#megmas xmas

[merrymegmas]

And the Bells Were Ringing Out on Megmas Day - Holiday 2023

A while ago one of my best friends sent me a text:

I noodled on this for a while, made lists and everything. A few months later I replied with:

(Yes, these are the kinds of conversations you can have with me if you have my contact info).

Anyway, if you're familiar to the Megmas back catalogue, you know that Fairytale of New York has been a long time staple of these mixes, both the original and a ton of great covers. With the passing of Shane MacGowan this year, I couldn't help but pay tribute to one of the best punk songs and one of the best holiday songs of all time––uncomfortable language and all. And so, the title of this year's mix is from the chorus of Fairytale of New York. And the album art is a slight nod to the album cover for the single.

I thought about putting a cover or live version of Fairytale of New York on this mix, but in the end, I decided to just go with the original. And, in a wonderful stroke of luck, one of the other songs on this mix references the song with the line "This is the fairytale of nowhere."

This year's mix is a return to form in a lot of ways: it has more pop-punk than in recent years, more silly songs, and even a Hanukkah song! There were also so many wonderful new Christmas songs that were on my radar this year, I hardly had to dip into my unused archive.

As always I hope you enjoy the mix and share it with people who also like non-traditional holiday songs.

1 Afraid of Heights // Tom Fletcher 2 Christmas (I Won't Be Home) // The Lottery Winners 3 Festivus! // Mountain Songs 4 We Won't Come Home at Christmas Time // The Reds, Pinks and Purples 5 Might Ruin Christmas // New Rules 6 Is This Christmas? // The Wombats 7 Christmas at 22 // The Wonder Years 8 It's Christmas Time // Vista Blue 9 I Wear My Leather Jacket at Christmas // Department of Creative Affairs 10 All I Want For Christmas is a Rock Show (feat. Kyle Gass) // Grizfolk 11 Xmas Blue // Safe Ferris 12 Merry, Merry Christmas // El Gato Roboto 13 Christmas Dirtbag // Wheatus 14 Snoopy's Christmas // Smash Mouth 15 Saul: The Hanukkah Narwhal // The Zach and The Jess 16 Merry Spidey Christmas // Patrick Stump 17 Pass The Good Stuff Around // Make Like Monkeys 18 I Never Cared for Christmas // Old Mountain Station 19 Merry Christmas Everyone // Punk Rock Factory 20 Xmas Time of the Year // Green Day 21 Missing You This Christmas // Theory of a Deadman 22 All Hang The Lights On Christmas // Nick Phoenix 23 Angels We Have Heard On High // Bayside 24 I'll Be Home For Christmas (If I Can Be There) // The Oh Hellos 25 Christmas Magic // The National Parks 26 No Christmas Bells // There Will Be Fireworks 27 Fairytale of New York (feat. Kirsty MacColl) // The Pogues 28 All I Want For Christmas Is New Years Day // Hurts

Listen to And the Bells Were Ringing Out on Megmas Day on Spotify

[merrymegmas]

Just Like Megmas - Holiday 2022

A three year streak with the return of the quasi-annual Megmas mixes, making this the 15th mix!

This year I spent a lot of time digging for deep cuts,* revisiting old classics that haven't ever made it onto a mix, and going back and forth on using the cover vs the original on a few of these tracks (Silversun Pickups and Phoebe Bridgers to name a few). And of course, there are one or two just silly songs because what would a Megmas mix be without those.

Over the years, I've realized that Low's "Just Like Christmas" has become one of my all time favorite Christmas songs (this year marks the 3rd cover to appear on a megmas mix). As I was thinking of names for this year's mix, it just seemed like the right thing for 2022 where the world is sort of, a little bit, starting to feel normal again; and at least for me, things are starting to feel just like christmas in ways they haven't in a while.

*I will say the one downside to a spotify only release is that I can't get the super deep cuts, or the random tv and movie quotes that used to be on the CD releases of Megmas past.

1 I don't know what Christmas Is (But Christmas Time Is Here) // Old '97 2 Little Drummer Boy // the bird and the bee, Dave Grohl 3 Wintering // The 1975 4 Sally Sweet Tooth // Bad Bad Hats 5 Marshmallow World // The Regrettes 6 Drummer Boy // Titus Andronicus // 7 Christmas, Burn It All // Randolph's Leap, The Olive Grove All-Stars 8 Groovy Xmas // The Linda Lindas 9 Feliz NaviSKA // Skatune Network, JER 10 Naughty or Nice // Tom Cardy 11 Ho Ho It's Christmas Again // Wicketkeeper 12 A Christmas Shortcut // Hot Dad 13 Christmastime With You // Cheepskates 14 Yr Always Alone (On Christmas) We Are The Union 15 Merry Xmas (Says Your Text Message) // Dragonette 16 Make Way For The Holidays // Le Bon 17 Just Like Christmas // Silversun Pickups 18 The Other Side of Christmas // The Boy Least Likely To 19 Someone to Spend Christmas With // The Spook School 20 So Much Wine // Phoebe Bridgers 21 Christas // Rogue Wave 22 Fairytale of New York // Communist Daughter 23 A Change at Christmas (Say It Isn't So) // The Flaming Lips 24 Next Year Will Be Mine // Whyte Horses 25 What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? // The Head And The Heart 26 Happy New Year // Murder By Death

Listen to Just Like Megmas on Spotify