Miki's Music Box - The Christmas Countdown

I've invested a lot of time trying to iron out my OCD tendencies.

There's one area, though, where it runs free - the annual Christmas playlist.

I won't explain the layers upon layers of complex tagging involved (there are levels and sub-levels), but it's Inception-like at times.

Not my collection - too organised

At times I get worried - is this too obsessive? Is it worth it? Maybe I need to reign back.

And then I hit a song like Detroit Junior's Christmas Day, and I'm fine.

Obviously it's worth it.

Playlist Corner - Happy (alternative) Halloween!

I haven't had time (I've had that full schedule of sittin' around) to do a full Halloween playlist, but it's a good excuse to dig out these songs.

With seasoned creepiness, these bands know what they're doing.

Presenting The Monochrome Set - Eine Symphonie Des Grauens, featuring a love-sick indie mummy.

And Squirrel Nut Zippers - Ghost of Stephen Foster, with a perfect pastiche of the Betty Boop Fleischer cartoons. It references the songwriter of 'Camptown Races' and many other minstrel songs, Stephen Foster, who died in an nasty accident. Plus it finally reveals what singer Jimbo Mathus's soul might really look like...

The Monochrome Set - Eine Symphonie Des Grauens

I'm dead and dank and rotten

My arms are wrapped in cotton

My corpse loves you, let's marry

(Get smart, once) Every night at sleepy time

(Get smart, twice) I hang my skin out on the line

(Get smart, sing) Oh, darling, would you be, be mine?

I'm in love, I think I'm in love

I'm in love, I think I'm in love

I'm in love, I think I'm in love, oh oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh

I'm caught in a mesh of veins

My fingers and flesh and brains

My skull gives head, so let's wed

(Get smart, once) Every night when all alone

(Get smart, twice) I drape my flesh around the phone

(Get smart, pray) Oh, darling, would you be my own?

I'm in love, I think I'm in love

I'm in love, I think I'm in love

I'm in love, I think I'm in love, oh oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh

Don't cry, beautiful, it's just a phase

To the father and the son and the holy ghost

Oh I chant and I pray, I love

You know, God works in mysterious ways

To the father and the son and the holy ghost

Oh I sing and I pray, I love

I'm soft and slightly stinking

My arms are small and shrinking

My lips kiss dirt, oh, let's flirt

(Get smart, once) Every night at half-past-one

(Get smart, twice )There's a little taste of things in come

(Get smart, chant) Oh, darling, can I be your son?

I'm in love, I think I'm in love

I'm in love, I think I'm in love

I'm in love, I think I'm in love, oh oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh

Don't scream, baby, it's just a coma

To the father and the son and the holy ghost

Oh I chant and I pray, I love

You go to heaven, I go to Roma

To the father and the son and the holy ghost

I sing and I pray, I love

Squirrel Nut Zippers - Ghost of Stephen Foster

Met the Ghost of Stephen Foster at the Hotel Paradise

This is what I told him as I gazed into his eyes:

Rooms were made for carpets,

Towers made for spires,

Ships were made for cannonade to fire off from inside them

Gwine to run all night

Gwine to run all day

Camptown ladies never sang all the doo dah day no, no, no

Gwine to run all night

Gwine to run all day

Camptown ladies never sang all the doo dah day no, no, no

Met the Ghost of Stephen Foster at the Hotel Paradise

This is what I told him as I gazed into his eyes:

Ships were made for sinking,

Whiskey made for drinking,

If we were made of cellophane, we'd all get stinking drunk much faster ha, ha, ha

Gwine to run all night

Gwine to run all day

Camptown ladies never sang all the doo dah day no, no, no

Gwine to run all night

Gwine to run all day

Camptown ladies never sang all the doo dah day no, no, no

Awful Audio Advent Calendar

(yeah, I know it's not every day, but I don't have enough awful music... yet)

SHeDaisy - Deck The Halls

Now, I thought the song was pretty terrible - until I saw the video, which revealed an almost ambitious multi-level awfulness.

There's the ugly harmonies, the weird expression of the singers (are they happy? sexy? creepy? all three?), Disney characters, plus an old lady having a nervous breakdown as she unleashes some black magic around herself and transforms herself into a child. Something like that.

Enjoy!

Awful Audio Advent Calendar

Christmas is coming, and I'll be getting fat, alongside making my annual playlist for friends and family.

The thing is, going through all of that music to find gems also means coming across some real horrors.

Which I also want to share, but for very different reasons.

Welcome to the Awful Audio Advent Calendar.

To start with - Jingle Bells mixed with the worst acid trip anyone's ever had.

The Jingle Bells remix from The Santa Clause