Punk Rock Christmas Vol. 2, various artists (Cleopatra)

Indie label Cleopatra previously gave us Volume 1 in the series, along with a number of other holiday-oriented releases, and for 2019 they give us this epic sequel to the original, likely to be double discs both on CD and vinyl. I have to admit I'm not familiar with the majority of band names represented here, but I recognize some of them. From the original punk era, The Members lay a driving beat under John & Yoko's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," the Vibrators chronicle the sad tale "Santa Had to Go Into Rehab," Reagan Youth give us the nominal title tune "Punk Rock Christmas" as a shambling folk-rock shuffle, and original New York Doll Johnny Thunders contributes a live, and rather tuneless, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" from back in the day (since he's no longer with us). Tsunami Bomb kicks things off with a thrashy "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town," Pulley takes the same tack on an even faster-tempoed "O Holy Night," Parasites do the Kinks' "Father Christmas," Punchline punks up "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," Slap of Reality does the same to "Last Christmas," Down and Outs speed up Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody," and Chief State fakes us out with a mock-sincere "All I Want For Christmas Is You" that breaks into a punked-up arrangement halfway through, and the Widows hammer "Please Daddy Don't Get Drunk This Christmas." Some original takes on the holiday include Ship Thieves' "Who Put the Gum in Santa's Whiskers," M.D.C.'s "(Merry Christmas) World's On Fire," Naked Aggression's "What We Buy," Down By Law's "Merry Christmas (Feels So Right)," Bankrupt's "When Johhny Saved Christmas," Unsteady Heights' "Around Christmas," The Spears' "Christmas Sucks (I'll spare you the subtitle)," Splinter's "Fairy Tales," and The Queers' "Ramones Christmas." For you "Fairytale in New York" fans, The Rumjacks take a crack at a similar sort of Celtic-punk performance with "Christmas in Killarney." An outlier on this collection is "Merry Christmas Happy Holiday" by Amber Pacific, which is a front-porch acoustic shuffle full of good cheer. I'd wonder whether 26 tunes is a lot for a punk-rock collection, but just about all of these performances are worthy of being showcased, so dig in.