Senses Fail Re-emerge with Christmas Has Been Canceled Due to Lack of Hustle EP Featuring SNL & Augie Rios Covers (Pure Noise Records)
Early on during Nation-wide Quarantine/Lockdowns, it appears as though Ridgewood, New Jersey's own Senses Fail hunkered down and laid down a remotely recorded album chock-full of covers of classic Punk, Hardcore, and Emo-adjacent staples. "Doing a quarantine covers record. Just finished "We're Only Gonna Die" by @badreligion," a Tweet dated April 8, 2020 explained. "Gonna be DIY. I'm gonna mix it and Gavin & I are doing I remotely. Pretty fun, so far. We, also, have a Morrissey song. Thinking about Jawbreaker, maybe, early Get Up Kids," Senses Fail frontman James "Buddy" Nielson further detailed on @SensesFail's band page. Since then, no additional details concerning said covers comp. have come to the surface, but fingers crossed, it's still happening!
Concurrently, Senses Fail have seemingly been working on the proper follow-up to 2018's If There Is Light, It Will Find You, entitled What The Thunder Said, Hell Is In Your Head. It has since been explained by Buddy Nielsen as "much better" than Still Searching (2006) and will, apparently, close the book on the character arch from the album. Once more, ...Hell Is In Your Head will be produced, like its predacessor, by Saosin's Beau Burchell and is expected to be released early next year. Senses Fail trickled out a couple covers that may have very well been recorded during said Quaratine sessions for Halloween. Along with fellow New Jersey Punks Saves The Day, Senses Fail unleashed covers of The Misfits' "We Are 138" & "Attitude" as part of a cleverly-titled EP dubbed Through Being Ghoul.
Now, just in time for Thanksgiving, Senses Fail have returned once more with yet another festive EP entitled Christmas Has Been Canceled Due to Lack of Hustle. Again, it boasts two covers most likely recorded during those same Quarantine sessions. This go-round, we're treated to two more festive favorites: "I Wish It Was Christmas Today" and "¿Dónde Está Santa Claus?" popularized by Jimmy Fallon, Horatio Sanz, Chris Kattan & Tracy Morgan and 12-year-old Augie Rios, respectively. Fallon, Sanz, Kattan & Morgan first performed their now-cult classic on Saturday Night Live (SNL) in 2000 and have since played it together on a number of occasions throughout the years right around the holidays.
"I Wish It Was Christmas Today" was even re-recorded by The Strokes frontman Julian Casabalancas as a 7-inch/digital single in 2009 and once more, in 2018 when his other band, The Voidz, shared their own 2015 demo version. We're not as familiar with "¿Dónde Está Santa Claus?" ourselves, but it was originally recorded by Augie Rios with The Mark Jeffrey Orchestra in 1958. Rios' original 45 version has since been covered and re-recorded by the likes of Charo, Guster, and Straight No Chaser and was even referenced within Cheech & Chong's "Santa Claus & His Old Lady." Senses Fail's Christmas Has Been Canceled Due to Lack of Hustle is now available to purchase and stream on Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music, and like-minded streaming platforms by way of Pure Noise Records. Their eighth studio album, The Thunder Said, Hell Is In Your Head, is expected to emerge during early 2021.