In Vegas, the holiday season is hardly complete without the Double Down’s “White Trash Xmas” festivities—free haircuts, 50-cent abortions, Ass Juice full of corn, coffee pot full of SpaghettiOs. Can’t wait until Christmas Day? Merry X-Mas Dammit: From the Double Down Saloon rings in the yuletide early with 17 cuts of re-jiggered standards (The Lonesome Spurs’ “Jingle Bells,” The Dirty Panties’ “Santa Baby,” The Bomboras’ “Lil’ Drummer Boy”) and bordering-on-blasphemous originals (The Vermin’s “Santa Was a Cross-Dressing Nazi,” 1⁄2 Ast’s “Gay Christmas,” Suite 666’s “Santa Blow Me”).
“I had always wanted to do a Double Down album but waited until I had a concept which would make it special,” explains Double Down proprietor/Dammit mastermind P Moss, who started the project in January. “I wanted a mix of both name bands and the best local bands. I wanted an eclectic mix of styles. I wanted a mix of punk and skewed versions of Christmas classics, plus some Christmas originals and a couple of Double Down Christmas songs. I think I was able to accomplish all of this.”
Aaron Bredlau, whose Sparkler Dims contributed “X-Mas Time at the Double Down” and open November 10’s CD-release show, has this to say via MySpace: “Moss says we’re one of his fave bands and asked us to be on the CD; we decided to write our own special Christmas song.”
Wood Shampoo Records’ Darran Wells co-produced the compilation , while Adam “Bomb” Segal engineered and mixed it.
“Personally, I think the album is one of the best Christmas compilations ever,” says Moss. “All the songs are great, but a few are absolutely classic, both in style and execution.”
Merry X-Mas Dammit CD-release show with The Sparkler Dims, The Clydesdale, The Dirty Panties, The Objex, Thee Swank Bastards, Suite 666, The Real Shames, The Peccadilloes. November 10, 10 p.m., free. Double Down Saloon, 791-5775.