This is my eighth Christmas release. A power-punk Christmas album.

In some ways, it’s been a while coming. The previous album with The Raffle Tickets in 2021 came together really quickly & easily. I was kinda tempted to record some additional Christmas songs. Around the same time, I was having playing fun playing the energetic beats of power punk bands I liked in my teens. Early MxPX, Ghoti Hook, early Offspring (remember when they were really good?), Green Day (before they wore ties). I would pretend I was Yuri Ruley. But I knew I couldn’t make an authentic original power-punk album in my 40s. Around this time I also discovered the song “I want a hippopotamus for Christmas” and came up with the album title “Manger Bangers”. The pieces were coming together. I could make a power-punk Christmas album. Thrashy beats, power-chords, gang vocals. It was all I could do to wait until Christmas 2022 to record it.

It's 2023 now, and this was recorded in late 2022 and basically finished. However, technical difficulties stopped me from releasing it. Basically, it sounded great “in the studio” but the final product wouldn’t master properly. It’s noticeably quieter than intended. I’ve done all I know how as an independent amateur to fix it, but for now it’s remaining in this “lo-fi” state, in the hope that one day someone will be able to remaster it into a normal state. (If this is you, please contact me. I use Reaper software.) In the meantime, you may just need to crank the volume.

The hardest song to put together was “Turkey Leftovers”, the only original song. Doing punk versions of Christmas carols was easy enough. Writing a punk Christmas song was evidently confusing.

I’m not going to pretend this album had any higher intention than simply being a fun idea. (Goodness knows I’ve done plenty of overly-serious Christmas recordings.) And I’m not going to say Jesus was a punk. But he was anti-establishment. He did enjoy having a good time and hanging with friends. He called out people on their BS. He stuck up for the little-guy. From the moment he was born, he was completely unconventional and did things differently to what was expected of him. The grown-ups mostly hated it. He may not have been a punk but there was a lot to admire. If Jesus was alive in the 1990s he probably would have crowd-surfed after giving the sermon on the mount.

Like all my recordings, this is not for everybody. It’s probably not for most people. But it’s a bit of fun, it’s intended to be a little funny. My girlfriend hates it.

If you are one of the few, enjoy this gift.

Merry Christmas. This is for you.