Alternative Christmas Music: 2005's playlist
Here's the playlist I created for my second Christmas CD in 2005
1 Christmas Day - MXPX
2 River - Travis
3 Spotlight On Christmas - Rufus Wainwright
4 Donde Esta Santa Claus - Guster
5 Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Death Cab For Cutie
6 Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer - Jack Johnson
7 Last Christmas (Live) - Manic Street Preachers
8 Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Coldplay
9 It's Christmas Time - Yo La Tengo
10 The Snow - Audio Bullys
11 Lit Up Like a Christmas Tree - The Flaming Stars
12 Wonderful Christmas Time - Tom Mcrae
13 Christmas at the Zoo - The Flaming Lips
14 When I Get Home for Christmas - Snow Patrol
15 Winter Wonderland - Dirk Keysser
1 Christmas Day - MXPX
So I started the second CD the same way as the first with some fine Christmas punk. Was originally a fan club only release it later saw the light of day on their 2009 Christmas album.
Punk Rawk Christmas.
Amazon
2 River - Travis
The first time of many that this Joni Mitchell song has appeared on my CDs when covered by different artists. A b-side to their single Turn it's a simple piano backed version, although now not my favourite version it's still quite lovely.
Amazon
3 Spotlight On Christmas - Rufus Wainwright
One of my favourite Christmas songs. A lovely bit of sarcasm to go with a simple message of love. Originally from an album by his Mother and Aunt that also includes xmassongblog favourites Beth Orton and Rufus' sister Martha.
Amazon
4 Donde Esta Santa Claus - Guster
Apparently, Spanish for Where is Santa Claus? I knew nothing about this song before I started doing this but I'm told this is famous in Spanish speaking countries and a novelty hit in the US when sung originally by a 12 year old it was covered by Boston band Guster for the album Maybe This Christmas Too both this album and the original Maybe this Christmas album were used repeatedly for my albums.
Wiki
Amazon
5 Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Death Cab For Cutie
I'm a massive sucker for this song both the Darlene Love version and the whole raft of cover versions. I will post a list of the best versions one day. For now have Death cab for cuties version. It follows closely the U2 blueprint but keeps the emotions restrained in typical Death cab fashion. It's another favourite from the Maybe this Christmas series. This time from Maybe this Christmas Tree
Amazon
6 Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer - Jack Johnson
It's just not cool to admit to being a Jack Johnson fan but I can deal with the not being cool.
Amazon
7 Last Christmas (Live) - Manic Street Preachers
It seems like every band has done a cover of Wham's um....classic. It's another song I intend to do a full post of the best versions. For now have this version record live. It's just James Dean Bradfield, a guitar and some echo like his voice needs help to sound bigger. Recorded at a broadcast of TFI friday I remember him saying it was one of the late Richey Edwards favourite songs.
Amazon
8 Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Coldplay
Coldplay completely misinterpret the tone of this song and do what is in effect a crooners version with all a chmaltz that entails. Still lovely though.
9 It's Christmas Time - Yo La Tengo
Quality indie rock from the critics favourite. It's an almost surprisingly straightforward Christmas song.
10 The Snow - Audio Bullys
One of those #notreallyanaxmasong songs I've tweeted about. Don't really know what happened to the Audio Bullys, very much of their time I suspect. Still sounds good to me though.
Amazon
11 Lit Up Like a Christmas Tree - The Flaming Stars
I must admit I don't know a great deal about the Flaming Stars other than I heard them a few times on the much missed John Peel radio show. I believe (but I'm not sure this is from one such Peel session.Unfortunately that means no links to buy the song... Sorry.
12 Wonderful Christmas Time - Tom Mcrae
Who wants to be happy at christmas anyway. Part of my list of the most depressing Christmas songs here. Tom Mcrae gives the dire McCartney song the treatment it deserves making it sound the way the original makes me feel, I for one feel much better for it.
Bandcamp
13 Christmas at the Zoo - The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips have given us a mixed bag of xmassongs over the years. Not their best but not their worst, this one is slightly scuzzy guitar with bonkers lyrics and no real direction or aim..... standard Flaming Lips then. What it has got is a brilliant video complete with animals with laser eyes, watch it below
Amazon
14 When I Get Home for Christmas - Snow Patrol
Another track from the Cool Cool Christmas Charity CD that kinda started this whole idea. I was scrabbling around for extra tracks at this point and this one isn't the best but at least it's old style lo fi Snow Patrol rather than the modern heavily produced Snow Patrol that wanders up and down the charts these days.
Amazon
15 Winter Wonderland - Dirk Keysser
Right so I had an annoying habit on these early lists to include a comedy song at the end. This is a man doing a Chicken impression to winter wonderland. Why? God knows and I'm embarrassed to include it now but hey. Believe it or not there's a whole album of this rubbish. No links to buy it cos you deserve better. Someone had the good sense to remove the video from youtube but it's out there so hunt it down if you must.
1 Christmas Day - MXPX
2 River - Travis
3 Spotlight On Christmas - Rufus Wainwright
4 Donde Esta Santa Claus - Guster
5 Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Death Cab For Cutie
6 Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer - Jack Johnson
7 Last Christmas (Live) - Manic Street Preachers
8 Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Coldplay
9 It's Christmas Time - Yo La Tengo
10 The Snow - Audio Bullys
11 Lit Up Like a Christmas Tree - The Flaming Stars
12 Wonderful Christmas Time - Tom Mcrae
13 Christmas at the Zoo - The Flaming Lips
14 When I Get Home for Christmas - Snow Patrol
15 Winter Wonderland - Dirk Keysser
1 Christmas Day - MXPX
So I started the second CD the same way as the first with some fine Christmas punk. Was originally a fan club only release it later saw the light of day on their 2009 Christmas album.
Punk Rawk Christmas.
Amazon
2 River - Travis
The first time of many that this Joni Mitchell song has appeared on my CDs when covered by different artists. A b-side to their single Turn it's a simple piano backed version, although now not my favourite version it's still quite lovely.
Amazon
3 Spotlight On Christmas - Rufus Wainwright
One of my favourite Christmas songs. A lovely bit of sarcasm to go with a simple message of love. Originally from an album by his Mother and Aunt that also includes xmassongblog favourites Beth Orton and Rufus' sister Martha.
Amazon
4 Donde Esta Santa Claus - Guster
Apparently, Spanish for Where is Santa Claus? I knew nothing about this song before I started doing this but I'm told this is famous in Spanish speaking countries and a novelty hit in the US when sung originally by a 12 year old it was covered by Boston band Guster for the album Maybe This Christmas Too both this album and the original Maybe this Christmas album were used repeatedly for my albums.
Wiki
Amazon
5 Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Death Cab For Cutie
I'm a massive sucker for this song both the Darlene Love version and the whole raft of cover versions. I will post a list of the best versions one day. For now have Death cab for cuties version. It follows closely the U2 blueprint but keeps the emotions restrained in typical Death cab fashion. It's another favourite from the Maybe this Christmas series. This time from Maybe this Christmas Tree
Amazon
6 Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer - Jack Johnson
It's just not cool to admit to being a Jack Johnson fan but I can deal with the not being cool.
Amazon
7 Last Christmas (Live) - Manic Street Preachers
It seems like every band has done a cover of Wham's um....classic. It's another song I intend to do a full post of the best versions. For now have this version record live. It's just James Dean Bradfield, a guitar and some echo like his voice needs help to sound bigger. Recorded at a broadcast of TFI friday I remember him saying it was one of the late Richey Edwards favourite songs.
Amazon
8 Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Coldplay
Coldplay completely misinterpret the tone of this song and do what is in effect a crooners version with all a chmaltz that entails. Still lovely though.
9 It's Christmas Time - Yo La Tengo
Quality indie rock from the critics favourite. It's an almost surprisingly straightforward Christmas song.
10 The Snow - Audio Bullys
One of those #notreallyanaxmasong songs I've tweeted about. Don't really know what happened to the Audio Bullys, very much of their time I suspect. Still sounds good to me though.
Amazon
11 Lit Up Like a Christmas Tree - The Flaming Stars
I must admit I don't know a great deal about the Flaming Stars other than I heard them a few times on the much missed John Peel radio show. I believe (but I'm not sure this is from one such Peel session.Unfortunately that means no links to buy the song... Sorry.
12 Wonderful Christmas Time - Tom Mcrae
Who wants to be happy at christmas anyway. Part of my list of the most depressing Christmas songs here. Tom Mcrae gives the dire McCartney song the treatment it deserves making it sound the way the original makes me feel, I for one feel much better for it.
Bandcamp
13 Christmas at the Zoo - The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips have given us a mixed bag of xmassongs over the years. Not their best but not their worst, this one is slightly scuzzy guitar with bonkers lyrics and no real direction or aim..... standard Flaming Lips then. What it has got is a brilliant video complete with animals with laser eyes, watch it below
Amazon
14 When I Get Home for Christmas - Snow Patrol
Another track from the Cool Cool Christmas Charity CD that kinda started this whole idea. I was scrabbling around for extra tracks at this point and this one isn't the best but at least it's old style lo fi Snow Patrol rather than the modern heavily produced Snow Patrol that wanders up and down the charts these days.
Amazon
15 Winter Wonderland - Dirk Keysser
Right so I had an annoying habit on these early lists to include a comedy song at the end. This is a man doing a Chicken impression to winter wonderland. Why? God knows and I'm embarrassed to include it now but hey. Believe it or not there's a whole album of this rubbish. No links to buy it cos you deserve better. Someone had the good sense to remove the video from youtube but it's out there so hunt it down if you must.
Comments
Post a Comment