December 21, 2011
This year’s Bah & the Humbugs podcast features two new tracks. One is “Round and Round,” the previously unreleased track on the new CD edition of 12/19/87. The other is a new studio version of a favorite live song.
The podcast story line follows the efforts of Christmas experts to answer callers’ questions about Christmas.
November 17, 2011
The first Bah & the Humbugs concert ever recorded is now available on CD. The CD edition of 12/19/87 includes one song that was previously unreleased: “Round and Round,” which features rousing choral singing in its previously unheard live version.
The CD reissue was supervised by Rick Aster, who originally recorded the concert on December 19, 1987, and produced the original live album.
December 25, 2009
Bah & the Humbugs appeared in concert/interview segment on WXPN on Christmas Eve. The Humbugs were on the air in the 4 p.m. hour during Robert Drake’s 24-hour Christmas Eve program “The Night Before.”
The Humbugs also released four new songs for download on the band’s web site. The theme of the new songs is “big and commercial,” as illustrated by the million-dollar bill on the web site, featuring a picture of Santa, and by the leadoff song, “Mr. Big Christmas,” which insists that recession-influenced small thinking can’t diminish the spectacle of Christmas.
One song, “No Free Lunch,” features Rick Aster on lead vocals, guitar, and drums. The song depicts some of the first characters to try to profit from Christmas.
All the new songs can be heard in the new Bah & the Humbugs podcast, which is also available on the web site. This year’s Christmas Eve podcast story is about elves who join social networking site Elfbook, then become disillusioned with it and switch to the anti-social networking site Humbook. But as often happens at Christmas, it is Santa who gets the last laugh.
The complete set list of the radio performance was:
December 6, 2009
On December 5, Bah & the Humbugs taped an in-studio concert segment to air on WXPN on Christmas Eve.
The segment is set to air sometime during Robert Drake’s 24-hour Christmas Eve special “The Night Before.”
December 17, 2008
Although there is no new Humbugs album this year, Humbugs fans are buzzing about a movie, a new song, and Christmas messages from aliens.
We’re told there is a possibility that a new Humbugs song, “Santa Hat,” might be heard in the Philadelphia area on the WXPN “The Night Before” 24-hour broadcast on December 24.
There is also word of a movie — no, not the Hollywood movie that Bah keeps talking about, but a slapdash Finnish short film done in silent movie style. It borrows the Humbugs track “My Psychic Reindeer” for its soundtrack (though we’re not sure why, as there aren’t any reindeer in the movie). If you watch “Operation Santanapping” on YouTube, listen for Humbugs music about 2 minutes in.
The usual Christmas Eve podcast, coming any day now, contains a surprising plot twist having to do with YETI, the alien message decoding project whose name stands for You’ve Got an Extra-Terrestrial Instant Message. Actual YETI decoded messages can now be seen in real time at the YETI Project web page.
December 10, 2008
In this year’s Bah & the Humbugs podcast Rick Aster plays Einstein Holiday, a teenage podcaster who can’t wait to get a text message from space aliens.
The podcast was recorded last weekend and will be available for download in about a week at the band’s web site.
No new Bah & the Humbugs album is planned for this year. Instead, the band is taking the chance to promote its 20-year catalog of satiric Christmas music.
Bah & the Humbugs continue to encourage fans to make small donations to the World Food Programme. The U.N. food charity needs donations more than ever this year because of the sharp increases in the prices of food and energy.
December 19, 2007
This year’s Bah & the Humbugs podcast features Rick Aster in the role of Big Jerry in “Big Jerry’s Big Emergency Overstock Liquidation Bonanza Christmas Special.”
The podcast is available at the Bah & the Humbugs web site and at popular podcast directories.
December 14, 2007
The Bah & the Humbugs song “Christmas in April” can be heard on Dr. Demento’s radio program this weekend. The track from the new Humbugs album “The 12 Symptoms of Christmas” is written and sung by Michael Hollinger and describes a series of mishaps on a family’s holiday calendar.
The album is now available on the Bah & the Humbugs web site.
November 16, 2007
This year’s Bah & the Humbugs album features 12 new songs about the mishaps of the Christmas season, including one that features the work of Rick Aster.
“The Man With the Sack of Toys” is an Aster-penned revision of the traditional song “The House of the Rising Sun,” and features Rick singing in two character voices that may surprise longtime fans.
Rick’s electric guitar playing and background vocals can also be heard throughout the record.
The album, The 12 Symptoms of Christmas was recorded over the past four months and is being prepared for a November 27 release.
December 26, 2006
The new Bah & the Humbugs CD A Very Commercial Christmas is especially suitable for shuffle playing, according to Rick Aster, who explains how it works: “Put the A Very Commercial Christmas CD in a playlist with a selection of ordinary Christmas music and play it in Party Shuffle mode. Or you could put the CD along with your favorite Christmas music CDs in a multi-CD player in shuffle mode. You get a couple of songs and then a Humbugs commercial, and you never know what’s coming next. It’s a great way to keep smiling at Christmas.”
November 24, 2006
Bah & the Humbugs this month recorded a new Christmas Eve podcast for 2006. The hour-long episode, titled “A Very Commercial Christmas,” features a baseball game between the Red Sox and the Angels, a mind-boggling giveaway at all-commercial radio station WCOMMERCIAL, and other inevitable excesses that occur when the spirit of commercialism takes over the Christmas season.
The podcast will be released early in December, in plenty of time for fans to listen in on Christmas Eve.
Look for more in December at the official Bah & the Humbugs web site: http://www.bahandthehumbugs.com.
On December 22, 2002, Bah & the Humbugs made an unlikely appearance on a CNN news program, CNN Sunday Night. Here’s a look back at that event, with a few behind-the-scenes photos from the television studio.
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The official Bah & the Humbugs web site: http://www.bahandthehumbugs.com.