Have a bunch of holiday music for ya’ll tonight. Hope you enjoy it! (this is a rerun from Dec. 2021)
Happy Holidays, may yours be safe and warm.
An early contender for 2013’s finest Christmas song arrives halfway through the new Dropkick Murphys album in “The Season’s Upon Us.” It’s a rowdy Celtic-punk number in which singer Ken Casey runs down the charms of his extended family, member by miserable member: “My nephew’s a horrible, wise little twit,” he barks, “He once gave me a nice gift-wrapped box full of” — well, you can imagine the rest.
As in its obvious predecessor, “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues, affection accompanies spite in “The Season’s Upon Us”; but warmth is all you hear by the time the song’s brandy-soaked chorus hits. And so it goes throughout “Signed and Sealed in Blood,” which demonstrates that for this long-running Boston band, loving and fighting aren’t opposites but rather complementary manifestations of the only thing that matters: passion. — Los Angeles Times
.
Dropkick Murphys :: The Season's Upon Us [2013]
.
In 2020, nine months into the full double-barreled fury of the coronavirus pandemic, the entire world’s population found itself in this boat: exhausted by nearly a year’s worth of fear and dread, isolated from loved ones, and all too aware that the season’s greetings were meaningless platitudes.
It was a dark place, but among the few consolations was the emergence of a new modern Christmas standard, courtesy of American power-pop quartet Charly Bliss and Toronto punk rockers PUP: “It’s Christmas and I Fucking Miss You.”
This two-minute, 43-second masterpiece is not only a welcome addition to the holiday musical songbook, but it’s one of the great pieces of popular art produced during and about the pandemic. From its first line, “It’s Christmas and I Fucking Miss You” is about the struggle to get into the holiday spirit in a time when happiness is hard to come by: “Deck the halls, the snowflakes fall / But I’m not feeling glad at all.”
And it doesn’t exactly get happier from there. — The Ringer
.
Charly Bliss feat. PUP :: It's Christmas and I Fucking Miss You [2020]
Not inappropriate, just says “fuck” a lot. Who doesn’t?
.
That bass! Those horns! The rom-com lyrics!
And now let me tell you why this is the best thing to ever happen to Christmas.
- It’s a great Christmas story.
- It slaps.
- It’s modern.
- It’s honest.
Full story at The Ringer
.
The Waitresses :: Christmas Wrapping [1982]
.
Now, a shoegazer take on a traditional song. Coventry’s the Primitives from the Christmas compilation A Lump of Coal.
.
The Primitives :: Silent Night [1991]
.
Flat Duo Jets; rockabilly from Athens, GA.
.
Flat Duo Jets :: I'll Have a Merry Christmas Without You [1994]
.
Not much info on this one. “Clyde Lasley” either never recorded any other songs or was an alias used to get around signed contracts with another record label. This song is the only one credited to him.
.
Clyde Lasley and the Cadillac Baby Specials :: Santa Came Home Drunk [1967]
.
Brian Setzer (ex-Stray Cats) with a hot holiday cover of Oscar McLollie and His Honey Jumpers 1954 hit, Dig That Crazy Santa Claus.
.
The Brian Setzer Orchestra :: Dig That Crazy Santa Claus [2005]
.
.
