Because I'm an old fart, it didn't occur to me until I'd seen dozens of posts at music websites that had Spotify playlists embedded in them that, hey, I could do that too. And that the most likely benefit to the readership is that I could post playlists based upon the annual Mistletunes mix discs, which you may have noticed lurking in the left column of the web page. So I've gone in and done them for the mixes I did from 2012 to the most recent one. I may get around to doing this with the earlier ones at some point, but I figured seven was a lucky number to start with. You'll notice that not every song in the liner notes page found its way to the playlist, and that's because not everybody is on Spotify -- particularly not the mash-ups done by the DJs on the Santastic compilations, since those exist in a gray area of copyright law to begin with. As for the rest, this is a way of sharing with readers and putting a few pennies in the artists' streaming jar. If you're on Spotify, feel free to share the playlists with friends, taste-tippers, even Fox News Uncles if you have them.
January 2019 Archives
The Americana thread of 2018's new Christmas music is carried through with this tune about lost love on the holiday from a Columbus, Ohio group I haven't encountered before. It's actually a cover of an Erasure tune, in this rendering a cool midtempo lament that could have been an outtake from the Old 97's or Rodney Crowell's albums and it leans more rock than country. I like it.
This uptempo contemporary-sounding number with fake horns is quite the joyful little noise for your Christmas parties. This is singer Kiesza collaborating with DJ/producer Chris Malinchak, which explains the portmanteau band name above. As for the title and lyrics, it's just shorthand for Santa's eternal catchphrase, there's no double entendre intended. This dropped in December 2018.
I don't know from Meiko, but I like this 2018 holiday single for its meandering indie-pop-rock charm as it considers a lost love from a decade earlier. A bit of research indicates she's indeed an indie-popper who gets booked at Hotel Cafe when she's in California, which venue was the inspiration for a holiday compilation some years ago. Consider this as sort of the halfway point between Courtney Barnett and Lana Del Ray and I think you've got it.
A good while back, KT did a Christmas EP that was only sold at Target in the continental US and it was pretty good, mainly covers but in the winning style that made her "Suddenly I See" an international hit. Fast-forward to 2018 and she adds this original single written by her and Lennertz, who's best known for providing soundtrack and incidental music to video games, TV shows and movies. Apparently she's made the segue into that end of show business herself. Proceeds benefit the non-profit War Child UK. As for the song, it's delightfully upbeat and warm.
LA by way of Ontario songwriter Allie X started out as an indie rocker in her native country, but since moving stateside she's gone more for chart-friendly synth-pop fare, and this 2018 cover of the Wham! classic is arranged in that style with a relentless bass drum beat. It probably fits in better to the track listing of a Now That's What I Call Christmas collection than to our more quirky playlists, but that's a determination you can make for yourselves. 
Ordinarily I gloss over the more Broadway-oriented stuff, but this 2018 single taken from the musical version of the movie "Mean Girls" is such a single-entendre sex number I figured I could justify mentioning this as a novelty if nothing else. No folks, these girls aren't dancing around Lech Walesa.
This breezy indie-pop band (I think they're British, but I'm not sure) throws out a warmly spacey number with a very slight Beach Boys accent about things falling apart on the holiday, "but it's all part of the fun," says them. This just dropped in mid-December 2018. Check it out.
You've seen her on TV, either alone or with her pal Riki Lindhome performing as comedy musicians Garfunkel & Oates. For 2018 she goes solo with this poppy holiday confection about offbeat gifts. Not to be too facile with comparisons, but if you like Flight of the Conchords, this will be right up your alley.
Yes, this is them, or what's left of them, anyway, in the year of our funky selves 2018. This six-song EP isn't quite what we remember of these guys at their most exuberant ("San Francisco/Hollywood," "YMCA," "Macho Man"), but these are all original songs with that late-70s pop-funk sound. "Go Santa Go" and "Snowball Fight" are the ones you'll spot as their classic sound, "Happiest Day of the Year" is a slower-tempo number in the same vein, "If You Believe" and "A Very Merry Christmas To You" are holiday ballads, and "Jingle Everyday" is a straight funk repurposing of phrases from the classic carol. It's not bad, and I can see folks grabbing this just so they can say they have the Village People in their playlists.
December 22 seems like a bad time to drop a Christmas album, particularly if you need to promote it heavily because it's a fundraiser for a worthy cause, in this case Direct Relief, which provides aids to the victims of the devastation caused by the late fall 2018 California wildfires. Nevertheless, the calendar rules, and these folks didn't let that deter them from donating their time and talent to aid a worthy cause. Overall, this is a professionally made album, mostly pop, kicked off by the traditional jazz rendition of "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)" by Mac Demarco, who turns up later in a very Broadway version of "12 Days of Christmas." On both songs he's assisted by guitarist, vocalist and collection producer Kirin J Callinan, who also takes the lead on a similarly showtune-y rendition of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch." For the rock fans out there in the readership, you'll want the version of Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody" by Neil Finn's sons Liam and Elroy, a faithful cover of the original version. Versions of "Last Christmas" by Eddie Chacon, "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" by Alex Cameron and Jack Ladder, and "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" by Holiday Sidewinder are likewise close to the original arrangements. Weyes Blood performs the typical midnight mass arrangement of "O Holy Night," and Molly Lewis whistles "Little Drummer Boy" and "Silent Night." Go to Bandcamp and grab this to support wildfire relief and get a head start on next year's holiday playlists. Or add it to your Orthodox Christmas playlists.
I'm just discovering that Fowler Volkswagen, a dealership in Norman, Okla., has been distributing an annual Christmas album for the past several years, and that they distribute free vinyl copies from their showroom. For those who aren't having their VWs serviced in Norman this season, their Bandcamp site provides digital access to the compilation, for that matter to the previous seven volumes as well. We'll concern ourselves with the 2018 edition here. Naturally, the participants are all regional bands and it appears nearly all of them contributed originals, so don't confuse Sports' slow funky tune called "Christmas in Hollywood" with the more profane version by Hollywood Undead. Beau Jennings sings of a "Dark & Stormy Christmas," sounding rather like a lost Cars outtake, Chair Model does a very '80s synth-pop treatment of their "Filthy Animal," and Duke Luther breaks out the vocoder for "Holiday High." Swim Fan goes slow jam on "Sasha Don't Take My Toys Away," Hot Cider keeps a similar tempo on the hip-hop "Melt Away," Spaceface featuring LABRYS offers more of a rock ballad, "Single Star," Daydrinker offers a spacey slow number, "Right Here," and James McAlister wraps things up with a synthesizer-orchestrated version of the hymn "In Dulci Jubilo." This is a pretty interesting collection, more so since you'd expect the music from Norman, Okla. to to be more bro-country than 90s pop, and it definitely encourages one to skip around the website and listen to the collections from previous years.
