Musical Advent Calendar: Before Braille, 'Merry Christmas, I'm Cheating'

Yes, most advent calendars start on Dec. 1. Eat it.

Christmas is awesome. Sorry non-observers; I love you but it's true. You get presents, you get to give presents and spread holiday good tidings and so on. And come on, Candy Cane Joe-Joes.

Since Christmas music is perhaps the most awesome part of the holiday, I thought it'd be appropriate to have a countdown of sorts of some great seasonal tunes. And what better way to start than with a band from my old stomping grounds: the east valley area of metro Phoenix?

So let's visit Before Braille, a great band from Mesa, AZ, and once on the now-defunct Aezra Records label. They broke up a few years ago, but according to their MySpace not only are they back together, but they're releasing a new record in the spring. So, yay!

Their Christmas song is, like many by these cynical young people these days, more bitter than cheery--"Merry Christmas, I'm Cheating." It originally appeared on their Balance and Timing EP in 2004, the same year an acoustic version of the song got tons of radio airplay on our local FM alternative station because, you know, they were looking for Christmas music to play other than that Blink-182 song. The full studio version is even better, though, and that's the one currently streaming on their MySpace. (I'd post a video if there was one, but there's not. Sad!)