It’s easy to hear how much fun TriBeCaStan had recording this collection of holiday tunes. The New York band (featuring onetime Milwaukeean John Kruth) opens Coal, Again! with a hotel-lounge ska rendition of “O Little Town of Bethlehem” before moving on to a “Silver Bells” delivered with sagebrush lilt and a touch of klezmer melancholy. “Little Drummer Boychik” sounds like the theme from a ’60s spy flick set in Hawaii—a good example of the band’s colorful musical cross-dressing.
