Tag: indiepop

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UPCOMING: Snowflake Christmas Singles Club 2026 (12/11/2026)

Snowflakes Christmas Singles
Buy: Snowflakes | Bandcamp

There are a few of us Christmas music bloggers (check out my blogroll!) who enjoy hunting down interesting new (or old) Christmas tunes and sharing them with the billions of people on the planet who are hanging on every spelling error we make. Then, there are people like Robert over at the Snowflake Christmas Singles Club who actually release NEW Christmas music into the world. Robert loves Christmas music, specifically Christmas 7″ records (read his blog too!), and as they say, he puts his money where his mouth is, and we all benefit.

The premise of the Snowflake Christmas Singles Club (from here on, SCSC) is to have a brand-new Christmas/winter/holiday song on the A-side, with a cover chosen by the band on the flip. Pressed on snow-white vinyl and limited to 320 copies, these records are a special treat that has introduced me to many mix-worthy tunes in the past. How about we take a look at the 2026 crop of releases!

The first band that caught my eye is the jangle-pop band Josie from Denmark. With nods to C86 and twee pop, you know this badass motherfucker is going to be down to clown. Sorry… I get all aggro when I talk about my love of twee, jangly indiepop – as we all do, yes? My buddy Ned also loves and recommends their debut LP, A Life on Sweets Alone, and our Venn diagram of musical taste very much overlaps with indiepop wonderfulness. Their cover of the Orchids’ 1964 song “Mr. Scrooge” sounds incredibly intriguing: “Josie sticks fairly closely to the original arrangement and adds 1980s indie pop sensibilities to create the perfect fusion of 1960s girl pop and 1980s indie pop.” I want to listen to an entire record that sounds like that.

How about some MORE indiepop! Yes please! I’m only now being introduced to Amelia and The Housewifes, but hey – they’re pretty new! Their self-titled debut LP only came out in October, so I can’t beat myself up too much. What I have heard of that record has me terribly excited to hear their new song, “Snowgaze.” But now I have to wait until DECEMBER… but at least I can buy their S/T record for something to pass the time with!

Bristol’s Eva May sounds like a singer out of time. I just listened to her latest 7″, Where Does the Time Go (limited to 250 and still available on Full Time Hobby), and I’m feeling some serious Joni Mitchell vibes. Her holiday original, “Softly,” even promises to incorporate folk and avant-garde jazz elements… so that’s another data point for a Joni Mitchell comparison. Which, to be fair, is like comparing someone to Michael Jordan – flattering for sure, but what a weight of expectation. Let’s just take it as pure flattery, and wet your whistle on that other 7″ I was talking about while we wait.

Finally, we’ve got some reggae/ska/rocksteady in the final single, produced by UK-based producer, musician, music teacher, and studio and label owner Neil Anderson of Original Gravity Records, and featuring the vocals of Donnoya Drake on the original A-side, and Junior Dell on the Slade classic “Merry Christmas Everybody.” I do love a reggae reworking – one of my favorite 7″s I own is a bootleg reggae release called Caribbean Cooke Vol. 2, where they reworked Sam Cooke tunes into reggae bangers. Can’t wait to hear this one too!

Bottom Line: A fantastic lineup – perhaps my favorite one yet? The digital singles come out on Nov. 20, and preorders will ship before the end of November. The OFFICIAL release date for the vinyl is December 11th… so you mixers who are aiming for an early December release are in luck, cause you’ll have those digi singles early!

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Sjowgren “This Year for Christmas” (2021)

An arm wearing a black sweater is outstretched, holding a festive pinecone ornament on a stark white background.

Long Time Friend Discount
Buy: Bandcamp

Earlier today, I found myself considering messaging the San Francisco duo Sjowgren with a question/request – for them to put their 2021 Christmas song “This Year for Christmas” on Bandcamp. I had found it curious that they hadn’t included it on their latest collection (which I reallllly want), Singles Collection 2015-2021. I got distracted, didn’t send the message, went home and made dinner, only to see a message from Sjowgren that they have posted their Christmas song for the season. Fantastic – it appears my powers are growing.

“This Year for Christmas” is a drowsy indie rock song with a wistful, messy, nostalgic, slightly melancholy, yet confident feel; A kind of complicated mixture of emotion that fits perfectly with the season, and is like a drug for me. This song has been on my Christmas mix short list for years, waiting for the right moment. Perhaps the moment has come for me this year – perhaps it has come for you. Every day is new, and we are complicated creatures…

Bottom Line: Short, beautiful, messy, and stone-cold mixworthy.

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Eckhardt And The House “Eternity (Xmas Edition)” feat. Marleen Scholten (2015)

A blue cover with a buck (deer) standing under a spotlight with a tear dropping from its eye.

TCBYML
Buy: Qobuz (MP3/FLAC) | Amazon MP3 | Amazon.uk MP3 | Amazon.de MP3 | Amazon.fr MP3

You know, I’m not angry… I’m disappointed. Well, maybe a litttle bit angry. The Dutch label TCBYML (This Could Be Your Music Label) used to be one of those labels you could rely on for a Christmas song every year or so, likely from a cool Dutch band – which is right in my wheelhouse. However, over the past year or so… TCBYML appear to be largely releasing AI-slop bands with fake backstories. I struggle to find whether any of these bands play out, and their artwork and band photos look suspiciously AI-generated. The bands’ social media posts often highlight radio stations and playlists that have picked up their tracks, which leaves me wondering if any of these places take the two minutes needed to check out these bands before they platform them. I do (unfortunately) see a future where AI invades nearly everything in our lives, but I find this possible deception – when folks pretend AI-prompt music is real, human-played music – (should it be true) to be pretty despicable. You make great AI music? Fantastic, more power to you – I certainly don’t know how to do that. Just don’t pretend you are something, or someone, you are not.

I may have expressed myself and these feelings on their Facebook page… and they deleted my “That’s some great AI-music” post and banned me. Classy!

So let’s go back in time… to when TCBYML released human beings who also made music, and listen to this lovely song by the Dutch artist Eckhardt And The House, “Eternity (Xmas Edition).” The song is based on a Rainer Maria Rilke poem and features the gorgeous voice of Dutch actress Marleen Scholten, whose fragile vocals beautifully complement the lush orchestration laid down by fellow actor & musician Rik Elstgeest (aka Eckhardt And The House). These horns will hook you, Marleen will take your hand, and you’ll stroll through the song to the beat of your heart. I don’t know how I managed to not feature this song back in the day… Christmas a Gogo found the time in 2017, so I’m only a few years late!

Disclaimer: I can’t categorically prove that TCBYML is only releasing AI-slop. This is an informed opinion, not a stated fact.

Bottom Line: A wonderful song made by wonderful human beings! It can be done – TCBYML (likely) just forgot.

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PAL – Christmas Majic 2 (2025)

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp

As the year winds down, I find my reviews get less introspective, less thoughtful, and frankly, shittier. Why mess with the formula! Here’s a crap review of a great little EP by Cleveland egg punks PAL.

Christmas Majic 2 is obviously the follow-up to their first Christmas release back in 2023. I have it in my “likes” in Bandcamp, which likely suggests that it came out when EVERYTHING was coming out, and I was frantically marking things to come back to. Thankfully, I’m not coming back to this second release and actually telling someone about it! This is the first time that PAL has written an original song, the leadoff track “One Starry Night,” and it is rawkus, synthy screed against Santa’s gift-giving fuckup. The interplay of the talk-singing and background screams is perfection. It is on my mix shortlist right now.

The next two tracks are covers, with the accordion-heavy “Must Be Santa Claus,” which I would normally dismiss as a kids’ song… but they somehow pull it out of that black hole. The attitude they bring to the track, along with choosing Bob Dylan’s version as the inspiration (the ending!), has me sitting here thinking, this might be the only version I’d listen to at a party.

The final track is notoriously my least favorite song. “Little Drummer Boy” is terrible. However….. PAL’s “Little Drummer Pal,” I rather enjoyed. This is their cover of the Red Aunts “Little Drummer Bitch,” which I am unfamiliar with, but perhaps I need to check out. Perhaps another day though… I have precious time, and seeking out more versions of “Little Drummer Boy” is just not at the top of my priorities for today.

You can also pick up a glittery cassette of both volumes of PAL’s Christmas Majic, with $5 from each cassette going to the Cleveland Area Food Bank. Solid!

Bottom Line: I think I need more egg punk in my life, and some more PAL. Also… that was kind of a long one for me right now. Wasn’t expecting to talk about all 3 songs when I started… but here we are.

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sit stay – a very merry… (2025)

A blurr photograph of a small christmas tree.

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp (NYOP)

Well, I’m officially sick. That means I’m home and can work on finishing my Christmas mix, but will I feel motivated? I certainly didn’t last night. Luckily, LA-based bedroom pop project sit stay have at least made my blog obligation easy with a wonderful 2-track Christmas release, a very merry. They are delicate and warm, full of the nostalgia of the young – going back home for Christmas, wondering if the carpet is the same in the friend’s home, watching VHS movies. You can almost smell the musty basement, the slippery diner floor. Pretty great bedroom pop Christmas for those who partake.

Now back to the grind. For now.

Bottom Line: Nostalgic bedroom pop that is going to be someone’s favorite release.

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Kristian Noel Pedersen – Bullshit & Gift Wrapping (2025)

A photo of a christmas tree, and a man sitting in a chair looking at the light up tree.

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp

I recently listened to a podcast featuring indie-Christmas legend Kristian Noel Pedersen (KNP), the always wonderful 12 Songs of Christmas hosted by Alex Rawls. It was a great conversation and a peek behind the curtain of our most prolific Christmas-creative. KNP has released sixteen albums of original Christmas music, and after his most recent trio of beautiful, hilarious, and genuinely touching records centered on the fictional, aging pop star Saul McCartney, I was under the impression he was planning to strip things back a bit. Sometimes plans change, though, because we’ve got a mini-album of six new songs (plus some voicemail interstitials), and if the first two tracks are a taste of what’s coming… consider me hungry.

The record opens with “Bullshit & Gift Wrapping,” which might be the best title for a Christmas song I’ve heard in ages. The track is packed with bitterness, profanity, jangling guitars, and—strangely, but in the best possible way—a Gin Blossoms vibe? I don’t know what I ate for dinner, but that’s the only comparison my brain wants to make right now. And I low-key love the Gin Blossoms, so I’m here for it.

KNP has also previewed the second track, “Christmas on Your Own,” where the guitars get fuzzier but the attitude—and profanity—stick around. He paints these small scenes across a few Christmases, following someone leaving a bad relationship and starting over. The song feels frayed at the edges, from the loose feel in the instrumentation to the lo-fi (well, lower-fi) vocals, and that roughness fits the emotional journey perfectly.

While we only have two tracks so far, any longtime reader will immediately clock track six: “Winter,” featuring vocals by Winterval, another prolific and supremely talented songwriter I’ve featured here many times. I absolutely cannot wait to hear that one.

The rest of the record drops on Friday, December 5th, along with probably every other major indie release of the season. Why? Bandcamp Friday—when Bandcamp doesn’t take a cut and the artists get every dollar (minus credit-card fees, I imagine). So add this one to your cart now… and wait until Friday to check out!

Bottom Line: Two songs in, and I’m singing the same songs of praise for the latest Kristian Noel Petersen joint.

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King Hüsky “December95” (2025)

A cartoon of a man sitting on a circular carpet listening to music.

Hype City Music
Buy: Bandcamp

I honestly had no idea what to expect from “December95” by King Hüsky. You find yourself on his Bandcamp page, and the bio cuts off after “guitarist of the critically acclaimed Norwegian heavy metal band Kvelertak,” so needless to say, I was anticipating something quite different than what I encountered. The song I heard was wonderful, and is by no means the Norwegian metal that I anticipated; I am not into metal – read my submissions page. This song happened to be aimed dead between my eyes. A kill shot.

King Hüsky is the solo work of Vidar Landa, who, besides being a guitarist in a metal band, is also in indie rock/power pop band Beachheads. “December95” sets a beautiful, snowy scene, snug in their home. While the Christmas lights and the VCR don’t work, the scene, the lyrics, and the melody are all uplifting in a way that I was truly touched by. I remain amazed. What an unexpected and extraordinary song.

Bottom Line: Stone-cold mixworthy.

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The Photocopies – A C26 for Christmas (2025)

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp

If indiepop is a genre that you are down with, read on. Frankly, if this website serves any purpose, it is for me to establish some indiepop credibility when I can’t play an instrument. Yeah, maybe I’ll share a few other songs too, but I have some twee punks to impress. Of note, I have often thought about how indiepop and punk are two sides of the same coin – DIY outsiders making cheap records for their devoted communities. But I digress, Michigan’s The Photocopies have done us a huge flippin’ favor and gathered up all his Christmas songs onto one easy compilation, A C26 for Christmas. We no longer have to search every single record (because often there was one) to grab that Christmas single for your indiepop radio show or mix. Sometimes being so prolific is a double-edged sword – you are always making great Christmas songs, but you’re also always making great Christmas songs. It becomes expected. Thus, it was a nice reminder to see all these great songs together, and it brought me back to 2021, when I first found the wonderful Photocopies.

I was so young then. We all were.

Bottom Line: Are you finding the Photocopies for the first time? Lucky you!

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Silk Daisys “It’s Just Like Xmas” (2025)

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp

Atlanta’s Silk Daisys have dialed in some indiepop Christmas perfection with “It’s Just Like Christmas.” Those dreamy vocals and shimmering guitars – I feel like this song should be released exclusively on a cassette mixtape. The lyrics are pretty great too, the kind of anti-war, feed the poor, not hating immigrants kind of sentiment I can get behind. I still can’t believe that I opened up Soundcloud and there it was… right there on the top of my feed… waiting for me…

Bottom Line: That is some top-tier indiepop Christmas.

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Roberta Fidora “Christmas Trees” (2025)

Ursinewave
Buy: Bandcamp

This is it. This is the week. This is the week I try to find everything I can, make a good stab at a playlist, and pray for Friday’s releases to screw the mix tracklist all up (and make it great)! Thankfully, we’ve gotten some great releases overnight, with Roberta Fidora‘s “Christmas Trees” most certainly among those notable songs. Synths and sounds jumping out at you at every turn, this anti-Christmas jam that is sure to add some pace to your mix, and perhaps mine too!

Of note, should you not be familiar, Roberta also has some additional Christmas covers on her Bandcamp page under the moniker Curxes. Of particular note is the excellent electronic cover of Greg Lake’s “I Believe in Father Christmas.”

Bottom Line: Roberta delivers an avant-pop delight, and right on time.

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