Christmas A Go Go!

Thank you to all the artists for colouring & warming this Christmas season. Thank you visitors. Thank you for your comments & tips. See you on the other side. Stay safe. December 31 by Emme

Just a few hours before it's Christmas, right on time to discover two very original songs from young people from around the Conservatory in Antwerp. First one is 'Alone For Christmas' bij the Dutch-Belgian duo Eva Mareen and Julia Rosenhart. These two girls perfom as duo with a bit of electronic equipement, in Dutch we would call them 'kleinkunst', meaning its part music and part a bit of theatre or cabaret.  Their Xmas song has a great choreography and lots of (ugly) Christmas sweaters. The other song by Blond feat Rendier has lyrics in Flemish and is sung from out of the viewpoint of Maria. It ends with a fine electronic dancebeat and also the video is intriguing. Vrolijk Kerstfeest!

Over to our correspondent in the field of all things Americana (country, bluegrass, blues, soul, r&b, etc), mr Ton ' T55 ' Ensing. Short notes on four great songs: You might know Gary Louris as the main man from alt.country legends The Jayhawks, the band he started with Mark Olson in the mid eighties. After Olson left the band Louris kept on releasing records with the Jayhawks - the last one being XOXO in 2020. In 2008 he made his first solo-record, Vagabonds - a sign that there was a musical life after the Jayhawks. The solo records allowed Louris to experiment with sounds and genres besides the alt country and americana for which the Jayhawks are known. The experimentation and genre-hopping takes a festive corner with the release of his first christmas single. It’s a tune called ‘Christmas In The City’ and it’s vintage Louris. Lots of harmonies, a joyful piano, a string quartet, an acoustic guitar, a melodious bass and a drumcomputer. Beatlesque, one might say. I w...

You know the drill. Stubby makes a mix. He stuffs it with stuff you probably missed this year (I know I did). Great songs, recent, some from the past. And you get until January 7 to download, from HERE .

Fairytale of New York isn't the only Christmas song the recently passed Shane MacGowan wrote, with his band The Popes, he released 'Christmas Lullaby' in 1996. On this site , I found background info on the song: Shane "borrows" the music for the verses from "Lucy" a tune written by Nick Cave, Blixa Bargeld, and Roland Wolf and released on Cave's "The Good Son" lp (1990). Shane sang it on the "It's a Wonderful World" single he and Cave released together in 1992 (Nick does a pretty good cover of "Rainy Night in Soho" on the same release). The chorus is lifted from the song "Too Ra Loo Ra" by James Royce Shannon (1881-1946) and premiered in Chauncey Olcott's production of Shameen Dhu ("Black-haired Jimmy"). It was popularized by Bing Crosby in the movie Going My Way (1944), a flick which won 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and a Best Actor nod to Crosby. I searche...

Sung by one of Québec's most iconic bands, Beau Dommage's '23 décembre' ('December 23rd') is a 1950s neighbourhood portrait of pre-teens off from school until January 7th. It references working-class shops, hockey and Québec traditions, like having a nativity scene under the Christmas tree at a time when the Catholic church still had a firm hold on French Canadians. The band sings about snow, jokes about pictures of naked ladies (sex and religion go hand in hand) and mentions New Year's Day, making it a New Year's song as well. The mural in the picture is the cover of Beau Dommage's eponymous first album, which features '23 décembre', and is located in Montréal behind 6760, rue de Saint-Vallier, which is where the band started their career. This address is also part of the lyrics in 'Tous les palmiers' ('All the palm trees'). Since I know many of you can't make heads of tails of the lyrics, here's part of it i...

For all ye non-Dutchies: So-Fi (who was one of the stars on the first Christmas A Go Go evening in Paradiso) makes a seasonal video every year , with help from her dad. All these clips are HIGHLY charming, and that is counting the songs. This year, she wrote a song about peeking through curtains and watching all the colourful trees, and feeling warm inside: Maar laat het gordijn wat langer open Want m’n ogen laten niet los But please leave the curtains open a little longer For I just can't look away

In France it's big news: French new wave/ pop  idol Etienne Daho made a Christmas song - in French. Great! It's part of an extra Deluxe edition of, 'Tirer La Nuit Sur Les Étoiles - Only For You', his last album which came out this summer.  It's quite a sober song, but it grows on you. Daho made his album with help from Unloved , a trio featuring Irish DJ David Holmes, probably best known for their cover of 'This Strange Effect' in the series Killing Eve. Singer Jade Vincent recently made a Xmas single; both sides have happy lyrics, but morose (yet sultry), gothic, 50s music. It's out on vinyl, but only 50 copies! Here Comes Love by Jade Vincent

After almost 50 years in The Damned, their guitar player Captain Sensible can still surprise us. In 1983 he made the cult Xmas single 'One Christmas Catalogue'. Now he's back with some old punk friends from The Damned and Johnny Moped in The Sensible Gray Cells. They created this great and jolie anti Xmas song:'A Stupid Xmas', with an even greater video: Another former punk, John Robb from the Membranes and now a resepected journalist, rereleased his Xmas single from 2008, made under the name Goldblade. It has been newly mixed bij Youth and the parts of  Poly Styrene and sax player Laura Logic (both X Ray Specs) are more prominent now: Is Lenny Kaye an old punk?  No. Better... he's a proto punk. He played with Patti Smith and gave us the great garage punk compilation 'Nuggets'. 'Santa's Knee' is not a raunchy song as you might expect but a slow and a bit jazzy song. But worth to give it some more listenings, because it has been long since we ...

" Les Rats d'Swompe came together to introduce people to the sound of the traditional violin, the call and response songs and the musicality of yesteryear. Based in Ottawa, they are five plaid lumberjacks who take the stage to fuse elements of rock, traditional, pop and punk. A high energy act that will make you want to sing and dance." Their seven-song EP called 'Pause Gorgée Vol. 1' (roughly, 'Take a Swig Break Vol. 1') is a swinging party and a great recent example of traditional French Canadian music you'll here on the radio at Christmas time in parts of Canada. Call and response songs are meant to involve everyone at a party, such as the elderly that can't always get up and dance, but do enjoy singing along and clapping. The song 'Dondaine la Ridaine' is a classic example of a response song that is difficult to 'answer', but the more you hear it, the better you get at it. When the band sings the words 'tam ti de la...

Christmas Eve is nigh and the well of really good original 2023 Christmas songs is more and more running dry. The right time to take stock and see which Christmas songs stood out this year. Completely arbitrary as always, but here we go: it's year list time!    MARQUI:  NL 1. The Slow Clock ft. Amarins - Christmas In A Bottle 2. Marike Jager - Love Me One More Night (It's Christmas) 3. Clean Pete & Tim Knol - De Mooiste Tijd Van Het Jaar 4. Bony Macaroni - December 25th (The Morning After) 5. Silent Runners - Baby I'm Cold Inside OTHER 1. pen pin - Office Party 2. the content (braden rapp) - Xmaseves (Merry Christmas, Now I'm Leavin') 3. Pomme - _dec carte de noel 4. UPSAHL - Snowglobe 5. Swansea Sound - Santa Bail Me Out Hors catégorie: the extended version of Mark Lohmann's bloody honest and vulnerable kinda Christmas song ' Doornroosje '. ===    GUUZBOURG:  NL 1. Double Cream (DeWolff & Dawn Brothers) - Christmas On The Moon / Stea...

Continuing our short notes on new(ish) songs: Joni Mitchell's River in Norwegian, gentile & jazzy? But of course: Nokre ler og nokre gret by Jul på Sunnmørsk From the second Christmas album by Jul På Sunnmørsk, with self-penned songs, traditionals and more translated Xmas classics. Easy listening jazz, with a prominent harmonica (Toots Thielemans vibes) and lovely vocals. From 2022, this powerpop track by Newyorkers Movie Movie, that because of the twanging guitar sounds a little like Pretenders' Kid . Another Holiday by MOVIE MOVIE Could be that Deer Tick thought, well, the two oddball bluesy Xmas tracks we released in 2010, we can't do better than that. So let's just cover a Darlene Love track, with an accordion. We don't know. Could be. Hit Kringles by Deer Tick Melbourne's Department of Creative Affairs release a Christmas song every year from 2016 on, and somehow they were never featured on this blog. They change style every year, from indi...

This new Christmas song from Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul is actually not new, but a cover of their own track HAHA, which was on their massive successful debut album Topical Dancer from 2022. Charlotte and Bolis stated about HOHO at the socials that their " goal is to finally throw Mariah Carey off her throne and to annoy generations to come! ". That sounds like a promise and that's OK with us. So let's start the annoyment right here, right now! Charlotte Adigéry Insta here , Bolis Pupul Insta here . Shared X account here . HOHO by Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul

The flow of Christmas songs on platforms such as Bandcamp and SoundCloud seems almost endless. But it still remains a good search for what is really worth it. Five short notes.  Ryann Barnes from California starts her song delicately with piano and acoustic guitar that transition into a calm beat and soundscape, while her snow-soft, slightly hoarse voice sings about waiting for Santa. Because she still believes. On Christmas Eve. (Too bad it stops so suddenly, we weren't done listening yet.) As long as you do it convincingly, it doesn't have to be complicated and Mother May I has understood that well with this uncomplicated Christmas banger. The power lies in the simplicity. This is an updated version of a song from 1994 (!). Breaking Up At Xmas - 2023 Remaster by Mother May I The Winter Sounds recorded 'Ghosts of Christmas Present', a Christmas EP with poppy eighties synths and electronic beats. This one, 'Christmas Eve, 1988', is catchy, fe...

Awarding-winning folk music singer-songwriter Natalie Byrns from Montréal, Québec, has a Christmas song from 2013, 'Noël sous les draps' ('Christmas in bed'), that is still as fresh as new snow. The idea is to avoid all the hassle of Christmas until January third by hiding under the covers. The song starts with a serious tone, but then takes a happy turn. Byrns is half of duo Ancolie together with Anik Bérubé. She also sings in many musicals in English and French (Fiddler on the Roof, Mamma Mia!) and has been around for quite some time. I like the family comments in the background of this song: 'When do we get to meet your boyfriend?' and 'So, your new boyfriend, when are the babies coming?', which many people have to deal with at Christmas. She was also asked 'Can we have Christmas at your place this year?' when trying to get some peace and quiet at the chalet in July. Time to hide under the covers. Noël sous les draps - Single by Na...

Brandon is an American living in the Netherlands. He's a photographer and writer. Recently, he tweeted (x'd?) a picture of a Christmas album by George Baker . An exchange followed. Long story short; he wrote an extensive review of that 1978 lp for this blog: Once upon a time, I was a late night DJ on KWVA, a college radio station in Eugene, Oregon. It was the late ‘90s, an era when used record shops were plentiful and well stocked with a variety of bizarre LPs that had passed repeatedly through their stacks. Somewhere in a closet in my parents’ house in Portland, my collection of about 100 of ‘em is mouldering, some with multiple stickers marking their declining value as they were sold and resold in stores up and down the West Coast. Originally released for the holiday season of 1978, George Baker’s Another Lonely Christmas is the sort of album I’d probably have bought for a buck or two in the House of Records back in the ‘90s, a store literally in an old house a few bloc...

So, how was it? The second edition of the Christmas A Go Go Spectactular in the Amsterdam Paradiso had all the classics. Joni Mitchell's River , on solo piano, by Stephanie Struijk . A very tender Feliz Navidad with a fraction of Silent Night , by Will Knox & néomí . Pogues' Fairytale of New York , aptly crowned by our host Santajan als 'the best Christmas song ever written', in a rowdy version by Ro Halfhide & his henchmen. Introduced by Ro as the 'the family members everybody says about: 'oh no, not them again!'. There was Melanie Ryan with a very cheerful Rocking Aroud the Christmas Tree . And, on solo banjo, Lo! How a Rose e'er Blooming by the ever brilliant S.Lois . And there were other classics. Marike Jager kicked off with Come Together by The Beatles, 'because nobody really knows what the song is about, so it might as well be Christmas'. Milène van der Smissen had us all grasping for a tissue with her fantastic rendit...

Some Christmas presents are unpacked a little late at our office, because this one was already released on December 8, but what a treat it is! Silent Runners from Amsterdam were founded in 2015 and have since been steadily building an impressive oeuvre that has its origins in eighties synths and electronics with post-punk influences. Too intense to label them under coldwave, too melodic and clear to simply label them only as darkwavers though. And now for the first time a Christmas track, with lyrics mashed-up and heavily inspired by Christmas song lyricists as Frank Loesser, Sammy Cahn, Chris Rea and Paul McCartney. Combined with musical references such as New Order and Nasmak (famous, influential Dutch band from the early eighties), all this results in a surprisingly good Christmas song that, although not very uplifting in theme, still warms us passionately. So cold, but yet so good, let's hope it's the start of a long lasting annual band tradition. A good dose of Gluhwein ...

Local Love is a Christmas compilation, on cassette ( one available here , if you're quick) and the streaming platforms , featuring bands from Italy, Denmark, US of A and elsewhere. Christmas music with a relaxed vibe, no cold winds, just a T-shirt and jeans. We posted the Yndling song earlier , and I'd like to highlight Losvii as well. I'm such a sucker for this yacht rock on a budget, it's like cruising Highway One in a cheap rental, but with the sight, sun and view, you think you're in a white Ford Mustang, top down, with your hair slicked back and those wayfarers on, baby.

CAGG Team loves to feature Dutch artists making Christmas music - Clean Pete , The Heck , Rick Buur , Non-Traditionals , Fay Lovsky ...and that's just a handful of fellow Dutchies that shone on this blog. We posted a lot of Pondertone (Americana from the city of Utrecht) on CAGG. The songs have depth and a clear message. For these dark days, we were kinda hopin' that Patrick & the guys would release a new addition to their impressive Xmas discography. But no. Instead there is a compilation of all seasonal songs. Patrick Tersteeg (= Mr Pondertone) wrote an extensive blogpost about the ins and outs of his tracks, and leaves us a not so cheerful message: "Anyone hoping for a new Pondertone Christmas song this year will be disappointed. I'm sorry, I don't have anything to say this year that I haven't said before. Pondertone's 'new' Christmas album is literally old wine in a new bottle. For the artwork I used sketches that I found too depres...

Did you know that according to a recent survey in Belgium, 60% of Belgians cannot name a single Belgian Christmas song? That's because there's never been any kind of Belgian Christmas hit. Christmas a GoGo once featured Merry Merry by Tom Helsen, as well as Urbanus' 'Bakske vol met stro' , which has to be the most well-known song, but not a sing-a-long classic. The survey also said nearly 3 Belgians out of 5 want a new Christmas song by a Belgian artist. This year, a major online shopping site gifted Belgium a Christmas song: 'Pakjes vol liefde/Cadeaux pleins d'amour' ('Gifts full of love') features Jonathan Krego of The Voice and Elise Tack from the Scala, singing in French and Dutch. The song needed to appeal to all Belgians, had to be easy to follow and had to have meaningful lyrics. When Belgians need songs to represent their country like at the Eurovision Song Contest, they either alternate between French and Dutch, sing in English, o...

This is the second post with Christmas prison songs ( part 1 HERE ). The best known songs, John Prine's Christmas in Prison, The Youngsters' Christmas in Jail and Paul Kelly's How To Make Gravy are in part 1, so let's have a roll call for the more obscure and notorious locals: Let's kick off with a few Dutch artists. Frederique Spigt is one of Holland's finest blues singers (she can sing anything really, but there's always a bluesy feel). This sounds like a cover, but is an original from her 2014 album Medicine Show: Talk about blues singers, André Hazes is still (he passed away in 2004) one of Holland's biggest levenslied-zangers. Levenslied translates as 'song of life'; it's a mix of schmaltz and storytelling blues. His first hit from 1976 was called 'Eenzame Kerst' (Lonely Christmas), a story about a man who stole for his family, only to be locked up in jail and his wife sleeping with another man. This one's up there with ...

SABERTOOTH UNICORN, or as we like to say around the Christmas A Go Go offices, 'THE TOOTH', is the one band that can only be mentioned here in all caps. We're dedicated followers ever since their Hail Santa EP dropped in 2020. THE TOOTH punk their way through (mostly self-penned) Christmas songs, or should we say, instant classics. Yeah, they are loud. Yeah, they swear. Yeah, they care: Merry Fucking Christmas/I really hope the next year is better/I hope that you don't die. I mean, how can you NOT love these bunch?! They also wink to surf music, they don't shy away from a ballad and last year, they rocked our Dutch dikes with the epic Santa Claus, Santa Claus , 9 minutes long, with nods to heaven and hell, Vikings and Jesus. There were saxes and axes. I don't think we were the same after that song. And now, THE TOOTH released a live album (not a double live album, alas), with a glorious version of what is now, officially I guess, the 'Santastic Bohemia...

For the 12th year in a row Vancouver based label KingFisher Blues release a special Christmas 7 inch. Each record has a cover of what they call a "holly jolly winter building".  Here  you can find the list with all the singles. We did not write about all of them, only about  these . Most of the singles are 4-track various artist EP's. This year the EP even has 5 contributors with indie, jazzy and acoustic songs. My favourite is Spank Williams' version of  'Christmas in Prison'. Which has not been mentioned in the  John Prine prison special  in a previous CAGG post. Kingfisher Bluez Christmas Single 2023 by Spank Williams

How 'bout some GUITARS?! Metal up your Christmas, anyone? How about some Buried in Coal, a 'Post-Metal Christmas Family Band' that just released their 2nd seasonal album. Says BiC's Seth Scantlen in the liner notes of the 1st album: Because I’m bad about getting music out in the world and actually finishing it up and putting a bow on it; My kids tend to hear what I’m working on a lot more than anyone else. They’ve also been harassing me about making a Christmas song. One morning on the way to school while I was listening to the Post metal project I’ve been working on, my six-year-old Zola, began to sing “Christmas time, Christmas time is here” over one of the songs. And so “Buried in Coal” was born in early December and the race to tie up the lyrics and record began so we could have it out for y’all before sweet baby Jesus’s birthday. Really hope you enjoy this serious yet silly project. Oh, and I do enjoy his 'silly project'; the kids singing Happy Xmas (War ...

Neil Hamburger is an American comedian (real name Gregg Turkington). Wasn't very familiair with Hamburger, but if Brooklyn Vegan posts about him and his new album, I guess he has a reputation. I've listened to some of his material , and my impresson is that if anti-comedy like Lenny Bruce or Andy Kaufman is your thing, you very much enjoy Hamburgers work. By the way, it's the second time this year mr Hamburger pops up on this blog, you can hear him sing (cough) with Canned Hamm about a debauched office Christmas party in THIS post . This year, NH released Seasonal Depression Suite , an 'album-based musical, sung by an all-star cast whose voices embody various guests stuck in a perfectly average chain-hotel, wallowing in self-pity and paranoia, re-living personal catastrophes both real and imagined, or simply trying to use the hotel vending machine.' That all-star cast includes Annabella Lwin (of Bow Wow Wow fame), Frank Sinatra's granddaughter A.J. Lambert, ...

E-mail from Berlin! Hans from Grizzly Bird on his first festive single: 'This song is from the perspective of a parcel delivery clerk in Berlin. Against all myths of German efficiency, delivery companies in Berlin are mostly overworked and often do a very bad job at delivering anything. Since no one wants to do these jobs, it's usually immigrants that barely speak German and work under bad conditions. While writing the song, I felt something Christmassy about it and even saw some parallels to the biblical stories. So I decided to make a version of it that's set during Christmas time and is a bit more upbeat.' The song is (and I mean this in a good way) a drizzly indie-rock affair, with the right sombre atmosphere for the subject. Of course, there are links to movies like 'Sorry We Missed You' and several documentaries on delivery services. Plus, a protest song on Christmas , we're all for it. Hermes (Christmas Time) by Grizzly Bird

It won't be long before the office Christmas parties will start again, to the joy and sadness of many. Two weeks ago we had this post about those infamous parties, but there is much more.  Commenter Brian Foss (thanks!) came up with supposably from Seattle, Washington in the previous post on this topic. 'At The Office Christmas Party' comes from their four-song Christmas EP from 2015 and it immediately gets out of hand because the cops were called and " I kissed somebody but I forget, It was the best Christmas yet ". Ho ho ho! Fuck You! It's My Christmas Too! by supposably But things don't always go wrong. The office Christmas Party is also being looked forward to. There is flirting, hands are secretly touched near the copy machine. Wyldest seductively sings away the longing in a beautiful, sultry song. Office Christmas Party by Wyldest This brand new track by Doormats from Manchester, UK show us that there is more in a party than just getting drun...

Reindeer Tribe is a staple in the wonderful world of damn fine Christmas music. Up there with greats like Kristian Noel Pedersen , Make Like Monkeys , Non-Traditionals , Vista Blue . The ones you can count on, safe bets. This Californian bunch of friends & musicians just released their 13th (!) seasonal offering. Most of those albums had an Americana influence: country, blues, bluegrass, soul. They write their own songs, and sprinkle some albums with covers. This year, they have a new, quite unexpected (for me, that is) approach: new wave. The basslines in the appropriatly titled 'Cold' are straight from a Martin Hannett-produced album on Factory Records: Cheer Up Darlin', It's Christmas by Reindeer Tribe The first track seems influenced by the soundtrack for John Hughes' 80s highschool movies (16 Candles, Pretty in Pink, etc): Cheer Up Darlin', It's Christmas by Reindeer Tribe The RT explain themselves: Each year we have a theme of sorts, and th...

Only three hits for ' Japan ' on the blog, but today we add number four. And what a song this is! SiNT from Japan delights us with a truly wonderful indierock Christmas cracker that sounds as hurried as if he's chased closely by Santa's reindeer. But the truth is even more cruel, because (hurray for DeepL ) the love is over, no more presents on Christmas Day. A great 'n gritty song, a-like the also Japanese band Shonen Knife, who seemed to have a patent on this kind of tracks over ten years ago. And also reminiscent of that beautiful album ' Fantasma ' from 1997 by Cornelius (Japanese too). If this is how the Japanese underground handles Christmas music, then I'll suggest to move over the CAGG headquarters next year and find out more. Sweet Christmas by Shonen Knife

Like a flash in the night, singer/violinist Illicit Ghost treated us to a new and VERY good Christmas song ( here's one from 2020 ). Ethereal, tender, short, sad: 'Sometimes I dream you'll pick me up for one last silent ride/Cigarettes on the dash/Man, the smell of smoke it always takes me back/Christmas day is not the same/I just want it back the old way'. O man. Christmas Day by Illicit Ghost In the mood for some fun? Sexy fun? Portland, Oregon's Christmas Crackers put all their earlier danceable xmas tunes on one EP, and added some extra luuuurve: Get Christmassy by Christmas Crackers From the 5th A Billsdon Christmas compilation, released by UK label Aldora, this Wall of Sound(ish) track with choirs, bells, and parlandos. Love it: A Billsdon Christmas V: An Independent Festive Songbook by John Donegan feat. Isabelle and Phil Sorrell Italian blog Memoria Polaroid dropped their annual festive compilation, with very strong songs. This highly charming addi...