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Our Review

Hold on to your jaded Santa hats, Those Dreaded Gnats are in the house. These troubled gentlemen (Harry Kopy, George Simonovich) are also The Ghosts of Christmas Past (reviewed here, and the holiday releases are polar opposites. There is, however, at least two unifying themes: solid musicianship and pumped-up creativity.

In essence, Those Dreaded Gnats' A Dreaded Xmas is the evil twin of The Ghosts of Christmas Past. The latter is an acoustic hug of old-time holiday tunes; this offering, however, is the angst-ridden, humor-injected, foul-mouthed relative that makes you laugh even while you push the bastard out the door. The two releases share one track; Jingle Bell Minor appears as One Horse Open Sleigh on the acoustic album (EXCELLENT track on both).

My hat is off to gnatty Kopy and Simonovich, who create the music here (except for their reggae-adapted Grandma Got Run over by a Reindeer. If you enjoy twisted comedy for the Christmas season, you will undoubtedly savor Merry FXmas (Explicit Lyrics) the sad tale of life gone wrong. The track has a low-key lounge music vibe and a humorous Youtube.com video (check it out!). The album also features a hysterical rap adventure. In Santa Takes Da Rap (featuring Ice Milk), poor Santa gets shot down in a drive-by sleighin' ("Who gave Rudolph a gun?"). And parents everywhere will strongly identify with Xmas Everyday for My Kids, which "celebrates" the immediate gratification generation.

Comedy is extremely difficult to pull off, but Those Dreaded Gnats achieve a sick and slick success with A Dreaded Xmas. The album is a bit on the short side--it runs 38 minutes, and that includes being bookended front and back by the same song: Merry FXmas/Merry Friggin' Xmas (the latter being the "sanitized" friggin' version of the first track). Keep in mind, however, that size doesn't matter, and this album "measures up" in all other respects. Merry FXmas!

--Carol Swanson
(Reviewed in 2009)

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From the liner notes:

Those Dreaded Gnats Are:
Harry Kopy: Vocals, Bass, Piano, Organ, Synths, Percussion
George Simonovich: Vocals, Guitar, Guitar Synths, Mandolin, Percussion, Xylophone, Banjolin

Also:
Jim Ogle: Drums, Chanting and Ranting
Vic Capetta: Sax
Larry D'Ambrosa: Congas "Jungle Bells"
Ice Milk: Too cool to mention
Alex Kopy, George Simonovich III: Bratty Kids

From the Website:

"A DREADED XMAS - more xmas negatives", is a group of songs, many of which are destined to become classics.

Take the humerous approach of Weird Al Yankovic and add carfully crafted original songs. Then add musical styles akin to the Beatles, Ramones, Tom Waits, to name a few. Put them all together, and you've got the makings of musical holiday delight.

You don't need to be in the Christmas spirit to get into this album. You just need a sense of humor!

With the exception of their reggae version of Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer, all of their vocal tracks are THOSE DREADED GNATS original compositions. Each in their own genre. All with a life of their own.

Those Dreaded Gnats

A Dreaded Christmas: More Xmas Negatives

Artist link

Track List