Fresh and Funky Holiday Music?

one off beat holiday song i have always enjoyed is Adam Sandler's "Hanukkah" song..

The Barenaked Ladies holiday music is ALL fantastic!! It's different and fun, and definitely not crude!

You might get some good ideas from here.

http://www.mistletunes.com/

Hey Steve ~ love the new photo!

One of my favorites is Leon Redbone's holiday album....I have a special little dance I do to "Christmas Island" ;-)

Maybe I'll swing by Saturday and drop a copy!

Steve: I have a lot of off-beat holiday music that I have collected over the years on CD and I am happy to lend them to you to burn. Will dig them out and try and bring along when we meet next week.

There's some decent jazz x-mas stuff GRP put out a while ago. Ditto on the Barenaked Ladies. (I am a borderline James Brown geek, but do NOT buy his Christmas stuff, (I think it was done for community service purposes))

Nothing can ever touch Eartha Kitt singing "Santa Baby" or Otis (Redding, of course!) singing "Merry Christmas Baby" ...............

No "Grandma Got Run Over By a Raindeer"? Good gravy, I suppose Jeff Foxworthy's "Redneck 12 Days of Christmas" is off the table then (smiles)

Let's see, I'm a big fan of interesting holiday music. I have CD of Latin-guitar holiday music. Basically beautiful tunes done in Latin guitar.

There's also a holiday CD done Celtic style, which is haunting.

Also, even though it's not specifically Christmas, I love the jazz music that accompanies Charlie Brown cartoons. Brings back lovely memories...

Have fun with this!

ohh g! i wanna hear that Celtic one. that's my thing.:)

There's a cd compilation series called A Very Special Christmas that has some good stuff. Bonus, proceeds benefit Special Olympics. I have 2 of the cd's, and some of my favorite tracks are "Merry Christmas Baby" by Springsteen and "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" by U2. There are some duds as well, but that's what iTunes and cd burners are for! :)

If you're looking for a bit of remixed classics, I've found that both Om's holiday remixes "hOme for the Holidays" and the Santastic remixes give you enough of the traditional holiday feel while minimizing the Mannheim Steamroller redundancy.

I'm a huge fan of alternative xmas tunes. Klezmer Nutcracker is amazing. There's a few holiday samplers floating around out there: "Acoustic Holidays" and "Yuletide Treasures Pop & Rock." Also, music from other countries is a nice change, like Sweden has a ton of short "Potpurri" songs that they interchange with May pole dancing that are fun to listen to (especially if you speak Swedish). Also, I second the Vince Guaraldi Charlie Brown Christmas. It's a classic. Bruce Cockburn's Christmas album is good too, and Ringo Starr's is fun.

God Jul!

Somafm.com, the makers of one of my favorite internet radio stations, Groove Salad, have just made their annual Xmas in Frisko station live. It's a mix of traditional, funny, and irreverent. While many of the tracks will not be appropriate for your business, you could get a lot of good ideas from listening to it. I just heard a death metal version of "dance of the sugar plum faeries." !!!! It was awesome.

(http://somafm.com/play/xmasinfrisko)

How about "Oi to the world!" by the Vandals, or "Father Christmas" by the Kinks?

These are great guys! I'm going to have to get some of these for the Biznik Anti-Office Holiday Party on December 19.

For anyone who has not yet visited Urbanweeds, I will throw in a plug for Steve and Tim:

When you shop, you have a choice to buy from small, local retailers or from big faceless chain stores. We've all heard "know your farmers" but I add to that "know your retailers."

Definitely drop by Urbanweeds in Upper Fremont to find very stylish holiday gifts and to meet Steve and Tim.

They sell plants that are hearty enough to survive even a neglectful caretaker and they come ready-to-give in sleek pots, so you don't have to get your hands dirty if you don't want to. They also have modern objects for the home--both functional and sculptural--that would make very original gifts. Check out the press they've been getting: Seattle Times,
NW Source" and others.

I'll be listening for the new holiday tunes next time I visit the store.

I can't believe I haven't heard anyone say my favorite, "Alvin and the Chipmunks...Allllvviiinnnnn!"

Ah, memories :>)

Mary - Your Holiday Helper Elf :>) Got Help?

I really like Mehdi. His music is New Age and of his 7 CDs that I have, I like 95% of his tracks.

I know that he has 2 Christmas albums released but I don't know if it's what you're looking for. [I don't own those CDs yet]

Good luck,

-Andrey

You might not want to play it in your store - but one of my favorites is the Etta James holiday album. That woman can belt out a Christmas tune!

Relient K has a great Christmas album out - Let it Snow Baby... Let it Reindeer. Some fun versions of traditional songs, plus some new tunes.

I absolutely will recommend both the Barenaked Ladies Christmas album as well as Vince Guaraldi's Peanuts Christmas album. Also, Sarah McLachlan has a new album, Wintersong (I believe) that's pretty good around the holidays, and Dido has a song called "Christmas Day" that I just love.

And, if you can find Cartman singing "O Holy Night," that's always a fun addition to the mix.