Track-By-Track: MxPx's Punk Rawk Christmas

MIKE HERRERA (vocals/bass) and YURI RULEY (drums) walk us through each song on MxPx’s Punk Rawk Christmas.








PUNK RAWK CHRISTMAS (previously unreleased, 2009)

MIKE HERRERA: “This was fun to write. I was thinking about how poor everybody in Bremerton [Washington] and everyone all over the U.S. for that matter, will be on a budget. And as I like to do, I personified "Christmas," and painted a picture of him (or her) riding the city bus or having a $0 balance on his bank statement. Musically, it’s just a nice med-tempo song for singing and dancing along to.”





CHRISTMAS DAY (1998)

YURI RULEY: “This was our first Christmas song and still one of my favorites.”

HERRERA: “Ah, the very first Christmas song I ever wrote. Little did I know it would be the first of many, many more to come. It was just another song I wrote at the time, but I set the location in middle America Christmas Holiday Land. To this day, the bridge is one of my favorite parts I’ve ever written.”





CHRISTMAS ONLY COMES ONCE A YEAR (1999)

RULEY: “It certainly does.”

HERRERA: “We tracked this at the same time as “Christmas Day” at Bear Creek Studios in the woods outside Seattle. Steve Kravac produced and mixed.”





COMING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS (2000)

RULEY: “When you’re on tour nine months a year, there’s nothing like coming home for Christmas.”

HERRERA: “We were touring all the time when we wrote this. About the only time we were ever at home for any real length of time was about two weeks for Christmas. So I wrote this song about that new kind of life we were living.”





YOU’RE THE ONE I MISS (THIS CHRISTMAS) (2001)

HERRERA: “True story love song. I could say more but it’s in the song.”

RULEY: “When you’re on the road all the time, you have ample opportunity to miss the one you love.”





CHRISTMAS PARTY (2002)

HERRERA: “As I was growing up and attending many events, shows and parties, the Christmas parties were always a good time. It seems like there’s one or two every weekend in December.”

RULEY: “One of the best things about the holidays is getting together with your friends and family and getting down with some eggnog.”





CHRISTMAS NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (2003)

RULEY: “A dark twist on a classic theme. This song is so Mike. He’s totally into horror B-movies.”

HERRERA: “I wrote this for a compilation album [2003’s A Santa Cause], but they messed up the name and called it "Christmas Night Of Zombies." What a stupid name for a song. It never was the title and never will be. I was so bummed when I saw that. I bet it was the fault of our dumb manager at the time. Stephen Egerton produced this song at Butch Walker’s studio in Atlanta, Georgia. The Turner twins [Jeff and Jake Turner of Say Anything] sang gang vocals.”





SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS? (2003)

HERRERA: “I must have been in a somber mood when I wrote this.”





IT’S CHRISTMAS AND I’M SICK (2004)

HERRERA: “The title says it all. I was really sick when I wrote this. This is one of my favorite songs from the holiday set.”






2005 (2005)

HERRERA: “This was an interesting idea. It’s the year in review set to music.”






LATE GREAT SNOWBALL FIGHT OF 2006 (2006)

HERRERA: “There was lots of snow that year, hence the ensuing snowball fight.”

RULEY: “A true story.”





GIMME CHRISTMAS (2007)

RULEY: “This is probably my favorite of our Christmas songs. We fully embraced our cheesy side on this one and it paid off. We got the biggest reaction from our fans for this song as well as the video.”

HERRERA: “I was on crunk juice when I wrote this. I wanted to do a rap-rock song as a joke, but the video really puts the icing on the crunk cake!”





ANOTHER SONG ABOUT CHRISTMAS (2008)

HERRERA: “How many songs can you write about one thing? I wasn’t sure, but I wrote this about all the other Christmas songs I’ve written.”




AULD LANG SYNE (TRADITIONAL) (previously unreleased, 2009)

HERRERA: “We thought this would be a fun track to do. Also, Jack Parker from Tumbledown played the solo. We recorded this in two hours! We’re offering it as a free download here.”



COAL (previously unreleased, 2009)

RULEY: “This is a twist on the whole coal-in-your-stocking idea.”

HERRERA: “This is the first song I wrote for 2009. I’ve been a bad boy and Santa is pissed!” alt