A bit tired of hearing Bruce babbling on about Clarence getting a new sax for Christmas? Us too. Here’s a holly jolly roundup of some little-known originals and some well-known classics done by some of our favorite modern (mostly indie) artists. Have a favorite tune you wish to share? Just Post a Comment (bottom of page) and let us know. Merry Merry!

Boy Least Likely To – “Christmas Isn’t Christmas” -  MP3

The Mynabirds - “All I Want is Truth (For Christmas)” – MP3

Duvall – “Do You Hear What I Hear” – MP3

Sufjan Stevens – “Only at Christmas Time” – MP3
and “That Was the Worst Christmas Ever” – MP3

The Dismemberment Plan – “This Christmas” – MP3

Dream Diary – “Christmas All Over” -  MP3

Mogwai - “Christmas Song” – MP3

Alexi Murdoch – “Silent Night” – MP3

Andrew Dost – “Yeah, I Know, It’s Christmastime” - MP3

Long Winters - “Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas (Sometimes)” – MP3

Cliff Hillis - “On A Day Like Christmas” – MP3

Belle And Sebastian – “Are You Coming Over For Christmas?” – MP3

Death Cab For Cutie – Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home) – MP3

Centro-Matic – “Fuselage (It’s Starting to Look Like Christmas Once Again)” – MP3

Descendents - “Christmas Vacation” – MP3

The Swimmers – “A Christmas Sound” – MP3

Adam Arcuragi – “The Christmas Song” – MP3

The Flaming Lips – “A Change At Christmas (Say It Isn’t So)” – MP3

Adventures of Jet – “Waiting for Christmas” – MP3

Pearl Jam – “Let Me Sleep” and “Someday at Christmas” – MP3

Snow Patrol – “When I Get Home For Christmas” – MP3

The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl – “Fairytale Of New York” – MP3 – Video

Chomsky – “Christmas Time Is Here” – MP3

The Soft Lightes – The Last Christmas On Earth – Listen here

The Hives & Cyndi Lauper - “A Christmas Duel” – Video

Harvey Danger - “Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas (Sometimes)” – Video

Aimee Mann – “Calling on Mary” – Video

The Ramones – “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight)” – Video

Low – “Just Like Christmas” – Video

Matt Pond PA – “Snow Day”

Huffamoose – “Hanukkah And Christmas Hand In Hand”

Chris Stamey & Cathy Harrington – “You’re What I Want For Christmas”

Coldplay – “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”

Man or Astroman – “Frosty the Snowman”

Blink 182 – “It’s Christmas Time Again”

More Holiday Cheer!

• Holiday Shopping Tips 2010
• Holiday Shopping Tips 2009
• Holiday Shopping Tips 2008

Massive Marionettes! The Big Picture photo blog never disappoints. Enjoy these larger-than-life photos of France’s Royal de Luxe street theatre company celebratining the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The show featured “two massive marionettes, the Big Giant, a deep-sea diver, and his niece, the Little Giantess.”

Jazz Up Your Wall: The Jim Flora website  is offering three hand-printed 2010 calendars.

Stay With It, Fun Payoff: Roland Emmerich’s 2012 With the Special Effects Removed.

Patton Podding: Took a long drive down to Delaware recently to visit the Dogfish Head Beer HQ for a little race and I loaded up my iPod with some time-passing podcasts. (FYI, Milton DE is a little over 2 hours from Philly at 5am in the morn.)  I listened to the Todd Glass podcast “Comedy and Everything Else…” for the first time and I enjoyed it. Check out this exceptional episode with the great Patton Oswalt as he tells some great war stories about being a comedian and gives solid advice to the the new crop of funny people like, “You have no excuse to not succeed!”

Make My Logo Bigger! And while you’re at it, get me some White Space Eliminator.

Baby Cage! And 30 other Dumb Inventions of The 50s and 60s.

Yakov 2.0: RussianPaul is all aTwitter and he makes some excellent points:

“dogs are mean yes i know it. in Russia we say it ‘do not be mean to friends or bears will foop in your boots and eat your hands together’.”

“have you seen the Mr. Phil show? it is so dumb and he is yelling at people and saying how they need to be fixed! he should wear a hat.”

“beef hunglers are for making you happy after hard days. you can frye them when listening to GORKY PARK for extra ecxiting times! volga boatm.”

Fanatictastic! Big Phoot

Art: Phoning It In: David Hockney’s iPhone Passion

Food Gawker: Vegetarian

Need New Music? Follow @FreebieMP3 for free, legal MP3s from Mission of Burma, Glorytellers, Of Montreal, Aimee Mann, Strung Out & more.

Scarier Than Birthers? Really?: 10 insane doomsday cults that still exist

It’s a Graveyard Smash: Get your paws on some Monster Mash Putty!

Back in 1987 Rush entrusted  the video for their song “Time Stands Still” to a guy who was not afraid to use a green screen and a special effect or 4,000. The pitch:

“Hey Guys, love your stuff! BIG Huck Sawyer &  Limelife fan, anyway… for this video, I’m thinking… now stay with me… ‘floaty and frenetic’? Huh? And I got the ‘Voices Carry’ chick to chase you around a bit with a TV camera. It’s gold, right? Let’s do it.”‘

Gold indeed. I still love this song a lot and love the video’s sheer absurdity and absolute lack of concept even more.

Highlights:

• Neil Pert in tanktop
• Oddly incongruous wilderness background stock  footage
• Geddy rocking the “Mom doing housework with her hair in a bun” look
• Angel-voiced Aimee Mann clearly not amused by her asinine role in the video (debut 00:41), slight smile (01:01)
• Alex Lifeson gleefully spinning in circles like a dim child. (01:15)
• Choreographed double-spins by Alex and Geddy (01:22 and 01:30)
• Aimee leaving her camera duties to go in control room for no apparent reason (02:01)
• Wait, she might have hurt her arm (02:16)
• The epic “multiple Rush’s coming at ya ” shot (03:27) (favorite of Video Toaster wizards) that ends with Alex and Geddy hopping in step. Nailed it!
• Followed by Aimee Mann completely bored and snoozing (03:35) “Guys, c’mon this is just ridiculous…”
• Alex Lifeson does  fabulous dances with just his chin (03:48)
• Another HUGE choreographed Alex and Geddy 360 spin with spot-on precision (10s all around!) to bring it into the homestretch (04:12)
• Aimee smiles and shrinks and floats away (05:06), leaving Canada for good and never ever speaking with Rush again

More:

• Best Rock Video Ever: “Burnin’ For You” by Blue Oyster Cult
• Unintentionally Gay Music Videos