You know, the kind that you hear at the hipper stores in the mall. Usually they’re cool slower tempo techno remixes of classics or sometimes they’re totally newer Christmas songs altogether, but without being Jessica Simpson singing the Little Drummer Boy, you know what I mean?
My friends and family love Christmas music, but most of them haven’t updated to anything more modern than Manheim Steamroller (and I hate Manheim fucking Steamroller).
I’m looking for single songs pretty much so that I might burn a CD or two so that when it’s music time I can at least find a little something that I can nod my head along to. Even though it’s not one of my favored genres cool electro remixes might be best since mom will recognize them too but anything that gives me a break will work.
Let me start by saying that I don’t know what they play at the hipper stores at the mall. I don’t know which stores at the mall are the hipper stores. I don’t even know what stores are at the mall… But I like “The Jethro Tull Christmas Album”, so I figured I’d mention it. It includes “A Christmas Song” and “Ring Out Solstice Bells” from earlier albums (personally, I like the earlier versions a little better than the ones on this album). My favorites from this CD are “Birthday Card at Christmas”, “Last Man at the Party”, “Fire At Midnight”, and “First Snow on Brooklyn”. If you like Tull, check it out.
I walked over to the shopping mall near where we live today and was harassed by a never-ending rendition of “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” The stores and malls here have caught on that Christmas = big profits, because of all the Westerners here, but they have no idea what’s good and bad in terms of Christmas music.
My absolute favorite in this vein is Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLoughlin singing “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman.”
There’s also a cover of “Oi to the World” by No Doubt out there that is pretty fun. (It’s a cover of an old punk song, but I don’t know who did the original version)
Bruce Springsteen “Santa Clause is Comin’ to Town” if you can find the live version (He makes fun of his clarinet singer ‘Clarence’ in the beginning and stufflike that) is also pretty good.
The Vandals did the original, which rocks, and their whole Christmas album is… probably not quite what the OP is looking for, but it’s definitely different! I do, however, recommend their version of *Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies. *
I also love the Waitresses’ “Christmas Wrapping”, even though it’s almost as old as me.
We play a lot of what you would call “hip mall store Christmas music” at work, but it’s hard to know who does which versions of what because you can’t search by lyrics – they’re the same whether it’s Christina Aguilera or Bing Crosby. We do play a number of songs that I categorize as late 90s remixes of 40s and 50s classics, but I don’t know by whom.
We always spin up A Christmas Story by Point of Grace . It has a lot of standard Christmas fare but it’s sung in beautiful harmony by these four women and it’s just nicely put together.
Well, this CD let me put names to some of the music at work. We play the songs on tracks 2, 3, 4, 10, and 12.
So now I know. Thanks!
ETA: And off of this one, tracks 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, and 11.
You have no idea how happy I am that I know who sings these now. I guess I probably could have e-mailed Muzak and asked them for a song listing, but this is better IMO.
Just to suggest it again, Jars of Clay playing “Little Drummer Boy” is pretty amazing. Not techno, but wonderful as far as a good version of a classic song. I figure I’ll keep suggesting it to everyone I can.
my favorite Christmas song to come out of the 21st Century is A Great Big Sled, by The Killers.
The robot’s awake to find out they’ve been taped down
wondering when they’ll break through these chains
but little boys have action toys for brains
I’m living proof it can last a long time
*
Electronic band The Echoing Green also does a version of “Little Drummer Boy” (soundclip here) and a cover of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” that is a great dance song (soundclip here that only plays part of the instrumental intro that is not dancy at all).
The stores and malls here have caught on that Christmas = big profits, because of all the Westerners here, but they have no idea what’s good and bad in terms of Christmas music.