Snowflakes Singles Club
Buy: Snowflakes SC | Bandcamp
Not breaking any news here, but good songs sometimes need a little cheerleading before someone will listen. One of my favorite tracks from this season has been The Miserable Rich‘s “Everything You Wanted.” It is one of those songs that took me a few listens to absolutely love, but those are the kind of songs that last. I particularly like the chorus, where the music rises and the horns come in. His voice has a great emotional quality to it, which I feel is just something you have – and can’t really learn.
This is just one of four releases from the Snowflakes Singles Club, an excellent new project that I hope we see more of next year. They still have some 7-inches left through the Miserable Rich’s Bandcamp, as well as over at Snowflakes SC (where there are a few sets with the now sold out Smoke Fairies 7″ still available).
Bottom Line: You need to invest a few listens. Then fork over your money. 5/5
Christmas Underground 
Is it me, or are there fewer Christmas songs being released by name bands? Or have I just fallen out of touch? I want more new stuff for my comps and Bandcamp is too vast. The most recent stuff I’ve loved is songs by Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo or the Bubblegum Lemonade song on the Matinee Holiday Soiree. Also, A Very Indie Christmas by Paisley and Charley is making me very happy this year.
There is usually one compilation a year that is full of name bands – the Starbucks one last year is a prime example. I suppose this year you could point to Festivus 2 – but that has a lot of previously released material. I am normally disappointed by those releases though. One of the main reasons I started this blog was a reaction to the “Indie Christmas” mixes that proliferated the blogosphere, where you’d get the same tired list of songs by bands you recognize… without really caring that the song was terrible. Of Montreal = terrible Christmas tune. Shins = Wonderful Christmastime? Why would anyone cover that song? Things like that.
My absolute favorite finds of the past few years have been bands that I’ve never heard of, that I’ve come to adore. If you haven’t listened to last year’s Christmas Aguilera release, than you need to. The title track off their release this year, also fantastic. There really is some good stuff out there… but the more I look, the less I find name bands attached to them. But those no-name bands often become name bands… El Perro del Mar, I got her Christmas tune as a CD-r from Hybris way back in the day. I think it was an edition of 50 or 100. Her only other release was a 7″ for Dog if I remember correctly. Frightened Rabbit – when they released their first Christmas tune (they have made a habit of doing them almost yearly), they had only released their first record and were barely known in the US. It was technically their second single ever – but was coming out late enough (and only in the UK), that I had to rip a MySpace stream to get it on my mix in time. (I have since bought it) Both bands could be considered “no name” at the time, with the only real attraction being the labels they were attached to.
The one thing I can take from scrounging around Bandcamp for a few years… is that I often judge a book by its cover. Good bands normally have somewhat of an aesthetic. Amateur hour is often reflected in the cover art… avoid Papyrus at any cost.
Very true. Taste in the artwork tends to be a sign that care went into the music too. So many bands think it would be fun to do a Christmas song so they cover something like Last Christmas. Terrible song and a tremendous cliché as hundreds of bands have covered it, especially in the last five years or so. Or Christmastime Is Here from Peanuts. It’s fine in the special, but it’s barely a song and I don’t want to hear another group mope their way through it. This is the problem with listening to hundreds of Christmas songs every year to come up with a solid 25 or so.