Listen to a bounty of holiday heat taken from an XL-II 90 made by the Cramps.

The deeper and further you dig into the past, the weirder it gets. All the rebel energy that drives contemporary youth culture, all those shock-of-the-new sounds, all that boundary-pushing creativity — it’s been done before, albeit in different ways and with different technology.

Thirty years ago, Lux Interior, co-founder of the Cramps and master record collector, sent his friend Kristian Hoffman a mixtape. As Hoffman wrote in a 2017 Facebook post (via Dangerous Minds), “Lux Interior used to make holiday cassettes for me, and so many of his friends. As odd as it seems, he was all about sharing. Listening to this one right now.”

A vivid snapshot of Lux Interior’s world, “Jesus F- It’s Christmas” is evidence of his and bandmate/wife Poison Ivy’s endless curiosity and their gift for unearthing strange, obscure records. It’s a tangled pathway through mid-century musical subcultures, where doo-wop harmonies collide with raw blues, surf rock jangle, novelty tunes, and naiveté — each track a portal into the bizarre realm of the recorded past.

The Marquees, a doo-wop group, briefly featured Marvin Gaye before he launched his solo career. Known for their lush harmonies, the doo-wop group the Moonglows deliver sublime smoothness. Jo Ann Campbell, active in the late 1950s, growls with rockabilly swagger as she rings in the new year. A master of jug band music, Washboard Pete brings the country blues. The Ventures add guitar-driven surf rock. Ella Fitzgerald. The Cadillacs. The Gems. The Sonics.

NTS embedded the whole thing on Mixcloud.

It’s a wonder that a single XL-II 90 is able to contain such intensity.