Tired of hearing about chestnuts roasting on an open fire? Then fire up Eban Schletter's "Cosmic Christmas." Don't worry that there's no time to go out and get it. You can buy it online at iTunes and other digital music services.
You may know Schletter from the music he's written for TV shows like "SpongeBob Squarepants and "Mr. Show with Bob & David," or from his collaborations with Jull Sobule, Grant-Lee Phillips and others.
But here, Schletter creates a holiday record that is part musical theater (see track two: "Send Christmas Into the Universe" with Tracy DeNisi), part "Twilight Zone" and part early Battiato-style electronica.
There are some familiar melodies included for good measure -- after all you need to get a footing or the absence of gravity could send you hurtling into the musical darkness -- like "We Three Kings" and "Auld Lang Syne."
The disc is a concept record, we're told an the concept is this: a military satellite finds itself in the midst of a musical "transmission" which forces it to rethink its primary directive.
I'd call it "high tech" but only in a Theremin, Mini Moog, retro, sense of the phrase. It's artsy, fun and unusual -- especially in the normally saccharine world of holiday music.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
