Happy 2025!

From us here at CAGG headquarters, we wish you the bestest 2025. Thanks for visiting, commenting and sending nice music. We'll be back in November. Until then: stay safe.
And remember, there's always nèxt year to have a happy new year:

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Sun Ra Christmas time

One of the most remarkable releases of this year is that of The Qualities, an unidentified male vocal quartet from the late 1950s. The catchy doo-wop "It's Christmas Time" was written by jazz pioneer and innovator Sun Ra in 1957. Some believe The Qualities entered the studio that same year, while others think it was recorded in 1960, shortly before (in 1961?) it was first released as a single on Sun Ra's El Saturn label. 

The story goes that the two sides of the single were recorded at Sun Ra's home and that he can be heard playing a harmonium. In 2011, the single was re-released by Norton Records, and in 2024, "It's Christmas Time" and "Happy New Year To You" were released on a 7-inch by the German label Strut.

It seems The Qualities only recorded two songs. So here is their second title, also Christmas related:

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Italian Christmas

We hardly write about Italy. 'Memoria Polaroid' is a music blog and radio show from Bologna, busy since 2001. "On the morning of December 13th, scandinavian girls wear white robes and a crown of candles. The darkness of the night of Saint Lucia, which according to the Julian Calendar was the longest night of the year, is now behind us and light can return." This is how their Xmas bandcamp compilation opens. After a couple of december posts about Xmas music, like this one, they released this fine compilation. Between the 19 contributors a lot of unknown names and quite a few Italian names. Unfortunately not every song sound or is christmassy.

This one is a nice Italian electro song: 

And there are few covers to discover like this noisy one from the great Low song: 

Or this very Christmas version, with bells, from the Joni Mitchell classic:

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Rational Youth and Trans X's Christmas songs

There I was at my Christmas gig playing some old, early 1980s favourites, like Montréal's Rational Youth and I hadn't realised that they have a Christmas song called 'Merry Christmas Mary Ann' (2013). I usually mix their song 'Cité Phosphore' (1981-1982) with Trans X's 'Vivre sur Vidéo', another band from Montréal. 'Cité Phosphore' is the French version of 'City of Night', while 'Vivre sur Vidéo' (1981, released 1983) is the French version of 'Living on Video'. Rational Youth says this about their Christmas song:

"This is a track that Tracy wrote and recorded a few years back as a Christmas present for Gaenor. The name 'Mary Ann' refers to when Gaenor and Tracy first met at a Rational Youth show in Edmonton in 1983; Gaenor told Tracy that her name was Mary Ann. Who knows why? Probably so we could do this song years later!"

Rational Youth started in 1981, clearly influenced by Kraftwerk and others. Nobody in Montréal was going the European synthpop route the way they were, except for maybe Trans X. The band was famous in countries like Sweden in their own right. Also typical for both Montréal bands was not being famous in their city, a real curse. Do yourself a huge favour and check out both bands' fantastic back catalogues.

Trans X's modified their 'Living on Video' (1982-1982) and made it 'Living on Wonderland' (2019), maybe for fun or because they miss the snow in Montréal, as the band is now based in Mexico. Trans X was also heavily influenced by Kraftwerk and are the better known band, but both are worth a look in!

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Chirpmas 5 - A compilation

We have completely ignored the Christmas compilations that the Chirp Records label (Check ’em all at their Bandcamp) from Portsmouth, Rhode Island invariably releases on Christmas Day for the past four years. We were probably too busy preparing Christmas dinner and the eggnoc. But luckily the guys from The In Betweens pointed out the existence of the compilations after this post about them last week. Reason enough to step away from the stove today for a little while and take a listen to this fifth Bandcamp compilation. 

There are five tracks at this one, one of them the one from The In Betweens, but there's more. For instance the filthy and distorted grunt track below by Abbi Cadaver ft. Azazel. Don't expect holly jolly sleigh bells and rumpumpumpums by the way, but Christmas is almost done anyway.

When it comes to the other compilations the last years, it's a bit like pearl diving, but then you come across raunchy DIY indie rock tracks like this one by Cleven.

And whaddabout this remarkable and catchy ska cover, sung with a funny auto-tune by Bryan Cranston Crayon Box? Originally from 2015 by The Special Brew & Sonseed.
Audrey Heartburn (what's in a name) doesn't quite overshout itself, but they do go on a clumsy and chaotic rampage on 'It's New Years, Take Me With You'.

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The Gruesomes - Santa Claus

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

An oldie but a groovie: The Gruesomes from Montréal, Québec, a band that is still around and synonymous with Canada's 1960s scene, has a Christmas song called 'Santa Claus'. Feel free to rock out to this old treasure while chopping your Christmas veggies like I do.

Their signature look is a cross between the Beatles and the animated characters The Gruesome Family, which some of you might know from The Flinstones. The show also featured a Beatles-inspired band call the The Way Outs, while The Gruesome Family were a nodd to the Addams Family. Both of these influences are definitely part of the band in spirit as well.

If anybody wants to help The Gruesomes get bookings in Europe in 2025, follow them on Facebook and get in touch!

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Kees Draaisma - Witte Kerst

When you release a Christmas record at the end of September, you run the risk of being overlooked in November, December. And Kees Draaisma, the infamous singer/songwriter from - again - Nijmegen, almost succeeded, if it weren't for the fact that Christmas Eve is also ideal for a (final) search for new 2024 Christmas music.
And so Kees Draaisma's somewhat alienating but humorous take on Witte Kerst (White Christmas) still graces Christmas A Go Go at the very end of this season. 

Kees Draaisma Insta over there.

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Happy alone at Christmas

Last year our beloved collegue Christmas Underground already pointed us the way to this utterly superb indie Christmas album from The Happy Somethings. So to all you people out there being alone this Christmas: enjoy and merry, merry Christmas! Because "There's nothing wrong with being alone at Christmas. It might be a mistake to think they're lonesome. They might be having more fun than you".
Point taken. Love y'all!

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Linde Schöne - live Christmas show

What does it matter if the AI occasionally falters during your AI Christmas show when you are blessed with one of the very best R&B soul voices in the country? Nothing, right? The future belongs to the voices. Especially if they are just as intense and sighingly soft as the stunning red velvet Betty Boop / Jessica Rabbit dress with which she burst off the stage. 

Tonight Linde Schöne fulfilled a long-cherished private wish. After having released a great Christmas album in 2022 (read here on CAGG), tonight in an intimate and enthusiastic hall the live version of it. Supplemented with Christmas classics, one new non-Christmas song (Dochter van de Stad, insanely beautiful!) and with 'Ik Loop' another sublime asset from her oeuvre. 

Linde was all: disarming, messy and intense, but above all very, very good. Merry Christmas daughter of the city! And also merry Christmas to all the flying Christmassy AI figures and awesome musicians.
💖

Linde's Insta over there.

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So-Fi - Kaarsje Voor Jou

The Christmas rush has also started in full force at the CAGG headquarters. Add to that the fact that So-Fi (Sophie Reekers) also has a close call with her annual Christmas song and you'll understand the shortness of this post (although it deserves more!).
But don't let that stop you from taking your time for this beautiful little song, with - again - a great arty animated video, called 'Kaarsje Voor Jou' (Candle For You).

More So-Fi at CAGG and her Insta over there.

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The Mieters - La-la-la-Kerst

If you weren't there last week in Paradiso Amsterdam (and why not?!), then you also missed the scoop of their brand new Christmas single: The Mieters with 'La-la-la-Kerst'. You could have also caught that wild and awesome Christmas A GoGo live performance in the second chance on YouTube. And if you didn't do all that (and why not?!), then The Mieters are also to the rescue, because today they are giving away this great original beat Christmas track (with a touch of Wham!) plus a cover of the Dutch cult Christmas classic 'Elke Punk Viert Ook Het Kerstfeest' by the legendary Groningen punk band Boegies on their Bandcamp.
There. Now you really have no excuse anymore, I dare you: beat The Mieters!

The Mieters Insta over there.

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Even more covers of Beau Dommage's '23 décembre'

This mural depicting Beau Dommage, one of Québec's most popular 1970s bands, is the cover of their eponymous first album, which features '23 décembre'. All past band members are in the picture and still alive today. The mural is located in Montréal behind 6760, rue de Saint-Vallier, where award-winning band member Robert Léger used to live in 1972. This address is also included in the lyrics of the song 'Tous les Palmiers' ('All the palm trees'). Alongside Rush, The Guess Who and The Tragically Hip, Beau Dommage are featured on Canadian stamps from 2013, to give you an idea of their popularity.

'23 décembre' from 1974 written by band member Pierre Huet is sung from a young boy's perspective during the 1950s when French Canadians in Québec where still treated as second-class citizens despite being a majority in the province. The use of 'joual' (Québécois slang) had been slowly introduced in music in the 1970s to accurately reflect how people talked instead of using awkward 'Radio Canada' French.

The song also came on the heels of the Quiet Revolution, a time when, after having been oppressed for centuries, a Québécois identity started to emerge and flourish. Beau Dommage made music in French that was on par with anything English-speaking Canada was releasing and helped pave the way for tons of artists to sing in French freely.

Here's a live version of the original by Beau Dommage. Notice how young and old know the song off by heart. A country version by Paul Daraîche with actual Beau Dommage band members Michèle Derosiers and Michel Rivard joining in. A faithful and playful version by Steven & Steeven (now 120e rue).

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Arbor Christmas - Volume 25

Arbor Christmas, we've discussed them here many times and this twenty-fifth (!) edition also contains six beautiful tracks. Of course The Not Fur Longs are back, as they are in almost every edition. With their 'XMAS IS LIT' (we would be the last to dispute that) they immediately make the best song of this compilation, although The Pizza Carolers make a brave but futile attempt to dethrone The Not Fur Longs from their Arbor throne.

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COVER TIME: SANTA TELL ME VERSIONS

Ten years of Santa Tell Me, the modern xmas pop classic that shows (over a billion streams on Spotify) that, yes, there ARE new seasonal hits after Mariah. Kelly Clarkson's Underneath the Tree is another. Mistletoe by Justin Bieber is one too. See this ranking by Billboard.

Santa Tell Me, like all other really great Christmas songs, isn't about Christmas as such, but about desire, and longing. It's like a prayer, with Santa in the role of God. Santa needs to tell Ariana if the one she fancies is the right one, if the feelings she has for this potential partner are mutual. Because, Christmas is the feast for being together, with a signficant other, NOT to be alone. It's in so many Christmas songs. Plus, it's catchy like a cold, it's sung really really well, there's bells, and a nod to 90s R&B; nostalgia is always a big part of good Xmas pop songs.

The cover versions are 'okay' at best, with a Danish hiphop-version and a funky brassband taking the biscuit. Hear here:

Female fronted metal version: Testosterone metal version: Pop metal version: Pop punk version:

dorset ox · Santa Tell Me (Ariana Grande Cover)

Funky brassband version: Danish, blue eyed-hiphop version with strings (thanx Marc!):

#Holdet · 2 Santa Tell Me (Julemand, Fortæl Mig)

Depressed solo-guitar version and whispers: Single ladies parody:

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In Defense of Wonderful Christmastime

Duncan Baird, the mastermind behind the Christmas music force that is Winterval, wrote a guestblog on Paul McCartney's Wonderful Christmastime. Because CAGG asked him to. Let's settle this once and for all:


Every Christmas I see people on social media excitedly proclaiming that Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime" is the WORST CHRISTMAS SONG EVER. I'm here to tell you that they're wrong. It's not even the worst Christmas song on the original 7" single - that accolade goes to the b-side "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae" which is perhaps not as bad as you're imagining but still pretty awful.

In a world where Michael Bublé and "Cheeky Christmas" exist, why does "Wonderful Christmastime" get singled out as the worst example of holiday music?

Is it the lyrics? Yeah, they're dumb. I love interesting Christmas songs, unusual Christmas songs, sad Christmas songs... but when I'm in the pub on Christmas Eve or watching my children unwrap presents on Christmas Day, I want joyful songs about people having fun at Christmas. I want Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody"! I want Elton's "Step into Christmas"! Heck, I'll even take Shakin Stevens' "Merry Christmas Everyone"! "Wonderful Christmastime" is a song about people having a party and forgetting their cares for a bit. These aren't deep songs, but they're not meant to be.

But unlike those other songs, "Wonderful Christmastime" actually sounds a bit odd. Maybe we've all heard it too many times to notice how strange it is at times. Why do the synths frequently sound out of time with the vocals? Why is it so sparse? Why did the choir of children need to practice a song all year long that just goes "ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong ding ding ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh doo doo doo doo doo doo doo"? We should be grateful that such a well-played Christmas song actually offers us something a little more unusual.

If I was having this argument on social media, by now someone would have said something like "but Paul wrote "Yesterday" and "Eleanor Rigby" and "For No One" and therefore "Wonderful Christmastime" is trash by comparison". Well yeah, but he also wrote "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" and "Honey Pie" and "Angry" and "Bip Bop". The guy loves to write silly stuff, cheesy stuff. He loves to experiment and see what works. And "Wonderful Christmastime" works. It has endured.

I first heard "WC" (should I call it that?) as a child. My parents had a cassette tape of Christmas songs they would start playing around the 15th of December when we got our tree and decorated the house. It was all stuff from the 70s and 80s and they were the songs that formed my love of Christmas music and soundtracked those magical wide-eyed first Christmases.
Even now, hearing those first few bursts of echo-y synth transports me back to simpler times. Not many other songs can achieve that in a few seconds. Maybe those first few notes of "Do they know it's Christmas". Perhaps that piano at the start of Chris Rea's "Driving Home for Christmas". But not much else. That synth is haunting, and still instantly brings back that sense of excitement and wonder.

Maybe therefore I'm unable to hear the song as someone would hear it for the first time now, unattached from years of memories. But I do know that if there was no "Wonderful Christmastime" then there would be no excellent cover versions by Tom McCrae, Beta Radio and countless others. There wouldn't be that hilarious Peter Serafinowicz sketch. There would be no "Saul McCartney" trilogy of records by the king of indie Christmas music Kristian Noel Pedersen. It's an important song.

Above all, maybe "Wonderful Christmastime" represents us all at Christmas. It's rushed, it's silly, it's hopeful... it wants a drink. If you're not a fan, maybe give it another try. It is Christmastime after all.
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Thanks Duncan! Winterval has a new Christmas EP out, that is as wonderful as anything by Paul McCartney. Don't take our word for it, read THIS review by Jim/Christmas Underground. Or listen to this gem:

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Shoegazy Notes

This one's soooo cool! The Living Pins (Carrie Clark and Pam Peltz) have released a Christmas song every year since 2021. And with this delightful 'Christmas Here to Stay' they reach a temporary shoegazy highlight. Good luck topping this one next year!

You want it more atmospheric? You get it more atmospheric! Read more about the temporary farewell of Bolywool and this song on their Bandcamp page. A nice shoegazy Christmas parting gift.

Not very shoegaze, but nevertheless: Knifeplay from Philadelphia collected their Christmas songs from the last five years, plus the one from this year in the album 'For the Holidays'. Including a majestic cover of 'A long December' originally by Counting Crows.

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The In Betweens

In 1973 the mighty Merle Haggard and the Strangers recorded the original version of 'If We Make It Through December', Xmas country at its best, although Haggard always said the song was not a pure Christmas song. Of course this classic is covered a lot too and featured here at CAGG. Check for instance this beyond beautiful version of Phoebe Bridgers from 2020.
This year we can add another gem to that list. The In Betweens (God's loneliest indie band) made a dark, dragging version that fits the theme of the song perfectly. It builds up slowly, guitars grow heavier and heavier and the vocals sound increasingly desperate. Finally, 'Happy Xmas (War is Over)' is also seamlessly integrated in this shoegaze kinda indierock track. The In Betweens took their time for this track, but hey, what's six and a half minutes in a life when you make it through December. 

The In Betweens Insta here, their X over there.

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Happy Xmas, a bass and a synth, ha ha ha ha

The best ideas start like this:
Last week, Chelsea texted me, "I wish I had thought of it sooner, but it would be fun to do an Urge Surfer Christmas cover lol." Seven days later, here it is. Happy holidays, y'all.
And this is the result, with a cold windy synth, heartbeat bass and ha ha ha ha-choir. Love it. Nice 'n short too:
Earlier this month, we had THIS fine version of the same classic on the blog.

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AND THE WINNERS ARE:

Yep, we had a vinyl giveaway this year again. A red or green vinyl ten inch record, A Dutch Xmas Party, curated by CAGGs very own Oscar Smit. This was the blogpost in which we asked: write us a guestblog on your favorite post-punk Christmas tune.
And the winners are Jon and Jake!

Jake on The Three Wise Men: 'If you haven't heard 'Thanks for Christmas' by The Three Wise Men, you're seriously missing out on a holiday treat! This hidden gem by the brilliant XTC (under a perfect Christmas pseudonym) is the perfect blend of festive cheer and pop magic. The melody is infectious, and Andy Partridge’s distinctive voice floats effortlessly over lush harmonies, evoking a sense of nostalgia and warmth. It’s the kind of song that makes you feel all the holiday feels without being overly cheesy. Trust me, it’s a must-add to your Christmas playlist.'

Jon, aka DJ Tenderloin, walks us through his considerations:
'Man that's a hard question for someone who's been making holiday mixes for literally decades going back to the cassette days (I'm old) - my favorite post punk Xmas song? I'm gonna assume right off the bat that we're talking original - not a cool cover of a holiday standard, for example any of the kick ass Dollyrots covers.

Let's see.

Christmas was better in the 80's - The Futureheads is a serious contender - an almost perfect xmas song! But what about Julian Casablanca's "cover" of the SNL skit song I Wish It Was Christmas Today? Also a hot dose of instant joy if you ask me. On this year's mix is a great song I think - Kris Kringle and The Midnight Soul by Wake Up And Smell The Sun - that just kicks holiday butt! Post Apocalypse Christmas from Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals) is a personal favorite that seems more prescient than ever.
But maybe as someone who makes a mash-up christmas song every year (since 2005? 2006? Can't remember anymore) I might have to pick what I think is one of the most amazing mash-ups ever. A friend of mine who's a DJ at WXPN in Philadelphia years ago played it - I sent it to him - and he told me before the song ever stopped playing he got like a dozen phonecalls about it - who is this??? My pick is:

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Memories of mixmaster Mitchell

In 2013, at the International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam, I met Mitchell Kezin (he's the tall guy). Mastermind behind Jingle Bell Rocks, THE must-see documentary on offbeat Christmas music, makers and collectors. And the personal history of Mitchell, 'the little boy that Santa Claus forgot'. We immediatly connected, there in that cinema. He was an overwhelming guy, tall, superenthusiastic and very kind. My date for that night felt like we were talking in some kind of secret language (it was our first date; she stayed with me, luckily). Read a fine interview with Kezin HERE.

Mitchell and I stayed in contact, albeit via social media and the odd email; there were two main topics, Christmas music and his Merry Mix. He'd send me cd's, later downloads, it was wonderful. It was a shock when the message came that he died, early 2024. For his family and loved ones, of course, and for the whole offbeat Christmas community. Some members of that community made a tribute-mix, with tracks that are somehow connected to Kezin. Read a nice tribute to Mitchell by Ernie (not Bert) HERE. It includes a download link for that mix (with a pdf with liner notes).

While we're on the topic of Christmas mixes, I've made my yearly Perfect New Christmas Songs playlist for the Perfects.nl platform. Find it on Spotify HERE.

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