Merry Christmas to the Drunks, Merry Christmas to the Lovers

Merry Christmas to the Drunken Lovers.
Side 1      Side 2

1. Christmas Eve - Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci
2. Merry Christmas to the Drunks, Merry Christmas to the Lovers - Ballboy
3. Little Baby Hefner's Xmas Song for Holland - Hefner 
4. Countdown to Christmas - Glam Chops
5. Merry Christmas (I don't want to fight tonight - The Ramones
6. I Mugged Santa Claus - The Thlyds
7. Hark The Herald Angel Sing - The Fall
8. All I want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit - Half Man Half Biscuit
9. Santa from Santa Fe - Lawrence Welk and his Champaign music
10. Red Santa - Lucky Lucky Pigeons 
11. Abominable Snowman in the Supermarket - Jonathan Richman
12. Frosty The Snowman - The Ronettes
13. Santa’s On His Way - The Pipettes
14. Christmas Wrapping - Waitresses
15. Outer Space Santa - Lawrence Welk and The Lennon Sisters 
16. December Boy - The Loves
17. The Christmas Wars - Darren Hayman
18. December 1986 - Lucky Delucci
19. Christmas Teardrops Neath’ Mistletoe - Just Joans
20. Heavenly Christmas - A Smile and a Ribbon
21. I Believe In Father Christmas - Keith TOTP & His Minor UK Indie Celebrity All-Star Backing Band
22. All I want for Christmas is an Action Man - Jonny Cola and The A-Grades
23. Tyrannosaurus Rex for Christmas - Lovely Eggs
24. Lonely This Christmas - Carter USM
25. Stop the Revelry - Shrag
26. Just Like Christmas - Low

Life's Too Short For Lists...

Even with the endless time I have on my hands on the frosty riverbanks, between glorious battles with the Taff's Rainbow Trout, I find it hard to comprehend anything involving end of year lists, Dogging Tales just came on TV adding further discouragement to my already fragile willpower, but even so, there's a page that needs filling, and as the self proclaimed king of filler material, here’s a list with some of the music that shined like the stars on a crisp clear night through the murky fogs, shady shadows, and heaps of shit of 2013:



The All About - Suburban Heart (Bandcamp)

Cherry Glazerr - Papa Cremp (Bandcamp)

The Death of Pop (Bandcamp)

Ballboy - Merry Christmas To The Drunks, Merry Christmas to the Lovers (Bandcamp)

Just Handshakes - Say It (Bleeding Gold Records / Bandcamp)

Major Leagues - Weird Seasons EP (RipeTV)

The Indelicates - Diseases of England (Corporate Records)

Flowers (Odd Box Records / Bandcamp)

Winter Villains - February (Barely Regal Records / Bandcamp)

I Like The Go GO (Bandcamp)

Makthaverskan - Makthaverskan II (Luxury / Bandcamp)

Tullycraft - Lost in Light Rotation (Fortuna POP!)

TV Girl - Lonely Women (Bandcamp)

The Courtneyes - The Courtneys - S/T (Hockey Dad Records / Bandcamp)

The Bobby McGee’s - Bon Bons (Je Vien Rechercher Mes) (Youtube)

The Spook School - Dress Up (Fortuna POP!)

Tyrannosaurus Dead - Pure // Apart + Bed Dread (Odd Box Records / Bleeding Gold Records / Bandcamp)

Laura Cantrell - No Way There from Here (Shoeshine Records)

Alpaca Sports (Bandcamp)

Eddie Argos and the Lo-Fi Punk Rock Motherfuckers - Volume 1 (Corporate Records)

Songs for Walter (Bandcamp)

Au Revoir Simone - Move in Spectrums (Moshi Moshi)

The Star You Fell In Love To Comes Out On Christmas Eve (Christmas Mix)

Christmas is in the air along the frosty river banks, the grass sparkles like the stars with the morning frost, our mortality shines clearer and brighter than them all at this time of year. In the ice, reflections of Christmas’ past stare back; scalextrics with dodgy transformers, Frank Fish with his latex waders shagging that snow-woman he built after one too many candle-wax-whiskies, family members no longer swimming in our waters doing the rounds on Christmas day, pints of Baileys going down the hatch like cold cans of lilt, aching hearts wandering the streets searching for that feeling lost somewhere along the way as ever familiar landscapes whisper in the darkness.

I was young once
I was seduced by
The rebellion
Of youth

I was young once
I was seduced by
The rebellion
Of you 

String together some threads, sing, drink, and dance to the ghosts of the past and things that don’t last!

The Star You Fell In Love To Comes Out On Christmas Eve:

1. Fast Sledge Past Blurred Robin - Symphonika
2. Pray for Murderers - Ballboy
3. Christmas Eve - Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci
4. Santa from Santa Fe - Lawrence Welk and his Champaign music
5. Mele Kalikimaka - Bing Crosby
6. Christmas Wrapping - Waitresses
7. Countdown to Christmas - Glam Chops
8. I’m Getting Pissed for Christmas - Peter and the Test Tube Babies
9. Come Round Here On Christmas - I Like The Go Go
10. Red Santa - Lucky Lucky Pigeons
11. The Christmas Wars - Darren Hayman
12. December 1986 - Lucky Delucci
13. Christmas Teardrops Neath’ Mistletoe - Just Joans
14. Heavenly Christmas - A Smile and a Ribbon
15. Fairytale of New York - The Pogues ft. Kirsty MacColl
16. Abominable Snowman in the Supermarket - Jonathan Richman
17. Outer Space Santa - The Lennon Sisters
18. I Believe In Father Christmas - Keith TOTP & His Minor UK Indie Celebrity All-Star Backing Band
19. Tyrannosaurus Rex for Christmas - Lovely Eggs
20. Don’t believe in Christmas - The Junior Varsity
21. Boogie Woogie Santa - Swing Republic
22. All I want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit - Half Man Half Biscuit
23. Lonely This Christmas - Carter USM
24. Stop the Revelry - Shrag
25. This Town - The Thlyds

Shallow Footprints in the Snow

And you go, shallow footprints in the snow
Leave the darkness in this hole
I watch until you go
I wonder if you know

Snow mix for a snow day

1. Fast Sledge Past Blurred Robin - Symphonika 
2. Shallow Footprints in the Snow - Ballboy
3. Me and the Major - Belle and Sebastian 
4. Fallen Snow - Au Revoir Simone
5. Melting Ice - Ladytron
6. N to the Ice - Lucky Lucky Pigeons
7. Ice & Snow - Sambassadeur
8. Snow Fell - The Consultants
9. The Ice Storm, Big Gust, and You - Tilly and the Wall
10. Abominable Snowman in the Market - Jonathan Richman
11. Ice Hockey - Art Brut
12. We Dress Up Like Snowmen - The Wave Pictures
13. Snow - JJ72
14. A Snowflake Fell (and it felt like a kiss) - Glasvegas
15. Uner the Snow - Cast King
16. Listen, the Snow is Falling - Galaxie 500
17. Here Come the Ice Wolves - Ooberman

Shallow Footprints in the Snow from PopMiwsig on 8tracks Radio.

I Guess Things Happen That Way

“It happens sometimes. Friends come in and out of our lives, like busboys in a restaurant.”

The subtle sadness of a childhood ebbing endlessly away lingers evoking melancholic nostalgia. Suddenly it seems the people you used to see everyday on the streets and in the parks are not there anymore, people change, friends drift apart and go separate ways where the road splits, some will never meet again and not feel a thing, others will remain eternally connected even if they no longer know where to find one another. Kermit the frog had it on lockdown: “Life is made up of meetings and partings. That is the way of it”. I don't like it, but i guess things happen that way.

Your Own Religion – TV Girl

In the Hearts of Men – First Aid Kit

The Peacock – Beirut

Holes – Mercury Rev

Guess Things Happen That Way – Johnny Cash

What Do We Do Now? – Just Joans

All My Friends (Are Dead) - Island Twins

Brothers – The War on Drugs

Dance Floor – The Apples in Stereo

Don’t See the Sorrow – Au Revoir Simone

Getting Over You – The Bats

Where Do The Nights Of Sleep Go To When They Do Not Come To Me? – Ballboy

Don’t Be a Stranger – Esiotrot

When We Were Still Friends – Herman Dune

December 1986 – Lucky Delucci

The Way It Is – Laura Cantrell

Soundtrack to my Summer

So the summer has slipped into hiding once again, and in the blink of an eye the freshness of autumn has arrived to ease us into, hopefully, another freezing, snowy winter.

Here's the Soundtrack to my Summer:

Catch – Art Brut

Guide to the shortwave radio – Ballboy

Another likely story – Au Revoir Simone

Teaching the obvious 2 the idiots – The Bobby McGee’s

Crush on you - Brakes

Out of my league – Darren Hayman and The Secondary Modern

Heavy artillery – Django Reindhart

Superglue – Everybody was in the French Resistance Now!

Something Lost - Flipron

Sympathy for the Devil – The Indelicates

Bucket and Steam - Ivor Cutler

Egyptian Reggae – Jonathan Richman

Deceptacon – Le Tigre

I’m in Love with Destruction – Let’s Wrestle

Have you ever heard a digital accordion? – Lovely Eggs

Take your time – Love is All

Souls of the Northern Lights - Ooberman

Pull Shapes – The Pipettes

Pony - Race Horses

Miss You Miss - Ooberman