December 19, 2008

Your Naughty/Nice Christmas mix

Christmas is coming and kids are having fun (so said the chorus of my fifth grade play “Shaping Up Santa,” for which I still know all the words and thankfully no longer have to wear the green elf costume).

I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year because of the overabundance of really bad, synthy, jingly, repetitive Christmas music that bombards me at every pass. But tonight I was listening to my friend Dainon‘s superb radio show out of Salt Lake City and he filled two and a half hours with the kind of Christmas music that reminds me why I do love it.

I tend towards the melancholy, the meaningful, the achingly pretty at this time of year, and tonight’s show inspired me to finally put the finishing touches on my own mix of music for the season. Twenty-five songs to get at the goodness under the busy surface this time of year. Enjoy.

NAUGHTY/NICE CHRISTMAS MIX 2008
No Christmas For Me – Zee Avi (new Malaysian artist I’m excited about)
Joy To The World – Clem Snide
Christmas Is Coming Soon – Blitzen Trapper
Egg Nog – Luna
It’s Christmas So We’ll Stop – Frightened Rabbit
It Won’t Seem Like Christmas Without You (alternate take 6) – Elvis Presley
Christmas TV – Slow Club
Sweet Secret Peace – Neil Finn
Xmas Time Is Here Again – My Morning Jacket
Gift X-Change – Calexico
This Christmastime – Mascott & Gramercy Arms
The Secret of Christmas – Ella Fitzgerald
Christmas – Leona Naess
Just Like Christmas – Low
Song For A Winter’s Night (Gordon Lightfoot) – Erica Wheeler
Icicles – Let’s Go Sailing [from the Plastic Snow compilation]
Goin Home For Christmas – Nicolai Dunger
Goin Home For Christmas – Merle Haggard
Snowfall – Josh Rouse
The First Noel – Pedro The Lion
Please Come Home For Christmas – Willie Nelson
The Gift of Grace – Denison Witmer
New Year’s Resolution – Otis Redding & Carla Thomas
Winter Wonderland – Radiohead
Silent Night – Evan Dando

ZIP IT ALL UP, BABY



If you want even more Christmas music, the excellent WXPN out in Philly is hosting 12 Days Of Christmas with local bands and free mp3s each day. Ten down, two to go, check it out.

Merry Christmas.

[image from the fabulous Anne Taintor]

11 Comments

  • I feel like I’m getting my presents a week early! I’ve been listening to last year’s mix like a fiend, and I’ve been looking forward to this year’s. Thanks so much for posting these, and thanks for all your posts throughout the year! Your blog has been a great way for me to discover new music and you write about it so well.

    Michele — December 19, 2008 @ 6:28 am

  • Some of these song choices seem so familiar for some unknown reason. Hmm. Well played, miss.

    Dainon. — December 19, 2008 @ 7:34 am

  • Very nice mix…I will listen to it in my car during a trip from Strasbourg to Clermont-Ferrand (in France)

    Merry Xmas Heather and thanks again for your wonderdul blog

    Kid Charlemagne — December 19, 2008 @ 12:54 pm

  • The only christmas song released this past decade worth anything is that Frightened Rabbit track. It’s absolute brilliance.

    Prior to this, the last great xmas song was “Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues.

    vantika — December 19, 2008 @ 8:55 pm

  • Maybe it’s a little cliche or played but definitely would’ve loved to have seen the Vandals’ “Oi to the World on here”.

    Matty D — December 20, 2008 @ 2:19 pm

  • caught the 93.3 show stead of IQs/Young Coyotes … hey, it was free. Roe impresses me more each time, really a great sound … the others, eh, not so much, Fulcrum just isn’t there … and The Epilogues, well, fans loved the dance sound, but not much to it.

    Chase Squires — December 20, 2008 @ 4:01 pm

  • this is awesome, thanks!

    Ashley — December 20, 2008 @ 8:21 pm

  • You have a great music blog here! I’ve added you to my mp3blog list and custom search, check it out.

    Rickdog’s collected 7,000 mp3blog links, accessible from the alpha menu at page top. You can open frames on these blogs to view them directly on my site, and you can also view the feeds in a frame.

    The newest mp3blogs
    http://chewbone.blogspot.com/2008/01/alphanew.html

    You can search your blog and all the others in my custom google search:

    Chewbone MP3blog search
    http://chewbone.blogspot.com/2008/03/mp3-blog-search-results.html

    I add new blogs to the alpha lists once a week, but your site is immediately added to the custom google search engine.

    rickdog — December 22, 2008 @ 12:27 am

  • sufjan stevens – sister winter

    fits your description of the melancholy, beautiful, etc. perfectly

    Anonymous — December 22, 2008 @ 7:51 pm

  • thanks 4 the zip, its a real zap! merry christmas and happy 09!

    Anonymous — December 27, 2008 @ 9:44 pm

  • huh, I’m from Malaysia and I did not know about Zee Avi. Do you know how she got signed to Brushfire?

    anyway, now that I’ve heard of her, I want to recommend another Malaysian artist. her name’s Yuna (myspace.com/yunaroomrecords) and songs are mostly acoustic folk/ sometimes folk rock. here’s one of her English songs that I really like deeper conversation: hxxp://www.sendspace.com/file/94dkug it’s beautiful; I think you’ll like it.

    az — March 1, 2009 @ 8:28 am

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Bio Pic Name: Heather Browne
Location: Colorado, originally by way of California
Giving context to the torrent since 2005.

"I love the relationship that anyone has with music: because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. It's the best part of us, probably, the richest and strangest part..."
—Nick Hornby, Songbook
"Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel."
—Hunter S. Thompson

Mp3s are for sampling purposes, kinda like when they give you the cheese cube at Costco, knowing that you'll often go home with having bought the whole 7 lb. spiced Brie log. They are left up for a limited time. If you LIKE the music, go and support these artists, buy their schwag, go to their concerts, purchase their CDs/records and tell all your friends. Rock on.

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