I Still Believe in Christmas

The tenth track on His ND Xmas is "I Still Believe in Christmas" by The Fleshtones, from their 2008 Christmas album Stocking Stuffer.

Even though I have a higher tolerance for holiday music that anyone I know, I can still count the number of single-artist Christmas albums I can listen to all the way through on one hand. Probably two or three fingers of one hand. But now there's one more finger, because Stocking Stuffer is a winner from start to end.

The Fleshtones have been around for more than thirty years, and are really good at what they do, which is hard-edged garage rock. Instead of falling back on timeworn standards like "Silent Night" and "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town", the 'tones break out a bunch of original rock songs, and a few well-chosen cover songs. The most well-known song on the album is probably Chuck Berry's "Run Run Rudolph", and they also tackle "Hooray For Santa Claus" from the early 60's cult Christmas classic "Santa Claus Conquers The Martians", but the rest are pure Fleshtones goodness. And it's a winner all the way through if this is your thing. And if this isn't your thing, then may the Lord have pity on your rock and roll hating soul!

For literary accompaniment to Stocking Stuffer, I would also recommend Joe Bonomo's Sweat, a Fleshtones bio where you can almost feel the perspiration in the book's title oozing through each page. The Fleshtones haven't really made it big, but the fact that they've endured through all these years has a success all it's own.

I still believe in Christmas, and also still believe in hard-working bands like The Fleshtones!   The album is available at emusic, amazon, and other fine retailers.