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Dec 22, 2021 By Mark Redfern

Jim Goodwin of the Christmas Underground blog is back with this year’s indie rock Christmas mix, this year titled This Is Just a Modern Xmas Song. For over a decade now Goodwin has tirelessly been putting together an annual mix of indie rock Christmas songs, handing CDs out to friends and also posting it online via Mixcloud and Christmas Underground. You will recognize a few of the artists (this year’s mix includes Hiss Golden Messenger, Self Esteem, and YACHT), but many of the artists are likely somewhat obscure to even ardent followers of indie music. Every mix’s cover art features a parody of a different Belle and Sebastian album, EP, or single cover, all featuring Goodwin in a Santa hat. This year’s cover art (see above) was inspired by the cover of Belle and Sebastian’s 1998 EP This Is Just a Modern Rock Song. Check out the 2021 mix below.

We asked Goodwin to comment on this year’s mix and here’s what he had to say: “2021 was a year of deflation. Lots of us got vaccinated and hoped that the future would be something where we could maintain expectations, make plans, have what we believed to be a normal life. What the year taught us was that nothing can be taken for granted. Small steps are still steps, and we need to appreciate every inch. So this year’s mix is a reflection of sentiment—looking backwards to great songs from the past, while being centered in the present and trying to keep a good attitude in the face of uncertainty. This is Just a Modern Xmas Song does not make any big statements like last year’s pandemic-centered mix. This is a stab at normality, whatever that means.

“The mix is quite international, as it often is. Good Christmas/holiday music is hard to find, so you have to search everywhere to find the good stuff. Of the 23 songs on the record, only 10 bands/singers are from the U.S. There are some older discoveries, such as Andy Clockwise’s 2012’s booze-drenched retro smash ‘Collect Call to My Baby (Merry Christmas,’ alongside recent highlights like last year’s Robyn-esque ‘Lonely Christmas’ by Now, Now. Of course there are some amazing tracks that came out this year, such as ‘Hung Fire,’ by Hiss Golden Messenger, from his wonderful new Christmas record, O Come All Ye Faithful. Readers of Under the Radar likely already know about this record, but I can’t stress enough how excellent it is, and how perfect his use of saxophone is in that song. There was one release this year that makes two appearances, as the FLYTY BRGR GRL and Stevie & the Scrooges tracks are both from the fantastic new compilation from Dandy Boy Records, Have Yourself a Dandy X-Mas. As for my current favorite song on the mix, I would point to ‘Something Magical’ by Icelandic alternative pop singer Daði Freyr. The song is so wonderfully simple in concept and extremely catchy, with production that Chromeo would approve of. The Daði Freyr song had to be towards the end, because we just can’t go into next year without some sort of motivation to get up and move… at least a few steps forward.”

Goodwin launched Christmas Underground in 2012. “The premise of the blog was not just to talk up bands that I like, because many of the bands I like put out terrible Christmas songs, but to specifically try to find great songs from smaller bands,” Goodwin previously explained to us via email in regards to 2018’s mix. “I’m not interested in Eric Clapton’s Christmas record…the site is really meant for great, lesser-known bands.”

Goodwin first started making his Christmas mixes when he was working at the Record Exchange in Roanoke, VA and all the employees agreed to trade Christmas mixes. Each of Goodwin’s mixes includes both current Christmas songs and ones from previous years.

Christmas Mix 2021: This Is Just a Modern Xmas Song Tracklist:

1. Tino Drima - I Wish That it Was Christmas
2. Big Society feat. Ada Grace Francis - (Won’t Be Home For) Christmas
3. Andy Clockwise - Collect Call to My Baby (Merry Christmas)
4. Billy Nomates - Christmas is for Lovers, Ghosts & Children
5. The Little Unsaid - Fine World (When You Can Look It in the Eye)
6. Gold Baby - Looks Like a Cold, Cold Winter
7. Hiss Golden Messenger - Hung Fire
8. Boat Water - Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight)
9. Regal - Love Your Christmas
10. Christmas Aguilera - All I Want is You
11. Cherry Ghost - Blue Christmas
12. Deep Cuts - Comatose Come Christmas
13. Marcos y Molduras - La de Navidad
14. FLTY BRGR GRL - Ex-Mas
15. Now, Now - Lonely Christmas
16. Self Esteem - All I Want for Christmas is a Work Email
17. Brooke Annibale - Christmas, Happy You’re Here
18. Jeremy Warmsley - December
19. Bek Sarkoezy - New Year
20. Stevie & the Scrooges - Lonesome Christmas Blues
21. Saintseneca - The Wandering Star
22. Daði Freyr - Something Magical
23. YACHT - Christmas Alone

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