Dancing Christmas Socks

• Christmas 96
• Christmas Vibes
• Snow Song
• Dancing Christmas Socks

Credits for "Dancing Christmas Socks"

"Christmas Vibes" and "Dancing Christmas Socks" by His Enemies:

Casey Toner: guitar, vocals, production and songwriting
Eddie "Shredder" McMenamin: lead guitar
Vincent Caruso: Bass
Andy Boyle: Guitar, studio engineer, production, emergency laptop haver
Matt Stroud: Drums

"Christmas 96" by Casey Toner

"Snow Song" by the Mountain Goats, Bitter Melon Farm, 2002

Recorded at Toner Studios, Toner Studios-Munster, McMenamin Basement Studios, and the Music Garage in Chicago

Art by Marcelo Avila

Liner notes

In the fourth year of this project, I enlisted some friends and we formed a band known initially as Casey Toner and Friends, then Casey Toner and Enemies, and finally shortened to His Enemies. As always, it was a learning experience. I recorded drums for the first time, learned that a bottle of tequila can serve as an impromptu microphone stand, and spent several hours in the production booth mixing our songs into shape. Dudes rock.

We had a great time rehearsing and recording and there's a rumor of a live show next year. More and more people are saying this.

One other thing: the songs are darker than they have been in prior years.

Oh, I got the Christmas Vibes.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fourth album in an annual series of original Christmas songs. My first was “Away for Christmas,” a way to stay busy and create good vibes in the cold and sad winter of 2020.

The second was “Returning for Christmas,” an album with a song about a real-life Christmas Day juice war arson in Cicero, and some ripping guitar provided by my buddy Ed and my new telecaster. I discovered reverb for the first time while recording it, and it features my first songs playing keyboard.

The third was “A Christmas Milkshake,” which was a clean and professional-sounding Christmas album. It featured a duet with my father-in-law Mike on piano, vocal accompaniment by my friend Mike in the role of Santa Claus, and keyboard accompaniment from by friend Nick.

Stream them below:

Christmas 96

It's been 27 years and some change
Been so long ago
We shopped for Christmas in the mall
Drank Orange Julius, frozen cokes

I got Michael Jordan Cologne
You got a Spice Girls CD
Your mom picked us up in your Daddy's brand ew
Volvo S70

Do the Macarena with the mistletoe
Wear a Santa Hat with a pair of JNCOS
Christmas Ninety Six
Man I don't know
Man I don't know

Now the mall's boarded up
Except the Abercrombie
Where I rocked the scarlet choker
And the sweater vest T

But 96 returns every year all the same
When we watch the smash hit Jingle All the Way
I frost my tips like a can-dy cane
Santa gives me Rodman's jersey to wear to the game

Do the Macarena with the mistletoe
Wear a Santa Hat with a pair of JNCOS
Christmas Ninety Six
Man I don't know
Man I don't know

Selling beanie baby reindeer from the trunk of my car
Wear my Airwalks to go carol outside the bar
Dance like Elaine when I strain from all of the Glug

Christmas 96
Man I don't know
Man I don't know
Man I don’t know
Man I don’t know

Christmas Vibes

The city by the lake is playing a joke it's called December
The billboards beckon me to Florida, the wind never tasted so cold

Oh, I got the Christmas vibes
You never know 
How you're gonna feel
Oh you got the Christmas vibes
You never know

Pete was in the second grade, they cleaned out her locker, some folders and papers, colored pencils, erasers
As a kid she reminded him of Tiny Tim Cratchit, 
The Christmas Yet to Come, a phantom’s vision of caskets
Spectral apparitions haunt the halls of this holiday.
Shadows of things that have been

Oh, I got the Christmas vibes
You never know 
How you're gonna feel
Oh you got the Christmas vibes
You never know 

At the end of the year I'm feeling the spirit of generosity
I've been touching the frames of old pictures, looking at family
I'm staring at your face as I peer through the glass
Time is nipping at our heels, stepping out the past
Here's to the future, let's hear it for love
A Christmas together, a Christmas together!

Oh, I got the Christmas vibes
You never know
How you're gonna feel
Oh you got the Christmas vibes
You never know 

Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the new-born king
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled"
Joyful all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With angelic host we proclaim
"Christ is born in Bethlehem"

Snow Song

What cars there are
Go by like snails
And ice crystals shine
On the staircase's handrails
The quiet air
Is worth some discussion
As the windows crack
And the cold is crushing
They've shut down the roads to the coast
And there's white streets as far as the eye can see
And I'd just as soon make you disappear as look at you
But I draw you close to me
How do you feel about that
How do you feel about that

Dancing Christmas Socks

It was...
Ten minutes to Christmas
But I'm not watching the time 
I look to the mantle
Discover a big surprise

The Christmas stockings
Are dancing on their own
Doing the soft shoe, the superman, the cha cha slide real smooth

What do I do
These moves are pretty slick
The magical dancing Christmas stockings
Got me doing a jig

Now I'm riding the beat 
Time to crank up the fun
I am battling these rug cutting bandits
Will be number 1
Will be number 1
Will be number 1

I bend at the knees and relax
Wiggle from side to side
Gonna make these hot steppin' hoofers
Wish they were never alive

I start with footwork
Transition to the Curly Shuffle
I’m channeling the magic of the late
Patrick Swayze
I’m a one man dancing machine

But the stockings are unphased
They’ve been training for this all year
Doing toe calisthenics in Santa’s Workshop
Cardio with reindeer

The stockings get a little bit closer
The music gets a little bit louder
A disco ball drops from the ceiling
The stockings unleash their PO-WER

I concede the victory
I can’t take anymo-ore
It’s time for me and these Christmas stockings
To get down on the dance floor