We're Baaack! GMR Christmas #12: Vol. 1, various artists (Green Monkey)

This Olympia, WA record label last did one of these holiday compilations in 2020, although individual artists on the label have dropped some Christmas tuneage in the interim. This year, according to the label, they did a last-minute call for participants and got 33 responses, which led to there being volume 1 and 2 of this 2025 collection. Festivities kick off with Rusty Jason with Calamity Jason and the Editorial Review (whew!) throwing us "Retail Christmas," a country ode to Black Friday, The True Olympians faithfully covering the Sonics' "Don't Believe in Christmas," Across 35th offering a rocked-out take on the "Frozen" tune "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman," Mike Tye & Rosie Dyer offering a folky original "Christmas Spirit," Amy Denio playing all the parts on her original holiday nutritional warning "Sugar Sacks," Daven and Megan Tillinghast performing a choral gospel augmentation of "Angels We Have Heard On High," and Toxic Socket throw us an original rocker, "Jing Jing Lin." Richard Peterson's "On Christmas Day" originally appeared on his own album, Band Of Jays offers the syncopated, poppy "When It's Christmas," and Jim of Seattle's "Happy Holidays" is an imaginative solo piano medley of familiar Christmas carols in which he switches songs so quickly you have to work to figure the transitions. Throttle Body m/c does a "Silent Night" that isn't the familiar carol but an original folk-pop lament, Guidon Bear's "IWanna4GiveYou" is an indie-pop gem built on a Police-like rhythm and lots of female vocals, The Freewheelin' Joe Ros & Ed Portnow give us the bluesy shuffle "I Wish It Was Christmas," Fur For Fairies performs a lo-fi take on the Webber-Rice classic "Christmas Dream," Infra Ed does "Orange Grinch," which is the Grinch theme but in orange, and Chris Lund's "Christmas Time," a kind of power pop tune in which we hear equal parts Neil Young and Big Star, wraps up the proceedings. Click the cover or go to Bandcamp to get this volume. Vol. 2 gets a separate entry.