SOUNDTRACK: THE OH HELLOS-Holiday Tiny Desk Concert #588 (December 19, 2016).
There was a time when a band played one Tiny Desk Concert and that was it. That tradition has been broken twice before on special occasions. But this time, the distance between shows was just over a year. What gives?
Well, in addition to the band being pretty sick last time, The Oh Hellos have released The Oh Hellos’ Family Christmas Album and are on the Christmas Extravaganza Tour. so what better group to do a holiday Tiny Desk Concert?
The band plays four songs. Their EP is full os interesting folky transitions that sound nothing like the main songs, but which flow into them seamlessly. Like “Deck the Halls” which has a rocking intro and rocking chords on the downbeats. There’s also fun bluegrass fiddles and banjo. I really like how the music of the song sounds so different from the traditional version and yet when they actually sing it, it is spot on.
Then a wild shift in tone to a beautiful acoustic rendition of “Mvmt III: “Silent Night, Holy Night”” sung by Maggie Heath. The opening guitar melody is really different and interesting–enticing and unexpectedly morphing into the traditional song. Once the main part of the song is done, they switch to a kind of oh ho oh ho chant–folky and warm.
For the next song Tyler says that its a tradition in their extended family that for the holidays they eat a lot and then break out the hand chimes. He says they are going to sing the one verse of “Jingle Bells” that everyone knows. Bob asks if there are more. Tyler’s not sure. They play some kind of hand bells (and Bob gets one too) while everybody sings.
The final track is “Mvmt IV: “Every Bell On Earth Will Ring.”” It opens with another cool rolling guitar intro on acoustic guitar which is followed by the electric guitar. And the song morphs into “Joy to the World.” The harmonies are outstanding. And once again, you’d never guess the song by the guitar parts. The middle rocks out in a very fun way until it shifts to a section of “I Saw Three Ships” sung by Maggie. With about 1 minute left snow starts falling from the ceiling as they shift to “O Come Let Us Adore Him.”
It’s a pretty fantastic Tiny Desk Holiday show. And their album seems like it might be a fun addition to any holiday music collection.
[READ: July 19, 2016] “Blue Roses”
I’ve never read anything by Hwang before so I don’t know what her stories are typically like. But this one has such a distinctive narrator that I wondered if she normally writes like this. The story is the first person from an older Taiwanese lady, Lin. She is opinionated and judgmental and, I think, most often wrong.
Linstarts by saying she had asked her daughter if she might invite her friend Wang Piesan over for Christmas Dinner. The daughter says she doesn’t know this woman, so no. This gets Lin so mad that she more or less refuses to talk to her daughter for most of the rest of the story.
It was bad enough that her daughter said no but then her husband suggested “if you want to invite her maybe you should host.” Lin is outraged: “I’ve waited your whole life for you to invite me to dinner. Now you want to take it back?” To make things worse her daughter called back the next day to ask if she would babysit that night. Lin is appalled: “She didn’t realize that anything had happened between us.”
Lin said no and also that she also wouldn’t be going to Christmas Dinner now. (more…)
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