Jill Sobule does Christmas

Jill Sobule is probably best known for being "that chick who sung that "I kissed a girl" song that had the video with Fabio in it"....and indeed, she is that girl. Or some know her as the girl who sang the Supermodel song for the movie "Clueless". For me, it all started when I saw her on the village stage at Lilith Fair in 1997. A few months later I bought one of her albums.

She does lots of light-hearted and somewhat sarcastic songs about strange things, but also has a ton of songs about heavy issues like politics and anorexia, but she sings about them in such a way that you can smirk as you hear about them. Another serious issue to take on? Christmas. Jill does great work doing songs about Christmas and I think they're a hoot. Here are two she is being generous enough to share with the public via her website.

• "Merry Christmas from the Family"
• "Jesus was a Dreidel Spinner"

Universal Hall Pass

Universal Hall Pass has announced their new EP entitled "Subtle Things" is now available for pre-order from her very own Sneaky Records.

Universal Hall Pass is basically the work of Melissa Kaplan, previously of the band Splashdown. I was a huge fan of Splashdown when I first heard them. I had to have everything I could get my hands on, I was mesmerized. I first heard a Splashdown song on a magazine sampler and within a week was on-line looking for their album.

In between her UHP work she does extensive work on other people's albums as well as contributing vocals to numberous films, television and video games. She is professionally trained vocalist (I believe she went to the Boston conservatory?) and is especially gifted with middle-eastern music. You can hear that influence in many of her songs and the lyrical content. She also is influenced by rock, jazz and techno. Above all else, it's really beautiful and well crafted. If nothing else, you should hear her middle-eastern styled cover of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire".

Universal Hall Pass:

• "Misdirected"
• "Dragonfly"
• "Ring of Fire"

Splashdown:

• "All Things"
• "Ironspy"
• "Presumed Lost"