Every Friday, Sean Rameswaram, Studio 360 producer and host of the podcast Sideshow, rounds up the week in internet phenomena. But this week, Sean brings us five Christmas songs that break the mold and stray from the traditional "Silent Night" and "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer." Here are his top picks in alt-holiday music for 2014.
1. "When Christmas Comes" by Los Campesinos!
It makes perfect sense that an unflaggingly positive indie pop band would produce an earnest collection of Christmas originals and there's no better group for the job than Los Campesinos! The six-piece from Cardiff release A Los Campesinos! Christmas this season.
2. "Christmas Time is Here" by Mark Kozelek
Mark Kozelek spent most of 2014 getting in verbal altercations with people while he was on stage performing his contemplative acoustic balladry. How to cap off an exceptionally combative year? With an entire album of gentle, mostly traditional Christmas music.
3. "The Nutcracka" by Davoodi
This isn't the first time Diplo and his Mad Decent pals have violated all your Christmas traditions. It's the second. The follow up to last year's "A Very Decent Christmas," is creatively titled "A Very, Very Decent Christmas." Once again, we're treated to a blaring collection of thumping takes on traditional tunes. The Mad Decent gang drops more beats than an Olympic boxing team and seems sincerely invested in getting grandma to twerk around the fireplace on the 25th. Mad respect.
4. "Ho Ho Ho" by Liz Phair
Liz Phair hasn't released new music in several years but, as she told Stereogum, couldn't resist the chance to "write a dystopian Christmas song." Inspired by "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" and the "SantaLand Diaries" by David Sedaris, Phair bemoans her unremarkable Christmas with cheery, sanguine guitar pop. By song's end, it sounds like she has forgotten how miserable the holidays can make her.
5. "Joel, The Lump of Coal" by The Killers (feat. Jimmy Kimmel)
Jimmy Kimmel and The Killers are both from Las Vegas, so we can assume they know nothing about the more traditional tropes of the season. That didn't stop them from writing a song about a lump of coal named Joel. If nothing else, this addition to the Christmas canon verifies how well "Joel" rhymes with "coal."