Tag: Wake Up and Smell the Sun

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Wake Up and Smell the Sun – Icicle Miner Key Yuletide Trilogy (2025)

A puppet sits at a piano in a dimly lit room.

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp (NYOP)

What can one say about Wake Up and Smell the Sun, the music project of Philadelphia’s John Murray? That first review I wrote remains one of the longest and easiest I’ve ever crafted; I had never heard a Christmas record quite like it. Electric Snow knocked me on my ass — a lyrical and sonic mix that was unlike anything I’d encountered before. It felt like one of those videos where a blind kid puts on special glasses and sees for the first time.

So as I tackle this latest release, I come to it with the weight of those earlier impressions, as well as the thoughtful, self-deprecating, optimistic, and generous message John sent along with it. He presents the new release, Icicle Miner Key Yuletide Trilogy, in the context of his feelings about the holiday, the journey of these songs, and the creative energy of the Philadelphia music community that helped bring his vision to life. I’m fighting the urge to share his whole note, because it pulls you into the process in a way that only deepens your appreciation for the music. I connect with John’s work and his motivation in a way that cuts straight to the core — I’m always searching for songs I can love year-round, regardless of the season. That doesn’t mean I don’t care about the content; when someone can tap into something genuine, something human and rooted in the spirit of the season, there’s power in that. So when John writes, “First and foremost, Wake Up And Smell the Sun Christmas songs are songs. They are about Christmas, and all are conceived and birthed in the time and spirit of Christmas, whatever they end up sounding like,” I see the same relationship between craft and spirit that I’m constantly seeking.

Let’s dig into the songs. The first thing you’ll notice is that each track has its own distinct feel. John explains the sequence like this:

For this Trilogy, there are obviously three songs about Christmas. I chose the order too. The songs are stylistically very different. I intended for that to be a good thing. I imagine people being wholly perplexed by the ambitious power and synth-and-drum-driven proclamation of the first song, then making a strange turn into a contemplative indie rock feel for the second song, then finishing into a more traditional reel-to-reel torchlighting of the third song. A sonic quest. My quest for Christmas Music immortality.

I love that last bit — “my quest for Christmas Music immortality.” Every time someone hears a Christmas song they love and makes it a part of themselves, their holiday, their memories, they give that song a kind of immortality. Maybe the synths on “We Cannot Be Too Merry” will make you turn your stereo (go buy a stereo!) or headphones up as the ending washes over you: “We could be good / We could be good for you / We cannot be too merry / We cannot be too merry.”

Or maybe the chorus of “Jolly Good Time Indeed” will make you feel grateful for the warmth the season brings to your everyday life: “It’s a jolly good time indeed… for stories we still believe / and even if they don’t exist / it helps a little bit.”

And then there’s “Icicle Symphony,” whose finale might be the one that gets you. The emotion in the expanding orchestration — perfectly timed with the drums landing right as he sings, “Here come the holidays. Pry ’em wide open.”

John would be the first to tell you how much he owes to the people around him for helping make and share these songs. This record was once again recorded at Miner Street Recording in Philadelphia with Brian and Amy, and features Pat Berkery on drums, Robbie Bennett of The War on Drugs on synths, keys, and piano, and Matt Keppler on bass — his first appearance on a Wake Up and Smell the Sun project.

I don’t think John needs to worry about immortality. These songs — like the ones many of us have loved for years — stick with us. I’ll leave you with his wish for the season, which honestly could be a song itself:

Be well and try to be full of the Christmas spirit well after December. Not for votes, not for likes and follows, not for badges or rewards. Maybe do it for a girl, that would be ok. Or for a boy. That’s ok too. Do it for love, as so many songs say. Be full of the good spirits that spring forth from whatever holiday you celebrate. If you’re feeling triumphant, that is great, but be joyful too. And make some love and give it away. Anyone at all can do that.

Bottom Line: Fucking hell, I got emotional again. What kind of music blog is this? Go listen to some Christmas music, and maybe start with this record. Give it some everlasting life.

LISTEN

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Wake Up and Smell the Sun – The Pedestrian Chronicles, Part 6 (2024)

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp (NYOP)

Philadelphia’s Wake Up and Smell the Sun (aka John Murray) was trying to empty the holiday tank last year. With his stellar 2-track single The Pedestrian Chronicles, Part 2 leading the way, quickly followed by his EPIC 25-track Advent Calendar, it sure seemed like John had reached his holiday destination. It does make me think of my old Honda Passport though… I could drive that baby on E for 50 miles – I never once ran out of gas, despite trying preetttty hard. Looks like John had a few more miles to drive this year, as he just dropped a 2-song single, The Pedestrian Chronicles, Part 6! This single begins with “Philadelphia Flurries,” a song with a classic WUaStS feel, having a driving beat propel John’s filtered vocals through some of the most interesting lyrics you’ll hear this season – you really have to check the Bandcamp page and hit that “lyrics” link and read along like you were a kid again. Case #1, the first stanza in the first verse hit me immediately and made me shake my head and smile as only John can:

Plain Jane’s Main Line luscious lips, they only sing the Christmas hits,
Lure you on the naughty list, and kiss you like a hypnotist.
The City Line swingers wine and dine her. Happiness is hit or miss
The lightweights end up tipsy, nibbling jingles from her fingertips

This whole song is like that, full of great lyrical twists and turns (and great Philadelphia references!), with a killer chorus to boot. The kind of song you might just take for granted when coming from WUaStS, but fight that urge and take it all in.

The second track, “Whence I Christmas” is the kind of song that makes you think… this Christmas song feels different. This Christmas song feels like a struggle, someone looking inwards and not quite knowing how to feel about themselves or the world around them. I think that this may be the track John was thinking of when he wrote me this passage about his approach to Christmas music: “I write in the thoughts of Christmas people thinking Christmas things or thinking thoughts that might be thought about in the season of Christmas.  You know, Ebenezer Scrooge ends up a pretty delightful chap, despite spending most of his adult life as a soul crushing, money grubbing, prick.  But, the story is boring without the whole story.” I kept more of that quote than I needed, because I just loved John calling Ebenezer a prick, but you see there how John mines the interior life of his characters for Christmas songs – and we all know that our insides aren’t always pretty. This song isn’t a story of someone who’s figured it all out… you’re in the middle of the journey here… and aren’t we all?

Finally, this isn’t all that John/Wake Up and Smell the Sun has planned for us this year… Friday, December 20th will bring us his first-ever Christmas special, live from Miner Street Recordings with Brian McTear and Amy Morrissey, who have recorded John for the past few seasons. This is the same studio that has hosted many folks we all know and love, like Sharon Van Etten, Kurt Vile, the War on Drugs, Rachel Angel, Big Thief, Dead Milkmen, Strand of Oaks, and Waxahatchee to name a few. John wanted to capture the space at Miner Street, which he says has a “certain magic that cannot be duplicated.” I’m ready for the magic. Here’s a teaser with a live version of “Holly Jolly Tearjerker” from the upcoming Christmas at Miner Street, available Friday on Wake Up and Smell the Sun’s Youtube channel.

Bottom Line: Wake Up and Smell the Sun can’t shake the spirit, and we benefit once more.

LISTEN

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Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas (Volume III) (2023)

A Benefit for Crisis
Buy: Bandcamp

You know what is better than a few cookies? How about an entire bag! Hot on the heels of last year’s epic, two volume, 108 track opus of alternative Christmas music… it comes for us once more. Fellow weirdo Christmas-music fan Kevin McGrath didn’t plan to put this record together, it really just, kind of happened. He meant to add a few tracks to each record, slap a deluxe sticker on there, and raise some more funds for Crisis, a UK-based charity that services the homeless. Soon, Kevin realized that it would be easier and likely more successful to market the record if those additional songs he had received clearance after the cutoff last year, were put together in their own, new collection – which sounds like a fine idea; let’s maximize the potential to do good. So back into the fray, back to the hunt for more bands’ contact information for Kevin… and after one more, final herculean effort, Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas (Volume III) is now under our tree. This release, just like the stellar duo who preceded it, is lined with hit after hit after hit. There are many bands here that the 15-20 folks who read my blog will likely already know and love (Virgin of the Birds, Wake Up and Smell the Sun, Charlie’s Hand Movements, The Ornaments, etc, etc, etc.), but I’m sure you’ve missed a few here and there, and the chances you’re going to love it are pppprrrreeeettty high. Oh, didn’t you forget to pick up that Jacklen Ro song you loved, since it wasn’t on Bandcamp? I can also see you picking this record up, and listening to a song you’ve heard before, but connecting with it on a deeper level – yeah, you just needed some time to grow with that song. I’m thinking you should probably pick this one up, even if you’ve already got a couple of the tracks… just to be safe.

Volumes 1-3 are a guidebook to an alternate universe of Christmas music that few know exists. If you already live here, celebrate it. If you are just dipping your toes in the water, jump in because these 143 songs will provide you with plenty of depth. Swim with us, won’t you?

Bottom Line: You’re getting 35 stellar songs, conveniently packaged by a man high on his own supply of Christmas cheer, and all your money goes to help the homeless. That’s a win for everyone.

LISTEN

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Wake Up and Smell the Sun – The Pedestrian Chronicles Part 2 (2023)

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp (FREE)

I was talking with a Christmas music friend the other day (Hi Larry!) and found myself expressing that I don’t feel like I am a very good music critic. I don’t know the ins and the outs of production or music theory, nor can I often put a finger on the influences that have shaped a band or a song. I’ve encountered other folks in this world who are a bottomless well of knowledge (Stubby), and I’m amazed. However, that is most certainly not me. Then how do I find my way in to talk about a song or record? Well, I talk about my feelings an awful lot. So, when I get sent a new Wake Up and Smell the Sun song… I get equal parts excited and worried. First off, John Murray, the man behind this WUaStS project creates some of the most interesting Christmas music I have ever encountered… thus it is always a pleasure to see what he has cooked up. However… I find myself struggling to do justice, to express how interesting and important I think his songs are. So, in a wildly appropriate start to this review, I begin with an apology to the reader, and to John, for its pedestrian nature. —- I wrote that sentence without even thinking about the title of the release… woah 🙂

The new single by Wake Up and Smell the Sun, The Pedestrian Chronicles Part 2, is a pair of tracks that I wasn’t quite sure I’d ever hear. John had emptied the vaults at the end of last year with Soft Angelic Jams, a 7-song collection billed as a “final collection” of Christmas songs, released on Dec. 21… at the beginning of my own burnout phase. Regretfully, I have yet to review it, but I don’t have rules for this site and I feel like John would crack a smile if I reviewed it in April sometime.

As the new year began, John began releasing his music within the construct of The Pedestrian Chronicles – not as a record or as singles, just as a continual recording project. With this drop, we get Chapters 5 & 6, two Christmas songs that despite John’s insistence that he must break with the holiday, have found life within the new, continually expanding recording project. John mentioned the existence of “Chapter 5: Jingle Humming” to me last year, and I feel so fortunate that he decided to finish it. “Jingle Humming” is one of those songs that checks so many boxes for me – a melancholy political Christmas song dressed in incredibly clever lyrics and a soaring chorus. That last verse is a killer:

I lit candles for forgiveness. Prayed novenas in my room…
…for the feast of silver linings and the politics of doom. (THIS LINE- wow)
It’s still no near to ever ending. Dim lit blissfulness is trending.
It’s the Christmas that you wanted.
All your consciences are haunted…
…by the energy you’re spending…
…on the partisan positions you’re defending.

As with any Wake Up and Smell the Sun release, you may struggle to pick a favorite… but let me release you from the worry. You can love them, and you don’t have to rank them. They will love you back, in their own unique way. “Chapter 6: The Anvil and the Angel” has a completely different vibe. While Chapter 5 was recorded, engineered, and produced by the wonderful team of Brian McTear and Amy Morrissey at the Miner Street Recording Studio (which is often the home of WUaStS releases), Chapter 6 was self-recorded and produced by John. The song is a series of posed questions, their repetition suggestive of a mantra of someone working through how they feel about Christmas. It is the kind of song that I’d imagine hits differently now than it would a few weeks later, in the thick of the holiday, with all of its emotional baggage.

Wake Up and Smell the Sun records are often low-key chock-full of Philadelphia-area indie rock luminaries. On Chapter 5, you’ll find Patrick Berkery, who has played with War on Drugs, Strand of Oaks, the Bigger Lovers, Danielson, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, etc, etc, on drums and bells. You’ll also hear Robbie Bennett of the War on Drugs – he plays the piano and organ. I love the way that John describes Robbie’s contribution: “Robbie just sprays his keys all over, lifting, riding, and tapping into the rhythms and melodies. It always works.” You’ll also hear Art Difuria, formerly of Lilys and currently and always of the Photon Band, on both Chapters 5 & 6, adding background vocals and guitar. John’s got some serious partners in crime here, as he often does.

These songs are why this blog exists. Holiday music shouldn’t be relegated to celebrating the latest worked-over Christmas cover when there are songs like this, waiting to be discovered, headphones on, nodding your head, and smiling with every beautiful, surprising, clever, touching line.

I leave you with a short paragraph that John sent over, which I do believe captures his work perfectly:

I don’t write candy pop songs for the Christmas Card Committee and I don’t send family pictures to my friends. My songs are not sing-song, feel good, jingles and they’re not soaring springs of praise. Whatever a guitar and a microphone gives me, that’s what I get. Rejoice in the melancholy people! It’s all around. See it. Smile at it. Laugh at it. Wish it well. Screw it, like a volunteer.

Bottom Line: Wake Up and Smell the Sun have created a body of work that is some of the most beautiful, fascinating, clever Christmas music I have ever heard. Go listen.

LISTEN

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Wake Up and Smell the Sun – Ye Miner St. Christmas Hymnal (2021)

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp (NYOP)

After releasing one of the highlights of the underground Christmas music genre, 2020’s Electric Snow, Wake Up and Smell the Sun (the musical moniker of John Murray) has returned with many gifts. For the past few weeks, WUaStS has been releasing early versions and unreleased demos which have all been pretty damn great. Dark, most certainly, really cool, interesting songs to tide us over while we wait for the new record. These songs did not prepare me for what was coming – one of the sweetest songs I have heard all season. What a happy, and beautiful song “The Tearful Joy of Joyful Noise” is. I am not exaggerating when I say that I teared up listening to this song… I must not be the only one, as the title suggests! Don’t let the first line fool you: “They say “kindness makes the holidays, and mothers make the rules.” / And yet so many solid ways we make us feel uncool….” because the song turns into an amazing affirmation of love:

“So smile away ‘til Christmas Day.
Nobody makes the rules.
And who the hell were they to say what’s precious or uncool?

Sugar plums and turtle doves. Who cares what boy or girl you love?
So true. So true.
I could care less. I’m with you.
So true. So true.
I could care less. I’m with you.

We always knew. We always knew.
We always loved you. We always do.”

Legit tears. So beautiful. Wake Up and Smell the Sun always has such fantastic wordplay, coming up with these great images and interesting angles… but I never expected this simple, direct approach, nor for it to feel both so original and powerful. I am honestly stunned.

Something, in particular, to listen for on “The Tearful Joy of Joyful Noise” is the drumming of Pat Berkery, a friend of Murray’s who has played on records and in bands including the Bigger Lovers, Wesley Stace, Danielson, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the War on Drugs, and many others including and most recently touring with Strand of Oaks. Turns out his drumming was epic enough to change the name of the song! Playing keyboards and organs on both songs is Robbie Bennett, also from The War on Drugs, who plays on my favorite record of the year, The War on Drugs’ I Don’t Live Here Anymore. I wholeheartedly agree with Murray, he does add a “special Christmas boogie” to the flip side of this single, the full-on rocking “Kris Kringle and the Midnight Soul.”

“Kris Kringle and the Midnight Soul” exists as a groove as much as it does a song. The lyrics are fun and playful, my favorite line being classic Murray, “I dream in songs and nativity scenes.” The instrumentation and production of this track are absolutely stellar, a testament to Murray’s aforementioned friends as well as the producers Brian and Amy at Miner Street Recordings, who not only produce and play on these records but are deservedly included in the title of this release.

Murray is often cryptic in his writings, as his tweets and the liner notes suggest we might be receiving even more from him this year. You truly never know – he snuck another one out late last year as well. While that would most certainly be wonderful, these two songs have certainly made me full and happy… and yes, with some joyful tears.

Bottom Line: I fully expect a new release by Wake Up and Smell the Sun to be amazing, but I never expected it to be so damn happy and beautiful.

LISTEN

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Wake Up And Smell The Sun – Electric Snow (2020)

Self Released
Buy: Bandcamp (NYOP)

Philadelphia’s Wake Up and Smell the Sun have expanded on 2019’s excellent 2-track Christmas single, Holiday Hymns for People, and created one of the best Christmas records I have heard in years with Electric Snow. This record, with its thumping drums, woozy guitars and big vocals make you sit back and ponder if Spiritualized or the Verve would be fucking jealous of this record. The instrumentation and production on this record is just so damn good that it can both sound so BIG, like the slowly built epic “Gingerbread,” and small and intimate on “Country Western Holiday Meltdown,” with both feeling like sonic siblings, wonderfully at home on the same record. This cohesive feel truly comes across on this 7-track release even more than their initial 2-track single – you really get a feel for the sound as a whole.

As you might imagine, I would be recommending this record based on the stellar music/production/vibe even if they gave up on lyrics entirely and sang nonsense words… but if you’ve come for the dinner, why not have a glorious fucking show too? Once you get into the music (and you will), you may find that you actually love this record for the lyrics. There were moments that I just began shaking my head and smiling, like during the title track “Electric Snow:” “Beneath the minor keys, the majorettes, and bells,  / Sweet little girls with missing teeth seek inner peace within themselves (WHAT A LINE) / I’d like to share my Christmas Story, come on over / I once was haunted by a ghost, it mostly taught me how to coast / And when I tried to kick the habit, it gently pushed me in to traffic (AGAIN!) / Let it snow, electric snow, electric snow.” WHAT!?! There are so many incredibly interesting and clever lyrics on this record that I’ve been genuinely stressing out about how much I want to feature. I keep discovering new lines, and feel this absurd need to give every single lyric some sort of context. SO, with deep apologies to Wake Up And Smell The Sun for not writing this epic review delving into every single track… I am just too excited to share it with everyone, and I have an itchy publish finger.

If you are not already onboard, just press play. Problem solved.

Bottom Line: Frankly, I can’t wait to put this record on with some good headphones, because those guitars are going to surround me, and I’m going to happily surf the jet stream with this fantastic record.

LISTEN

I am going to post every song individually, as I cannot choose a favorite, and I want the Hype Machine to index every… single… song.