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
Santa's Done Got Hip. Rhino Records' Hipsters' Holiday: Vocal Jazz And R&B Classics (1989) provides a vivid snapshot of American jive in the full flower of health, from hard bop to swing, from jump blues to doo wop. These songs are unusual, often uproarious, occasionally scabrous celebration of Christmas. [read more]
What A Mess! Back in the 80's when alternative Christmas music was a rare thing, a New York record store started a label and created the Midnight Christmas Mess series - three vinyl albums, never reissued in the digital age, that documented the city's burgeoning garage rock scene and helped make holiday music hip again. [read more]
Cold Enough. Released locally in 1982, An
Austin Rhythm And Blues Christmas was a harbinger that the Texas town would become
a hipster mecca. Lou Ann Barton and Charlie Sexton would go on to greater things, and the album was picked up nationally after Epic Records
struck gold with the Fabulous Thunderbirds. [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]
Dig That Crazy Santa Claus. Rhino's Christmas Rock EP (1982) and Rockin'
Christmas albums (1984) are partly responsible for this website. Their diverse, nontraditional, wackadoodle portrayal of holiday music gave me one of my first glimpses into a world where Santa is twistin', surfin', rockin', and rollin' - and everybody is welcome. [read more]
What Will Santa Claus Say? Because it's time to swing with Jingle Bell Jam: Jazz Christmas Classics, one of Rhino Records' series of historic Christmas compilations. This one surveys America's musical crown jewel from just after World War II through the early 1990's. You get Charlie, Ella, Dexter, Duke, Vince, and all the coolest cats. [read more]
The Mother of all Lists. David McGee's list of essential Christmas albums appeared in Dave Marsh's 1981 Book Of Rock Lists and is largely to blame for my obsession and, eventually, this website. Christmas music had been my parents' music: adult, reverent, boring. McGee showed me holiday music that rocks, rolls, swings, and twangs. [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]
Christmas In Vietnam. Most holiday music
is escapist. Who, after all, wants to think about death and mayhem during the season of hope? Nevertheless,
the Vietnam war intruded into this idyllic genre during the turbulent 60's, and we examine six
songs that looked at Christmas through the eyes of soldiers and their families. [read more]
Quality Over Quantity. At just 12 tracks, MCA's Rockin' Little Christmas (1986) is brief, but all 12 tracks are classics, from big hits by Bobby, Brenda, and Chuck to obscure goodies by Dodie Stevens, the Surfaris, and the mysterious Lord Douglas Byron. It's a concise history of Christmas rock 'n' roll before the Beatles changed everything. [read more]
A Special Product. In many ways, Sony's Reindeer
Rock is a cheap piece of crap. But, nearly all of its measly 10 tracks are insanely rare, most never reissued before or since, mastered from pristine sources. Thrill to rare rock classics by a blonde bombshell, a forgotten girl group, a juvenile Elvis, and, unlikely as it seems, Little Jimmy Boyd. [read more]
Praise Jah, It's Christmas. Studio One was producer Coxsone Dodd's legendary Kingston hit factory, and he ruled the Jamaican charts like no one before or since. Reggae Christmas From Studio One and its sequel, Christmas Greetings From Studio One, are typical of the thrilling roots reggae that routinely sprang from within those blessed walls. [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]
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]
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]
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