It’s September 9th, 2022, and you know what that means!
Nothing, it means nothing.
Shit. I need to start this over.
Okay! So it’s the third year of Covid and i finally got the fuggin thing. Since Amanda is, obviously, still immunocompromised and therefore very high risk, she’s been at Alyssa’s house and i’ve been alone with one (1) cat, Seras, for the last nine days. On the plus side, my rapid test today came back negative, so as long as the PCR is also negative, Amanda can move back home with me the day after tomorrow!
In the meantime, since she hates being present while i’m actually compiling, since i frequently end up skipping through songs bits and pieces at a time, hearing fractions of a second of 100 songs a minute sometimes, and since the last few years i’ve complained about how behind i’ve been on getting the Poor-Ass Christmas together, i decided to get a head start this year!
…And i accidentally the whole thing. It’s September 9th. This compilation releases on November 16th.
On the other hand, if all goes well, i’ll be far too busy during the usual compiling window to work on this though, so it’s probably for the best it’s finished early this year.
Anyway i’m pretty happy with the way it sounds right now. And if i do hear anything that i feel desperately belongs on this year’s comp within the next few weeks, i can always make edits later. The important thing is that the bulk of the work is done now.
So, on to one of the more time-consuming tasks related to the compilation: the liner notes! Will i complete these today? Well, if we look to history for our guide…odds are i’ll get about six tracks in and then forget about it until February. Wish me luck! I’ll add dates every time i take a break, just so we can see how ridiculous this gets.
First, some acknowledgements. This year, Trevor’s Poor-Ass Christmas was heavily influenced by Callie. I’ll make notes on which tracks, but between her trip to California early in the year and our subsequent returns to Madison, spending time hanging out at her & Marc’s apartment, i often found myself furiously Shazaming the tracks that popped up on her Spotify shuffle. So many thanks for a lot of this! Others who have influenced the compilation this year are Chelsea, Ray, Huan-Hua, Josh, and most surprisingly, my brother Correy.
1. The CrafsMan - Don’t Forget to Wear Your Dust Mask
crafnation.com
My friend Chelsea started a Discord server early this year called Jam of the Day, with the simple intent of having her friends share a song every day representing what was on their playlists. While participation has been, well, not that, there have definitely been tracks posted that caught my attention.
In the year 2022 it should be pretty obvious what the appeal of a simple electronic song reminding people to wear their masks every day would be. Especially for someone like me, who is trying desperately to protect an immunocompromised spouse.
Plus it’s got cute lil puppets in the music video.
https://youtu.be/p_65qCD2On8
2. Rezz - Let Me In (f/Fknsyd)
officialrezz.com
I couldn’t find the original post, but i think it was while we were in Wisconsin over Christmas/New Years that Ray posted something asking to be sent a song, and she would send one back in return. I think i posted a Dan Terminus track, and she replied with this gem from Ukrainian-born, Canada-based DJ Rezz. This was an absolutely choice cut, specifically curated for me from a friend who knows me better than she thinks. Also the music video is haunting and weird, it’s great.
https://youtu.be/YPz2FxrDZvI
3. ______________ - The Syndicate
fortnite.com
I have spent hours searching for the artist of this song, only to find so many dead ends. I’ve gone so far as to email the Fortnite Customer Support twice and be told both times that they do not have music credit info and they don’t know who does. So uh. There’s that i guess.
I can’t begin to estimate how much time i’ve burned on Fortnite this year that could have been used more productively. Drew & Deanna approached us with Fortnite as an option for something we could play together, even though we are separated by three time zones. I’ve protested a lot about playing video games recently, i just can’t enjoy them because i do always feel that guilt that i could be doing something else. But i said i’d try it. And Fortnite stuck its meathooks in me and never let go.
It’s got everything i need out of a video game. Missions can be quick, so i can jump in and play for ten minutes at a lull in other activity if need be, or they can be long if i’ve got time to burn and need something more absorbing. It rewards diligence without punishing you when you can’t pay attention to it; ie, logging in daily will get you many rewards, but you don’t lose like a streak or something when you skip a day or a week or more, as with other games that i’ve been hooked on in the past (Star Trek Timelines, motherfucker).
This was a new song that i obtained for my lobby music a few months ago and boy howdy does it slap. [note from the future, 3/22/2023: "boy howdy does it slap" who the fuck do you think you are??] I’ve left Fortnite up on a menu screen just so i could listen to this song a few times. For as much time as i’ve spent in Fortnite since last October, almost exactly the Poor-Ass Christmas window, it only made sense for a Fortnite track to make its way into the mix.
Now if only i could figure out who the fuck made this song.
4. Dance with the Dead - Kiss of the Creature
dancewiththedead.bandcamp.com
“This is my favorite band and this is a good deal,” i wrote on Facebook when Dance with the Dead dropped the price of their full discography to $10 a few weeks ago. I don’t know if any of my friends went for it, but the statement remains. Probably my favorite band since 2018, when i first heard Tales from the Boneyard and dubbed it my theme song.
Unfortunately i, an idiot, slept on their new album for way too long. They released it in January, but i didn’t get around to buying it until literally yesterday. I listened to the songs via Bandcamp at least once but for some reason, i hadn’t assed myself to send them the $7 required for full access to the new fruits of their labors. At least that is finally rectified.
This album is so, so good. I mean, i think that about all their stuff, but as a full package, as a cohesive album, this is probably the only one that i love as much as the B-Sides Vol. 1 compilation, which i’ve blessed you all with tracks from on 3 of the last 4 PACs (excepting of course 2020, which includes a track from the then-new Blackout EP).
Last night i put the album on the surround sound system encompassing the bed in the back of the RV, turned it up louder than i’m usually comfortable sleeping with, and closed my eyes and just existed in the aural space of this album. Every song is among the my favorite DWTD works.
I can’t confidently say Kiss of the Creature is my favorite song on the album, but from just a few listens immediately after purchase, it’s the one that sticks out most. I also considered Nebula, A New Fear, Sledge, and Wyrm of Doom.
5. Master Boot Record - Ghosts ‘n Goblins
mbrserver.com
Ah hell, i just noticed that Master Boot Record had a new album this year as well. Gonna have to go and obtain that.
I was pretty excited about Master Boot Record last year, describing his music in the 2021 liner notes as “reprocessed noises from old computer hardware chugging along behind over-the-top Phantom of the Opera synths” and i stand by that. And i still love it.
I also mentioned last year that he has a penchant for emailing his fans free music from time to time. What i was referring to, mostly, was an email i got from him early last year containing a link to a new 40-track album that he didn’t even put up on Bandcamp, but only as a direct download from his server, which was all covers of 8-bit video game soundtracks. I didn’t want to use one of those tracks last year, because i felt for some reason that introducing my friends to Master Boot Record was better done through one of his originals…even though there are plenty of other artists in the ghosts of PAC past that have been either first or only introduced through covers. Hell there’s two more on this very compilation that i’m doing that with.
But anyway! The video game covers album, WAREZ, has been playing in my car a lot this year, and i knew one of those songs was gonna be on this year’s PAC. For a long time i thought it was gonna be Battletoads, because that song is awesome and i (as well as many gamers my age) have a history with that game, but in the end i had to go with Ghosts ‘n Goblins (another game that i have a contentious history with). I thought Ghosts ‘n Goblins would be less recognizable by my target audience, but in the end…who cares. The second half of this song is baller as fuck.
This is the first of four covers featured on this year’s PAC, the most covers i’ve ever included, by double. If you were wondering, the original Ghosts ‘n Goblins soundtrack was composed by Ayako Mori for the arcade cabinet; she also ported the music to the NES version herself.
6. MISSIO - #gimmeakiss
missiomusic.com
One of the many songs i’m including this year that i Shazamed off of Callie’s Spotify playlists. I don’t really have a lot to say about this one other than that the beat is infectious, i love that it gets me moving my body even sitting at my computer (and coughing), and that hook gets me every time. “Get down, motherfucker, gimme a kiss!” The rest of the lyrics are kinda forgettable though, if i’m being honest. “Talk shit, write hits, there’s nothing i can do about it. Stoner, pretty big loner, there’s nothing i can do about it.” Yeah that’s…not great. But, like “The Lucky One” last year, that one hook hits me hard enough to make up for the rest.
There’s a lot of songs i’m including this year that have a single line that i love to shout along with. This may be the hookiest PAC yet.
7. Sir Sly - Bang
sir-sly.com
Oh god i’ve just gone to their web site for the first time and it is made up like a Windows 95 emulator. Fuck me. That’s both brilliant and viscerally assaulting.
Another one from Callie’s playlists. It’s got a similar energy to #gimmeakiss, and i seem to have Shazamed it immediately after, and that’s probably what drew me in. But Sir Sly here succeeds where MISSIO failed - the lyrics. Beyond that great hook, “Knockin’ outside when we could bang down the door,” this song actually has something to say.
And boy oh boy it could not be a more 2020s mission statement.
I’d encourage you to listen carefully and/or go look them up, but let’s start with “Could you tell me anything that's more American than telling everybody that they should stay out of politics? / Only pointing out the fire and the smoke / Piss off, kick rock, go choke” and end with “It's getting harder every day to keep a level head / When everything's on fire and we're hurling towards oblivion.”
Fuck.
8. The Naked and Famous - Jilted Lovers
thenakedandfamous.com
Alright i talked up The Naked and Famous a lot last year, even including two of their songs, a sure sign of reverence and dominance over my listening habits for the year. But really…that was all just from them popping up frequently on my Pandora stations. For as big as i talked about this band, and for having listed Punching in a Dream as my very favorite song since 2017, i had…never actually listened to their albums.
So this year i finally obtained them, and listened through them, and…wow. I definitely chose right. Punching in a Dream is still my favorite by a mile, but hiding under the indie pop/rock hits, there’s so much more going on in the deep cuts. I’m not fond of their newest album, Recover, if i’m being honest, but i’ve had the first three in heavy rotation all year and that doesn’t seem to be showing any signs of letting up. I almost gave them two songs again this year; I Kill Giants was the very last song that i cut to bring the comp in under the requisite 80 minutes.
By a narrow margin, the first album is still my absolute favorite though. Jilted Lovers was actually the first song i put down on the PAC work list this year, and though i added two more TNAF songs, i kept coming back to this one. I guess what i really wanted to do was highlight something that sounds quite different from the TNAF songs i’ve included in past years, and this is going to be that. That first album has several drone tracks on it…if “pop drone” is even a phrase that makes sense. But this one is my favorite. Successive albums had less and less of the drone to them, until you get to Recover, where three of the band members from the first three albums have disappeared and you’re left with only two still standing. The first three albums are like if you took Metric and turned the contrast way up - the pop songs are poppier, the rock songs are heavier. The fourth album may as well be a Soup Dragons record.
My previous statement nonwithstanding, i love this band. Also i just learned that, though they’re from New Zealand, they’re currently based in Los Angeles. So maybe i’ll run into them someday.
9. Ladyhawke - Walk Away
ladyhawkemusic.com
And here we have one of The Naked and Famous’s countrymen, New Zealand-born and once again-based singer/songwriter Ladyhawke, who i discovered at the same time and through the same means as The Naked and Famous (see Poor-Ass Christmas 2017), but only discovered they were both from New Zealand this year.
As much as i loved her song Magic in 2017, and also the song My Delerium, which frequently pops up on my Pandora shuffles, i never sought out her albums until earlier this year. Which was a mistake! They’re great! I would venture to say the way i feel about Ladyhawke now is the way i felt about Ellie Goulding circa 2013-17…when Ladyhawke lived in Los Angeles.
It’s easy to see why her work appeals to me. Aside from the musical aesthetics, i mean…it’s poppy dance music, which i love even though i can’t and don’t dance, the subject matter often hits close to home for me. She’s very candid about her mental illness, i mean, just look at song titles like My Delerium and Anxiety. She’s a Kiwi, which is always gonna win points with me, especially this year as i’ve been sorting through our 2008 New Zealand vacation footage in preparation for yet another edit; a trip which i didn’t appreciate enough at the time to a place that i’ve spent the last decade and a half trying to figure out how to get back to, maybe permanently. And, on top of it all, news came out late last year that she was battling cancer, another circumstance that hits very close to home.
I’ve been enjoying all four of her albums frequently this year, and i considered My Delerium, Anxiety, Girl Like Me, and Dangerous for the mix this year, but this is the one i landed on. It’s wonderful.
Bonus fact, she’s also collaborated with members of PAC alumni Klaxons.
10. The Sounds - Ego
the-sounds.com
It was offensive to me to separate The Sounds from The Naked and Famous. I don’t think these two bands have ever had anything to do with each other, or even necessarily know or even know of each other, but i’ve always put them together, ever since i discovered TNAF in 2017. Punching in a Dream and Painted By Numbers sit next to each other on PAC2017, and those two songs together formed an incantation to make me cry for years, because they soundtracked my rock bottom; The Runners and Outlaw run together on PAC2021, and this year should’ve been Jilted Lovers and Ego running together. But damn it, the transition just wasn’t working for me, and Walk Away formed a perfect bridge.
I may have first paired The Sounds up with The Naked and Famous in 2017, but i first discovered The Sounds in 2010, you can find the song Riot on that compilation. I had their first two albums back then, copied from the library onto my hard drive, though for some reason i never owned the discs. During our Christmas trip back to Wisconsin, i excavated a lot of old media, including firing up several old hard drives and copying their contents onto my newly-built beast of a PC. This included finding those first two Sounds albums, and for the rest of the trip, i had both of them on repeat almost the entire time. I am not joking. Rediscovering these two albums hit me so profoundly, it was all i wanted to listen to. Especially since we didn’t have the internet at the place we were staying, and all i had for music was what i could turn up on the old drives. Not that that didn’t include plenty of other variety, but…look my musical taste a decade ago was very different, mostly.
Basically every song from those first two Sounds albums that hasn’t already appeared on a PAC was considered for this year. I was pretty sure i was going to go with Song With A Mission for a while, but honestly, it’s no surprise i ended up here. I certainly didn’t plan for the PAC this year to be centered on hooks, but again, it’s that line delivery. I always look forward to shouting along, “I never thought i'd say this to you!”
11. renforshort - Feel Good Inc. (f/Mateus Asato)
renforshort.com
instagram.com/mateusasato
Yet another Canadian indie-rock artist from Toronto. I don’t actually know anything about her, but it’s hard to argue with how great this Gorillaz cover is (setting aside the baggage that a white girl singing the lyric “it’s my chocolate attack” might have…for the moment). The original Gorillaz song came out in 2005 and was featured on that year’s Poor-Ass Christmas…when renforshort was three years old.
Oh. Oh my. I am horrifically, sinfully old. Geriatric.
We’ve almost reached the age where PAC artists are younger than the PAC itself.
Anyway this is another Shazam from a Cal playlist. As for how it landed on the coveted Track 11 position…well, i kind of went in without a plan this year. Usually before i start sequencing i already know what the first, last, and eleventh tracks are. This year, i just searched for a proper flow, with no preconceived positions. No, not even the last song. I had no idea what was going to be closing the mix until it was done. Weird, huh? I guess i knew that Don’t Forget To Wear Your Dust Mask would be the first song as soon as i heard it, but before that…i was planning to begin with Jilted Lovers. That would have set a very different mood.
So no, i don’t consider this my favorite song of the year, even though it’s at track 11. In fact, i mentioned in a previous post that i had removed one song, and then late in the process added it back in…it was this one. I feel pretty good about that decision though.
12. miscellaneous owl - Zero
miscellaneousowl.bandcamp.com
I don’t have any excuse for not buying my friend Huan-Hua’s songs on Bandcamp sooner, but earlier this year, she released a full covers album that she was pretty proud of, and in particular a lot of friends were hyping her cover of Roxette’s The Look. So i waited until Bandcamp Friday, and finally purchased her full solo discography as miscellaneous owl. And while her cover of The Look is, in fact, stellar, the one that grabbed my attention was this Smashing Pumpkins cover, Zero. See, as much as i mock and deride frequent Infowars guest Billy Corgan nowadays, Smashing Pumpkins was hugely influential on me as a teenager and an artist. In fact, i’ve said many, many times that my entire bag of tricks as a guitarist came from learning how to play Zero. You can find its DNA in perhaps a majority of damidol songs after 2007, but most notably it’s the entire basis for the guitar part to Overcaffeinated + Underpaid, a fan favorite. Insofar as we had fans that knew our songs.
I relayed this tale to Huan-Hua after i listened to the album, and she said something to the effect of “maybe i should have learned the actual guitar part then” and i said no. No, this is wonderful as it is. Haunting and ethereal. She found something in the spirit of that song that wasn’t necessarily there in text. Which, in my book, is the mark of a good cover. This is perfect as it is.
So for all that i felt like this was the song that i had to choose for this year’s mixtape, although i also gave strong consideration to the song Larry Walters. I’ve coerced almost a dozen people to watch Jon Bois’s YouTube video about Larry Walters this year, and i don’t feel bad about that. Plus, this year is the 40th anniversary of Larry’s flight, so it would only make sense to appear here now. But alas, i had a hard enough time getting this down to CD length as it is.
You can also find the song Huan-Hua wrote for our short film The Time Chair, It’s Probably Fine, opening the 2016 Poor-Ass Christmas, which I believe to be from before she adopted the miscellaneous owl moniker.
13. Wolf Alice - You’re a Germ
wolfalice.co.uk
There was drama (internal drama, a turmoil known only to me) regarding the track listing of the 2017 Poor-Ass Christmas after the artist of one of the most important songs of the year to me turned out to be a pedophile. At the very last minute, i replaced that song with Wolf Alice’s Giant Peach, a decision which seemed hasty in the moment - and which i have absolutely relished ever since. Giant Peach is a great fuckin’ song, and while it may not seem like it at first glance, it turned out to be an absolutely perfect album closer.
I don’t know why i didn’t revisit Wolf Alice after that until this year, but i’m glad i did. This is from the same album, My Love Is Cool, released in 2016, which i obtained the special expanded edition of and have been enjoying all year this year. I should probably check out their newer material; their 2021 album Blue Weekend ended up winning them Best British Group at the Brit Awards this year.
This song has ended up on my gym mix. I don’t know how i can do so much shouting along while i’m lifting but somehow it works.
14. K.Flay - Good Girl
kflay.com
I’ve been familiar with K.Flay’s music, or at least the hits, for a few years; she’s one of the artists that frequently pops up on my Pandora shuffles, because she fits right in with the sort of thing that i’m into these days. However, she’s not one that i ever explored in any amount of depth on my own. I knew Blood in the Cut and High Enough and Black Wave, but apparently none of them caught my attention well enough to pursue further.
Then Callie and Marc came to California for a month, and Cal spent i think half of that living with Alyssa after Marc had to go back to Wisconsin for work reasons, so we spent a lot of time together. Cal is into K.Flay the way i’m into The Naked and Famous. She drove most of the places that we went together, and was usually playing K.Flay in the car on the way.
And then, the unthinkable. K.Flay was ending her tour in Los Angeles and Cal had her ticket. She really wanted a show buddy though, and she was leaning hard on me to go with her. Alyssa was going to a wedding in Long Beach that night, and taking Amanda as her +1, so that left only me. I had no doubts that seeing K.Flay live would be a good time, it’s just that i was still very skeptical about being out in a crowd during Covid times.
In the end, i did go to that show. My first show since the pandemic began. And it was a great time! The first opener was a little weird, and i’m still not sure i really enjoyed them, but the second band, Kid Sistr, left a huge impression on me and i’m very interested in seeing them in the future. They would probably be on this PAC as well, except that they didn’t have any recordings yet. I bought a T-shirt.
K.Flay’s set was incredible. The physicality of her performance is beyond my mortal understanding. Like, some of her stage antics seem almost like a workout routine - i can’t wrap my brain around the concept of singing while in those positions. Her core strength must be off the scale.
I’ve gone and obtained a few of her albums since, and while i don’t identify as strongly with her as Cal does, i’ve definitely found a lot to like in her work. This song comes from the Inside Voices EP, which the tour we attended takes its name from.
Find a place to cry
I wanna die with all my friends
I need to make a few mistakes
And probably make 'em all again
15. Bleached - Hard to Kill
hellobleached.com
Speaking of show buddies, Chelsea had also approached me looking for a show buddy, but on a more regular basis. I finally took her up on one, my second show since the pandemic started, and went with her to see Bikini Kill just a few weeks after the K.Flay show. Bikini Kill is of course one of those legendary, highly influential bands that people like me just need to see live at some point. I honestly didn’t even know they were back together and touring, but i do know about Kathleen Hanna’s health issues, so when Chelsea asked (the day of the show!) if i wanted to go, i knew i had to say yes now or forever hold my peace.
Bleached was supposed to open the show that night. I’d heard nice things about them from other friends who run in riot grrl circles, so i was kind of excited about that too. We got into the arena and there was a very strange comedienne on stage, performing her routine with an exaggerated physicality that involved abusing a piano. It was a unique experience, for sure. We didn’t know what was going on.
…and then Bikini Kill took the stage. We never found out what happened to Bleached.
But Chelsea has been very into them of late, and posted this song in the Jam of the Day Discord shortly after that show. And holy hell is it catchy. I’ve been rocking this one quite a bit myself since then.
I really hope we do get a chance to see them for real sometime soon.
Plus the transition from Good Girl into Hard to Kill is perfect.
I almost feel like i’m telling a little story with this sequence; Good Girl into Hard to Kill into Teach Me to Fight into Weapon.
16. YONAKA - Teach Me to Fight
weareyonaka.com
I think this is another one that i Shazamed while hanging out at Cal & Marc’s apartment. This one might be from a Marc playlist…? Probably another one of Callie’s though.
This singer sounds like a Cockney Louise Post.
Doesn’t have the lyrical chops though, unfortunately…the more i listen to this song, the more i’m kind of put off by the lyrics, they’re borderline amateur… But you know what? That didn’t stop me from including #gimmeakiss, and you know what i’m gonna say next.
THAT. HOOK.
“TEACH ME TO FIGHT!” is such a raw line, it alone gives me reason to love this song. On top of that, those guitars are the right kind of loud, they satisfy that primal desire for aural power that i always sought before i got into the beeps and boops of electronic synth music a few years ago…and which i seem to be returning to now.
17. Against the Current - Weapon
atcofficial.com
Alright so here’s a story. In August, my brother Correy got on an airplane for the first time in his life and flew to California, entering the state i’ve lived in for over three years for the first time in his life.
So that he could buy a Toyota Corolla and drive it straight back home to Missouri.
There is a little bit more to that story, but not as much as you’d expect. I offered to drive back to Missouri with him, so he wouldn’t have to do the whole 24 hour drive himself. He had me drive out of Los Angeles, because the city freaks him out, but after that…i did not drive at all. He wanted to do it all himself. Still, it was good for him to have me there, i think.
Correy’s playlist for the entire drive included exactly 12 bands. This is in line with what i know of my brother; he’s never been one for much in the way of variety with his musical choices. When we were in high school, it was System of a Down and Nickelback, and that was it. Nowadays, it’s mostly Tegan & Sara and CHVRCHES. But to my surprise, i had never heard of four out of the twelve.
I was telling him that, out of the stuff that was unfamiliar to me, i thought The Regrettes were probably the one i found most interesting, but at that time he was annoyed that his shuffle had been shying away from Against the Current. He was sure, so confident, that i was going to love this band. Eventually he gave up waiting or skipping through and just pulled his phone down, searched through it, and played a bunch of Against the Current for me.
I was polite at the time, but honestly, i didn’t feel like i was getting much out of it. I just didn’t find them that interesting. But after he returned the player to its shuffle, this one, Weapon, came up, and i don’t know if i just didn’t hear it the first time or if i didn’t register it, but this time, i liked what i heard. I Shazamed it to be sure i had it for later. After a few hours, i heard Against the Current again, and i was going to go and Shazam it again because i liked what i heard - and it was Weapon again.
I’ve listened to more of their stuff since and it’s growing on me. This is still my favorite though.
18. The Regrettes - Monday
theregrettes.com
You know what’s interesting, though, is that i had Shazamed this Regrettes song all the way back on December 4th. Not sure where i heard this, but it made an impression on me back in December, well before Correy and i took that road trip and he played them approximately 1/12th of the entire trip, or two hours.
I do need to spend more time with The Regrettes’ back catalog. But in the meantime, i’m pretty happy to include this song.
GOTTA GET THE FUCK OUT OF LA
Man i do resonate with that sentiment from time to time.
Still rather be here than Wisconsin though.
19. HorrorPops - Freaks in Uniforms
linktr.ee/Horrorpops
I couldn’t resist that transition from Monday to Freaks in Uniforms.
I don’t recall how i got into HorrorPops so suddenly this year. Maybe from Pandora? Not sure what i would have seeded that got me to HorrorPops.
A band i’ve known about for years but never really had interest in. Psychobilly, or even regular old rockabilly, has never particularly been my jam. Yet somehow, HorrorPops landed on the master list of artists whose albums i wanted to obtain for our May/June road trip to Wisconsin, and i managed to grab all three of them. Originally they just got thrown into the road trip shuffle…but i found myself wanting more, and started putting their albums on repeat in the car over the last few months. I’ve really been enjoying their work.
So. How did i single out this song for the compilation?
Guess.
“YOU CAN GO NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NAAAH YOURSEEEEEELF!!”
HorrorPops had their day from about 1996-2011, but were finally talking about a reunion…in 2020. We know how that went. But now that the pandemic is winding down, they were starting to pull those plans back out and maybe get on the road with that reunion tour…
And then frontwoman Patricia Day announced in March 2022 that she had cancer.
Gosh. I’m just finding this out now. But it’s stunning how many women about my age who play in bands i like got cancer during the pandemic. Ladyhawke, Patricia Day, and Betty from Go Betty Go, who are still active and play in LA a lot and who i’ve been planning to go see since i moved here and just never managed to make it happen. Their song You’re Your Worst Enemy appears on PAC2007. I’ve been following them since at least then.
20. Josh Welch - Sweet Field
joshwelch.bandcamp.com
This is nepotism.
Josh and i have been friends for years. He contributed gang vocals to two Misfits covers on damidol’s covers EP, Cover Your Dick, in 2011. He’s the former bassist for The Type, a legendary Madison local band that i followed from their first show to their last, and was playing bass for Cats On Leashes when i first joined in 2014. The two of us had toyed with starting various bands together over the last decade and a half and never made any of them happen, due to random scheduling blah blah blah.
A newish homeowner, Josh recently converted his basement into a full-on recording studio, where he and random handfuls of his friends now gather together whenever they have leisure time and write and record music. This is the first song he’s released as a solo artist, on his very own solo Bandcamp page. He was in LA early this year for work, and shared this track with me then. I’ve had it on the PAC playlist ever since. It’s really good. I told him it reminds me of 90s Matthew Sweet/Bob Mould type alternative.
On our May/June Wisco trip i referenced above, we had planned to get together for a day and spend some time in that basement of his recording some covers. I really, really want to do Twilight Zone by Golden Earring, and he’s wanted to do Talking In Your Sleep by The Romantics for a decade. We thought that would make a nice afternoon in the studio.
As with every other band we’ve tried to start on our own, it didn’t come together.
Maybe in the future.
Meanwhile, looking forward to more solo gems from this guy in the future.
21. Eve 6 - Angel of the Supermarket
eve6.com
The first band that i could well and truly say was “my favorite band,” since i was 13 and Inside Out came on the radio for the first time in 1998 until 2007 when i discovered Sleater-Kinney and became a riot grrl three years after Eve 6 had disbanded, i’ve long lamented that Eve 6 never had a spot on a Poor-Ass Christmas CD. I’ve said often that if i’d done things in 2004 the way i do them now, 405 would have been on that mixtape. If i’d started the PAC a year earlier, Hokis would have been on that mixtape. But alas! I didn’t really get a chance to include Eve 6 until 2012, when their reunion album, Speak in Code, came out…and i didn’t like it.
But last year, to the surprise of all, the nine-year cycle came to its next stop, and out of nowhere Eve 6 dropped a new EP, Grim Value! Which i preordered immediately! And while a vast improvement over Speak in Code, leaning harder on the band’s classic punk influences than their pop tendencies, the absence of original drummer Tony Fagenson was felt deeply. It’s been a year and i still feel that way; nothing against the new guy, really, but he’s not Tony.
When the CD finally arrived, i listened to it once and then…promptly…misplaced it? In an RV? How the fuck…?
Eventually i did relocate it, and rip it to my iTunes, and sync it onto my iPod, in time to put together the 2021 Poor-Ass Christmas. Unfortunately i hadn’t really spent enough time with the EP to develop strong preferences for any of the songs, and as i was running behind on putting the mix together, i selected the song i’d had the most exposure to: the first single, Black Nova.
It’s not a bad choice, but it’s not the one i would have made if i’d had more time to truly parse the EP. I’ve listened to it a lot more in the car now that it’s on my iPod. One day i was paying close attention to the lyrics, the thing that’s always appealed to me most about Eve 6, and i realized holy fuck. Angel of the Supermarket is hilarious. And the more i listen to it, the more i like it not just as a piece of humor, but also as a millennial living through his third “once-in-a-lifetime” financial crisis as the world crumbles around me. This song is about finding love while stealing potatoes from the grocery store. It’s very 2020s.
Eve 6 has a new full length album coming out THIS!! MONTH!! (remember i’m writing this in September), but i don’t want to do what i did last year and rush to pick a song that will feel…not wrong…but not completely right as the year goes on. I want to be able to spend some real time with that album and know it forward and backward by the time i’m assembling Poor-Ass Christmas 2023. I think that’s reasonble.
Plus i just really wanted to make up to Angel of the Supermarket for missing it last year.
22. Hagfish - Walking in LA
myspace.com/hagfishtx
Dang i was starting to think that, for the first time maybe ever, every band on the PAC was still together. Nope! These guys broke up in 2001. However Wikipedia says they’ve done reunions in 2003–2004, 2006, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, so who knows.
This song was like a distant memory for a long time, just something that popped up in my head…every single time i logged a walk activity on my new Garmin tracker. Because it logs them like this.
And i always change it from “Los Angeles Walking” to match whatever city i’m actually walking in, usually Lake Balboa or Northridge. But in that short stretch of minutes, when my screen says “Los Angeles Walking,” all i hear in my head is “Walking in LA! Walking in LA! Nobody walks in LA!”
So i knew it was a song, and i remembered it as a punk song, so i quite reasonably assumed it was something in my iTunes library. When i searched for “Walking in LA,” this was what came up. When i listened to it, i was confused; in my head, i have always heard it with a female vocal. Something in the Kathleen Hanna range. But this song has a male vocal.
I accepted it, threw it on some playlists, and moved on. Still bothered me though.
It was just today, as i was sequencing the compilation, that i noticed this comes from the Before You Were Punk compilation. It’s a collection of 90s punk covers of 80s pop hits. I didn’t even realize this was a cover.
So i looked it up. Originally by Missing Persons. Well, there’s your female vocal.
I considered switching this out for the original version, but this is the one i’ve been listening to. It’s also actually closer to what i had in my head. If you could take the original vocal and overlay it on this cover…i still don’t think that would be what i’m looking for; Dale Bozzio’s voice is not what i hear in my head. There must be another cover out there that i’ve heard at some point.
I think when i first located the Hagfish version in my iTunes library, the last play was in 2013. So who knows if that was even fresh enough in my mind.
This is what i’ve got to work with though. I still find the song itself to be thematically important to the year, and i think i prefer Hagfish’s cover over the Missing Persons original. That’s a razor thin line though, i could easily flip-flop on this in the future.
23. The Birthday Massacre - Sleepwalking
thebirthdaymassacre.com
The Birthday Massacre is finally here! I have cut this band from the final track list multiple times over the last five years and i feel kind of bad about that. It’s mentioned at the very end of the 2017 liner notes, but i know that’s not the only time. I never finished the 2019 liner notes and 2016 doesn’t have anything about cut tracks. I didn’t look any further back than that, not sure i would’ve known them earlier. But anyway, i digress.
When i posted a Birthday Massacre song (Shallow Grave) in the Jam of the Day Discord, i described them as “upbeat goth metal,” which seems like a contradiction but i stand by it. They were another band whose albums i sought out for the May/June road trip, and now that i know more of their songs than just Shallow Grave, Video Kid, and the cover of I Think We’re Alone Now, i found a great appreciation for this one, Sleepwalking.
You know. For the hook.
“I was never here | I'm just a faint reflection”
I don’t know why i find that line so compelling but i really, really do. There’s something existential to it that i find satisfying as hell, especially nestled among that wall of guitars.
24. Oasis - Morning Glory
oasisnet.com
Oh right, how could i possibly have, even for a moment, thought that every band on the list would still be together when i knew we were leading up to yet another fucking Oasis track? I think Taylor Swift wrote a song about Oasis, didn’t she?
Anyway i’m back on my bullshit.
I know that Oasis, once considered the Second Coming of the Beatles, at least by the English, does not have that reputation on this side of the Atlantic. But i’ve always loved Champagne Supernova, and for some inexplicable reason, in 2014, i became unreasonably obsessed with them, particularly their most unloved album, Be Here Now. Do you know how badly i have to want it to grant seven minutes and forty-three seconds to a single song on a Poor-Ass Christmas? I usually get a little trigger-happy with the cuts around four minutes and draw a hard cutoff around five and a half. 7:43? Unthinkable! But for whatever reason, D’You Know What I Mean? truly captivated me in 2014. It’s still the 12th most played song in my iTunes library, at 71 plays. Although it’s not the only one sitting at 71, so it’s technically a three-way tie with two Metric songs.
Two years later, i included My Big Mouth on the PAC. Three years after that, i made Magic Pie a secret, hidden track on the PAC that i don’t think anyone’s found yet. Don’t worry about it if you haven’t; the secret you’ve yet to discover is just an Oasis song that ranks among the lowest of their entire catalog by diehard fans. The point was, those are the first three songs on the album. I had a weird thought in my head that, over the course of a decade or two, i would eventually mete out the entire Be Here Now album to my friends via the Poor-Ass Christmas.
That was stupid and i’m glad i stopped.
But around the time Correy and i were on that road trip, i entered yet another Oasis phase. I think i was suddenly craving guitars again after a long fascination with synthwave music, and i just needed to get back into this weird British headspace again. For…reasons.
Now here we are, being here now, and i’ve put Oasis on the PAC proper for the first time in six years. And it’s not from that album! No, this one comes from their best-known, most popular album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory, and is essentially the title track. I don’t know what it was, but this time, when i entered that Oasis phase, this was the song i wanted to hear the most.
It’s that guitar riff at the beginning, yes, for sure, but also.
Also.
And i’m just realizing this now, probably because of everything else i’ve written.
I swear i did not do this on purpose.
It’s the hook.
“What’s the story, morning glory? Well? You need a little time to wake up, wake up.”
I just love shouting those words along with…whichever Gallagher is singing on this one. No, i can’t tell them apart. I’m not one of those diehards i mentioned. I just think they’re neat.
Plus, the last few years, but this year in particular, “I need a little time to wake up” is a sentiment i can identify with fully. It’s been so hard to get out of bed. Maybe because, like most people my age and younger, i no longer expect anything good to happen ever again.
The song ends with a disheveled mess of guitar wanking and chaos, and as a connoisseur of chaos, just like, as a concept, it feels like the right way to end 2022.
- - -
So there you have it. It’s another Poor-Ass Christmas, baybee, and i’ve now written 16 pages in a google doc about how pretentious i am about my poor taste in art, one entire page of which was just unhinged mumbling about Oasis. Another compilation which represents days of overanalysis on minutiae to the satisfaction of only me, in the books. I hope that some of you have gotten even a fraction of the joy out of listening to this that i got by assembling it. AND HOLY SHIT!!! I wrote all of the liner notes IN ONE SITTING. IT’S STILL SEPTEMBER 9TH!
My autobiography as a mixtape. Volume 19. 2022.
- - -
The B-Sides.
Songs from the work list that were ultimately deleted
Chumbawamba - Farewell to the Crown
Dance with the Dead - Sledge
Dance with the Dead - Wyrm of Doom
Dance with the Dead - Nebula
Dance with the Dead - A New Fear
George Harrison - What is Life
Golden Earring - Twilight Zone
Halsey - Honey
HorrorPops - Where You Can’t Follow
K.Flay - Black Wave
Klee - As Long as You Live
Ladyhawke - Girl Like Me
Ladyhawke - Anxiety
Ladyhawke - My Delirium
Ladyhawke - Dangerous
Master Boot Record - Battletoads
miscellaneous owl - Larry Walters
Mitch Murder - Space Harrier
The Naked and Famous - I Kill Giants
The Naked and Famous - Backslide
The Romantics - Talking in Your Sleep
The Sounds - Song with a Mission
The Sounds - Hit Me!
The Sounds - Hope You’re Happy Now
Spinnerette - Driving Song
Tommy ‘86 - The Shutdown of Humanity
This shit was fully written on September 9, 2022, which was too early
And finally edited and posted on March 22, 2023, which was too late
