Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Django's 8 Days of Christmas, part five
One of my all-time favorite bands is The Smithereens. The first songs I ever learned to play from beginning to end on the guitar were Smithereens tunes; the first all-ages club show was a Smithereens gig at Nashville's famed Exit/In; and when I started tooling around in a garage band in high school, Smithereens songs - usually "I Don't Want to Lose You" and "Beauty and Sadness" - opened and closed the parties and talent shows at which we performed.
The Smithereens have kinda reinvented themselves in recent years (avoiding the inevitable "Where are they now?" appearances on VH1 programs) by giving The Who's Tommy and The Beatles' Meet the Beatles! Strats-'n-Rickenbackers-through-Marshalls power-pop treatment.
In 2007, New Jersey's finest band - sorry E Street Band - released a Christmas CD, Christmas with The Smithereens, which has played in my house, and in my car, on an almost continual basis since Thanksgiving.
I not only recommend that you add The Smithereens' Christmas CD to your collection, I urge you to play it very, very loud. (How many Christmas CDs can you play very, very loud ... and enjoy it?!)
You can hear some samples here.
# posted by Joltin' Django @ Tuesday, December 22, 2009 
