The first time I heard Kill Holiday was in 411vm. I could never get the CD in Jersey until my friend Mike O from the band Endeavor got a copy for me from Carl / Ferret Music. I think Ferret was distributing the CD or something.

Here is the 411vm Section

Take one part infomercial and mix it with one part old school electro and serve up the Slap Chop Rap by DJ Steve Porter. This may be the best track of 2009.

I alluded to this pairing in My Venture Bros. Christmas post. I remember seeing this video on MTV  in the 80’s, but in 1977 David Bowie agreed to appear on Bing Crosby’s 1977 Christmas special. Sure thye make an odd couple and that’s enough of a tale, but the day of the shoot Bowie told the show’s writers he hated “Little Drummer Boy”, and asked if he could sing something else. Within 75 minutes, the writers and the arrangers wrote an original tune, “Peace on Earth”, with a melody and arrangement that would interweave with “Little Drummer Boy”.

The Christmas special moment that almost wasn’t was miraculously saved, creating a most memorable performance that was bootlegged for years, before ever being released in an audio format. The show aired on television in 1977, unfortunately Bing Crosby died before its air date.

But the moment is ever preserved on celluloid, and now on YouTube and the rest of the Internet, uncomfortable, odd-sounding banter and all. The Washington Post tells the full story best.

Ok. By now anyone who follows us on Twitter must be aware of my love of all things Venture. And I know there’s a bunch of you, even if 25% are spammers trying to lure me into whitening my teeth or buying your eBook on how to gain more Twitter followers. Well, if any of you are also smitten with The Venture Bros. television programme (Ye olde spelling for no darn reason), no doubt you are a bit despondent with the hiatus between parts one and two of Season Four.

I’m hoping I’ve got something here combined with holiday cheer to help fill your void before you begin your requisite holiday gluttony. Cranberry sauce, anyone?

Venture creators Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick have bestowed yuletide gifts upon the rabid fanbase in previous years. And I’ve collected a few links so you can load up your iTunes with some of the finest holiday jams to ever spring forth from a cocoon. Play them at your gathering and leave befuddled uncles and aunts scratching their heads saying, “What the hell are we listening to?”

The links go to posts from Quick Stop Entertainment, and include The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend’s reenactment of the David Bowie/Bing Crosby take on “Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth” (the Bowie/Bing combination is another post in itself). The couple even include the a version of the banter between the two musical icons. They even return with a duet of The Pogues and Kirsty McColl’s “Fairytale of New York.”

Henchman 21 and 24 also squeeze in a recording between the charity work they do for Murder for Tots and The Make a Death Wish Foundation for their cover of Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime”. And the entire cast combines for a performance of Band-Aid’s “Do They Know it’s Christmas?”

Happy Holidays. Here’s the links:

Little Drummer Boy/Fairytale of New York/Venture Aid 2006

Wonderful Christmastime

***** (Five Asterisks, must mean something good, right?) 12/25/09

Hammer & Publick have played Santa again. Tim-Tom, Kevin & Henchman 21 play Simon, Theodore & Alvin to The Monarch’s David Seville on “The Chipmunk Song.”