Rational Youth and Trans X's Christmas songs

There I was at my Christmas gig playing some old, early 1980s favourites, like Montréal's Rational Youth and I hadn't realised that they have a Christmas song called 'Merry Christmas Mary Ann' (2013). I usually mix their song 'Cité Phosphore' (1981-1982) with Trans X's 'Vivre sur Vidéo', another band from Montréal. 'Cité Phosphore' is the French version of 'City of Night', while 'Vivre sur Vidéo' (1981, released 1983) is the French version of 'Living on Video'. Rational Youth says this about their Christmas song:

"This is a track that Tracy wrote and recorded a few years back as a Christmas present for Gaenor. The name 'Mary Ann' refers to when Gaenor and Tracy first met at a Rational Youth show in Edmonton in 1983; Gaenor told Tracy that her name was Mary Ann. Who knows why? Probably so we could do this song years later!"

Rational Youth started in 1981, clearly influenced by Kraftwerk and others. Nobody in Montréal was going the European synthpop route the way they were, except for maybe Trans X. The band was famous in countries like Sweden in their own right. Also typical for both Montréal bands was not being famous in their city, a real curse. Do yourself a huge favour and check out both bands' fantastic back catalogues.

Trans X's modified their 'Living on Video' (1982-1982) and made it 'Living on Wonderland' (2019), maybe for fun or because they miss the snow in Montréal, as the band is now based in Mexico. Trans X was also heavily influenced by Kraftwerk and are the better known band, but both are worth a look in!