The Superions
Destination…Christmas!

By Michael David Toth

In addition to a hefty B-52s tour schedule, Fred Schneider currently has his own new band called the Superions, who released a debut EP earlier this year. And as it happens, the Superions’ first formal full-length release turns out to be a Christmas album. Featuring eleven kitschy original holiday ditties, Destination…Christmas! succeeds in kicking some fun life into the presently stale yule-tune genre. The synth-heavy instrumentation suits the material well, and Schneider has really honed his comedic timing and delivery in his years as a seasoned performer. Monumentally moronic and ostentatiously obnoxious in clever, deliberate ways, it’s therefore pretty much exactly what Fred fans would want in a Schneiderized Christmas party soundtrack.

“Fruitcake” was wisely chosen for a lead single/YouTube video, with many of the same party-down, sing-along ingredients as the B-52s’ most classic tracks. Lyrical subjects here include Teddy and Betty Yeti’s North Pole massacre, the bawdy innuendo of “Jingle Those Bells,” and the holiday angst of “Crummy Christmas Tree.” And “Laughter at Christmas” is diplomatically balanced with the follow-up “Christmas Tears.” In rare instances where there are in-jokes, like the Serge Gainsbourg parody “Santa Je T’aime,” they’re funny on their own merits without requiring familiarity with the referenced sources. The Superions conjure up a groovy diversity of ideas and musical genres to sustain an admirable level of interest within the narrow creative constraints of the Christmas novelty format.