Words by Jason Lee
Not to mix sports metaphors but sometimes you gotta throw in the towel and punt which is especially true this time of year as it’s supposed to be all about getting some rest and recharging one’s batteries but we aren’t quite there yet when it comes to throwing in the towel on 2024 tho’ we did run out of steam last night having planned a longer, more involved piece for today but we just held our big Deliversary celebration this past weekend plus bringing on a clutch of new writers over the past week or so so give us a break already…
…anyway we plan to get that other piece up tomorrow which at least affords us the chance to do something else first that we wanted to do anyway and that’s making note of a few recent Seasonal Songs put out by local artists starting with Nuclear Family Fantasy’s “Thank God It’s Them” which delighted us from the first time we heard it with its bluntly pessimistic take on the various hypocrisies of the holiday season and its associated music and how Bono and Boy George are at least partly to blame for perpetuating a mind state where you “throw your arms around the world at Christmas time / but spend the rest of the year squeezing out its life” even if inadvertently…
…which granted is a pretty bleak assessment of the reason for the season as being one of small acts of charity providing cover for massive year-round systemic oppression, aggression, and exploitation with NFF putting across these sentiments with a razor-sharp sense of moral outrage and savage wit in taking down an ‘80s “charity supergroup” classic that pretty much invented the genres but that maybe “hasn’t aged so well” as the kids like to say coming across to many new listeners as more sanctimonious and oblivious than charitable set to music that’s nearly as turgid as the words themselves but hey it’s got Bananarama on it so it can’t be all bad…
…whereas Nuclear Family Fantasy, even in riffing on “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” never lose sight of the people’s strong desire for rollicking good tunes set against propulsive rhythms and arrangements during the holiday season like those heard on The Ventures’ Christmas Album for instance which is pretty much as close to Zen perfection as a seasonal album’s ever gotten esp. with Phil Spector having been cancelled for misinterpreting the meaning of taking a “slay ride” which granted it came out way back in 1965 and doesn’t have any words even…
…whereas Nuclear Family Fantasy manage to keep the energy level up throughout on “Thank God It’s Them” despite the ambitious nature of its lyrics with a stuttering, propulsive beat that lands halfway between “Bang A Gong” and “1969” not to mention its wall of wailing guitars and seeing as we’re talkin’ ‘bout a satirical story-song willing to go way dark while maintaining a healthy sense of absurdity and an unwavering determination to keep kicking against the pricks you may’ve guessed already that it sprung from the mind and the pen of Mossy Ross and in fact you’d be right…
…on a track that draws on familiar Xmas musical tropes and sentiments only to subvert them like how the bells peeling out over a pulsating kick drum serves more as call to arms than a call for peace either way melting into a tightly-coiled groove lurching its way forward like an angry, inebriated reindeer recently laid off from Santa’s workshop and sleigh-driving team in a cost-cutting effort meant to please SantoCo’s North Pole shareholders with the higher ups likewise nervous about Prancer and Dasher having witnessed year-after-year the vast inequalities among and between children from different parts of the world that Christmas in its current form doesn’t so much seem to mitigate as to perpetuate or at least that’s the song’s take but we’ll let Mossy take it from here…
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I can never stop myself from rolling my eyes, smirking, and shaking my head in disbelief every time I hear Bono belt out, “Well tonight thank God it’s them / instead of you!” in the 1984 Band Aid song “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” with Bono yell-singing a confession. It’s what so many wealthy, powerful people with a colonial, western-centric attitude do—thanking God they’ve been “blessed” to not suffer the repercussions of problems they’ve helped create while crediting God with their good fortune and ignoring that the consequences of their material wealth have been offloaded onto some far away country.
The public displays of opulence by the rich and famous and their ongoing endorsement of lifestyles and shit no one needs, combined with the desperately low standards of living and mental health for so many others, contributes to the unhappiness, greed, and overconsumption that causes nearly every country in Africa to have multinational corporations in them—causing harm while benefiting from ill-gotten resources, feeding government corruption, and cheating African people out of billions of dollars.
Singing about the problem, raising funds for the problem, praying for the problem, while simultaneously being the problem, only puts a band aid (pun intended!) on the problem. Only changing people’s values can solve the problem. And people with money and power usually don’t use their influence to discourage material gain. They use it to display their unattainable and unsustainable lives thus continuing the cycle of exploitation that causes the famines, wars, diseases, and poverty that Band Aid sings about.
So come celebrate the new tune at @thefranciskiteclub tonight Thursday, Dec. 19 w/ @_city_ice_ and @artnoizzgray while grabbing some holiday gifts by featured artists such as @cheyenneseyecatcher @sarahleber1 and @artnoizzgray and handmade Christmas ornaments by @carriskoczek. Fifteen percent of all ticket sales will be donated to @newyorkcares.
Big thanks to @thejasoncrawford for laying down those slappin’ bells, @johnepperly for recording and playing guitar, @audiomq for mixing and mastering, and @cheyennnemakeup for hair and m/up.
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released December 16, 2024
Written by Mossy Ross
Bass, Vox, Drums (chorus and outro): Mossy Ross
Drums (Verse): Jason Crawford
Guitar: John Epperly
Recorded by John Epperly
Mixed and Mastered by Mario Quintero