Category: punk

Xmas Dance Party: week of rock (Sunday)

It’s our day of thrash. Rock has grown up but never quit rebelling.

Garage rock has an axe to grind, Santa’s Little Rockerz recall mojo nixon with their rockabilly meets monotonous noise release “Rockin’ with Rudolph.” That boogie woogie piano is monster, but their spirit is pretty pissed off.

More garage, The Fleshtones chant “Super Rock Santa.” Harder to dance to, impossible not to pogo to.

Light metal might be a descriptor for Firing Blanks with their “Rockin’ at Christmas.” This has the hallmarks of rage, but won’t break the lease. Pretty, pretty, pretty.

Also lightened up, Iron Maiden metal up a previous mention (Gary Glitter’s) “Another Rock and Roll Christmas.” Yeah, i guess we didn’t need to go there.

Smudging up the Elton John singsong “Step into Christmas” The Business make punk work out of nonsense. Hats off, chaps.

The Degraders fill my list with “Christmas Twist” (to which i could not in fact dance the twist). All the major garage and metal vitamins are here, kids.

CDM Chartbreakers mock and honor punk with “Rockin’ Little Christmas” an eandearinglittle ditty you just might walk across the room to.

You Auto Have a Merry Christmas: model-1

Some cars are hotter than others. Joyriders tend not to help themselves to Kias. So, while leaving the wild world of the hot rod, let us consider some specific hot cars that Santa might straddle.

Muscle cars could do well. So here comes the cross gender tribute band from ‘cross the Atlantic, The Ramonas, with “Santa’s Got a GTO.” It’s more nostalgic punk than hard screechin’ punk.

Wrap the Rainbow: (disastrous) black

Black can be the worst mood, the scariest night, the killingest plague. Some people don’t like black.

Satan and the Reindeer Butchers kill ‘White Christmas’ with their “A Black Xmas.” For all that’s holy  BLUE ALERT!! (for the next six or so)

Amana Reign mixes media to freak you out with their “Black Christmas.” Those boys are so loud! But their lyrics don’t go far enough to make a counter culture point.

Well, then, let’s try some metal: Venom plays “Black Xmas” for the Devil. So that’s not the same Xmas you and i know.

A bit more angry and musically inclined Prison of Blues growls out “Black X-Mas” like they have an important lessen you can pogo to,

Run Moon parleys wicca into goth with her “Black Christmas:” Prison of Blues growls out “Black X-Mas” a piss and moan list of what disappoints her about the holiday. Her rat-a-tat chant gives her song more rah rah than rant rant. Hard to take her cutie-pie anger seriously.

Attempting mood through reverb, Hellfunk ups the melodic quotient with “I’m Dreaming of a Black Xmas.” Black here is absolute night, the absence of any grace or goodness. Get that first guy a lozenge!

Oozing with 1970s BBC snark, High Contrast speechify their “Black Christmas” so you get a sense of working class rap, but Liverpudlian, not Compton. Hitler is mentioned. Subtlety is not  considered appropriate.

Bill Collins and MDC play British punk for another “Black Christmas” in which black= no hope, no cheer. Yell if you hate your parents too.

But we can criticize the very tenants of Xianity and still be jolly, can’t we? Try post feminist punker Poly Styrene and her London low down: “Black Christmas.” She’s a damfine musician and her satire is danceable. The attention-deficit video makes Santa into a nightmare.

Died. You’re Welcome: encore (1)

While on the subject, I’m reminded of something Sam Kinison once said about Jesus being the only guy to come back from the dead and not want to eat your brains.

The seminal punk zombie/Christmas song comes from MxPx. Their classic “Christmas Night of the Living Dead” (not the title you’d expect when you hear it, but trademark blah blah blah) paints a picture of the undead end of the world… but it’s Christmas! Green (skin) and Red (blood)!

Died. You’re Welcome: turkeys

So death extends beyond the human realm (and holy ghost territory). Now please consider the animals. And the punk music about them.

Punk music may turn the pathos of poverty into danceable jingles. And the drama of ordinary life magnified to federal cases.

I don’t know this Krishna Naloka 108, but when a bloke sings about turkeys for Christmas you can bet he’s Brit (a prerequisite for punk). And his music, it’s so catchy! “Let’s All Murder Turkeys (for Jesus)!”

BLUE ALERT: the s word (4)

These Southhampton boys have made a kiddie version of punk that makes you want to sing along (or throw things at the same time). This temper tantrum, illustrated with a slide show of coloring book fun cartoons, swings with festive profanity,

“Christmas is Shit” by Pocketful o’ Nowt.

BLUE ALERT: number one (6)

Self released EPs mark the inauspicious beginnings of pop punk band, Patent Pending some ten years ago. They are three albums in now with a couple of labels.

After a pretty a cappella opening, watch (or not: black screen) these guys rock out with their own “Yellow Snow.”

 

A Month of Love: Billy Idol

Never fade away… live fast, die young… angry looks foolish on the old.

I mean, when should the punk icons of back in the day just knock it off?

The MTV star of the ’80s (‘Rebel Yell,’ ‘White Wedding,’ James Marsters’s character in Buffy) helped mainstream screaming with piercings rather than hair. But, apart from a “comeback” album in ’05, Mr. Broad hasn’t been much of anything for twenty years. Here is his “Christmas Love” frumpy country growling from ’07. It’s easier to love him without an up-to-date jpeg, by the by.