If you’re looking for a holiday-specific ringtone — or just enough audio gelt to cover the gifts you’ll need for the first three nights of Hanukkah — then The Viper has got your back. I’m no Orrin Hatch (see below for the video), but I try.

Below are some 15-20 second-long clips from The Viper and His Famous Orchestra playing “Heyse Latke Kalte Latke (Hot Latke Cold Latke)” during our Champaign-Urbana show of August 9, 2009. They feature Rob Henn on trombone, Edward Burch and Victor Cortez on dueling suitcases, Kenneth P.W. Rainey on the electric 5-string mandolin, Riley Broach on the double bass, and The Viper on the cümbüş banjo mandolin. Three different bits have been selected for your pleasure and served up hot. Sour cream and applesauce are not included.

Instrumental verse
Featuring the mandolin and cümbüş . This is the ringtone the Viper is currently using.
mp3 | midi | wav

Vocal chorus
Sing along!
mp3 | midi | wav

Slow trombone chorus
It’s the plumber — he’s come to shvitz the sink.
mp3 | midi | wav

These are being provided in different formats (mp3, midi, and wav) since different phones have different needs. (Mine requires me to e-mail a midi file to my phone as a “picture” attachment and then save it as a ringtone.)

Here’s an mp3 of the whole recording, unedited and unequalized. (I’ll get around to archiving the whole show one of these days.)

The Viper and His Famous Orchestra, “Heyse Latke Kalte Latke”
Live at Mike N’ Molly’s, Champaign, Illinois, August 9, 2009
mp3

And for more than you ever wanted to know about “Heyse Latke Kalte Latke,” here’s the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 part series I wrote last year at about this time when I was in the middle of moving to Milwaukee and leaving behind Maryland and the Paint Branch Ramblers, the group with whom the song had its first livelihood.

And now, as promised…

Eight Days of Hanukkah from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.