BUMMED OUT CHRISTMAS

(Rhino)

There isn't a song that better sums up my idea of Christmas spirit than the Dan Hicks jugband ditty that leads off this album: "Somebody Stole My Santa Claus Suit." The hero wakes up Christmas morning to find that his beloved costume has been ripped off, and he's out for revenge: "Somebody took the whole shebang/If I find that roly-poly mother, he's gonna hang!" Despite the disc's title, only a few of the selections are truly bummed out, though the Everly Brothers' "Christmas Eve Can Kill You" has enough bad vibes to last till next summer. More typical are a pair of bratty '60s punk numbers, the Sonics' "Don't Believe in Christmas" and the Wailers' Dylan parody "Christmas Spirit." Or the blues obscurity "Santa Came Home Drunk," by Clyde Lasley and the Cadillac Baby Specials, an audio-vérité masterpiece that turns into a roll call of brand names of whiskey. Assembled from obscure '60s and '70s novelties, Bummed Out plays like a music nut's mix tape. In fact, my own holiday party tapes would have been seriously lacking without the whacked-out trucker number, "Santa Got a DWI," by some guy named Sherwin Linton.

-- Brett Milano

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