JINGLE BELL ROCKS!
an exclusive backstage pass into a fascinating underground world of alternative Christmas music.
Produced by EyeSteelFilm and Mabooshi Film Company
Directed by Mitchell Kezin
1×60, shooting begins December 2009
In the liner notes to his delightfully twisted, self-titled holiday music compilation, cult film auteur John Waters exclaims: “Just when you think you can’t stand to hear another Christmas carol, here I come with a holiday treat that will make you actually appreciate the insanity of the Yuletide season”
Insanity indeed. The holiday season is a pungent, volatile concoction of the ridiculous and the sublime, the sacred and the profane. But you won’t find those sentiments in the nostalgic musical overload that assaults us each year when Christmas rolls around.
So where are these songs — obscure oldies and new incantations alike — that embrace today’s eclectic, ironic, often criticized, but still beloved holiday? They can be hard to find.
And it’s a Christmas miracle, of sorts, that this treasure trove of dark, surreal, and subversive Xmas tracks were even recorded.
With titles like “Santa Claus Was A Black Man,” a 70s funkadelic romp, the biting social satire of Stan Freberg’s “Green Chri$tma$” or the frightening, homemade holiday freak-out “My Santy Claus Has No Ho Ho Ho”, it’s no wonder the major record labels wouldn’t touch them and mainstream radio wouldn’t play them. These offbeat wonders were left to fend for themselves in a not-so-merry marketplace.
These are the songs that even Santa Claus forgot.
For decades, these bootlegs, b-sides and Xmas oddities were the exclusive domain of music biz insiders. They were circulated within the industry by aficionados like infamous Hollywood producer Eddie G, Sire Warner Records exec Tom “Grover” Biery, and legendary collector (and concert promoter) Andy Cirzan, whose collection boasts over 5,000 of the rarest, most amazing songs around.
Jingle Bell Rocks! unearths this underground subculture, featuring the irreverent insights and heartfelt confessions of a chorus of musicians, collectors and commentators.
As John Waters re-iterates: “I don’t think these songs are so bad they’re good, they’re so weird, they’re perfect!”
Equal parts social history, pop culture pilgrimage and revealing character study, Jingle Bell Rocks! follows this motley crew of merry misfits as they confront the Christmas music mainstream, reinventing the seasonal soundtrack for the 21st century.
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