The Spider Accomplice Celebrate Christmas Eve

Once the leaves start to turn pretty colors (it's actually them losing their color, but that's more depressing, isn't it?), it can mean only one thing; Christmas season is about to start. Just as pumpkin spice is now hitting store shelves while we're all still sweating under the summer heat, Christmas is sneaking up on us while we figure out which kind of Halloween candy to make sure we have extra of for ourselves (for me, it's Reese's).

There are many things to be concerned about with the stretching out of the holiday season, but one that bothers me the most is the increased amount of time I have to spend ducking holiday music. The local radio stations even start their twenty-four hour a day Christmas before Thanksgiving. That's getting to be a bit much.

I don't like the traditional Christmas songs, whether that's just an issue of overexposure, or if my grinch-ly personality has something to do with it. But it's not as though I don't like any Christmas music, it's just that the songs I listen to during the holiday season are not the traditional ones... or any of the ones you've ever heard of. My playlist includes a Christmas song from Blues Traveler, Ronnie James Dio and Tony Iommi doing "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", Weird Al singing about a North Pole massacre, an eleven minute power metal epic about Frosty's daughter falling in love with Santa's son (it's called "Wynter Fever", by Theocracy), and a bizarre little ditty from a guy I still can't remember how I found called Gunther, along with The Sunshine Girls. That's my weirdness.

Today, we get a new holiday entry from The Spider Accomplice, who are here to make sure our festivities are not without a gift. That comes in the form of this new song, "It's Christmas Eve, America".

Openign with strings and minor key piano chords, this is not a holly, jolly kind of Christmas. We probably don't deserve to have one right now, anyway. VK Lynne gives a restrained but powerful performance, as if begging us to remember the good things the season is supposed to encompass. Actually, the title fits that kind of existential questioning of the world. By focusing on Christmas Eve as a time of joy, and not just Christmas Day, it's a subtle reminder that we shouldn't need a holiday to push us in the direction of good, hope, or joy. But I may be reading too much into things.

With VK's voice at the helm, even a subdued version of The Spider Accomplice has a raw power to them. Their songs, this one in particular, have a slow burn that becomes evocative even when it doesn't sound like there's anything overwhelming to what they are giving us. By making this song simple, it allows us to focus on each and every element, but none more clearly than the humanity of VK's voice. And really, isn't a human connection, and human compassion, both what the holidays are all about, and what the world needs more of right now?

The Spider Accomplice's "It's Christmas Eve, America" is available everywhere November 1. Maybe it'll get added to your holiday playlist. For links to everything Spidery you need to know, visit them on Facebook.