Dean Wareham & Britta & Sonic Boom Share Cover of David Berman's 'Snow Is Falling In Manhattan'

On November 22 the trio of Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom - some of indie music’s foundational members - will release a holiday album, A Peace of Us, via Carpark Records. With 14 tracks, the LP reimagines an eclectic range of holiday songs through their unique musical lens.

Now, they reveal the album’s lead-track, a cover of David Berman’s “Snow Is Falling In Manhattan” which is on its way to becoming a bonafide classic single for this time of year. Wareham says, “David Berman’s Purple Mountains is one of the great albums of this century. We were all shocked when he took his life soon after its release, and I recorded a demo of‘’Snow is Falling in Manhattan’ for a tribute to him.

The song is now updated with a new mix and added vocals by Britta and Sonic Boom. It’s such an evocative song about a snowstorm in New York City and contains one of my favorite Berman stanzas ‘songs build little rooms in time / and housed within the song’s design / is the ghost the host has left behind’ — where it feels like Berman is talking to us from the beyond, he is both ghost and host, and I am the guest who sings his lines.”

On Sunday, November 17 Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom will appear at a Bandcamp Listening Party at 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 10pm BST.  The album will be streaming and the band members will be available for a Q&A with fans.  More information can be found here.

Taken as a whole, A Peace Of Us brings to life a collection that draws from early ‘60s pop, garage, country, James Bond soundtracks, Christmas carols, and electronica. Dean Wareham recalls a sentiment from his DJ friend Chris: “You can experience all the emotions of Christmas through music: love and hate, joy and heartache, nostalgia, regret, anticipation, and frustration.”

Dean Wareham (Galaxie 500, Luna, Dean & Britta), Britta Phillips (Luna, Dean & Britta) and Sonic Boom’s (Spacemen 3) venture into a holiday album was organic, spurred by a few cover tunes over the years, a Christmas special during the pandemic, and finally collaborative sessions between Dean & Britta in L.A. and Sonic Boom in Portugal. The trio all contributed vocals, with guitars by Wareham, bass and keyboards by Phillips, effects, and mixes by Sonic. The result is an album of exploration as well as comfort, “like Bing Crosby...on acid,” Britta adds, the tracklist a reminder that the holidays are complex and tragicomic. 

This collection steers clear of the usual Christmas chestnuts, but fans of classic indie haze may find a new favorite in “Peace on Earth / Little Drummer Boy” (created for Bing Crosby and David Bowie’s 1977 TV duet). Wareham notes that “Our favorite version is the German one by Marlene Dietrich, so that was our jumping-off point.” All three sing this one together: Wareham’s tenor, then Sonic Boom’s thrumming baritone, and finally Phillips’ soothing contralto making the plea for peace.

If collaboration is the fuel, peace and mutual understanding is surely the fire, and A Peace of Us has us gathered around it. “Christmas is mostly for children anyway,” says Dean. Sonic adds, “Or the inner child in all of us. Goodwill to all men. Hopes and fears for the year to come. And light in the darkness. Where this festival began.”

Tracklist:

1 Snow Is Falling in Manhattan

2 Pretty Paper 

3 Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown?

4 Old Toy Trains 

5 Snow 

6 Silver Snowflakes

7 Stille Nacht

8 You’re All I Want For Christmas 

9 Christmas Can’t Be Far Away

10 He’s Coming Home

11 Little Altar Boy

12 If we make it through December

13 Peace On Earth / Little Drummer Boy 

14 Happy Xmas (War is Over)

Photo credit: Samantha Tyson

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