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? Believe it or not, they've begun announcing new Christmas albums - lots of vinyl reissues, mainly - plus indie darlings Dean & Britta and the Sunturns, and a few big names like Jennifer Hudson, Clay Aiken, and Little Big Town. 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]

This just in! Dean & Britta are having a listening party on Nov. 17 at 4:00 PM CST for their much-anticipated Christmas album, A Peace of Us, which arrives on Nov. 22. Dean, Britta, and their buddy Sonic Boom are members of indie rock darlings Galaxie 500, Luna, and Spacemen 3. Pre-order at Bandcamp, Amazon, and around the web. [rsvp]

Well, Now I'm Excited! So far, the biggest news for me this year is Ben Folds' first-ever Christmas album, Sleigher. It's out on October 25. Most of the tracks are new, original songs - one assumes with his usual mix of pathos and humor - plus keen musicianship. Read more in Variety and preorder the CD or vinyl at Amazon.

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]

The Christmas Jukebox. My online Christmas music player is bulging with over 800 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]

Sh-Boom, Indeed. There was no purer form of rock 'n' roll than doo wop, and Rhino Records' Doo Wop Christmas (1992) taps into an even more rarefied vein. It's the closest thing rock has to sacrament, and when doo wop crossed paths with the pure world of Christmas music, good things were bound to happen. [read more]

Not So Easy Listening. The 90's lounge revival spurred a frenzy for all things swank and spawned an appreciation for vintage pop music outside the realm of rock - and a boatload of reissues to cash in on the craze. For the enthusiast, Croon And Swoon is a fine introduction to classic holiday pop, and for the dabbler it's a one-stop shop. [read more]

No Present, No Cry. To western ears, reggae music can be a challenge. Perhaps that's why reggae covers of popular Christmas songs works so well - and why Rhino Records' Natty And Nice: A Reggae Christmas (1998) sounded so familiar and friendly to my ears - even though I'd never heard most of the recordings before. [read more]

Shoplifting You Something For Christmas. Portland-based Tim/Kerr Records released It's Finally Christmas back when a whole album of alternative holiday rock was a rare thing and a reason to celebrate. There are, indeed, some great songs here. But, too often they are obscured by pointless dissonance and hipper-than-thou diffidence. [read more]

Go To Rhino Records! From a small record shop in Los Angeles came - eventually - the very foundation of this website. Across 20 years, Rhino Records released nearly two dozen compilations that wrote the history of recorded Christmas music in the 20th century and transformed my curiosity into obsession. [read more]

Christmas Is Coming. In the 90's, Oglio Records issued two fine, if bewildering, compilations, The Coolest Christmas and The Edge Of Christmas. Nearly all the tracks are keepers, a few are all-time classics, and several are pretty rare including singles by George Thorogood, the Cocteau Twins, and Canadian power poppers the Payolas. [read more]

Jews For Jesus. A surprising number of popular Jewish entertainers have recorded Christmas albums and songs. From Irving Berlin to Beck, we've got the shmutz on this strange phenomena. Plus, Jews we wish would record a Christmas record - and Jews we hope do not! [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]

Yulesville U.S.A. The collective brilliance of Motown's holiday music was one of my first - and certainly abiding - fascinations. The 1973 compilation A Motown Christmas is all most people will need. But, there's a lot more, including Top 20 Albums by the Temptations, the Jackson 5, and Smokey Robinson & The Miracles. [read more]

Man, later, like, dig? The subtitle "A Collection Of Rockin' Stocking Stuffers" doesn't quite do Rhino's Cool Yule justice. Almost bereft of hits, it compiles strange, wonderful, and rare sides from the halcyon days of rock 'n' roll - obscure slices of discomfort and joy that make Christmas music so fascinating and record collecting so much fun. [read more]

Let's Get Demented. The high priest of musical mayhem, Dr. Demento, has compiled several Christmas albums over the years, most notably The Greatest Christmas Novelty CD Of All Time (1989), one of my Top 20 Albums. I've taken a fresh look at his lunatic legacy of missing front teeth, talking chipmunks, singing dogs, and renegade reindeer. [read more]

Tortured Carols. Punk and new wave helped pull Christmas music back from the brink, embracing the genre with great abandon and irreverence, helping spur the revival that continues unabated to this day. Rhino's New Wave Xmas collects 17 of the musically lighter moments, including classics by the Pogues, Pretenders, and Squeeze. [read more]

A Little Bright Star. Diana Ross & The Supremes' 1965 album Merry Christmas is one of the weaker Motown Christmas albums, but that's a pretty competitive field. It certainly yields rewards, though, particularly in its 2017 ultimate edition. Simply put, most Motown fans will adore the crap out of it. [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]

Even Santa Gets The Blues. Pointblank Records and their corporate parent, Virgin, released two Christmas albums in the 1990's that - in the modern world of downloads and streaming - are arguably irrelevant. On their own terms, however, they're pretty great. The first is a blues tour de force, and the second is a mainstream juggernaut. [read more]

A Christmas Gift For You. Every year, I offer five free MP3's from my voluminous collection - all unavailable easily or legitimately in the music marketplace. In 2023, I chose lost treasures by the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde, XTC in disguise, fake Rolling Stones, Boston's barbecue guru, and a Christmas bummer by Concrete Blonde. [listen or download]

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