Category: rock

5 o’clock! A.M. or P.M.? It makes a lot of difference around Christmas. Michael Bethel coos sweetly in “Harmattan Christmas” despite the travel plans: Our bags are packed We were up by five. A sleepy, yet hopeful rendition.

Randy Newman’s “Christmas in Cape Town” is an argument against Apartheid more than a seasonal salute. But in his bluesy rock he tells his girl, You know my little brother, babe, Well, he works out at the diamond mine; I drove him out there at five this mornin’ past the Blacks who were hoping for work but get none. Will the spirit survive?

The kids (well, Andy & The Odd Socks) have another POV: It’s 5am and Dad’s still snoring (Come on, wake up!) Let’s get out of bed. “We’re All Together (At Christmas Time” is hyperactive kid song that sings.

Or the significant other under an Xmas fever? You pulled me out of bed at
Five am Telling me it’s snowing On Christmas begins The Limbo Motel’s “Christmas Morning.” I totally get that.

What makes the ultimate “Christmas Girl“? She Get’s in line by 5 AM a week before the sales begin, according to the retro pop of The Easy Button. Bopping fun.

Then there’s the perpetual boyfriend: Santa gon’ be leaving at 5 a.m.; Baby, I can pull up, it don’t matter what time it is. Rap from Why Don’t We offers it all to be “With You This Christmas.”

Despite announcing It’s five in the morning, the kids are awake–It’s Christmas for heaven’s sake! Amy Grant’s “Christmas for You and Me” is low, slow country twaddle. Try to stay awake.

Mooseknuckle definitely thinks this is too early: Christmas morning 5 am, Wanna go to bed again… “Mooseknuckle Christmas” is about being without–happiness, joy, booze. This isn’t da blooz, but it rocks that way.

Catchy jazzy R+B from J Sun picks up where we left off with “Quarantine Christmas.” And if there’s no place to go Let it snow, let it snow As we gather in a row Under our 6 foot mistletoe. Cool.

Courtney J wants you to know “Christmas With My Boo” involves A handsome 6 foot chocolate treat. R+B siren song.

A 6 foot tall perfect woman with horns gives Nightlash the perfect song as she collects their souls in “Jingle Hellz… Devils All the Way.” Spoken word metal, ya?

Additional metal from Type O Negative berates the traditions as The stockings are hung, but who cares, Preserved for those no longer there–Six feet beneath me sleep. “Red Water (Christmas Mourning)” moans and pokes at your soul. Uh….

Wednesday 13 asks Santa for a freshly dug grave (6 feet deep) so that they can be “Buried by Christmas.” Angry metal at last. BLUE ALERT

Retribution from Brandon Cueto, who orders the reindeer to “Slay” that special awful someone with R+B anger. My gifts all go under the tree While you go under six feet.

Flying rap from Dax BLUE ALERT where “The Grinch Goes Viral.” Dealing with prejudice (Green Lives Matter!), he declares: I come from a place where they sleigh you Then artistically wrap you in boxes And the 6 foot drop you experience Is down the chimney when Santa drops it. Clever, but doesn’t end well.

With allusions to West Side and Batman, TyMe WArp raps the caution “Merry Christmas Ebenezer.” Don’t wind up 6 feet deep! Is this kid rap?

Vandals maxed out their cards shopping for you. And FROM you?? “Thanx for Nothing” is the punk retort. I hope you die Choking on your putrid pile of presents 6 feet high, is the actual thought to count. Fantastic BLUE ALERT song.

Off the South Pole Tarzan & the Beachwaiters present a BLUE ALERT tribute to Tarzanta “Riding Waves for XMAS.” Thrashing (NOT surf) rock looking for at least 6 foot waves. Carolbunga!

“Tis’ the Season” by Eunike (feat. Tom Sycamore) is that folk rocker that allows how seriously these musicians take their craft. Hit, though? It smells like everything else out there. Gleeful at times: 6 am It’s Christmas morning, Running down the stairs.

Dream Theater goes the industrial punk route on “6:00“: Six o’clock on a Christmas morning, And for what? Their insistence is comparable, but their angst is passionate (as opposed to passion that’s angsty). Points.

DeDe Kimble and Fraser Watt miss waking up at 6am running down the stairs for the holiday. They miss that frame of mind where you can “Come Home This Christmas.” This sorrowful pop ballad notes the difference of only a year ago. But, if you keep listening, this loss of childhood is actually a pandemic quarantine crisis. Well, i’ll read into it what i want.

Other ways to hate this time? “Hungover on Christmas Day” is a problem for Scott Forsyth: It’s barely turned 6 in the morning And the little ones are already out of bed, Their little feet stomp in the rhythm Of the throbbing that’s inside my head. Anthem rock that pounds a bit too hard. Ow.

Ready to actually rock? Bubble Made Imagination considers indie artist Jeff Rosenstock in the stream-of-consciousness bopper “Meat Pie Holiday Weekend“: I′m thinking about him at 6:47am On this Christmas Day; I need a skin doctor and a head doctor And I can’t stand up. But you’re a standup kinda band–hats off.

How far? “THE GRINCH” by Alexander Pielsticker (ft. Manny Houston) promises through instrumental rap that he’s not as scary as the guy from ‘8 Mile.’ So not that far.

I’m eight stories up… bury me six feet deep… Hishandsmilk (feat. Hashter) self degrades while bemoaning Rudolph’s outcast fate in “Have Christmas Without Me.” This is morose rap, so it trickles more than tom-toms.

Deseis is awakened Christmas Eve Night, but not by Santa. More cutesy rap revels in “The Night I Battled Krampus.” I mean he was eight feet tall without even tryin, but the showdown becomes a rap battle. Sick burns ensue.

As monstrous, BLUEALERT “Saint Dickolas” has eight inches as well as eight reindeer. And this chipmunk rap details how he’s using it. Pant, moan.

You know what should be eight feet tall? The tree from “Del Davis Tree Farm.” Follow along with the industrial (yet drawling) rap from Primus.

Or, the other kind of tree, the “Pringle Rothell Christmas Tree.” this turns out to be an 8 foot yucca on a barbed wire fence All dressed up in aluminum cans. Race Ricketts plays this unplugged folkish recitation for cultural significance.

Rocking his love, Crlo wants you to be his “Santa Baby.” He does promise to deck the halls with 8 inches of snow tonight. Hair metal sentiment.

Jeff Mac is far from where he loves. His peri-prog rocker “One More Step” poeticizes this trouble with similes about soldiering, weather, and pain. Still, gonna fight: One step at a time, Eight more makes nine…. Will he make it??

Painful childhood memories contribute to BLUE ALERT rap from Yabba in the syncopated “No Christmas.” So poor, there was no Christmas. Plus which, that’s Santa in blood; I’m killing them raindeers I don’t give a fuck As shot start to spray that 8 year old me. Hard times. Now she rich.

Goo Goo Dolls address the rockabilly to the naughtiest of eight year olds: “You Ain’t Gettin’ Nothin’.” Underage drinking, grand larceny, pet torture… i think 5 to ten would be more appropriate than nothin’. Super cool.

Matt Dorrien uses rose-colored glasses to “Sure Miss Those Days at Christmas.” Sure there was snow and tree shopping, but also Long ago when I was eight I can still remember My parents fought all holiday (All those broken dishes). Ironic easy listening pop.

Matthew West similarly asks Take me back to eight years old (These days Peace on Earth is hard to find). Strangely the pop “Hope of Christmas” is in simple prayer. Do eight-year-olds do it better?

Eight years old and in a wheelchair… in line to see Santa–holy cow! “Santa’s Prayer” by Doc Edwards and the Buffalo River Boys is a plodding country tear-jerker about the coma-bound trucker daddy. Holy Moley Cow!

Now a “Hat Made of Mistletoe” could be a creepy number, but Cody Johnson’s barn-burning fiddling and the childish revelation: Miss Darla, how you sparkle like a shiny new toy, And I know I’m just an eight year old lonesome cowboy leads us to be happy for the little entrepreneur. Yippee-kiss-ya.

Just as sure is the protagonist of Bruce Hornsby’s leader of the tree searching posse song: Such a strong boy could haggle too; Eight years old could arm wrestle you, Fast as a horse and slick as a snake; We’ll make it snappy and won’t be late. But this ragtime rocker becomes “Lost in the Snow,” and this little kid is dying…

Surely all the eight reindeer songs have been posted already! Well, they get the mention in other songs, too.

But there’s The Christmas Notes’ “I Wish Santa Could Play the Banjo.” Bluegrass hollerin’.

And “There Is a Santa Claus” by Heather Noelle Holley. Grating pop.

Also, “I’m Waiting up for Santa Claus,” some boss garage from The Zygomats.

Moreover, Johnny Silverhams amateur raps “I’m Really Santa.”

Then there’s Jeremy Walker’s “Not so Wise Men Anymore“–weird electronic country easy listening.

No to mention “Who is the Real Santa Claus?‘ a slow salsa pop worrier from Richard Melvin Brown.

Which links to his other slurry kidsong “Amos the Little Elf.”

Neither Jesse Reid’s “Soon It Will be (Christmas Day),” a folk rocker.

Additionally, Begonia fingerpops and R+Bs “It Won’t be Christmas (‘Till You’re Here).”

Plus–God help us–the persistent pop of Mariah Carey’s “Oh Santa!“

To say nothing of “Christmas Time of Year” by Betty Anne and Brain Watts. Boot scootin’ country.

Alongside is the plucky folk rock of Swimmers Jackson singing “Christmas is in You Heart.”

Further comes the brassy big band of Jamie Cullum’s “So Many Santas.”

Too, NewLaw’s “It’s Christmas Time.” Driving folk pop.

On the side, we find The Oak Ridge Boys’ “Reindeer on the Roof.” Honky tonk.

On the other hand, Nicky Loves You folk rocks the counting song “8 Reindeer.”

Au reste, Listen & Learn Music’s kidsong counts “The Other Eight Reindeer.”

With all that is Amy Baker’s big jazzy band’s “That Christmas Gift.”

By the same token, Kitty Wells kidsongs her country “Ole Kris Kringle.”

Penultimately, Lil Romeo and Hillary Duff want you to “Tell Me a Story (About the Night Before).” Playful rap.

Finally, Dead Freedom goes double-meaning with the hard rock of “More Balls than a Christmas Tree.” You still there?

For many Xmas is a time of happiness. Can we count how high up this joy? Cloud nine, duh!

In “Christmas Came Early” Peyton Glynn may not be into Christmas that much. I wake up every morning treat it like a holiday, he raps–adding (i suspect only for the rhyme): I’ve been on cloud nine. Sufficient talent, though.

When Brittany Bloom is the present for you she souls out: On cloud nine we’re floating. “A L-O-V-E Christmas” spells it out for you. Diva overboard!

ChrisWoo is feeling it, too. Yeah, I’m on Cloud nine, Your heart’s next to mine, so “This Christmas Feels Right.” R+B flirtation.

Christmas with you, It’s the only thing, puts me on cloud nine, mumbles Gareth Heesom in his bluesy country. But, see, “Christmas Without You” isn’t that.

More speicifically, Spring Lovelle claims, Hot cocoa in a steaming mug keeps us singing and dancing on cloud nine. But “This is Christmas” is that jazzy vapid pop of greeting cards and generic well-wishing. I fell onto cloud seven.

New Found Glory rocks out their need to find the perfect “Christmas Card.” Since you make ’em feel like their on cloud nine they’ll never give up looking. Not for 2:07 anyways. Great shopping music.

Why watch the clock around the holidays? Ask The Federales. They’ll tell “Santa Don’t Stop at the Bar Christmas Eve.” …before you know it you’re waking up in the parking lot at 9am on Christmas morning with the sleigh’s radio on pretty loud… Rockabilly with a little lounge and excellent steel guitar whining.

Deathsex Bloodbath’s “One Christmas Night” is a one-night stand. In the aftermath, all the Xmassy imagery is now naughty. But it’s 9 A.M. and mum expects you… childish garage nudge-nudge.

Nostalgia’s a time-keeper. “Christmas was Better a Decade Ago” is the ponderous pop plodding we get from MAIC: 9 am I open my eyes I see that it is snowing outside; I walk downstairs, I get dressed up, and then i stick my tongue out to the sky–Do u realize it′s all in the past?

Set on an Xmas Eve at 9 when the power cuts out and Dad scrambles to save the night so he sings “Have You Seen My Love?” Drew Dillon pours his heart into this gentle pop showtune.

Will Santa come tonight? I’ll wait all night from nine, belabors Laura Fireball in the laid back pop tune “However Many Christmases.” The accent that makes most of the words sound like over words is autotune.

“Snowfall” by William Hutt is an alt-folk portrait of love and wondering. The city after nine is the best time to observe this.

Wanting December to last forever, Jessey Wyzgowski sashays vocals around some pop folk guitar in “Divine Christmas.” Some fun! Go outside in the snow…Or we’ll stay inside by candlelight Drinking eggnog ’til it’s half past nine.

“Santa Don’t Forget the Whiskey” is the bluesy rap from The Southern Rap Commission. Especially since Liquor stores shut down at nine o’clock tonight. Fun.

But, now: It’s after 9, on the night of Christmas Eve–so it’s time for “Groovy Christmas.” Andrew Cassara mashes up R+B and lame pop. Tweaks more than grooves.

Sleighbells ringing, carol singing, pop a cork of red after 9, ooh, ooh ooh ohh, ooh ooh, maunders Bubblez in the unplugged, overwritten charmer “Bring Out the Wine.” The poetry’s got game, even if the same two chords over and over don’t.

Christmas morning? Don’t oversleep! Get up, get up (it’s twenty-five to nine) Come and see the big surprise, chortle Carlos Fandango Music in “Feel the Magic.” Throat closing Brit-pop.

“Christmas Round at Our House” is full of numbers: midnight, quarter past three… and–Uncle Joe’s been on the lager; He’s been at it since half past nine And now he’s getting flirty with Barbara–She’s the girl who lives at number five. This rocking mess of dysfunctional family and great expectations is more soothing than you might think. John C Evans is a sympathetic songster.

What else is a 10 for Christmas music–?

10 pounds of shit in a three pound bag is a gift possibility for F.B.A. with time running out. BLUE ALERT “All I Got You for Christmas Were These Riffs” is the actual gift. As well as a buttload of complaining, in heavy rock.

Heavy blues from Honey Davis, who is ambivalent about going home for the holidays. I had to stop at the station Put a couple dollars on number ten… but she imagines a head on collision might be better than seeing her babies again. Man, that’s a “Blue Christmas.”

Also losing the thrill, Fruitcakes old through their “10th Christmas Together.” Regretful celebrations. Drunken piano bar caterwauling.

A measure of Christmas Eve’s approach, by Boyzone, is Streets are finally emptying, Ten shutters coming down…. “The Hour Before Christmas” is a self-important piece of dense pop. But it’s sooo pretty.

“Obodo Oyibo Christmas” is a planned African trip to visit family overseas with 10 bags each. Eko the Beat keeps the beat magnificently.

Jake Paul, the self-made celebrity, taunts: We the Team 10 elves, who the hell are frickin’ you? in “It’s Christmas Day Bro.” Rap that tries too hard.

Starshine Singers kidsong in harmony “Shopping Bags.” They got lots! Including 10 CDs.

Jonathan Coulton and Jonathan Reddick have a plan: Look, I couldn’t find a single Teddy Ruxpin anywhere, but they’ll still be just as popular next year And when I find a stash, I’ll buy ten. They’re taking “One Christmas at a Time.” Pop whooping.

The kids want stuff [Bobby wants a ten-speed English racer], But Alan Jackson only wants you to “Just Put a Ribbon in Your Hair” so you’ll be his present. Slow country love song.

In a “California Christmas” The Boxmasters may hang ten. Lotsa word play with this slow rock. Roll with it. [See also “Hang Ten Santa” from Eric Stone for real surf rock.]