocks with the vigor of any young sprite." NPR says, "Their cryptic wit and dense, layered music offered rewards in repeated listening… blending genres of world and rock, translating current events into a swirl of witty banter and interpretation." Rolling Stone has raved about the band's "adventurous music."

On the making of 'La Costa Perdida,' Victor Krummenacher says, "The coolest part was that everything flowed from the fact that these distinctive musicians and personalities sat in the living room. Four people are writing it. The songs have great energy, but we're more relaxed and stately and a lot more confident."

Tour dates will be announced shortly.

La Costa Perdida Track List

1. Come Down The Coast

2. Too High For The Love-in

3. You Got To Roll

4. Someday Our Love Will Sell Us Out

5. Peaches In The Summertime

6. Northern California Girls

7. Summer Days

8. La Costa Perdida

9. Aged In Wood

10. A Love For All Time

Camper Van Beethoven publicity photos

Credit: Jason Thrasher.

Click for high res.

front row, L-R: Jonathan Segel

David Lowery 

Victor Krummenacher

Back row, L-R:

Greg Lisher

Frank Funaro