Double Live!

The Yule Logs have three studio records under their belts, but most Chicoans know that the band’s bread and butter is their live performances, which include tamer elementary school concerts and the Logs’ incendiary liquor-and-Bowie-fueled shows at Duffy’s. While it’s not easy to capture The Yule Logs’ energy on disc, Double Live! does show what a tight band they really are. Recorded over two nights at the Chico Women’s Club in 2011, the album (not quite a double) is a Chex Mix of naughty and nice that pulls from The Yule Logs’ studio work in as well as introduces a handful of previously unreleased goodies. Must-haves like “Christmastime is Here (Again!)” and the crowd-participation number “Hanukkah Mambo” are present and accounted for, as is the Logs’ neo-classic “Up On the Howzie Top.” But their take on “Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy” and a cover of Lindsey Buckingham’s “Holiday Road” are proof that I’ve been good this year. Which brings me to the next item on my wish list, just above peace on Earth: a cover of The Waitresses’ “Christmas Wrapping.”