The Christmas Band
Nothing Says Christmas Like You

As far as holiday entertainment goes, you can’t get much more on-the-nose than something called the Christmas Band, can you? At least Christmas is a season—one that, judging by retail displays, now starts two weeks before Halloween—so it’s a better choice than, say, the Ash Wednesday Trio or the Groundhog Day Philharmonic. Jake Nicolella and Zack Stiltenpole are decent songwriters, and they’ve made a nice little mid-fi folk-pop album. It may, on the other hand, contain just a little too much navel-gazing for some. If A Charlie Brown Christmas, with all its existential angst, really gets you in mood for some jolly old moping, this is a good one to spin when you’ve had all the Vince Guaraldi you can stand.