Not much has changed. Standard Christmas ideas such as charity, forgiveness, a clean slate, a new beginning, peace, or even hospitality seem further away than ever these days. This year Pondertone - Americana from the city of Utrecht - is tackling Christmas depression with a cheerful song: nothing is what it seems, which is usual for Pondertone. 'Christmas as Usual' lets us try to see Christmas through a child's eyes. Why is there always so much hustle and bustle in December? Why does Mummy have a headache? Why does Daddy watch 'Die Hard' every year at Christmas? And why is there even more violence on the news?
Pondertone will be playing their new song and a bunch of others live on December 15 at Café de Stad in Utrecht and on December 16 at Christmas A GoGo, Paradiso (upper room), in Amsterdam. Be sure to check out Pondertone's Bandcamp for more great tunes.
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: Happy New Year EP by Violent Femmes
Read it and weep HERE . Sure, one of the perks of making a Best Of-list is that someone else can disagree with it. But this Pitchfork-list is so, as CU tweeted, uninspired it's getting me nauseous. There are non-Christmassongs in the list. Songs that are overplayed. Two versions of the same song. And Low's Little Drummer Boy instead of Just Like Christmas? Really? REALLY? Let's get a few things straight. When making a Best Christmas Songs-list, you need to set ground rules. Do hymns (O Come, O Come Emmanuel), traditional Christmassongs (O Tannenbaum) and pop songs compete with each other? Do you choose original versions or best versions? And, maybe the most important thing, what does your (play)list achieve; to heighten spirits, to have plain fun? Pitchfork's list just f's around, there's no real idea behind it. So, whatabout us, CAGG-team and you, readers, make an alternative Best Of-list? Songs that are criminally overlooked by Pitchfork. Pop songs, rock ...
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...
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