Xmas & Holiday Songs
Reinterpretations of classic Christmas carols and holiday songs – most of them fairly irreverent.
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- Deck The Robots
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- You Spin Me Round (Like A Dreidel)
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- West End Nick
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- Jingles Are Jingles
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- Holly Jolly Monday
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- Shock The Santa
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- (Keep Feeling) Xmas!
Deck The Robots
Even robots need bedecking! In loving homage to Kraftwerk’s The Robots, starting with the original version and then segueing into their updated interpretation from “The Mix.”
Download Deck The Robots
If it isn’t already in your library, you can buy the original The RobotsĀ or the version of Robots from The Mix on iTunes.
Please note: no samples from the original songs were used in this recording. All tracks were newly performed.
You Spin Me Round (Like A Dreidel)
Merry holidays, everyone! This year’s installment was recorded at the house of my extremely patient in-laws in New Jersey. Mixed on headphones, so the balance may be a bit off – but I had fun with this one!
Download You Spin Me Round (Like A Dreidel)
If it isn’t already in your library, you can buy the original You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) on iTunes.
Please note: no samples from the original songs were used in this recording. All tracks were newly performed.
(Keep Feeling) Christmas
The Human League meets Mel Torme. Featuring very special guest Freya, with Zola and Sophia pitching in for choruses and Glen providing the critical “Ho, Ho, Ho.”
Download (Keep Feeling) Christmas.mp3
If they aren’t already in your library, you can buy the original (Keep Feeling) Fascination and The Christmas Song on iTunes.
Please note: no samples from the original songs were used in this recording. All tracks were newly performed.
West End Nick
The Pet Shop Boys collide with “Up On A Housetop.”
If it isn’t already in your library, you can buy the original West End Girls on iTunes.
Please note: no samples from the original song were used in this recording. All tracks were newly performed. Some sound effects (city ambience, horses, whip) make use of material from the excellent resource freesound.org; please see the complete credits here.
Credits for sound effects in West End Nick
Urban ambience and horses created using a combination of commercial samples and the following samples from freesound.org: “Breezy city amb” from “Ambience Field-Recordings” by patchen, “20090412-horse” and “20101228-horse” by dobroide, “Innenstadt_4b_Pferde” from “CitySounds Vienna V” by OSH37, and “Jingle bells” from “Jingles” by juskiddink (all of which use the Creative Commons Attribution License), and “city_park_ambience_busy” by sphion, licensed under the Creative Commons CC 1.0 UniversalLicense. The whip sound used “Whip Crack 01” from “Whip Cracks” by CGEffex, also under the Creative Commons Attribution License. The license terms require notice as to whether or not the source was modified; these samples were modified in various ways, including editing start and end points, crossfades, time stretching, panning, reverberation, and other processing. I am grateful to the creators of these sounds.
Holly Jolly Monday
I thought the Burl Ives version of Have a Holly Jolly Christmas sounded a little too enthusiastic, and setting its text to New Order’s Blue Monday seemed like the obvious solution. For Factory Records aficionados: yes, the color code is correct.
Download Holly Jolly Monday.mp3
If they aren’t already in your library, you can buy the original Blue Monday and Have a Holly Jolly Christmas on iTunes.
Please note: no samples from the original song were used in the creation of this recording. All tracks were newly performed.
Jingles are Jingles
Channeling Depeche Mode for a sleighride.
Download Jingles are Jingles.mp3
Please note, since some have asked: no Depeche Mode samples were used in the creation of this recording. All tracks were newly performed.
Shock the Santa
The lyrics for “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” are a little ominous, if you’re inclined to listen to them that way. Featuring the guitar wizardry of my friend Parry.
With apologies to, and the greatest respect for, Peter Gabriel. If you don’t have it already, you can buy the original Shock the Monkey on iTunes.
Please note: no samples from the original song were used in the creation of this recording. All tracks were newly performed.
(Nice Day For A) White Christmas
The idea for this one came to me just in time for Christmas a few years back, and was recorded under relatively crude conditions (see below for details). My apologies to both of the original artists. š
For those interested in the tech side of things, I recorded this during a visit to relatives in New Jersey, far from my home studio. Instead, I used only a Powerbook, Digital Performer, Mach 5, and a Korg microKONTROL. Vocals were recorded using the Powerbook’s built-in microphone, which is hidden somewhere under the keyboard. I also mixed using only headphones and the Powerbook’s built-in speakers, so I’ll just assume that the bass is way off…
Older Xmas songs with Gernot Huber
This tradition started as a joint project with my high-school friend Gernot Huber. Gernot’s now living on the other side of the world, which makes it slightly more difficult to get him into the studio – but I’m sure it will happen again one of these years! For now, here are some of our collaborations from Xmases past:
Let It Snow
Kitsch meets drum-and-bass. Enjoy!
Let It Snow.mp3
Do You Hear What I Hear
Techno/psychedelic. Whoah!
Do You Hear What I Hear.mp3
Sleighride
My personal favorite; dark, whimsical, and techno-industrial.
Sleighride.mp3 2.2MB
Original Songs
If you like these Christmas songs (and I hope that you do!), check out some of the songs from my singer-songwriter electronica project, in the general vein of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush. Click on the links below for mp3 downloads and lyrics.
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