All Killer, No Stocking Filler Holiday Season Playlist: Songs for the Discerning Caroler

From: Time Out Amsterdam
In case you’re already bitter from festive cheer and Xmas muzak we've put together this ‘All Killer, No Stocking Filler Holiday Season Playlist: Songs for the Discerning Caroler’. Unfortunately we can’t actually make it and send it to you personally but all these tracks are easy to download from your favourite online music source. We even found some Hanukkah and Kwanzaa tunes to mix things up a bit.

1. Polyphonic Spree – Happy Christmas (War Is Over) No better band could cover Lennon and Ono’s kaleidoscopic Christmas carol than this robed choral cult.
2. Ben Folds – Bizarre Christmas Incident Rollicking and rambunctious, Folds’ eggnog is spiked and Santa is stuck up a chimney.
3. Sufjan Stevens – That Was The Worst Christmas Ever! Yuletide ukulele by a repeat offender – seek out his box set of five Christmas EPs.
4. Woody Guthrie – Hanukkah Dance Ironically, Jewish artists wrote many Christmas jingles like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and “White Christmas” while Guthrie penned this charming Jewish barn-dance ditty.
5. The Eels – Christmas Is Going To The Dogs One for the mutt-lovers. Don’t forget Rover’s gift under the tree… or he’ll chew yours.
6. The Walkmen – New Years Eve A jangly, drunken, end-of-the-party tune that sees in the New Year with a one-night stand.
7. The Ramones – Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight) Calling a truce for the evening, Punk’s parents wonder where Santa’s magic has gone.
8. The Wombats – Is This Christmas Liverpudlian scallywags recall an imperfect English Christmas with dinner table fights and sleet instead of snow.
9. U2 – New Years Day Whether echoing the plight of Poland’s first non-communist trade union or just about being hung over on January 1, it’s a classic.
10. Spinal Tap – Christmas With The Devil “The elves are dressed in leather and the angels are in chains, the sugar plums are rancid and the stockings are in flames”. Nuff said.
11. Adam Sandler – Hanukkah Song Who knew so many words rhymed with Hanukkah. Spark up the menorah (and some “marijuanikkah”) for the Festival of Lights.
12. Death Cab For Cutie – The New Year “So this is the New Year, and I don’t feel any different.” How often does the night stand up to expectation, or you by your resolution?
13. Run DMC – Christmas In Hollis Christmas rapping (pun intended), the Queens trio find urban middle ground between Mariah’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” and Death Row’s Christmas compilation.
14. Georgia Anne Muldrow – The Kwanzaa Song Connected to African harvest time, the continent’s worldly diaspora celebrate the seven days of Kwanzaa (Dec 26-Jan 1). Muldrow gives a Kwanzaa shout out from hip-hop label Stones Throw (Check out their Badd Santa Xmas compilation).
15. The LeeVees – How Do You Spell Channukkahh? Indie pop-punk with tongue in cheek (yet no Yiddish inflection in throat) from their Hanukkah Rocks album.
16. The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl – A Fairytale of New York The season’s most heralded Christmas song – a debauched tale from a Christmas Eve drunk tank.
17. Mary Margaret O’Hara – What Are You Doing New Years Eve? A shuffling, smoky croon closing with Auld Lang Syne’s chorus for that twelve o’clock kiss.
Further downloading: Manic Street Preachers – Ghosts of Christmas, Smashing Pumpkins – Christmastime, AC/DC – Mistress for Christmas, Yellowman – This Christmas, The Beach Boys – Little Saint Nick. And find even more at Brooklyn Vegan