The Island of Misfit Christmas Songs

by | Dec 20, 2014 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

Let me state for the record that I’m a major Grinch. I don’t care for the Christmas season for several reasons:

  1. I don’t like shopping
  2. I really don’t like shopping when stores are crowded
  3. I don’t like cold weather, especially when it brings its friends snow, sleet, black ice and icy rain.
  4. “Christmas creep” has made all the holiday festivities wear out their welcome before Thanksgiving even gets here.
  5. You hear the same 10 lame holiday songs over and over again.

I really wish radio stations would play holiday songs that don’t suck. Here are 10 personal favorites:

Keep Mariah and her sappy song. The Waitresses put a sassy spin on the holidays. From “Christmas Wrapping” to Christmas rapping, how about this gem from Run DMC…

Want a heapin’ helping of cynicism with your holidays? The Kinks have just the ticket:

And here’s another uplifting number from The Pogues and the late great Kirsty MacColl:

Punk up your holidays with some Bad Religion:

Elvis and his Blue Christmas are fine, but a blues Christmas from the fantastic (and woefully under-appreciated) Charles Brown is even better:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btIgdsoRG-8

Charles also did the original version of “Please Come Home for Christmas” in 1960 on Cincinnati’s own King Records label. It’s a crying shame you only hear the Eagles version on the radio.

This one actually gets some airplay. But not nearly as much as it deserves. You’ve probably heard of S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder) but Joni Mitchell flips the script by yearning for the frozen rivers of her Canadian home while soaking up the warm L.A. sun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAK9Pj5-QXY

A cool yule song from one of the coolest women in rock, Chrissie Hynde, and the Pretenders:

And finally, the song that is, in my humble opinion, the best Christmas song ever, by Steve Earle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9D-pTHGP3w

That’s Maria McKee from Lone Justice on backing vocals. Please check out more from her here and here.

Bare-y Christmas

by | Dec 10, 2014 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

A few days ago I was shopping for Christmas photo cards to mail out to the 3 people who actually care (and the 100 who don’t). Like most of the photo card sites, Walgreens has several styles from which to choose. Unlike the other sites, however, Walgreens had a sample photo that seemed a bit too…er… cheeky… for the season:

walgreens xmas card

 

Hey Ford Family, you’re obviously proud of your physiques, but you don’t have to rub it in our faces… er, you know what I mean. Maybe they should’ve changed the caption to “the end (of the year) is near”.

Support your local Wussy

by | Nov 29, 2014 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

CBS Saturday Morning had a great profile of the Cincinnati band Wussy today.

And they performed a fantastic song called “Teenage Wasteland” from their new album Attica: 

It’s so sad that fantastic bands like this aren’t able to quit their day jobs, while lame pre-fab acts like One Direction rake in millions. Please visit Wussy’s website and buy their music and merch. You’ll be glad you did.

You’d be sad too…

by | Nov 29, 2014 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

… if your dad made you go holiday shopping and you only got gifts for adults, like beer coolers. And you’d be doubly sad if he made you accompany him to K-Mart.

kmart shoppers

 

Worst. Christmas. Ever!