Boxing Day Double

The period between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve (increasingly known as Twixtmas) is the best bit of the festive period for me- the big day has gone and you're into a vague hinterland, not quite sure what day it is. Normal rules regarding eating, drinking and socialising don't apply. Time expands and contracts. It could be Thursday afternoon, it could be Tuesday morning, it doesn't really matter. Things kick in again on 30th December as people begin to ask what you're doing on New Year's Eve but for a couple of days, it's very much a slowed down life. 

A Boxing Day double for you. In 2015 Courtney Barnett had the Boxing Day Blues. She had them pretty bad...

Boxing Day Blues

Two years before that Dark Horses and Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s found an altogether livelier and more acidic way to spend the first day of Twixmas- drones, motorik drums, lysergic synthlines, a bassline to shake you out of your torpor and a numbed out vocal. One to put on when the relatives you haven't seen yet pop round later and you want to raise the Boxing Day intensity levels a little. 

Boxing Day (Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s Vocal Mix)

Nobody Really Cares If You Don't Go To The Party

I kept seeing Courtney Barnett's name in the end of 2015 lists and have eventually got around to listening to her album Sometimes I Sit And Think And Sometimes I Just Sit. The music is satisfyingly catchy, ramshackle three chord indie with thumping drums propelling the songs along. There's something early 90s about it, but with a bit less slacking. Her biggest strength is her writing- Courtney's lyrics are a total joy, she has real fun with words, throwing out lines that are clever and witty, grounded in everyday life, occasionally slipping some genuinely profound moments. Unfortunately part of me can't help feeling that I'm maybe twenty years too old for this record.