Joy to the world! It’s the return of our favourite festive tradition, the Joyzine Advent Calendar, back for its 22nd consecutive edition, which as far as we’re aware makes it the longest running on the net.
As always, every track is completely free to download and we don’t require you to sign up for a mailing list (though you can if you want to) or hand over your personal data – it’s our way of saying thank you to everyone who’s visited the site during 2025 and to hopefully bring a few more listeners to some very deserving artists.
However, if you do enjoy the tracks we would love you to consider making a donation to our chosen cause, which this year is HOPE not hate, and their stirling work researching, campaigning, and supporting communities to build HOPE and oppose far-right extremism. You can make a donation here.
Slime City are bringing their self-proclaimed “nerd rock” from Glasgow providing a joyous noise at a time that we could all use a bit of fun. Their newest album National Record of Achievement was a DiY affair with the band recording it over 12 days in Glasgow, promoting and distributing it independently. This labor of love deserves wider acclaim for their pop/new wave/disco beats, soaring choruses and amusing explorations of modern society. They sound like what you get when you mix Future of the Left, Warmduscher and your favorite 80s new wave band together. Their songs fizz and lodge firmly in your brain and seem like they would be very fun to see live. Slime City make me want to jump around shouting out their lyrics while pondering the complexities of modern life.
Slime City highlight the ridiculousness of what is going on around us. On their new album they are challenging usual views about art (‘The Mona Lisa isn’t even very good’), singing about the cost of making music vs the money received (‘This Song Costs £2000 (Approx)’). The album title is a humorous nod to the type of school book from the 1990s that students in the UK used to record their educational and extra curricular activities in order to demonstrate their achievements to potential employers. Slime City offer anti-guidance counsellor advice singing “If you excel at any of these, it doesn’t mean a thing” about school subjects on the title track. Truer words never spoken.
They’ve offered up their version of Kraftwerk’s ‘Pocket Calculator’ as today’s Advent Calendar treat.
We caught up with Michael M for a festive q&a session:
Tell us a little bit about your track please
We’ve always been big fans of Kraftwerk, but this is a track we demoed a few times just in case we ever had to appear on BBC Live Lounge and do a cover version, but it turns out there’s absolutely no demand for that whatsoever. Not sure it even still exists as a format.
What have you been up to in 2025?
We spent the first half of 2025 recording our new album NATIONAL RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT, which we released entirely independently in November 2025, and nobody tells you this, but it takes up all your time and money.
And what are your plans for next year?
We’d love to properly tour this new record but we simply have no luck when it comes to securing shows. We’re doing 200-500 capacity shows in Glasgow and London but can’t book a shed anywhere in between. It’s a shame because we’re very much a live band, that’s always been our strength, so I think we can only blame Thatcher at this point.
What have been your musical highlights of the year from other bands/artists?
There are no other bands. But check out Hens Bens from Edinburgh.
Christmas: The most wonderful time of the year or a big bag of humbug?
Genuinely massive fans of the season, not so much for its origins but the musical heritage it has. Michael M out of the band is such a fan that he went viral a few years ago when he remade Slade’s ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’ but all the lyrics were just ‘are you hanging up your stocking on your wall’. Apparently Sam Fender sings this version in his local pub every year on Christmas eve. There’s a video of it and everything.
SLIME CITY released their second album ‘National Record of Achievement’ entirely independently in November 2025, available now on all the streamings and the Bandcamps, as well as physical editions at slimecitymusic.bigcartel.com
Stream and download ‘Pocket Calculator’ below
Make a donation to HOPE not hate
Slime City: Website / Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp
More tracks from this year’s calendar:
1: Piney Gir & Parenthesis Dot Dot Dot
2: Syd Howells
3: The Happy Hollow
4: Stephen Evens
5: Ombudsmen
6: The Scaramanga Six
7: Dextro + Rubber Oh
8: Craig Fortnam
9: Salt The Snail
10: Cerys Hafana
11: bis x Art Brut
12: Gemma Rogers
13: The Joyzine Christmas Band, Gift Box, Skink + Adam & Elvis
14: DRIFT. + Annie Gardiner
15: Kat Five + Charley Stone
16: MJ Hibbett & CJ Thorpe-Tracey
17: Crocodile Collective ft. Elisabeth Elektra, The Margins, Jolt, Charlie Salvidge, New Commercial Product + Great Silkie
18: The Gymkhana + The Pawnbroker
19: Leg Puppy 2.0
20: LOUD WOMEN ft. deux furieuses, I, Doris, ShyGodwin, HotWax, Twat Union + Retropxssy
Check back tomorrow for another free festive download!
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