That doom, though, she reserves for the deep cuts on her excellent LPs. In concert, Jones sticks to the script, and the script—on New Year's Eve especially—calls for free champagne and bass-lines that don't walk so much as hustle. Stand far enough front, and the woman who boasts that her legs are "half as long as Tina Turner's" will drag you onstage by the scruff of your neck and teach you the art of the hip-shake while skewering you with a rendition of "What Have You Done For Me Lately?" Stand far enough back, and you'll see more mating rituals than a David Attenborough TV special. Jones and the 'Kings tend to have that effect on an audience—and this groove, after all, was made for you and me.

SHARON JONES PERFORMS WITH FITZ & THE TANTRUMS AT THE 9:30 CLUB, 815 V ST. NW. (202) 265-0930. 9 P.M. DOORS.  $55

Hello! Tomorrow is Christmas!

Surely many of you will be busy unwrapping presents and donning ugly sweaters and eating delicious things, but not I! See, I'm Jewish, and I've already had my seasonal allotment of gifts and comfort food. But for members of the tribe, there's still plenty to do tonight and tomorrow, including:

- Movies and Chinese food! A total cliche, yes, and yet I do this almost every year.

- From a friend: Bong rips on the couch. Reading the Talmud.

- Sing songs? Ruth Samuelson, another City Paper Jew, sent me this note from Good for the Jews' Rob Tannenbaum, passed on to her by Managing Editor Andrew Beaujon:

Andrew Beaujon sent me to you. Apparently, you are a Jew.

For this reason alone, he thinks you might be interesting in

writing something about Good For the Jews and our

DC concert on Xmas Eve.

As you may know, December 24th is an excruciating time to be a Jew.

For months, we've been pelted with Christmas songs, many written by Jews.

There's nothing on TV except "It's A Wonderful Life." Again.

So this year, Good For the Jews return to the D.C. area,

where we have previously played sold-out shows at the Birchmere.

Our goal: No Jew within an 80-mile radius of Vienna, VA should spend

Christmas Eve alone and depressed, or at a Chinese restaurant,

eating without entertainment.

Won't you help us spread the word?

We're funny.

And rumor is, you've got a lot of Jews in D.C.

Andrew Beaujon sent me to you. Apparently, you are a Jew. For this reason alone, he thinks you might be interesting in writing something about Good For the Jews and our DC concert on Xmas Eve.

As you may know, December 24th is an excruciating time to be a Jew. For months, we've been pelted with Christmas songs, many written by Jews. There's nothing on TV except "It's A Wonderful Life." Again.

So this year, Good For the Jews return to the D.C. area, where we have previously played sold-out shows at the Birchmere.

Our goal: No Jew within an 80-mile radius of Vienna, Va., should spend Christmas Eve alone and depressed, or at a Chinese restaurant, eating without entertainment.

Won't you help us spread the word?

We're funny.

And rumor is, you've got a lot of Jews in D.C.

That's tonight at 7 p.m. at Jammin' Java. Some details here. It promises zero songs about dreidels. This is a good thing! Because, as I read every year, all the great, popular Christmas songs were penned by Jews like Irving Berlin—hence, just about every Hanukkah song blows. (But seriously, Orrin Hatch, you're not helping.)

Your regularly scheduled roundup after the jump:

- Our Arts in Review issue is online!

- Stereogum's list of indie-rock Christmas songs now includes numbers from Dum Dum Girls, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, and Magnetic Fields, among others.

- Brittany Murphy: pop star?

- Brightest Young Things' year-end lists from local bands and DJs are worth checking out.

- For the fourth day in row: WaPo Style on the Salahis.

First off, thanks for the kind Thanksgiving wishes and the unusual hyperlink to various turkey-shaped items! I thought that my access to such Web oddities would be cut off once my aunt forsook Hotmail. But no!

It's also pleasant to hear that you and Mr. Slim are back together—for months I lay awake, fearing you two might never top the "Toe Jam." But a concept album about the wife of Ferdinand Marcos? Touché, sir! Plus, what an array of cameos—Santigold? Sharon Jones? Is Eno in on this thing? Good Lord this is gonna be weird!

Intrigued by your anticipated "rebranding,"
Arts Desk

P.S. Glad you're still in touch with Santa's Elves. Didn't I see them onstage during last year's "Everything That Happens" tour? Oh, those were just Siberian midgets? My bad.

[Full email below the jump.]

Hello,

Sorry for the mass mailing. I missed saying hi to some of you at the office Turkeyfest, but hope everyone had a good time. See you all next year.

I have, after many years, finished the Here Lies Love CD project – at least this iteration of it. It will come out in late February on Nonesuch. It's a collaboration with Fatboy Slim, an upbeat series of songs sung each one by a different singer. The songs are about Imelda Marcos and Estrella Cumpas, the woman who raised her. The package includes 2 CDs (22 songs), a DVD with videos of 6 of those songs, and a 100-page book that explains it all. Singers include Florence Welch (of Florence + The Machine), Sia, Santigold, Nellie McKay, Sharon Jones, St. Vincent, Róisín Murphy and many more (even me on 1 and 1/2)... I am pretty excited about this, but who knows, it might just make people crazy.

We'll see. There will be more concrete news, with links and music, in early January.

In the meantime, I have decided to rebrand myself, inspired by Philip Morris changing their name to Altria, Blackwater to Xe, and the train I'm riding on right now that calls itself Acela – none of which mean anything, but they are cleverly evocative. When I decide on the magic word, you'll be the first to know.

-David Byrne

Midtown

P.S. Santa's elves have stock of Bicycle Diaries, fresh from their polar workshop.

You won't need a metronome to guess that it was the James Brown-type grooves off the first record that kept the 9:30 Club audience (at $30 a pop) shaking and sweating past midnight on Saturday. Jones' show is structured along the lines of a gospel revue, a single extended exhortation that includes a lot of flop-sweat and audience participation. Anchored on the low end by a belch-y bari sax and on the high end by squealing trumpet and a two-guitar attack, Jones lays down her brash soprano with the confident intimacy of an old lover who sees right through you (cf. "What Have You Done for Me Lately?"). She sees right through herself too—ribbing things like her age (53) and her height (unspecified, though she notes that her legs are about half as long as Tina Turner's). That low center of gravity matches a barreling live presence, one not easily effaced by the occasional Wedding-band funk of her otherwise groovy associates.

Fittingly, this was also the throngingest crowd I've seen at the 9:30 Club. What makes one sold-out show more packed than another? Probably all that dancing. Sure, Jones played only a 75-minute set—a rollicking, heart-stopping, thoroughly exhausting set—as opposed to the marathon two-fers she's been known to pull on occasion. But that's not much to complain about. Especially since, for many couples, 75 minutes is a whole lotta foreplay.

While this weekend’s Sharon Jones and the Dapkings shows have attracted the attention of this paper, the Washington Post’s Going Out Gurus, and NBC4’s online self-proclaimed music snob, listeners to Saturday blues and soul programming on WPFW and to quiet storm sounds on WHUR are hearing about a different soul show.  The Mother’s Day Soul Jam Saturday night at the Showplace Arena in Upper Marlboro features five classic ‘70s era soul acts–the Stylistics, Dramatics, The Manhattans, The Chi-Lites, and Cuba Gooding, Sr. & the Main Ingredient.   I have seen them all in recent years at such locations as Constitution Hall, Fort Dupont, the Showplace Arena or Carter Barron, and my fave is the Stylistics.

Only two of the current members of this Philly combo may be original members, but in recent live appearances they still brilliantly captured the original outfit’s high notes lead with backing harmony technique. Expect the current incarnation to smoothly step back and forth onstage in cleverly choreographed fashion and wow the audience with versions of  such r’n’b hits of theirs as  “Stop, Look, Listen (to Your Heart),” “Break Up to Make Up,”  and “Betcha by Golly Wow.”  Their brightly colored, matching throwback suits will help capture the past as well.  While it may not be like hearing them in 1970, seeing them live even this many years later helps add to my appreciation of what they accomplished.  Less raucous than the late '60s feel Sharon Jones goes for, but it still sounds good.

“Mother’s Day Soul Jam” Saturday May 9 at 8 p.m. at the Showplace Arena,14900 Pennsylvania Ave, Upper Marlboro, MD

Inspired by Imelda Marcos, the high heels-happy wife of ex-dictator of the Phillipines Ferdinand Marcos, Byrne penned the album with Fatboy Slim. Together they're recruiting different vocalists for each track. So far, Santigold is on board as well. Byrne told BBC's 6 Music:

There is a different singer on every song including Sharon Jones from Amy Winehouse's backing band The Dap Tones, Alice Russell and Tori Amos. There's a lot of singers, it goes on and on.

"On and on"? How many tracks are on this album? Here's hoping Byrne doesn't jump the shark with this one.