Since technically most traditional Christmas songs are standards, they're technically covers. So below are some Christmas songs. Sorry about the re-posts, but I spend a lot of time compiling these. Enjoy!
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Belle & Sebastian that well-loved band from Glasgow, Scotland, are back with a new Christmas song called "Are You Coming Over for Christmas?". The song is available for download on their official myspace on Christmas day.
Fans of B&S should already have their special Christmas Peel Session from 2002, but in case you don't have it, here the Christmas tracks from that session:
- Oh Come All Ye Faithful
- Christmas Time Is Here
- Santa Claus (The Sonics)
- Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto (James Brown)
- Silent Night
- O Little Town Of Bethlehem
- Santa Bring My Baby Back To Me (Elvis Presley)
- O Come O Come Emmanuel
- I Took Some Time For Christmas
- The Twelve Days of Christmas
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Here's another Christmas song from one of our favorite, The Pipettes. Good luck on finding this 7" single, as there were only two hundred of them made (by hand) and was only available at their Christmas show in 2004. The song, "In the Bleak Midwinter", is an old Lutheran Christmas Hymn, originally written by Gustav Holst.
They're currently on tour through Australia, but they still managed to put together a "Bandzine" The Pipettes Christmas Zine just time for Christmas. I did download the PDF file and it looks very professional for a bandzine.
Tour dates as follows:
12/29/07 The Factory Sydney, AUS
12/30/07 Tasmania Falls Festival Victoria, AUS
12/31/07 Tasmania Falls Festival Victoria, AUS
01/02/08 East Bruswick Melbourne, AUS
01/05/08 Southbound Festival Western Australia
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Meanwhile, Manic Street Preachers is also offering a new Christmas song called "Ghost of Christmas" on their myspace. This is an original song with some jab at expensive technologies::
No xbox and no computers
We just used our imagination
A leather football was perfection
What more could you want
I wouldn't mind a soccer ball to play outside, but unfortunately it's snowing outside so I'm going to stay indoors with my PS3 :)
Anyway, the band is still around, releasing Send Away The Tigers on February 2007, and is actually the only album I don't have from this band. I guess, I'm just waiting to find it really cheap/used and there's really no compelling reason for me to rush out to get the album.
I think the only song I know off of it is "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough" (that song with the Cardigans singer Nina Persson) which I think is quite popular.
Apparently so popular that NME have named MSP the 2008 "God Like Geniuses" Award.
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Finally, remember the awesome Strawberry Fair (Jenny Franzén)? Lately she's been busy with her live band with: Mathias (Kissing Mirrors, Sarto, Twig), Alice (After School Sports, The Never Invited to Parties), David (The Morning Paper), Ida (The Bridal Shop), Maria (The Happy Birthdays[W♥M]), appearing on Digfi playing some Christmas songs.
The two songs she did was "Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!" and "Winder Wonderland". I thought you can only watch it on Windows Media Player, but I was told that it will work on a mac using flip4mac.
The band was also recently on Rip It Up! 2007, you can watch some clips on youtube.
PS, this may be the last xmas post from me! You're welcome!
12/24/2007 09:41:29
vu
my♥posts
www.weheartmusic.com
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Continuing with the Christmas Songs series, here are a few free (downloadable) options.
Ryan sent this in, and I thought I'd pass this on. It's a free Christmas album from www.soundsfamilyre.com called A Familyre Christmas (Vol. 1).
They're putting on one song a day or something because currently there's only 11 songs available for download (but they promise two more).
See links for more information, here are an excerpt from the article:
We are very excited to share with you some of our favorite Christmas music performed by the Sounds Familyre Famile: new interpretations of traditional Christmas carols as well as original songs! A new song each day for thirteen days. Baker’s dozen. So make sure to come back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and the day after that…
The track listing so far (eleven down, two to go!) is as follows:
1: ‘Christmas Eve Nite’ - Danielson
2: ‘For There Is Born A Child’ - Lenny Smith
3: ‘Plant A Little Fir Tree’ - Half-handed Cloud
4: ‘Dayspring From On High’ - Soul-Junk
5: ‘Pat-A-Pan’ - Leopulde
6: ‘In The Bleak Midwinter’ - Dan Zimmerman
7: ‘Lo, How A Rose E’er Blooming’ - The Singing Mechanic
8: ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’ - Sufjan Stevens*
9: ‘What Child Is This’ - Rachel
10: ‘I Wonder As I Wander’ - Woven Hand
11. ‘Christmas Is A Holiday’ - Ben + Vesper
There's a few songs off this free compilation that I like, but we'll go with this mysterious Rachel woman :) Looking at her blog, she seems to be very crafty.
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Next up is Rafael Brom, a Catholic recording artist with over 8 albums under his belt.
The only songs I've listened from him are the free "The Christmas Songs" album, which is available on his website www.rafaelbrom.com. They were released in 1994 on Cassette, but they digitized it (and it doesn't sound that bad considering it's from a Cassette).
The big thing that struck me about these recording is that Brom doesn't sound American (he's currently living in League City, Texas, according to his myspace). I found out that he's actually Czechoslovakian.
Moving on, The Knife gave this MP3 song away called "Christmas Reindeer" last year. I don't think it's available on www.theknife.net anymore (but I'm sure you're resourceful enough to find a copy somewhere.)
The actual song is actually called "Reindeer", appearing on their self-titled debut album in 2001. I guess they just wanted to be a little festive and renamed the song.
So, speaking of Sweden (The Knife are from Sweden), we have some great Swedish music to talk about in the upcoming weeks, particularly from both Razzia and Labrador.
12/20/2007 09:21:02
vu
my♥posts
www.weheartmusic.com
With only a few days left for the Christmas holiday, I'm compiling some Christmas songs for you. There's so many holiday songs that I might do a part two and three, so watch this space.
First off, I've edited together a few video sessions and we're going to call it a Holiday Buyer's Guide or interesting music boxsets and stuff I thought was cool. They weren't necessary released this year (and in fact, I'm pretty sure you couldn't buy some of these items). Anyway, check out the video. The format will change after this, so it'll be the last of this longer format.
So, let's start with some Christmas songs:
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Twelve Girls Band - Last Christmas
These girls can sure play, but they obviously cannot count, as Twelve Girls Band actually consists of 13 women (see for yourself, count them on the cover!). Apparently they were formed by Wang "father of Chinese rock music" Xiao-Jing through a contest in 2001 and assembled twelve girls, each representing Chinese mythology of twelve hairpins. Looking at their overwhelming discography, it would seem that they released quite a few live albums (usually with a DVD). Anyway, their Christmas-themed album, Twelve Girls of Christmas (2005), was released as Merry Christmas To You in Japan. All the familar Christmas songs are done with traditional Chinese instruments, such as the Mandolin and the Gao-Hu (Fiddle), but they are wonderfuly interpretted. Check out this version of "Last Christmas". Wham! never sounded better, right? |
Enya - Adeste, Fideles
If you haven't heard of Enya, then I'm afraid you haven't been in any elevators in the past decade. She bursted onto the charts in the late 80s with that "sail away" song (it's actually called "Orinoco Flow" but who can remember that?) She's recently resurfaced again in the popular Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings series, and once again secures herself as the queen of New Age music. This song, "Adeste, Fideles" originally does not appear on Amarantine (2005). After a year, the record company decided to boost its sale by re-releasing the album as Amarantine Special Christmas Edition with a bonus second disc. The second disc is an all Christmas EP, originally released in the states as Sounds of the Season, and in Canada as the Christmas Secrets EP. |
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They Might be Giants - Santa's Beard
I first heard of this rocking song off their sophomore album, Lincoln (1988), and it's about a jealous husband. The song is about how every year his buddy puts on a red suit and hangs out with his family. Then he would spot his wife wearing his beard and kissing him, etc. Although the song is old, it resurfaced on Then: The Earlier Years (1997) and again in a special Christmas EP called They Might Be Giants in Holidayland (2001). Technically this isn't a very traditional Christmas song, but whenever I think of Christmas songs - this is the one that comes to my mind first and foremost because it's so fun and different. |
The Beach Boys - Little Saint Nick
I can't overlook the fact that this winterly Christmas song is suddenly transformed to a fun Summer Beach party (with Gidget). It's not one of my favorite Christmas tunes, probably because it's basically the same song as their previous hit "Little Deuce Coupe". So this song is from their only Christmas album, The Beach Boys' Christmas Album, released in 1964. It topped out at number 6, although the single "Little Saint Nick" faired a little better at #3 on the charts (although this singles version is different than the album version). |
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Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers - Christmas Without You
I'll be honest with you: I love Country music. I grew up with pop music and one of the songs that I loved when I was a kid was "Island in the Stream", performed by Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton. This was a single from Kenny Roger's album, Eyes That See in the Dark (1983). These two only released one album together, Once Upon a Christmas (1984), with two singles from this album: "Christmas Without You" and "The Greatest Gift of All". Their last duet was "Love Is Strange" (1990), which I've never heard. |
The Dandy Warhols - The Little Drummer Boy
According to allmusic, this is one of the Dandy Warhols' first EP release (if not the earliest). Strangely the single/EP is not listed on their wikipedia page. The popular Christmas song tells the story of a young boy who was so poor, he couldn't afford a gift for the baby Jesus. So instead, he wrote and played the drums in tribute as the baby smiles... I guess, not really much to add to this, except that the Dandy Warhols song was also included on XFM's Cool Cool Christmas Album (2000). I think this album sold very well when it was released and contains a wonderful version of "Feliz Navidad" by El Vez and "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" by Belle & Sebastian. |
12/19/2007 21:01:09
vu
my♥posts
www.weheartmusic.com
I'm sitting on the couch, underneath two blankets, watching Friday the 13th: A New Beginning and my cat is here on my lap. Paris the plant is hanging out on the floor. I'm thinking of buying a bonsai plant so Paris can have a friend. In fact, I would really love this room to be full of plantlife. I've always been keen on green.
So anyroad, if you're still on the lookout for gift ideas, you should watch this video of stuff I own and facts and notes on each item:
Yeah, yeah, I know, it's been forever and a day since I updated this Cover Lover. Most of my time are spent you-know-where, which by the way is looking up. It's really hard to believe that it's not even one year old.
So Vox recently added a few new features including the "EMBED" feature for all our audios (which doesn't seem to work on vox). So I'm checking it out right now by using a cover song by the Terrordactyls!
Below is the article I posted on W♥M:
The Terrordactyls
| Tour Date
12/28/07 The Anne Bonny W/ T.V. Coahran, and MORE!! - Seattle, WA |
Discography
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The Terrordactyls are a very charming indie band from Washington & New York. It seems that the band is centered around Michael Cadiz, who wrote all the songs off their self-titled album. His partner-in-crime, based in Brooklyn then record his participation and send it back to Cadiz, who then pieced it together. Oh there's also someone named named Terry "Terrydactyl" Setter who "[fixed] everything and making it sound way better".
I only got to listen to the self-titled album, but I did download Hoppy Birthday from their website for free (Hoppy Birthday lists itself as out of 10 tracks, but download only offers 8 tracks... I don't know which one, if any, are missing).
The song that I instantly had to use was purely based on the fact that it's sung with antifolker, Kimya Dawson. I've briefly mentioned her before, so check the related links in this article.
What I love about "Devices" are the kazoos and the finishing-up of each other's lyrics (this method is used on several other songs on the album). My only complaint is that the song is so short!
Other good song to check out is "Shipping", which contain the best lyrics:
My body got messed up on the train.
A case of wine and some boxes of knives fell on my face.
Now, I am going to die.
If you like what you heard, the good news is that The Terrordactyls have a new EP called The Mike Bowers EP. It's coming out on December 15th and is The Pharmacy all-covers EP. Thanks to the band, I got a preview of the EP and it's quite good, so I might have to try and track down the original Pharmacy songs to hear the differences. Of the tracks, I liked "Overcast Summer" the best, mostly because of the harmonies between Mike and Tyrel.
You can pick up the The Mike Bowers EP at Don't Stop Believin', with an added promise of trading cards:
It's gonna have trading cards, guys. Trading Cards.
PS, Useless Journey trivia: I was told their latest singer is Arnel Pineda, lead singer of a Filipino Journey cover band.
PPS, watch my reaction to opening up on the album (yes, I know Andrew WK is not British, I read everything official in a quasi-Morrissey voice):
12/11/2007 23:16:40
vu
my♥posts
www.terrordactyls.com
myspace
Emelia posted an article on Masonic and she chosed this cover song, so I've decided to just re-use it.
I bought two new HD-DVDs today at Walmart. Apparently as part of their Black Friday sale (the $99 HD-DVD Player), they are also selling these HD-DVD movies for $14.96. I don't know if you guys keep up with the prices of HD movies, but this is pretty cheap, considering average costs for an HD movie is $24.95 retail.
As you know I have over 2,000 DVDs and have slowly transitioned over to HD. I have a few Bluray movies (I think this is the format that will eventually win out in the HD War), but I'm all about prices and since HD-DVD seems to be on average cheaper than Bluray...
Although HD have the price advantage, I believe that Bluray might be cheaper as time goes on. Since Sony also owns MGM, if you really want any MGM, you really have to get it on Bluray.
Here is a full list of $14.96 HD DVD movies:
- Clerks 2 (Already owned this on DVD, Best Buy Edition)
- Lucky # S7even (Already own on DVD)
- Pulse (Already own on DVD)
- Failure to Launch (not interested)
- 4 Brothers
- Italian Job (Already rented/seen in theaters)
- Sleepy Hollow (Already own on DVD)
- Casino (Already own on DVD)
- 12 Monkeys (Already own on DVD)
- Backdraft
- Big Lebowski
- Sea Biscuit (Already own on DVD)
- Alexander Revisted (Bought this on HD)
- Blood Diamond (Already own on DVD)
- Full Metal Jacket (Bought this on HD)
- The Last Samurai (Already own on DVD)
- Swordfish (Already own on DVD)
- Unforgiven (Already own on DVD)
Since I already own most of these on DVDs, my choices are somewhat limited. I think I will get 4 Brothers and Italian Job.
By the way, these are the HD titles I have (it's very small):
- Smallville Season 5
- Fearless
- Mission Impossible 3
- King Kong
- Perfect Storm
- Cinderella Man
11/04/2007 22:31:09
vu
my♥posts
vu@weheartmusic.com
www.masonictheband.com
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As I previously mentioned on my review of The Raveonettes concert, they did a cover song called "French Disko". I promised the original version by Stereolab, so here it is.
I was actually more surprised that The Editors recorded a version of this song as a B-Side on their Munich single.
The lyrics are in English, but it's quite hard to understand with the French accent. The appeal of the song is actually in its guitars work.
Though this world's essentially an absurd place to be living in
It doesn't call for total withdrawalI've been told it's a fact of life
Men have to kill one another
Well I say there are still things worth fighting forLa Resistance!
Though this world's essentially an absurd place to be living in
It doesn't call for (bubble withdrawal)It said human existence is pointless
As acts of rebellious solidarity
Can bring sense in this worldLa Resistance!
Read more about Stereolab on W♥M
10/27/2007 20:12:54
vu
my♥posts
vu@weheartmusic.com
www.stereolab.co.uk
I'm just testing out this "shout mix" thing on vox. As you know, non-registered vox users can't leave comments, so I'm experimenting if this will work (and how annoying it can look if I embed it in a post on W♥M, etc).
There are a couple of concerts I have to attend this month and November, and I'm pretty excited about a possible W♥M office in 2008. The office (doors and windows and stuff!) is being donated, and we'll see when we see it, I guess.
Otherwise, things are the same, as usual.
I have been watching a lot of Star Trek and reading chapters by chapters of a book called The Perfect Play (the Big Blind). This is actually a really good way of getting your reading done - plus the person listening to my voice mail is also sort of "reading" it as well.
Two birds with one stone :)
It's been a while since I updated cover lover.
Yesterday was a perfectly good day so my friend and I went on a six hour bike ride. We went over to where the fallen bridge site, but most of the roads leading up to that point was all blocked off. We had to settle for a walkway bridge about half a mile north.
A lot of people were out that day too and we had a slew of Segway users (tourists) go by us.
Then I went to see Jim Gaffigan at the Orpheum Theater and now I'm completely sore. Who knew there were so many hills along the river?
Today's cover is "Trouble", originally by Shampoo. I am actually compiling a bunch of girl-group (e.g. like the Spice Girls, etc) for W♥M, so if you have any recommendations, let me know.
There's not a lot of covers for this song, surprisingly. I thought because it's such a popular 90s song that people would be falling left & right trying their version of the song.
Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine
www.carterusm.co.uk
Formed by "Jim Bob" and "Fruitbat", they're probably better known as Carter USM. They recorded a cover of "Trouble" for a B-side.
Sixthline
myspace.com/sixthline
The other cover is by Sixthline, who I've never heard of. The audio is taken from youtube video, so the audio is pretty bad.
PS, the Shampoo cover art is the US version... which may have been really popular during the Power Rangers movie or something.
10/14/2007 19:50:30
vu
my♥posts
vu@weheartmusic.com
angelfire.com/grrl/shampoo
I have three or four vutube videos shot. I just need to actually sit down and edit them. I just did a video today actually, this "morning" at 2pm. It's part of my cooking for dummies guide...
I was actually going to do a writeup on Herman Dune sometime today too, he released about seven cover songs under his Yayahoni stage name. You can download all the songs on the website.
I'm including some other covers of "Be My Baby", orginally by 60s girl-group, The Ronettes. I believe "Be My Baby" is their most well-known song.
What you probably didn't know is that the band's name was named after the lead singer, Veronica Bennett. If you can't figure out how they got Ronettes out Veronica's name, then you are in trouble...
The other members in the band were Ronnie's sister and cousin, they broke up in 1973, when Ronnie went solo. By the way, she was at one time married to Phil Specter, who was under the spotlight recently with the suspicion of murdering actress Lana Clarkson.
Most of the cover songs are pretty good, The Dollyrots punky version is especially good. The most drastically different is probably Ivy with their almost ambient version. This is off their covers album, Guestroom (2002).
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09/23/2007 17:26:06
vu
my♥posts
vu@weheartmusic.com
weheartmusic.com
Last week I posted a song called "Ain't No Sun (Since You've Been Gone)" by The Dynamics. The song is a cover of The Temptations, which I actually don't have.
But I did find some other cover songs, one being by Gladys Knight & the Pips.
The Jaggerz's "Ain't No Sun" is on his debut album, but I did find a live version of this song by him. And wow, what a NAME, right ? Easily the coolest cat on the block. More information on www.jaggerz.com.
The last one I found online was a live version by Jimmy & the Soul Blazers. You can find them online at www.soulblazers.com.
Again, I'm too lazy to actually do any research on any of these bands.
Oh, I wanted to mention that I've moved our podcast to a new directory: weheartmusic.mypodcast.com. We are still very new to podcasting, so I'm still shopping around for hosts (free/unlimited). I like mypodcast so far. Please give some of the music industry interviews, some are quite interesting. I've only done two so far, but I should be getting someone from Filter Magazine and someone at a record company to talk to us.
September 15, 2007 4:52 PM
vu
my♥posts
vu@weheartmusic.com
weheartmusic.mypodcast.com
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Ryan and I are having a pretty good time doing the W♥M Podcast. Please subscribe! This is kind of like a director's commentary on the stories we post on weheartmusic.com.
So what's going on lately? I've been re-watching Heroes, which I bought on DVD. I would've really love to get my hands on the HD-DVD Heroes, but that sucker is $100 vs $34, it's really not a contest.
HD-DVD looks amazing, but seeing it as three times as expensive, I can live with the DVD-quality format. If they really want the HD-DVD market to grow, the prices have got to be competive to DVD.
Bluray looks like they're winning anyway :/
Already I'm regretting my purchase, because I started watching the pilot and realized I already knew everyone's fate and basically couldn't bring myself to watching the rest of the television show.
So what I've been doing is watching the audio commentary to the shows - and the ones by the cast is horrible. Maybe I just expect too much ...
So, keeping with the Heroes theme, here's the song "Heroes", originally by Davie Bowie. I only have one cover, by Blondie. I'm sure there are more out there.
The Blondie version sounds like a live performance. It was taken from Uncut's series of cover CDs of past star singers. For instance, they have a handful of Beatles and Bob Dylan CDs that are given free of charge if you bought their newsstand magazine.
In the UK, newsstand is still king (vs America where most of the magazine business are done through annual subscriptions). So to attract buyers, they would often put extra stuff like CDs or paperback books, etc.
September 2, 2007 12:26 AM
vu
my♥posts
vu@weheartmusic.com
www.gcast.com
