Way back in the 1960s, there was a growing music scene in the Pacific Northwest. They liked to call it “garage rock” and the bands played loud, hard and distorted way before the Ramones, the Sex Pistols or anybody else. So of course in 1966, three of the most influential bands, The Sonics, The Wailers (not Bob Marley’s) and The Galaxies, decided to make a Christmas Album. While the album is a somewhat toned down version of their usual fare, it still stands as an incredibly unique and awesome Christmas collaboration (it’s actually one of my favorite albums in general).Â
The lead track, “Santa Claus,” usually gets the most attention, but many of the other originals are great standouts as well. “Christmas Spirit??” tells you why the holiday season is bullshit, and it’s still holds a lot of truth 42 years later. And if you want more cynicism, “Don’t Believe in Christmas” delivers. Even their renditions of the classics have nice little touches that you won’t hear from anybody else. “The Village Idiot (Jingle Bells),” for example, gives a (now very not PC) rendition of the song by a “village idiot.”
It’s strange this garage scene made a very small impact, disappeared, and resurfaced some 30 years later as something completely different. These were the bands that first made guitars fuzzy and turned amps as loud as they would go. The Christmas album is actually incredibly hard to find, despite topping many critics’ Christmas lists. I actually can’t find it on iTunes or eBay. And Amazon had one guy selling it for $99.99 (yikes!). Your best bet might be small, dusty record stores. Check out these few tracks at least.
The Sonics – “Santa Claus” (MP3)
The Wailers – “Christmas Spirit??” (MP3)
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