Spiral Starecase- 1969

So a friend just sent me this.

I aim to please. However the band's name is spelled wrong. Sigh.

Favorite Christmas Songs

Here in the Chicago area (and most likely everywhere else) Christmas music is already playing on the radio. 93.9 is all Christmas music, but 100.3 is doing something different this year by only having every OTHER song be a Christmas song---their regular music is mixed in with the Christmas songs.

I'm not how long this pattern will last, say after a certain date in December will they play exclusively Christmas songs? Regardless, I love this idea, and I think it's something that a lot more Christmas song stations should adapt to. There are several stations I know of that don't play exclusive Christmas music during the season that swap a few Christmas songs in. I love this idea. Good job, 100.3.

Everyone has their favorite Christmas songs, ranging from carols and hymns to classic rock re-works. Three guesses which genre I gravitate towards. 

So, without further adieu, here is my list of favorite Christmas songs. I'm too lazy to decide ranking, so the numbers don't really mean anything. 

1. "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" -Darlene Love

I love Motown, that's a fact. And this song is wonderful. Darlene Love first recorded this song in 1963 and has sang it every year on David Letterman for the last 28 years. 2014 will be the last year (thanks Gretchen Unico for this heartbreaking reminder.) This only makes me want to listen to it 100 more times. 

2. "Last Christmas" -Florence and the Machine

There's about 100 different versions of "Last Christmas"---the original Wham!, Taylor Swift, Jimmy Eat World, Glee, Ariana Grande, Cascada, Hilary Duff, even an Arctic Monkeys (i don't like them AT ALL) version thrown in at the end of "Fluorescent Adolescent" at a 2009 gig. I think they're all great. But Florence's version, recorded at BBC Radio one also in 2009, is just amazing. Simple, acoustic,beautiful-ness.

3. "Little Saint Nick" -The Beach Boys

My dad hates this song so much, so I love to make fun of him and say it's his favorite Christmas song. That's all I really have to say about this. BUT I LOVE IT!

4. "Do They Know It's Christmas? (Feed the World)" 
-Band Aid

U2. Spandau Ballet. Duran Duran. Sting. Midge Ure. Paul Weller. Phil Collins. Bananarama. Boy George. David Bowie. WHAT.IS.NOT.TO.LOVE? Apparently a lot. Matt Springer of Ultimate Classic Rock named this song the #4 Worst Christmas Song. Aside from one of my facebook friends, I had no idea that anyone hated this song. But Springer makes a really good point: "It's also incredibly condescending, as a parade of rich, white British musicians over-sing in an effort to make themselves feel better about snorting coke and drinking wine while people on the other side of the world starve to death." He makes a good point.

I still love it though.

Bonus: so 2014 was the 30th anniversary of this song's release, so "Band Aid 30" was developed with British pop acts like Ellie Goulding, Sam Smith, Olly Murs, Ed Sheeran, and One Direction bringing their styles to this classic tune,

It sucks.

5. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) -John Lennon

I realize that the tone of this blog post is primarily "this song is so great i love it how can you not omg" but this really applies for this song. Even with the atrocity of Yoko, it's JOHN LENNON. Such a beautiful, evocative song.

American English, proclaimed by Newsweek as "the best Beatles band on the planet," also does a spectacular cover of this song. There is no better John than Mr. Young Hines. Period.

6. "Jingle Bell Rock" -Hall and Oates

So I just found out this version was by Hall and Oates. SO ashamed. I have no idea who I thought it was, but I definitely didn't think it was them. There's something special about these 70s & 80s tv specials and I wish they still made them. Kind of. 

"John Oates' "acting" is my favorite part of the video." -Gretchen Unico

Never Mind the Buzzcocks:

So I just remembered that years ago I put the entire episode history of Never Mind the Buzzcocks on a word document and kept track of my favorite episodes as I watched them. Someone recently asked me which episode is my favorite--that's an impossible question. I'm constantly remembering completely useless and random things that I learned from this amazing comedy panel show focused on music, and I often bring it up to friends when I know there is a guest or joke they might find amusing.

Phill Jupitus, David Tennant, and Noel Fielding

Photo credit: Lisby (Flickr)

Never Mind the Buzzcocks first aired on November 12, 1996. Mark Lamarr hosted for nine years, and Simon Amstell took over on October 26, 2006 until the end of series 22 on January 16, 2009. The show then ran for five years under guest hosts and was returned to a regular host in Rhod Gilbert beginning September 29, 2014. Phill Jupitus and Bill Bailey (later replaced by Noel Fielding, a series of guest captains, and then Noel again) serve as team captains. 

The show is made up of four different rounds. The first round is always a video round of some sort, typically showing clips from two artists of groups and then asking a related question. Round two is always the ("Pride of Britain," as Amstell puts it) Intros round. Round three is usually the Identity Parade, "where teams must choose a man from a lineup of other men," and finally, Next Lines brings up the rear, where teams must finish the lines in a song.

Without further adieu, here are three of my favorite episodes of 
Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

Simon Amstell
Photo Credit: Amabchanda.com

Series 20, Episode 6

Host: Simon Amstell

Phill's team: Adam Buxton and Melanie Chisholm

Bill's team: Bonnie Tyler and Krishnan Guru-Murthy

"'Bag it up, don't drop the baby?' What kind of grotesque nightmare is that?"

Tyler's appearance does not disappoint. Amstell's opening monologue serves to introduce Tyler before the main introductions even begin--she and Amstell share a duet on her flagship song. Surprisingly, she doesn't sound half bad here, but it seems pretty likely that she was drunk for the entire show, or at least very confused. Chisholm provokes interest from Amstell to hear sordid gossip about her fellow Spice Girls, and Buxton shares his experience with mushrooms (the psychedelic kind).

Selected music plugs:

"Fuck Forever" -Babyshambles

"Rewind" -The Artful Dodger ft. Craig David

"Turn Around Bright Eyes" -Bonnie Tyler

"Ring of Fire" -Johnny Cash

"Call Me Al" -Paul Simon

CONTINUITY ALERT! Simon's introduction to Bonnie Tyler references an AirFrance flight where she was asked to sing by the co-pilot but after a raucous performance, a group of Belgian tourists complained that the flight's safety was at risk. Guest hosting in Series 23, Episode 8, Martin Freeman asks the guests to guess why Bonnie Tyler caused trouble with a group of Belgian tourists in 2006.

Unfortunately, the uploader won't let this episode be embedded, so you'll have to do with a link instead: http://youtu.be/Yx5UFHXz4JI

Series 21, Episode 7

Host: Simon Amstell

Phill's team: Mathew Horne and Kate Nash

Bill's team: Antony Costa and Martin Freeman

"We're looking for a tall, short woman. With dark hair."

There's a reason Simon Amstell is my favorite host (well two, if you count the fact that he was hosting the first episode of Buzzcocks I ever saw) and it's episodes like these. Furthermore, Martin Freeman and his beautiful wit, sarcasm, and too-quick guessing skills for the Intros round, are in full-swing in this episode. If (I can't imagine why) you're not convinced that Martin Freeman is the most precious thing on the planet, then you obviously need to continue on to Series 23, Episode 8 where he is the guest host. Complete with panelist Antony-Costa's-boyband-Blue-jokes, stories of Amy Winehouse (RIP) throwing up out of a window, plenty of Paul McCartney and Heather Mills joke-making,  and last but certainly not least, a "sigh-off" between Martin and Mathew Horne, this episode is one of my favorites for so, so many reasons.

Meant for eachother, clearly: fake Ruth Ann Boyle and Bill Bailey
Photo credit: Jam Kittens & Rage Italia (YouTube)

Selected music plugs:

"Part Time Lover" -Stevie Wonder

"Times Like These" -The Foo Fighters

"Too Close" -Blue

"Relax" -Frankie Goes to Hollywood

Series 22, Episode 2

Host: Simon Amstell

Phill's team: Dominic Cooper and Frankie Sandford

Stephen Fry's (Guest captain) team: Matt Shultz and Josie Long

"Come on Dumbledore, sing it!"

Stephen Fry is guest-captaining this episode, that should be pretty much all the convincing you need to watch this episode. Alright, I'm not getting off that easy I guess. Fry's appearance turns the show into a bit of a QI-like atmosphere, with the guests swapping subject matter on the history and significance of pretzels, red squirrels, the geography of the UK, and Norse mythology. It seemed to have benefitted Sanford as she commented "I feel like I'm at school today, I've learnt a lot of knowledge." She also became increasingly familiar with Dominic Cooper throughout the event, claiming "Mamma Mia!" to be a great movie, only to ask if he played the boyfriend, and later realizing she had also seen him in "The Duchess." Not the 12 year-old's fault: "That is the power of Dominic's acting," said Amstell, "he almost disappears into the role. or you could say makes no impact at all." Mamma Mia, here we go again.

Selected music plugs:

"Smack That" -Akon

"Victoria" -The Fall

"Mamma Mia!" -Abba

"Shiny Happy People" -R.E.M.