More Short Notes

By -
December is just around the corner, so the Christmas releases increase. Here's another quick round-up:

Wake Up & Smell The Sun is a regular on this blog, and the new trilogy of songs is mighty strong. For a big review, go over to Jim/Christmas Underground. Here at CAGG, we bang our heads to this sweaty buffalo of a Christmas rock song:


Marta Arpini is Italian, lives in Holland and writes pretty folksy dreampop songs. This Christmas is her first Christmas song, it's inspired by Santa Baby and Marta says: 'I hope This Christmas makes you feel light, sparkly and soft, warmly mysterious, like a half-smile or a gaze that holds eye contact, sweet and inviting. Maybe it will make you sway, or swoon, or float a bit.'


Canadian singer-songwriter Dan Mangan wrote this beautiful Christmas song with great brass and strings, and very smart lyrics: 'Maybe that’s just Christmas, kid/Sorta sweet and kinda sad/In the middle distance where life always lands/And it hits you like an avalanche.'

Christmas and hairstyles, now that's a theme we need to explore, this'd be the first song of that post, by punkheads The Dunzos from Florida:


Suzan Köcher's Suprafon is a German band that blend dream pop, psychedelica and even disco in their mix. This track is indeed dreamy, spacey but not much disco. Space Christmas, great theme.
And there is a video too

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Happy 2025!

By -
Image
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 more

Pitchfork's 50 Best Christmas Songs

By -
Image
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 ...
Read more

Pondertone, in spite of it all

By -
Image
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...
Read more