Natasha, from Radio Oh-la-la-fame, makes a great guestpost on this blog. She says she has more goodies coming up!
Christmas in Québec is a big, cold, snow-covered affair. It starts the day after the Halloween stuff has been cleared from store shelves and lasts until people finally decide to chuck out their drying up Christmas tree onto that big pile of snow by the driveway so it can be recycled into Canadian paper sometime in February. This song by sixties sensation Les Classels has all the trappings of a Christmas song, with lots of neige. And that island rhythm is so much warmer than a fake fireplace!
Read it and weep HERE . Sure, one of the perks of making a Best Of-list is that someone else can disagree with it. But this Pitchfork-list is so, as CU tweeted, uninspired it's getting me nauseous. There are non-Christmassongs in the list. Songs that are overplayed. Two versions of the same song. And Low's Little Drummer Boy instead of Just Like Christmas? Really? REALLY? Let's get a few things straight. When making a Best Christmas Songs-list, you need to set ground rules. Do hymns (O Come, O Come Emmanuel), traditional Christmassongs (O Tannenbaum) and pop songs compete with each other? Do you choose original versions or best versions? And, maybe the most important thing, what does your (play)list achieve; to heighten spirits, to have plain fun? Pitchfork's list just f's around, there's no real idea behind it. So, whatabout us, CAGG-team and you, readers, make an alternative Best Of-list? Songs that are criminally overlooked by Pitchfork. Pop songs, rock ...
Die Hard is a Christmas movie . It came out in summer, but it's set the night before Christmas, hence it's a Christmas movie. Even director John McTiernan agrees . To be honest, I was aware of this debate, and I probably heard one or two songs mentioning Die Hard , bad guy Hans Gruber (played by Alan Rickman in the first DH-movie) or John McClane (Bruce Willis, duh), what I was NOT aware of, is that ' Die Hard is a Christmas Movie ' is a whole subgenre in Christmas music. Thanks to Jim/CU and Santapalooza tweeting about this ( HERE ), I dove in and dug up over 25 songs either about the (first) movie, the protagonist and his antogonist. I know there's more. If I missed a really good one, please link in the comments. A Spotify playlist with almost all songs HERE. Athens-singer Four Eyes wrote, without a doubt, the greatest song about bad guy Hans Gruber, and Christmas, ever. 'Yes, everything will change this Christmas/Whether you are falling in love or fall...
Okay, so first there was this post with covers of The Beach Boys' song Santa's Beard and then later on a They Might Be Giants Santa's Beard cover post too, and now ... now this third beard post is just a plain and simple post about Father Christmas's often discussed beard. Because sometimes that beard is just gross, too long, too short, too weird, too yellow, or even shaved off. Oh well, let's say it's a lively thing, so here we go. An existential question underlies the first in this list, a ukulele-driven track from The Quaint & The Curious (2012): "Everybody seems to love Santa's beard. Why do they think mine is weird?" Poor guy, he's just trying to spread a little Christmas cheer. Insta over there . This Winter of Ours (EP) by The Quaint & the Curious Another poor (and jealous) guy. Also from 2012, also ukelele: Lachlan MacLeod from Melbourne, Australia. He still can't grow a beard and is dying for a gnarly beard like Santa...
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