Threesome: alternative holiday songs
December 24, 2008
In response to my ‘Christmas songs for non-Christmas people,’ guest blogger Scott offered up three finds. The first is “Father Christmas,” by the Kinks, which I immediately recognized as a staple of my local alt-rock station. It’s a heartwarming holiday song about getting a job as a department store Santa Claus and being mugged by a gang of kids. Rilo Kiley‘s ‘Xmas Cake’ and Jenny Owen Youngs‘s “Things We Don’t Need Anymore” are both about how depressing Christmas can be if you don’t feel like your life is going very well. The former is mostly just sad (crying in the eponymous cake) and the latter song is heavily leavened with anger (‘Here’s to wishes that’ll never come true.’)
Scott also sent me a song called “I’m Going to Spend My Christmas With a Dalek,” off an album of Doctor Who related songs, Who Is Dr Who. I got 56 seconds in (1:32 to go) before I had to shut it off. It managed to offend me musically, as a fan of Doctor Who (since when do Daleks have left toes?) and, well, as a human (the faux-childish lisp of the singers – yeesh). I think it would be rather fitting if its perpetrators really do get to spend Christmas with a Dalek, since they are pretty low on the holiday spirit and big on the ‘EX-TER-MIN-ATE!’
I can’t actually bring myself to propagate the song further, sorry. There’s enough horrifying stuff on the Internet without my adding to it.
MP3: The Kinks – Father Christmas [amazon]
MP3: Rilo Kiley – Xmas Cake [buy]
MP3: Jenny Owen Youngs – Things We Don’t Need Anymore
zed equals zee 
not to shill, but the excellent “peace on earth 2” charity collection features a cover of the kinks song by telekinesis! that i really enjoyed — having never encountered the original!
as well as synthar’s “pawn shop christmas,” which i haven’t deciphered the lyrics to quite yet but seems to be a heartwarming tale of spending christmas in the basement with a casiotone. it pretty much rocks.
Link
anyway my mom is dragging me off to church, so!
Cool, thanks, Tim! That looks like a pretty interesting collection (and I know several people whose idea of a perfect Christmas would involve some quality time with a Casiotone!)