 Pop Punk band Last Call from Las Vegas has an original acoustic Christmas song they're offering up as a Name-Your-Price Bandcamp download. It's a very affecting wish for friends to lose their fears and be who they are. It might work electric, but making it acoustic adds a certain sincerity to the track. A little bit emo but, as original Christmas songs go, "The Duke's Real Name Was Marion Morrison" has got a real nice vibe to it.
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 1. Stardeath and White Dwarfs - Santa's Magic Beard 2. Dead Sea Choir - Some Joke 3. Brine Webb - The Good List 4. Jacob Abello - Mary Did You Know 5. Mike Hosty Duo - Christmas Time 6. Graham Colton - Holiday Season 7. Denver Duncan - Christmas With You 8. Parker Millsap - Go Tell It On The Mountain 9. Shitty/Awesome - Saturnailia 10. Hector Comancho - Squeezin' Them Presents DOWNLOAD FREE AT BANDCAMP  Earlier this year, we covered "A Blackwatch Christmas" from 2011, but there's no point in waiting until next year to get with "A Blackwatch Christmas Vol. II". No Samantha Crain on this year's set, but there are a couple of undeniable standouts. Brine Webb's "The Good List" is irresistibly winning Indie Pop/Rock. The Mike Hosty Duo channels Leon Redbone on "Christmas Time". And, had you told me that "Mary Did You Know" would sound good as a techno track, I doubt I'd have believed you. And I'd have been right, because Jacob Abello's version isn't just good, it's great! And, for we lovers of straight up pop music, it's hard not to love Graham Colton's "Holiday Season". And my absolute favorite, here, is a dead-on eighties synth pop outing from Hector Comancho, "Squeezin' Them Presents". Hmm Hmm Good! It's free from Bandcamp. And Volume 1 is still available, too.
 Now this one I owe to Lie In The Sound, one of my favorite Christmas time hot spots every winter. I hope to tell you more about Lie In The Sound soon. Perhaps tomorrow. But right now I want to pass along this gem from the eclectic Dutch band Tuxedo Bandido. This is a terrific song that's got just about everything you want in a Christmas song and maybe some stuff that, as Larry The Cable Guy would say, "you didn't know you wanted". I think there's even a calliope in there. And there's a moral--Christmas Crime does not pay. Or maybe it does. I don't know. I'm just fascinated with the music. "It's Christmas Crime" can be yours free of charge direct from the Tuxedo Bandido web site.
 Now this one, no doubt, you've read about everywhere else on the web. I first caught it over at Christmas A Go Go. But it's a damn fine record and I'd be cheating you if I didn't post it here. Los Campesinos!, the Indie Pop/Rock band from Wales, won our Stubby little hearts in 2010 when they released "Kindle A Flame In Her Heart". This year's track, "A Doe To A Deer" rocks a little harder, I think, but it's still a pop song at heart with a catchy melody that will appeal to just about anyone. Great song. These are the classics of tomorrow. Grab it while you can from the Los Campesinos! web site. Fantastic cover art, too!  Here's a new Anti-Christmas anthem released last year that hits the spot about now. Benjamin Shaw & Fighting Kites with a Lo-Fi Indie Pop masterpiece, "This Christmas (I Just Want To Be Left Alone)". I know how you feel, Ben, truly I do. All proceeds raised will go to the UK's Shelter.org, but it's a "Name-Your-Price" download at Bandcamp (re-released by Audio AntiHero), if you're not feeling particularly charitable. I think you're going to like it. A lot.  A few years back, grunge/shoegaze duo The Sky Drops amazed and amused with "Christmas Feels Like Halloween". For 2012, they're back in the festive mood, this year covering Vince Guaraldi's "Christmas Time Is Here". Get BOTH tracks free, for a limited time, from The Sky Drops web site.  1. Merriment - I'll Be Home For Christmas
2. Perma - Silver Bells 3. Reed & Christie - In The Bleak Midwinter 4. Eisley - Hark The Herald Angels Traditions are good. I like traditions. And it's become a tradition for Indie Pop/Rock legends, the Eisley/Dupree Family, to offer up a homemade gift each holiday season. This year's special treat is a 4 song Christmas bundle. The Eisley's contribution, here, is "Hark, The Herald Angels Sing", but we also get songs from their "Extended Family"--Perma, Merriment, and Reed & Christie. Very cool. The Eisleys express that they'd love to sit down and put together a real holiday record some day but, just at the moment, they are finishing up their fourth fill-length. Look for that in 2013. In the meantime, you can not only get the 2012 Extended Family EP, but their 2011 Christmas Bundle as well, featuring very nearly every Christmas song the Eisleys have put out through the years. As Indie Pop/Rock Christmas music goes, it don't get much better than the Eisleys/Duprees. So run on over and grab all the great holiday music the Eisleys & Duprees are offering. Just punch the download buttons and their yours, no email address required  Earlier this year, I came across a 2011 Christmas single from Scottish lass Laurie Cameron. Laurie brought out, as I've never heard before, the true heartbreak underlying "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)". Laurie is back, for 2012, breaking our hearts once again with"Merry Christmas From Scotland (Lulled With A Stiff Drink)". The more I hear from Laurie, the more I long to hear. While Laurie works on her full-length debut, enjoy this one as a "Name-Your-Price" download via Bandcamp. "This one's to you."  A couple years back--I think it was even before Stubby's had officially launched--I downloaded a free track and didn't think too much about it. As was my habit at the time, I threw all the free tracks into a playlist without labels and would listen as background whenever I was on the computer. Every time the song came up, I would be bopping along, singing--almost dancing in my seat--and smiling from ear to ear. But I didn't even know what the song was or who it was by. Eventually, Stubby's underway, I couldn't take the not knowing anymore and I traced the song back and, yes, posted it here.
That song was "Christmas Time" by Root Road. With all the Christmas music being made, it's rare that an original song carries all of the elements necessary to earn the designation of "instant classic" (by the way, in the Christmas music world, an "instant classic" may take a dozen years or more to be accepted as such). Root Road's"Christmas Time", I believe, is just such a song. Any song that can make me smile as much on the 100th listen as on the first deserves to take its place alongside the songs we all think of, today, as Christmas standards. It's like an old time toboggan ride down that hill in your neighborhood--just joy unbridled. For 2012, the brothers Gilkes returned to the studio with award winning producer Roger Ryan, re-recording"Christmas Time" for inclusion in a charity album "A Time For Hope", with the majority of proceeds going to aid suffering children in Haiti. Haven't seen the album yet, but the 2012 version of "Christmas Time" is available through Noisetrade. You can grab the song free for your email address or make a donation. It still makes me smile. And music that makes you smile that often and that much is truly priceless.  I like nice little Pop songs with Indie sensibilities, so this effort from My Submarine (led by Mike Ghazarian, formerly of You, Me And Everyone We Know), "Christmas Without You", was right up my Christmas tree. The string opening gives the track a familiar vintage hook at the outset and, true, they could have done much more with the dysfunctional family gathering drop-ins, and, true, there's nothing profound going on here, but it's still quite nice. And nice is nice. Free via Soundcloud for as long as it lasts. |
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. ArchivesCategories
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