Popnarcotic: Recent Episodes
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Yes, I know: there are like 6 people on the planet who are gonna “get” the title of this year’s seasonal music mix o’ joy and festivityness. And that’s OK. It amused me a lot, and that’s all that matters. This is a little bit late this year — sorry, blame my poor planning, and also the fact that, like most years, I had a version of this that I ended up just stripping out and almost starting over again to get something I was happy with.
One of my completely Christmas agnostic friends (so, yeah, basically “agnostic”) gave this a spin for me over the weekend and the main comment was “That first song might have people calling your mix ‘woke’.” And I’m thinking, first, that that’s fine by me. But also, that whole Christmas origin story what with the maternal empowerment and the refugees and such…it’s pretty much as woke as it gets. So yeah, we’re on theme.
For more than a decade, I’ve wanted to use that early Wailers song in a holiday mix, too. But I have never, not ever, been able to sort out how to segue in and out of reggae or ska without using the Clash, and as far as I know, there’s no Christmas hits by them floating around out there. I think I maybe cracked it this time, by finding that vintage track by The Ethiopians and also that excellent new Lou Rawls cover from the Black Pumas. (Who are great, btw.)
I also had no idea that The High Strung did a Christmas album back in 2000…and that said holiday album is so good, to boot. I’m a sucker for a rollicking holiday track that sounds like everyone recording it has been hitting the spiked eggnog first.
One of the biggest issues with my first run at this mix for 2023 is how many downer, cryin’ in my beer, I’m so miserable holiday tunes are out there currently. If you know me, you know I have zero time for doomerism, so I had to do some scrubbing. That being said, one bit of blue Christmas that survived that purge was a killer track from Aimee Mann and Ted Leo. The bridge on that song gives me goosebumps every time.
And so here’s a wild thing: one of the first holiday mixes I ever made — on a cassette tape — back in the 1990s, I put “Christmas Wrapping” on it. And over the years, I heard horror stories from friends who worked in malls and retail about hearing that song approximately 10 million times in any given December, so I’ve never used it since. (One friend of mine swears that the song played every 45 minutes at Urban Outfitters in the early Aughts.) But…it’s a cool tune. And Waitresses saxophone genius Mars Williams passed away this past year. So yeah, let’s bring that one back.
Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least make mention of the passing of Shane MacGowan earlier this month. “Fairytale of New York” has been part of my holiday mood-setting for more than 30 years now, and if you believe in such things, it’s nice to think that maybe in the great beyond, he and Kirsty can get together and have a pint and belt that one out again.
Anyway, I hope this li’l missive finds you all well, or with prospects to be doing well, and that however you celebrate this season that it’s a good one with new, happy memories to make. Y’all know the drill here by now: everything’s mixed to equalize the volume, and everything’s sequenced just so and held together as one MP3. Right-click and save the title, or just be a rebel and click and play if that’s your thing. Have a happy and safe holiday everyone!
Sleigh Tracks 2023 (Holiday Music Mix, 2023)
Track List:
- Miley Cyrus “Santa Baby”
- The High Strung “Here Comes The Cheer”
- The Boy Least Likely To “The Wassail Song”
- Aimee Mann & Ted Leo “Nothing Left To Do (Let’s Make This Christmas Blue”)
- Matt Pond PA “This Winter”
- Lola Kirke “Cross You Off My List”
- The Leisure Society “Christmas Mistakes”
- JD McPherson “Every Single Christmas”
- The Ethiopians “Ding Dong Bell”
- Bob Marley & The Wailers “Sound The Trumpet”
- Black Pumas “Christmas Will Really Be Christmas”
- Clarence Carter “Back Door Santa”
- Peaness “Kiss Me, Sweetpea”
- Au Revoir Simone “Fallen Snow”
- The Waitresses “Christmas Wrapping”
- The Great Escape “Season of Love”
- Green Day “X-Mas Time Of Year”
- The Elephant Stone “Another Year Gone”
- Aretha Franklin “Winter Wonderland”
- The Beths “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”
- Vale Shane MacGowan
It’s a sun-splashed Saturday where I live today. The kind of Saturday morning that stands out in childhood nostalgia where it’s warm but not too hot, where there’s a vague whiff in the air of freshly mowed lawns, and where the days feel bulging with the possibility of doing utterly fun things that even a […]
Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Blessed Kwanzaa! Or just best wishes on the end of the year, happy solstice, etc. etc. Regardless of how or why you celebrate, it’s that time of year when a young man’s attentions turn to cheer, joy, friends and family nearby and far away.
I really planned to have this done last week. Two weeks ago, even. But every time I’d listen to the mix of songs I thought I’d use, I’d realize that the mix was either really slow and sad-feeling (which, yeah, I’m not here to be the Feelings Police by any means, but I’m also not making music mixes for Christmas to have everyone crying in their seasonal Christmas ales either.) I tried moving songs around. Nope. So I started subbing stuff in, and tearing stuff out.
Thus and so, suddenly it’s Sunday and I’m starting to wonder if I’ll even have a holiday music fiesta to share this year. After having a lovely dinner out with a couple of friends, I got home that evening and decided to do a little bit of prep for work on Monday — meaning fiddling with some spreadsheets. Excitement. I also figured I’d take another stab at things with the holiday music mix, and rearranged a few more songs, added two, took out three. Started playing it while I worked, not really paying attention to the tunes.
And so that’s when it happened. Somewhere around minute six or seven or eight into the mix, I realized that I’ve had kind of been bopping and bouncing in my desk chair to the music, absently playing drums on my desk with a pen. And all that warm and fuzzy George Baileyish, Bob Cratchity holiday spirit is roaring in my veins.
Which is to say, we have a mix of holiday tunes for 2022! What do we have this year?
The whole thing kicks off with the inimitable JD McPherson. JD’s Christmas album, Socks, is a must-have. And wahey, a new Chris Isaak holiday music album? Yeah, sign me up. And though I’m no fan of certain singers trying to proclaim themselves the Queen of Christmas or whatever, I am a huge fan of Charly Bliss taking that singer’s song and absolutely rocking it; I’ll take helium-voiced Charly Bliss lead vocalist Eva Hendricks over the original any day.
There’s lots of fun stuff packed in here. Irish band Pugwash do a ripping good job with XTC’s “Thanks for Christmas”, and God bless Pugwash frontman Thomas Walsh for singing it in his own Dublin accent (essentially making this song “T’anks for Christmas”). I love Remi Wolf’s soulful take on “Winter Wonderland”. I’d also been thinking about using Sparks’s amazing “Thank God it’s Not Christmas” in a mix for more than a decade, but always wondered, “Are people ready for Sparks?” It’s 2022. Any of y’all who are still uninitiated and unaware of their enduring brilliance are finally ready for Sparks.
One of the few repeat tracks on this year’s mix is “Just Like Christmas” by Low. Sadly, Low singer and drummer Mimi Parker passed away a few weeks ago, and I’ve had that track going through my mind ever since…so it’s here again. I love the Swansea Sound song here as well; that’s the collaboration of Hue Williams and Amelia Fletcher (Heavenly, Marine Girls, etc) and company. (Should any young’uns out there ever be told that playing rock and roll is the way to a dissolute future, steer them to Ms. Fletcher’s hilariously unique wikipedia page which begins by identifying her as a singer, songwriter, guitarist and economist before noting that she’s a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.) And finally, if “Groovy Xmas” by the Linda Lindas doesn’t get your blood pumping, you may not be ready for the oncoming holiday.
As is tradition, this is one long MP3 — everything’s sequenced the way I’d like, with the volume across the tracks normalized so you won’t get too blasted out by the rockers here. You should be able to right-click and download, or just click to stream.
And as always, I hope this music finds you in fine fettle. Have a happy and joyous and safe holiday season!
Sounds A Little Bit Like Christmastime! (Holiday Music Mix, 2022)Oh, and howzabout a track list:
- JD McPherson “What’s That Sound?”
- Chris Isaak “Almost Christmas”
- Charly Bliss “All I Want For Christmas Is You”
- The Linda Lindas “Groovy Xmas”
- Swansea Sound “Happy Christmas To Me”
- Sparks “Thank God It’s Not Christmas”
- Remi Wolf “Winter Wonderland”
- Low “Just Like Christmas”
- Andy Bell “Listen, The Snow is Falling”
- Huey Piano Smith & The Clowns “‘Twas The Night Before Christmas”
- The Walkmen “In the New Year”
- Otis Redding “White Christmas”
- The Bell Rays “Rocket Ship Santa”
- The Killers “Great Big Sled”
- Pugwash “Thanks For Christmas”
- Cheap Trick “I Want You For Christmas”
- Punchline “Together”
- Boston Spaceships “Christmas Girl”
- Tracey Thorn “Joy”
- The Pogues and the NYPD Choir and such
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Originally posted on Popnarcotic:
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