"Love Disease (Christmas In New York)" is the perfect Alt Rock holiday yin/yang song. For the yin, it's the tale of spending Christmas alone without the one you love, following a breakup. For the yang, it's an anthem of survival. The song is the precursor to a full album, due in February from Montreal's Xavier Cafeine. Lots of energy in this one. I think you're gonna like it. Free on Soundcloud.
 1. Alcoa - Blue Christmas 2. Daisyhead - Silent Night 3. Kill Wealthy Dowager - Christmas at Ground Zero 4. Lee Corey Oswald - A Chill Time to All and to All a Chill Time 5. Seasons Change - Holidays NO SLEEP WEBSITE DOWNLOAD FROM BANDCAMP Indie Alternative label No Sleep Records don't release a new Christmas set every year, but, when they do, it's choice. "No Sleep Till Christmas 6" is their sixth holiday offering (duh) and features artists from their stable and a few friends. The highlight for most is likely going to be Kill Wealthy Dowager's cover of Weird Al's "Christmas At Ground Zero". In addition, you get Alcoa with an Americana "Blue Christmas" (which was good enough that I didn't automatically hate it just because its "Blue Christmas", which I hate). Daisyhead offers up a highly enjoyable Electronica rendition of "Silent Night". Lee Corey Oswald performs an excellent Indie Rock original that might give Kill Wealthy Dowager's track a run for its money, "A Chill Time To All And To All A Chill Time". And the EP closes with Pop Punkers Seasons Change performing "Holidays". Only 6 songs, but every one a killer. You can get the set direct from No Sleep or theough Bandcamp.
 Santa, I've been a good boy all year (mostly) and I want hard rock with fuzz guitars for Christmas. Here ya go. From Britain's Eat Me, "I Forgot It Was Christmas". Incidentally, once again google would have been useful before naming the group since "Eat Me" seems to be a very popular band name.
Like a lot of folks, especially in the UK, Eat Me has about had enough of Simon Cowell's idea of Christmas music. Says Jamie Warnes, “We want to show that whilst rock music might be unfashionable right now, there’s nothing more fun than getting together with your best buddies and rocking out – especially at Christmas time, with The X Factor and its bland warblers all over everyone’s telly sets." The song is free on Bandcamp and comes with a virtual flip..."Stay Another Day". "Stay Another Day" is one of those songs folks in the UK insist on calling a Christmas song, even though it has nothing to do with the season, simply because it charted around Christmas time decades ago. I love the unexpected. For some reason, the Brits love "Walking In The Air". I suppose it's not unlike our love of the songs from Charlie Brown's Christmas, since "Walking In The Air" made its debut in an animated holiday special. I'd like to say that the difference is that the Vince Guarldi songs were better. But the problem I have with "Walking In The Air" is how its done. It's always presented with that high boys choir tenor voice that sounds like someone's been sucking down too much helium or something. When I have enjoyed the song is when its done differently. The Red Pills (after poking fun at the original) Rock the crap out of "Walking In The Air", making the song genuinely enjoyable for me. You can download this one and The Red Pills' 2010 Pink cover of "White Christmas" free at Bandcamp.
 We're big, big fans of Kissing Party at Stubby's. The Denver band could sing the phonebook and I'd be fascinated by HOW they sang the phonebook. And that phonebook song would immediately go into heavy rotation at Chez Stub. I don't know why, but the music of Kissing Party almost always has me smiling.
It seems as though Kissing Party releases a free song every December. They aren't always Christmas/Winter tunes, yet they always fit into the holiday mixes like the missing puzzle piece. It just ain't Christmas at my house without them. This year's free single from the group is "My Only One", an energetic Alt Rock/Indie Pop outing that closes with some bells of various types knocking out the familiar notes of "Auld Lang Syne". Even the scratchy record sounds and the needle lift come off as pure genius. Kissing Party, you done done it again. "My Only One" is free via Bandcamp. And, if you don't already have it, make sure to get the "Winter In The Pub" collection of Kissing Party Christmas songs. It's legendary (well, as legendary as a year old digital collection can be). Hey, look at that; they've already added "My Only One" to the collection. Cool.  "Shout For Joy" is from Contemporary Christian artist Lincoln Brewster's 2012 album "Joy To The World". It's an energetic and passionate Pop Rocker worthy of any playlist. Now through December 31st, you can cop a free download of "Shout For Joy" in exchange for your email address on the Louder Than The Music web site.  Alright. Now we're talking! Irish Punk! The Lee Harveys' "Christmas Time In Dublin" is one half of a split single. The B-side is "Fisticuffs On Boxing Day" from Paranoid Visions. The latter is classic Punk (and why has no one thought of Boxing on Boxing Day before?), featuring an expletive or two. But the A-side is accessible to a wider stream of Rock fans, I think. It's got a nice melody underneath the bombast, and melody is not generally something associated with Punk.
The driving force behind The Lee Harveys is Bitzy Fitz, who fronted the Punk band The Strougers in the 70s, headlining gigs where a young U2 were the opening act. When The Strougers split up, Bitzy went about the business of raising a family. Nearly 30 years after laying his guitar down, he picked it up again, started writing songs again and, before you knew it, The Lee Harveys were born. Bitzy appears to have as much energy as ever but the added musical savvy that comes with age and experience. Check out the band's full-length "Gun City" for the full Bitzy and Lee Harveys experience. Download the split single on Bandcamp.  Our favorite Pop Punkers, The Dollyrots, have been issuing a Christmas single each year for the past few years. They're always free and they're always great. Here's your chance to catch up and get them all in one free download. "A Dollyrots Christmas EP", also known as "The Xmas Songs", has been posted to Bandcamp as of Monday. Most of the songs can still be claimed as single downloads, if you prefer to go that route. But why, when they're all here--even "Santa Baby" which isn't available as a single Bandcamp download? If nothing else, make sure you grab "Because I'm Santa", adapted from perhaps the Dollyrots best known song, "Because I'm Awesome". It's a cracker.
 Clearly, Black Friday has come to be New Christmas Rock Day as well. Austin's The Forty-Eight threw their contribution to the holiday season into the ring Friday. It's a Pop Punk cover of "White Christmas" and it's available as an instant download on Bandcamp. Given that Irving Berlin hated the doo-wop versions from The Ravens and The Drifters, I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate this one, either. But you will. Some might have preferred that the Alisson Beyer led outfit had gone full-tilt through the entire record, but I enjoyed the rollercoaster treatment.  What could be better on the day after Thanksgiving than Power Pop from the Netherlands? Nothing, that's what. And its a FLAC! In fact, I should probably pull the Seinfeld-Costanza "high note" move and close up shop right now. "Alright. That's it for me. Goodnight everybody."
And I'd tell you more about "At Christmas Time", but I couldn't say it any better than WJLP, themselves, did: THAT'S IT! We're not going to let them shove another version of Do They Know It's Bloody Christmas down our throats. This year we're not going to listen to Mariah Scarey screaming about who she wants to hump for Christmas again! We're going to let Chris Rea drive straight to hell and we're going to listen to some fresh new Christmas sounds by WJLP and ECvB! Oh yeah, and Merry Christmas! |
The FREE ListHere we hope to direct you to some of the Christmas music on the web that can be yours absolutely free. We will not direct you to mp3 or sharity sites, here, but only to artist sites, label sites, and other authorized and unquestionably legal locations. Archives2010 FREE List Categories
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