I had to jump through the hoops thrown down by the now-defunct Sony Connect to get my hands on this since regular CD copies were sold out by the time I found out about it. Anyway, this 2004 compilation was worth the trouble -- it offers a fairly wide range of pop-rock styles across its eight selections. Self Against City kicks things off nicely with "All Alone On Christmas Day," followed by Home Grown's driving take on Jose Feliciano's "Feliz Navidad." Hidden In Plain View's "Christmas Song" has lots of fun with vocal effects and a fast shuffle beat, An Angle does a fairly serviceable cover of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," Day at the Fair's "Here Lives Our Holiday" is an example of the stately rock ballad genre, and Jenoah's "Rites of Winter" is a hard rocker with lots of Keith Moon drumming throughout. The Track Record does "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" in a similar vein, though it throws in a bit of token reggae on the refrain. Hellogoodbye takes us out of this album with a cheap-keyboard-and-percussion version of "Winter Wonderland." The label is defunct, but this disc remains available from iTunes as Happy Holidays From Drive-Thru Records, click the cover. Drive-Thru had a previous Christmas compilation called A Punk & Ska Christmas Gone Wrong in 1997, featuring Less Than Jake, The Impossibles, Cousin Oliver, Mullets Across America and several others, but that seems to only be available at collector's prices.
Merry Christmas From Drive-Thru Records, various artists (Drive-Thru Records)
I had to jump through the hoops thrown down by the now-defunct Sony Connect to get my hands on this since regular CD copies were sold out by the time I found out about it. Anyway, this 2004 compilation was worth the trouble -- it offers a fairly wide range of pop-rock styles across its eight selections. Self Against City kicks things off nicely with "All Alone On Christmas Day," followed by Home Grown's driving take on Jose Feliciano's "Feliz Navidad." Hidden In Plain View's "Christmas Song" has lots of fun with vocal effects and a fast shuffle beat, An Angle does a fairly serviceable cover of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," Day at the Fair's "Here Lives Our Holiday" is an example of the stately rock ballad genre, and Jenoah's "Rites of Winter" is a hard rocker with lots of Keith Moon drumming throughout. The Track Record does "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" in a similar vein, though it throws in a bit of token reggae on the refrain. Hellogoodbye takes us out of this album with a cheap-keyboard-and-percussion version of "Winter Wonderland." The label is defunct, but this disc remains available from iTunes as Happy Holidays From Drive-Thru Records, click the cover. Drive-Thru had a previous Christmas compilation called A Punk & Ska Christmas Gone Wrong in 1997, featuring Less Than Jake, The Impossibles, Cousin Oliver, Mullets Across America and several others, but that seems to only be available at collector's prices.
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