Contemporary holiday music

[Pat K]

Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time - apparently the Beatles aren't popular with these folks. 

I'll throw them a bone and agree with that choice. Everytime I hear that song I can't shake the feeling that it sounds like he's just making up the words and melody as he's singing it. Come on, Macca - put some effort into it!

[snogrog]

Yeah that song makes my skin CRAWL. Something about the harmonies and stupid synthesizers...::shudder::

[John Junk 2.0]

I actually kinda respect the level of cynicism brought to the table on that recording. 

My least favorite is definitely Madonna's version of "Santa Baby".  This always pisses me off every time I hear it.  Madonna was supposed to be sexy at this point, and I'm assuming she was like "Hey, this is a retro song, I'll do a retro voice!!" and so made this thing sound even older and more stupid than the original version.  Betty Boop impression for an entire track, huh?  Save that shit for the karaoke bar, whore.










That's right, I wrote "whore".

[yesno]

But the most mentioned song, the one that makes these guys and gals tear their hair out every time they hear it, was...

Feliz Navidad.

If English was good enough for Jesus I don't know why it's not good enough for these so-called "Mexicans" and their liberal apologists.

[Kim Kelly]

A couple that I put on my annual Christmas mix are Belle & Sebastian's "Are You Coming Over for Christmas?" and Yo La Tengo's "It's Christmas Time."  The Raveonettes' "Christmas Song" is a good one too. 

Where could I find the B&S and YLT songs? As in...what albums? Or links if that's allowed...

The Belle & Sebastian tune, which is lovely by the way, was available as a free download on their mySpace page during Christmas last year. Lucky you, there's a download link still up at Stereogum.

A bunch of twee and indie pop labels have been putting out Xmas comps since the early nineties, not to mention singles from people like Saint Etienne, Velocity Girl, and Eux Autres. There are some real gems studded throughout these comps from Parasol, Siesta, Él, Kindercore, and Gaylord. Some of my favorites include:

Franklin Bruno - "Invisible Mistletoe"
Eux Autres - "Another Christmas at Home"
April March and Los Cincos: "Last Train to Christmas"
Tender Trap - "Frankincense and Myrhh"
The Lucksmiths - "The Thought That Counts"
Colin Clary - "Meow Meow" (Side note: Unless you enjoy crying or sobbing, I don't recommend "The Cat Carol" by I forget who. It's not a bad song. It's just the saddest song ever, and I'm welling up just thinking about it.)
The Icicles - "Snowman Song"
Lil' Hospital - "Dear Scrooge"
Shumai - "California Christmas"
The Smittens - "Good Migrations"
The Diskettes - "Noel"
The Muffs - "Nothing for Me"
Shitbirds - "Christmas is a Comin' (May God Bless You)"
Corazón - "El regalo"
Helen Love - "Joey Ramone Snowman"
Luna - "Eggnog"
Au Revoir Simone - "Christmastime Is Here" (A lovely cover)
Dressy Bessy - "All the Right Reasons"
Pipas - "Boxes"
The Pines - "High Street"
Asobi Seksu - "Merry Christmas (I Don't Wanna Fight)" (a shoegazey cover of the Ramones classic)
Maia Hirasawa - "You Were All There"
Velocity Girl - "Merry Christmas, I Love You"
Would-Be-Goods - "Christmas in Haiti"
The Pearlfishers - "Winter Roads"
The Mommyheads - "Christmas Song"

And moooooore... My Christmas song collection is rapidly approaching 500.

[Big Plastic Head]

If you are looking for a pretty eclectic mix of Christmas music to stream, check out SOMA FM's "Xmas in 'Frisko" radio stream. They have been doing it for a few years and it is pretty amazing. Some of it is NSFW but there is much hilarity as well as more than a few music gems in there. They also have one that is "Family Safe" too.