Hip Christmas

Welcome To Hip Christmas! I think you'll enjoy my dysfunctionally vast web archive dedicated to holiday music that rocks, rolls, swings, and twangs. If you do, please support me by shopping at Amazon, Apple Music, and Sheet Music Plus! Regardless, the best of the season to you - no matter what month it is! [about me]

What's New In 2024? The new Christmas albums are here - lots of vinyl reissues, plus big names like Jennifer Hudson, Kelly Clarkson, and Little Big Town and indie darlings like Phantom Planet and the Sunturns. So, I've started my annual, obsessive, quixotic attempt to keep up with it all. Highlights also include a full-length Tower Of Power album, a new collection from the Carpenters, and yet another Bear Family compilation. [gimme gimme]

A Christmas Gift For You. Every year, I offer free MP3's from my voluminous collection - all unavailable easily or legitimately in the music marketplace. This year, I revisit the legendary, exceedingly rare Flagpole Christmas albums, filling in some gaping holes and sprucing up the sound quality. [listen or download]

The Christmas Jukebox. My online Christmas music player is bulging with over 900 hip tunes - and counting! You can listen to the music I write about - the coolest, weirdest, and loudest holiday songs ever - all while enjoying my inimitable prose. [press play]

My Face, Your Book. There's a lot of holiday hilarity going on over at Facebook, in case you can't get enough on my website - or vice versa. Check out the Hip Christmas page, and follow me for maximum holiday fun all year long. No Russian trolls, please. I also post cool cover art on Instagram and Pinterest. [follow me]

Breaking News

Merry Christmas, Mitchell. Ernie (Not Bert) and Christmas A Go-Go have written lovely tributes to Mitchell Kezin, the director of the Jingle Bell Rocks documentary, including links to download a new memorial mix made by the King of Jingaling. Mitchell died earlier this year, and his expertise and enthusiasm have been sorely missed. [download]

The 12 Plays Of Christmas Redux. In 2007, the Indie Rock Cafe published an amazing set of holiday playlists ranging from a handful of classics to an endless supply of genuinely obscure bands sure to thrill the kiddies and stump obsessive collectors. The playlists have fallen into disrepair, so I rescued them as a special gift just for you. [listen & download]

Congratulations To Me! Hip Christmas is getting some love from the media this year. We got called "stellar" in an article by Ed Mazza for HuffPost, and we got praised in an article by Guuz Hoogaerts for Dutch broadcaster VPRO. Guuz is one of the editors of the great Christmas A Go Go, and he also pings the excellent blog Christmas Underground.

Trouble On The Trail. Sofia Talvik's latest single was inspired by the true story of man who almost died on the Appalachian Trail during the holiday season. In Sofia’s version, the hiker might not be so lucky as the snow and exhaustion take hold. Download or stream "AT Christmas" at Amazon, Bandcamp, and most online services.

Red & Green Submarine. The Weeklings are four guys from New Jersey who love the Beatles and Christmas. They've released four festive singles over the past few years, and all four are included on the band's first full-length holiday album, simply titled Christmas, along with 12 more fab tracks. Available for download or streaming and on compact disc.

Peace In Our Time. Over the last 20 years, Dean & Britta & Sonic Boom - members of indie rock icons Galaxie 500, Luna, and Spacemen 3 - have released several lovely Christmas songs. All are collected on their much-anticipated album, A Peace of Us, plus a bunch of cool covers and new originals. Order at Bandcamp, Amazon, and around the web.

Well, Now I'm Excited! So far, the biggest news for me this year is Ben Folds' first-ever Christmas album, Sleigher. Most of the tracks are new, original songs with his usual mix of pathos and humor - plus keen musicianship. Oh, and he lets AI write the lyrics for one of the songs! Read more in Variety and order the CD or vinyl at Amazon.

Carols Covered (Again). Apple Music has made an annual tradition out of a batch of exclusive holiday tracks by young artists. I'll be honest, I don't even recognize most of these people. But, I sure do love the Linda Lindas, a young band of Angelinos who contribute a bangin' version of "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree." [get it]

Spotify, Schmotify. Once again, the company busy destroying the music industry is taking a breather to add new new tracks to their ever-growing, exclusive holiday playlist. It's free to stream, but you'll have to upgrade if you want to download. This year's biggest name is Kesha who does a nifty cover of Lindsay Buckingham's "Holiday Road." [spot me]

Hip Christmas Favorites

Cool Yule. In the 1980's, IRS Records was a paragon of indie virtue, and their holiday sampler, Just In Time For Christmas (1990), reflects that aesthetic. Comprised of both catalog tracks and new recordings, it strikes a lighthearted, if frequently acerbic, tone and includes songs by Dread Zeppelin, Squeeze, the dB's, and Wall of Voodoo. [read more]

Check This Shit Out! In the early 90's, über indie Sympathy For The Record Industry released a fascinating series called Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus, much of it out-of-tune caterwauling dripping in sarcasm. Strangely enough, the highlights tend to be songs played well, or enthusiastically, or both - not shrugged off with post-modern ennui. [read more]

Christmas From The Not-So-Latin Lounge. Despite appearances, Rhino's Mambo Santa Mambo isn't about Latin music, per se. Rather, it's about the Latin music craze that gripped American pop like a tropical fever during the 1950's - think Ricky Ricardo or Carmen Miranda. This was Latin music smartly packaged for the white market. [read more]

Feliz Navidad, Baby! Never a household name, Juan Esquivel was thrust into the hipster limelight when his music was reissued during the lounge revival of the 1990's. Part of that bounty was Merry Xmas From The Space-Age Bachelor Pad, compiling his holiday recordings for RCA and Reprise between 1959 and 1962. [read more]

Exactly How Is This Stuff "Hip"? The music on Nickelodeon's Classic Cartoon Christmas series isn't very hip, but it's, um, hip adjacent. Every generation since the Boomers grew up watching Rudolph, Frosty, and Charlie Brown, and those cartoons - and their soundtracks - influenced the art they would make. [read more]

Um, Hooray? I never miss a chance to say how disappointed I was when I finally heard Christmas With The Everly Brothers (1962). I love the Everly Brothers, but the album is dull and reverential - and gets trampled to death by the Boys Town Choir. It was finally reissued on CD by Rhino in 2005 and then sporadically ever since. [read more]

What a Bummer. Another Rhino compilation, Bummed Out Christmas! is a harrowing concept album about the dark side of the holidays. It collects 12 yuletide laments - some tragic, some comic - that document divorce, depression, drunk driving, death, larceny, murder, and incarceration. The weather outside is, indeed, frightful. [read more]

Just The Hits, Ma'am. In the 1990's, Rhino Records partnered with Billboard Magazine for a series of compilations that attempted to write the history of popular Christmas music from the top down. More than 30 years later, they are still an excellent place to start, even if they stop far short of telling the whole story. [read more]

The Mother of All Compilations. Two Christmas LP's from 1976 were the very beginning of my vast Christmas collection and, nearly 50 years later, they remain its cornerstones. One of them is just a bunch of hit singles. The other, Rhythm & Blues Christmas, is the magna carta of hip Christmas music. [read more]

Christmas Gumbo. It's taken me a while to take a close look at Rhino Records' Alligator Stomp: Cajun Christmas. Why? I don't really like Cajun music that much. But, that's my problem. On its own terms, it's a great way to spice up your holidays. But, compared to Rhino's other compilations, it's got some problems. [read more]

Top 20 Christmas Albums. Actually, 40 - I started unwrapping presents and just couldn't stop! Anyway, who said Christmas music has to be boring? Not me! These sterling platters will put you in the Christmas spirit faster than you can say, "Go Cat Go!" [read more]

Christmas Is Going To The Dogs. The beloved 1966 TV special How The Grinch Stole Christmas included barely three songs, but one of them is an all-time classic. In the years since, it's been covered dozens of times, and the TV show spawned two movies, a Broadway musical, a raft of merchandise, and a lot more music. [read more]

The Saddest Time Of The Year. Yuletunes (1991) is a power pop collection that often sounds more like an indolent Big Star ballad than a raucous Raspberries rocker. Most songs dwell on the melancholy aspects of the holiday season, even when the music feels joyous and jangly. Artists include the Shoes, Matthew Sweet, and Material Issue. [read more]

Songs for Naughty Children. First Warning Records started out as an indie label, but they were on board with corporate behemoth BMG by 1991. So, they got to include bands like the Primitives and Hoodoo Gurus on A Lump Of Coal - a pithy snapshot of early 90's alternative rock, with both barrels aimed squarely at the holidays. [read more]

Swingin' For Christmas. The 1994 collection The Joy Of Christmas Past was one of the first rewards we reaped after GRP Records was bought by MCA and presented with the keys to the vaults of Decca, Chess, and other labels rich in vintage jazz. Starting in 1948 with Gene Ammons, we journey through two decades of swing, bop, and jive. [read more]

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