Bill Botting

And then it is:

The Blues Are Still Blue Christmas Compilation 2015

For the 11th year in a row The Blues Are Still Blue Presents:
The 2015 Christmas Compilation (download here)

01 Elizabeth Morris - The Season

02 Deep Sea Diver - It's Christmas Time (and I am still alive)

03 Sweet Baboo - Don't Be Alone (This Christmas)

04 Luke Sweeney - Loveless Christmas

05 Dressy Bessy – Kringles

06 Phoenix (with Bill Murray) - Alone on Christmas Day

07 Tele Novella - Christmas Spirit

08 Sunturns - Christmas Bells/Wedding Bells

09 Juniore - De Saison

10 Pentacon Six -Christmas Is Better With You

11 Shy Nature - Christmas Lullaby

12 The Grubby Mits - Come On Home For Christmas

13 The Hard Ground - Keep Me For Christmas Time

14 The Washboard Abs - Christmas in Dearborn

15 The Both (Aimee Mann and Ted Leo) - You're a Gift

16 Adrian Teacher - It Always Rains On Christmas

17 Corey Kilgannon and Jacob Hudson - All Through The Night

18 The Gasoline Brothers - Every Time It's Christmas

19 Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings - White Christmas

20 Bill Botting & The Tho Drink Minimums - It's Not Christmas Anymore

21 Courtney Barnett - Boxing Day Blues (Revisited)

Rogue Wave

Interesting lyrics:

Miley Cyrus

When Miley teams up with Flaming Lips, she needs to be on this blog:

Laid for Christmas

Five Dutch artists teamed up for a Christmas EP on the leftfield (or should I say, 'out there') label Geertruida. This track by Douwe Doorduin stands out, but do try the other ones as well

LCD Soundsystem

Yes, a new song. Yes, it's great. And sad.

Santa skate

Sitting outside on a park bench in Amsterdam, taking a break from jumping over tram rail on roller skates in the dark during the annual Santa Skate, I cued up the Christmas YouTube video ‘Flocons Blancs’ by Blé on my phone to entertain some Dutch skaters.

Blé is a young and fresh Québec duo whose Christmas song has become a sleeper favourite there if we believe the Internet. And while I was showing it to people who don’t speak French, they said that the video had nice retro colours, another reason to enjoy it.

If you’re fed up with the usual Noël fare, then ‘Flocons Blancs’ is a great song, even if the only words you can sing out loud are “Ferme tes yeux” (‘Close your eyes’). ‘Close your eyes and remember a time when the lights seemed much brighter’ sounds like nice retro colours to me as well.

Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année !

Loop Line

They're back, and they're great again:

The song is sung from two perspectives: a group of aliens who believe that Santa Claus and his seemingly unlimited powers pose a threat to their civilization, juxtaposed with a group of Earthlings who try to convince the aliens that Santa is actually a symbol of peace and love. If the Clash were into sci-fi movies and decided to make a holiday song, we'd like to think it might sound like this. Like our past Christmas songs, this track is part of the soundtrack of a Christmas-themed movie that follows the same narrative as this song; a film we sincerely hope to make one day.

Funky Drummer Boy

D'Angelo-ish version of the classic:

Gasoline Brothers

It's here! The new, yearly Christmas hit by Utrecht's finest, The Gasoline Brothers. This blog gets the worldwide exclusive premiere. Think Kinks meets early REM. Great track!

BUMPS FOR XMAS

American rapper Fetty Wap comes with a special Xmas track: Merry Xmas

Bling Crosby, the OG

Never doubted that Bing Crosby was an OG actually. Producer Raddiculous now finally proves I was right with his Bling Crosby compilation. All tracks for free. Generous as evah, good old Bling.
Check 'em all on Bandcamp.

Funky Santa

Our festive funky friend Ronny Hammond just gave us this footstompin' treat:

Carly Jamison

You heard the song, but did you see the video?

Femme

From Daisy Digital's It's Coming On Christmas compilation, for Coppafeel

Moon Moon Moon

Utrecht, Holland based onemanproject Moon Moon Moon released his Sufjan Stevens-ish, folksy original Christmas song:


On bandcamp:

Lonely Coyote

Soulful ballad with a Paolo Nutini-like voice, for celebrating Christmas on the bear rug:

Rollins grunts the Carol of the Bells

The Gromble

Add a dash of Daftpunkness to some Californian indie-yachtrock, and this is what you get:

Vyvienne Long

One of the highlights on the A Co-Present Christmas compilation (EDIT: I dunno what happened, but this track seems to have vanished from that compilation, but it's on YouTube and Spotify):

Glossy Jesus

This band from Leiden, Holland, made a Christmas song that opens up slowly but surely. Works like a warm blanket. Beautiful.

Top 5 Bestest New Christmas Tracks of 2015 (so far)

Just to remind you, the bestest new Xmas songs of the year (so far):

A Frenglish slab of swingin' blue eyed soul:

Slow burning and as deep as the ocean:


Husky French Noel, in soft-focus:


So sad, so beautiful:


So cool you might catch a cold:

The Nuclears

Ramones-y heyhoylet'sgo punkraaawk (from 2011)! Love it!

Ette

Via The Mad Mackerel:
"Best known as the lead singer of Glasgow indie-pop girl group TeenCanteen, Carla J Easton has teamed up with Joe Kane from psyche pop outfit Dr Cosmos Tapelab to form a new project, Ette."
The best Christmas songs have bells, mention Christmas and are about longing. Longing for someone, for something, anything. And it should remind us of the Great Phil Spector. Ette does all that:

Meyhem Lauren

Rude holiday hiphop, yep, you got it:

Public Access TV

Loud, snotty, upbeat, Newyawk's Public Acces TV bring back the spirit of early Strokes, Blondie and the Nerves. VERY VERY GOOD:

Helen Love & Friends

The 'friends' of Helen Love are Tim Wheeler (from Ash), Ricardo Autobahn, Pete Green (The Sweet Nothings), Andrea Lewis (Darling Buds) and more.

Wiggum

If this blog hadn't already been named, 'Porro popom pom' woud've been great. It's also the name of a song by Spanish band Wiggum, from a few years back. I'd never heard it, it's rockingly good:

Tuxedo

'I don't need no mistletoe, no, just my sugar plum'. Mayer Hawthorne and Jake One spread some holiday luuuuurve for your pleasure:

Spotify

Reminder; most songs on this blog are compiled in the yearly New Christmas Songs playlist on Spotify. Go HERE

Dead by Christmas

In every country there's animosity between cities, mostly rivalling against each other with sports teams. Boston vs New York is a well known example. In the Netherlands, there's Rotterdam vs Amsterdam, but also Nijmegen vs Arnhem. To bring those two provincial towns together for the holidays, record store Kroese released a seasonal single by bands from the the two towns (with members from various other bands from the region).
Alas, only singalongfest 'Lucky You' is available on Youtube, you can hear the cool flipside 'It's Almost Christmas Time' by Wilson on Spotify.

L.A. Girlfriend

Influenced by new wave and post punk from the 80s, Sydney Banta aka LA Girlfriend makes synth-heavy danceable tracks. This Christmas track sound like a New Order-demo track fronted by a Gillian Gilbert (if she could sing and sound as husky like Sydney)

Angry Snowmans

They're at it again, the Snowmans. Ho ho ho? Oi oi oi!

Love Me Nots

From Phoenix AZ I give you Christmas RAAAAAAAWWWWWKKK!

Guuzbourg zelf · SantaBringMyBabyBacktoMe

The Pink Tiles

The Pink Tiles hail from Melbourne, Australia. They have a cat as 'spiritual leader' and make noisy, catchy (hear those keys!) garage pop. Highly recommended.

Freedom Fry

Love this duo. Love their new Christmas song:

Maartje Teussink

Dutch composer Maartje Teussink just released a very sweet, electronica-tinged Christmas EP. I love the word 'Snowflakemas'.

Funky Funky Christmas

DJ Ronny Hammond's yearly funky X-mas mix is up. Go HERE

And Dr Rubberfunk, also a welcome guest every year on this blog, made a cool funky xmas playlist on Spotify. HERE

Fortunate Ones

Canadian duo Fortunate Ones recorded a festive cover of Sufjan Stevens' Let's Boogey to the Elf Dance

Prints Jackson

Christmas Mourning from Prints Jackson on Vimeo.

See also HERE

More blasts from the past

So much great seasonal songs were released in the past years. Digging up the diamonds some more:
Channeling the Pogues via a Chinese restaurant, this is still one of the greatest alt x mas tunes ever recorded:


Wonderfully arranged, beautiful song:


Heartbreakingly sad, but so gorgeous:


Happy indie folksy:


Slashing your wrists for Christmas, upbeat style:

Golau Golau are Christmas enthusiasts, really:

Blasts from the past

This blog is active since 2006, and in all those years we've posted some really great tracks that should not be forgotten. Like the Tom McRae track below. Or these damn fine seasonal songs:

This foulmouthed blues by giant Andre Williams still shakes foundations:


This year, a new Christmas song will be released by Utrecht's Gasoline Brothers, plus a compilation of their greatest x-mas hits, like this one:


Channeling the spirit of Astrud Gilberto:


Classic indie-xmas:


So gentle, so sad, so great:


Deep, funky Christmas:

Ed Harcourt

Five years old but still one of the greatest alt.Christmas songs ever:

The Both (= Aimee Mann & Ted Leo)

Second seasonal song by this great team-up:

The Hard Ground

Irish band The Hard Ground just released released this slow burning Christmas song in 2013. If The Civil Wars, The Honey Trees or Common Linnets are in your Like!-list, be sure to check this out.

HUMAN BEATBOX IS COMING TO TOWN

The young Dutch vocal group The Junction recorded a Christmas tune, a jazzy cover from 'Santa Claus Is Coming To Town'. The song is totally a-cappella, including a human beatbox. A pity the video is not festive at all.

Loose Tapestries

Everything Stubby says about this song, here

Bartlett Christmas

The Bartlett is a small music and arts venue in Spokane, Washington. They curated a Christmas EP, with four different tracks. This orchestral indie track by Cathedral Pearls is a cool taster

Cimrya Deal

Cimrya Deal hail from Le Mans, France and just released an EP of self-written Christmas songs, plus covers by Eels, Sufjan Stevens, Beach Boys and Randy Newman. Which is nice. This fuzzy track fits right in:

Phoenix & Bill Murray

Daniel Martin Moore

Gorgeous:

VIA

Silk Daisys

Already seen on other Christmas blogs, but if you (for reasons beyond our understanding) don't visit 'm, be sure to hear this cool one-man-band-wall-of-sound, Mighty Wah!-ish x-mas song:

Lucy Sunday

Not a Christmas song, but very seasonal is this single by California-raised, husky voiced singer Lucy Sunday. Think Rhye, think FKA Twigs, think Beth Orton.

Snails

Future Islands singer Samuel T. Herring and guitarist/bassist William Cashion have another band called The Snails. They made a Christmas song. It sounds FAN FUCKING TASTIC:

Les Deuxluxes

David Bowie famously stole his Jean Genie-riff from Jacques Dutronc's La fille du pere Noel. Montreal rockduo Les Deuxluxes sex the Dutronc original up to 11.


Thanks Christmas Underground

When Frankie met Edwyn

Frankie & the Heartstrings + Edwyn Collins in a northern soul xmas stormer!

Deep Sea Diver

Jessica Dobson, you might know her as a guitarplayer for Beck or the Shins. Or from her own band, Deep Sea Diver. She's an excellent, husky singer, as you can hear in this brilliant Christmas original. Starts slow, gets wind half way:


Check out the carols and cover of Have Yourself a Merry little Christmas on the EP as well.

FRENCHY AND CHIQUE

The elegant, young, cheesy French crooner Gaspard Royant made an excellent Xmas track: 'Christmas Is Back In Town'. It's produced by the Scottish Edwyn Collins (yes from Orange Juice fame) and it has the Dexys Midnight Runners horn section on it !
It will be officially released december 4th, but ONLY on december 1st you can download it for FREE here!

Southern Culture on the Skids - Silver Bells!

Southern Culture on the skids just released a new Christmas song! It's only available as a digital download right now and I can't find a audio preview to post here. I did buy it and can tell you it's great! If you like SCOTS you won't be disappointed. So glad to have another Christmas song from these guys! You can buy it here.

Los Straitjackets - Linus And Lucy