Happy holidays, and welcome to the final ‘Gum Drop of 2009! Last year Neutral Milk Hotel/Music Tapes’ Julian Koster released The Singing Saw At Christmastime. He recently returned to his workshop and recorded a new saw-only carol, “Let It Snow!” debuting in this week’s Drop. When we made a joke to Julian about his saw, aka North, chopping down Christmas trees, he reminded us saws saw: “He’s made a nice big table for recording machines to rest on, but saws generally refuse to chop, being of the sawing persuasion. Clearly you are thinking of the singing axes. They’ll chop anything.” Fair enough. We also asked him about the song.

Do globally warmed weather patterns shift “Let It Snow”? For instance, does the song’s central request change meaning now that places that used to have white Christmases are clocking in at 60 degrees? Or is it timeless?
Oh it’s timeless. But that makes it the best part of the present moment doesn’t it? And maybe the wish to let it snow is more important now than it’s ever even been. Maybe the whole world is going to be like Christmas eve every day now and the wish for snow will be so palpable that in it’s reception it will be greeted as a miracle — with all the delight it first taught us to know in it’s coming.