SilentTalkie

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First of all, I need to apologize for the lack of audio in my podcast this week. I accidentally ran over my mic cord with my vacuum cleaner on the weekend and I forgot to pick up a new one before the show today. So you’ll have to suffer without my irritating voice narrating the tracks.

Since we’re now in December, I thought it might be time to start busting out a little Christmas music. However, since you get inundated with the same 10 songs every year, I thought that I’d start it off with songs that have a wintery or Christmas-y feel but aren’t your typical carols or songs. Some of them are written that focus mostly on the birth of Jesus but some of them are just fun songs. So sit back and enjoy what I’ve got in store for you today. Here’s what on the show:

MxPx – Late Great Snowball Fight of 2006

A fun song that was originally a fan-club only Christmas single. It’s being re-released by the band this year in a collection with their previous annual fan-club only Christmas songs. Most of them aren’t that great but there might be another song or two from that collection that will pop up over the next couple weeks.

mewithoutYou – A Stick, A Carrot, A String from “It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All A Dream! It’s All Right!”

My favourite track from one of my favourite releases of the year. Not technically a Christmas song but it talks a lot about the birth of Jesus and it’s about as upbeat as mewithoutYou ever get.

Stavesacre – Savior Of The Fools

Originally performed by Puller, this is easily my favourite “emo” Christmas song. The lyrics get a little cheezy but I think the song does a great job reflecting on the season. You can get the original here.

The Beautiful Mistake – A Cradle In Bethlehem from “A Santa Cause: It’s A Punk Rock Christmas”

This is a surprisingly old song with it originally recorded by Nat King Cole in 1963. The now defunct post-punk band “The Beautiful Mistake” do a great job of updating the song.

Sufjan Stevens – We’re Going To The Country from “Songs For Christmas”

You had to know this was coming. It’s tough to mention Christmas music these days without bringing up Sufjan. His early EP’s that he originally intended only for friends have become one of the main reasons for the resugence and popularity of artists wanting to record their own holiday-themed music. There will be more to come from him but this song seemed to fit perfectly right here.

Teenage Fanclub – Jesus Christ from “Big Star Small World – A Tribute To Big Star”

As the album name suggests, this was originally a tune by Big Star that was recorded for a tribute album. It took about 10 years for the tribute album to get released but thankfully it was.

The New Pornographers – Joseph, Who Understood from “Spirit of Giving EP”

When I first heard this song, I was surprised. I didn’t expect that kind of honest reflection of Joseph’s acceptance of Mary’s pregnancy to come from a band that calls themselves The New Pornographers. Sure they’ve made outstanding music for a long time but it seems rather religious for a band that isn’t known for being so inclined. I always kind of wondered how Joseph could buy that his pregnant fiancee was impregnated by God and not just cheating on him. I guess that might be putting a current slant on a different time period, but still, it’s surprising that he didn’t disown her right away. Although I guess eventually, an angel did appear to him and confirm her story.

Starflyer 59 – A Holiday Song (Happy Holidays) from “The Fashion Focus”

Yet another song to come off a not so Christmas album. I’m not sure what this is doing in the middle of perhaps Starflyer’s best album, but it seems to work. This is about the poppiest Starflyer got in the early days and it still holds up well more than 10 years later.

Pilate – Fairytale of New York from “Maybe The Christmas Tree”

For those who don’t remember Pilate, they had a brief run of Canadian success with the song “Into Your Hideout” (and are currently recording under the name Pilot Speed). We find them here re-imagining The Pogues classic “Fairytale of New York”. While it’s missing some of the roughness that you’d expect from the song, (Actually, if you think this is polished, check out Stars’ new version of it. It’s so squeaky clean, it’s tough to take the narrative seriously) I think it still works.

Thanks for listening and hopefully I’ll be back next week with a new mic to provide a little bit more narration for you.

Jared