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Ladies and gents, you are probably all tired of me talking about music but this one is ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
apple_pathways' fault so you can all blame her instead. She challenged me, and I just cannot leave a challenge unanswered, especially when it comes in the mail:
Unfortunately, asking me for holiday songs is a bit like asking normal people what their favorite polka is (probably something by Mucca Pazza) or what the best sort of long-neck lute is (the bouzouki).
I tried taking this challenge seriously, and went so far as trying to find out who was on the tape my mom always plays at Christmas, which is about the only thing that comes to mind when I think of Christmas music (it has more recent artists, but doesn't appear to be any of the 80s or 90s compilations readily available on the internet).
When that didn't pan out, I went hunting in my iTunes library. Of the 7727 songs (well, okay, at least 100 of those are radio dramas), only 28 mention Christmas and 24 of those are by Sufjan Stevens. I've played Sufjan's Christmas songs a total of once, for my mom, and considering Sufjan made me like a noisy electronic album aboutdemonic possession and vocoders throwing oneself into volcanoes existential angst, if he can't make Christmas music that I like it's kind of a lost cause. A more liberal search for "holiday" yields 38 songs, but 32 of those are by Her Space Holiday, five more use holiday in the vacation sense, and the last is in Japanese but it's from the Katamari Damacy soundtrack so I can basically guarantee it's also not about Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice, or anything else of the sort.
So, that's when I decided I'd skew the topic and just pick a certain feel and go with that, and picked songs like "Beneath Your Tree" by the Bowerbirds and "The Season" by the Dodos, and even threw in "Jesus on the Radio" by Guster, provided you ignore the first line. But then I went back and listened through and realized that even with appropriate titles and a few redacted lines these still weren't songs that invoked the holiday spirit. After all, this is the season that a good part of the Western world, including general nonbelievers, gets together on the common theme of deluding itself into thinking that winter is magical and that the human race is generally good, generous, and redeemable, and in so doing actually proves itself at least partially right. So songs with lyrics like "You don't own me / but I'll take your lead down a gnarly thicket in the trees / And we're soon lost, and we're terrified" aren't exactly the thing for it.
This is approximately the point where I gave up hope. I'm a cold-hearted and weird analytical academic that understands the holidays in theory but not in practice. In a moment of desperation I listened to All Songs Considered's holiday songs podcast (something I would've listened to anyway, but not with such rapt attention). I was hoping to maybe steal some of their ideas, but the quest was for my favorites and there were still none to be found in its 64.5 minutes, save for one. In order to prove that he was not entirely heartless, one of the hosts played "Christmas Time is Here" from A Charlie Brown Christmas and I was immediately tucked away in my house in Ohio, looking through the Christmas lights at the snow outside. I think I may have actually instinctively looked out my own window while saying "Oh!" in surprise. I still wouldn't call it a favorite, but here was a major clue as to why I don't readily seek out Christmas music. The good stuff is designed to evoke a very powerful emotional and/or nostalgic response. I don't need to go about doing that to myself on days that aren't Christmas Eve or Christmas. In fact, I've gotten to the point that I actually don't even notice holiday music playing in stores (this may be an unrelated coping mechanism I developed years back when I worked in a movie theatre and we had a half-hour long CD of Spongebob and Avril Lavigne Christmas songs and I worked 12-hour shifts, but for the sake of making the point here...) Holiday music is all about repetition and habit and tradition making this one time special above others. (That is, the .5% of holiday music that isn't terrible.)
As such, I cannot conscionably elicit that feeling frivolously. Instead, I am drawing my five songs from what I traditionally do on my way to the holiday emotional carousel:
Five Songs For (a Small Part of) the Seven-Hour Bus Ride Home to Ohio For the Areligious and/or Holiday-Averse to Sooth the Mind in Preparation For the Christmas Music Onslaught That Awaits But Are Mostly Just Nice Songs that Are Appropriate For Midwestern Travel, Holiday or Otherwise
1) "NYC-25" by The Olivia Tremor Control
2) "Bloodbuzz Ohio" by The National
3) "Intermission" by Coeur de Pirate
4) "Change of Time" by Josh Ritter
5) "There's So Many Colors" by Akron/Family
All of these songs, at the time of posting, are youtubeable, but should you desire a sampling I'd be happy to oblige.
In other news, yes, I think I may have finally figured out how to like The National. Or at least "Bloodbuzz Ohio". It's the "swarm of bees" line. Which, come to think of it, probably doesn't bode well for me actually learning to like The National on the whole.
apple_pathways actually did this properly, and came up with a a lovely little list, plus it's totally worth it for the bonus video. And if any of the rest of you want to take up the challenge, feel free!
apple_pathways' fault so you can all blame her instead. She challenged me, and I just cannot leave a challenge unanswered, especially when it comes in the mail:Unfortunately, asking me for holiday songs is a bit like asking normal people what their favorite polka is (probably something by Mucca Pazza) or what the best sort of long-neck lute is (the bouzouki).
I tried taking this challenge seriously, and went so far as trying to find out who was on the tape my mom always plays at Christmas, which is about the only thing that comes to mind when I think of Christmas music (it has more recent artists, but doesn't appear to be any of the 80s or 90s compilations readily available on the internet).
When that didn't pan out, I went hunting in my iTunes library. Of the 7727 songs (well, okay, at least 100 of those are radio dramas), only 28 mention Christmas and 24 of those are by Sufjan Stevens. I've played Sufjan's Christmas songs a total of once, for my mom, and considering Sufjan made me like a noisy electronic album about
So, that's when I decided I'd skew the topic and just pick a certain feel and go with that, and picked songs like "Beneath Your Tree" by the Bowerbirds and "The Season" by the Dodos, and even threw in "Jesus on the Radio" by Guster, provided you ignore the first line. But then I went back and listened through and realized that even with appropriate titles and a few redacted lines these still weren't songs that invoked the holiday spirit. After all, this is the season that a good part of the Western world, including general nonbelievers, gets together on the common theme of deluding itself into thinking that winter is magical and that the human race is generally good, generous, and redeemable, and in so doing actually proves itself at least partially right. So songs with lyrics like "You don't own me / but I'll take your lead down a gnarly thicket in the trees / And we're soon lost, and we're terrified" aren't exactly the thing for it.
This is approximately the point where I gave up hope. I'm a cold-hearted and weird analytical academic that understands the holidays in theory but not in practice. In a moment of desperation I listened to All Songs Considered's holiday songs podcast (something I would've listened to anyway, but not with such rapt attention). I was hoping to maybe steal some of their ideas, but the quest was for my favorites and there were still none to be found in its 64.5 minutes, save for one. In order to prove that he was not entirely heartless, one of the hosts played "Christmas Time is Here" from A Charlie Brown Christmas and I was immediately tucked away in my house in Ohio, looking through the Christmas lights at the snow outside. I think I may have actually instinctively looked out my own window while saying "Oh!" in surprise. I still wouldn't call it a favorite, but here was a major clue as to why I don't readily seek out Christmas music. The good stuff is designed to evoke a very powerful emotional and/or nostalgic response. I don't need to go about doing that to myself on days that aren't Christmas Eve or Christmas. In fact, I've gotten to the point that I actually don't even notice holiday music playing in stores (this may be an unrelated coping mechanism I developed years back when I worked in a movie theatre and we had a half-hour long CD of Spongebob and Avril Lavigne Christmas songs and I worked 12-hour shifts, but for the sake of making the point here...) Holiday music is all about repetition and habit and tradition making this one time special above others. (That is, the .5% of holiday music that isn't terrible.)
As such, I cannot conscionably elicit that feeling frivolously. Instead, I am drawing my five songs from what I traditionally do on my way to the holiday emotional carousel:
Five Songs For (a Small Part of) the Seven-Hour Bus Ride Home to Ohio For the Areligious and/or Holiday-Averse to Sooth the Mind in Preparation For the Christmas Music Onslaught That Awaits But Are Mostly Just Nice Songs that Are Appropriate For Midwestern Travel, Holiday or Otherwise
1) "NYC-25" by The Olivia Tremor Control
2) "Bloodbuzz Ohio" by The National
3) "Intermission" by Coeur de Pirate
4) "Change of Time" by Josh Ritter
5) "There's So Many Colors" by Akron/Family
All of these songs, at the time of posting, are youtubeable, but should you desire a sampling I'd be happy to oblige.
In other news, yes, I think I may have finally figured out how to like The National. Or at least "Bloodbuzz Ohio". It's the "swarm of bees" line. Which, come to think of it, probably doesn't bode well for me actually learning to like The National on the whole.
apple_pathways actually did this properly, and came up with a a lovely little list, plus it's totally worth it for the bonus video. And if any of the rest of you want to take up the challenge, feel free!
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BUT, I will do so right now, and have it up on my journal shortly.
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No pressure! I'd assumed yours was done already and you were just waiting on my lazy and roundabout self to get through with mine. ^_^
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BUT, I think I have a mood/theme settled on, so I should be done soon.
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Fuck holiday songs. Fuck them SO HARD.
That is all.
♥
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I can't listen to Fall Out Boy without thinking of the old "Down tuuuu in a luleelurah" video. Which I had to go find after I listened to Yule Shoot Your Eye Out. And before I knew it I was watching the Muskau video and next thing I knew I was watching this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPN3Tnn2AaY&NR=1&feature=fvwp) and I don't even...
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Dude, the misheard lyrics video. Just. Yes, ohgod. That song kind of drives me crazy, like, I'm not really sure how they picked most of their singles for their that album. "Hey, you wanna make an album with some awesome songs and some boring songs, but to fuck with people, only release the boring ones mainstream? AND BONUS- NOBODY WILL BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THE LYRICS! ...MY NAME IS PETE WENTZ AND I'M A GIANT TWATWAFFLE HUURRRRR." ...Just a guess. Conjecture. You know.
What. What the HELL is that? How did it just happen? WHAT IS GOING ON AND WHY ARE THERE TINY TANKS. HOW IS IT A LEGEND?