40 Festive Tunes For Y'all

Normally on a Saturday I like to post a cover version or two, but seeing as it's fast approaching Christmas Eve and I am sure most of you are starting to get into the festive spirit I thought it might be a fun idea to post up a few festive tunes. A couple of songs ended up turning into many many hours of searching through my music collection to bring you a whopping forty Christmas songs from an array of Scottish artists. I guess this is as good as a time as any to wish all of the folk that frequent this site a very Merry Christmas, it genuinely means a lot to me that you choose to put up with me and my ramblings. I hope Santa's good to you all, Lloyd x

1. Monoganon - Torso In The Snow

2. Sugar Crisis - Unwrap Your Heart

3. The Second Hand Marching Band - My Gift Is Waiting

4. A Band Called Quinn - Snowblind

5. Ambulances - The True Meaning Of Christmas

6. Drunk Mule - Feels Like Christmas

7. The Stormy Seas - The Christmas Before Last

8. Neil Milton - Last Christmas

9. Snow Patrol - When I Get Home For Christmas

10. Washington Irving - Silent Night

11. De Rosa - Under The Stairs (Christmas Reverie)

12. Mitchell Museum - Stop the Cavalry

13. Camera Obscura - Little Donkey

14. Frightened Rabbit - It's Xmas So We'll Stop

15. The Last Battle - Once Upon A Boxing Day

16. Julia and the Doogans - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

17. Woodenbox - The Christmas Song

18. The Recovery Club - Silent Night

19. Frightened Rabbit - Cheap Gold

20. Arab Strap - Xmas Baby Please Come Home

21. Frightened Rabbit-Walking In The Air

22. Belle & Sebastian - O Come, All Ye Faithful

23. Campfires in Winter - Christmas Song

24. Dogs Die In Hot Cars - Christmas

25. How to Swim - Sleighbells (Christmas Makes Me Blue)

26. Teenage Fanclub - Christmas Eve

27. Mogwai - Christmas Song

28. The Plimptons - Christmas All Over This Town

29. El Dog - Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

30. Esperi - Snowman

31. Miaoux Miaoux - Snow

32. Mike Nisbet - Snow Me In

33. Withered Hand - Its A Wonderful Lie

34. The Belle Hops - A Belle Hops Christmas Song

35. The Phantom Band - Silent Howling Night

36. Abagail Grey - Winter

37. Idlewild - Mistletoe and Wine

38. Malcolm Middleton - We're All Going To Die (Live at Homegame)

39. Rachel Sermanni - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

40. The Scottish Enlightenment - God Rest You Merry Gentlemen

Festive Freebies,

Id like to apologise in advance for the rushed nature of this weeks Freebies, too many Christmas nights out mean that I haven't had the chance to listen to everything this week. Still though there are some wee corkers in there, you'll just have to find them for yourself.

Gargleblast Records
In the spirit of all things Christmassy, Gargleblast Records have their very own advent calendar of free tunes to give away every day. So far they've posted up free tunes from the likes of De Rosa, to find out what todays freebie is just head here.

The Savings and Loan
If you head on over to The Savings and Loan Bandcamp page you'll find yourself a lovely wee treat as they have released a free 7 track EP which eventually became the debut album Today I Need Light.

The Machine Room
Edinburgh outfit, The Machine Room, have posted up their very own festive tune 'Cherry Pie' for free download on their SoundCloud page.

Drunk Mule
It really is starting to feel like I get to post about a free Drunk Mule track every week these days, no bad thing in my eyes. This week we have new tune Light Speed to share with you all.

Red Deer Club
Head on over to Red Deer Club's website where you can find yourself a free download of their lastest compilation ‘Red Deer Club / Volume 4' which features tracks from the likes of Jonnie Common and Sex Hands.

Kid Karate
Irish duo, Kid Karate have made their new Heart EP free to download on their Bandcamp page.

Neil Milton
Not only did I ask bands to write about their albums of the year, I also cheekily asked if they had a Christmas tune up their sleeve that they might let me share with you all. Neil Milton took things a bit further and went as far as actually penning this wee cover of the Wham classic 'Last Christmas', which I am going to post up again, but I thought this was too good not to share with you all.

A Band Called Quinn
Download yourself , Snowblind, a new Christmas song from A Band Called Quinn for free here.

A Fight You Can't Win
Edinburgh four-piece, A Fight You Can't Win ave just released their new single, 'Shout First / Last Words', which you can download for the free on their Bandcamp page. The band who play a mixture of grunge, rock and pop have played with bands like And So I Watch You From Afar, La Faro and T.A.W.F.A.W.W, which should give you a vague idea of their sound.

Make Sparks
As a wee Christmas treat, Make Sparks are giving away a free download of their track 'Floored' here.

Friday Freebies

The Music Alliance Pact
My good mate The Pop Cop had a special wee celebratory post earlier in the week, if you haven't come across his Music Alliance Posts before then now is the time to do some catching up. I'll leave PC to explain what it's all about, all you need to know from is that he's posted up a cracking wee compilation of songs for you to download for free. You can get your hands on some exclusive and rare tracks from some of the following, We Were Promised Jetpacks, The Seventeenth Century, The Unwinding Hours and Kid Canaveral to name just a few. Download it here.

FOUND
Last week they gave us a free download of OnTheFly's Remix of 'Let Fidelity Break', what this weeks freebie is a mystery to me. If last weeks tune is anything to go by then once again boys n girls you're in for a treat, plus we're also one week closer to the release of their new album. Double Bonus.

Quiet Lights
Here's a great wee freebie that you should be checking out this dream pop outfit Brooklyn who have just recently released a 3-track pre-release, which they're giving away as a wee taster of things to come to from their forthcoming full release. Their album which is currently being mixed by John Congleton (St Vincent, Explosions in the Sky) then mastered by Alan Douches (Frightened Rabbit, Sufjan Stevens) should be out early next year. If that sounds like your kind of thing then just click the link.

Bella Union
One of my favourite labels are giving away a whole host of freebies this week, first up they have a wee free album sampler up for grabs, it features tracks from Beach House, Lawrence Arabia, The Acorn and Department of Eagles, you can get your hands on it here. They are also giving away a whole host of MP3's on Soundcloud, including tracks from The Walkmen, Abe Vigoda, Our Broken Garden and The Kissaway Trail.

Kori Pop
Her real name really is Kori Pop, or at least that's what she tells me, she even has as the birth certificate to prove it. Not long ago she released her first record From The Outskirts, which was made in a barn located in rural Ontario, I think that's about all that you need to know. Oh and there is also the small matter of her giving away her first single Nowhere Near My Heart for free on her Bandcamp page.

The Japanese War Effort
Gerry Loves have posted up the Fresh Air Session that The Japanese War Effort recorded for them. You can download it here.

The Twilight Singers
You can download a new song from the forthcoming Twilight Singers album due early next year on Sub Pop Records. "Blackbird and the Fox" features a duet between Greg Dulli and Ani DiFranco and you can get it here.

Hot Chip
Those funky Hot Chip kids have released a free track, 'Didn't Know What Love Was' through Converse, it features Bernard Sumner & Hot City, and you can get it here.

Scrap Brain
Edinburgh's Scrap Brain are giving away their track 'Caspian' for free all you have to is tweet about it, find out more here.

Neil Milton
This week saw the return of Scottish music label, Too Many Fireworks, although now it's based in Warsaw. Label owner and also musician Neil Milton relaunches his label with an new EP, you can get your hands on song air (Or The Dragonfly) from it for free in exchange for one tweet.

Selebrities
The Brooklyn outfit have been compared to a 'downstroke Beach House', if that sounds good to you then you can download their Ladies Man Effect EP for free.

Mopp
You can download a remix of Dream About You by former Fresh Meat-er 'Dems' here for absolutely nothing. I think this falls under the category of tune!

Spokes
You can get a free download of their song 'Torn Up In Praise' here, be quick as it's only available for the next few days.

Club Seat
Yep the car maker, it's amazing how many want to use music to promote their product these days. Mots of it being bland shit music, not that I am saying that the free music being offered for free doesn't fall into that category, I'm sure that some of you guys must like Foals and Bombay Bicycle Club. Hence the reason for me posting this link, however, if you find yourself getting all excited about the prospect of a free Ellie Goulding session, then I really have failed you all.

The Van Doos!
The nice folk over at 'Young & Lost Club' are giving away an“essential first offering from London based threesome The Van Doos” which you can get for free here.

Three Blind Wolves
Ross Clarke and his band have a wee freebie up for grabs on his Myspace, you can download 'The Maybe Forest' simply by clicking the link.