Tag: 2021

Posted on

The Grapes & Friends “One More Christmas” (2021)

Self Released
Buy: Apple Music | Amazon MP3 | Amazon.uk MP3 | Amazon.de MP3

It is that time of year when our sexiest Christmas heroes emerge with a sexy, sexy jam to lip-sync awkwardly at your significant other. Yes, the Grapes & Friends are back, slinking around the room with “One More Christmas.” This song has everything: wrapped human Christmas presents, crescent rolls, bearskin rugs, fax machines, promenades… what else can you want? Normally I’m also plugging their live show, but it has already past! Which is both terrible and wonderful… terrible if you could have gone and missed it, and wonderful in that it actually happened this year! Though I must say, it was quite fun to attend virtually last year. Perhaps normal life is returning, one funky, sexy, hilarious Christmas song at a time.

H/T to Randall Anthony, for hipping me to their new song!

Bottom Line: If you like what the Grapes are cooking up, you’re gonna to like this steamy pot of Christmas a whole damn lot.

LISTEN

Posted on

Bek Sarkoezy “New Year” (2021)

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp

It is almost time for Christmas… perfect time for an early New Year song! How about a stone-cold perfect New Year song? One written by an Australian perhaps? I certainly did not see that one coming…

Sydney’s Bek Sarkoezy maintains Australia’s 2021 Christmas Underground dominance, a trend which I am both tempted and taunted to maintain, by dropping this perfect song, “New Year,” in June of all times. Where do I begin with this song… the part where Bek sings “I just wanna go home,” and the horns kick in – that right there is magic. There are so many great lines too – “I wonder if this mess is the best that I can be.” Such a simple thought that we’ve all pondered, but perhaps not in such a perfect way before. There is so much to love in this song, that you really just need to listen to it… and buy it.

Bottom Line: A highlight of 2021 indeed. Bek Sarkoezy, I’ve got my eye on you.

LISTEN

Posted on

Lost Cat “Winter Wonderland” (2021)

Lolipop Records
Buy: 7Digital MP3/FLAC | Apple Music | Amazon MP3 | Amazon.uk MP3 | Amazon.de MP3 | Amazon.fr MP3

Who are you Lost Cat? You are a three-piece rock band on Lolipop Records… you have an Instagram… you have covered “Winter Wonderland” with your own impenetrable wall of sound. Adding to the mystery, Lolipop Records initially released an unattributed version of this song on Soundcloud a month or so ago… Mystery (and general lack of specific information) aside, this cover of “Winter Wonderland” has pretty much taken what you love about the Darlene Love version and turned up the fuzz to an eleven. It is like adding a finishing salt to your favorite food… just delicious.

Bottom Line: Lost Cat’s fuzzed-out “Winter Wonderland” hits the spot.

LISTEN

Posted on

Hans Pucket “I Don’t Know What To Get You For Christmas (Do I Really Love You​?)” (2021)

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp

Well, this is just a delight. Wellington, New Zealand’s Hans Pucket come in with this fantastic song and make me wish I hadn’t just made, handed out, and shipped 85 copies of my yearly Christmas mix. Well… be rest assured, this song about questioning whether you really love someone because you can’t think of what to get them for Christmas is going to be on next year’s. First, I love the angle they came at this song from; I don’t believe I’ve ever encountered a Christmas song wrestling with such a question. THEN they add in those horns and I pretty much lose my mind. So… is your mix not quite finished? I’m jealous as shit.

There is a 7″ lathe cut of this amazing song (with a B-side I am not able to sample yet), but it does appear to be exclusively for New Zealanders… as their Facebook page and the shipping prices suggest.

Bottom Line: I do know what I want for Christmas… and it is this lathe cut. BLAST, such a good song.

LISTEN

Posted on

Shame “Baldur’s Gate” (2021)

Shame "Baldur's Gate"

Dead Oceans
Buy: Apple Music | Amazon MP3 | Amazon.uk MP3 | Amazon.de MP3 | Amazon.fr MP3

London post-punk band Shame has a solid history of excellent Christmas tunes, a legacy that they really jumped right into alongside their debut record. I covered their excellent version of “Feliz Navidad” back in 2018, and would still love to hear the holiday flexi for “Tinsel Gate,” sent with early preorders of their last record, Drunk Tank Pink. This year’s selection, “Baldur’s Gate,” isn’t a celebration of Christmas, but more a snapshot of a holiday past from frontman Charlie Steen… I’ll let him describe:

‘It’s another Christmas classic. It’s about a period of time in which I’d regularly be trekking up to the streets of Edinburgh to see an ex-partner. These are some of the thoughts I’d have when I’d be leaving Waverley station, en route back to London in the winter nights.’

The deeper the song goes, the more I’m into the groove they have created. Certainly not your standard holiday release… which is what this blog is kinda about. Enjoy!

Bottom Line: Shame is a killer band during all twelve months of the year, and “Baldur’s Gate” only reinforces this.

LISTEN

Posted on

Corvair “Under the Tree” (2021)

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp

It is the coldest day of the year so far, at least where I live. Hopefully writing about this warm little song, “Under the Tree,” by Portland’s Corvair will thaw out my fingers…

For those uninitiated with Corvair by their excellent single from last year, “Flannel Pajamas” (which also appeared on WIAIWYA’s 24), they are a “super duo” with more than twenty albums between them. Brian Naubert (Ruston Mire, Tube Top, Pop Sickle, The Service Providers) and Heather Larimer (Eux Autres – who have an indie-classic Christmas EP) put out a full-length LP earlier this year, the self-titled Corvair, and with two holiday releases in a row, are nicely positioned to be one of our indiepop Christmas yearly heroes. Corvair mines one of my favorite Christmas veins in “Under the Tree,” nostalgia. Those songs where you are sitting in front of the fire, thinking back on Christmases past… that is a box I routinely check. The chorus presents this wonderfully, as the tempo picks up and they sing, “When we were young, reckless and dumb, / the gifts were all free. / Now I’m tired and I’m leaving it under the tree tonight.” Looking back on your youth and past relationships with an equal sense of love and regret – that’s kind of what I get from this song. “Dreaming away that Christmas Day could just fill me with something new / Without you this place is so cold.” This song is one of those beautiful, emotional songs that I continue to be drawn to, hook, line, and sinker.

Bottom Line: Corvair’s Christmas songs keep getting better and better.

LISTEN

Posted on

The Photocopies “Under Christmas Lights” (2021)

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp (NYOP)

There is something quite endearing about this little ramshackle indiepop Christmas song by Michigan’s The Photocopies. The fuzzy guitars, driving beat, and clever lyrics of “Under Christmas Lights” has really got me moving. The narrator is really working on winning over his ex on this song… but things aren’t going very well: “In the season of goodwill / We needn’t go downhill / if you really want to / We’ll go sled. / You can be hostile, / working on your smile / Without it I might as well be dead.” Perhaps the Christmas lights will provide the magic he needs…

Many thanks to my buddy Ned for once again hipping me to new Christmas tunes; Our Venn diagram is solidly indiepop these days.

Bottom Line: Classic indiepop upbeat music and downbeat lyrics… which is a thing I do enjoy.

LISTEN

Posted on

Christmas Aguilera – All Wrapped Up / All I Want Is You (2021)

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp | Crowdfunder

I somtimes like to imagine a young music fan, who has just gotten this great idea to look for some different Christmas songs, and has found Christmas Underground. I am oddly jealous of this young person – to be able to hear these bands for the first time. They’ll look at my tag cloud, and not know what to make of the weird names on it… including this band, Christmas Aguilera, seeming more like a typo than a premier indie rock Christmas band. Christmas Aguilera are most certainly not a typo, and have returned once more with a new, double-A sided single to brighten our holiday season. Side A, “All Wrapped Up,” is a holiday gone to hell, but with a great chorus to sing along to. Side AA, “All That I Want is You,” is an extremely funny and sweet song about “only wanting you for Christmas.” The lyrics are too great to not give you a taste here:

Don’t write me any song
Don’t buy me the biography of Neil Armstrong
Don’t order me a piece of the moon
Don’t buy me a silvery spoon
And don’t knit me a sock
Don’t cut of all your hair and give me a lock
Don’t make me a strawberry milkshake
Don’t buy me a diamond, real or fake
I’ll never want a tv show
No sunflowers or any old Van Gogh
Don’t buy me any car, write it off
Don’t buy me anything that I can scoff

All I want is you
What Mariah said is true
All I want is you
Like ABBA sang you’re my Waterloo
Got me higher than Katmandu

Damn they are so f*ing clever. Christmas Aguilera are just so much fun to listen to, and I’m grateful for every year that I get a note in my inbox with more songs. Of course, all proceeds from these songs, just like all their other songs, go to benefit Shelter, a UK charity working to end homelessness. This year is a little bit extra-special, as Christmas Aguilera have created an additional Crowdfunder with some pretty great rewards. You can donate via the Crowdfunder and just buy the new songs, but throw in a little more and you can get a Christmas carol sung by Christmas Aguilera. Dig a bit deeper and they will record a Christmas song of your choice for you! Have deep pockets and live within 50 miles of London (not me!)? They will play your house! This is TOO COOL.

Man… what song should I request…

Bottom Line: Christmas Aguilera has been churning out these incredible Christmas tunes for so long that it almost makes you forget that WRITING A GOOD CHRISTMAS SONG IS HARD. This band has the spirit, and it just feels effortless.

LISTEN

Posted on

Grandaddy “It was a Silent Night at least until Jeff Lynne arrived” (2021)

Self-Released
Buy: Bandcamp

I think this song gave me way more joy than is recommended at my age. I mean… I just got over this tendonitis – my body can only take so much action. The smiling… the swaying… I might just pull something. Grandaddy’s reworking of “Silent Night” is actually a more fully-produced version of a track from earlier this year, “It was a Silent Night at least until Jeff Lynne arrived… In a Trance,” which was on the film soundtrack In a Trance and Wandering Around. Frankly, I’m ashamed that I didn’t catch it earlier. This song is truly a TON of fun… and will pair perfectly with their classic “Alan Parsons in a Winter Wonderland.” Jason sure does wear his influences on his sleeves 🙂

Bottom Line: Follow their journey freaking out about Jeff Lynne and you will not be disappointed.

LISTEN

Posted on

Zach Malm “What Does Christmas Mean To You?” (2021)

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp

A few years after his much-lauded (by me!) full-length Christmas LP, The Darkest Time of the Year, Zach Malm is back in the Christmas music game with the lovely “What Does Christmas Mean to You?” I absolutely adore the instrumentation on this track, as the rhythms overlap and build throughout. The lyrics are nuanced and complex; A favorite line I’ve been turning over in my head is, “We’re on the other side of certain truth.” So f*ing dead on. This is a song that demands more than just listening – it is most certainly a thinker. You shouldn’t be surprised though, as it asks you a question in the title (and in the last line)! A question which a lot of us have VERY complicated answers for if we have an answer at all. So sit back, enjoy, and think deeply about our new world… while enjoying some wonderful music.

Bottom Line: Zach Malm returns with a wonderfully rhythmic and contemplative addition to our holiday playlists.

LISTEN