If you ever worry that Rock driven Pop has gotten too "pretty", too well produced, too formulaic, know that there is always somebody somewhere who is going to rip that scab off and return it to the raw open wound it was always intended to be. Here, from Augusta, Georgia, is Eat Lightning with some raw and bleeding Garage Rock Pop...just like God intended. That's what Christmas is really all about, Charlie Brown. "I'm Not Coming Home For Christmas" is yours for the taking at Bandcamp.
O Youth have their own version of an Advent Calendar, combined with the 12 Days of Christmas. Their annual name-your-price collections of Christmas music make one song playable each day up until Christmas, at which point you can grab the whole thing.
Based in Knoxville, O Youth describe their style as Art Punk or Doom Folk, but I think that's more of an inside joke than a genre description as I'm finding everything to be very accessible Indie Folk Rock, Indie Folk Pop, and some Alt Country. Their originals are great, but they breathe surprising life into the covers, too (and, more or less, doing them straight). This is the quintessential example of a group enjoying what they're doing so much that you can't help but enjoy it, too. As the title of "The Seventh Day of Christmas" might imply, O Youth has been at this for a while. So catch up on the first six "days" (from 2012-2017) and, come Christmas, you'll have 12 new packages to open. For you political animals, there's "When Trump Repeals Christmas" on the 2016 collection. And O Youth will always have a place in my holiday music hall of fame for covering the Coca Cola jingle "The Holidays Are Coming" on their 2017 set. I still have to go back and check the earlier "Days", myself. It's all waiting for you at Bandcamp.
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).
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.
Music from the Scottish Indie Underground! A couple months back, we shared with you some of the annual Christmas singles from The Bird And The Monkey, the Experimentalist duo, Sarahjane Swan & Roger Simian (Swan & Simian, get it? The Bird and The Monkey). Just what we needed--more monkey business. What I think I was unaware of is that these annual singles were done for Acacia Radio's annual holiday show, "We Wish You A Metal Christmas and an Indie New Year". Celebrating half a decade of Indie Underground festivities, Sparks From The Mothership has released this collection, "Christmas On Acacia: A BirdMonkey MixTape". It features all of the tracks we featured before from The Bird And The Monkey, plus their "Christmas On Acacia" Theme and a Bird & Monkey holiday ID (which is really cool; oh, so's the theme...a nice little Indie Pop lead-in for your holiday headtape). In addition to all of the Christmas chaos from The Bird And The Monkey, the mixtape includes two tracks from Dawn of the Replicants, one from The Stark Palace, and a comedic piece from Mr Twonkey, Paul Vickers & The Leg. The highlights are the show pieces from The Bird And The Monkey and their "Come Home (For Christmas)". But ranking right up there are "No Room At The Inn" from Dawn of the Replicants and "Saw What Your Momma Did" by The Stark Palace. And it's all name-your-price at Bandcamp.
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.
The first of, hopefully, many holiday samplers has arrived--this one from Paste Magazine. As Lie In The Sound correctly notes, the Paste Holiday Samplers had lost a little luster in recent years, but they've put together a solid package for 2018. Yes, I fully expected to see selections from the excellent albums from JD McPherson and Rodney Crowell as they've been everywhere this year (and the great thing for them is that, even if they gave away every track for free, you'd STILL want to buy the CDs...they're that good). Other major acts pitching in include The Mavericks and Old 97's. But we also get selections from the Soulful dishes being served up this year by P.J. Morton and Aloe Blacc. And, for Indie fans, there's great music here from Say Sue Me, Lola Kirke and Taken By Trees. And let's not minimize the selections from Lucious, The Gregory Brothers, Squirrel Nut Zippers, and Caroline Jones. Gee, I think that's everybody. Not a throwaway in the bunch, though some tracks will appeal more to one audience and others to another. But very nice balance on that score. Well done, Paste! Keep up the good work.
The Bird And The Monkey are a Scottish Experimentalist duo, Sarahjane Swan & Roger Simian (Swan & Simian, get it? The Bird and The Monkey). They came together in 2009 but, to date, a good deal of their musical output has been in the form of annual holiday singles. I'm not sure if I ever came across them before. I will say that, IMO, their 2017 single "Come Home (For Christmas)" is their most accessible. I mean, you can just imagine what "Cannibal Santa" sounds like (yeah, pretty much just like that; paging Christmas Underground).
"Come Home (For Christmas)" is spritely Indie Alt Rock with a bit of that Scottish cadence you might recognize from groups like The Proclaimers and Big Country. Best line? "How long can this song go on?" Apparently 3 minutes and thirty-five seconds. Head over to Bandcamp to download "Come Home (For Christmas)" by The Bird And The Monkey free of charge (feel free to tip). While you're there, you can check out their other Christmas singles: "All Who Travelled With Us" (2016) "Cannibal Santa" (2015) "A Sonnet For Bella McClay On Christmas Day" (2014) as well as their latest non-Christmas single, "Blow Out The Candle" (which, by the way, is pretty awesome Hard Rock Halloween fare, and free to boot).
These days--maybe because my hearing's shot and it takes a lot of effort to focus on the lyrics--it tends to be the music that grabs me. Does the music make me feel something? It doesn't really matter what it makes me feel, just so long as it makes me feel. God, that sounds pathetic. But, sadly, it's true. I mean, you know, if you're not feeling something, then what's the point?
Just to set this up properly, I've had a lot of doctor stuff all this past week. And I'm a little tired of it. And I'm tired of getting stuck with needles and the whole thing. I'm just...a little grumpy this week. 'K? So I'm listening to a free Christmas comp--which I will mention, and I know you're going to download the whole thing, and that's cool, but I'm not going to talk about the whole thing. So I'm listening and making mental notes--this is cute, that's interesting, I wish this one had done that. And then...this. This is the one. 
I'll be honest with you. I can make out the lyrics but I have no idea what Ricky is singing about in "A Few Christmases Ago". I'm sorry, I just don't. "I know this is real" implies, to me, it's a relationship song, fwiw.
But what do I feel? I feel I'm a middle-aged man, lying in bed on Christmas Eve, thinking back to Christmases years ago when I was a child. And we'd wake up Christmas morning and go down and there was excitement and joy and family and... And I'm lying in my bed. And I'm not a child anymore. And I don't live with my family anymore. And Christmases aren't like that anymore. And I've got to go to work in the morning...Christmas morning, What exactly did I do wrong? Why has Santa abandoned me just because I got older? And, yet, it's Christmas. It's still Christmas. Gotta hang onto that. Now I'm not saying that's me or my life. But that's what the song makes me feel. And, if I'm honest with myself, I can identify with that, sometimes. Maybe we all can. But it's the whole dichotomy of Christmas I've often talked about--the best Christmas songs are the ones that are both happy and sad. And this song feels like the whole psychology of why that's so in a nutshell. Ricky, by the way, is a band, not an individual (no one in the band is named "Ricky"). "A Few Christmases Ago" comes from last year's edition of "A NotRock Holiday Compilation", NotRock being a North Jersey DIY label. Last year's was Volume 9. We covered Volume 7 in 2015. And, yes, you can go back to the beginning, if you wish. All 9 Volumes are "name-your-price" at Bandcamp. But, that said, Ricky is not an easy band to track down online. Have you ever tried googling "Ricky New Jersey"? Yeah, funny, huh. With all the search terms I tried, about the only thing I discovered was that--son of a gun--Jon Solomon featured this track on his 25 hour Holiday Marathon last year, too. That Jon Solomon, he's really on the ball. And he's not paying me to say that (although...Jon? I keed). So I love "A Few Christmases Ago". It makes me feel. Good music should do that. And I don't know what the band's intentions were--what they meant the song to mean--but maybe finding out would be like finding out there is no Santa. Like..."Nah, dude, it's just about me and my girlfriend hangin' at the Willowbrook Mall. Ya know?" Yeah, I'm better off in the dark. Well it looks like "the big boy is comin' down the chimney", so I'd best skedaddle ("skedaddle?" It's official; I'm my Dad). Sweet dreams, y'all.
Rochester Indies The Gifted Children take some 80s Christmas classics out for a spin. I think they're at their best when completely reimagining the songs as on the Shoegazey and Dream Poppy "Wonderful Christmas Time" and "Christmas In Hollis". Their Loungey Chill "Last Christmas" works well, too. Happy to see someone cover Kate Bush's "December Will Be Magic Again," but I would have liked to see them get a little crazier with it. All in all, not a bad little record to name your price for. Poke around a bit and you'll find Volumes 5 & 7.
|
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
All
|
RSS Feed
