If It's Too Loud...

Red on Red Records just celebrated their first anniversary, and they've quickly become a go to label for fantastic local multi-genre rock. Their new holiday music EP shows off that diversity perfectly. Home Fires Burning: A Holiday Compilation from Red on Red Records starts off with "Reindeer Twist" from Stupidity and featuring Keith Streng from The Fleshtones. It has this early punk meets rockabilly sound of bands like X or The Cramps, but a toned down one for holiday consumption. It also includes "An Irishman for Christmas" by Berk/Lehane which came out last year. It's a song by Simone Berk (Kid Gulliver, Sugar Snow) and Dennis Lehane (The Dogmatics) that's a holiday power pop song about wanting an Irishman for Christmas despite being Jewish. One of our favorite Boston punk bands, Linnea's Garden, gives us "All Eight Nights" which, in true Linnea's Garden fashion is a double entendre about lasting all eight nights. This one is more of...

Berk/Lehane is the pairing of Simone Berk (Kid Gulliver, Sugar Snow, Whistlestop Rock) and Jerry Lehane (The Dogmatics). It's the kind of Boston grouping you would never think of, but once it's here, you know you've needed it all this time. Their song, "An Irishman for Christmas," is obviously a Christmas song. And it's not a song that's a rock song about Christmas. "An Irishman for Christmas" is a Christmas song dipped in Boston rock 'n' roll. The two first came together when Jerry Lehane reached out to Simone Berk about her song "Queen of the Drive In" with Whistlestop Rock. Eventually this led to the " Boston-Irish-Interfaith-Romance-folk-punk" you can listen to today! You can listen to "An Irishman for Christmas" below. The song is currently available via Bandcamp . Let's hope this leads to many more songs from the Berk/Lehane collaboration! An Irishman For Christmas by Berk/Lehane