

What will Santa Claus say when he finds everybody swingin'? I heard about this one over at Christmas A Go Go. The Tiny Little Bigband is an 8-piece Dutch jazz outfit and "You Put The X In X-mas" is a neo-swing classic in the making. On their digital single, The Tiny Little Bigband also give a fairly traditional reading of "The Christmas Song" and turn up the heat again for "Sleigh Ride". But, let's face it, it's "You Put The X In X-mas" you're looking for. And you can find it at Amazon MP3 and iTunes. "The Christmas Song" and "Sleigh Ride", by the way, are taken from the group's 2008 album "Tiny Little BIG Christmas" which can be ordered through Bandcamp and is digitally available through iTunes.




Our old friend Roy Holliday has released another Christmas single. A lot of people go south for the winter, but leave it to Roy to head north. This year's entry is called "Christmas In New England" and it has a country shuffle beat to it. Roy's looking forward to seeing all that New England snow. His faithful dog, judging from the cover art, maybe not so much. You can get "Christmas In New England" at all the usual spots, including Amazon and iTunes.

Americana Punk artist Chris Skel has released his Christmas single. Skel fronts New Jersey's longest running Pub Band, The Skels. It's an excellent single that sounds kinda like some big rowdy guy who is totally drunk grabbing the mic from the bar band and turning out to be actually quite good. I don't know how else to describe it. Besides how much Americana Punk Christmas music do you own? "You Ruined Christmas" is available through CD Baby and Amazon MP3.

The Malibooz had one of the great off-the-beaten-path Christmas albums back in 1992, before everybody and their brothers and sisters and pets was making Christmas music. "A Malibu Kind of Christmas" got a re-release this year. To celebrate, the band recorded an all new holiday single that you can download FREE. You can find the free download of "Christmas Everyday" at CD Baby or on the band's Facebook page. It's a sunny California dream of a single, just like you'd expect it to be.

Canadian rocker Sean Quigley has released a sweet Pop Punk version of "Little Drummer Boy". The video's done very well on YouTube, with roughly one million hits so far. The digital single is available through CD Baby. Sean, btw, played all the instruments, sang all the vocal parts, arranged and produced the record himself. But his sister did help him shoot some of the video footage.

This one caught my eye because it had "Hawaiian" in the title. But then it caught my ear for being totally unexpected. And unexpected in a good way. Primal Sky is a California group fronted by Tim Smith. What they do--and, judging from this Christmas track, do very well--is merge Lounge music with Surf music. "Riding Christmas Waves (Hawaiian Mix)" is an instrumental track and, but for some sleigh bells and "Ho Ho Ho"s, might not strike everyone as immediately Christmasy. And yet it is. Primal Sky released the original version of "Riding Christmas Waves" in 2008, but that was more of a Smooth Jazz outing. The new Hawaiian mix is 100% better. Maybe 2 or 300% better. Ok, this is 1000% better. And I'm sticking to that.
This would've fit in nicely on John Zorn's Christmas album. It's light and airy and, in the final analysis, quite Christmasy after all. And right now it's near the top of the Christmas music I'm considering for next year's mixtape. And now everybody knows that. Damn it.
Get it from Amazon or CD Baby or iTunes.

Another one that everybody knows about now. Damn it.
Not that it matters, but Ketchy Shuby hails from Miami and soul infused rock is their thing. If you're ever in town, catch em live; it's gotta be a gas of a show. And, in the meantime, get on down with your bad self and pick up "A Ketchy Shuby Christmas". You'll find it on Amazon and iTunes.