Yes, it’s that time of year again – the streets are ablaze with all manner of gaudy light displays, dodgy festive knitwear has been dug out of the back of the wardrobe where it has slumbered unloved for the last eleven months, and everywhere you turn your ears are confronted with a never-changing cocktail of Wham and Wizzard. Christmas-time is almost upon us and round these parts that means only one thing – the return of The Joyzine Advent Calendar!
Over the next 24 days we’ll be bringing you a sackload of seasonal songs, including some exciting exclusives, to enrapture your eardrums from some of our favourite bands, all completely free of charge! It’s our annual gift to everyone who’s helped make this all worthwhile by checking out our articles and supporting the music, books and films that we love. 2021 is the calendar’s 18th consecutive outing, which as far as we’re aware makes it the longest running music downloads calendar on the web (though we’re always happy to be proven wrong).
As always, the tracks are completely free to to download and there’s no need to sign up to any mailing lists to access the tracks (though if you’d like to you can join ours here), but we’d love you to make a donation to the wonderful charity Help Musicians, who offer health and welfare support to musicians at all stages of their lives.
Ok, on with the music!
Christmas is a time for traditions, and here on The Joyzine Advent Calendar it’s no different – over our 18 years of giving away free music every December, there’s one artist who’s featured more than any other, and out of respect for her infinite festive spirit, we’ve made it our habit to devote our first calendar window to the effervescent Piney Gir.
This year saw the release of her excellent Astral Spectra EP on the ever-wonderful Reckless Yes Records, a record that took the darker, psychedlic edge of her 2019 LP You Are Here and shot it out into the furthest reaches of space. And she’s also found the time to appear on not one but two festive albums – with her version of Fleet Foxes’ ‘White Winter Hymnal’ featuring on the XO For The Holidays album which was premiered on Joyzine last month, and the retro chiptune electro-pop of ‘Everybody Knows It’s Christmas’ featuring alongside 23 other artists on indie label Where It’s At Is Where You Are‘s seasonal compilation 24, which you can get now on CD or digital download via Bandcamp. Today you can download Piney’s entry free on Joyzine, but we’d highly recommend that you fill your festive boots by getting yourself a copy of the full album.
We’d also definitely suggest getting yourself to The Lexington in Islington on 12th December, where Piney will be joining fellow Joyzine favourite Thomas Truax for one last gig for the year – I might hold off on writing my ‘Best of 2021’ list until that one’s done. Tickets, priced at £9 + booking fee are available here.
Download ‘Everybody Knows It’s Christmas‘
If you enjoy this track, please consider making a donation to Help Musicians
Find out more on Piney Gir’s official website
Come back tomorrow for more exclusive tracks!
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