The CHIRP Blog
It's the holiday season, which means Christmas music. Lots and lots of Christmas music, most of which was written before the people listening to it were even alive. While "Jingle Bells" and "We Three Kings" are great, and resilient, we're devoting this year to finding the best Christmas song written since 1989. We continue today with #1, the best Christmas song of the last 25 years, by Harvey Danger.
#1: Harvey Danger, "Sometimes You Have To Work On Christmas (Sometimes)" (1998)
If you're reading this on Christmas, you're probably gathered around a tree somewhere. Maybe there's snow on the ground, and the scent of fresh cinnamon rolls cooling on the kitchen counter. You've probably opened presents and shredded a bale's-worth of wrapping paper and settled into the afterglow that only comes on holiday mornings when all the stores are closed.
Maybe you're at work, manning a ticket counter at a ramshackle movie theatre, or grabbing the holiday shift at the all-night convenience store out by the highway, or sewing up someone who took a drunken Christmas Eve header through an apartment window. If you're doing that last one, probably stop reading.
Maybe you don't have much to celebrate this year, or maybe you list count of the blessings accrued during another spin around the sun. Maybe you don't celebrate Christmas at all. Maybe you just like Harvey Danger, or independent radio, or me. I don't know.
(Maybe you're reading months in the future, killing time on some future April morning because it's raining and you didn't want to take your lunch break outside. Again, hard to say.)
Whenever you see this, though: I know the world seems pretty fucked sometimes, and that answers are hard to come by. I know that the holidays are usually more stressful than they're worth, and that a part of you would rather just not bother. My hope for all of you, wherever and whenever you're reading this, is that you find something in your lives that tips the balance in favor of the festive. Whether it's a song or a person or a particularly delicious butter cookie, I hope we can all find something to leave us at 51% happy come Christmas next year.
Thank you for reading, and I'll see you in 2015.
P.S. - Listen to the Long Winters' version of this song, too. It's mad good.
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Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2014. Our next list is from DJ (Thursdays 3-6pm) Mauricio Reyes.
How many Emo kids does it take to screw in a lightbulb? None, they all sit in the dark and cry.
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Keep Reading…
It's the holiday season, which means Christmas music. Lots and lots of Christmas music, most of which was written before the people listening to it were even alive. While "Jingle Bells" and "We Three Kings" are great, and resilient, we're devoting this year to finding the best Christmas song written since 1989. We continue today with #2, and a bittersweet holiday refrain from the Ramones.
#2: The Ramones, "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)" (1989)
The Ramones don't feel like a band that should have a Christmas song. Even though they were always on the sentimental side of the punk catalogue, such a naked display of gee-whiz cheeriness just didn't jibe. However, it's hard to argue that "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)" isn't one of the band's best latter-day singles, and one of the best Christmas tunes of its era. Released on 1989's Brain Drain, the song captures a plea for smooth relations made during the time of year when the combination of stress and mulled wine makes that almost impossible. It's a message that works perfectly on its own, but gains a deeper level of bittersweetness when considered alongside the band's own struggles. By 1989, the Ramones were falling apart. The band's relationship with Sire Records has soured (Brain Drain would be their last album for the label) and, after years of tension, founding bassist Dee Dee Ramone had one foot out the door. The band that was once so close that members pretended to be brothers was limping into its third decade desperate to recapture the magic. Just as it's hard to dismiss the power of "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)", it's also hard not to hear it as a manifestation of the band's own turmoil. In 2014, we know how the story ends, but for those two minutes, they might be able to convince us otherwise.
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Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2014. Our next list is from Board Member and DJ Nicole Oppenheim.
2014 was an incredible year for music. I went to more shows and bought more records than any year since maybe 2010--another stellar music year. If you listen to my show, Ear Candy (Friday mornings, 9am-12pm), you know I'm a hip hop/shoegaze/pop/occasional metal/punk girl. That said, there are no surprises here. Enjoy, kids!
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Keep Reading…
It's the holiday season, which means Christmas music. Lots and lots or Christmas music, most of which was written before the people listening to it were even alive. While "Jingle Bells" and "We Three Kings" are great, and resilient, we're devoting this year to finding the best Christmas song written since 1989. We continue today with #3, and an infectious piece of Christmas cheer from the cast of Saturday Night Live.
#3: The Cast of Saturday Night Live, "I Wish It Was Christmas Today" (2000)
It began on Saturday Night Live. On a snowy night in December 2000, NBC viewers tuning in to their favorite sketch comedy program were treated instead to a sonic slab of concentrated holiday cheer. Performed by Horatio Sanz and his backing band (which included a visibly nervous Jimmy Fallon and Tracy Morgan busting out his most minimal of dance moves), the song extolled the virtues of Christmas. The same can be said of many songs. However, this one was different. The lyrics were single-minded in their pursuit of merriment, and the players, realizing this, seemed to struggle to contain it. They'd tapped into a wild, untamed version of holiday festivity, and knew they were no match.
For the next few Christmases, the song returned. Each year, around December, it would flare up in a fit of cheer, only to disappear back into the wintery ether. After 2004, it didn't return, and we thought we were safe. We thought we were cured. However, songs this infectious find a way of returning. In 2009, while researching covers during the recording sessions for his new album, Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas was exposed to the song. It fused with his own musical sensibilities, mutating into an even catchier arrangement. When the song once again appeared on a 2011 edition of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, it was more powerful than ever.