Christmas playlist

I hope everyone's enjoying the holidays. Here are some tracks I listen to a lot these days, to get into the christmas mood - my alternative/indie rock Christmas playlist!

Eels - Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas

Eels - Christmas Is Going to the Dogs

"Baby Jesus, born to rock." - "Get off your sled and go to bed - don't you ever tire?". Mr. E, of the US alternative rockers Eels, knows how to rock my Christmas!

Drawing Constellations - All I Want For Christmas Is You (Ooh Baby)

Drawing Constellations - Chestnuts Roasting

Canadian indie rockers Drawing Constellations do a couple of awesome and very fresh-feeling takes on two christmas classics.

Erlend Øye - Last Christmas

A track from one of Norwegian Erlend Øye's (of Kings of Convenience and Whitest Boy Alive) acoustic solo shows. He too does a cover of a Christmas song I'm quite tired of, but does a very sweet interpretation of the song. I'm honestly not very fond of WHAM at all, but Øye manages to turn this cheesy 80s hit into something completely different - something beautiful!

Mew - She Came Home For Christmas

Danish indie/prog rockers Mew wrote this gem in the mid-nineties, and it has been released as a Christmas single over and over again between 1997 and 2003 in Denmark and the rest of the world. Here's the 2003 version from their breakthrough album Frengers. A sweet ballad that will ensure Christmas mood!

of Montreal - Christmas isn't safe for animals

Psychedelic indie poppers of Montreal, from Athens, Georgia, just being their usual weird selves. This quirky Christmas song is really charming!

Iggy Pop is awesome

Iggy Pop is an artist that I just keep going back to, again and again. Apart from his work with his band The Stooges, Pop has also led an amazing solo career. His first two solo efforts, Lust for Life and The Idiot are possibly my favorite albums of the 70s.

Iggy Pop is arguably one of the biggest living musical legends on the planet today. Iggy is the grandfather, king and pretty much inventor of punk music. His live shows are legendary: The raw, bare-chested, sweaty, drunken bravado at his shows in the 60s/70s have been an inspiration for punk and rock performers ever since, and an endless hoard of people have since attempted to be as kick-ass as him - which is an impossible task, of course.

After inventing his raw stage persona as the vocalist for his band The Stooges, he left the band to go solo, and then something unusual happened: he actually made even better music. In 1977 he releaed his first two solo albums, Lust for Life and The Idiot, with only a half year interval. Lust for Life is the most famous of the two, with its iconic album cover featuring Iggy's creepy and manic smile brimming at you. From the very first track (which is also the title track), you know you're in for something special: In what I honestly think is one of the best opening tracks ever made, the song comes right at you with its intense drums, and the heavy bass and Iggy's nonchalant vocals carry you through five powerful and legendary minutes.

Pop is still as active as ever today. In what has to be one of my favorite singles of 2009, he teamed up with the BPA, also known as Fatboy Slim, to record a cover of The Monochrome Set's "He's Frank". This song is an awesome meeting of two talents, and almost as good as Pop's former US-UK collaboration - which was in the 70s and with David Bowie. (Bowie wrote songs for Lust for Life and The Idiot). The song's video is awesome too, and conveniently also has a puppet theme that fits well into this blog!

Broken Social Scene covering Pavement

mp3: Broken Social Scene - Kennel District (Pavement Cover)


And speaking of Pavement and their upcoming comeback tour (see my previous entry) here's one of my favorite bands covering one of my favorite Pavement songs! Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew is a big fan of 90s alternative bands like Dinosaur Jr and Pavement, and performed covers of them during the when he went on tour with BSS 2007-08 promoting his solo album, Spirit If.

It must be really amazing for the fanboy, then, that Broken Social Scene are set to perform at Pavement's UK shows in May! For a music fan growing up to be a musician, sharing stage with your idols must be incredible. The cover version is really good, give it a listen!

Pavement back on tour

I've been excited about the reunion of Pavement for some time. They're one of the best alternative rock bands of the 90s, but dissolved in 1999 - when I was thirteen years old, which means I was born a bit too late to ever have a chance to see them perform live.

Last week, I decided that I want to go to the Roskilde Festival next year, which I haven't been to since 2007. And today, Pavement were announced as the festival's first headliners! Very nice pre-Christmas gift.

And speaking of Christmas arriving soon, and Pavement being back soon, here's an amazing classic Pavement song with an OK music video starring all band members dressed as Santa Claus: