Holiday parties are a hell of a drug. Apologies for the tardiness of this week's playlist, but to make it up to America, I'll be back in the WFNX studio this Sunday, Christmas Day, to not only bust out a festive Boston Accents at 8pm, but to also crash the airwaves a few hours earlier to throw down a birthday playlist.

The night before they dropped comeback EP Ready at the Middle East in Cambridge, Boston rock dudes LETTERDAY swung by the Converse store at 348 Newbury St Friday night for an acoustic session. The band stripped down their normally anthemic sound to fit neatly within the second-floor of the Back Bay retail hub, giving the crowd a solid half-hour set of new material and old, some even dating back to their all-ages suburban shows of several years ago.

Note: Earlier this year, Phoenix music writer Janssen McCormick kicked up a shitstorm when he created the Girlfriend Metal fan page on Facebook. With nearly a thousand fans and just as many debates on the subject, the notion of Girlfriend Metal was viciously addressed in our August Metal Issue. Now, Janssen has issued his Top 10 Girlfriend Metal Predictions for 2012, and we're already excitedly bursting out of our Kylesa footie pajamas.

AMELIA EMMET has been known by many names. With a constantly revolving lineup of bandmates, the 26-year-old Jamaica Plain singer/songwriter has been a familiar face in the Boston music scene from her early days as Dogs and Trains, then as Brother/Sister, and later, Mr. Sister, under which she released her first full-length album O, Sinister Force in September 2010.

Real talk: I was born on Christmas Day.

As a result, here are a few things you should know about me: I can easily rattle off a few dozen of others who were as well (like Ricky Henderson, Annie Lennox, Humphrey Bogart, Shane McGowan, Isaac Newton, Dido, Jesus H. Christ); I'm really tired of hearing about being a "Christmas Baby" everytime I flash my Massachusetts driver's license; and I'll quickly cut the living shit outta you if you ever ask if I "get gypped" out of presents.

After a year of reflection, now comes the resurrection for Boston pop-rock darlings LETTERDAY. Back from extended hiatus with a fine-tuned lineup, a sharper perspective, and a fresh batch of songs from this already well-oiled rock and roll machine, Letterday last month announced their comeback with “Don’t Go,” the first single off towering new record Ready.

The holiday music on the radio sucks, we got over the Waitresses back in high school, and we’re still having jingle-rock nightmares over last year’s televised Pomplamoose torture. So here’s the 2011 Boston Phoenix Holiday EP, featuring a few of the finest holiday songs to emerge this month from the Boston rock scene, available for free download via our Bandcamp

WU LYF are at Brighton Music Hall on April 28

On Sale Now

Swervedriver | March 29 at Brighton Music Hall | $20 | On sale @ ticketmaster.com

Of Montreal + Lonely Dear + Kishi Bashi | April 1 at the Paradise Rock Club | $25 | On sale @ ticketmaster.com

On Sale Thursday, December 15

AT NOON

[Editor's Note: This is the first in a new series that chronicles lifelong Boston musician and writer John Von Bittrich's January relocation to Portland, Oregon, where he'll compare scenes and cultures and show us how the other half lives.]

I was born at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Brighton on a snowy January day in 1983.

When it comes to Lansdowne, WFNX is letting the locals run with the big dogs. First it was Earthquake Party playing with Surfer Blood at Disorientation Night 2 a few weeks ago, then this past Friday it was Mean Creek taking the big stage at the House of Blues for the second Miracle holiday show alongside Matt & Kim and Mutemath (it was M-M-M good, k?).

A somber start to Boston Accents tonight, as we pour one out for DUSTIN HENGST of DAMONE, who passed away last week at the age of 39. The talented drummer was hospitalized for a few weeks with liver problems, and had been battling illness most of his life. The details and band reaction are in my On The Download post from Friday, but here we'll celebrate the music of Damone, which released three awesome records between 2002 and 2008, toured the world, and made a mark on Boston rock.

Years ago, while still ensconced in my former life as a music industry stooge (and proudly so), I was in a meeting with legendary polka bandleader Jimmy Sturr. Sturr’s got more Grammies than Whitney Houston and Madonna combined, by the way. Bluegrass music was cresting its post-O, Brother wave of popularity and interest, and there was some marketing-driven discussion about the differences and similarities between bluegrass and polka.

Our fearless leader Brad Mindich is out in San Francisco with Metallica as the band celebrates its 30th anniversary with a string of once-in-a-lifetime gigs at the Fillmore. Here's his photos and report from last night:

If you're a Metallica fan these four shows at the Fillmore were everything you could have hoped for from the masters of metal.

Chris Faraone (@Fara1) and Ariel Shearer (@arielshearer) were on the scene early Saturday morning as Boston Police -- many with black tape covering badge numbers -- arrested around 40 protesters and cleared Dewey Square. Here are photos and tweets from the eviction.

Caught about 90 minutes of RYAN ADAMS's solo set at the Orpheum last night -- and um, not in the mood to be all rock-criticky and whatnot, but it was pretty awesome. Played "Oh My Sweet Carolina" twice (because the bros were loud-talking in the lobby the first time), did a fancy version of "Sylvia Plath" at the piano, played some of the Heartbreaker-y songs off the new record, and then went back to the piano for this: a version of GALAXIE 500's "Blue Thunder" that he worked up at soundcheck