As if this week wasn’t bad enough, the music industry also seems to have decided that now is the right time to start releasing new holiday music. Here’s a Christmas record, though, that feels our pain. John Waters, aka the Pope of Trash and Sultan of Sleaze, has released an X-mas 7″ on Sub Pop that says “Please Don’t Listen to This Record” as a hype sticker on the cover art.
John Waters is a tacky Christmas connoisseur, who put out a 2004 compilation of some of the most annoying novelty holiday songs ever recorded and has an annual “A John Waters Christmas” tour, and he’s covered “Jingle Bells” in the style of The Singing Dogs, whose single was a hit in 1955 and 1971 and is still terrorizing shoppers today. Waters does his own barking and this cover knows exactly what is. The flip-side is “Punk Rock Christmas,” a raunchy spoken word piece where Waters talks about “the lack of the punk rock spirit during the anxiety-provoking season.”
The single was produced by Grammy winner Ian Brennan (Tinariwen) who says, “In producing John’s annual Christmas tour for over twenty years, it seemed almost negligent that he didn’t have a Christmas record. Everyone from U2 to Justin Bieber to William Shatner to Bob Dylan does, and John’s wit couldn’t be a more fitting cheer for the annual holiday music canon.”
I agree! Disregard the warning on its cover art and listen to John Waters’ Christmas single below.
This year’s “A John Waters Christmas” tour hits NYC’s City Winery on December 15.
