INTRODUCTION: Maybe, it's in the gray hairs that I've started finding in my thinning hair. Maybe, it's that dreaded third decade of life that seems to have been rearing it's ugly face around every corner. Maybe, it's a quarter life crisis, but something has been keeping me up at night. I sometimes, stay awake into the early hours of the morning spinning records and fumbling with CD jackets from high school, grasping hold of my youth for dear life. I search out elusive first presses of albums I'd somehow, lost to time, hoping that they'll somehow, tighten the thread leading from middle school to adulthood.

To be clear, I'm not fishing my torn band T-shirts or bondage pants from the depths of my closet, but as I make the transition into my 30's, shedding roommates and getting oil changes at regularly scheduled intervals, I can't help ruminating on where these albums came from and how they've shaped me. I can't help begging the question, "How did I get here?"

How I've come to be surrounded by this specific collection of music is largely, the consequence of efforts made by larger labels and their annual sampler CD's, but even today, I search out small Indie labels that pump out quality collections of exclusivities and excellent representations of a variety of music scenes.


Typically, priced at $4-5.00 and featuring sometimes, up to 40 songs from just as many bands, compilations have always served as convenient and affordable ways to discover new and obscure bands. This is imperative to the formative years of a generation of listeners; compilations were the compass that one used to navigate the endless sea of Punk Rock and consequently, Hip-Hop, Hardcore, Indie, Reggae, etc. etc. ad infinitum. Many of these discs were used as shovels to tunnel into cozy nests of Punk records and artistic eccentricities.

It's this ability to influence and inform listeners that I'll be here every month to discuss. I'll be stopping The Witzard by to shed light on those discount albums in the so often overlooked "Various Artists" bins of the world, along with their influences within their communities, within their genres, and within the chronology of listener interests all across the globe, here in, Various Artists: How Compilations Influenced a Generation.


VARIOUS ARTISTS VI: The holidays are among us and for many, this is a time punctuated with creamy cocktails and partially frozen beers; efforts to round the edges of rampant consumerism and casually racist extended family members, all while drowning out the consistent buzz of holiday music. Unfortunately, even the counter-culture is subject to this scrutiny.

In an effort to reach a demographic of slightly marginalized young suburban pre-teens, Immortal Records offers an attempt at organizing a more updated collection of classic holiday favorites with their 2003 charity compilation, A Santa Cause (It's a Punk Rock Christmas.) Though, Immortal's altruistic efforts are commendable, this effort is somewhat lacking and misrepresentative, leaving something to be desired in the way of authenticity; further alienating the exact demographic they sought to capitalize on in the first place.

Admittedly, this disc features an admirable roster for its time, collecting major players in the Fourth Wave Emo and Pop-Punk explosion of the early 2000's, featuring the likes of Fall Out Boy, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and Blink-182. Although, this inaugural line-up still bears some resemblance to its intended representation, it turns out that even drenching Christmas music in Hot Topic aesthetic and Manic Panic hair dye can't save this awful season from its unbearable music.


As evidenced by New Found Glory's "Ex-Miss" and Blink-182's "I Won't Be Home for Christmas," the general sentiment found on this disc seems to echo my own: cynical and eager for season's end. Still, I'm left wondering why I feel so misrepresented when Jordan Pundik sings, "this holiday is over-rated." Once again, it seems I'm lumped in with fans of over-produced Pop bands with dollar signs for eyes. All of this, due to my arrogant cynicism and terms like "Punk Rock" and "Emo" being thrown around middle schools with such reckless abandon.

If the franchise's first installment offers only a passing resemblance to its intention, this double-disc follow-up brings to mind something found on the end cap of a "New Releases," section at your local Target anywhere between Black Friday and Christmas Eve.

Holiday compilations seem to be an unfortunate tradition in the counter-culture; appropriated by the DIY scene with the intention of fostering a sense of home and warmth during a time of year so often associated with the biting cold of winter and the loneliness of broken homes. More unfortunate still, is this re-appropriation of that same tradition by larger labels posing as "Indies," as evidenced by the second installment of A Santa Cause.


Perhaps, it's in recognition of this that Immortal Records passes the torch to Japanese label, Twilight Records, four years after the series' freshman release. With Twilight as curator, any mention of philanthropy has been removed from the disc's cover art and the tracklist has been mostly stripped of it's already waning amount of original songs, leaving us with only over-done renditions of quarter-century-old songs in the way of Wham!'s "Last Christmas" and a disorienting Pop-Punk take on "Feliz Navidad," as performed by New York natives, It Dies Today. As though being subjected to the endless loop of Mariah Carey's grating rendition of "All I Want for Christmas Is You" wasn't bad enough, neither Hot Rod Circuit nor Sonny "Skrillex" Moore's From First to Last was able to offer any originality to this beaten dead horse.

Not that Punk Rock has contributed much to the world, but it has given a lot to a small community and with Twilight edging this collection further and further away from its target demographic, it seems misrepresentative to refer to any of this as a "Punk Rock Christmas," when it's so criminally lacking in Punk Rock music. It seems clear that this effort was little more than a means by which to manipulate vaguely edgy suburbanites into spending more money during the holidays.


Meanwhile, Johnny Thunders has died under a coffee table in New Orleans with only a needle hanging from his arm. It's hard to say whether disdain for these songs is derivative of the holidays themselves or an aged bitterness directed toward a youthful optimism not yet checked by over-drawn bank accounts and miles-long shopping lines. It's likely that some of us are just jealous of young people for being young; of happy people for being happy.

Probably, it's more accurate to describe this frustration as class-driven. So often we're told that this time of year is about showing love and compassion, but that goodwill and seasonal cheer is neither conditional nor exclusive. Collectively, we seem more than willing to treat people in food, retail, and shipping industries as less than human so that we can show love to only a select few.

To be fair, it's the execution of this series that is most frustrating. Much like the holiday season, there are moments of antiquated grace throughout this collection, though, they are few and far between; outweighed—where they're not ruined entirely—by commercial pandering and outright existential anxiety.


Nowhere is this better exemplified than with the series' 2012 third installment, A Santa Causes. With the franchises sub-title being more accurately updated to, "It's A Pop Rock Christmas," Volume 3 enlists already overly-done renditions that were previously performed on Volumes 1-2, inducing something akin to a holiday-inflicted amnesia.

With this series finale, A Santa Cause has fully embraced the Pop sensibilities of the mainstream with stale and safe classics, like "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" performed by Fat Prop and Alex Goot's "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" stripping the series almost entirely of whatever original titles it once had, replacing it, instead, with kid-friendly takes on "Here Comes Santa Clause" and "Winter Wonderland" pandering to a white upper middle class suburbanite clientele.


Mostly, one feels as though they're wandering the halls of an outlet mall during the holiday season with this disc, though, there are brief moments of crisp and bassy drum tones; crunchy guitars layered with crystal-clear harmonious vocals that bring to mind, specifically, the dressing rooms of a Forever 21. Clearly, this is all indicative of the overall influence that the counter-culture has had on the country's collective conscious; how the phrase, "Punk Rock" has permeated and evolved to fill every crack and nook and cranny in the Western lexicon.

Largely, this is derivative of something larger than ourselves; larger than our silly concepts of genre; our tendency to keep gate. By the end of this series, there's something akin to heart-warming, though, likely, it's more accurately described as Stockholm Syndrome. Though, this borders on masochism for some, there's comfort in knowing that my mother is 500 miles away listening to these same songs and enjoying herself very much!

John E. Swan (@midwest_stress) is a novelist and short story writer, as well as freelance editor and journalist. His first novel, Any Way to Elsewhere, takes its name from a compilation cassette that he curated during his time with Berserk Records. It can be ordered here. When he's not writing, he can be found making music in and around Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he lives with his girlfriend and their dog, Diesel.