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We Mix You A Merry Christmash – Fun Alternatives To Your Usual Christmas Music Playlist Ideas

admin — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 04:44:21 +0000

This is not a gratuitous image exploiting
women. We included a clip of Charo singing
Feliz Blah Blah Blah on Pee Wee’s
Playhouse below. Made ya look though.

It all begins around the first of November, when you’re at the market staring at piles of deeply discounted mini chocolate bars left over from Halloween, and suddenly, like some sonic message from the dark side, “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town” pokes through the ambient shopping noise. By mid-December, you’ve probably subliminally absorbed so many Christmas songs that you find yourself spontaneously whistling “Walkin’ In A Winter Wonderland” while making love. So it’s natural that so many people groan at the idea of listening to Christmas music on purpose. Which is a shame, because thanks to the thousands of crassly opportunistic attempts to cash in on the Christmas spirit, there are literally thousands of tunes to choose from, in every genre, from several decades. We’ve previously tried to cover all the bases; over the past couple of years we Jewished you a merry Christmas with Oye To The World, suggested some Santastic mashups with Generation Xmas, and with Generation Triple X-Mas we got on Santa’s naughty list. So this year, we thought we’d try to get back on the “nice” list with some actually sane Christmas music ideas, and a few oddities thrown in for fun. If you’ve ever gone searching on the web for some new holiday music ideas, you may have had that Wikiphilia-like experience of suddenly realizing you just wasted three hours of your life mindlessly YouTubing weird Christmas tunes like we did. So we have to give considerable thanks to MistleTunes, Falalalala.com, and Check The Cool Wax for their passion and devotion to compiling and organizing thousands of offbeat and obscure holiday songs. They bring a lot of the spirit back to what should be one of the best parts of the holidays. The music! Hope you enjoy, and feel free to share your own playlist ideas.

Multi-Generational

First up, if you put these three collections on shuffle, you can pretty much relax and enjoy your company for a couple of hours. This combination pacifies several generations at once: The old geezers, the jazz & crooner snobs, and the almost-thirty hipsters who still think listening to the rat pack makes you cool. It’s also good to expose the even younger crowd to this stuff; by the time they’re fifty this will literally be classical music from a century long gone. Christmas Belles is awesome because almost all the ladies singing on it are instantly recognizable with just last names : Garland, Fitzgerald, Horne, Clooney, Vaughan, Kitt. Great stuff that puts Davis, Sinatra, and Martin in their place.


Lifetime Intimate Portraits: Christmas Belles	Christmas With The Rat Pack	A Merry Christmas With Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters

Christmas Contemporary 2009

This is a personal mix of mine from last year. It’s a little less broad in appeal, but I think I did a pretty good job of moving through some moods on a single CD-length mix. The inclusion of Paul McCartney’s nauseating “Wonderful Christmastime” seemed the only way to break up the genuineness of the John Lennon so things could move on to the syrup of “Father Christmas”. All the tunes are available on Amazon for $0.99USD, except the two mashups which you can download for FREE. Little preview widgets below too:

01 Brenda Lee – Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
02 Beach Boys – Little Saint Nick
03 Bobby Helms – Jingle Bell Rock
04 Temptations – Little Drummer Boy
05 Ray Charles – Christmas Time
06 Ventures – Jingle Bells
07 John & Yoko – Happy Christmas
08 Paul McCartney – Wonderful Christmastime
09 Greg Lake – I Believe In Father Christmas
10 Vince Guaraldi Trio – Christmas Time Is Here
11 Tom Jones With Cerys From Catatonia – Baby It’s Cold Outside
12 Jackson Five – Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
13 Waitresses – Christmas Wrapping
14 A plus D – Give Da Jew Girl Toys (Direct MP3 Link)
15 Lenlow ¿Dónde Está Santa Claus (Direct MP3 Link)

A plus D – Give Da Jew Girl Toys

Lenlow – ¿Dónde Está Santa Claus

Okay, call me a sap, but Hurts’ All I Want For Christmas Is New Year’s Day got me all weepy and sentimental, maybe because I’m so good at having crappy Christmases. Some people just want it all to be over with as soon as possible.

But not Julian Casablancas, who wishes it were Christmas every day

It’s The Little Things- Voicedude

The miraculous marriage of Trans Siberian Orchestra’s Christmas Canon and Blink 182′s All The Small Things, ordained with some classic Christmas film clips.

Pee Wee’s Sleigh House

Pee Wee Herman always brings a special magic to the holidays, especially when he wishes you “Feliz Blah Blah Blah” with Charo or Grace Jones pops out of his package.

Grace Jones – Little Drummer Boy

Charo – Feliz Navidad

	New York oldies station WCBS FM 101.1 put together The Ultimate Christmas Album in 1994. And again in 1995, 1996, and so on. In spite of their apparent failure to understand the meaning of “ultimate”, we still benefit, because these are in fact pretty decent Christmas oldies collections, and even if you’re not thrilled with each complete compilation they’re still great starting points for your own playlist.
WCBS FM Ultimate Christmas Album Volume 1	WCBS FM Ultimate Christmas Album Volume II
1. Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee2. Jingle Bell Rock – Bobby Helms 3. What Christmas Means To Me – Stevie Wonder 4. You’re My Christmas Present – Jimmy Beaumont & The Skyliners 5. White Christmas – The Drifters 6. Merry Merry Christmas Baby – Margo Sylvia & The Tune Weavers 7. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus – Jimmy Boyd 8. Baby’s First Christmas – Connie Francis 9. Silver Bells – Diana Ross & The Supremes 10. It’s Christmas Once Again – Frankie Lymon 11. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer – Gene Autry 12. Run Rudolph Run – Chuck Berry 13. Please Come Home For Christmas – Dion 14. The Chipmunk Song ( Christmas Don’t Be Late ) – Alvin & the Chipmunks 15. This Time Of The Year – Brook Benton 16. Christmas Ain’t Christmas (Without The One You Love) – The O’Jays 17. The Little Drummer Boy – Harry Simeone Chorale 18. I’ll Be Home For Christmas – Fats Domino 19. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town – The Four Seasons 20. This Christmas – Donny Hathaway 21. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer – The Cadillacs 22. Christmas Serenade – Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge 23. Silent Night – The Temptations 24. Christmas Auld Lang Syne – Bobby Darin 25. Another Lonely New Year’s Eve – Jimmy Beaumont & The Skyliners	1. Little Saint Nick – The Beach Boys2. White Christmas – Diana Ross & The Supremes 3. Here Comes Santa Claus – Gene Autry 4. Sleigh Ride – Johnny Mathis 5. Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer – Elmo & Patsy 6. A Christmas Long Ago (Jingle Jingle) – THE ECHELONS 7. Merry Christmas Darling – The Carpenters 8. Donde Esta Santa Claus – AUGIE RIOS 9. Merry Christmas Baby – Dion 10. Give Love On Christmas Day – The Jackson Five 11. Holly Jolly Christmas – Burl Ives 12. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge 13. Frosty The Snowman – The Beach Boys 14. Nuttin’ For Christmas – Barry Gordon 15. The Christmas Song – The Duprees 16. Pretty Paper – Roy Orbison 17. It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas – Bing Crosby 18. Merry Christmas All – Denise Montana & The Salsoul Orch 19. Dominick The Donkey – Lou Monte 20. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer – THE MELODEERS 21. Someday At Christmas – Stevie Wonder 22. It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year – Andy Williams 23. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! – Dean Martin 24. Happy New Year Baby – JO ANN CAMPBELL 25. After New Year’s Eve – The Heartbeats
WCBS FM Ultimate Christmas Album Volume III	WCBS FM Ultimate Christmas Album Volume IV
1. The Christmas Song – Nat King Cole2. All Alone On Christmas – Darlene Love 3. I’ll Be Home For Christmas – Larry Chance & The Earls 4. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town – Bobby Vinton 5. Jingle Bells – THE SINGING DOGS 6. Twinkle Twinkle Little Me – The Supremes 7. Winter Wonderland – Johnny Mathis 8. Sleigh Ride – The Ventures 9. Home For The Holidays – Perry Como 10. Christmas Vacation – Mavis Staples 11. The Bell That Couldn’t Jingle – Burt Bacharach 12. Feliz Navidad – Jose Feliciano 13. O Holy Night – Lou Christie/University Of Pittsburgh’s Men’s Glee Club 14. White Christmas – Bing Crosby 15. It’s Christmas Everywhere – Paul Anka 16. Chrissy The Christmas Mouse – Donald O’Connor/Debbie Reynolds 17. Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree – Dion 18. Happy Holidays – Andy Williams 19. Amen – The Impressions 20. We Need A Little Christmas – Percy Faith 21. Santa Baby – Eartha Kitt 22. All I Want For Christmas Is You – Larry Chance/Johnny Maestro/Bobby Jay/Joel Katz 23. All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth – Spike Jones 24. Christmas Time – Ray Charles 25. The Night Before Christmas – Fred Waring	1. Blue Christmas – Elvis Presley2. The Man With All The Toys – The Beach Boys 3. Merry Christmas Baby – Otis Redding 4. Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy – David Bowie And Bing Crosby 5. Christmas Is – Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge 6. Twistin’ Bells – Santo & Johnny 7. Merry, Merry Christmas Baby – Dodie Stevens 8. The Twelve Days Of Christmas – Ray Conniff 9. White Christmas – Patti LaBelle & The Bluebelles 10. If It Doesn’t Snow On Christmas Day – Gene Autry 11. Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town – Brenda Lee 12. A Baby Just Like You – John Denver 13. Gee Whiz, It’s Christmas – Carla Thomas 14. Christmas Eve In My Home Town – Bobby Vinton 15. You’re All I Want For Christmas – Brook Benton 16. Sleigh Ride – Leroy Anderson 17. Winter Wonderland – The Platters 18. What Can I Give You This Christmas – The Lettermen 19. Jingle Bell Rock – Larry Chance & The Earls 20. It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas – Perry Como 21. O Holy Night – Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge 22. Christmas Is – Percy Faith 23. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Lou Rawls 24. Silent Night – Frankie Lymon 25. Christmas Dragnet – Stan Freberg
WCBS FM Ultimate Christmas Album Volume V	WCBS FM Ultimate Christmas Album Volume VI
1. Wonderful Christmas – Paul McCartney & Wings2. Little Drummer Boy – The Tokens 3. Silver Bells – Elvis Presley 4. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town – Pointer Sisters 5. Christmas Time Is Here (Vocal Version) – The Vince Guaraldi Trio 6. The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas To You) – Johnny Mathis 7. Jingle Bell Rock – Hall & Oates 8. Blue Holiday – The Shirelles 9. Sleigh Ride – Andy Williams 10. A Christmas Love Song – The Manhattan Transfer 11. Mary’s Boy Child – Harry Belafonte 12. Christmas Wrapping – The Waitresses 13. There Is No Christmas Like A Home Christmas – Perry Como 14. I’ll Be Home For Christmas – The Beach Boys 15. Christmas Delight – The Four Tops 16. Deck The Hall – Nat King Cole 17. If Every Day Was Like Christmas – Elvis Presley 18. Silver Bells – Bing Crosby 19. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus – The Jackson 5 20. White Christmas – The Temptations 21. A Marshmallow World – Dean Martin 22. Silent Night – Gladys Knight & The Pips 23. Santa Claus Is Watching You – Ray Stevens 24. What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? – The Orioles 25. It’s Just Another New Year’s Eve (Live) – Barry Manilow	1. Last Christmas – Wham2. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town – The Beach Boys 3. Winter Wonderland – Aretha Franklin 4. White Christmas – Tony Bennett 5. Frosty The Snowman – The Jackson Five 6. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! – Andy Williams 7. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – The O’Jays 8. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing – America 9. The Christmas Song – Barry Manilow 10. The Children’s Christmas Song – Diana Ross And The Supremes 11. I’ll Be Home For Christmas – Johnny Mathis 12. Doo Wop Christmas – Kenny Vance And The Planotones 13. The Christmas Waltz – Doris Day 14. I Believe In Father Christmas – Greg Lake 15. A Night To Remember – Engelbert Humperdinck 16. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear – Tony Orlando 17. Happy Holiday/The Holiday Season – The Manhattan Transfer 18. Kissin’ By The Mistletoe – Aretha Franklin 19. Silver Bells – Any Williams 20. Frosty The Snowman – Jimmy Durante 21. White Christmas – Connie Francis 22. Come On A Sleigh Ride With Me… – Brian Hyland 23. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town – Perry Como 24. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Linda Ronstadt 25. May You Always – Harry Harrison

More Mashups: Girls Aloud Allowed, But EMI Goes GooGoo Over Gaga

admin — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:29:05 +0000

We’ve touched on mashups before, but hadn’t realized how deeply they’d been cross-infected with mainstream pop culture, and hadn’t considered the daunting task they bring to record labels operating with a Jurassic attitude toward media distribution and rights management. First of all, let’s look at an example of how not to do a mashup, and then take a look at an example of why issuing takedowns to mashup artists is probably not all that productive. So how not to do a mashup? Fox TV’s Glee “got hip” and jumped on the mashup train by taking the Police song “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” and Gary Puckett’s “Young Girl”, and having one of the stars of the show sing them as a mashup. The result was predictably horrifying. The problem? The music was obviously licensed, played by studio session players, and badly dubbed over by the actor. The net result is comparable to watching your friend who majored in drama but ended up being an MBA singing “Halo” at karaoke night. If anyone should get sued in the world of mashups, it’s the producers of Glee. On the other end of the spectrum, we have situations where a label like EMI issues a takedown when the repurposing of their property would probably do them more benefit than harm. The piece just linked to explains why EMI issued a takedown for NirGaga, the Lady Gaga Vs. Nirvana mashup. What’s wrong with that scenario? For me, the mashup made me remember Nirvana, who I hadn’t thought of in ages, and exposed me to Lady Gaga, who I would otherwise not go out of my way to listen to. In either case, it’s doubtful that the free distribution of the mashup would dent EMI’s profits, and in spite of EMI’s takedown, the video and song remain “in the wild”, and fairly easy to find, as evident with the YouTube link above. Another example of reaching a new and unlikely end-user (i.e.: me) is a series of mashups of Girls Aloud, the British reality TV superstar girl band that’s made millions and that I’d bet a million that – like me – you’ve never heard of before. Below are examples of Girls Aloud and a few other mashups (Devo vs Souljaboy, Lady Gaga vs Eurythmics) that – at least to my ears – make the unlistenable fairly listenable. I doubt major media companies will ever get this property management vs exposure equation, and will continue throwing the baby out with the bath water until they’re bankrupt. If you want a quick roundup of some of last year’s best mashups, check out CultureBully’s list, or Best of Bootie 2009.

Girls Aloud’s “Long Hot Summer” and Beastie Boys “Body Movin’” are both arguably fairly weak on their own, but the mashup actually kind of rocks.

I enjoyed Devo’s “Whip It” in its day, but certainly never think of listening to it now. And Soulja Boy’s “Tell`em Crank That” isn’t likely to find its way on to my play list, but mash them up, and you have an altogether new experience. A sort of “gangstas smokin’ hillbilly crank” experience, to be specific.

Somehow Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams” rescues Lady Gaga’s “Let’s Dance” from its feeble slapback-echo-driven 1986-ness by mixing it with some over-sequenced 1982-ness.

Reality meets reality: Kelly Clarkson’s “Walk Away” mashed with Girls Aloud’s “Love Machine” has a synergistic effect that works better than either tune on their own.

The one that EMI cease-and-desisted: Lady Gaga Vs. Nirvana (NirGaga)

Oye To The World

admin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 05:36:59 +0000

We’ve all gotten so used to the fact that the first songs you hear on the radio three minutes after midnight on Halloween are either “White Christmas” or “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” that we probably don’t even think about what it’s like to be Jewish around Christmas time. Sure, there’s Hanukkah, but it’s kind of a minor holiday, and historically didn’t have too many catchy pop tunes associated with it. Which frankly is a little odd, because a surprising number of songs that are considered Christmas classics were written by Jewish songwriters. Including the two just mentioned. Expanding on the list just linked to (and offering some free downloads), you might also check out Jewish You A Merry Christmas. But we’ve come a long way since the days when the only hip Jewish holiday songs out there were Adam Sandler’s Chanukah Song and Sarah Silverman’s Give The Jew Girl Toys. We’ve mentioned dj BC’s Santastic Christmas mashups before, but this year hebrews up a new mix with Menorah Mashup, so if you are Jewish, maybe you won’t feel like such a menorah-ty this holiday season. And it has the added Jewish appeal that not only do you not pay retail, you pay nothing at all! It’s a free download. If this were a commercial release though, the obvious single would be “Challahback Girl”, a mashup of Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” and Frank Yankovick doing “Hava Nagila”. So dj BC has graciously provided an additional remix collection that includes both “Orthodox” and “Reform” mixes. That Menorah Mashup link above has the free download links, but if you want to preview the tunes, Exstatica.net has kindly provided the tunes as streams. Chappy Chanukah!

It’s Not Easy Being A Mashup Addict

admin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:09:57 +0000

Radiohead Meets Dave Brubeck

The other day a friend turned me onto this Pulp Fiction Audio Mix mashup, which reminded me that it’s not easy being a mashup addict. For a long time I complained about how musicians were getting lazy and building whole songs around a single sample (like Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz Deja Vu ), and now I’m whining because I can’t find sample-based material fast enough! I’m not even always sure what I’m looking for; the word “mashup” wasn’t in the OED last time I checked. My favorites are probably the purely musical ones like the the rather brilliant Dave Brubeck/Radiohead clip featured at left, or this Beatles/Kinks/LCD Soundsystem clip, but this medium is pretty broad. Consider the early 90′s EBN mashups like Rock This Base or the more recent Golden Age of Video by Ricardo Autobahn. Both mix the audio and video of multiple sources to pretty good effect. I’m still probably most impressed with artists like YouTube remixing genius Kutiman for his sheer devotion to musicality, but face it. Even William Shatner explaining why Kirk climbs a mountain has some merit, as does a meme-remashing like Christian Bale takes David to the Dentist or the utterly insane Sweatin’ Like a Farm Animal, Cool as a Daisy. If mashups are a totally new concept for you, check out our previous pieces on the topic.

A still from Sweatin’ Like a Farm Animal, Cool as a Daisy:

YouTube As A Musical Instrument

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:50:41 +0000

Although clearly not as epic a project as the incredible Kutiman – who remixed hundreds of YouTube music clips to create mindblowing mashups – Audiogravity is still pretty cool. It’s just a bunch of YouTube clips embedded in a single page, but you can start and stop any of them at the same time for some simple atmospheric “jazz”. Created by Darren Solomon of New York musical collaborative Science for Girls, Audiogravity is an extension of his Bb project, which (in a fashion similar to Jazzy Japanese Pop Band Sour’s fan-driven video) relies on user-submitted clips for the finished product. Solomon’s “band” Science for Girls is, in his words, “melodic electronica with roots in jazz and Brazillian music”, and their debut album features an eclectic group of guest vocalists from NYC’s indie music scene. Solomon’s blog is also pretty interesting; where else would I have learned about the Turkish instrument called a Cumbus? Which of course Solomon had to turn into a Cumbusfest. Which in turn led me in that Google-distracted, wikiphiliac fashion to discover today’s favorite waste of time: AudioPornCentral.com, where I learned that not only is YouTube a musical instrument as we’ve seen here, but Ohio is a piano.

Check out Science For Girls – Getz & Gilberto meets Martini Lounge Electronica:

Viva La Jaydiohead – Jay-Z Meets Radiohead

admin — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 04:01:13 +0000

What’s black and white and comes in rainbows? A pair of brilliant mashups of Jay Z’s Black Album. If you missed Danger Mouse’s 2004 Mashup The Grey Album, try to get a copy (Illegal-Art.org has a torrent link). It’s a masterful mashup of The Beatles’ White Album and Jay-Z’s Black Album. The legal fuss that EMI created at the time probably only served to promote the release, as did the clever Grey Video that repurposed original black-and-white footage from a 60′s Beatles concert. Since then there have been a few other attempts at mashing up Jay-Z, like OJAYZIS (Jay-Z vs Oasis) or Viva la Hova, a mash with Coldplay’s Viva la Vida. But none have been quite as listenable as this year’s Jaydiohead produced by NYC DJ Minty Fresh Beats (who’s apparently since re-branded himself as Max Tannone). Hail to the Thief!

Kutiman Remixes YouTube

admin — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 05:15:21 +0000

I secretly hold dear a belief that there’s an incredible harmony at the core of the chaos that is contemporary user-generated media. Well, an Israeli artist named Kutiman proves it with his project ThruYOU. You know all those misanthropic, socially awkward musician types you might find playing music in videos on YouTube, as if they were stars in some imaginary band? Well, even they didn’t realize it, but they WERE. Kutiman did something absolutely INCREDIBLE – and I can only imagine to be mind-numbingly tedious – by sorting through an amazingly diverse collection of YouTube tutorial and demo clips, and then assembling them into mashups and grooves that are in my opinion imminently listenable. I hope this guy gets some kind of distribution deal or financial reward for this stuff. One of my faves, I M New, is featured here. The easiest way to watch them in order is at ThruYOU, but he also of course has a YouTube page. He seems like a very cool and mellow guy; just check out his version of an “about” page. He also apparently does original work; see his MySpace page. Kind of cool dubby jazzy funky grooves, but I personally think his gift is with the mashup.

Wired’s “Rippy Awards”: Tired, Expired

admin — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:55:32 +0000

Wired.com has proven once again that having been very hip and cutting edge at one point doesn’t mean you’re very hip and cutting edge now. But I’ll give them an ‘A’ for conceptualization regarding their First Annual Rippy Music Awards. The piece suggests that someone should fill the gaping hole in music awards that programs like the Grammy Awards fail to fill. Unfortunately, Wired also fails to do so in the piece linked to, but it’s nice to see that a major media outlet has at least mentioned the problem. This has been a disappointment for me for a while; the last time I actually watched the American Music Awards for instance, was when Jamiroquai was big. Few of the people I know who love music (except the wacked out audiophiles who have $100,000.00 turntables) actually pop in physical media, listen to it, and tune into MTV to see the video. And with the plethora of music sites out there, the option to preview material by torrenting, and a wealth of YouTube content, who would? Wired is definitely onto something here, but unfortunately their coverage is a little weak. They spread about a paragraph’s worth of content over twelve pages with weirdly incongruent images, they failed to embed any music or video files, and they didn’t even mention mashups as a key category. I really don’t like writing negative pieces like this, that’s what critics are for. But please, Wired. I used to love you. Anybody have a suggestion for a more up-to-date music award? I mean, besides Pitchfork Media’s Top 50 Lists?

Best of Bootie 2008

admin — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 04:01:03 +0000

With a title like Best of Bootie 2008, you might think I’m promoting some kind of rapper chick porn, but the fact is that after hours of (sometimes excruciating) listening, I can comfortably say that this is the absolute best selection of mashups (which we’ve previously discussed here) of 2008. There are a LOT of people doing mashups these days, and many of them, though conceptually clever, are almost unlistenable (like Eminelton, for instance), or in other cases they’ll be alright except for the fact that the “mashup artist” gets a little lazy with polishing up the final product to make sure that things are rhythmically tight and not harmonically incongruent. Not a problem with Best of Bootie’s selection – not only are all the tracks exceptionally well-remixed, they’ve even put them in a very listenable sequence. You could pretty much toss this on at any party and not have to think about it again. Some faves of mine include (all direct mp3 links): Overdub’s mix Come As The Starlight (Nirvana vs. The Supermen Lovers) manages to make Kurt Cobain sound like a motown classic; Totom’s track Every Kind Of Creep (Radiohead vs. Robert Palmer) turns “Creep” into the jazz song it always secretly was anyway, and DJ Y Alias JY’s Duffy Train Running (Duffy vs. Doobie Brothers) somehow actually makes both artists sound better. Here’s a little preview of “Come As The Starlight” for you:

Generation X-Mas

admin — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 13:04:31 +0000

There’s so much weird Christmas music out there that I wouldn’t begin to try to do a thorough roundup. Besides, they’re working pretty hard on doing that over at MistleTunes, where I ran across such classics-to-be as Pull My Finger by Jingle Smells. That Amazon link has plenty of audio previews to confirm that even though it’s only $3.98, you don’t need to buy it (though it’s tempting, if only to have a CD laying around that has the title “We Wish You A Smelly Xmas – Unplugged” printed on it). If Christmas mashups are more your thing, djBC and friends now have six years of mashups in their Santastic collections. A lot of it is a little less than well-conceived, but the price is right (free) and where else would you find things like Voicedude’s “It’s The Little Things” (YouTube clip) , which somehow manages to mash Blink 182′s “All the Small Things” with Pachelbel’s Canon, and end up with something listenable? And make sure you have a firm grip on reality before listening to Corporal Blossom’s “White Christmas” Mashup (lo-fi mp3 link), featuring Elvis, Louis Armstrong, Diana Ross, and others surreally dubbed over a downtempo triphop beat. One of my favorite holiday songs ever remains Lenlow’s “¿Dónde Está Santa Claus?” mashup from Santastic II (preview below). And proving that Nine Inch Nails’ lyrics benefit a lot from the production, we have Nine Inch Noëls, a mashup of NIN’s “Head Like Hole” and “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”. And in honor of Santa coming (heh, I said “coming”) we have the hard-to-find Horny Christmas (lo-fi mp3) by Loo and Placido. Here’s the “¿Dónde Está Santa Claus?” preview mentioned above: