Feeling Scroogey Yet??

Contrast Podcast is back this week with yet another batch of Christmas cheer to force down your gullets. But this isn't just more of the same-old mouldy fruitcake, oh no! This stuff is cool and crisp, just like a new snowfall on Christmas morning. The Vandals! The Muppets!! The Wedding Present!!! And more!!!! Rejoice, rejoice!!

As usual, you can pull the podcast out of this stocking, or you can get Santa to regularly drop off each episode by subscribing with the following RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ContrastPodcast.

OK kids, let's do some rapping and unwrapping!!

(00:55) Eric Metronome - Jesus Christ
Eric Metronome (website/myspace)

(03:58) The Vandals - Oi to the world
Simon from You can call me Betty

(07:04) The Shitbirds - Christmas is a-coming (may God bless you)
SAS Radio

(08:58) The Wedding Present - Step into Christmas
Jim from Quick before it melts

(13:33) My Chemical Romance - All I want for Christmas is you
Bethanne from Clever titles are so last summer

(18:10) Emmy the Great & Lightspeed Champion - Christmas in Prison (buy the charity album here)
Tim The Daily Growl

(21:58) Garrison Keillor - The 12 days of Christmas
Rick from Are you embarassed easily?

(25:50) Unio and Petito - a balm on yer
Deek Deekster from Pod of Funk

(31:37) Loretta Lynn - It won’t seem like Christmas
Michael from The Yank Sizzler

(34:55) Frickin’ A - Merry merry merry frickin’ Christmas
Tom from Other People’s Toys

(38:44) Danny Elfman - Making Christmas
Shawn from Das Mobius

(42:59) John Denver and The Muppets - The Christmas Wish
Spoodles from Robot hand is the future

(46:54) Emmy the great - The Woods
Tim from Fun Fun Fun

(50:05) Miles Davis and Bob Dorough - Blue Christmas
Marcy from Lost in your inbox

(53:26) The Flaming Lips - Christmas at the Zoo
Bob from Gimme Tinnitus

(57:01) Neko Case - Christmas card from a hooker in Minneapolis
Brian from The Rant

(01:00:57) Victor Scott - O Holy Night
Victor Scott (website/myspace)

For those of you thinking beyond Christmas, Tim's already accepting submissions for the New Year's Eve podcast. But you'd better hurry: submissions are due no later than 21 December!! Still don't know how to participate? All is made clear here.

Now, I know some of you out there are sick to the back teeth of this whole holiday rigmarole for one reason or another. So, in an attempt to put a wee smile, however wry or twisted, on even your faces, let me offer up a batch of tunes that celebrate the darker, downkey, and depressed aspects of the season. If you're dreading yet another year of family arguments, the sardonic Shrag have the tune for you. On the flip side, that nice, morose man fellow from Casiotone For The Painfully Alone paints a lonely picture for those left all by themselves for the holidays. Vancouver's own Young And Sexy ruthlessly reveal Santa's class bias, while the Long Blondes block up their chimney and nurse a bitter, broken heart. And finally, Faster Pussycat and BTFABG paint it all a gothicky black.

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Cold White Christmas (buy here)
The Vichy Government - (One More Widow) One Less White Christmas (atmospheric freebie download from last year. Now unavailable, but this year label Filthy Little Angels is giving away a massive 70-song sampler - for free!! Get it here!!)
The Long Blondes - Christmas is Cancelled (this was a freebie download - how kind!!)
The Raveonettes - The Christmas Song (buy here)
Merle Haggard - If We Make It Through December (buy here or e-here)
Shrag - Stop The Revelry (find this & other similar goodies here)
Young & Sexy - Santa Likes Rich Kids Better (buy here or e-here)
Faster Pussycat - Silent Night (buy here or e-here)
Black Tape For A Blue Girl - Chanukkah, O Chanukkah (buy here)

And for the purists amongst you, here's Oscar the Grouch with his inimitable Noo Yoik take on the holidays: I Hate Christmas (buy here).