SYFFAL Track Marks Volume XXI - The Bi-Weekly iTunes Fix for the Music Junkie

1) Do They Know It's Christmas? (Band Aid cover) – fucked Up: As far as mid 80’s message songs go Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas" always got dominated by USA For Africa’s “We Are the World”. That always felt wrong to me. Band Aid had a better message and a better hook. USA for Africa had Dan Aykroyd. I suppose they had a clearer mission statement as well.

2) Get Behind Me, Santa! – Sufjan Stevens: Last year I became a Sufjan convert and I haven’t looked back. Dude is a genius. Go stuff your stocking and use The Age of Adz as your soundtrack. Friggin brilliant stuff. He makes Christmas sound pretty badass here with “Get Behind me, Santa. Bonus points for the White Stripes pun.

3) I Wish It Was Christmas Today – Julian Casablancas: My Christmas wish, besides for my hot tub to be fixed and for India Reynolds to be in it, is for The Strokes to re-break up. Permanently. I’d prefer to hear more solo stuff from Albert Hammond Jr and Julian Casablancas. Be honest with yourself you would too!

4) Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight) – The Ramones: It’s tough to talk about the Ramones and not get roped into some “are they the most underrated band VS they are the most overrated underrated band” argument. Fuck the ratings and opinions and enjoy this song. It’s only 2 minutes. Your stupid hipster argument can wait.

5) Last Christmas (Wham cover) - Saskatchewan: This is a Track Marks so we can’t lose sight of what we’re looking to accomplish here. New bands, badass covers, and killer remixes. Since I doubt you’ll be finding a RAC Christmas remix I’ll have to heavy up on covers. Passing over the original Wham version was a test of my will…and a testament to this cover by Saskatchewan. It is so damn smooth.

6) Christmas Wrapping (The Waitresses cover) – Summer Camp: If you’re a synth pop duo with a slight new wave edge you could do a lot worse than covering The Waitresses’ “Christmas Wrapping”. This cover singlehandedly had me looking forward to hearing their 2011 release “Welcome to Condale (available now!)

7) Merry Christmas, Baby (Please Don't Die) – Crocodiles and the Dum Dum Girls: I believe there’s a rule that if you are in a band...And your girlfriend is in a band than you HAVE to put out a joint holiday track. It’s like the law or something, brah…

8) Got Something for You – Wavves and Best Coast: You see! I don’t just willy nilly make this shit up. These are undisputable facts. They might be the deadliest (read: most annoying) couple on twitter but there’s no arguing that they make beautiful music together.

9) Christmas Reindeer – The Knife: What says Christmas better than weird heavy breathing over some grinding synth and some occasional shakes of the sleigh bells? I have to look myself in the mirror and explain to myself why I cut “Christmas in Hollis” for this. I’m not ready to answer that question right now so let’s move on.

10) Wonderful Chrismastime - Paul McCartney & Wings: The first time I heard Neon Indian’s “Deadbeat Summer” by mine flashed through its internal iTunes library looking for a sonic DNA match and it returned this song. Paul McCartney was chillwave before it was chill! Take that John Lennon!

11) Thank God It's Christmas – Queen: Is there any doubt that if Freddy Mercury were still alive he’d be a judge on American Idol. He would have eaten that shit up. People would have tried to suck up to him by singing one of his tracks and they’d inevitably crash and burn. Hard. Sadly he died young and he never got to see your grandmother judge AI. Dude looks like an old lady.

12) Merry Xmas Everybody – Slade: I dig this song by Slade because I feel like I could definitely play bass in this band. Also it has that big joyous chorus. This is a perfect anthem for those Christmas Eves back in your hometown hanging with people from past lives. Lay off the coke.

13) Father Christmas – The Kinks: Driving drums and hand claps make way for a stark punkish jam about knucklehead teens robbing a poor faux Santa Claus which then makes way for some preaching for the poor...and isn’t that what the holidays are all about? Best Christmas song ever? Quite possibly.

14) Christmas Isn't Christmas: The Boy Least Likely To: Anyone need a post break up Christmas Song? If so this is your jam. Now go outside and build yourself a snowman to keep you company before you die alone. Forever.

15) The Christmas Song – The Raveonettes: I’m such a sucker for Sharin Foo. She is so damn dreamy. Every day feels like Christmas when The Raveonettes break out their fuzzed out garage/surf rock and harmonies.

16) Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Slow Club: This track comes from Slow Club’s Christmas themed EP called “Christmas, Thanks for Nothing”. That EP title reminds me of the year when I got my girlfriend at the time a pair of diamond earrings and she got me 180s. You know “around the back” earmuffs. True story.

17) All that I Want – The Weepies: The Weepies were made for Christmas songs. Truth be told if you were to shake some sleigh bells on any on their tracks I’d easily mistake them for some sort of ode to yuletide greetings and Father Christmas. This season is so in their wheelhouse

18) Everything Is One Big Christmas Tree – The Magnetic Fields: This is like an advanced They Might Be Giants acoustic track…with tinges of Beatles string work. Stephin Merrit seems like a complicated dude. This is one of his less complicated songs….if you speak German.

19) Happy Xmas (War Is Over) – John Lennon: I wanted to exclude this track…but how the Fuck can I not include it? It is too perfect. The “War is Over…if you want it” message is so simple and timeless.

20) A Fairytale Of New York – The Pougues: I won’t be going home this Christmas so this track is my Christmas card to all my family and friends in NY. Have fun. Get wasted. Take cabs. Use a condom. May your holidays be long and fruitful. Make sure you get gift receipts for those 180s