See You Next Year!

Justin Lacy says it best when he sings:

"Wind up the lights
Undress the tree
Surround all the bulbs
in paper-towel sheets
Pack me some collards
Keep you black-eyed peas
I’ll drive up and visit
When cash is low in four weeks
Not for Martin Luther King,
I am coming back on Groundhog Day"

Happy 2014, thanks for your visits, comments and music. We're back in November!

A GONZO CHRISTMAS

A blog by Oscar Smit on the site of  music magazine GONZO (Circus) about the movie 'Jingle Bell Rocks!' and this years Christmas music with a mix of recent not so easy Xmas tunes,  from the likes of People Like Us, Kloot Per W, !!!, Bright Eyes. Look and listen here.

Bronzed Christmas

Here's my Christmas mix, songs with a Californian/Carribean flavour, perfect for your Christmas bbq or after an intense bronzing session at the beach. Surf's up, Santa!
Go HERE to listen to the mix on Spotify or Deezer.

Dengue Fever

Probably the bestest Little Drummer Boy cover in YEARS, this Cambodian funk take by Dengue Fever:

Dr Rubberfunk

Volume 3 of Dr Rubberfunk's Christmas mix is ON! GO HERE

Golau Glau

Twas the night before the night before Christmas, and all of a sudden a very beautiful EP by Golau Glau appeared;

Duo Nachtschade

Mariah Carey, inna Dutch waltz-y way

Calico the band

One of the many highlights on Stubby's Christmas mix, this great rocking track:

Check out the video. And this demo-video.

Lots of Love

Gotta love Lots of Love:

Anneke van Giersbergen

Holland's sweetest singer Anneke van Giersbergen wishes you a merry little Christmas:

Plastic Billionaires

Where Dylan Thomas, Augustus Pablo and Wham! meet, you ask? Here below:

Eli "Santa" Reed

Check out Eli "Paperboy" Reed: Don't forget to party hard for Xmas!

The Blues Are Still Blue Christmas Compilation 2013

For the ninth year on a row The Blues Are Still Blue Presents:

The 2013 Christmas Compilation (download here)

001 Allo Darlin' - Will You Please Spend New Years Eve With Me
002 The Staves - Winter Trees
003 Emiliana Torrini – Snow
004 Jim White - Christmas Day
005 Rufus Wainwright — What Are You Doing New Year's Eve
006 Tin Bird Choir - Christmas at the Wawa
007 Wilco - Jesus, Etc.
008 Camera Obscura - New Year's Resolution
009 Laura Veirs - Finster Saw The Angels
010 Summer Camp - Last Christmas
011 Tangarine - I Like Christmas (But I Can't Stand The Cold)
012 Ben Keith (Feat. Neil Young and Pegi Young) - Les Trois Cloches
013 The New Mendicants - A Very Sorry Christmas
014 First Aid Kit - New Year's Eve
015 Kate Nash - I Hate You This Christmas
016 Rodriguez – Cause
017 This Frontier Needs Heroes - Lonely Kind Of Christmas
018 Meiko - Maybe Next Year (X-mas song)
019 Paddy Roberts - Merry X-Mas You Suckers (And A Happy New Year)

Burning Leaves

I am very much in love with Indie Mae's voice. This is a cover of a traditional seasonal song:

On Spotify

Selections from this blog and several other Christmas music blogs come together in this Spotify playlist.

Paul Pfau

A bluesy Fender Rhodes-Christmas, from THIS compilation

Sha La Das

You probably saw this at Stubby's, but in case you didn't....

Bestest New Christmas Song of the Year

Hands down, this is The One, by members of Pernice Brothers, Teenage Fanclub and Sadies:

The Festive Funk Machine

Don't just listen to Christmas music, interact with it! with The Festive Funk Machine! Warning: Big time waster...

The spookiest version of White Christmas you've ever heard

The spookiest version of White Christmas you've ever heard, as recorded by the fabulous Gasoline Brothers.



from Christmas Songs, track released 18 December 2013
Roel Jorna - vocals, guitar
Mathijs Peeters - guitar
André Wierenga - bass, guitar, harmony vocals
Léon Geuyen - drums, harmony vocals

Merry Christmas from the Holderness Family!

Or: "This Family’s Viral Christmas Card Makes Your Family Look Lame".

ANNUAL FESTIVE SONG FROM THE KILLERS

Ever since 2006 The Killers surprise us with a Christmas(sy) song. Details of their annual songs are allways revealed at the last moment, around december 1st. 'Christmas In LA'  marks the eighth consecutive year in which the band has released a Christmas song. As with their seven previous releases, all proceeds from this song goes to AIDS charities as part of the Product Red campaign.

The video is following a disillusioned actor stuck in LA. The actor in the video is Owen Wilson, joined here by a hard drinking Harry Dean Stanton. Switching between live action and animation the  clip even manages to slip in an animated cameo by Warren Zevon. The song is written by The Killers and Taylor Goldsmith from the LA-based band Dawes.

Priscilla Ahn

Download this great track for free via Priscillaahn.com (thx Stubby)

Deacon Blue

Christmas Twerk!

XMAS ROCK CHICKS

Lita Ford and Cherrie Currie, two great rockchicks from the famous allgirl punk/rock band the Runaways, have reunited to record a Christmassong. "Currie and Ford didn’t speak for years after Currie quit the band in 1977, but they recently mended fences, and a phone call inspired Ford to invite her over to the studio" . It's a real heavy metal rocktune! It only lacks a proper video :-(

'Mrs. Claus' Kimono' by Drive-by Truckers

In 2006 The Drive-By Truckers wrote a slightly evil Christmas song in that typical alternative hillbilly style of theirs. Check out this first verse:

I'm a sinister elf with a sinister plan
Santa's little helper with too much time on my hands
He's got a fine lookin' wife for such an old man
I can see her lookin' at me when there is no one else around

Ronny Hammond's X-Mas Mix

It's here again! Ronny Hammond's 9th Christmas mix! Rejoice! Have a funky funky Christmas y'all!

Surf School Dropouts

Our Danish friends of Surf School Drop Outs made a new, Walker Brothers-style Christmas song that we're happy to share with you:

Check The Cool Wax Christmas Mix 2013

UPDATE: New direct download link HERE.

Merry Christmas everyone! How is your Christmas season going? Great I hope. I feel like I really have the spirit this year. Some years Christmas comes and goes so fast that you really don't get to fully submerge yourself into this wonderful time of year.

Here is my meager gift to you. It's not much. 60 minutes (give or take a few seconds) of peppy Christmas music that I hope will brighten up your spirits if only for a short time. Think of it as an hour of Check The Cool Wax radio. It has had my kids and I dancing around the living room for a few weeks now. I tried to keep this as upbeat as possible. The tempo drops a little in the middle but picks right back up at the end. It will also be good practice for your holiday party because you can practice all your dance moves - polka, pogo, western swing, robot or even just the cool head bob...

I'm not sure how long this will be up. Soundcloud could take this down at anytime. If anyone is interested, I can make this a mix on Spotify too. I really had fun making this. Please send me a note or leave a message if you enjoyed it. I would love to know if anyone is still visiting the site.

Please support these great artists. My only intent here is to spread a little good cheer and introduce other music lovers to some songs they may have forgotten or never heard before. Well, except for Elvis I guess… But I couldn't make a Christmas mix without the King of Rock n Roll right??

Lou Reed Christmas Radio Station ID

Going through my old blog posts I came across something I though was interesting. It was also something that I thought others may enjoy this Christmas season. It's a radio station promo record sent out by Warner Brothers in 1988. It has Christmas songs by some of their artists at the time, radio bumpers and song intros wishing people Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. On there is a track of Lou Reed wishing you and yours a Happy Holiday Season. Might be fun for fans of his still a little sad at his passing. (Also on there are GREAT Pee-Wee Herman radio promos!). Get is now. The link won't be up long… HERE

Devon Sproule

We heart Devon Sproule. This is a great dark humoured seasonal song from a cool compilation:

Martian Christmas

With cover art and a title like this, you're a surefire post on this blog. Hip hop x-mas!

The Pauses

This is a very nice, leftfield take on the classic:

Ramsey Lewis

A very nice piece on the Ramsey Lewis Christmas albums on the Wax Poetics blog. HERE

Coeur de Pirate wishes y'all a happy Christmas

Canadian songstress Coeur de Pirate recorded a version of the Mariah Classic on the couch:

The Band also recorded a christmas song

Almost every music lover knows The Band split up somewhere in the 70's and recorded an epic live album called The Last Waltz as a goodbye present to their fans. But did you know that, after The Last Waltz, they released another studio album to fulfill the group's obligations to Capitol Records? That album was called Islands, and this absolutely beautiful christmas song is on it. 'Christmas Must Be Tonight'. Enjoy.

Sinterklaas is coming to town

Every year on December 5th, us Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas (the original Santa Clause). When Bruce Springsteen played in The Netherlands a couple of years ago in December, he paid homage to his Dutch roots and surprised everybody by playing a slightly altered version of 'Santa Clause Is Coming To Town'. So yesterday, it was that time of the year again, and Sinterklaas was indeed coming to town. Here's Bruce.
EDIT: Alas, the original video was taken down. So instead, here's the another (by Bruce) version:

A Song is For Life and Not Just For Christmas

The Geoffrey and the Livingstones Charity Christmas single debut, featuring an enormous selection of guest vocalists, among whom Elizabeth Morris and Bill Botting of Allo' Darlin

Blue Eyed Soul Christmas

Magnolia Sons treat us to a tambourine-stuffed Christmas song!

Indiecater Records Christmas Comp

"December 24th" is Dublin's Indiecater Records Christmas release for 2013. Previous releases can be found through their Bandcamp page.

Bearkat

A sweet Christmas suite by the talented Bearkat. Oh la la:

Sofia Talvik

Leave it to German blog Lie in the Sound to cherrypick the bestest new Christmas releases. Like this beautiful track by Sofia Talvik:

More LitS recommendations HERE

Snowflakes singles

Remember the Snowflakes 7-inch singles? Did you actually hear 'm? Three songs are on Youtube. We LOVE 'm!

Bellwether Squares

Covers of Christmas songs by the Pretenders, Darlene Love and Paul McCartney, but also this rather brilliant original alt.rock track, that's the seasonal EP by Bellwether Squares:

Winter is on my head volume 5

It's out there, the 5th Winter is on my head compilation, and it contains this great Christmas truckin' song:

Christmas Business

Raw Rock Militia, it sounds pretty unsettling, but it's 'the official street team' of rockband Showbread. Missed it last year, but they've rounded up unknown (to me, at least) artists singing Christmas and seasonal songs for a 'name your price' downloadable compilation. Highly charmed by the soothing, husky voice of Megan Churney:

Killing Goliath, Big Tree

They're from Barneveld, Holland, and as you know we have a weak spot for Dutch band playing Christmas songs. Even if they're as LOUD als Killing Goliath. God rest ye merry? Unrest, that is.


To compensate, here's a very sweet, easy-on-the-ears track from a seasonal EP by Bay Area-band Big Tree:

MEDIAEVAL CHRISTMAS

Mediaeval Baebes hail from London. The six (with a.o. Katharine Blake from Miranda Sex Garden) girls' 'exquisite storybook opened its pages in 1996 when a group of friends broke into a North London cemetery and sang together, clad in flowing white gowns and crowns of Ivy.' Right.
Their new, second Christmas album showcases a celestial collection of Christmas Carols, including In Dulce Jubilo, that they recorded in 2003 for their seasonal album Mistletoe & Wine. The girls are doing a special Christmas tour at the moment in the UK.

Jerriais bells

Do you know how Jèrriais sounds? And did you know they have carols in that language? Find out more on Eune Bordée d'Noué, a Christmas album sung in the language spoken on Channel Island Jersey.

From the bio: 'The album contains a selection of well-known Christmas classics, as well as a few lesser-known French and Jersey carols, sung entirely in the language of Jèrriais.
Badlabecques founder and lead singer Kit Ashton hopes people will really enjoy the album, which is entitled ‘Eune Bordée d'Noué!’ (meaning a Christmas party), and also at the same time perhaps reflect on the deeper significance of Christmas'.

That Christmas album from that band

It's here, the 5th Christmas album by That Band from Holland. And it's marvellous.

Spotify playlist

I'm making a playlist, I'm checking it twice (maybe more) for updates. It features remarkable Christmas releases of this year. Some songs were featured here, others (like Kate Nash's I Hate You This Christmas) not. GO HERE

XO

Because Stubby basically told us to link it, HERE's a link to the free downloadable, yearly round up of Free Christmas Tracks by pr company XO.

The Christmas Agency

Deep voiced alt.rock Christmas track by Brit band The Agency, who re-christened themselves The Christmas Agency for this occasion.

Cal Folger Day

We featured CFD last year (see?), and we're glad we can post about her again. For this year she recorded a sultry Sammy Cahn/Jimmy van Heusen song from the late 50s. Stream/download from HERE.

Brain Pool

'The Last Christmas is Brainpool’s comeback to the pure pop format. Complete with jingling bells, glockenspiel and epic lyrics.'

Soul & Funk Christmas

If there's only one Christmas album you're gonna buy this year, make it this one:


Thanks for the heads up, DJ Sole Mate

Christmas Originals

Ever heard one of the first recordings of White Christmas? The 1934 version of Santa Claus is Coming to Town? Go over HERE and download a great compilation.

Boss Jaguars

Christmas surf songs! Yay! Three songs EP HERE
EDIT: alas, the Bandcamp-page is gone. What's left is their clips on YT and the Soundcloud stream:

The Boss Jaguars! · Santa's Bangin' Surfari EP

Tangarine

They sound like Gilbert O'Sullivan, they look like the sons of Robin Gibb, but these twin brothers hail from Holland. This is a cool new Christmas tune:

Colourmusic

Silly Christmas music. We're all for it. Colourmusic has just the thing

Missile Toads

From the mailbox: 'I'm from the Missile Toads, a punk band from Philly. We bastardize punk and garage songs songs into Xmas Classicks, much like the Angry Snowmens. We have been doing this for 5 years now. Here is a link for our free download on Bandcamp'

The Rosebuds

The Rosebuds are an art-rock band originally from Raleigh, North Carolina. Its current members are Ivan Howard (vocals/guitar/drums/bass/keyboards/programming) and Kelly Crisp (vocals/keyboard/drums/guitar/accordion).

Paste Holiday Sampler 2013

Free download of the annual festive sampler, featuring tracks by Bright Eyes, Otis Redding, Sufjan Stevens and a whole lot more.

Mark Nevin

You might know Mark Nevin from Fairground Attraction. For this new Christmas track he lined up a whole bunch of people.

Old Saint Nick

Good old Nick Lowe made his first Christmas record: 'Quality Street- A seasonal selection for all the family'. With lots of unusual covers like 'Rise up Sheperd' and this one 'Children Go Where I Send Thee'.

Polyphonica!

Last year The Polyphonic Spree released a great Christmas album, but only in America. This year 'Holiddaydream' will be available in Europe too. As a special CD on Cherry Red with extra tracks and a DVD . The album has three versions of  'Silver Bells'. There are also various clips from the song. This one is the best: Santa has a real recordpressingplant!

Festivus 2

This week Highline Records releases Festivus 2, a sequel to last year's fun compilation of indie-fied holiday songs. Artists include Piney Gir, The Lilys, Teenage Fanclub's Francis Macdonald and Glam Chops (with Art Brut's Eddie Argos), which does a memorable ditty called Baby Jesus Was the First Glam Rocker. Stream two tracks, via Spin.com (HERE) and via USAToday.com (HERE)

Beat Mark

Ample Play is Cornershop's own label. On December 9, the label releases a great 7-inch single (and digital version) of two indie Christmas tracks. My fave is Christmas Blossom by Beat Mark.

Angry Snowmans

Oi to the World! Yes, they're back! Yule punks Angry Snowmans (no, not the Angry Samoans) re-arranged some safety-pin classics for the holidays. Listen to the whole thing here. You do know what song modeled for this version, right?

Jingle Bell Rocks documentary

You're a Christmas music obsessed person, just like us. So you heard about this documentary. Next week, I will see it in Amsterdam.

Christmas is over?

I beg to differ. Catchy, very dubby track, tho, by Dog Ears Montana:

Blogroll

Two (fairly) new Christmas music blogs you'd wanna start following: Elves Bells and Bells Will Be Ringing

Space Oddity

This is weird.That's why we post it here

Fish Christmas

What do you think?

Trucker's Christmas

I have a deep love for spoken word 'trucker's songs', and retro-hero Charles Arthur recorded a great one. His seasonal album's wonderful.

A Bad Religious Holiday

Who would've thought the melodic punk rockers of Bad Religion would ever record a Christmas album? Not me. Given the arguably poor rendition of classic carols like 'Hark The Herald Angels Sing', 'Little Drummer Boy' and this 'O Come All Ye Faithful' I assume some irony is at play here, but what else can you expect from a band that has anti-religion written all over it, literally in its band name? Their Californian colleagues of Lagwagon did a considerably better job singing 'O Come All Ye Faithful' in the outro of 'Razorburn' (starting at 2:05 in the video below) off their 1995 album Hoss. Nonetheless, the fact that Bad Religion actually recorded this Christmas album is amusing enough, no matter how bad their versions sound.

A Reggae Reggae Christmas with Boss Capone

The official Boss Capone Christmas Reggae Clip Directed by Justin Stoppelenburg.

The Disappointment Choir

The bandname's brilliant, this Tindersticks-y track is too:


(via SWO)

Pics et les Blancs de Mémoire

Pic is Sylvain Picard, who leads a Montreal-based band of 'jazz amateurs' who like to jazz up French-Canadian songs by bands like Karkwa and singers like Daniel Belanger. On their recently (Bandcamp-)released album, there's a cool version of Silent Night:

The Virgin Army

The Virgin Army (great band name) is Teije Venema's band, who adds Jonne, Bram and Henk to the line up when he's playing live. This dreamy seasonal song was produced by Holland's own Rick Rubin, mr Pim vd Werken

Analogue Christmas

You want the odd, you're getting the odd. The Tara Experiment's analogue bubblebath of synths, adding an alien feel to the season.

Licks, Brains and a funky jazzy christmas

Yep. Tis the season again. So here goes another round of odd and/or offbeat and/or otherwise noticeable Christmas tracks. Kicking of with Dutch 18-piece big band Licks & Brains, who will release a Christmas album featuring jazzy, soulful Christmas covers featuring a bunch of great vocal talent from the Lowlands. Living legend Rob de Nijs, for instance. Or the ultra-lovely Kris Berry. Or Brit soulsiren Laura Vane. Listen to ten pre-mastered tracks via this link.

Snowflakes Singles Club

At the end of November, the four singles of the Snowflakes Christmas Singles Club, edition 2013, will be released.
All singles come in a full colour picture sleeve on white vinyl, limited to 500 copies. On the A-side, the singles will have an original, on the B-side a cover.
On the first single, London folk/blues duo Smoke Fairies, joined on violin by Neil Walsh, sing about how celebrating Christmas with friends and loved ones makes one feel at home in their 'Simple Feeling'. On the flipside they do a haunting and beautiful rendition of 'I Wonder As I Wander', a Christmas carol written by singer John Jacob Niles, based on some lines of a folk song he once heard a little girl sing in a small village in Appalachian North Carolina.

Stockholm, Swedens' indie poppers The Garlands have rearranged and rerecorded their 'Christmas Song', prevously released as a download only in 2008, for the second single. This Chrismas love song has the sound of the swinging 60s, with bells, piano, sweet harmonies and all. Their cover of 'I Don't Intend To Spend Christmas Without You', written in 1967 by Margo Guryan for French actrice, singer and dancer Claudine Longet, is a perfect fit with their original song, has the same hip 60s vibe, but still with a indiepop bite.
The third single has chamber popband The Miserable Rich from Brighton with an uplifting original, 'Everything You Want', in which singer James is out to buy a Christmas present for this lover and finds himself – and the present - with friends in the pub at the end of the day. The Miserable Rich cover the antiwar protest song 'Stop The Cavalry', written and made into one of the most loved Christmas songs from the early 1980s by Jona Lewie.
Surf pop band The Silhouettes from Amsterdam are featured on the fourth single. The Silhouettes have written an very Christmas sounding song, about looking forward to sit with your lover 'Under The Mistletoe'. They back it with a surf version of the Christmas standard 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas', written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane and first sung by the legendary Judy Garland in the classic 1944 musical 'Meet Me In St. Louis'.

Pre-orders going up later this month!
Check http://snowflakes-christmas-singles.blogspot.nl/ or http://www.facebook.com/Snowflakes.Christmas.Singles for updates!

Christmas Kickstarter

From the mailbox:

My name is Elizabeth Chan and I am a Christmas songwriter. I've been working on my next EP and launched a Kickstarter. I am hoping you could help post a link to my Kickstarter campaign to your readers. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1268420106/new-christmas-songs-support-everyday-holidays-ep I want to be able to share and include anyone who loves Christmas as much as I in my journey to write great Christmas music. :) My songs are all original!