Fuel/Friends Christmas Mix 2009

Well today is a snow day in my part of Colorado, bringing everything outside to a deadened, frozen, thickly-blanketed crawl. It’s gorgeous and quiet, and perfect weather for putting the finishing touches on my annual Christmas mix. I do love Christmas music, as you might remember from past years, but I also have a picky palate and am always amazed when I turn on the radio (as I did last night while we played cards) at how many many Christmas songs should have never been made. If I have to hear “Wonderful Christmastime” again, I might gouge out my eardrum with a candy cane to the beat of those synthesizers.

Even though there’s room on this mix I’ve made for the fun and light-hearted (I am in love with the opening remix track), I do tend to find myself drawn to the reflective and traditional songs at this time of year. Maybe it’s some slight seasonal affection disorder, or the natural rhythms of winter — or an internalization that this is a month of hope and light but that there is such need out there as well. I went to an ecumenical advent service this weekend at the old stone chapel on the college campus where I work, and one of the professors from the Classics department read a bit from the book of John about how the light shines into the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it. I found the simplicity of that inspiring in a way that surprised me. I sat there in the candlelight thinking about dichotomies of light and dark, hope and despair, kindness vs. letting ourselves be hard and stony.

Anyways, there’s a bit of reflection from me on how this season is wrapping itself into my thoughts, as I sit here beside this pretty twinkling Christmas tree, warm under a fuzzy blanket. I also delight in how all these music blogs have made such a rad collection of alternative holiday tunes available for the endless mixing.

Now I’m gonna go watch Elf.

…Oh! and we’ll hope Edward Hopper won’t mind the bastardization of his moody Nighthawks painting too much. It made me smile, and is exactly how I feel today.

FUEL/FRIENDS CHRISTMAS MIX 2009

White Christmas – Corporal Blossom (from the free Very Bootie Xmas comp)
O Christmas Tree – The Layaways (free track from their Christmas album)
Kamikaze Christmas Economy (I Owe) – Jeremy Fisher (free track from last year, great artist)
The Warmest Part of Winter – Voxtrot
River (Joni Mitchell cover) – Lex Land
Listen To The Choir Sing – Ian McGlynn
Murder by Mistletoe – Felice Brothers
First Christmas – Boyracer (from their Christmas EP)
Goodbye England (Covered In Snow) – Laura Marling
Winter Winds – Mumford & Sons
O Holy Night – Cary Brothers (from his Father Christmas EP)
I Know The Reason – Mindy Smith & Thad Cockrell
Grateful For Xmas – Hayes Carll
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – Chad Johnston
Blue Christmas – Bright Eyes
Seasonal Persuasion – Caithlin de Marrais
Holly Leaves and Christmas Trees – Elvis Presley
I Wonder As I Wander – Woven Hand (from the free Familyre Christmas Vol. 1)
Christmas Eve Can Kill You – The Everly Brothers
It’s Almost Christmas – Chris Garneau
Snow Angels – Boca Chica (from the Indiecater Christmas 2009 album)
All I Ever Get For Christmas Is Blue – Over The Rhine
Winter (Curled Up Toes In Red Mary Janes) – Jenna Nicholls
O Little Town of Bethlehem – The Innocence Mission (from the free Familyre Christmas Vol. 2)
New Year’s Eve – Team Five
I’ll Be Home For Christmas – Amanda Rogers
Silent Night – Zach Gill (from last year’s This Warm December comp)

ZIP: FUEL/FRIENDS CHRISTMAS MIX 2009

HO-HO-HO-BONUS:

2007 Fuel/Friends Christmas Mixery
2008 (Naughty/Nice) Fuel/Friends Christmas Mix

I am all at sea

My day job involves advising college students about opportunities to study in rad places, and all this week I get to give one of our programs a test run by sailing on a 134-foot ship and, literally, learning the ropes.

I’ll be sailing out in two hours, under the Golden Gate Bridge, and spending a few days on the Pacific as an active member of a working crew, seeing what students experience on their semesters on board. We dock in Monterey at the end of it all. In addition to being a classroom and lab (I keep thinking of Voyage of the Mimi), it’s also a working ship, so there will be 24-hour watch rotations. Maybe I can get the middle-of-the-night one. I could use some 2am silence on a glassy sea.

Of course, I made a mix and have been listening to it all week in preparation. It’s eerie how fitting each song is becoming for me this week, and how each one is a perfect soundtrack to my unique life right now. Enjoy in my absence…

I’m all at sea
where no one can bother me
…Just me and my thoughts
sitting far away

I sleep by myself
I drink on my own
I don’t speak to nobody
I gave away my phone

Like a warm drink it seeps into my soul
please just leave me right here on my own
later on you could spend some time with me
if you want to, all at sea

Now I need you more than ever
Do I need you more than ever now?
So come and spend some time with me
and we will spend it all at sea

FUEL/FRIENDS ‘ALL AT SEA’ MIX
All At Sea (Live at KFOG radio, SF) – Jamie Cullum
Stuck On A Boat – Port O’Brien
Girl Sailor – The Shins
The Ocean Lifts Her Dress – The Swimmers
Eager to Sail – Wine and Revolution
Lost Coastlines – Okkervil River
Sea Lion Woman – Feist
The Ragged Sea – Alexi Murdoch
The Ocean In Between – Matthew Sweet
Drowning Men (acoustic version) – Fanfarlo
Driftwood – Mark McAdam
Salt And The Sea – Gregory Alan Isakov
Momentary Drowning – Young Coyotes
Deep Blue Sea – Grizzly Bear
Swim Until You Can’t See Land (live) – Frightened Rabbit
The Sea & The Rhythm – Iron & Wine
Deckchairs and Cigarettes – The Thrills
The Waves – Princeton
Creeping Coastline of Lights – Mark Lanegan
The Ship Song (at Glastonbury) – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Sail on Sailor – The Beach Boys
Winter Waves – Chris Isaak

ZIP: ALL AT SEA FUEL/FRIENDS MIX

I took this picture a few hours ago when I walked down to the dock to find the boat.

I hope I get to say things like “hoist the mainstay.”

UPDATE: I totally did.

Late Nights and Longboards: Fuel/Friends Summer 2009 mix

Before you head off on the long 4th of July weekend of merriment and BBQs (mostly for my US readers, but heck, it’s a good idea wherever you live), I have finally completed my annual summer mix for 2009: “Late Nights and Longboards“! I don’t surf, I just pretend I’m one of those girls in the picture up there – with the especially foxy swimsuits.

These are twenty tunes that will be soundtracking my summer, the porch swings and lemonade (okay, Fat Tire), the volleyball and sunburns, the roadtrips with the windows down because my air conditioner is broken. Maybe even the mosquito bites and seemingly inevitable summer broken hearts.

LATE NIGHTS AND LONGBOARDS
Fuel/Friends Summer 2009 Mix
Storia Di Un Corazon – Jovanotti & Jarabe de Palo
Spanish and Italian and salsa dancing and sweat. Move your hips.
Song Away – Hockey
I’m still addicted, and this still sounds fantastic driving fast.
Kissing Like It’s Love – The Voyces
Marvelous marvelous! “You smell like every summer should, my favorite time of year, like Coppertone and firewood — how am I supposed to steer?”
I Was A Fool – Roman Candle
I can feel the summer twilight heat emanating off this slow charmer. “Out in the evening past the bridge and below, frogs and cicadas left and right growling low… “
Folding Chair – Regina Spektor
Feet buried in the sand, and the sea is just a wetter version of the skies.
We’re All Stuck Out In The Desert – Johnathan Rice
Miami vacations, desert journeys, salt and sand in this (damn catchy) tune from Jenny Lewis’s boyfriend.
How Can I Love You If You Won’t Lie Down? – Silver Jews
All shiny and chimey with a faint banjo, electric guitar, and lyrics like “fast cars, fine ass, these things will pass and it won’t get more profound.” No, no it won’t.
Bowl of Oranges – Bright Eyes
Citrus seems summery, but really this is just my personal anthem of the summer and a favorite Bright Eyes song. What we’re all looking for.
Harold T Wilkins – Fanfarlo
Wow, this song still explodes into a billion technicolor sparks every time I hear it.
Sleep All Summer – Crooked Fingers
The original is different than that fabulous cover floating around, but just as bittersweet once you get used to it.
California (All The Way) – Luna
I can see the sun glinting hard off the Los Angeles car windshields, blinding me, when I listen to the guitar melody here.
July 4, 2004 – Jason Anderson
It’s not a summer mix ’til someone starts handclapping.
Fireworks – The Whitest Boy Alive
Half of the Kings of Convenience secured his place on this mix with the first second of this perfect song. Not lying.
My Radio (AM Mix) – Stars
“Hot sun on skin, that crimson dress too thin.”
Where Do My Bluebird Fly – The Tallest Man On Earth
You know how endless quiet afternoons can pass in August, laying on your back looking at clouds? This is that song – “You’re just a riddle in the sky…”
Wasted & Ready – Ben Kweller
Yes.
Sweet Summer Night on Hammer Hill – Jens Lekman
Even though Jens has the swine flu, I still hope he can find a day like this one this summer, all flirty brass and shout-out-loud clapping down on the corner.
The Village Green Preservation Society – The Kinks
Personally, my summers always require the Kinks to be present and contributing.
Play Until The Streetlights Come On – Rabbit Is A Sphere
From their new free EP, this interlude makes me think of running home barefoot on warm asphalt.
We’ll See The Sun – Houses
This song has two sublime moments in it that make my insides expand – when the drums come in at the two-minute-mark, and when the Wurlitzer explodes like fireworks at 3:27. Give it time to build and you’ll be rewarded. We will see the sun.

ZIP: LATE NIGHTS AND LONGBOARDS

It all fits on one CD. Let’s go!

Magic! Listen today to my DJ set from last night

Thanks to the magic of the internets, you can listen now to my DJ set from last night’s “New Music Monday” shindig at the Larimer Lounge (streaming, or download the gigantic mp3 to play at your own par-tay). We had so much fun! Uhh, turns out I really like making people shake it.

HB Larimer Lounge Set (Jan 19, 2009)

MIXLIST:
Bag of Hammers – Thao Nguyen & The Get Down Stay Down
Fall In Step – Jaydiohead
Nothing – The Hands
My Drive Thru – Santogold, Julian Casablancas and N.E.R.D.
Mr. Tough – Yo La Tengo
King of Karat Flowers (remix of Neutral Milk Hotel) – DJ Mark E. Moon
Blankest Year – Nada Surf
The Book I Write – Spoon
Amy (Ryan Adams cover) – Mark Ronson
Multiply – Jamie Lidell
Gratification to Concrete – Robert Pollard
Filthy / Gorgeous (ATOC vs Superbuddha remix) – Scissor Sisters
Help I’m Alive – Metric
Hardcore Days & Softcore Nights – Aqueduct
Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby? (Rae and Christian remix) – Dinah Washington
Do The Panic – Phantom Planet
Pile of Gold – The Blow
The First Single – The Format
Vertigo (Trent Reznor remix) – U2
Tora Tora Tora – Pretty & Nice

[pic via Brian Carney, from Eryc Eyl’s Larimer DJ set a few weeks ago — but it’s pretty much identical to what last night looked like, except we had on different clothes. And I was wearing my new octopus necklace]

Your Naughty/Nice Christmas mix

Christmas is coming and kids are having fun (so said the chorus of my fifth grade play “Shaping Up Santa,” for which I still know all the words and thankfully no longer have to wear the green elf costume).

I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year because of the overabundance of really bad, synthy, jingly, repetitive Christmas music that bombards me at every pass. But tonight I was listening to my friend Dainon‘s superb radio show out of Salt Lake City and he filled two and a half hours with the kind of Christmas music that reminds me why I do love it.

I tend towards the melancholy, the meaningful, the achingly pretty at this time of year, and tonight’s show inspired me to finally put the finishing touches on my own mix of music for the season. Twenty-five songs to get at the goodness under the busy surface this time of year. Enjoy.

NAUGHTY/NICE CHRISTMAS MIX 2008
No Christmas For Me – Zee Avi (new Malaysian artist I’m excited about)
Joy To The World – Clem Snide
Christmas Is Coming Soon – Blitzen Trapper
Egg Nog – Luna
It’s Christmas So We’ll Stop – Frightened Rabbit
It Won’t Seem Like Christmas Without You (alternate take 6) – Elvis Presley
Christmas TV – Slow Club
Sweet Secret Peace – Neil Finn
Xmas Time Is Here Again – My Morning Jacket
Gift X-Change – Calexico
This Christmastime – Mascott & Gramercy Arms
The Secret of Christmas – Ella Fitzgerald
Christmas – Leona Naess
Just Like Christmas – Low
Song For A Winter’s Night (Gordon Lightfoot) – Erica Wheeler
Icicles – Let’s Go Sailing [from the Plastic Snow compilation]
Goin Home For Christmas – Nicolai Dunger
Goin Home For Christmas – Merle Haggard
Snowfall – Josh Rouse
The First Noel – Pedro The Lion
Please Come Home For Christmas – Willie Nelson
The Gift of Grace – Denison Witmer
New Year’s Resolution – Otis Redding & Carla Thomas
Winter Wonderland – Radiohead
Silent Night – Evan Dando

ZIP IT ALL UP, BABY

If you want even more Christmas music, the excellent WXPN out in Philly is hosting 12 Days Of Christmas with local bands and free mp3s each day. Ten down, two to go, check it out.

Merry Christmas.

[image from the fabulous Anne Taintor]

Welcome, summer

Ten tunes for this first day of summer 2008:

Girls In Their Summer Clothes (winter mix) – Bruce Springsteen
California (Phantom Planet cover) – Mates of State
Constructive Summer (live at Non-Comm) – Hold Steady
It’s Your Thing – Isley Brothers (this cut from Out of Sight)
Electric Music and the Summer People – Beck
Sunshine (Jonathan Edwards cover) – Paul Westerberg
Summersong – The Decemberists
Burned (Buffalo Springfield cover) – Wilco
Summer In The City – Regina Spektor
Nightswimming – R.E.M.

Check out the corresponding selections at Some Velvet Blog and The Late Greats as well — and choose your own summer adventure.

Well bless your bitter, bitter broken heart

Poor Marat. When I started thinking about the songs I wanted to post for Valentine’s Day, instead of a lovey mix like last year, I suggested to my friends Duke and Bruce that our joint post be on bitter, brokenhearted songs that make you want to slit your wrists in a bathtub. Not that I am planning on that tomorrow, or that I recommend that course of action to anyone (dear god) — but the first mental image that came to mind was this one from the painting The Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David. I clearly remember having to memorize this painting’s stats for freshman year of college art history class. Sitting in the dimly lit room, looking at slides of art, hearing a lecture on it from a great prof — still one of my favorite activities ever, to this day I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

So Marat was actually assassinated, but look how tragic he is. If you feel tragic and Marat-like this February 14th, these tunes are for you. They’re the kind that gouge your insides — the other function of music for when you don’t want it to make you feel the warm Hallmark fuzzies.

As I mentioned, this is a joint post with my friends Duke of The Late Greats (he suggested this collab reprise) and Bruce from Some Velvet Blog. Go check out their selections as well. If you can take it.

–BLEEDING IN THE BATHTUB MIX–
Give Judy My Notice – Ben Folds
The aching piano melody here kills me, and also the slow revelations that unfold from Ben realizing that he’s been feeling small too long, and what this relationship with Judy would do to him if he stayed in it. He won’t be her bitch anymore. Go Ben.

Untouchable Face – Ani DiFranco
If you’re listening to Ani DiFranco this Valentine’s Day, it’s already too late for you. I’m sorry. This song is one of the single most bitter, vicious, songs ever written to someone you used to love, but it somehow still has a vulnerable, almost tender edge that I can’t define. Without mincing words on the unforgettable chorus here, Ani sings, “Fuck you, and your untouchable face, fuck you for existing in the first place.” She’s tired of vying for his touch, and not only wants him out of her life, she wishes he never even existed. Ouch.

I Do – Jude
A new induction into my iTunes library, these lyrics deal with getting a wedding invitation from someone with whom “in a lover’s whisper you said no other man would ever share your bed . . . Well we both know that’s not been so.” Jude will stay away from the wedding, hope she’s smiling when he turns around and says I do, and tells her that she’s not spent a single day outside his heart. So wistful, so defeated.

Cardinal Song – The National
This song is terrifying for the unflinching way it peers into the deepest darknesses and lies in our souls. Never look her in the eyes, never tell her the truth, save it for the deathbed? Terrifying. The final stanzas shift melodies and Berninger is confused, cornered, wasted, blessed, used, stiff and pissed and lost and loose. But it all sounds so gorgeous.

Hard Way To Fall (live, Tilburg, 12/1/02) – Ryan Adams
This song appeared on the twangy Jacksonville City Nights, but I’ve always loved this stripped, gorgeous, Love-Is-Hell-ish version of it since the first time I heard it. Even though Ryan could find her in a thunderstorm by the way that the rain would fall (on the album version, one of my favorite lyrical images from his pen), he has lost her to someone else. He sings about all the small details about her that he has memorized, and laments with that perfect vocal quaver the days when she was his. It’s a hard thing to love anyone, anyhow.

Dry Your Eyes (featuring Chris Martin) – The Streets
The most broken-up tough dude you’ve ever heard, with Coldplay’s Chris Martin providing the hooks before the record label yanked the collaboration, after it had already seen enough radio spins to cause a tantalizing demand for it. Mike Skinner tells in agonizing slow motion of the moment she breaks up with him and walks away — her eyes glaze, she looks down at the ground, and then she’s gone.

Forever Blue (acoustic version) – Chris Isaak
One of the most perfect melancholy little tunes ever penned about the aftermath of a relationship ending. Taken from his essential breakup album of the same title, song after unrelenting song that make you want to take poor Chris and his puppy-dog eyes into your arms, and damn that woman that done him wrong. Nobody ever warns you, or tells you what to do.

Colors – Amos Lee
Amos Lee’s raw tenor aches and soars on this song about reminiscing, and how the colors fade when she’s gone. It gets me every time, making me feel like staring out the window in the rain. This is an activity I have done while listening to this song, and I don’t particularly recommend it.

The First Cut Is The Deepest – Cat Stevens
I would have given you all of my heart, but there’s someone who’s torn it apart. Cat’s simple song still nails it.

Your House – Alanis Morissette
Full arc from the Ani DiFranco tune, you’ve got the slightly chilling, Fatal Attraction, a capella hidden track from Alanis’ Jagged Little Pill album. We find her sneaking into dude’s house, smelling his cologne, crying in his shower, listening to his Johnny Cash. She finds a letter on his desk, not in her writing. It’s a bad idea. All of it.

BONUS:
Somebody Kill Me – Adam Sandler
If you’ve seen The Wedding Singer, then no explanation is needed for this track. Just thinking of how Sandler’s face looks when he sings this pretty much sums up everything that this post is about.

ZIP: BLEEDING IN THE BATHTUB

And remember, if these songs resonate with you this year, next year’s gotta be better.

…Right?

That’s Dangerous! :: The Mix

A thoughtful friend sent a book to our house around Christmastime called That’s Dangerous!. Originally published in France, it is a slightly alarming collection of cute drawings showing a scrawny little boy doing all sorts of dangerous things (kicking a bully, climbing into a washing machine) and after each picture, kids can easily learn that the facing page warns, “That’s dangerous!” My four year old was delighted and a little awed by all the varieties of heretofore unthought-of trouble that one could possibly get into if they were so inclined.

My mother taught me to always say thank you, but instead of a dull note this time around, I realized how rich my iTunes library was with fodder for a cautionary mix for adults, detailing all the perilous things we can get ourselves into. There’s some genuinely dangerous stuff here, sure, and then many things which are really just . . . not a good idea. Paradoxically, many of those things those are also kind of fun. Such is life.

I entertained myself thoroughly with the making this one, and sent it off by mail as my thanks to the gift-giver. The mix should all fit onto one CD and in addition to being funny, it also sounds hazardously good. What else would you expect? Cue the warning sirens:

THAT’S DANGEROUS!: THE MIX
Which Of The Two Of Us Is Gonna Burn This House Down? – The Star Spangles
Shadow Stabbing – Cake
U Make Me Want To Drink Bleach (Stylophone mix) – Easyworld
Running With Scissors – Ben Lee
Kicking Television (live in Chicago) – Wilco
You Left The Water Running – Otis Redding
Positive Bleeding – Urge Overkill
Street Fighting Man (Rolling Stones cover) – Oasis
Fairly Blacking Out – The Takeovers
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window (outtake) – Bob Dylan
Riot In Thunder Alley – Eddie Beram
Touch Me I’m Sick – Mudhoney
Busting Up A Starbucks – Mike Doughty
Sink To The Bottom – Fountains of Wayne
(She Was) Only Sixteen – Sam Cooke
I’m On Fire – Bruce Springsteen
Fighting In A Sack – The Shins
A Quick One, While He’s Away – The Who
Wondering Where The Lions Are (Bruce Cockburn cover) – Donavon Frankenreiter
Tied Up And Swallowed – Black Crowes
Dancing In The Dark (Springsteen cover) – Pete Yorn
The Light At The End Of The Tunnel (Was A Train Coming The Other Way) – Richard Hawley

A DANGEROUS ZIP

Bonus related tracks: My friend Tom is thinking is a similar direction when he posted these “warning label” songs about artists and their mercurial relationship with their record labels. A clever twist.

Aloha and mahalo

In the bleak midwinter, we all need some sunshine. By the time you read this (by the wonders of modern publish-by-proxy technology) I will be suspended somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, heading to Kauai. I will probably be listening to this mix (on my new noise-cancelling headphones) to wash away the ice and stress of modern life and prepare for some island revelry. I am staying here. Aw yeah.

These tunes capture a slice of the island/surf/sun lifestyle for me, and will be my soundtrack until Tuesday. The mix starts with a lovely little Ed Vedder tune on ukulele, because every single thing about this song is exactly what I would want for my Hawaiian vacation when I close my eyes. Plus it’s my island soundtrack, and there’s a lot of Vedder on my island.

LONELY CLIFFS AND WATERFALLS HAWAII MIX
You’re True – Ed Vedder
Hawaii Five-O – The Ventures
Islands – Cat Power
A Flash of Green – Pollo Del Mar
Sweet Leilani – Chris Isaak
Island In The Sun – Weezer
Torpedo – Hawaii Mud Bombers
Island Life – Ethan Elkind
Surf Beat – Dick Dale & The Del-Tones
Hawaiian Sunset – Elvis Presley
Pipeline – The Chantays
Honolulu – Any Trouble
Gold Finger – Blue Stingrays
Constellations (live at Kokua) – Jack Johnson & Ed Vedder
Liver Splash – The Meters
Surf Rider – The Lively Ones
Oceans (live in Honolulu) – Pearl Jam
Theme From “Endless Summer” – The Sandals
Stay Young – The Farmhouse Band/Shelter surf DVD
Hawaii 78 – Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

ZIP: HAWAII MIX

Be good, kids.

For more Hawaiian music, check this excellent podcast: http://hawaiianeye.blogspot.com/

Christmas mixery

Mmmmmm. Cookies. My 4-year-old and I baked those Rudolph cookies last weekend. There was sugar and M&Ms everywhere, and don’t even get me started on how hard it was to bite those pretzels into antler shapes. Unsanitary, but it gets the job done the only way I could figure out how. The end result was fantastic, and we’ve been delivering (what I now realize are little saliva-contaminated) batches to our good friends all week long.

While we baked, we listened to my new Christmas mix for 2007 that I’ve been tweaking and perfecting for weeks. I think I’m good now, and since I just realized that Christmas is in 5 days, we should hop to it. Let me just say that there is so much annoying Christmas music out there. Good heavens, no one should be allowed to cover Little Drummer Boy again, and nothing with synthesizers, ever.

These 20 tracks have passed my Grinchy muster, and all 20 of them are non-annoying — good Christmas listening that won’t bug the snot out of you.

FUEL/FRIENDS CHRISTMAS MIXERY 2007
The Christmas Song – The Raveonettes
Merry Xmas Everybody – R.E.M. (2007 fan club single)
Father Christmas – The Kinks
Let It Snow – Magnet
Do You Hear What I Hear? – Third Day (with the night wind talking to the little lamb, this song was a favorite as a kid)
Merry Christmas, Baby – Otis Redding
Christmas Song – Denison Witmer
Xmas Eve – The Damnwells
Hey Guys! It’s Christmas Time! (Sufjan cover) – Luke Flowers
Here It Is Christmas – The Old ’97s (new song 2007)
Much Farther To Go – Rosie Thomas (w/ Sufjan)
Christmas Means Love – The Soul Stirrers
In The Bleak Mid-Winter – Sarah McLachlan (from Wintersong)
That Was The Worst Christmas Ever! – Sufjan Stevens (still my favorite of his thousand Christmas songs)
It Feels Like Christmas – Al Green (and to hear it, by “Christmas” Al means “sex”)
Ding, Dong, Ding, Dong – George Harrison
Sing Mary Sing – Jennifer Knapp
O Holy Night – Tracy Chapman
Waking Up On Christmas Morning – The Smithereens
Christmas Message from Elvis / Silent Night – Elvis Presley

CHRISTMAS MIXERY ZIPPERY

One note: Luke Flowers, who covered Sufjan up there in spot #9, is a talented local artist here in Colorado Springs. I saw him perform that song Tuesday night at a coffeehouse in my neighborhood, and he recorded the whole set. By the magic of the internet we can listen again and recreate that event. You can download the 12-song live Christmas album for free on his site: some lovely reworkings of traditional tunes, 4 Sufjan covers, and an original song about his Christmas pony that froze solid. Merry Christmas!