Sons of Old Town Collective is a Nashville-based collective that since 2012 has been hosting indie-rock shows, and they've also done a few limited releases of their member acts over time, including the Volume 1 EP from 2014. For 2018, they've got a full-blown album available for download or on cassette (you know, I get the vinyl revival, but cassettes? Seriously?) The acts on this collection are more from the grungy side of indie-rock than the power-pop side or the lo-fi side, so I think it's got appeal across a pretty wide swath of rock fans. Pickup Sticks bemoans all their unpaid bills on the ballad "I Wish It Was Christmas," Rock Eupora wishes "Baby Jesus" a happy birthday and comes back to back Cory Taylor Cox on "Put Your Coat On,' Glamper takes a harder rock approach to "Drunk and Scrooge," Waterfall Wash breaks out the synths for "Do You Know When It's Christmas?" and Empty Atlas offers the pensive "Holiday Parties." Sean Knisely notes that Nashville weather isn't always that severe in "Feel It While We Can (Cold Cold Christmas)," Spoken Nerd goes hip-hop with "Christmas in the Club," Ben Ricketts breaks out the rude chimes on the spacey "Nothing More," The Embrace gives us the 70s version of the power ballad on "Right Beside You," and Parker Hodges' "Christmas Jr." is what you would get if Angelo Badalamenti made country music. Googolplexia breaks out the ukeleles and bells for the "Blue Christmas"-adjacent "Beige Holiday," The Great Palumbo knocks out the folky strum "Two Feet," Charlie Murphy and his acoustic guitar give us "It's Christmas," and Jake Wood wraps things up with a stately vibrato strum through the classic hymn "Come Thou Fount." Check it out at Amazon and Bandcamp.
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