The Zipstream: Bi-partisan seasonal cheer from Adam Schabow
Welcome to The Zipstream, a semi-regular new column in which The A.V. Club will round up new local albums, mixtapes, and EPs that Madison-connected artists share via such channels as Bandcamp pages and upload sites. Got something you'd like us to consider? Email sgordon@theonion.com.
Adam Schabow, There Is No War On Christmas
Adam Schabow, who leads local band The Shabelles, doesn't aspire to be the weightiest or gut-wrenchingest songwriter in town. Instead, his specialty is finding the natural playfulness and good humor in straightforward guitar-pop. His Christmas album, There Is No War On Christmas (which he recently posted as a free download on local blog Dane101.com), is actually a couple of years old, but you know what's even older? The annual cries of shit-wits who claim that our secular society and First Amendment are somehow a threat to Christmas (a holiday so beloved that even non-Christians have been known to go ahead and celebrate it). On the other hand, even The A.V. Club's resident infidels grow weary of the Yuletide smugness that pours out of such folks as Madison's own Freedom From Religion Foundation. Luckily, Schabow's 11 Christmas songs offer a nice little refuge from the shrillness on both sides, and from the crass, over-produced cheese-logs that have been choking the radio for three months now.
Though rather cheaply self-recorded, tunes like "Take Me Back For Christmas" and "Winter Night" aim for the swooning, slightly corny feeling of being buzzed by the hearth, in the spirit of old Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra Christmas songs. "I Just Call It Christmas" twinkles with synth, glockenspiel, and Schabow's innocent optimism about Christmas hams and snow, though the line "the egg nog's knockin' at the door" seems a tad ominous. It wouldn't be like Schabow to leave out some mischief and novelty, and here he uses that to scare naughty brats back onto Santa's "nice list." The trashy fuzz-riffer "Zombie For Christmas" warns that if you act like a little shit all year, you might awake on Christmas morning to find flesh-craving undead under the tree. Wait, why didn't the culture-warriors think of that first?
