Miles Hlivko has strong opinions about Christmas music. “Carol of the Bells?” Big fan. “Good King Wenceslas” and “Here We Come A-wassailing”? Loves ’em.
“I don’t even know what wassailing means, but I’m into it,” Hlivko said.
But “Happy Holiday/The Holiday Season” by Andy Williams? Not a fan.
“The goofiest part of that song is when he goes, ‘So hoop-de-do and dickory dock and don’t forget to hang up your sock,’” he said. “It’s like something from a Will Ferrell bit.”
So when Hlivko’s band, Glass Shadow, was looking for a song to cover for a Christmas album he was producing, Hlivko suggested one none of the members liked: the quirky and jaunty Paul McCartney number “Wonderful Christmastime.”
The result is a lo-fi, melancholy version that is musically more in line with Wham!’s “Last Christmas” (another favorite of Hlivko’s). The band leans into the darkness, turning the usually perky song into a somber affair — and it works.
The song is part of “The Devilstrip Freezes Over,” a new eight-song album featuring holiday covers and originals from Akron bands. Hlivko’s musical projects — Joint Custody, fakerealmiles and the aforementioned Glass Shadow — contributed one song each. The other bands featured are Wake Magnolia, Dave Rich and His Enablers, Church of Starry Wisdom, Flock of Moons and Corey & the Creatures.
Hlivko got the idea for the album after learning that Akron native Chris Butler, founding member of new wave band the Waitresses, wrote the group’s 1981 holiday hit, “Christmas Wrapping.”
“I mean, not that I am expecting anything I’ve written to achieve that level of worldwide success, but it’s like, if he can do it, then why not gather as many talented musicians in Akron as I can find and see what we can come up with?” Hlivko said.
Original songs and holiday classics make up album
“The Devilstrip Freezes Over” gave Church of Starry Wisdom a chance to lean into the spookier parts of the season.
For the album, the five-piece turned H.P. Lovecraft’s poem “Yule Horror” into a song. The 1926 poem references “Yule-altar fungous and white” and “mad mistletoes choke.”
“Traditionally actually, I think Christmas was more Halloweeny back in the day. It used to be darker. There were ghost stories,” said keyboardist/vocalist Amy Spencer.
Church of Starry Wisdom wrote the song in 2016. Back then, they were heavily influenced by Lovecraft, Spencer said, but have branched out in recent years.
“We never found a place for it because it’s kind of Christmasy, it’s kind of Lovecraftian. It didn’t really fit with some of the other things that we were doing in our first album. And then by the time we did our second album, we were branching so far away from that. It never found its place yet,” she said. “But [Hlivko] definitely inspired us to finally bring it down.”
Wake Magnolia went a different route, choosing to cover perhaps the most well-known Christmas song: “Jingle Bells.”
“When [Hlivko] originally asked us to do this, my first instinct was to cover a classic and essentially, for lack of a better word, Wake Magnoliafy it,” said singer/guitarist Nick Galbincea. “Essentially bring it into the modern age, make it heavy, put some riffs in and whatnot. Which I think we did.”
The two-piece’s version is a three-and-a-half-minute ripper of loud guitars, crashing drums and Galbincea’s wailing screams. The rendition found a fan in Galbincea’s 4-year-old son, Milo.
“When Adam [Miller, Wake Magnolia drummer] came over and we essentially jammed it the first time as a full band, my son opened the basement door. He’s like, ‘Wow, that was fun. That was really cool,’” Galbincea recalled. “So that’s when I was like, ‘OK, we got something here.’”
Hlivko plans to release an extended version on vinyl next year. After that, he might turn it into an annual project.
“We’ll have to see what other bands are interested in doing,” Hlivko said, “But I know we all had a blast with this, so I’m totally down to keep it rolling.”
“The Devilstrip Freezes Over” is available to stream on all major platforms. Physical copies can be purchased at Square Records in Highland Square or by contacting the bands featured on the album.
