As you may have noticed, this year’s Joyzine Advent Calendar hasn’t quite gone as planned. For the past week I’ve been tucked up in bed with a bout of festive flu, unable to do very much of anything at all, let alone write pithy accompaniments to excellent free music downloads from wonderful bands, and as a result this year’s calendar came to a shuddering halt on day 15, making it the first time in 21 years that we’ve not completed it as planned.
Fret not though, for we will not let the remaining nine windows’ worth of brilliant tracks go to waste. Today we’ll be sharing three festive entries, to warm your Christmas cockles ahead of the big day and we’ll be unveiling the remaining tunes (all 14 of them!) over the next week or so.
As with all of out songs this year, if you enjoy them we’d love you to consider supporting the excellent work of First Timers Fest in creating opportunities for people from under-represented backgrounds to learn an instrument, form a band, write some songs and get onstage, by making a donation here.
Right, on with the festive tunes!
Our first seasonal selection comes from across the channel courtesy of Tours-based post-psych and deep-shoegaze sextet Stuffed Foxes. Their song ‘Merry Xmas’, taken from the new album Standardized (out now via Stolen Body Records), marries the lyrics of a well known Christmas classic with cascades of guitar noise and drums that sound like they’re falling down the stairs after overindulging at the office Christmas party before sharp tempo and tonal shifts send the track shooting off like a new year’s fireworks display. Whether it’s going to put you in the festive mood is questionable, but it should definitely be making the LP a late addition to your Christmas wish list.
We caught up with the band to find out more.
Tell us a little about your track please
Well, ‘Merry Xmas’ is a track on the album Standardized. We composed the song in summer 23. It is made with two parts, one first atonal no wave-like part I guess (for the little I know of the no wave scene) and one more harmonic part. I don’t know how much we all remember about how the song came, but here’s my version of the moment: What I remember is we tried to start a new song but it was tough, frustrating. I remember Brice (the drummer) played the drums part of the song ‘Drift’ (released on our second album Songs/Motion Return), and we all followed him by playing something else than our part on it, with a vengeful feeling of being happy and having fun !! That’s why these two songs have the same tempo (for the creepy ones who noticed it). I personally liked the idea of starting a new song from an already existing part of another track, but I believe it wasn’t a want of us, but I don’t really know, we never talked about it since. I guess we all enjoyed the moment so we tried to make it a song and added a second part with the want to have more harmony, as the first part is atonal. I hope you enjoyed my story of “The Day When, Once Again, an Umpteenth Band Tried to Create an Umpteeth Song”.
What have you been up to in 2024?
It is quite a large question, more larger than you and I thought as we are six individuals in the band, so we spent six 2024s! I’ll go with some facts:
This year, with Stuffed Foxes, we recorded the album Standardized, we played some shows in France, in Belgium and in Spain, we prepared the release of the album with labels and friends.
Some of us recorded some tracks and played some shows with side-projects (Post Bad S.CDE, Low Rent Housing, Opac…),
We saw some great shows of bands like Spiritualized, Sunn O))), Swans, OPN, Wand, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Rank-O, Pneu, Mange-Ferraille, Sister Iodine, … and so on and so forth.
And what do you have planned for the next 12 months?
We will play more shows. In early 2025, as we never went before, we will have the chance to play in England, in Scotland, in Spain (we just went back from but still excited to know we are going again!), in Portugal, in Italy, in the Netherlands, in Germany. We are really excited about that. I guess this is what is planned. We will try to have fun, see and have more shows, create new things, we’ll see.
Christmas songs – love them or hate them? Why?
I really don’t know. I like the fact that Christmas is a good excuse to release some new music for free. Thinking about Elvis’ ones, they have their charms. Thinking about Merzbow’s Christmas album, you are feeling free and alright. Can’t wait to listen to these records at the right time, as there are, flying high in the sky, the tall elks driving Santa to every home of the world. An hypothetical idea I guess I’ll never find or a proof or a disproof. The Santa’s Schrödinger. It is and it is not, and that’s all. The Christmas songs’ Schrödinger. We love them and hate them, and that’s all.
Download ‘Merry Xmas‘
Make a donation to First Timers
Stuffed Foxes: Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp
The filling of this seasonal sandwich comes via long-term friend of Joyzine Peter Richard Adams and One Big Family, one of a list of bands and musical projects that’s becoming so long we’ve begun to lose count of how many there are now. Thankfully he continues to keep the quality consistently high, and this is another classic addition to his ever expanding Christmas canon, a seasonal sad banger capturing the subdued nature of Christmas in a cost of living crisis in the lyrics alongside chugging guitars and sparkling keys.
We checked in with Pete to find out what he’s been up to in 2024.
Tell us a little about your track please
Hello Joyzine! And congratulations on turning 21! That’s 21 Christmas dinners the calendar has eaten.
This year’s calendar track is the ONE BIG FAMILY song ‘Big Christmas’. I’ve been having a huge amount of fun with OBF this year, throwing files around and banging out the indie hits. We’re hoping to have enough together for a mini-album in the New Year but if you enjoy this festive offering then you might want to also check out our first two singles ‘Big Crowds’ and ‘Big Sky’ on Spotify.
What have you been up to in 2024?
Last year when you asked me my plans for 2024, I said I was planning on putting family first and doing a bit less. But I also said “let’s see what happens.”
It turns out quite a lot has happened. Which means I probably should be paying a bit more attention to my family.
HEY YOU GUYS! got together to close up Worcester Music Festival, write and record a new single and make a video for Christmas which has very kindly been premiered by Joyzine here. Whether the new folk-punk direction is a one-off or something we’ll be making more of is a question for 2025. More HEY YOU GUYS! here on Spotify.
My wife and I, under the name Peter with Rosie finally released a record that we’d been working on for five years in January. It’s called called Across The Fields and it’s a concept album about the history of the village I grew up in. Normally we release an album or an EP each Christmas, but as that project was so huge, this year we’re just releasing a single called ‘Santa’s Late’, which you can stream here.
God Save The King, a Hereford & Worcester supergroup I’ve been a part of for nearly 15 years, surprised even ourselves during the summer by completing an album we’ve had bubbling along for a decade (we also released some pretty fun videos too) – listen to it here.
On top of this I’ve also been enjoying writing, contributing a few articles to Joyzine and Denatured on the local scene in Exeter, which is beyond excellent and has given me loads of really exciting nights out this year.
I’ve also been scripting a new comedy history show called History of Derek. It’s made by Now Stand Back Media and I’m really chuffed at how well it’s all come together – you can listen here.
Have I done anything else? Check Instagram.
And what do you have planned for the next 12 months?
Sleeping. Although it would be lovely if, in between naps, I got to play some gigs again. I’d also really like to get a second series of History of Derek out and finish writing the Pod To Pluto sequel novel if I can.
Christmas songs – love them or hate them? Why?
Due to the Peter With Rosie Christmas records, in the last 10 years I’ve written and recorded about 100 of the f*cking things. So, in all honesty, right now, the jury is out! I love Christmas and I love Christmas music… but I think I might need a few years off to recharge my batteries.
Who am I kidding? I love them. Fa-la-la-la-laaaa!
Download ‘Big Christmas‘
Make a donation to First Timers
Peter Richard Adams: Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp
Rounding off this year’s Advent Calendar is this year’s festive offering from Joyzine Editor Paul Maps and collaborator Stewart Muir. The pair first crossed paths when Muir, then of country/folk band Elvers, joined the Joyzine Soccer Six football team in 2017, and for the past few years they’ve recorded seasonal cover versions for the calendar.
In addition to indulging Maps’ annual musical outing, Muir plays with South London bands phytomers and Peridromes, while Maps sensibly keeps to writing about other people’s music for the rest of the year. Today they share their home recorded take of Flaming Lips’ ‘Christmas at The Zoo’, with vocals, bass and drum machine by Maps and everything else by Muir. Here are a few words from Paul Maps about the track:
I’ve noticed an unusual thread in all of the Christmas songs I’ve recorded for the calendar over the years – none of them are actually about Christmas at all! ‘Walking In The Air‘ (recorded in 2009 with Danny Le Pelley of Subliminal Girls – who you can hear on window 13 of this year’s calendar) might come from one of the great Christmas family movies but there’s not a single mention of Christmas the whole way through; Maps & Muir’s debut collaboration on Half Man Half Biscuit’s ‘All I Want for Christmas Is a Dukla Prague Away Kit‘ only mentions the big day in the title and instead focusses on childhood toy-based snobbery and last year’s take on Low’s classic ‘Just Like Christmas‘ is about a time that was ‘like’ Christmas, not Christmas itself. In keeping with this odd tradition, please enjoy our version of Flaming Lips’ ‘Christmas at The Zoo’ – a tale of of attempted animal jail-break meeting unexpected resistance which Wayne Coyne presumably decided to set at Christmas as an excuse to add some sleighbells, because who doesn’t love sleighbells?
Merry Christmas everyone, we’ll be back soon with the remaining songs submitted for this year’s calendar AND a round up of our favourite songs, albums, books, films and everything else of 2024.
Download ‘Christmas at The Zoo‘
Make a donation to First Timers
Peridromes: Instagram / Bandcamp
phytomers: Bandcamp
Catch up on all of this year’s Advent Calendar Tracks so far:
1: Piney Gir – Reindeer
2: Gabriel Minnikin – Said Information
3: LOUD WOMEN ft. Smallways, Butterknife, Daddy Issues, Witch Spit, R.U.B, Vipersnatch, Worm Girlz, Lady Lazarus and Stabbitha & The Knifey Wifeys
4: First Timers Fest ft. Gay Skeleton Club and Skutterfly
5: Goo Records ft. Jopy, The Stanford Family Band, Owners Club and The Roebucks
6: Dead Horse – Historic
7: Gemma Rogers – Never Have I Ever
8: Umarells – Closer
9: MJ Hibbett – Moshi Twistmas
10: The Indelicates – Mom Is Waking Up (acoustic)
11: The Fades – Caca (BBC 6Music Session)
12: West Midlands – Totally Killing The Community Clinic
13: Subliminal Girls – Mid-December
14: How To Swim – Soul One
15: Forming – You What
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