Fuckin' Christmas! YEAH! Gonna find some Christmas tunes for us today! Just going to pick some recent Christmas albums and take a random track from them. Ooh, bonus: PUP playing a Christmas adaptation of "Kids" with some puppets dancing around!
Calexico, "Seasonal Shift"
The title track from Calexico's just released Christmas album, Calexico is a natural for making a lovely Christmas album. Everything this band does is beautiful, so it's going to fit totally in with the season. I heartily endorse this record!
Woody Goss Trio, "Animal Spirits"
Woody Goss is one of the founders of Vulfpeck, and this is sort of his tribute to Vince Guaraldi. Vulfpeck rules, and this album is totally charming. If you don't picture Peanuts characters dancing in your head, you're probably not as old as me.
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, "Please Come Home For Christmas"
As with Calexico, Sharon Jones's warm soul is a perfect fit for belting out some Christmas music, and their album It's A Holiday Soul Party is a grand time, and my favorite Christmas album of the past several years.
Smokey Robinson, "Please Come Home For Christmas"
A few years ago, at age 77, Smokey Robinson put out a new Christmas album, backed up by a bunch of soul stalwarts. There are a few originals and some nice interpretations of some standards, and it's a delight. It's of course nice to see Robinson still sounding great.
Mike Krol, "Won't Be Alone Tonight"
This comes from You Wish: A Merge Records Holiday Album, which is a compilation of a bunch of Merge artists. It's pretty all over the map, as you might imagine from a bunch of Merge artists, but that's OK. It's still fun!
I hope everybody has a safe and enjoyable holiday season!