My favorite holiday song, by my third-favorite Irish rock band, after Drop Kick and Flogging Molly.

The Pogues play a perfect blend of punk rock and traditional irish music. They were formed in North London in 1982, and surely have influenced most of the irish rock bands of today, including the aforementioned Drop Kick Murphy’s and Flogging Molly

As the expression goes, ‘If that right ain’t shit, then I don’t want to wrong shit.’ Or something like that…

The Books are an indie rock band, originally formed in New York City, but that is currently residing in North Adams Massachusetts. They consist of two guy – Nick Zumato who plays guitar and bass, and Cellist Paul De Jong.

They mix folk and electronica beautifully, particularly in this jam, one of their more up tempo ones.

I’d indifferently recommend to check out all of their music.

Frightened Rabbit is a Scottish indie rock band. Formed in 2004 by brothers Scott and Grant Hutchison. They then recruited members Billy Kennedy and Andy Monaghan in 2006 and 2008 respectively.

Here’s what Scott Hutchison has to say about the changes in the band’s lineup, which also speaks to the band’s style and way of doing things. (from Wikipedia)

” the initial line-up in Frightened Rabbit was just myself. I had really only been messing with my 4 track for about 6 months before I started playing some shows on my own. Some of the songs still didn’t have words and I was mostly just mumbling nonsense half the time. Grant joined a year later, making the outfit much noisier. Billy came along about 6 months after this and actually made it a bit less noisy. He’s very calming like that is Billy. Andy has been in the band since January, and adds all the extra details we were missing before. Still not sure if we’re finished gathering members. ”

Song found via The World Forgot

Mason Jennings was born in Hawaii, then moved to Pittsburgh at a young age, but now lives in and calls Minneapolis home. He is currently married to fellow singer-songwriter Amy Turany Jennings, with whom he has two kids.

Jennings recorded his first album on an analogue four track (remember those?) in 1997, playing all instruments himself. He then recruited drummer Chris Stock and bassist Robert Skoro, whom together formed the Mason Jennings Band.

He’s been recording all kinds of tracks since then, both individually and with various band members. More notably, he recorded two tracks for the Bob Dylan movie ‘I’m not There’ , released in November 2007. The two tracks were ‘The Times They Are a Changin’ and ‘The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll.’

Thanks for the tip, Will White.

Jams Similar to Mason Jennings – Nothing:

Lior – I’ll Forget You – Featuring Sia
Jose Gonzalez – Heartbeats – Live Performance

Its time for all the optimists in the room to clap their hands and say, ‘yeah’

A beacon of hope for independent musicians who want to release their music digitally, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah received mainstream success via the internet, when prominent indie music news outlets SaidTheGramophone.com and Pitchfork Media started talking about their music.

Around this time, smaller music bloggers also started sharing the fact that indie rock heavyweights David Byrne and David Bowie were both spotted at a Clap Your Hands Say Yeah show. More info on their unlikely rise to fame here.

Currently, the band isn’t even based in one city. All members except for singer/gutiar player Alec Ounsworth live in Brooklyn. Ounsworth lives in Philly. They have since released two albums, though many of their tracks aren’t even available on pressed CDs. You’ll have to go to iTunes or Bittorent for many of their songs.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is another testament to preppie small-school indie rock. They now join the ranks of unlikely early-20′s rock stars, along with MGMT and Vampire Weekend.

I’ll clap to that. I might even let out a ‘Yeah’ or two.

Jams similar Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Details of the War:

Listen to The Handsome Furs – What We Had
Listen to TV on the Radio – Wolf Like Me

Israeli born and Sydney based, Lior is an Australian singer songwriter fit for the Garden State Soundtrack (he didn’t actually appear here)

Lior’s full name is Attar Lior, though he dropped his first name for performing purposes.

He has toured with a full string band in the past, but in this upcoming year, he’ll be touring by himself. These shows are supposed be just as enthralling.

I hope Lior brings his one person act to San Francisco sometime soon.

Discovered via his video on Who The Bloody Hell Are They. Great Australian music blog by the way.

Born, raised, and having lived in Sweden his whole life, its no wonder that Jose Gonzalez decided to cover the song Heartbeats by fellow Swedes The Knife.

This is probably Jose Gonzalez’s best known cover, though he has reworked such other musical gems as Born in the USA, The Ghost of Tom Joad, Love Will Tear Us Apart, Teardrop, and Hand on Your Heart. In the process, he has covered a wide variety of styles, from the 80s Rock veteran Bruce Springsteen, to pop music superstar Kylie Minogue.

Similar to the folk music of Elliot Smith, Jose Gonzalez sings soft vocals and plucks soothing guitar notes while keeping a steady rhythm.

Stylistically, this has not always been the case. In the late 90′s, he played in a number of hardcore punk bands, being influenced by the likes of The Dead Kennedy’s and Black Flag.

Though a departure from his musical roots, his new style has gained him worldwide popularity, leading him to take time off from earning his college degree in biochemistry.

I guess there’s a wider audience for folk rock than hardcore punk too.

Similar Jam:

Neutral Milk Hotel – King of Carrot Flowers

More up-tempo:

Paulo Nutini – New Shoes

Neutral Milk Hotel released two albums in the late 90s, and is currently on an indefinite hiatus, though at the time of writing this post, there appears to be no connection between this hiatus and any form of drugs, alcohol, death, or farm animals.

Neutral Milk Hotel is from Athens, Georgia and spent most of the 90s recording demo tapes on casettes (remember those) and crashing on friends couches. Sounds familiar.

Related Jams
Bigger sound: Band of Horses – Is There a Ghost

Xavier Rudd, the long haired, aussie talking, half aborigine reincarnation of Paul Simon, sings socially conscious lyrics while playing a variety of instruments, including everyone’s favorite instrument they know nothing about, the didgeridoo.

His live shows are supposed to be amazing. So are his recorded tracks.

He grew up in Torquay, about an hour and half south of Melbourne, Australia, on the gateway to the Great Ocean Road. Listening to Xavier Rudd while driving this scenic highway could be quite enjoyable. You may even see a poisonous snake or two. Or a python swallowing a family dog. I digress.

Similar song: John Butler Trio – Ocean

And I thought John Butler’s performance of Ocean was spectacular. Though John Butler’s performance brings a bit more emotion in my opinion, Erik Mongrain makes a six-string acoustic guitar sound like anything but. I’m assuming he uses some kind of pickup, but other than that, it’s just a standard six string, same as any musically-ambitious 15 year old has in his or her bedroom.

Erik’s style is referred to as lap-tapping. He’s influenced by Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, and Jean Sebastian Bach. No, not Sebastian Bach of Skid Row, but Jean Sebastian Bach, the Baroque classical composer. Now that I think about it, Erik’s sound isn’t that far off from a cross between Baroque melodies and heavy rock and alternative rock rhythms.