Category: Country Punk

VARIOUS - THE CHVRCH OF SANTA

12/11/2018

Late in every season, all these great free comps come out and I almost never have time to listen to them all the way through. Well I listened to "The Chvrch of Santa" all the way through. It's the latest in a long line of annual Christmas offerings from Friends Friends Friends Records. The Nova Scotia "label" evolved from the Raw Rock Militia. That's why "The Chvrch of Santa" is only Friends Friends Friends IV, even though there are Christmas comps dating back to 2010. These days, the Raw Rock Christmas project works like this: early in November, they send out a call to anybody and everybody to send in their Christmas tunes. A month later, they've got an album. It's worth noting that, most years, a limited edition CD will follow (given the turnaround time and all, the CDs usually get listed a few days before Christmas).

1.   Whisperhawk - Merry Christmas (I'm Sorry)
2.   Rawrwar - Christmas Miracle
3.   The Holly Jollies - Daddy's Really Santa Claus
4.   Up n Adam - Snowglobe Inverted
5.   Blue Acres - If We Make It Through December
6.   Alex Babineau - First Christmas Alone
7.   Brett Redshaw - Christmas Is The Best
8.   Rawrwar - Cuba
9.   Nicholas Burgess - Santa Planet
10. The Super-Krewe - Xmas Potpourri
11. Katie King - Gingerbread Man
12. Alex Babineau - Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy
13. Jeremy Waterman - Father Christmas
14. Sprout - What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

DOWNLOAD FROM BANDCAMP

Although I listened all the way through, I'm not going to do a track-by-track. But this year's set is a good one. There's our old friend Nicholas Burgess with "Santa Planet". And I'm always happy to see Katie King on these; I love her stuff. The Holly Jollies go all Neo-Beach Boys on "Daddy's Really Santa Claus". There's an acoustic "Father's Christmas" from Jeremy Waterman, a straight-up Folk cover of "If We Make It Through December" by Blue Acres, some very nearly Punk Country from Alex Babineau covering Buck Owens, and even some Second Line Jazz from The Super-Krewe, "Xmas Potpourri". But beyond Nicholas and Katie, my favorites were the two tracks from Rawrwar and the Indie Pop tune up top, Whisperhawk's "Merry Christmas (I'm Sorry)". Importantly, there wasn't a single track where I was even tempted to pick up the virtual needle and move on. Great work, as usual, Friends Friends Friends. Find "The Chvrch of Santa" on Bandcamp.

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DEXY - XMAS LIGHTS

12/7/2018

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Back when I worked in radio, there was a Jingle company, Drake-Chenault, that would put together these great presentation records to sell you on their production packages. Drake-Chenault was very expensive and the small market stations I worked for couldn't afford their Jingles. But we loved the presentation records, which would often open with a bit of radio theater before the guy with the deep perfect voice would take over to introduce the assortment. Long and seemingly random story, I know, but one year Drake-Chenault's radio theater piece featured a radio station that switched formats to Punk Country (complete with ads for "S*#%-kicker Boots, the boots for kicking s*#% in corners"). There was no such thing as Punk Country, at the time, so this was all very funny back then (and, let's face it, "s*#%-kicker boots" would be funny any time). Now, Punk Country is actually a thing.

And, phew, finally getting to it, London's Dexy describe themselves as a Country Punk band (close enough). Don't know if that's true or not, just based on this single, "Xmas Lights", but I do love the sound. It's definitely at the crossroads of Alt Country and Indie Pop. "Xmas Lights" is not unusual in subject matter--a guy pining for his lost love at Christmas--but the music really lifts this one from ordinary to fantastic. Not that the lyrics don't have their moments.

I'm throwing out all the candles,
Pushed your presents back under the bed
I read your letters
And each sweet little word is ringing out
Like a song in my head that I can't stand
It's another Christmas alone again...

You can get "Xmas Lights" by Dexy for the price of your email at Noisetrade.

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The FREE List

Here 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.

VARIOUS - THE CHVRCH OF SANTA

DEXY - XMAS LIGHTS

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