Christmas Underground

November 4, 2022

The Martial Arts – Christmas With The Martial Arts (2020/2022)

wiaiwya
Buy: Bandcamp (digital/lathe-cut vinyl)

Look at me… now I am REALLY just copying Christmas A Go Go as I essentially update and repost an older post with exciting new information (rather than have to write a whole new post… which is WORK!) The wonderful Where It’s At is Where You Are (wiaiwya) label has just dropped 50 lathe-cut, 10″ copies of The Martial Arts’ excellent Christmas EP, Christmas with the Martial Arts. And hey – it’s Bandcamp Friday, so Bandcamp isn’t even taking their cut! Go buy it now! And now, my original review:

I’m in a mood tonight. I want to just yell and swear (in a good way) about every record I find. You have no idea what I’ve already written and deleted for this review, but let your mind go crazy. Glasgow’s The Martial Arts is a project of Paul Kelly, whose CV is a murderers row of great bands (BMX Bandits / Carla J Easton / The Primary 5 / Ette / Radiophonic / Tuckshop / How to Swim / The Hector Collectors) has put together this just FUCKING FUN AND WONDERFUL Christmas EP, recorded over eight years and finished over lockdown. The first two bouncing, beautiful tracks, “Stockings” and “Snow Flakes,” just take off like a rocket and shoot sparklers out of their ass for four minutes a piece. I devoured every second, with a giant grin on my face. “My Christmas was in June” is a cover of a Ze Malibu (feat. members of Redd Kross and that dog) song, and while the tempo slows to a stroll, the scenery is gorgeous. The final track and the only one actually fully-recorded in 2020, “Blinded by the Night” takes me back to the 80’s, to an emotional moment in a movie with lots of driving in the rain and staring out the window. “Stare into my bright disco eyes,” god I love that line. Go buy this record, but wait a few hours for #Bandcampfriday, why don’t ya?

Bottom Line: This is an indie/power/retro pop mixture that, like the unholy concoction the Long Island iced tea, will fuck you up real good.

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November 3, 2022

Mr. Manager & Katy Kirby – A Salute To Good King Wenceslas: Christmas Joy Forever and Ever Amen (2015)

Mama Bear
Buy: Bandcamp (Free!)

Katy Kirby has been featured once before on this site, with her absolutely stunning cover of the Handsome Family’s “So Much Wine, Merry Christmas,” and could very well be featured one more time should you wish to hunt it down before I get around to it…

This two-track single from 2015 features a collaboration between Nashville’s Mr. Manager & Katy Kirby, each featuring the kind of emotional indie folk that I’m indeed a sucker for. The first song, “Don’t be Sad Molly, It’s Christmas,” is a shared duet convincing Molly to be happy at Christmas. I’m trying to figure out the relationship between the narrator and the subject, but who really cares… we all can draw our own conclusions. There are some wonderful lyrics here:

you walked alone out in the snowflakes
you walked away from all the mistakes
the holiday of joy and heartache
it’s Christmas, sweet Molly please stay

The second track, “Baby, Don’t You Know It’s Christmas Eve,” is much more of a Mr. Manager feature, with Katy providing backing vocals (and likely an instrument or two.) Their intertwined vocal interplay, the beautiful banjo melody, all while pouring out these evocative lines, the whole experience left me staring off into the distance… imagining a past I never lived. (I’m an easy mark.) But check this verse:

I filled this book all to the brim
with songs of our love caving in
but I’ll burn the pages, break the pen
and tonight I’ll write you that love song
the one I’ve promised all year long
oh baby, don’t you know it’s christmas eve?

That “break the pen” line is so simple and so powerful. Simplicity is a weapon that many folks can’t wield, but Mr. Manager and Katy Kirby have some big guns here.

Bottom Line: Both songs are incredibly solid, and I’m sure I’d find differing opinions as to which one reigns supreme. But what a wonderful problem to have.

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November 2, 2022November 2, 2022

Coach Party “Wonderful Christmastime” (2020)

There are some songs that I really, really don’t enjoy… and Macca’s “Wonderful Christmastime” is most certainly on that list. For a guy who genuinely enjoys synths, one would think that I might be more fond of this modern classic, but those sugary-sweet synths rub me the wrong way. Thankfully, Coach Party has flown in from the Isle of Wight and saved the day, scrubbing those cloying synths with as many fuzzed-out guitars as humanly possible. Granted, they didn’t have quite the same hill to climb as anybody who tackles “Little Drummer Boy” might, but I tip my hat to Coach Party for making this terrible song pretty damn awesome.

Bottom Line: There is still a pop sensibility here, but Coach Party has frayed the edges enough to make me a fan.

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November 1, 2022

Katy Kirby “So Much Wine, Merry Christmas” (2021/2022)

The Handsome Family’s “So Much Wine, Merry Christmas” has slowly become an underground classic, being covered by the likes of Andrew Bird and The Minus 5’s Scott McCaughey, amongst many, many others. Each new year brings new voices to this beautiful, yet dark song, and 2021 welcomed the wonderful Katy Kirby to the growing chorus. A solo, acoustic version of “So Much Wine, Merry Christmas” debuted at Radio Milwaukee late last year, while a fully-produced version found its way onto the extended edition of her wonderful 2021 release, Cool Dry Place. Katy’s cover is technically based on the Andrew Bird arrangement, which I have already heaped some praise upon, but I am finding myself even more taken by Katy’s approach. Her soulful voice nestled amongst warm piano lines will leave you wishing for a crackling fire to stare at… perhaps some (spiked) eggnog as well. Indeed, this is a thing of beauty.

Bottom Line: Katy Kirby enters the top tier of “Too Much Wine” covers, and most certainly muscles her way on to many a discerning Christmas mixtape.

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October 28, 2022October 28, 2022

Hope Irish “Here’s to Holidays” (2009)

Superpop Records
Buy: Bandcamp (NYOP)

I love digging up old songs as much as I do hearing the latest to drop. 2009’s “Here’s to Holidays” by Austin, Texas’ Hope Irish is one of those forgotten gems that I feel genuinely fortunate to have stumbled upon. The production is full of interesting colors, from the accordion melody to the mandolin, guitar, and slapping drums, providing a wonderful ramshackle accompaniment to Hope’s feisty, boozy lyrics about being alone on Christmas. The ending is particularly notable, as Hope repeats “If I could I’d piss your name in the snow…,” a sentiment that my wife, while falling asleep, really connected with. That’s love folks.

Of note – this song appeared on Superpop Records’ Holiday Collection 2009. Anybody have this? Want to share?? 🙂 I’d love to know what else was on this…

Bottom Line: A quick, boozy song of love and loss is a formula that (unsurprisingly) I can very much get behind.

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October 27, 2022October 27, 2022

Lucie,Too “Winter Song” (2020)

Thistime Records
Buy: Bandcamp

I must say, I’m much less familiar with the Japanese indiepop scene than I probably should be. I more than dabble in indiepop, I seek it out… yet somehow I’m only now learning about what appears to be a very popular band from Utsunomiya, Japan, Lucie,Too. Their excellent Christmas single from 2020 is the kind of song that requires no further understanding of what is being said, as you’re going to be tapping your foot too much to care. However, I take comfort in the fact that it follows that tried and true indiepop formula of upbeat music with sad lyrics; the song is about the “worst Christmas for a lonely girl who went on a date with (a) taken guy.” There were cassettes of this available back in the day – but again – this band appears to be quite popular (based on the Bandcamp collections/Youtube views/etc), so those are long gone. Too bad for physical music fetishists like me…

Bottom Line: Extremely good indiepop destined for any mixes that have missed it over the past two years.

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October 26, 2022

Caleb Nichols “(I Fell In Love On) Christmas Day” (2021/2022)

My fellow holiday-blogger DJ El Toro sparked off Festive! Fanzine’s holiday season with a fantastic interview with San Luis Obispo’s Caleb Nichols. As Festive! went through the effort to interview Caleb, I would like to send you there to learn more about this song and Caleb as a wonderful-song-writing human being. I will, however, let you know a few basic things about the song. First, it appeared last year on Kill Rock Stars’ It’s Hard To Dance When It’s Cold And There’s No Music: Kill Rock Stars Winter Holiday Album Volume 2, but has since also been released on Caleb’s excellent 2022 record, Ramon. Secondly, these lyrics are that mixture of joy and sadness that I am so terribly attracted to. “What Dickens knew I now intone / that without love you die alone. / Though we all must die alone, / maybe love can take the sting away. / Oh Tannenbaum, oh tinsel tree, / oh silver bells, oh misery. / If you can find someone to share / the misery with, you’ll be square. / So fall in love each Christmas day, / cause only love can take away / the loneliness and the bitter pain / that you feel on days like this.” What a lovely sentiment from a lived life.

Bottom Line: This is emotional without being sentimental. Truly a rare treat in the Christmas genre.

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October 25, 2022October 25, 2022

Tino Drima “I Wish That it Was Christmas” (2019)

Going through my drafts is always fun. Here’s a pearl that led off my Christmas mix last year, yet somehow never made an official entry on the site. Get ready for some extremely modest exposure, Tino Drima!

California’s Tino Drima somehow snuck this gold nugget by us all… and I’m honestly amazed that I’m the first website to highlight this fantastic song. The groove is infectious, and Tino’s relaxed vocals give the song a swagger not often found in Christmas music. For those who listened to 2021’s “This is Just a Modern Xmas Song” (and there may be about 300 of you out there in the billions that live on earth), I hope you Shazamed that first song, hunted it down, and have found a home for this song on your mix this year.

Bottom Line: This song deserves to be an indie rock Christmas classic.

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October 21, 2022February 2, 2023

The Bug Club “Christmas Lullaby” (2022)

Bingo Records
Buy: Bandcamp | Apple Music | Amazon MP3 | Amazon.uk MP3 | Amazon.de MP3

The relief of finding a song that is a “#1 hit with a bullet” for your Christmas mix is something that any mixer can appreciate, so when I saw Christmas A-Go-Go tweet out this song a week or so ago… I had a physical reaction to it. Anxiety manifests in many different ways, from your breathing all the way down to plantars warts… and 15 seconds into this fantastic song, “Christmas Lullaby” by the Welsh indie rock band The Bug Club, my baseline anxiety cleared and a calm washed over me. This song should and will be on a million Christmas mixes… oh to be making my first and discover that fun-ass Christmas songs like this exist…

I realized that I hadn’t talked about the song at all! Just how I felt about it! Well, this could most certainly be a blue-album Weezer Christmas song… so Weezer in the best-possible meaning. That guitar solo… I can almost picture a young Rivers…

EDIT: Welllll. They put this out on a flexi (long gone) and have released the record in North America (via We are Busy Bodies)! So I bought it!

Bottom Line: This song has a vibe that I could overdose on if given the opportunity.

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October 18, 2022November 20, 2025

Hannah Glavor – Find a Light (2021)

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp

What is up with me? Why am I writing about covers of traditional hymns? Is it because people are actually DOING something cool with them? The question is the answer, duh. Portland’s Hannah Glavor has transformed “O Little Town of Bethlehem” into something that I genuinely enjoy. It has the warm feel of a Midlake record, as I caught myself thinking a whole lot about “Roscoe” (one of my all-time favorite songs). She has fleshed out and modernized a nice handful of tracks here – “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” “Away in a Manger,” and even “Silent Night” feels like something completely brand new. She takes bits and pieces of the original melody, then adds in all these other lines that your brain is just not ready for. This thing is a workout for your old noodle. There is one modern-day Christmas song being covered here, Josh Garrels’ “May You Find a Light.” Of all the songs on here, this is the one that feels the most similar to the original. That may be because I’m so programmed to know those traditional carols, and not familiar with Josh’s song. Either way, it is a very lovely song. This is folk-pop Christmas at a very high level.

Bottom Line: Very surprising, solid EP that makes the classics seem new once again.