We had fun making an un-holiday album, which we talk about below.

Santa Doesn't Like You: The Un-Holiday CD

Sometimes one song can spark an entire album. In the case of our second album, Santa Doesn’t Like You, it was a song called "Take It Down", which was described by one music reviewer as: "…an inspired dressing-down of the neighborhood yutz who can't seem to take down his Christmas decorations 'til May." It had been a staple of our live show for some time and people were requesting that we record it and put it on our next album. We had trouble with that since "Take It Down" is essentially about Christmas (in spite of it's relevancy throughout the year for some people.) To put that on our next album in between other non-Christmas songs seemed wrong.  

Luckily, we hit upon the idea to create an entire album of Christmas music. However, we took the idea of a traditional Christmas album and turned it on its head. Shortly after, we recorded the song "Santa Doesn't Like You," and more un-holiday songs quickly followed. Not only was recording an Un-Holiday album fun to do, we soon found that many shared our own sentiments about Christmas songs. It was a great change of pace from the carols and sappy-sweet music that's played all season long.  

As soon as we finished the album, we sent it to Dr. Demento’s radio program, with the hope that he’d find something it appropriate for one of his holiday shows. Dr. Demento has a weekly two-hour radio show that features humorous songs and comedy that is heard on well over 100 stations coast to coast. Best of all, the Doctor plays new funny songs sent in by amateur and professional singers and comedians. For example, this is where Weird Al Yankovic got his start.  

We were very happy when Dr. Demento played the title track for "Santa Doesn't Like You" on his show., The national exposure got our website and the band a ton of attention. We were even more surprised when we received a letter in the mail thanking us for the submission. Any band that makes music that's off-kilter should listen to the good Doctor and then look at his upcoming topics list to see if you have a song that fits.  

We held a big CD release party for the album and dubbed it our first ever Un-Holiday Show. We featured many of the songs on the album as well as learned some off-the-wall Holiday covers (No, we didn’t learn "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer.") Once the Holiday season ended, we put the songs and album away and moved on. It just didn’t seem right to play Holiday-oriented songs during the regular year. We figured our promotion of the album ended and we’d focus on a new project.  

But that was not to be. We were pleasantly surprised when November rolled around again and online sales for the album rekindled. We quickly realized why major labels like Christmas albums: they have legs. Having a Christmas album, albeit an Un-Holiday one, meant that we could re-support it every holiday season. And we could introduce it as if it were new to audiences. To anchor our sales, though, we did an anniversary of our CD release party, and invented the Annual Un-Holiday show.  

Now, as luck would have it, the CD manufacturer that we hired to create the CD accidentally ran two pressings of the album. They called us up a few weeks after the initial pressing and asked if we’d be interested in purchasing the extra 1000 CDs they had taking up room in their facility. The cost? Shipping. Needless to say, we took them up on their offer and a week later 2 boxes of CDs – no art or cases arrived at our door.  

To help promote the Second Annual Un-Holiday Show, we decided to take these extra CDs, package them, create some artwork, and sell them at a discount at some of the more popular local record stores in Chicago. We created a special CD display for use by the cash register and made sure each album had an announcement for our Second Annual Un-Holiday Show. We told the record stores to sell the album for only a buck (there’s something goofy about giving it away for free that makes people think it must not be any good) and to keep the profits. These were Mom & Pop independent record stores after all, not Best Buy or some other huge chain. It was our gift to them. Besides, it was the Unholidays after all.  

The good news for us was that the effort in creating the art work and display paid off. Our band’s album stood out from the others at the store. Again, the Standing Out Lesson paid off. We managed to sell hundreds  of copies of Santa Doesn’t Like You and made some friends with the independent record stores. Although we passed on the profits, we did what we set out to do: get our music in the hands of a lot of people who hadn't heard us before and get our band’s name out there in the public eye. Plus, a ton of people showed up to our Second Annual Un-Holiday Show, perhaps one of the biggest in our history.

The Un-Holiday show has already seen its third year, and we hope that it will be better attended the longer that we have it.

Next: Idea #4: Play a Charity Show

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We had fun making an un-holiday album, which we talk about below.

Santa Doesn't Like You: The Un-Holiday CD

Sometimes one song can spark an entire album. In the case of our second album, Santa Doesn’t Like You, it was a song called "Take It Down", which was described by one music reviewer as: "…an inspired dressing-down of the neighborhood yutz who can't seem to take down his Christmas decorations 'til May." It had been a staple of our live show for some time and people were requesting that we record it and put it on our next album. We had trouble with that since "Take It Down" is essentially about Christmas (in spite of it's relevancy throughout the year for some people.) To put that on our next album in between other non-Christmas songs seemed wrong.  

Luckily, we hit upon the idea to create an entire album of Christmas music. However, we took the idea of a traditional Christmas album and turned it on its head. Shortly after, we recorded the song "Santa Doesn't Like You," and more un-holiday songs quickly followed. Not only was recording an Un-Holiday album fun to do, we soon found that many shared our own sentiments about Christmas songs. It was a great change of pace from the carols and sappy-sweet music that's played all season long.  

As soon as we finished the album, we sent it to Dr. Demento’s radio program, with the hope that he’d find something it appropriate for one of his holiday shows. Dr. Demento has a weekly two-hour radio show that features humorous songs and comedy that is heard on well over 100 stations coast to coast. Best of all, the Doctor plays new funny songs sent in by amateur and professional singers and comedians. For example, this is where Weird Al Yankovic got his start.  

We were very happy when Dr. Demento played the title track for "Santa Doesn't Like You" on his show., The national exposure got our website and the band a ton of attention. We were even more surprised when we received a letter in the mail thanking us for the submission. Any band that makes music that's off-kilter should listen to the good Doctor and then look at his upcoming topics list to see if you have a song that fits.  

We held a big CD release party for the album and dubbed it our first ever Un-Holiday Show. We featured many of the songs on the album as well as learned some off-the-wall Holiday covers (No, we didn’t learn "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer.") Once the Holiday season ended, we put the songs and album away and moved on. It just didn’t seem right to play Holiday-oriented songs during the regular year. We figured our promotion of the album ended and we’d focus on a new project.  

But that was not to be. We were pleasantly surprised when November rolled around again and online sales for the album rekindled. We quickly realized why major labels like Christmas albums: they have legs. Having a Christmas album, albeit an Un-Holiday one, meant that we could re-support it every holiday season. And we could introduce it as if it were new to audiences. To anchor our sales, though, we did an anniversary of our CD release party, and invented the Annual Un-Holiday show.  

Now, as luck would have it, the CD manufacturer that we hired to create the CD accidentally ran two pressings of the album. They called us up a few weeks after the initial pressing and asked if we’d be interested in purchasing the extra 1000 CDs they had taking up room in their facility. The cost? Shipping. Needless to say, we took them up on their offer and a week later 2 boxes of CDs – no art or cases arrived at our door.  

To help promote the Second Annual Un-Holiday Show, we decided to take these extra CDs, package them, create some artwork, and sell them at a discount at some of the more popular local record stores in Chicago. We created a special CD display for use by the cash register and made sure each album had an announcement for our Second Annual Un-Holiday Show. We told the record stores to sell the album for only a buck (there’s something goofy about giving it away for free that makes people think it must not be any good) and to keep the profits. These were Mom & Pop independent record stores after all, not Best Buy or some other huge chain. It was our gift to them. Besides, it was the Unholidays after all.  

The good news for us was that the effort in creating the art work and display paid off. Our band’s album stood out from the others at the store. Again, the Standing Out Lesson paid off. We managed to sell hundreds  of copies of Santa Doesn’t Like You and made some friends with the independent record stores. Although we passed on the profits, we did what we set out to do: get our music in the hands of a lot of people who hadn't heard us before and get our band’s name out there in the public eye. Plus, a ton of people showed up to our Second Annual Un-Holiday Show, perhaps one of the biggest in our history.

The Un-Holiday show has already seen its third year, and we hope that it will be better attended the longer that we have it.

Next: Idea #4: Play a Charity Show

If you make a holiday CD that people enjoy, that CD will be something that becomes fresh every year when that holiday comes around again. Could you imagine listening to "White Christmas" other than the Christmas holidays? But that song does get brought out year after year and listened to repeatedly. You can tolerate something once a year that would disappear to obscurity otherwise. Even better, your songs could become a tradition. The holiday does not have to be Christmas, there are other neglected holidays that can entire albums written about them.

We had fun making an un-holiday album, which we talk about below.

Santa Doesn't Like You: The Un-Holiday CD

Sometimes one song can spark an entire album. In the case of our second album, Santa Doesn’t Like You, it was a song called "Take It Down", which was described by one music reviewer as: "…an inspired dressing-down of the neighborhood yutz who can't seem to take down his Christmas decorations 'til May." It had been a staple of our live show for some time and people were requesting that we record it and put it on our next album. We had trouble with that since "Take It Down" is essentially about Christmas (in spite of it's relevancy throughout the year for some people.) To put that on our next album in between other non-Christmas songs seemed wrong.  

Luckily, we hit upon the idea to create an entire album of Christmas music. However, we took the idea of a traditional Christmas album and turned it on its head. Shortly after, we recorded the song "Santa Doesn't Like You," and more un-holiday songs quickly followed. Not only was recording an Un-Holiday album fun to do, we soon found that many shared our own sentiments about Christmas songs. It was a great change of pace from the carols and sappy-sweet music that's played all season long.  

As soon as we finished the album, we sent it to Dr. Demento’s radio program, with the hope that he’d find something it appropriate for one of his holiday shows. Dr. Demento has a weekly two-hour radio show that features humorous songs and comedy that is heard on well over 100 stations coast to coast. Best of all, the Doctor plays new funny songs sent in by amateur and professional singers and comedians. For example, this is where Weird Al Yankovic got his start.  

We were very happy when Dr. Demento played the title track for "Santa Doesn't Like You" on his show., The national exposure got our website and the band a ton of attention. We were even more surprised when we received a letter in the mail thanking us for the submission. Any band that makes music that's off-kilter should listen to the good Doctor and then look at his upcoming topics list to see if you have a song that fits.  

We held a big CD release party for the album and dubbed it our first ever Un-Holiday Show. We featured many of the songs on the album as well as learned some off-the-wall Holiday covers (No, we didn’t learn "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer.") Once the Holiday season ended, we put the songs and album away and moved on. It just didn’t seem right to play Holiday-oriented songs during the regular year. We figured our promotion of the album ended and we’d focus on a new project.  

But that was not to be. We were pleasantly surprised when November rolled around again and online sales for the album rekindled. We quickly realized why major labels like Christmas albums: they have legs. Having a Christmas album, albeit an Un-Holiday one, meant that we could re-support it every holiday season. And we could introduce it as if it were new to audiences. To anchor our sales, though, we did an anniversary of our CD release party, and invented the Annual Un-Holiday show.  

Now, as luck would have it, the CD manufacturer that we hired to create the CD accidentally ran two pressings of the album. They called us up a few weeks after the initial pressing and asked if we’d be interested in purchasing the extra 1000 CDs they had taking up room in their facility. The cost? Shipping. Needless to say, we took them up on their offer and a week later 2 boxes of CDs – no art or cases arrived at our door.  

To help promote the Second Annual Un-Holiday Show, we decided to take these extra CDs, package them, create some artwork, and sell them at a discount at some of the more popular local record stores in Chicago. We created a special CD display for use by the cash register and made sure each album had an announcement for our Second Annual Un-Holiday Show. We told the record stores to sell the album for only a buck (there’s something goofy about giving it away for free that makes people think it must not be any good) and to keep the profits. These were Mom & Pop independent record stores after all, not Best Buy or some other huge chain. It was our gift to them. Besides, it was the Unholidays after all.  

The good news for us was that the effort in creating the art work and display paid off. Our band’s album stood out from the others at the store. Again, the Standing Out Lesson paid off. We managed to sell hundreds  of copies of Santa Doesn’t Like You and made some friends with the independent record stores. Although we passed on the profits, we did what we set out to do: get our music in the hands of a lot of people who hadn't heard us before and get our band’s name out there in the public eye. Plus, a ton of people showed up to our Second Annual Un-Holiday Show, perhaps one of the biggest in our history.

The Un-Holiday show has already seen its third year, and we hope that it will be better attended the longer that we have it.

Next: Idea #4: Play a Charity Show

If you make a holiday CD that people enjoy, that CD will be something that becomes fresh every year when that holiday comes around again. Could you imagine listening to "White Christmas" other than the Christmas holidays? But that song does get brought out year after year and listened to repeatedly. You can tolerate something once a year that would disappear to obscurity otherwise. Even better, your songs could become a tradition. The holiday does not have to be Christmas, there are other neglected holidays that can entire albums written about them.

We had fun making an un-holiday album, which we talk about below.

Santa Doesn't Like You: The Un-Holiday CD

Sometimes one song can spark an entire album. In the case of our second album, Santa Doesn’t Like You, it was a song called "Take It Down", which was described by one music reviewer as: "…an inspired dressing-down of the neighborhood yutz who can't seem to take down his Christmas decorations 'til May." It had been a staple of our live show for some time and people were requesting that we record it and put it on our next album. We had trouble with that since "Take It Down" is essentially about Christmas (in spite of it's relevancy throughout the year for some people.) To put that on our next album in between other non-Christmas songs seemed wrong.

Luckily, we hit upon the idea to create an entire album of Christmas music. However, we took the idea of a traditional Christmas album and turned it on its head. Shortly after, we recorded the song "Santa Doesn't Like You," and more un-holiday songs quickly followed. Not only was recording an Un-Holiday album fun to do, we soon found that many shared our own sentiments about Christmas songs. It was a great change of pace from the carols and sappy-sweet music that's played all season long.

As soon as we finished the album, we sent it to Dr. Demento’s radio program, with the hope that he’d find something it appropriate for one of his holiday shows. Dr. Demento has a weekly two-hour radio show that features humorous songs and comedy that is heard on well over 100 stations coast to coast. Best of all, the Doctor plays new funny songs sent in by amateur and professional singers and comedians. For example, this is where Weird Al Yankovic got his start.

We were very happy when Dr. Demento played the title track for "Santa Doesn't Like You" on his show., The national exposure got our website and the band a ton of attention. We were even more surprised when we received a letter in the mail thanking us for the submission. Any band that makes music that's off-kilter should listen to the good Doctor and then look at his upcoming topics list to see if you have a song that fits.

We held a big CD release party for the album and dubbed it our first ever Un-Holiday Show. We featured many of the songs on the album as well as learned some off-the-wall Holiday covers (No, we didn’t learn "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer.") Once the Holiday season ended, we put the songs and album away and moved on. It just didn’t seem right to play Holiday-oriented songs during the regular year. We figured our promotion of the album ended and we’d focus on a new project.

But that was not to be. We were pleasantly surprised when November rolled around again and online sales for the album rekindled. We quickly realized why major labels like Christmas albums: they have legs. Having a Christmas album, albeit an Un-Holiday one, meant that we could re-support it every holiday season. And we could introduce it as if it were new to audiences. To anchor our sales, though, we did an anniversary of our CD release party, and invented the Annual Un-Holiday show.

Now, as luck would have it, the CD manufacturer that we hired to create the CD accidentally ran two pressings of the album. They called us up a few weeks after the initial pressing and asked if we’d be interested in purchasing the extra 1000 CDs they had taking up room in their facility. The cost? Shipping. Needless to say, we took them up on their offer and a week later 2 boxes of CDs – no art or cases arrived at our door.

To help promote the Second Annual Un-Holiday Show, we decided to take these extra CDs, package them, create some artwork, and sell them at a discount at some of the more popular local record stores in Chicago. We created a special CD display for use by the cash register and made sure each album had an announcement for our Second Annual Un-Holiday Show. We told the record stores to sell the album for only a buck (there’s something goofy about giving it away for free that makes people think it must not be any good) and to keep the profits. These were Mom & Pop independent record stores after all, not Best Buy or some other huge chain. It was our gift to them. Besides, it was the Unholidays after all.

The good news for us was that the effort in creating the art work and display paid off. Our band’s album stood out from the others at the store. Again, the Standing Out Lesson paid off. We managed to sell hundreds  of copies of Santa Doesn’t Like You and made some friends with the independent record stores. Although we passed on the profits, we did what we set out to do: get our music in the hands of a lot of people who hadn't heard us before and get our band’s name out there in the public eye. Plus, a ton of people showed up to our Second Annual Un-Holiday Show, perhaps one of the biggest in our history.

The Un-Holiday show has already seen its third year, and we hope that it will be better attended the longer that we have it.