It's such a nice idea that the closer you come to Christmas the more the 'usual suspects' herald themselves with their new Christmas music. Enter the Rotterdam based The Non Traditionals with their Bandcamp EP 'I Don't Carol'. They are funny bunch and every year since 2009 they surprise us with very original Christmas tunes. Read here what we wrote about them last year. Their 2021 songs are great new semi acoustic pop songs with 'Cat In The Christmastree' as inexorable hightlight. Cat owners will immediatly recognise themselves in the song, with some nice Dutch accordeon sounds.
Get ready for yet another new Christmas single from da lowlands: Christmas Getaway from Dutch singer Blackbird. Although she considers herself as a Christmas fanatic, this is her very first original Christmas tune.
It's about "spending time with your chosen family during the holidays, away from life's everyday routine" and it's "an ode to your best friend".
A cheerful, friendly and poppy xmas tune.
Insta over there.
I like the way that our arguments stop when we fall asleep
And the way that your body feels when it's wrapped around me
And I'd like it if you made it to mine by Christmas Eve
So you can hold me
And we'll watch Christmas TV
Joost Dijkema comes from the north of the Netherlands. After hearing Leo Kottke´s 1969 album ´6- & 12-string guitar’ and Michael Chapman’s ‘Time Past And Time Passing’ he was determined to develop the fingerstyle guitar technique. He was 'townmusician of Groningen' for three years. He is specialised in acoustic guitar based songs. On his Bandcamp you can find this wonderful song 'An Arm Around Jack Frost' with lots of slide and acoustic guitars, and an intro full of Xmas bells.
Last year, just before Christmas rock icon Leslie West died. He was guitarist in Mountain and played with them on the famous Woodstock festival in 1969. He also played in West, Bruce and Laing. To remember him Cleopatra Records just released a 7 inch (on blue and red vinyl) with his instrumental version of 'Silent Night', recorded in 2015 . You can order it here.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any information about the artist 'Up With Glue', other than that he's not the most prolific musician from New Hampshire ever, to put it mildly. His previous and first album dates back to 2018, but that doesn't make his Christmas album any less worthwhile.
No covers, but ten songs of his own, (semi) acoustic with mostly dry-humored lyrics and a high lo-fi feel. Little gems are 'I'm a Baby Jesus', 'Santa's Got a Bump' and the sweet (and sour) 'Christmas Pickle'.
Complete album HERE.
In Holland candy canes are hardly part of the Christmas ambiance. But Americans believe in them. Geoff Palmer has almost 25 years experience in various popyy punkbands like The Queers or The Guts. He also plays a lot with Kurt Baker. As a solo artist he just came up with his first Christmas tune 'Cocktails and Candy Canes', a loud and poppy punk song with lots of Ramones influences.
We missed out on this one last year, the 2020 Christmas album of The Coyotes from New York.
A collection of successful (God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen) and less successful (Fairytale of New York ... ouch!) arrangements of well-known Christmas tracks and some own songs. But to make it topical: it also includes a song that is about this very year. A song that expresses the hope that Christmas will be like before covid again. Unfortunately, we don't know for sure for this year either.
Not for lo-fi haters.
Complete album HERE.
Ok, here we go again. This is the fourth year in a row for the Dutchies of Veluwsch Kerst Collektiev to release a complete Christmas album!
First single 'Vergulden Pil' is released today and will be followed on December 3rd by an entire album. Vergulden Pil is quiet a catchy track in the best raunchy punkpop tradition and lyrics about two hostile acolytes in a derailed church service. Not too much Christmas feeling in the music though, but an overload of joyful enthusiasm makes up for a lot. Let's wait for the album within two weeks.
Check at our site for previous years HERE. Insta account OVER THERE.
This christmas rocksteady-reggae song from Clifton Smith and the Diamonds is 52 years (!) old and it still sounds great. The original Jamaican 45, on The Wasp Records, is now worth a fortune. But hey.... the single has been rereleased. You can get it on Reggae Fever, a nice Swiss website.
In 1981 English magazine Flexipop came out with a great, blue colored, X-mas 7 inch flexi disc. With three tracks from the bands The Brattles, Snuky Tate and Blondie. 'Yuletown Throw Down (Rapture)', a sort of X-mas version of 'Rapture', was the track Blondie made together with the at that time very hip grafitti artist Fab Five Freddy. 40 years later there finally is an official release of that flexi track: a very limited 12 inch with the original version and two new mixes.
I always thought this was Blondie's only Christmas song. Until recently I did discover that they also made one in 2009, 'We Three Kings' .American duo M.Ward and Zooey Deschanel released their now more or less famous album 'A Very She & Him Christmas' in 2011. Now, 10 years later, it seems there will be a limited 10th anniversary deluxe edition with a bonus 7 inch single. On the single their version of 'Last Christmas' and a cover of Madonna's 'Holiday', which I do not consider to be very christmassy. But if they insist....... :-)
Where I grew up in Cleveland
we celebrated Christmas with Chinese
but since I’ve been in Boston
I’ve wanted one of these
I want an Irishman for Christmas
straight from the Kerry hills
But of course, there's our big, as-much-as-we-like-and-can-find new Christmas music Spotify list. Conveniently shortened to 'Christm...
