Tag: indie rock

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Andy Clockwise “Collect Call to My Baby” (Merry Christmas) (2012)

Self Released
Buy: Soundcloud (FREE!) Apparently no longer downloadable…

Australian ex-pat Andy Clockwise (aka Andy Kelly) is a recent discovery for me, but most certainly a welcome one. Andy’s very excellent Christmas song “Collect Call to My Baby (Merry Christmas)” evaded me for 9 years… which is quite a feat for such a great song. From the very first moment, the groove will get you handclapping along – that is unless you’ve been drinking too much to keep the rhythm, as this song has a heavy pour of booze and would fit perfectly in with Christmas A Go Go’s recent “Drunken Christmas” series. “Collect Call” sounds both retro and modern at the same time – sharing production choices with the 60’s classics while being lyrically more playful than anything that would have been pressed to wax back then. I wouldn’t change a note in this song, and there isn’t much room to tinker when it comes in at about 3:20 – most certainly in the sweet spot for Christmas tunes. Hell… I loved this thing enough to have it feature on this year’s Christmas mix!

Be sure to check out Andy Clockwise’s regular music as well, it is extremely good. When I was listening to this song a bunch a while back, I would catch myself happily listening down his Soundcloud feed. So, please partake, as you are encouraged to get a little drunk on Andy Clockwise too.

Bottom Line: You never know what you are going to find when you are digging around Soundcloud… sometimes you find gold.

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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.

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Laurie Shaw – Snow Day EP (2021)

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp

Kenmare, Ireland’s Laurie Shaw has packaged an absolutely lovely little Christmas EP with two Christmas songs, a Springsteen cover, and another song that might be appropriate for another date-specific mix, “Graduation Day.” We are going to briefly chat about the two proper Christmas songs, which are both stellar. “Snow Day” is a stroll of a song, which will feature on Laurie’s upcoming LP, The Great Southern. It is equal parts beautiful and ragged, similar in feel and style to my beloved Wave Pictures. “Christmas in Kenamre” is a gorgeous portrait of Christmas in a small town. Babysitters, conversations, memories, family, Christmas tv, and frozen lips kissing… the little details are truly wonderful.

Bottom Line: In a year where I embraced more pop sounds than I usually do, Laurie Shaw’s slow, emotional and beautiful songs bring me back home.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Blackaby “Plastic Mistletoe” (2021)

Hand in Hive
Buy: Bandcamp

“Jesus soap will wash away your sins.”

The latest holiday track to pop up on all the “regular” music blogs that deserves attention is “Plastic Mistletoe,” a wonderful, touching, and hilarious new track from Blackaby. Grandpa sleeps through the holiday scene that develops around him, all with a wonderful indie pop/rock vibe. Super-solid and most certainly mix-worthy, with all proceeds are directed to the Refugee Community Kitchen – so buy it!

“His teeth hanging loooooooooooooose.”

Bottom Line: Blackaby’s smooth seasonal submission certainly succeeds smashingly. Thus ends this year’s “fun with alliteration!”

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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.

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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.

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AWALK “O Holy Night” (2021)

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp

I bet your Christmas music bingo didn’t have a classical guitar over a hip-hop beat on a traditional Christmas carol. Los Angeles’ AWALK has taken a song that, as a purposefully secular blog, I would not normally be looking to feature, and made it both interesting and extremely enjoyable. You would think that those qualities would always go together… but they don’t! “O Holy Night” kicks in and immediately you know you are in for something different… and 15 seconds in you’ve got a beat and a whole mess of stuff going on. Give me all the mess.

Bottom Line: Unexpected and appreciated, AWALK’s approach is just damn refreshing.

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