Recorded at The City College of New York, Sonic Arts

Written, performed, sung, recored, and mixed by Nathan Palan

Drums- Frederick Trumpy
Bass- Will Fisher

Engineering assistance by Kevin Halvordson and Will Fisher

Water Weight

This piece was written and used in the documentary "Cinema and Sanctuary," a documentary about visual dada artist Hans Richter and his career at The City College of New York as a documentary film instructor.

Music for film

Waylan Daniel's cover of Here by Pavement

Recorded and mixed by Nathan Palan

Waylan Daniel- Pavement's "Here"

Written, recorded, mixed and produced by Nathan Palan

Guitar, bass and vocals- Nathan Palan
Drums- Frederick Trumpy

Distorted Nights

A track off of Hometown Sweethearts self titled album

05 Worlds Apart

The first single from the album "Old Fashioned Christmas" by Waylan St. Palan & The Magic Elves. Written by Nathan Tredinnick

Quarantine Christmas

The title track off Waylan St Palan & The Magic Elves newest record!
Old Fashioned Christmas (2020)
Waylan St Palan & the Magic Elves
(Independent release)

‘Tis the season for Christmas releases. But what other bands would call a "Christmas album," yuletide crusaders Waylan St Palan & the Magic Elves refer to simply as "an album." They don’t just dabble in the holiday when it’s convenient. They are Christmas.

Christmas... Its commercial nature has been bemoaned since the 1800s. People who aren’t even Christian celebrate it. And it’s often synonymous with drinking copious amounts of alcohol. St Palan and his crew fearlessly empty the deepest bottles of truth underlying this complex holiday with an intellectual integrity rivaling Dickens himself.

For many Christmas is all about family, and their pandemic-created absence is lamented in the nostalgic title track Old Fashioned Christmas. But family can be complicated like during the breakup in My Last Christmas (With You). Spending another day locked up with the same people “I would not describe as fans” for a Quarantine Christmas adds more hostility to the already exhausting cabin fever. And it’s a reminder that like any other day, you’ll be (Doin’ the) Dishes for Christmas. 

A longtime connoisseur of Christmas music, St Palan digs up the lesser known beaut Bells of St. Ignatius by New York rockers Wormburner. Throughout the album the Magic Elves’ experience with holiday repertoire shows itself in the old-timey two-beat dance numbers and 60s rockabilly stompers that have come to dominate the season. 

Anway, whatever. What about the presents? Well have you been good? If Santa’s making a list and checking it twice, is it possible that You’re Off the List? Thankfully for the privileged, Santa always comes. So go ahead kid, don’t hold back. Let him know I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas. But let’s be real. Sometimes our gifts are crap, and we feel sorry for ourselves. That’s a Christmas Disaster.

But fear not ye festive warriors! The War for Christmas shall be won! And its anthem will be the cheerfully swinging Away In a Manger that is the album’s--well--only mention of Christmas’s namesake. And it all comes to a close, like so many family holiday gatherings where booze and politics should never mix, in the sloshy Christmas at the Bar, which is not entirely out of line with how a Waylan St Palan & the Magic Elves live show typically ends.

So that’s Christmas. If you have further questions, just listen to the album. And be merry dammit.

Nathan Palan

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