I Believe in Jersey Christmas---The Grip Weeds---Under the Influence of Christmas

Welcome Christmas Bring Your Light....

You know, it seems that everybody puts out a Christmas album, it's almost as predictable these days as band reunions. Strummer and Jones performed together, Bob Mould and Grant Hart reunited briefly on stage, even Australia's Saints performed together a few years ago. Probably somewhere in the world, some mad scientist someplace is trying to do something with Beatle DNA.

But you know, most of these Christmas projects suck. If you go on a website like Amazon and poke around, its mostly the same old crap. Vanity projects, a bunch of songs hashed together to make a quick buck. Boring.

But as you may have noticed, I said mostly, not all. I haven't really found too much this year to recommend. The Nick Lowe Cd is okay. He's a class act, a guy who knows how to pen a song. By no means is the album bad, but I find it a bit bland. I've posted some things in prior years that are worthy of your filthy lucre. Things like Rhino's Punk Rock Christmas comp, The Yobs, Die Roten Rosen, Vibeke Saugestad's superb Christmas Ep, Tim Wheeler and Emmy the Great, Goldie Lookin' Chain.

But this season I came across The Grip Weeds Under the Influence of Christmas this year. It's the best Christmas album I've heard recently. It actually came out in 2011 on the Rainbow Quartz label, and I like this a lot. They are a 60's influenced pop band from New Jersey who truly are masters of harmony. The album is mix of Christmas originals, traditional tunes, and more contemporaneous Christmas covers.

And they get through this with help from their friends, notably fellow New Jerseyans The Smithereens, doing a nice version of Chrissie Hynde's 2000 Miles. What really blew my mind was that George Cameron of the remarkable Left Banke(!) sings backup on For The Holidays, a suitably wintry original song that really needs to be heard.



Under the Influence of Christmas is nice because they don't simply bash out songs in a similar fashion. On songs like Christmas Dream or Santa Make Me Good you find them rocking out quite capably. On other songs like A Christmas Song or the baroque ELP Christmas chestnut I Believe in Father Christmas they mellow out. And the superb Merry Christmas All is a pitch perfect Christmas Classic, a song that sounds like it came out on a Phil Spector album from 50 years ago.




Also, the band had the good taste to cover Welcome Christmas from How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The go-to Grinch song is ordinarily You're a Mean One Mr Grinch, but Welcome Christmas was the song I always felt had the best cover potential.

Overall Under The Influence is pretty terrific from beginning to end, and a suitable stocking stuffer for anyone who loves classic 60's rock music.

Of course in addition to their holiday tunes, the Grip Weeds are a superb rock band with a bunch of accomplished albums. Well worth seeking out--check out their website for more details. They recently contributed to the benefit album My Hometown along with other Jersey bands, the proceeds going to a good cause, helping Hurricane Sandy victims.

So far I haven't found any Christmas record that came out in 2013 that I can wholeheartedly recommend, but there are still some shopping days left. If I find something I will let you know.