Holiday Music Suggestions

[DudeAsInCool]

Someone at AskMetafilter has asked their community for holiday music suggestions. Not a bad list......and it's growing. What are yours?

AskMetafilter

There is a Bright Eyes Xmas album that I quite like. Not a compilation unfortunately. The version of "Little Drummer Boy" totally rocks.

SANTA DOESN'T COP OUT ON DOPE

Oh jeez, Sufjan Steven's five-disc box-set, "Songs for Christmas."

London's XFM did this album a few years back. We like it at my house

Ah yes, also, Canadian artist Hawksley Workman has a fun little Christmas EP called "Almost a Full Moon."

In my experience, there aren't too many Christmas compilations filled with high-quality indie music, so I usually put together my own playlists. Just make sure it has Tom Waits' version of "Silent Night" on it.

(Last note: Blind Boys of Alabama, while not at all indie but certainly good music, have a Christmas album called Go Tell It on the Mountain.)

"Music from the OC: Mix 3" is Christmas music.

Some of the songs from "The 8 Bits of Christmas" (scroll down) are fun.

posted by interrobang at 6:04 PM PST on November 24 [+] [!]

Ignore the fact that Avril Lavigne is on this and check it out. Also take a look at Bing Bang Holidang by Bleu and others (old, a little dated), and my personal favorite, Channukah Rocks by the Leevees.

Low released a Christmas record about 5 or so years ago that's pretty good.

John Fahey is a progenitor of the current-day freak folk scene. His 1968 Christmas album, New Possibilities, is a keeper. It's edgy but not edgy enough that Auntie Edna will want you to turn off that darned noise for the love of pete!

...

[Warflower]

Dude...I have a great cassette called Blue Yule...gotta make you a copy. I gave it to everyone for Christmas about 10 years ago...it's my absolute favorite! Lots of good old blues/r&b...

I highly recommend this. Just found it on Amazon...that cassette's taken a beating...time to upgrade! LOL

1. Santa's Messin With The Kid - Eddie C. Campbell

2. Merry Christmas - Lightening Hopkins

3. Christmas Blues - Canned Heat

4. Christmas Time Blues - Roy Milton

5. Christmas Day - Detroit Junior

6. Christmas Holidays - Texas Pete Mayes & His Houserockers Blues Band

7. Merry Christmas Baby - Charles Brown & Band

8. Please Come Home For Christmas - The Insight

9. Jingle Bell Boogie - Big Jack Johnson

10. Christmas Time - Pt. I - Jimmy McCracklin

11. Santa Claus, Santa Claus - Louis Jordan

12. Santa Claus Baby - The Voices

13. I Want My Baby For Christmas - Jimmy Liggins & His Drops Of Joy

14. Santa Claus - Sonny Boy Williamson

15. Merry Christmas Darling - Poppa Hops & His Orchestra

16. Blues For Christmas - John Lee Hooker

17. I'll Be Home For Christmas - The Pilgrim Travelers

18. Happy New Year - Lightening Hopkins

Edited November 30, 2006 by Warflower

[DudeAsInCool]

Looks like a fine list--and a nice add to my collection if you find it :)

[Warflower]

Looks like a fine list--and a nice add to my collection if you find it :)

http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Yule-Christmas-...s/dp/B0000032HI

LOVE THIS ONE: Santa Claus, Santa Claus - Louis Jordan

Edited November 30, 2006 by Warflower

[DudeAsInCool]

Richard Harrington at Washington Post takes a look at this year's best Christmas music releases:

Sufjan Stevens Christmas Album

"The most thoughtful, inventive, eclectic -- and generous -- new release is a box set collecting five EPs the indie-pop icon has recorded since 2001 to send out as gifts to his family and friends. Think of it as his take on Phil Spector's classic "A Christmas Gift for You," with 17 of the 42 songs originals, smartly imagined and arranged. The set includes five CDs (more than two hours of music), a 40-page booklet with lyrics and chord charts, an original Christmas essay by novelist Rick Moody, two essays by Stevens and other goodies -- all for the price of a single disc. Arranged chronologically, the discs show the evolution of Stevens's sound from banjo-centered, folk-inspired explorations to adventurous chamber-pop art with string quartets, multitracked chorales and odd instruments gently melded in the tradition of Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks."

Others reviewed include:

Sarah McLachlan, 'Wintersong' (Arista)

Rhonda Vincent, 'Beautiful Star: A Christmas Collection' (Rounder)

Brad Paisley, 'A Brad Paisley Christmas' (Arista)

Bette Midler, 'Cool Yule' (Columbia)

Manhattan Transfer, 'An Acapella Christmas' (Rhino)

Brian Culbertson, 'A Soulful Christmas' (GRP)

Asleep at the Wheel, 'Santa Loves to Boogie' (Bismeaux)New Orleans Christmas' (Putumayo)

Israel & New Breed, 'A Timeless Christmas' (Integrity Gospel)

Celtic Woman, 'A Christmas Celebration' (Manhattan)

Bootsy Collins, 'Christmas Is 4 Ever' (Shout Factory)

[DudeAsInCool]

Someone at MetaFilter has asked for good suggestions of Xmas music he can play for his kids. Suggestions so far, include:

A Christmas Gift From Phil Spector

John Denver & The Muppets.

The Beach Boys' Christmas

Well, Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas, for starters.

Jingle Cats!

Peanuts Christmas album.

"Now That's What I Call Christmas" is a 2-CD set, should be inexpensive, includes Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, John Lennon, Nat King Cole, Paul McCartney, Bing Crosby, etc., plus just a wee bit of Bad, like Michael Bolton.

Bing's White Christmas

Burl Ives' Rudolph

The Christmas Song by Mel Torme

Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters' version of Jingle Bells. It is cheap too.

The soundtracks to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and Charlie Brown Christmas.

Soul Christmas

Raffi's Christmas album

The Chipmunks Christmas

The Little Drummer Boy by the Harry Simeone Chorale

The Messiah (Chicago Symphony, Georg Solti, Kiri Te Kanawa)

"Santa's Got an Airplane"

"Christmas-Christmas-Christmastime Is Here Again!"

Mike Love's new one: "Santa's Goin' to Kokomo."

Source Page

[method77]

Punk Rock Christmas!

1. (It's Gonna Be A) Punk Rock Christmas - The Ravers

2. Silent Night - The Dickies

3. Hooray For Santa Claus Theme From 'Santa Claus.. - Sloppy Seconds

4. Fuck Christmas - Fear

5. A Merry Christmas - The Greedies

6. There Ain't No Sanity Claus - The Damned

7. Homo Christmas - Pansy Division

8. It's Christmas - Boquet Of Veal

9. Merry Xmas Blues - The Celibate Rifles

10. Merry Christmas (I Don't Wanna Fight Tonight) - Ramones

11. Deck The Halls - Metal Mike, Alison And Julia

12. Feliz Navinada - El Vez

13. Run, Run Rudolph - Humpers

14. Daddy Drank Our Xmas Money - TVTV$

15. Here Comes Santa's Pussy - The Frogs

16. Christmas Christmas - Mojo Nixon

17. Mr. Grinch - D.I.

18. White Christmas - Stiff Little Fingers

Get it

[DudeAsInCool]

Stereogum and it's readers chime in to the question "What Was The Best Xmas Song Ever" in this THREAD.

The also report that there is a music blog - The Last Christmas - solely devoted to posting a daily Xmas song, complete with an MP3 offering and a Snowflake Award. Here's a sample post:

Mr. Methane – Last Christmas

Ok, you get three guesses what kind of music Mr. Methane records…Here’s a hint, “While practising yoga positions in his home town of Macclesfield, Cheshire, Paul discovered he was blessed with the gift of being able to fart at will.”

That’s right. Mr. Methane is the world’s only professional flatulist. If you’re like me, and I’m sure you are, I recommend buying the awe-inspiring Merry Methane album directly from Mr. Methane, at his site for plenty of other flatulated holiday classics. This album left my entire family in hysterics, and Mr. Methane is a pretty cordial guy. Drop him a line over at his myspace page.

[DudeAsInCool]

LargeHeartedBoy has proffered up a number of free legal Christmas downloads from the web including:

Dan Bryk: "Cosy Evenings" [mp3] from Christmas Record

Dan Bryk: "Great Adventure" [mp3] from Christmas Record

@myspace

@hype machine

Erik Darling: "Revenge Of The Christmas Tree" [mp3] from Revenge of the Christmas Tree

Erik Darling: "Walk Right In, Santa" [mp3] from Revenge of the Christmas Tree

@hype machine

Jingle Punx: "Joy To The World" [mp3] from It's What I Got In My Sack

Jingle Punx: "Chanuka" [mp3] from It's What I Got In My Sack

Jingle Punx: "It's What I Got In My Sack" [mp3] from It's What I Got In My Sack

@myspace

@hype machine

Matt Fish: "Es Ist Ein Ros" [mp3] from Christmas

@myspace

@hype machine

The Rad Dudes: "Christmas In Malibu" [mp3] from Christmas in Malibu

@hype machine

Various Artists: "Jingle Bells (Dan The Automator Remix)" [mp3] from Christmas Remixed - Holiday Classics Re-Grooved

Various Artists: "O Christmas Tree" [mp3] from Happy Holiday - Christmas Favorites

I myself am going to check out the Rad Dudes: Christmas in Malibu :) Holiday Downloads

[DudeAsInCool]

Mr. Boo asked me to post this:

[DudeAsInCool]

[Redneck4sure]

There are too many good albums to mention. :)

but....

Moody Blues - December

James Taylor - At Christmas (2006)

Beatles - The Ultimate Beatles Christmas Collection (1998)

VA - Windham Hill - A Celtic Christmas - Peace On Earth

VA - Merry Christmas From Motown 2006

Temptations - Christmas Card

[DudeAsInCool]

[Redneck4sure]

I like the peanuts parody posted above.

I forgot that there is a new compilation from Elvis this year:

Elvis Presley - Elvis Christmas (2006)

It is actually 2 of his old albums in their entirety on 1 cd.

Elvis Christmas Album (1957)

Elvis Sings The Wonderful World Of Christmas (1971)

Did I mention that Elvis lives in this trailer park?

[oldies1930]

Hi guys, AJ here I just want to inform you that special holiday edition of TV Guide magazine includes CD that contains previously unreleased version of Elvis "It Won't Seem Like Christmas Without You", and Elvis music video singing "Blue Christmas". They come in 4 different nice collectible CD label and it is now available to buy at News Stands.

[DudeAsInCool]

I Guess I'm Floating posted some favorite mp3s today:

[MP3] Copeland - Do You Hear What I Hear

This band has lots of covers. Lots. Hell, you might even think that they could have a successful cover band as a second career. All speculation aside, Copeland take a bland, although great, Christmas song and inject some uniqueness in it. The varied vocal effects and simple guitar are enough to catapult this onto my latest Christmas compilation.

[MP3] Belle & Sebastian - Christmas Time Is Here

A slow and not as popular Christmas track must've been exactly what Belle & Sebastian were looking for. Part of me thinks that B&S were on tour during the holidays and were bored so like any band, decided to hang and jam out some Christmas tunes. While I've always liked the original version of the song, the soft spoken B&S version doesn't exactly make me happy that Christmas time is here.

[MP3] The Arcade Fire - Jinglebell Rock

While the new Arcade Fire album may be leaking very soon as an early Christmas present, we can always turn to their four song EP titled "A Very Arcade XMas". Fortunately for all of us, they may have had a little too much egg nog before recording the EP. I'm sure they were just messing around and never intended to release Christmas songs, this song just makes me laugh partly due to the copious amounts of fun they all sound like they're having.

Source: IGIF

[DudeAsInCool]

Stereogum had a nice find today - a Xmas video card interpretation of Tchaicovsky's Nutcracker Suite. Pay it /Send it from HERE

[DudeAsInCool]

NPR has posted a concert of Handel's Messiah, performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. You can listen to it here

[slum_goddess]

i'll stick w/the traditional Christmas music w/bells (chimes) and an organ, please. (album somewhere in mom's sub-basement, prolly useless by niow).

[cracklin' rosie]

i'll stick w/the traditional Christmas music w/bells (chimes) and an organ, please. (album somewhere in mom's sub-basement, prolly useless by niow).

Might I suggest something a little different? A friend of mine just had a recent release on DVD called The Young Messiah: Messiah XXI which features Gladys Knight, Roger Daltrey, Jeffrey Osborne and Chaka Khan. It's quite different but very good. You might want to read the review (short but sweet) on alibi.com. Happy Holidays!

[Hemoglobin Harry]

If you want the tunes grab this.

The local station started playing it one morning so that everyone could have a laugh and person after person called in to say they liked it.

[slum_goddess]

Might I suggest something a little different? A friend of mine just had a recent release on DVD called The Young Messiah: Messiah XXI which features Gladys Knight, Roger Daltrey, Jeffrey Osborne and Chaka Khan. It's quite different but very good. You might want to read the review (short but sweet) on alibi.com. Happy Holidays!

thank you for the suggestion but i'm like totally the traditional sort. and happy holidays to you as well. :)

[DudeAsInCool]

Christmas In Hollywood

[DudeAsInCool]

BigRockCandyMountain seems to have the most complete collection of Christmas Songs on the web- cool graphics, too. Check out the site HERE