Yule Shoot Your Eye Out!

Well, that one-week break really stretched out a bit longer than I'd planned (ahem). But now someone has emailed me asking about a specific song and the mighty FaLaLaLaLa.com is back online--I'll take those two occurrences as a sign that I should get back to posting (at least for the time being).

Betty writes:

Ever hear of a song called Christmas is the Saddest Time of the Year? I heard it played on the community radio station in madison wi, years ago, it sounded like maybe 80s alt-pop and I don't even know who the band or artist was.

Well, Betty, it would make sense that you heard it in Madison, since that's where the band is from. Spooner was around from the mid-'70s to mid-'80s, then reformed after a few years' break and continued along until right about the time that members Butch Vig and Doug Erikson started the band Garbage.

The song in question, "The Saddest Time of the Year," was released in 1991 on a STELLAR comp called Yuletunes (buy it) on the Shoes' Black Vinyl label. At the time, Vig's star was rising as THE preeminent alt-rock producer (see: Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, etc).

The Saddest Time of the Year

It's not even my favorite song on the CD (I think they should have faded the track out quite a bit earlier than they did) but I'll save some of those for later posting.