Sophia Michaels
It’s been more than 30 years since the Pogues kicked the shit out of Christmas with their sleazy holiday classic, “Fairytale of New York.” Now, former member Peter Richard “Spider” Stacy has teamed up with New York punk stalwarts the So So Glos for a new tongue-in-cheek Christmas carol: “This Could Be Christmas.”
“We wrote this Christmas song during a time of isolation and total uncertainty,” So So Glos frontman Alex Levine tells Rolling Stone. “It illustrates the disconnect between holiday cheer and a darker reality.”
The Glos met the Pogues when the latter opened for the Celtic punk band a few years back. Later on, they crossed paths with Stacy in New Orleans. “He was kind enough to open his house to a bunch of strangers, and we’ve been tight ever since,” Levine says. “Feels like family. The Pogues’ ‘Fairytale of New York’ is quite possibly the best Christmas song ever, and so we are honored to have a Pogue on tin whistle and vocals, keeping it in that punk holiday spirit.”
Kicking off with Stacy’s delicate tin whistle, the song is basically a spiritual sibling to the Pogue’s track — waxing poetic about the darker side of New York City. Levine starts off the song by proclaiming, “I’m sure it’s warm in southern California/but back in New York, the lighting of the tree/and they’re selling dope outside the Salvation Army/there might be hope next year for you and me,” before the sing-songy chorus: “This could be love/this could be hate/this could be a terrible mistake/all that I know/I’m not coming home/this could be Christmas.”
The song — produced by Glos collaborator Adam Reich — is the band’s first new music since the 2016 track “Going Out Swingin’” and their 2013 album, Blowout. They’re planning to drop collabs with the likes of Conor Oberst, Juan Wauters, Big Youth, Matt & Kim, Slothrust, and more in 2023.
