#a peace of us

[polaroidblog]

Snow Is Falling in Manhattan by Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom

As is often the case with holiday merriment, the album has a soft undertone of the bittersweet. Wareham sings one of David Berman’s final songs, “Snow is Falling in Manhattan,” one Dean believes is “destined to be a holiday classic.” Its lyrics foreshadow Berman’s tragic death: “Songs build little rooms in time / and housed within the song's design / is the ghost the host has left behind.”

[muffinghostie]

Oh project 2025 isn’t going to happen you’re being paranoid-

What the absolute fuck is this then? This country is so fucked.

[sinceileftyoublog]

Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom: Goodwill to All

Photo by Samantha Tyson

BY JORDAN MAINZER

When I logged on to Zoom to speak with Britta Phillips and Peter Kember (aka Sonic Boom), it felt like I was a fly on the wall witnessing some old friends spending a holiday together, shooting the shit and reminiscing. Kember, calling from Portugal, complimented Phillips' pajamas. Phillips, speaking from a friend's home in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, recalled the various times in the Aughts she and her husband (and longtime bandmate) Dean Wareham encountered Kember, both in their then home of New York city and on tour with Luna. Kember fondly remembered when Wareham and Phillips let him stay at their NYC apartment and he accidentally put a hole through the top of their TV. (It's a long story.) Among the laughs, fittingly, we were speaking about A Peace of Us (Carpark), a new album of Christmas and holiday songs credited to Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom. The record is comprised of songs new and old, covers learned over the years, as part of the trio's pandemic-era Christmas special, and more recently. What all the tunes share is not necessarily that they're about Christmas but reflect a sense of togetherness.

The very first song on A Peace of Us has more precedent with Dean & Britta's back catalog than with Christmas: Purple Mountains' "Snow Is Falling in Manhattan". Indeed, it's not the first time Wareham and Phillips have covered David Berman; their debut album L'Avventura sports a faithful rendition of Silver Jews' "Random Rules". This time around, Dean & Britta turn "Snow Is Falling" into a holiday song via Wareham's usual wiry guitar drums and Phillips' pattering percussion and whispered vocal harmonies. Kember adds sleigh bells to round out the wintry sound as Wareham sings Berman's lines about taking in old friends, sheltering them from the bluster. The opening track sets up A Peace of Us as an album about empathy and selflessness. Wareham again leads on Eddy Arnold's "Christmas Can't Be Far Away", atop a waltz instrumental rife with arpeggio synths and Kember's baritone vocal harmonies. Their two voices together elevate the song's themes of neighborly cheer even from the landlord who's presumably come to collect the rent check. Elsewhere, Dean & Britta add their unmistakable sound to classic pacifist Christmas songs, like John & Yoko/The Plastic Ono Band's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over), and pro labor heartbreakers such as Merle Haggard's "If We Make It Through December". The latter, especially, showcases the the three musicians here in sync, Phillips on lead vocals and an almost hip-hop like synth, Kember's reverb emphasizing the song's stark loneliness, Wareham's twangy guitars taking it back to its country roots.

Ultimately, throughout our conversation, Kember and Phillips emphasized that nobody in the trio is especially religious or views Christmas as a religious holiday, at least in the ritualistic sense. If anything, they connect with the idea of social conscience, included in but certainly not unique to Christianity. "Essentially, one of our tiny hopes is, through its title and subject matter, [the record] will make people think about something they might be able to do for others at Christmas," said Kember. "It doesn't have to be handing out food to the homeless. It can be all different ways: finding a suitable charity. There are children out there that don't get toys at Christmas without charities. I think we all feel that if Christmas is for anyone, it's for children. It's a magical time for them." His words give a weight to a song like Willie Nelson's "Pretty Paper", a duet between Kember and Phillips where their vocals intertwine with thumping synth bass. You may think wrapping paper is a material good, but there's something otherworldly about its patterns, akin to the psychedelia of the song. Same goes for their treatment of Roger Miller's "Old Toy Trains", which shimmers like a sunny winter day, Wareham's vocals over chintzy, warbling textures. You can place yourself in the headspace of a kid, delirious at the wonder of their new toy.

Perhaps the best thing about A Peace of Us, though, is that it's a record you can put on if you're simply a fan of Dean & Britta and/or Sonic Boom, even if you aren't partial to Christmas music. "Between us, we have a lot of different fans and friends who were fans initially," Kember said. "It's nice to be able to connect with people through music...Doing it at Christmas is a particularly nice thing." "It's especially familial," added Phillips. I felt that warm connection during an online conversation, and I can't wait to feel it again whenever I press play on the record. Below, read our conversation, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: Did you always know you wanted to make a record together?

Britta Phillips: Yeah, it started about 20 years ago. I don't remember where the idea even came from, but Pete, you had suggested [we cover The Wailers'] "She's Coming Home", which I sang as, "He's Coming Home", and at some point, we decided we should do a Christmas album. It took about 20 years.

Peter Kember: We had done a bunch of Christmas singles. We like the idea of Christmas as a time when people are together, when people tend to forgive and forget, peace on earth, goodwill to all. There are loads of key Christmas songs: "Old Toy Trains", that Dean & Britta did, "She's Coming Home". These are really nice songs. It's something we all experienced regardless of our faith or lack thereof. It's a bit like the pandemic, where everyone is on the same fucking page. They might not all be reading the script the same way, but everyone's at least in the same atmosphere. We love that, and we love doing stuff together.

BP: That's true. We hadn't thought about, these days, everybody's in their own internet life, but the holiday season is something everybody comes back for.

PK: The connected world we're in now, I personally think it's one of the worst things that ever happened to culture and music. Interesting or good bands...got thin as soon as everybody had an iPhone in their pocket. Being a little bored, not able to just scroll and flick and search, is what we need for people to have great bands again. It can be sad this Christmas, because I'm sure loads of families will sit around looking at their fucking phones. I see people come here, to one of the most beautiful places in Europe, and there are families sitting around the dinner table looking at their phones. It's very sad for me.

SILY: And people might be getting new phones for Christmas.

PK: [laughs]

SILY: On Eddy Arnold's "Christmas Can't Be Far Away", there's that line about how even the landlord said hi to the narrator around holiday time. It's always been one of the most hopeful Christmas songs because it suggests that no matter your religious beliefs, around that time, even the most apathetic or adversarial of us can forget our status for a minute.

PK: That's very much what the record's about for us. Peace on earth, goodwill to all...I don't think there will be peace on earth in my lifetime. There will always be war over some crazy land grabs. So I think it was nice when we decided that [peace] would be the emphasis we would put on it. People [can] think of it as a holiday record, but [it's also] about us being peaceful and finding resolutions other than war, fighting, or arguing.

SILY: Do either of you tend to listen to a lot of Christmas music around the holidays?

BP: It's hard to avoid. I don't like to start so early. After Thanksgiving is reasonable. I really hate most Christmas songs. I like Duke Ellington's The Nutcracker Suite. There's some good [Christmas] reggae.

PK: I'm much more about a few days of playing stuff, but there are some really nice records out there. There's a really nice Atlantic soul Christmas record with Otis [Redding] and [Carla] Thomas singing together. That's a really sweet song, "New Year's Resolution". It's nice to have a little bit of the vibe. I'm a sucker for sleigh bells. A lot of Christmas songs have sleigh bells in them. I try to get sleigh bells into as many things as I can these days, Christmas or not. They're really vibey.

Low's Christmas album is great. There are some really cool Christmas records that don't follow the norms. The first I knew a lot of the songs [on A Peace of Us] was when Dean & Britta approached me about being involved in the record. They sent me one of the songs, and I thought it was really cool. It wasn't just, "Hey, it's Christmas, guys!" It really covers the gamut of emotions. Christmas can be a tough time for some people, and I think it was nice to see that reflected in the songs. "Pretty Paper" is a good example, as is ["Snow Is Falling in Manhattan"]. "If We Make It Through December" is a great example of that. I really like the mix of songs. I like that Dean sang in German on a couple songs as well. I guess people don't know that "Silent Night" is a German song. We got a review where the writer talked about it being a strange language choice. [laughs]

BP: I learned that song in fifth grade in German.

SILY: Did everyone know German?

BP: Dean speaks German.

SILY: I agree with you that my favorite Christmas songs or albums have that contrast, where there's not just a vibe to them, but they have side-by-side moods that are, on paper, contradictory. On this record, when you have not just sleigh bells but synths and atmospheric noise, it slows down the positivity and adds emotional complexity. Were you trying to do that with the arrangements and instrumentation?

BP: I think we are just naturally geared towards something that isn't just peppy.

PK: Christmas is associated with snow, especially in the States. Snow has a distinct acoustic quality. When you go out in the world, and it's covered in snow, it and the cold air dampens and changes the way sound is transmitted. I think it really lends itself to the atmospherics of reverb. Luckily, again, we all really like reverb. [laughs] It was a good chance to let the reverb ring, slightly muffled effects. Like sleigh bells, something about [reverb] is Christmassy. The king of reverb, Phil Spector, does the sleigh bells mixed high on A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector.

SILY: What was the version of "Little Altar Boy" you heard first?

PK: I'm a big fan of The Fleetwoods, and I have a bunch of their CDs. I love their voices, two girls and a guy. [Their version] came up on [YouTube], and I thought, "Damn, this is a really awesome song." I suggested to Dean & Britta that it was a cool Christmas song. I love the treatment they did of it. It has a dark spin. The low bass synths Britta did put a menace to the track. Dean said the guy who wrote that song changed the name of it because of connotations [with the Catholic church.] I think it's edgy to have [the original title] on a Christmas record. It's a nice contrast.

BP: I love that song. I had not heard it before Pete suggested it. The chord changes go from really dark chords to a major, bright chorus or bridge.

SILY: Were there any songs that you recorded for this album but didn't include, or Christmas songs you one day want to cover?

BP: We put everything on that we recorded. But we have a long list. We've been collecting Christmas songs for a long time. There are always more.

PK: There was one song left off that maybe could have been on. We did a version of my song "Things Like This (A Little Bit Deeper)", which I redid as, "I Wish It Was Like Christmas Every Day". In the studio, I was listening to it, and thought I should do two versions of the chorus. Later on, when it came towards Christmas, I thought, "Oh yeah, let's get Dean and Britta to sing on it." I guess that was in 2020.

BP: Oh yeah. We should have put that one on!

SILY: Have you ever thought about writing original Christmas songs?

BP: We've thought about it. There were a couple demos. We didn't really try. There are just so many good songs that people have never heard. Lyrics are tricky. Maybe some day.

SILY: Including the Purple Mountains track is neat because even though that song was not originally contextualized as a Christmas song, it contains a lot of the same themes as Christmas music, and it turned out to be tragically, eerily prescient to the point where it could become a retrospective Christmas classic. Are there other songs you feel that way about, where you don't think of it as a Christmas song but you associate it with the holiday?

BP: "Snow" is a Randy Newman song, but I knew the Claudine Longet version. There are a lot of snow songs, not exactly Christmas songs, but holiday songs.

PK: Dean, when in Galaxie 500, also did one of my favorite songs ever, which I started to know through the Galaxie version, which is Yoko Ono's "Listen, the Snow Is Falling". I think it's without a doubt my favorite thing Yoko Ono ever did. It's unlike anything else she did because they were working with Phil Spector. If I think about it, that might be a little bit where I went with trying to do reverb and sleigh bells on this. It has a big slice of what Phil Spector brought to that song.

SILY: Can you tell me about the cover art?

PK: The cover is by an old friend of mine, Marco Papiro. He did Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper, he did Reset, he's done a number of sleeves for me. He's a unique guy. His day job is doing pharmaceutical packaging, where you're not allowed to influence the purchaser besides the color of the pill. When he comes to do things with me, or in this case with us, I usually throw some ideas at him, and he doesn't do anything with those ideas [laughs]. He always bases it on text. He always creates his own typeface for it. He's got a really great visual sense. What he did for this wasn't his first idea, and that's often the way with him. He'll do stuff, it'll be cool, and he'll knock it out of the park with something else. When we saw it, we all felt the same way, that it was really awesome. Subtly using the peace sign within the matrix pattern, and the way he curled our names. I think we're all very happy with it.

BP: In the beginning, I think you suggested something like wrapping paper, and it has a little bit of that.

PK: For sure. He's a musician as well, and plays violin, primarily electronically, and ["Pretty Paper"] might have jived with him particularly. He's a fan of Dean & Britta anyway.

SILY: Have you considered playing these songs live together?

PK: It was too late this year. It's one of those records--I may be wrong, and I'd like to be wrong--but I don't think you could play it in August. It would have to be in December. It's something we may look at for next year.

[xmasitw]

Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom

Pretty Paper

Stille Nacht

You're All I Want for Christmas

<3

He's Coming Home

<3

Peace On Earth / Little Drummer Boy

Happy Xmas (War is Over)

A Peace Of Us

-abum-

[mon-nid]

Dean & Britta • On Bandcamp

[breelandwalker]

Outlive the motherfucker. That's what you're going to do. Survive and thrive out of sheer spite if necessary. Live for the day that nature takes it's course and you wake up in a world that no longer has them in it.

Apply where applicable. Repeat as necessary.

[prlssprfctn]

Bruce gets a somehow very serious injury during one of the mission, so now he needs to actually use a "nurse" button (aka. Alfred or any of the kids who is closer) to get something. Expect, Jason and Stephanie modify this stupid button, and now, each time when he presses it, the stupid sitcom ass laughter of the crowd follows it. Just for shit and giggles.

Duke, squinting: Uh, guys... What is with the repetitive sound of dumb laughter coming from the Batcave? Tim, chewing on sandwich: Ignore it. Damian, sighing: Grayson is mad at father, so while he brought him water as father asked for, the water in the question was three big cubes of ice. Duke: Okay...?

But Bruce is no less petty, you all. He starts to use it back to annoy his kids, too.

Tim: Shit! Tim: *trips over his own skate that he left near the armchair in the Batcave, despite Alfred's warnings not to do that, and falls with a loud thud* Dick, panicking: Tim, are you okay- Bruce, smirking: *silently presses button, so now the imaginery crowd laughs at Tim, too* Tim: ...You CANNOT be serious.

[redvelvetwishtree]

[livinces]

Rest In Peace, President Jimmy Carter. 💙

[homkamiro]

Heavy language

[trashraccoongirl]

forever. ❤️

[ghostiebird]

dick grayson is absolutely the kind of person to have a fairly bad allergy to some food, and completely ignore it because that is his favorite food what do you mean he can't eat it?

i like the idea of him being allergic to mangos. not necessarily bad enough to warrant a hospital visit every time, but enough he suffers for his choices.

i also like the idea that the batfam have to keep eyes on this man at all times when a mango is in his vicinity.

Dick, wandering the Manor with faux casualty, mango in hand as he tries to find somewhere to eat it out of sight:

Jason, sitting in the library: "Hey, Dickie, what've you got there?"

Dick, immediately looking like a guilty dog who got caught in the trash: "...nooothing-"

Jason, snapping his book shut and sitting up: "Is that a fucking mango."

Dick, bolting: "NO?"

Jason, chasing immediately: "YOU CAN'T FUCKING EAT THOSE, GIVE IT HERE! DICK!"

Tim, sitting at the Batcomputer, working on a case:

Barbara, popping on screen: "Mango alert."

Tim, dropping everything to bolt upstairs: "RICHARD JOHN GRAYSON!"

A muffled screech is heard in the distance, followed by curses and demands of "spit that shit out NOW-"

The entire Batfam at dinner:

Dick, sneaking the mango flavored icecream over:

Damian, smacking his hand: "Richard for the love of-"

Dick, snatching the icecream and bolting: "You can't keep me from my mangos! I will never relent! MANGOS FOREVER!"

The entire family chases him down. Alfred is preparing treatment, and Bruce is sitting alone at the dining table, a few more grey hairs, and looking like he regrets everything. Muffled screams, curses, and then a loud lecture from at least three different people can be heard a few rooms over.

listen, the day he discovered his allergy was the same day he discovered his new favorite fruit, and he absolutely considers it a crime of the highest caliber to keep such a snack away from him.

[simonbrain]

you rarely call price by his first name. it's usually just a very cheery cap! or a stoic price when you need to remind him of the objective, but whenever you do call him john—you tried jonathan once as a joke, and the piercing stare he gave you made that the first and last time—it's warm, earnest. you almost seem shy uttering it, judging by the softness of your voice, but he calms your nerves with a fond look and an affectionate squeeze on the back of your neck.

getting the privilege of calling soap by his first name, let alone johnny, was an accomplishment in itself. you noticed how ghost was the only one who called him johnny, and so you took that as a sign to never refer to him as anything other than his ridiculous callsign and occasionally an incredulous bloody hell, mactavish, whenever he says something outrageous.

until you did slip up one night, but soap didn't seem to mind too much. he quite liked how his first name sounded in your voice, and when he offered you to call him johnny instead, which you mumbled under your breath to test it out, his surprised expression morphed into a genuine smile, one so pretty a rush of energy zipped through you. now, he won't let you call him anything except johnny—pretty much threatens you.

gaz was the first one on the team who allowed you to call him by his first name. hearing you mumble a tired morning, kyle or a warning but unserious kylie... when he's being a little shit makes his day a little brighter. you'd think the two of you were good mates with many years of friendship under your belts with the way you mock and poke at each other—especially when he lets you get away with calling him the most ridiculous pet names, like pookie, of all things.

while you seem to maintain good relations with your team, close ones even, there's just one person who stumps you. one big, enigmatic bastard who gives you creepy looks and speaks in nothing but cryptic language.

it honestly feels like your lieutenant dislikes you; no wonder you're still stuck with calling him by his callsign.

(poor ghost has been waiting for weeks for those plush lips of yours to utter his name. not ghost, not lieutenant or sir, but simon.

it's getting painful how oblivious you are to his attempts at giving you the green light to use his first name; the hard stare he gives you after hearing yet another formal greeting fall from your lips only seems to make you straighten up even more, and the annoyance radiating off of him every time you call him ghost scares you further away from him.

you're so formal with him, and he doesn't know what else to do—he just wants to be called a cute stupid nickname, too.)

[ssmashley]

HIMMMMMMMMM

[mon-nid]

Dean Wareham / Britta Phillips / Sonic Boom · A peace of us · 2024