A very special guestpost from one of the Christmas a go go readers:
"Happy Rhodes is an enigma. This is according to the Music Industry, which has never been able to pigeon-hole her into any category. Her music is otherworldly yet substantial and her 4-octave voice has a haunting familiarity to it. Most listeners find her work difficult to describe and yet she incites an almost unheard of devotion among her fans. She goes from Kate Bush highs to David Bowie lows and you find yourself being beckoned to follow her into her futuristic worlds." This is a quote from a Happy Rhodes-biography. I'd never heard of her, but when I got to this marvellous fan page, I got hooked. Her deep voice is haunting indeed. It reminds me of a slightly more sane Diamanda Galas. Happy recorded a great X-mas song, plus a very atmospherical track that's also very suitable for these dark days. 
Brit trio Saint Etienne was featured before on this blog (see?), but Sarah Cracknell and her boys made more X-mas music. They covered Snow, made famous by Claudine Longet, they sang with Charlatans-singer Tim Burgess and cheered on Santa in Come On Christmas. Enjoy! [Merci á Dennis for the mp3s]
The Knife are Olof Dreijer and Karin Dreijer Andersson. They are from Sweden and have made electronic dance music together since 1999. Their best known song is Heartbeats, famously covered by José Gonzales. This year, Silent Shout was released, one of the best and certainly the creepiest dance record of 2006. Hi all,
Now it's time again for The Knife's annual christmas track Christmas Reindeer, recorded in 2000, to be downloaded! It's a bit like the Reindeer-version from the first album but with bells and no guitar solo (for you who miss that one especially, you know where to find it.)
Free pdf with DIY record cover: http://www.theknife.net
Natasha tells another tale: "I once witnessed a guy from Jamaica at a Canadian hotel freaking out at seeing snow for the first time. He took off his shoes, ran outside in his bare feet, turned around to look at the crowd watching him with a stunned expression on his face, realised his feet were cold and ran back in. Then, he ran back out dragging some of his reluctant Jamaican friends and started taking pictures. Yellowman’s ‘We wish you a reggae Christmas’ goes out to them and their culture shock."
In Denmark we celebrate Christmas on the 24th. We eat roast pork or duck, with candied potatoes and red cabbage. Dessert is rice pudding.
I wish every new Christmas song sounded like this.
The thing about Danish duo Raveonettes is that they sound very much like the 60's. Their biggest inspiration are The Shangri-Las. Retrolovers, go download!
Danish trio Tiger Baby (the Scandinavian Stereolab) decided to put their 2004-smash This Christmas online for free download. A fantastic, six-minute long song to cuddle up to and watch snowflakes fall down. Or, this year, imagine you see snowflakes fall down. Mre free Tiger Baby songs here.
Guess you heard that all the big skiing events in Europe are cancelled for lack of snow. Seems like we'll have yet another X-mas without snowman-material. Canadian duo Lola Dutronic wrote the perfect melancholy-filled song for an upcoming depression.
And yet another guestpost by Natasha from Radio Oh-la-la:
Hopping on the ‘all I want for Christmas’ bandwagon, the children’s classic All I want for Christmas (is my two front teeth) sung by crooner Nat King Cole, brings backs some unforgettable dental memories. There are many versions, including one by Alvin and The Chipmunks – speaking of teeth! I’m sure Christmas music on helium is passé and, well, they’ve got huge front teeth. I’ll take Nat’s pearly whites, thank you.
Another guestpost by Natasha Oh-la-la:
A Christmas song is a lot like a slice of bread: you can top it off with anything you like. This time, it’s a twist of twist with enough French bop-bop-shoobeedoo-wop to kick off any retro Christmas party. The rockin’ guys of Les Chaussettes Noires definitely have a good argument for a Christmas twist number by giving Santa Claus a guitar for Christmas. How nice!
A small selection of Space Age Christmas ditties, tied up in a neat lil' bundle for your easy listening pleasure . . .
Dickie Goodman - Santa and the Satellite
Bobby Helms - Captain Santa Claus
Sonny Cole - Santa to the Moon
Troy Hess - Christmas on the Moon
Milton DeLugg & The Little Eskimos - Hooray for Santy Claus! (from the motion picture Santa Claus Conquers the Martians)
Senor Tonto - Hooray for Santy Claus!
Barry Gordon - Zoomah the Santa Claus from Mars
Shonen Knife - Space Christmas
Various Artists - What Can You Get a Wookie for Christmas (When He Already Owns a Comb) [from Christmas in the Stars - A Star Wars Christmas]
EDIT: You'll have to google the rest of these yourselves, sorry.
Thu Nov 30, 9:28 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - British DIY superstore B and Q has apologised after staff blasted out the filthy song "Christmas Time in Hell" by Satan and the Damned on the soundsystem, shocking customers. Instead of the usual festive hits ringing through the aisles, shoppers were subjected to a foul-mouthed song from the television cartoon series "South Park". Due to an "oversight" at the store in Stockport, northwest England, bungling staff put on "Christmas Time in Hell" from the album "Mr Hankey's Christmas Classics". The offending track contains references to sex, torture and US cannibal serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
Shopper Grant Sullivan, 42, from Stockport, was in the store's Christmas grotto with his daughter, Deonne, aged four. "I couldn't believe my ears," he told The Sun newspaper. "We were buying a tree and Deonne was looking for the star for the top of it. I was speechless. Christmas should be a wonderful time for kids -- they shouldn't have to listen to filth."
B and Q, which is owned by Kingfisher, Europe's largest home-improvement retailer, apologised over the incident. "The playing of South Park's 'Christmas Time in Hell' was an oversight on our part and we did not wish to cause offence or embarrassment to any of our customers, a spokesman said. "The song was removed as soon as the oversight was pointed out to us and please be assured that we will not be playing this song in this or any of our other stores."
I love Pee-Wee. I've been posting songs of his since I started my blog a year ago. I thought I'd grab the great opening song off of his Christmas Special and a sound byte. Perfect for your Christmas mix this year.
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!
But of course, there's our big, as-much-as-we-like-and-can-find new Christmas music Spotify list. Conveniently shortened to 'Christm...
