Have Yourself A Magical Little Christmas

Ladies and gentlemen, here's 2008's second CD-length mix from me. Again, I had a lot more music than would fit on a CD, so I had to do some cutting.

Tracklist:

01. Andrew Dost - Yeah, I Know, It's Christmastime
02. Diana Krall and Sarah McLachlan - Christmastime Is Here
03. Jimmy Dean - My Christmas Room
04. Darlene Love - Marshmallow World
05. ProvoHowl - A Song From Last Year
06. Brian Wilson - Christmasey
07. Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers - It's Christmas Once Again
08. Stevie Wonder - A Warm Little Home On A Hill
09. Smokey Robinson and The Miracles - Christmas Lullaby
10. Those Transatlantics - Boys and Children, Sing For Summer
11. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers - Christmas All Over Again
12. The OC Supertones - Joy To The World
13. Cale Parks - Drummer Boy (Kingston Edit)
14. Barenaked Ladies - Christmastime (Oh Yeah)
15. The Beach Boys - The Bells of Christmas
16. The Funk Brothers - Winter Wonderland
17. Rufus Wainwright - Spotlight On Christmas
18. The Format - Holly Jolly Christmas
19. Badly Drawn Boy - Donna and Blitzen
20. The Jackson Five - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Zipfile

Have Yourself A Mellow Little Christmas

Here's the second of 2006's two Christmas mixes I compiled. The mixes from '06 and '07 (stay tuned!) don't have covers uploaded, since I made all the covers by hand with paper cutouts and stickers and such. I'll probably put together covers for this year's two mixes, though I'm planning to continue with the handmade covers for the hardcopies my friends get.

Now, for about as long as they've existed, I've been a fairly faithful reader of two music blogs: You Ain't No Picasso and WFMU's Beware Of The Blog. But until December '06, I hadn't bothered to explore the rest of the MP3 blogosphere. Christmas music changed all that. For the first December in recent memory, my job didn't entail dealing on a personal level with enraged customers eight hours every single day, which meant that the ever-elusive "spirit of the season" was a lot easier to find. And, when I wasn't forced to listen to Christmas music on my employer's radio station, I found that I kind of missed it. So during that month, I downloaded more than a gig of Christmas music from all the assorted MP3 blogs out there. Some of them became my new best friends, and some I only visit each December. That's why this blog owes its very existence to Christmas music. (Well, that, and my collection of "Stagger Lee.")

Tracklist:

01. Aimee Mann - The Christmas Song
02. Combusible Edison - Christmastime Is Here
03. Diana Ross and The Supremes - White Christmas
04. Simon and Garfunkel - Comfort and Joy
05. Tom Waits - Silent Night
06. Enya - Oiche Chiun (Silent Night)
07. Pedro The Lion - I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day
08. Belle and Sebastian - O Come, O Come, Emmanuel
09. Dayna Manning - It's In Every One Of Us
10. The Coctails - First Snowfall
11. Math and Physics Club - Marshmallow World
12. The Beach Boys - Morning Christmas
13. Sarah McLachlan - Song For A Winter's Night
14. Travis - River
15. Chris Isaak - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Zip file

Have Yourself A Rockin' Little Christmas

Here's one of the two CD mixes I put together in 2006 for all my friends. (Come back Sunday for the second one, Have Yourself A Mellow Little Christmas, and I'll also explain how Christmas music was my introduction to MP3 blogs.) Two years ago, I was celebrating having a computer and regular net access for the first time in literally years. Also, for the first time in ages, due to changes in my job, I was really digging on Christmas music, and the spirit of peace and love I hadn't gotten much of for years. This is a nice rocking comp, mostly composed of stuff I'd downloaded all December (though I did rip some stuff, less than I've done since then).

A few words on how I compiled these: I tried not to include things that I heard on the radio, unless I loved them beyond all reason. Even the 24-hour Christmas-format radio stations with the widest playlists would only play about three songs from this CD. Looking back on it, I would probably reorder the two mixes from '06, since I put them together in less than a day after deciding to do it, but they're presented here as I assembled them originally, due mostly to laziness on my part, and for continuity for any of my friends who may download.

Tracklist:

01. Run-DMC - Christmas In Hollis
02. The Beach Boys - Santa's Beard
03. They Might Be Giants - Santa's Beard
04. Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
05. The Brian Setzer Orchestra - 'Zat You, Santa Claus?
06. Erlend Oye - Last Christmas
07. The Ventures - Sleigh Ride
08. The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping
09. Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen / We Three Kings
10. Cotton Top Sanctified Singers - Christ Was Born On Christmas Morn
11. Jill Sobule - Jesus Was A Dreidel Spinner
12. The Royal Guardsmen - Snoopy's Christmas
13. Aimee Mann and Grant Lee Phillips - You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch
14. Jack Johnson - Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
15. The Trashmen - Real Live Teenage Doll
16. My First Keyboard - Christmas Is Only Good If You Are A Girl (Boy)
17. James Brown - Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto
18. Kristoffer Ragnstam - Merry Christmas Baby
19. Better Than Ezra - Merry Christmas Eve
20. Velocity Girl - Merry Xmas I Love You
21. Middle Distance Runner - Xmas Party
22. Liz Phair - Winter Wonderland
23. Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmastime (Rhythm Scholar Kringle Kut Remix)
24. The Polyphonic Spree - Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

Zip file

Happy Birthday Dennis Wilson!

Dennis Wilson would've been 64 today. He was a sensitive guy, at first overshadowed by the other Beach Boys (he didn't sing lead vocals for years, and wasn't the primary songwriter on any songs they recorded till 1968).

Like his brothers, he had a deep spiritual side, which you can hear on his original Christmas hymn. (This song is so relaxing and warm I included it on my '06 compilation, Have Yourself A Mellow Little Christmas. Stay tuned -- it's coming in three days.) This was recorded for 1977's aborted album Merry Christmas From The Beach Boys. Once it was clear that album wouldn't be completed, Dennis set it aside for his own second solo album, also never completed.

Also from 1977 is a PSA Dennis recorded, featuring part of The Beach Boys' recording of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town." Alongside the buy link down there, I've included a link to donate to Toys for Tots. (The 1977 toy drive apparently was in Eugene, OR, headquartered at The Crystal Ship, a now-defunct record store. The whole group also recorded a new version of "Little Saint Nick" for that, which I haven't included here.)

Link to Zipfile
Buy from the band -- Buy a kid a toy

Okkervil River -- A Brief Introduction

This poster here is not for the show I saw last night, but it's pretty, and it represents a few things about the band -- their darkness and their mystery and their roughness.

I was all psyched to come here today and write an impassioned love note to Okkervil River for the show they put on, but I don't have to. It's already been done by others.

So let me say a few personal things instead. I'm a sucker for bands that have a trumpet in them. If you're a rock band, and you include a trumpet, I'll listen to any album you put out at least twice. Okkervil River has a trumpet, and it plays the trumpet figures that haunt my mind whenever I hear a sad song, any sad song at all, on the radio.

Will Sheff's vocals consistently affect me emotionally, no matter the lyrical content of the song. (Scroll down or click to listen to what he does, even with a silly song like "Simon Smith and The Amazing Dancing Bear.")

So here are my three favorite songs that the band played last night. "Plus Ones" is a good summation of everything Okkervil River can do, lyrically and musically. "John Allyn Smith Sails" turns into a surprise cover, which seems inevitable as soon as you hear the first strains. And "Westfall" is incredible -- a driving rock song that feels like the band's audition for the next volume of Murder Ballads. (The song was inspired by a real-life murder, kind of, and the way that Will Sheff's coworkers kept trying to see the evil in the banal murderer.)

(Okkervil River opened for The New Pornographers. Direct your browser this way tomorrow for a post on that half of the show.)

Okkervil River - Plus Ones
Okkervil River - John Allyn Smith Sails
Okkervil River - Westfall

Buy CDs from the record label -- The Stage Names, source of "Plus Ones" and "John Allyn Smith."
Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See, source of "Westfall."