It's the annual Chris-mix!

As has somehow become the tradition at Baron Towers I trawl the internet to find a suitably funky Christmas mix for everyone out there who's a little bored with the Now That's What I Call Christmas tape that gets dug out every year. This year some generous soul called Bill Brewster's come up with the goods. Whatever you're doing have a cool yule y'all!

Squeeze - F-Hole

Dug out my vinyl (vinyl...it's the future) copy of Squeeze's East Side Story on Sunday and I'd forgotten just what a gem it was. If you think you know Squeeze cop a listen to the psychy/proggy/Beatlesy F-Hole. Ruddy good innit?

Artificial Pleasure - Wound Up Tight

If Davids Bowie and Byrne had a love child and he hooked up with LCD Soundsystem the result might well sound like this little belter from Artificial Pleasure. The bloke in the video looks like he's having the kind of day I used to have when I worked in the wonderful wibbly world of advertising too. Ahhhh, happy days. Ahem. 

Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile - Continental Breakfast

The more I hear this track the more I love it and watching the delightfully intimate video for the first time today has well and truly cemented things. You know what, I reckon I'd enjoy a weekend with Kurt and Courtney and friends, not sure what they'd make of me but after a beer or three I'm sure it'd be sweet. Hell, I'd even get up early to make the breakfast...continental of course. 

PS: The vid kind of reminds me of this little beauty from Thee AHs (Caution: contains bums and a nipple or three).

Dua Lipa - New Rules (Initial Talk 80s Rule Remix)

Remixes. Some suck, some don't. This one, sending Dua Lipa's New Rules whizzing straight back to the mid 80s, falls firmly into the latter category. The leg warmer revival starts right here.

Tonight Alive - Temple

Sadly these days if a track doesn't grab me in roughly 2 seconds when I'm whizzing through the dozens of music channels I'm off to the next one in search of Wham's Last Christmas vid, so kudos to Aussie rockers (no one mention the cricket please) Tonight Alive and their current single Temple. It's a bit Pink-ish, it's a bit Paramore-ish and it's got the kind of singalong arms in the air chorus that's deceptively tricky to nail without coming over all Coldplay (now there's a horrible thought). 

Motörhead - Heroes

Lemmy left us for that great bar in the sky on December 28th 2015 and just two weeks later Bowie joined him so there's a strange kind of synergy to the 'head's cover of Heroes as we nudge closer to the two year anniversary of both their passing. This track got little radio play when the album that spawned it, Under Cöver, came out in September so there's a fair chance that you might not have heard it but there's something rather moving about Lemmy's delivery. It might just be my overactive imagination but you get the sense that he knew he was on his way out when he was singing it, although to be fair Lemmy was on his way out for roughly 60 years...