Category: Singles/Tracks

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Thanks Light “Dirtbag Christmas” (2024)

Perpetual Doom
Buy: Bandcamp | Flexi!!!!

So everything came out today. I’m writing this in the 15 minutes I have in the morning… after having worked until about 9:45 last night… Wait. Did I say I wasn’t going to complain in a post a day or two ago? I LIED!

With a title like “Dirtbag Christmas,” I knew I had to press play, and I was happy to see I wasn’t being seduced by yet another cheeky title – it was indeed great. This song by Thanks Light has a great “Ballad of John and Yoko” bassline, and a Dougie Poole feel that makes total sense, as Dougie and Thanks Light’s Zane Ruttenberg recorded and produced this track together. The song is about Zane’s entire family coming down with Covid, and him having to drive back home to spend Christmas in his bathrobe, drinking whiskey and playing scratch-off lottery tickets. I dunno… that kind of “nothing to do” sounds pretty damn appealing right now.

Bottom Line: Love the groove, love the sentiment, love the cover art = Love.

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ROE “Christmas Once Again” (2024)

Self Released
Buy: Juno (WAV/FLAC/MP3) | Apple Music | Amazon MP3 | Amazon.uk MP3

ROE is an alt-pop weirdo from Northern Ireland and her wonderful first step into the world of alt-xmas has me feeling some great 90s vibes. I’m struggling to find the touchpoint I want – it nearly comes to me, then I lose it. Perhaps one of my five readers (I love you all!) will be able to pin it down… anyway, let’s focus. I love the vocal melody – it moves all over, with these changes of pace that are just damn pleasing. It is explicitly a Christmas song but doesn’t fall into any of those trite, predictable Christmas buckets that I hear so, so very often. Give it a listen, won’t you?

Bottom Line: From one weirdo (me) to another (you, the reader), you should listen to this weirdo.

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Birdcloud “Cool Christmas” (2011/2024)

Self Released / yk records
Buy: Bandcamp

I have a whole bunch of solid excuses as to why I’m not posting enough. Everybody loves complaining! Andddddddd…. Nah.

I’ve had this song by NSFW Nashville duo Birdcloud for a long while now, but it popped back into my field of view with their release of a “Honeybacked Ham Hologram” 7-inch record coming out Dec. 20. The song is all energy and attitude. It is abrasive. It is silly. The chorus is oddly sweet. This is the kind of song that won’t be a broad crowd-pleaser but might be some weirdo’s favorite track. I’m quite curious what the b-side – their version of “Silent Night” (which is not available for preview) will sound like…

Bottom Line: This thing is both a grower and a shower.

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Joe Pernice “A Song for You” (1986/2024)

Ashmont Records
Buy: Stream on Substack

Joe Pernice of Pernice Brothers/Scud Mountain Boys/The New Mendicants (to name a few) just published a rather sweet story about this song on his substack. Originally written and recorded in 1986 after finishing his first semester at college, Joe’s cassette copy of the song was lost and largely forgotten. Thankfully his cousin who had helped him demo the song had kept a copy for himself. When Joe’s cousin passed away, a box of cassettes brought it back from the abyss. The song was a gift to his family that he played for them that Christmas in 1986. The version that we hear now is not the original cassette demo, but Joe’s re-recording he just made, to not risk a brittle old cassette in an off-brand Walkman any more than he had to. Pretty cool that it made it back to him…

Bottom Line: It is a simple song, written from the heart as a present to his family… how much more Christmas-spirit do you need than that?

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Head on over to Ashmont Records’ Substack. The song is embedded over there.

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Slow Salvation “The Ghost of Last Christmas” (2024)

Velvet Blue Music
Buy: Bandcamp

I sure hope someone is out there compiling an incredible dream pop/shoegaze Christmas record… because here is another! New Jersey’s Slow Salvation are bringing their effects pedals to Christmas with the wonderful “The Ghost of Last Christmas.” This genre is often mainly a vibe, with the walls of buzzing guitars and airy vocals creating an atmosphere for the lyrics to live in, though Slow Salvation has even brought some lovely, simple lyrics to the table: The gifts I bring / Are filled with memories / That we sing / Take Me Home.” Just a gorgeous song.

Bottom Line: Shoegaze Christmas is gonna be a thing, and this song is a highlight.

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Kestrels “Last Christmas” (2024)

Darla
Buy: Darla (MP3/FLAC) | Bandcamp

I am thoroughly sick of most popular Christmas songs. Somehow… “Last Christmas” is not in that category. It is likely my love of George Michael that keeps me from going full Grinch. However, most versions bore me to death – the same old same old. Thankfully, Halifax’s Kestrels have found a fuzzy, droning bassline that has given me permission to enjoy this song once again.

Bottom Line: Kestrels deliver a quick and easy thumbs up from a grumbly Christmas blogger.

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EDIT: Looks like this isn’t the first run with “Last Christmas!” Here is Kestrels member Chad Peck from 8 years ago 🙂

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Cheyenne Marrs “Santa’s Lament” (2023)

Red Curtain Records
Buy: Darla (MP3/FLAC)

So, Thanksgiving has me traveling this year, and thus, I’m a bit more distracted than I normally am at this crucial moment in the Christmas music release schedule. I’ll do my best to drop a post here and there when I can… but hey, some years are going to be more fruitful than others I suppose.

Memphis’ Cheyenne Marrs dropped a wonderful Christmas original last year that I missed. This is indeed a trend. I’m looking forward to all my posts next year about the songs I missed this year! “Santa’s Lament” is not the Father Guido Sarducci song from 1995 – so while the content is a bit humorous, it is not Dr. Demento-humorous. I loved the lyrics, – Santa busting his ass for everyone, straining his back, not getting any cookies – thought it is the music that hooked me. The percussion that begins the song propels the song along until “the work is done” and the horns begin to creep in for the big ending. It is a fun one. I do hope you enjoy it.

Bottom Line: Give thanks to folks who make the music you love, and check out Cheyenne’s 2023 debut full-length “Everybody Wants to Go Home.”

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Elliot Maginot “Waiting on Christmas” (2024)

Audiogram
Buy: Bandcamp

I hope you all aren’t afraid of some grand, sincere, emotion in your Christmas songs. Montreal’s Elliot Maginot has returned with his annual tune (often featured on CU!), and it raises the drama of what has already been a pretty grandiose Christmas catalog. “Waiting on Christmas” begins with Elliot nearly in a whisper, and as the emotion grows, so do the strings. The centerpiece of the song is the lovely spoken word in the refrain provided by Michael Taylor Hick, whose lines are initially echoed by Elliot in the background, “I will lay down my head / I will forgive my body / shedding my pain as I go / I will show only love to they neighbor / I’ll let in everyone that I know / I’ve been waiting on Christmas / just to let it snow down on me.”

I feel that. Somehow I’ve got this little part of me that thinks this Christmas will fill us with the strength we need to get through the uncertain year we have awaiting us. This song captures that, with the hope that everyone accesses that well of shared humanity.

Bottom Line: Elliot Maginot is a truly unique voice. Listen with an open mind.

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Pinemoon “Christmas Together” (2022)

Pinhead Music
Buy: 7Digital (MP3/FLAC) | Apple Music | Amazon MP3

The swell of new releases is beginning… and here I find myself writing about a song from two years ago. I stumbled upon Copenhagen’s Pinemoon, and they just hit me right. 2022’s “Christmas Together” is a swooning, shoegazing trip that reset my mood last night. Searching for Christmas music is digging in the digital mines and more often than not, feeling hopeless and frustrated. Merry Christmas! So when you stumble upon something like “Christmas Together,” it calms your nerves and lets you fall asleep, ready to dig another day.

Bottom Line: This is a shoegaze Christmas classic.

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There is a piano version too!

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Pleasure Systems “Merry Christmas” (2024)

Primordial Void
Buy: Bandcamp

Of all places… The Fader (not known for breaking new Christmas music) tipped me off to this excellent new Christmas tune by Pleasure Systems (aka Clarke Sondermann). Well, certainly glad I caught it, as “Merry Christmas” is one of the strongest bedroom pop tracks of the year to date. Laid back, with lyrical and sonic twists that keep you engaged throughout, Clarke’s relaxed speak-singing style (as well as the lyrical approach) gave me some real Soltero vibes (who also have Christmas songs… that I might have to write about as well). (Edit: How did I not hear a Postal Service comparison before! Totally!) The song is warm, with fluttering accents popping in and out of the arrangement. There is a lot here in less than three minutes. Leave them wanting more, and I do.

Reading a bit about the motivation behind the song, I felt this rang true for many of the Christmas-ish songs I tend to feature on Christmas Underground. Clarke states “Merry Christmas” is, “A meditation on holidays as marking points in time… not quite Christmas music, instead utilizing familiar winter imagery as a backdrop for self-reflection on cyclical relationships and past versions of oneself.”

Christmas really does have a power, and whether you are a believer or not, the nostalgia, the sentimentality, or simply the flagpole it plants at the end of every year is something that many of us grapple with, whether we are aware of it or not. There is a heightening to everything… fertile ground for good art if you can find your way inside the artifice. I think Pleasure Systems found themselves a key.

A quick final note. For those who like holiday vinyl, there’s a 7-inch that is limited to 100 copies. Feel free to send me one if you are feeling generous!

Bottom Line: My son really started grooving on it last night, and was happy to have me play it over and over… so that is a rather large vote for this being mixworthy. He is really going to have a weird concept of classic Christmas music when he’s my age 🙂

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