Monday, December 24, 2007

Happy Christmas


It's Christmas Eve. I'm at work, but not working as is evident from this post. It's actually a good day to be coming in - quiet commute, and just after 9am was a good time to go to Oxford Street for last-minute Christmas shopping - I've hardly seen it so quiet.

Anyway, I wasn't going to post the usual indie-bands-doing-Christmas songs, but I've come across some this morning as part of my hard work, and I thought I'd sign off with some seasonal cheer. This may be the last post till after the New Year.

Before I do, it's work remarking on the futility of the various campaigns to get non-reality TV endorsed people to Xmas number 1. Despite backing from the mighty Radio 1, Malcolm Middleton's We're All Going to Die didn't even make the top 30, scraping in at number 31. Still, it was the second highest new entry and probably worth it to see the son of Falkirk in the charts at all. Lucky Soul aren't even in the top 100! Like Scotland World Cup campaigns it started with a surge of optmism, then a realisation of just how mighty the opposition is...Nae chance.

Here's a remix of Malcolm's song which came my way last week.


Anyway onto better things. It seems to be the thing to have a Christmas myspace song up for download. One particular goodie is Theoretical Girl's version of O Holy Night, which abandons her usual electropop for something more atmospheric and lovely.


Elsewhere, Pure Groove records have put a little Xmas mixtape up over a couple of myspace sites (side a and b) to post some songs recorded as part of their instore festivities last week. They're all pretty good, and there are currently six up for your downloading pleasure with the promise of more to come (though they better be fast if they're to remain within the sell by date). I've uploaded a version of Little Donkey by east London troubadour Chris TT (who has more festive songs on his own myspace), and a cover of Winter Wonderland by Jay Jay Pistolet, a fine young chap who you'll no doubt be hearing more of on this blog in the new year.

Download: Jay Jay Pistolet - Winter Wonderland

There are more tracks from Noah and the Whale, Lightspeed Champion, Eugene McGuinness and Bans on Toast.

Finally, a Christmas song that doesn't really get the recognition it deserves. Their tune Too Much Wine occasionally makes it into these Xmas song lists, but what about Stupid Bells? A better piece of seasonal misanthropic black humour I've yet to hear. Sample lyric - "Christmas is the season when most folks kill themselves / Christmas is the reason for all those stupid bells". Enjoy.

Download: The Handsome Family - Stupid Bells

That'll do for now. Lunchtime beckons, and I need to sneakily head off to get the presents wrapped and the ham on.

Happy Christmas. Thanks to all who click on this blog regularly. I'll be back in 2008.

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