A Boston Rock Christmas

This one arrived a couple of weeks later than I hoped. A weird record that I only bought for one song... and because it was cheap.

This is exactly what it looks like - a dodgy Christmas compilation of bands whose only connection is the city they came from. Most of these bands are total garbage, but the reason I bought it is that it includes a song from the legendary Boston straight edge band SSD.

I don't really know anything about the history of this record. Does anyone? I first saw this at Lecky's house about three years ago and it intrigued me. I picked it up recently on the cheap thinking it would be a good one to have in time for xmas, although unfortunately it didn't arrive in time, and consequently my xmas was ruined.

This is what FLEX has to say about this record:

Obscure Xmas EP which is sought after mostly because of the SSD track. Tracks from various Boston bands: Del-Fuegos (r'n'r, yawn), Native Tongue (austere wave rock, OK), SSD (legendary power version of the old xmas song, cool), Jeff & Jane (ultra cheap synth sounds), and - of course - Christmas (nice melodic indie rock, noisier and faster than their 7"). SSD and Christmas are best.

Personally, I like the Jeff & Jane song. Actually, I don't, it's bloody awful, but I find it a funny name for a "band". I can just imagine two new wave fartknockers sat around in 1983 with their synthesiser, agonising over what to call their "band", getting nowhere, and deciding that just using their first names would be cool enough. I then decided to see if I could find anything about Jeff & Jane on the internet, and wouldn't you know it, they have their own website! Better still, it seems they reformed in 2002 and cranked out a new record. Read about it yourself if you can contain your excitement enough to control your clicking finger: http://www.officialjeffandjane.com/ You can even buy their CD for only $20! How can you go wrong?

On a slightly more serious note, I did manage to find a site I had not previously seen before - the X-Claim site, which has a few songs that you can download, including the SSD song from this record. So if you want an SSD Christmas song, go here: http://www.xclaim.com/sounds/sounds.html

Also, while you're there, look around the site. There are a few other bits of interest. A statement about the attempted SSD reunion tour that didn't happen last year, in which Al states that Springa will be terminated from all association with SSD. And to prove this, if you then click on the SSD page, it lists the band members, although there is actually no vocalist listed. Haha! Look around the site further and you can also read about Al's back pain, and watch some videos he made for his employer about dust and sand. It's all good stuff.