A load of new Christmas 45s

Dad Brains / Ramons: Merryxmas
(Pirate Press Records, PPR217, USA, 45 rpm, small hole, green vinyl with white and red splatters, 1200 copies)

Some bands are just made to be put together on a record one day. For example, around 2005 there was a Swedish hardcore punk band called Dick Cheney (anybody still remember who he was?) and a Brazil hardcore punk band B.U.S.H. (I’m sure everyone still knows who he was). It was of course a brillant idea of the German label Thrashbastard to release a split 7” of these two bands. Just like it is an equally brillant idea of American label Pirate Press Records to bring the bands Dad Brains and Ramoms together for a split 7”. And, to make the story even better, a Christmas split 7”.

I guess it is obvious that Dad Brains stole their name of legendary DC hardcore punk pioneers Bad Brains and the Ramoms of the most popular US punk band ever, Ramones. Although the Dad Brains is a fairly new band, the term Dad Brains is already used much longer than that the band is around – the guitarist of Sloan, a band we still know for their Christmas split with Fucked Up of a couple of years ago and of course, their own Christmas single, ‘Kids Come Back Again At Christmas’, that was released in 2016, had a blog with that name. The band Dad Brains uses exactly the same logo as the blog, basically the Bad Brains logo with ‘Bad’ replaced by ‘Dad’. All members of Dad Brains (Patrick Pedraza on vocals, Matt Kash on guitar, Craig Kasamis on bass and John Crerar on drums) have been active for quite some time in the Oxnard/Ventura California hardcore scene (playing in bands like The Missing 23rd, The Fucking Wrath and even in a new version of legendary Oxnard 1980s hardcore band Stalag 13) and are dads – which explains the name. Dad Brains debuted this year on Pirate Press Records with a self-titled EP, with artwork stolen from Bad Brains’ legendary 1982 cassette. Songs like ‘Baby Jail’ and ‘Quiet Time’ had lyrics that punk dads can relate to: like getting not enough sleep and not being able to play loud music because the baby is asleep. Musically, it is totally 1980s hardcore worship.

The Ramoms is also a new band, they had their first show in Philadelphia in July of this year, playing only Ramones covers – and that is exactly what the band is about. All members are moms and listen to the names Jodi Ramon, Cori Ramon, Sharon Ramom and Ginger Ramom. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? The Christmas split 7” is their debut on vinyl.

The 7” has four songs, two by Dad Brains and two by the Ramoms. The Dad Brains side starts with the song ‘It’s Christmastime’ – turning Suicidal Tendencies classic ‘Institutionalized’ into a Christmas-themed song. And, for anyone familiar with ‘Institutionalized’, you will not be surprised it is not exactly a merry Christmas that Dad Brains is singing about in the song. The band’s second song ‘Grinch’ sounds like a total Youth Of Today-ripoff (Youth Of Today was an influential band in the New York hardcore scene in the late 1980s: advocates of the drugfree straight edge way of life and of vegetarism; in fact, it was the band giving me the final push to become a vegetarian in 1989 – one of the best decisions I ever made). The song sounds like coming straight out of 1988 (the magic year of youth crew hardcore). It is about Grinch, who, with all his negativity, is not welcome in the scene, and we even find Rudolph behind the merch table. As Youth Of Today is one of my favorite bands ever, and coming from a straight edge hardcore background, I of course totally dig this song.

As we turn the record around, we find the Ramoms who retitled the Ramones’ ‘Chinese Rock’ to ‘Lego Blocks’. Not really a Christmas song, but, well, many kids will get Lego for Christmas and the lyrics are funny, so they get away with it. Their second songs of course is, as it is a cover of the Ramones Christmas classic ‘Merry Christmas, I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight’. Ramoms stay close to the original, but add some rawness and a little bit extra speed to it. I like it. The single comes on festive kelly green vinyl with red and white splatters and was released yesterday, December 7. You can order it from the Pirate Press webshop and probably find it in record shops around the world.

Order the single online here: Pirate Press Webshop
Listen to 'It's Christmas Time' by Dad Brains on Youtube:

Listen to 'Grinch' by Dad Brains on Youtube:

Listen to 'Lego Blocks' by Ramoms on Youtube:

Listen to 'Merry Christmas I Don't Want To Fight Tonight' by Ramoms on Youtube:



Green River / U-Men: Away In A Manger / Blue Christmas
(Sub Pop, SP-1269, USA, 45 rpm, big hole, translucent red vinyl, 2000 copies)

Released for Record Store Day Black Friday, Seattle label Sub Pop delved into their archives and came up with two Christmas ditties from the formative years of the Seattle grunge scene. Both songs were kept off the Sub Pop career retrospectives of Green River (forthcoming) and U-Men (released in 2017) and with good reason. Or as Sub Pop puts it themselves: "two ugly orphans, brought together to live as one grinning, writhing glump of career-capping, Christmas gak!". It is especially the legendary status of Green River and U-Men that makes this single sell like crazy. Without Green River, there probably wouldn’t have been a Mudhoney or Pearl Jam, two bands that helped shaping grunge rock and alternative rock in the USA in the 1990s. Both ‘Away In A Manger’ and ‘Blue Christmas’ sound more like spontaneous ideas jokingly put in practice immediately after having a few too many beers, than serious interpretations of this Christmas classics. To make things even worse: the hole of my copy of the record was not in the middle of the record, and that made the music sound even more offkey. But the artwork of this single looks fantastic and only the artwork is already worth the price – the single even has a special printed inner sleeve with Christmas ornaments cracking up – which probably happened when the single was played.

Get a copy of the single at your local record store and listen to the two songs on Youtube. Don’t say we did not warn you!
Listen to 'Away In A Manger' by Green River on Youtube:

Listen to 'Blue Christmas' by U-Men on Youtube:



Mike Viola: Here We Go, It’s Christmas Time / Silent
(Good Morning Monkey Records, GMM-7-002, USA, 45 rpm, small hole, black vinyl)

Being raised in Stoughton, Massachusetts, Mike Viola came first into the limelight as main man behind New York-based band The Candy Butchers in the 1990s, although he started his career one decade earlier as a solo artist. These days, Viola is mainly known as a producer, engineer and songwriter for big names like Ryan Adams and Fall Out Boy and also as a succesful composer of songs for movies (like That Thing You Do and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story). Mike is also the vice president of A&R of legendary label Verve Records. Still, he finds time to record and release his own music on his label Good Morning Monkey Records. Mike already released a Christmas single with the Candy Snatcher in the late 1990s, 'Let's Get Christmas', and now in 2018, he releases his first Christmas 45. A-side 'Here We Go, It's Christmas Time' is a nostalgic and optimistic Christmas piano ballad, with Mike playing all instruments, about how Christmas can be the moment to start changing yourself and make the world a better place. B-side 'Silent' is also a beautiful song, although not really Christmas-related. The single can be bought from the Grand Pony-website, and for only 6 US dollar you have yourself a nice looking and sounding Christmas 45.

You can listen to the song on Spotify:



Nelson Carrera & The Scoundrells: She’ll Never Come Back / Christmas In June
(Records Freight, RFSG001, France, 45 rpm, big hole, black vinyl)

If this could really classify as a Christmas 45 is open to debate – it came out in the Summer of this year and the A-side has no relation to Christmas at alll. But the B-side is called ‘Christmas In June’ and for me, that’s enough to write a few words about it here. Nelson Carrera & The Scoundrells is a rockabilly band from France, and have the classic rockabilly line-up: acoustic/rhythm guitar (both Nelson Carrera), electric guitar (Raphaël Decaix), upright bass (Mario Jorge Pires) and drums (Pascal Allanche). ’She’ll Never Come Back’ and ’Christmas In June’ were written by vocalist and band leader Nelson Carrera.

Nelson was born in Angola, when it was still a Portugese colony and is from Portugese origin, a country where he also has lived a large part of his life, although he also lived in France for some time. Nelson already became involved in the rockabilly scene in the late 1970s, and played in some bands until the early 1980s. Also a solo artist Nelson debuted in 1983 (the time of the rockabilly revival led by The Stray Cats) with the 4-song EP Nelson Carrera Sings, that included three ompositions written by Nelson himself. Over the years, he recorded with different bands, like The The Hot Rocks, His Hooligans and now the France-based The Scroundells.

On the B-side of the band’s most recent single, ‘Christmas In June’, Nelson sings how being with his baby makes him feel like having Christmas in June, while the band lays down a fast-paced rockabilly beat. The single was released by Records Freight and can easily be ordered through your local record store – at least in Europe.

Unfortunately, only part of the song can be found online, on Youtube, but it’s enough to give you an idea how the song sounds.



Scone Cash Players: Scone Cold Christmas
(Flamingo Time, FTR-103, USA, 45 rpm, big hole, black and several other colours vinyl)

The Scone Cash Players are an organ funk band from Miami Florida, that debuted in 2008 with the album Mind Blower on OrganTone Records, seemed to have gone on an hiatus for some time, but returned in 2017 with a new 45, 'Year Of The Rooster' / 'Dos Phoenix' and with their second album, 'Blast Furnace!' released this year on Mango Hill Records and Flamingo Time, which is basically a sublabel of Mango Hill Records ran by the main man behind the band, Adam Scone. It is also Flamingo Time that released the band's Christmas 45, which see them team up with two very soulful sounding vocalists: Lee Taylor and John Dokes.

John Dokes previously released an album with the George Gee Swing Orchestra, for Lee Taylor tis seems to be her first recorded output. John’s song 'They Say It's Christmas Time' is subtitled 'Christmas Time In Brooklyn', so it makes sense this track was recorded in New York. The track with female vocalist Lee Taylor was recorded in Memphis, Tennessee, 'Home Of Heartbreak', according to the press release, so I guess Lee is from Memphis. Both songs are described by the label as 'Christmas anthems for the sad and lonely'. So not the kind of songs to jolly yoursef up with. On Lee's side, things have gone so bad that even Santa has become involved in a divorce - the song is called 'My First Divorced Christmas', subtitled 'Santa Got A Divorce', and judging from the lyrics, both Lee and Santa have to spend Christmas alone. The song has great vocal work by Lee, who starts really quiet, but towards the end of the songs, let all the emotions come out.

The warm vocals of John sound less desperate on the B-side, and his song also does not have the drama of the A-side; he descibes how hard Santa works to get the presents delivered all over New York, while an organ and brass lay down a soulful Christmas sound, with sleigh bells added to reinforce the Christmas spirit. Both songs are moody and soulful, more soul than funk. The single comes in four variations: on black, green, red and silver marbled vinyl. The colored vinyl versions (limited to 100 copies) can be ordered through the Bandcamp site of the band, but they will probably all be gone when you read this. The record can also be ordered through your local record store or online throught Daptone Records

Listen to ‘My First Divorced Christmas (Santa Got A Divorce)’ featuring vocals by Lee Taylor on Soundcloud

Listen to ‘They Say It’s Christmas Time (Christmas Time In Brooklyn)’ featuring vocals by John Dokes on Soundcloud



The Silver Bells: Christmas Emergency! / This Is Gonna Be Our Year
(Santa Claus Never Died For Anyone, USA, 45 rpm, small hole, black vinyl, 100 copies)

With a name like The Silver Bells it should not come as a surprise that this Charleston, South Carolina-based band is a Christmas-themed band. In December 2014 the foursome (Nicholas Doyle, Daniel Infinger, Rock*A*Teens drummer Ballard Lesemann and Douglas Thompson) released a 8-song 12" EP, 'It's Christmas, Everybody!' with all original songs. And now, four years later, there is Christmas 45, the front cover showing three members trimming the fourth member with some nice Christmas decorations. The two songs were mastered at the legendary Abbey Road Studios, and I do hear some Beatles-influences in the songs, so that will not be a coincidence.

‘Christmas Emergency!’ and the five minute long ‘This Is Gonna Be Our Year‘ are midtempo melodic indie rock songs, that mix the troubles relationships bring with the festive season. Despite the Beatles influences, to songs have a very American indie rock sound to this European’s ears, which adds to the authenticity of the songs. The band gets extra thumbs up for the name of their music publishing company: Santa Claus Never Died For Anyone.

Order the single, limited to 100 copies, at the Bandcamp of the The Silver Bells. That is also where you can listen to both songs.



Sumisión City Blues / Señor No: El Pequeño Bastardo / El Portal Del Txisfius
(FOLC Records, FOLC 103, Spain, 45 rpm, small hole, black vinyl)

Last year, the Spanish FOLC Records surprised us with the 'Merry Flamin' Chickmas' 45 by MFC Chicken, and this year, we have another Christmas 45 of the label. This time two Spanish bands team up, Sumisión City Blues and Señor No, all members being photoshopped into a nativy scene, including a big Santa Claus, on the front cover. Both bands play garage rock. Sumisión City Blues' song 'El Pequeño Bastardo' does not sound like a Christmas song at all, but it is, although probably not really festive, judging from the chorus, which translates as 'the little bastard in the night of peace'. True to the name of the band, it indeed sounds quite bluesy.

Señor No's song 'El Portal Del Txisflús' at least includes sleigh bells, but that seems to be the only thing that connects the song to Christmas. The song is mostly instrumental, with the band shouting something I can’t really understand. But it is a catchy song, I can’t deny that. But well, judge for yourself if it is Christmas-y enough for your taste.

You can get the vinyl at the Bandcamp of Folc Records.
Which is also the place to go if you want to check these two songs out.