Pod Insights Bandsplain HOLIDAY SONG DRAFT with Amanda Dobbins and Rob Mahoney About this episode It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and Bandsplain has a very special gift for you. Rob Mahoney and Amanda Dobbins join Yasi to draft the dream holiday playlist: Justin Bieber featuring Busta Rhymes? Of course. Lots of Irish stuff? For sure. My Chem? Why not! Yasi finding a place for Counting Crows? You know it!
And because those sleigh bells kept ringing, there’s a lightning-round second draft for even more holiday cheer. Bonus gift: You get to explain to your family and friends why Wham!’s "Last Christmas" is your favorite CVS-core holiday song (and what CVS-core is)!
Episode Playlist
Listen to Bandsplain’s Holiday Playlist here.
Host: Yasi Salek @yasisalekGuests: Rob Mahoney @robmahoney and Amanda Dobbins @akdobbinsProducer: Rob SundermannEditor: Adrian BridgesAdditional Production Supervision: Justin SaylesTheme Song: Bethany Cosentino
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Transcript 14,061 words · 8 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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0:35 Speaker 01 What's with this band, anyway? I don't get it, can you please explain? Wait, like, Bandplain? Never heard this band in my life. Oh, you haven't? I'd love that. Really? Why? Yeah, I love this song. Oh, I don't know that one. Bandplain, Bandplain, Bandplain. I really hate this band! Whatever, I'm their biggest fan. Bandplain, Bandplain, Bandplain, Bandplain. Bandplain!
1:15 Yasi Salek? Hello and welcome to Bandplain. I am your host, Yasi Salek. This is usually a show where we invite an expert guest on to explain a cult band or an iconic artist. But today, the show's a little different. Today, we're in the motherfucking spirit, guys, because we are drafting holiday songs. And I am honored. I am delighted to be joined by two first-time Bandplain guests, icons in their own right, Amanda Dobbins and Rob Mahoney. Welcome to the program.
1:41 Speaker 03 It's the honor of a lifetime.
1:43 Speaker 04 I honestly, I can't believe I finally made it. I'm really excited.
1:46 Yasi Salek? I couldn't be happier. I couldn't be more in the spirit. We have our hats, you have your sweater. We have our non, uh, no sponsored Diet Coke with Santa on it.
1:55 Speaker 04 Sure.
1:56 Speaker 03 I did have also my imposter syndrome about, one, being on Band's Plan, period. Two, are we jolly enough for this particular episode? Do you feel like you are channeling the spirit?
2:05 Speaker 04 I have listened to a lot of music in the car on the way here and also have been schooling my two young sons in the spirit of the holiday season. We adjusted the timing of this recording so that I could then take my small children to meet Santa. So I am locked in. Like, I am, it is here, I am a Christmas bitch right now.
2:28 Speaker 03 You know? You keep saying you as if we are not coming to also visit Santa. We are in the car with you. I hope you planned accordingly.
2:34 Speaker 04 The package that I got is up to like 10 people. So, you know, come online.
2:38 Yasi Salek? I have a few things I need to talk to Santa about. Tiny violins in the bag, I didn't unload it today, but like, I have quite a long list of things I'm gonna need for him to bring down the chimney this year.
2:52 Yasi Salek? You guys?
2:53 Speaker 04 Yes.
2:53 Yasi Salek? Tell me in general your relationship to holiday music, traditionally, historically.
2:57 Speaker 03 A little love and hate, you know? I think, I think as most people are. You know, you are hit by wave after wave after wave of the song that annoys you and it's inescapable, but it warms the heart when you find like your shit. And for me, I don't want to give away my draft strategy too much, but there is a very distinct lane of Christmas music that is made in wide swaths that just speaks right to my, uh, my sad little heart.
3:20 Speaker 04 That's beautiful.
3:21 Yasi Salek? All, all holiday music is sad.
3:22 Speaker 03 Truly.
3:23 Yasi Salek? I'll die on that hill.
3:23 Speaker 04 So in the intro, you said that normally you have an expert on. And, and I was, as I was preparing for this draft, I, and my first appearance on Band's Plan, I was, I decided I would not describe myself as an expert because this is hallowed ground, you know? And I know that the people who come on this show and the people who listen to this show, you know, they have a practice and they have a relationship to music that I would never assume to like be able to, to improve upon. However, however.
3:58 Yasi Salek? That being said.
3:59 Speaker 03 The pivot is powerful.
4:01 Speaker 04 I have been working hard in the Christmas music space my entire life.
4:07 Speaker 03 Yeah.
4:07 Speaker 04 On several levels.
4:08 Yasi Salek? Okay.
4:09 Speaker 04 Like to tell you about them. Number one, as previously mentioned, I am a Christmas bitch, okay? I just, we have two Christmas trees. I'm also like, I'm a top 40 girl, like Miss Pop-ism is here on Band's Plan. Like, I, you know, I, so I relish all of that. Who doesn't love a Christmas number one? On top of that, and I don't know if either of you know this about me, but I have a former life in the performing arts. And up until the age of 14, when I could make my own decisions about the extracurricular activities that would hopefully land me a spot at a college, I was very present on the Atlanta, Georgia holiday performance scene.
4:49 Speaker 04 Because my parents, my mother shoved me into like every single, I played every instrument.
4:57 Speaker 03 There are a lot of instruments.
4:58 Speaker 04 Lots of, listen, violin, cello, piano, and organ, right off the bat. Organ was dabbling. Did you just shrug at her?
5:08 Speaker 03 No.
5:08 Speaker 04 Do you know how to play any of those?
5:09 Speaker 03 No, I was a viola player. So I was splitting the difference.
5:12 Speaker 04 Oh, that's cool. That's cool. You know, it's like.
5:14 Speaker 03 It's the alt of the orchestra.
5:16 Speaker 04 Yeah, it absolutely is. Okay, so you got those four. Like a passionate, if not technically accomplished dance career, really up until 14, which involved both performing in the Atlanta Ballet Nutcracker and with my teacher, Lee Harper of Atlanta, Georgia, still dancing, but her company performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. So I was in that space as well as one of the kids. And then we got to talk about the choirs, which is really where, where all of the knowledge comes down. School choir, obviously, my high school performed Handel's Messiah every year. It was a nice thing. I was in on that. Started soprano. Voice change, you go to alto, you know?
5:59 Speaker 04 But again, it's, listen, who can harmonize? It's the altos who really know the music. It's the altos. Then I was in the church choir, First Presbyterian Church, under Charlie and Diane Whitaker for like my entire life. So all of the, you know, Vivaldi's Gloria, Handel's Messiah, all of the traditional Christmas carols, many John Rudder arrangements, there we are. And then this is a deep cut for anyone listening from Atlanta, Georgia. Callanwald singers, I was there. That was an audition choir, you guys. You had to go in. Oh, the other ones, they just let anyone join? Yeah. Okay. Basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that was an audition and I made it.
6:39 Speaker 03 You made the cut.
6:39 Speaker 04 Yeah. So. Incredible.
6:41 Speaker 03 You made other people cry to make it.
6:43 Speaker 04 Not familiar with your game. So I was schooled. In, in the standards, in the classics, in the carols. You know, I, I mean, like, I, I am very, very familiar. I have a wide bench, or deep bench, I guess I should say.
6:58 Yasi Salek? It could be wide and deep, much, much like Santa's.
7:02 Speaker 04 And I'm happy to be here.
7:04 Yasi Salek? I'm stunned.
7:08 Yasi Salek? I'm shook.
7:09 Speaker 03 I feel like modern dance does track for you. I feel like there's something about that.
7:12 Speaker 04 Yeah, it was, I had both classical and modern training, and of course, tap.
7:15 Speaker 03 Of course.
7:16 Speaker 04 Yeah. Um, I guess there was also like a musical theater moment, um, in middle school as well, through my high, through my school, but, um, and that's where the tap really came to its forefront.
7:26 Speaker 03 Comprehensive, though.
7:27 Yasi Salek? This is all just phenomenal. I knew I chose the right people. Um, much like with anything else having to do with, uh, Christian white people shit, this is a bit of a foreign territory to me, but one that I've enthusiastically embraced. Um, long time listeners of the show will know that as a child I frequented churches, uh, just for funsies, wanted to see what was going on, was kind of jealous, like, what are you going to do?
7:54 Speaker 04 Yeah. Did you do a Lessons and Carols? Who doesn't love a Lessons and Carols service?
7:58 Yasi Salek? I don't think I did, no.
7:59 Speaker 03 I have no idea what you're talking about.
8:00 Speaker 04 So December 24th, they like tell the story of Christmas and then, you know, they read from the gospels. I mean, it's like, it's very deeply
8:07 Speaker 03 Yes.
8:07 Speaker 04 Jesus-coded.
8:08 Speaker 03 Of course.
8:09 Speaker 04 It is, it is a birthday celebration.
8:10 Yasi Salek? Right.
8:11 Speaker 03 But is this meant to be an outreach type of service where you're bringing people in for the carols and by the way, Jesus?
8:16 Yasi Salek? Like, like the Persian kids that are friends.
8:18 Speaker 04 They do then need to, like, some John and the Word is Light stuff, you know, like some light proselytizing, yes. But for the most part, it's like one reading, you know, there's a manger, there's some kings, you know, all that stuff. And then, and then a carol in between each one. So it's very music-forward.
8:35 Speaker 03 Okay.
8:36 Speaker 04 And, and people go all out.
8:38 Speaker 03 I mean, it sounds beautiful. I grew Catholic, so we didn't do all that. It was just a lot more shame.
8:42 Yasi Salek? Yeah, but you have midnight mass.
8:44 Speaker 03 Yes, which is honestly a very powerful thing, even as someone who has lapsed.
8:47 Yasi Salek? I'm going this year with my father.
8:49 Speaker 03 It's a very cool experience.
8:50 Yasi Salek? In the Cotswolds.
8:51 Speaker 04 Oh, that's beautiful.
8:52 Yasi Salek? That's right, bitch.
8:53 Speaker 03 As one does.
8:53 Speaker 04 Okay, but so in the Cotswolds, but a Catholic midnight mass, not an Anglican.
8:58 Yasi Salek? Oh, actually, I don't know.
8:59 Speaker 04 I don't know either. I believe it doesn't really matter.
9:02 Speaker 03 Famously, they don't care if you understand the difference. They're very cool.
9:06 Yasi Salek? They're welcoming, yeah. Do you have to, like, participate? I can just sit there, right?
9:10 Speaker 03 I mean, mildly.
9:10 Speaker 04 Yeah, of course.
9:11 Speaker 03 Yeah, I mean, look, there's some casual call and response sometimes, but you're gonna be cool.
9:15 Speaker 04 You should see if they're doing Lessons and Carols in the Cotswolds, because it's usually like a 4:00 PM.
9:19 Yasi Salek? Happy to go.
9:20 Speaker 04 And then there's music, you know?
9:22 Yasi Salek? Phenomenal. Well, I can't wait to talk through this with you guys, because now that we've established that Amanda's gonna win the draft.
9:29 Speaker 04 Well, so here's the thing, though.
9:30 Yasi Salek? The pressure is off.
9:31 Speaker 04 There's, what I, what I just, like, described to you was mostly funny for me, but it's also...
9:39 Speaker 03 And for us too, I have to say.
9:40 Speaker 04 But that's mostly the religious-coded music. And there are, you could bring that into these categories, but we don't have, like, a carols or a, you know?
9:50 Yasi Salek? That's true.
9:51 Speaker 04 Like, you know, what great, what song from The Messiah do you want?
9:55 Yasi Salek? Well, you had an opportunity to voice this concern in the Slack channel when we were batting around the potential draft category.
10:04 Speaker 04 I think after I asked to move the recording in order for Santa to go to Santa, that I was just going with the flow.
10:10 Yasi Salek? Would've been fine.
10:11 Speaker 04 Yeah.
10:11 Speaker 03 Well, you do have wildcard to pick whatever your heart desires.
10:14 Speaker 04 I don't think I'm going to. As I look at this, I don't have a lot of religious stuff on here. I mean, it's all lightly religious, but I, you know?
10:22 Yasi Salek? All music comes from God.
10:24 Speaker 04 Sure, that's true.
10:27 Speaker 03 We might test the limits of that today. I don't know.
10:29 Yasi Salek? Usually, when we draft, Chris Ryan is here. And Chris Ryan's not here. And famously, I don't care how long I've worked here. I don't totally understand how drafts work.
10:40 Speaker 04 Okay.
10:40 Speaker 03 What's the, like, the gray area we're trying to navigate?
10:43 Yasi Salek? So I know I can say now what our categories are. They are: original composition. CVS core, which we've sort of, this is our term for broad holiday music you may hear in the drugstore, the grocery store, the mall, cover song, my favorite category, unlikely genre, and wild card.
11:09 Speaker 03 I think we're covering a lot of bases.
11:11 Yasi Salek? Yeah.
11:12 Speaker 03 And in fact, because there are three of us and there are so many Christmas songs, I will be shocked if we don't all end up with a slate we are very happy with.
11:18 Yasi Salek? Yeah, we're gonna have to have like a hearty honorable mentions.
11:21 Speaker 04 Well, I was honestly, I was gonna suggest, depending on time, that we do a lightning round, no prep, second draft, as soon as we're done, because there are so many songs.
11:31 Speaker 03 Just run it back.
11:32 Speaker 04 Yeah, and like, I'll even get the timer out and you have 15 seconds and you can go. I mean, who says no?
11:37 Speaker 03 This is how I know your heart's in it. Like, that's just pure love of the game shit right now. You're just like, what if we just did it again?
11:42 Speaker 04 But there's so much to work with.
11:45 Yasi Salek? Once we start, the first person picks.
11:49 Speaker 04 Yes.
11:50 Yasi Salek? Then the second person picks.
11:51 Speaker 04 Yes.
11:52 Yasi Salek? Then the third person picks twice.
11:54 Speaker 04 Yes.
11:55 Yasi Salek? And then it goes backwards again.
11:56 Speaker 03 Yes.
11:57 Speaker 04 And then to the second and the first. It's a snake draft, so it goes
11:59 Yasi Salek? Got it.
12:00 Speaker 04 Much like a snake.
12:01 Yasi Salek? Okay, and as always, my position on drafts is there's no winners or losers, as long as you're authentic and you lead with your heart.
12:08 Speaker 04 Okay.
12:09 Speaker 03 So if you don't, if you aren't authentic, you do lose. Okay? We all lose, I guess.
12:14 Yasi Salek? In my humble opinion.
12:15 Speaker 03 I look, I agree with you.
12:16 Yasi Salek? I'm not a, I'm not the queen of drafting.
12:19 Speaker 04 Do you have a preference of what order you want to be?
12:22 Speaker 03 I am very concerned, uh, there's one thing that if I do not get, I will be a little heartbroken about.
12:27 Speaker 04 Okay.
12:27 Yasi Salek? Thing is, like, at least we still get to talk about it.
12:29 Speaker 03 Completely.
12:30 Speaker 04 Yeah, I guess, that's, that's a healing way to think about it, but that's not, that's the Christmas spirit, which, in this particular case, I don't have.
12:38 Yasi Salek? I love this journey. Me, I'm just trying to get to December 17th, where I can get on the plane, take perhaps a Xanax and have a champagne and ride it out into the sunset.
12:48 Speaker 04 Yeah.
12:49 Yasi Salek? The draft order.
12:49 Speaker 03 Yes.
12:50 Yasi Salek? Rob, Amanda, Yasi.
12:53 Speaker 04 Oh, Yasi with the turns. So Yasi, that's what it's called.
12:56 Yasi Salek? Oh, okay. Well, maybe ideal.
12:57 Speaker 04 All right, I honestly, being middle is Is usually the bummer, but that's okay.
13:02 Speaker 03 I mean, still.
13:03 Speaker 04 Number one. Do you know what you're gonna do?
13:04 Speaker 03 I know exactly what I'm gonna do.
13:05 Speaker 04 Okay, I'm excited. Don't fuck me.
13:07 Speaker 03 It was Christmas Eve, babe. How can I come on Band Splain and not pick a song that's a opening line? That's Fairy Tale of New York, The Pogues and Kristy McCall.
13:18 Speaker 04 Delete from my list.
13:20 Speaker 03 I would not be a Mahoney if I came on this podcast and did not draft it. So there really was no other choice for me.
13:26 Yasi Salek? Your alcoholic Irish roots.
13:27 Speaker 04 I could have been someone.
13:29 Speaker 03 But so could anyone.
13:31 Speaker 05 I could have been someone. Well, so could anyone.
13:38 Yasi Salek? One of the most iconic, uh, original, this was an original.
13:42 Speaker 03 Yes, that's where.
13:43 Yasi Salek? Presuming. I didn't wanna, I didn't wanna put it in your mouth. Uh, original compositions, Christmas wise, it's sad.
13:51 Speaker 03 Incredibly.
13:52 Speaker 04 It is, but also, you know.
13:53 Speaker 03 Bittersweet.
13:54 Yasi Salek? Yeah.
13:55 Speaker 04 It, it has that Christmas tinge of everything is supposed to, to be perfect, but maybe next year it will be.
14:02 Speaker 03 Completely. And at the same time, it's like reaching out for people in your life who matter to you. There's the big kind of swelling sing-along in the chorus. It's just hitting all the Christmas song notes for me.
14:11 Yasi Salek? Yeah. It's not as major in America, but in the UK, it is the number one most played Christmas song of the 21st century. Never hit number one, though, was edged out by Pet Shop Boys.
14:21 Speaker 03 That is.
14:21 Yasi Salek? You were always on my mind.
14:22 Speaker 03 Very sad to me.
14:23 Yasi Salek? That was number one.
14:24 Speaker 04 Plays an incredible role in a recent devastating Christmas movie. All of Us Strangers.
14:29 Speaker 03 All of Us Strangers, yeah.
14:30 Speaker 04 Oh, man, when they're dancing around the Christmas tree, listening to Pet Shop Boys. I wanted to draft that.
14:35 Speaker 03 Yeah.
14:35 Speaker 04 It's, that's okay. That, it was maybe gonna be my second draft. If people have not seen Sofia Coppola's A Very Murray Christmas, which is a Christmas special she directed, starring Bill Murray, and, um, you know, a murderer's row of cameos. There is a great cover of Fairy Tale of New York filmed in Bemelmans in the Carlisle. That's where it's set. Uh, it really, really underrated.
14:59 Speaker 03 That sounds lovely.
15:00 Speaker 04 On Netflix. Yeah, it's wonderful.
15:01 Speaker 03 I gotta get up on that.
15:02 Speaker 04 Yeah.
15:02 Yasi Salek? It was the banjo player Gem Finer's wife's idea that the lyrics be a conversation between a couple instead of a sea shanty.
15:11 Speaker 03 It's really what makes it, honestly. You know, anyone can do a sea shanty.
15:15 Yasi Salek? Shout out.
15:16 Speaker 03 But ultimately.
15:16 Yasi Salek? Shout out Marsha.
15:17 Speaker 04 How many sea shanties can you do in your repertoire as a Mahoney?
15:20 Speaker 03 More than I'm willing to admit.
15:23 Speaker 03 It just comes with the territory.
15:24 Speaker 04 Okay, if we get those skinny girl margaritas in you.
15:26 Yasi Salek? I know, then maybe.
15:27 Speaker 03 Maybe for the second draft.
15:28 Yasi Salek? Okay, I think it's an excellent start.
15:30 Speaker 03 Thank you.
15:31 Yasi Salek? Excellent choice.
15:32 Speaker 03 Again, I am following my truth.
15:33 Yasi Salek? Amanda's upset, but you know.
15:35 Speaker 04 Well, it's, it's okay, because.
15:37 Yasi Salek? Because I know what she's gonna steal right out of my heart and soul.
15:40 Speaker 04 No, I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna do that. I'm going.
15:42 Yasi Salek? You could.
15:43 Speaker 03 You should.
15:44 Speaker 04 I could, but that is not the spirit of Christmas and healing. And also, it's the thing, the thing I've learned from my drafts is that you gotta, you always have to pick the thing that means the most to you first.
15:56 Speaker 03 Yeah.
15:57 Speaker 04 So you really, as you said, you have to follow your heart. You have to be authentic.
16:00 Yasi Salek? It's not about strategy.
16:01 Speaker 04 And so I.
16:01 Speaker 03 Can I be the intrusive voice in the back of your head for a second? What if you didn't? What if you picked what meant the most to Yasi instead? What if you jingle all the way this thing? And it's, it's not the spirit of Christmas. It's we're fighting for the toy that we both want.
16:15 Speaker 04 I would be very upset if anyone else got this song. And frankly, I don't trust you. And I guess, I guess in this sense, in this order, I could do it second. Because you don't draft again. But no, no, no, no, no. I'm going from the heart. This is, this is what I think is the best Christmas song of all time. Number one, in original, it is Baby, Please Come Home. As performed by Darlene Love.
16:38 Speaker 03 Okay.
16:39 Yasi Salek? Wow, unexpected.
16:40 Speaker 04 I, which it like makes me cry every single time. I played it for my three year old this year and he immediately jumped into it. And now he does like the Christmas backup and tries to sing it along. And I was like, it was the most I've ever felt like that I was in like a Lexus holiday commercial, you know? When he started doing this, I was like, wow, I am overwhelmed. I just, it is perfect. And you know, the same thing where it is a little bittersweet. It's not, everything is like not fulfilled, but it's still also just every instrument is playing really loud, the wall of sound.
17:17 Speaker 03 It's powerful.
17:18 Speaker 04 For many years, Darlene Love performed it on the David Letterman Show. It's like a Christmas. We watched the last one recently in my house and she's up on the table. And I, you'd really, you do, I'm sorry, she's up on the piano. And someone just screaming, baby, please come home on the top of a piano. Scream singing, I want to say with respect to the amazing Darlene Love. That is Christmas to me.
17:47 Yasi Salek? That's what, that's what the spirit of the holidays is. I needed that one.
17:50 Speaker 03 I feel moved.
17:51 Yasi Salek? Okay, thank you. I love that for you. I love that for me because it means I'm gonna get two of my top choices. There you go. We'll see. Listen.
17:57 Speaker 03 Things, things are, yeah. Let's, let's see what you got on the board.
18:00 Yasi Salek? Okay, well, in original.
18:01 Speaker 03 Yeah, here it is.
18:02 Yasi Salek? "The Waitresses," Christmas rapping. Okay. The actual best original Christmas song of all time. I'll die on this hill. This is a 1981 new wave classic. Written by Chris Butler and Patty Donnie, who, you know, I gotta do my band's thing, unfortunately, I can't just drop. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, this song fucking slaps. This is bah humbug. It's like, has a little story to it. It's a little rap singing. It's got a vibe. Like, it makes you feel like, okay, you might be alone on Christmas, but maybe you forgot cranberries too. And you run into the love of your life at the grocery store. It's a wonderful song.
18:46 Yasi Salek? Here's just the band's plan of it all, because I'm obsessed with this. "The Waitresses" were like, a total, like, obscure downtown New York, they're from Ohio, but they were living in New York, like, kind of like, punk-ish band that were on this label called Z Records, Z. And this comes originally from a compilation that that record label made called "A Christmas Record." It is one of the coolest and most bizarre Christmas compilations. It's all originals by people like Suicide. There's, it's called "Hey, Lord." It's exactly what you think it might sound like.
19:17 Speaker 03 Phenomenal.
19:17 Yasi Salek? Maybe Bruce Springsteen liked it. Yeah. Alan Vega has a solo one on there. There's an amazing song by this band, Material, featuring Nona Hendrix of La Belle. It's called "It's a Holiday." It's just a fucking weird, like, amalgamation of, as Chris Butler put it, he said, when they asked him to write the song, he was like, "A Christmas album on a hipster label with a bunch of junkies on it? Eurotrash? Come on." And then he goes, "Okay, they weren't all junkies in Eurotrash, but they were extreme individuals." And this is where it came from. And it's, became a massive hit for them. They put them on the map, and then... The Spice Girls covered it.
19:55 Speaker 04 I have never heard the Spice Girls cover of Christmas rapping.
19:58 Yasi Salek? Yeah.
19:59 Speaker 04 Wow.
20:00 Yasi Salek? Yeah, so that was a big deal. So, printing money. And then, they had another hit just the next year. The Christmas Miracle. I Know What Boys Like.
20:08 Speaker 03 You mentioned two things in there that I think are very important to the-
20:11 Yasi Salek? Suicide.
20:11 Speaker 03 Well, suicide is obviously-
20:13 Yasi Salek? Having an original holiday song that you didn't know about called Hey Lord.
20:16 Speaker 03 Uh, one funky giant Christmas compilation albums have just occupied a very important space in our society for a long time. Are we losing them, though?
20:24 Yasi Salek? Yes.
20:25 Speaker 03 Because I feel like now that we are in a full-on, not to poke too much at the Overlord streaming era.
20:30 Speaker 04 Yeah.
20:30 Speaker 03 Like, the idea of putting out a joint CD with 12 different artists who have no connection whatsoever, doing a combination of covers and originals, like, I just don't see that as much anymore.
20:39 Yasi Salek? No, because, like, who would do that?
20:41 Speaker 04 Yeah, who's organizing it?
20:42 Speaker 03 Well, we should.
20:43 Speaker 04 What's their incentive?
20:44 Speaker 03 I think we are the council that will take responsibility for this.
20:46 Yasi Salek? I'm super down for it. I mean, I just feel like so much has already been done so beautifully. We have a Death Row Records Christmas. We have a lot of great things.
20:54 Speaker 03 But isn't this the case for all art? Like, we've done a lot of stuff, but we have to trudge forward.
20:58 Speaker 04 These are standards, or it's genre, you know? There, it's like, we're boundaries through which people can innovate and make amazing stuff.
21:07 Yasi Salek? Yeah.
21:07 Speaker 04 Like, let it keep going.
21:08 Speaker 03 Truly.
21:09 Yasi Salek? We just ask AI.
21:10 Speaker 04 Okay.
21:10 Yasi Salek? Can you make us? In the style-
21:13 Speaker 03 As all music is made now.
21:14 Yasi Salek? In the style of Geese and Sabrina Carpenter.
21:16 Speaker 03 Oh, boy.
21:17 Yasi Salek? But yes, anyways, I love this song so much. Bah humbug. No, that's too strong, because it's my favorite holiday.
21:23 Speaker 03 Well, what's your second pick?
21:24 Yasi Salek? I'm sorry, Amanda. I have to.
21:25 Speaker 04 Three, two, one.
21:29 Yasi Salek? Oh, the beat goes dumb.
21:32 Speaker 03 Somehow I knew this was coming.
21:34 Yasi Salek? Yeah, this is, you know what? There's nothing better than this song. It is Justin Bieber featuring Busta Rhymes.
21:42 Speaker 03 Yes.
21:43 Yasi Salek? Drummer Boy.
21:53 Yasi Salek? It's off of "Under the Mistletoe," Justin Bieber's 2011 holiday album. I had created a sort of Berenstain Bears situation in my head because I only listened to this around the holidays. And I hadn't put it on. And in my mind, it's Busta Rhymes going
22:08 Speaker 04 Yeah, no, it's Justin Bieber.
22:09 Yasi Salek? Rapping. That's right. Yeah, he is, he's really going for it. I don't know how old Justin Bieber was in 2011, but on the cover of this album, he's a child. Like, he's maybe...
22:20 Speaker 04 So that was 15 years ago, and I think he's around 30. So I think he's in his teens.
22:24 Yasi Salek? Yes. It starts really beautiful. Come, I mean, he does have a gorgeous voice, especially at 15. Come, they told me, promo. And then, "Yeah, I'm on the drum. Yeah, I'm on the snare drum." "I'm so bad." Like, Michael. I know. It's so good. And then we got Busta Rhymes. Let's fucking go. Anyways, that is, I think, the best holiday song of all time. Um, and I will choose that in unlikely genre.
22:49 Speaker 03 It is quite unlikely.
22:50 Yasi Salek? Yeah. Amanda, this was like one of the greatest bonding moments. I have like many reasons I love Amanda Dobbins.
22:56 Speaker 04 It was a new level of our friendship.
22:58 Yasi Salek? It unlocked a new level.
22:59 Speaker 04 At the Pasadena Houston's.
23:00 Speaker 03 Yes.
23:01 Speaker 04 One martini and Negroni each. No, no, no. We were just talking about this draft or a holiday music. And she, and Yasi said, "There is a song I really like, Justin Bieber and Busta Rhymes." And then I drunk yelled, "Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum," in the Houston's. So...
23:19 Yasi Salek? This was like a rom-com for us.
23:20 Speaker 04 That's how people find each other.
23:22 Yasi Salek? Yeah.
23:22 Speaker 03 This is a tough way for me to find out that the two of you pre-gamed this draft over martinis and did not invite me. But I also accepted and I support your bonding. It sounds like a beautiful moment.
23:33 Yasi Salek? Whenever I bring this song up to anyone, the typical response is, "I have no idea what you're speaking of." Or, "I don't want to hear that song." As you said, your husband, Zach Baron.
23:43 Speaker 04 Yeah. And there's, there's even like a 2017 Instagram caption referencing it and Zach's rude attitude towards it. So we really, like, we haven't heard it in
23:56 Yasi Salek? Wait till I show up at the holiday party with a thumb drive that's just this song 600 times on a loop that is unable to be changed.
24:04 Speaker 03 Oh yeah, password locked, you can't take it out. What can you do? I did not know about this song until I heard you mention it on a previous band's plane like Mailbag or something.
24:12 Yasi Salek? Talk about it a lot.
24:13 Speaker 03 And I was like, this can't be real. This is Yasi. I have trouble separating the bit from the reality sometimes. Sure enough, it was quite real and it is quite spectacular. I have to admit.
24:22 Yasi Salek? The beat goes dumb.
24:22 Speaker 04 It's the energy, you know? Sometimes you need a party spirit.
24:25 Speaker 03 You do.
24:26 Yasi Salek? Yeah. That was hard because there's a lot of unlikely genre songs and I'll save them for my honorable mention, but that's number one. All right. Is it Rob? No?
24:36 Speaker 03 It's back to Amanda.
24:36 Yasi Salek? Oh, it's back to you. I really don't understand.
24:38 Speaker 04 I'm gonna go normie.
24:40 Yasi Salek? Okay, love it.
24:41 Speaker 04 But in cover?
24:42 Yasi Salek? Okay.
24:43 Speaker 04 I will take what I think is the greatest holiday music cover of all time, which is of course Bruce Springsteen's Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
24:51 Yasi Salek? It's a good one.
24:51 Speaker 03 It somehow redeems a bad song.
24:53 Speaker 04 It's really a very annoying song.
24:56 Speaker 03 And yet, and yet.
24:59 Speaker 04 You know, the Phil Spector version, I can't remember who plays it on that, who performs it on that album, but is not that bad. And I think he's referencing the cover on that version. But um, yeah, half of it is just like the intro with him asking the crowd, have you been like good this year? That's not many. That's not many. We have listened to it so many times in my home because my dad also loves this. Like it's just, this could be CBS core. Like it is, it is a crowd teaser. It is one of like America's great achievements.
25:30 Speaker 06 Everybody out there been good or what? Oh, that's not many, not many. You guys in trouble out here.
25:39 Speaker 04 But I did, when I was listening to it this year, Yasi, I did find myself thinking, well, this wasn't that long before Nebraska. Maybe we could have made this movie instead. I would have liked this movie very much.
25:51 Speaker 03 That's the behind the scenes we really need.
25:52 Speaker 04 Yeah, there we go.
25:53 Speaker 03 The narrativization of this exact song.
25:55 Speaker 04 Exactly.
25:56 Yasi Salek? Phenomenal.
25:57 Speaker 04 A classic. Thank you. Thanks so much.
25:59 Speaker 03 This is where the categories are really tripping me up because I'm seeing so much on the board. It feels like it's going to still be there. And so the prioritization, so you ended up taking that in cover?
26:10 Speaker 04 I did.
26:11 Speaker 03 Okay. So I feel like the rest of my covers are pretty safe for now.
26:14 Speaker 04 Okay.
26:15 Speaker 03 I think I'm gonna go CVS Core. It's a very deep category. But I'm gonna go with just like my favorite Christmas standard of all time, and that's the Nat King Cole, "The Christmas Song." Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.
26:28 Yasi Salek? Jack Frost it up in your nose.
26:30 Speaker 03 He does.
26:31 Speaker 05 Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.
26:38 Yasi Salek? I listened to that this morning and I gotta say it.
26:41 Speaker 03 It really gets you.
26:41 Yasi Salek? Yeah, of course.
26:42 Speaker 03 And to the CVS slash grocery store spirit, it just makes you wanna get like a mug of hot cocoa and sit by the fire.
26:48 Yasi Salek? Yeah.
26:49 Speaker 03 So it really speaks to the consumer in me, which is clearly very Christmas. It speaks to a more heartwarming side than I'm sure some of the other picks I'm gonna be making in this draft. It's just a warm and cozy song that I really, really love.
26:59 Yasi Salek? It's also depressing, like every single holiday song.
27:01 Speaker 03 They all are.
27:01 Yasi Salek? It's impossible. Well, ba-rum-ba-bum-bum, ba-rum-ba-bum-bum.
27:05 Speaker 03 We'll have to do a deep lyrical analysis. There's a lot of pain in those ba-rum-ba-bum-bums.
27:09 Yasi Salek? Yeah, good point, good point. Great choice.
27:12 Speaker 03 Thank you.
27:13 Speaker 04 You have another pick?
27:14 Yasi Salek? Yeah.
27:14 Speaker 03 Oh, my God. I totally forgot.
27:15 Yasi Salek? Yeah.
27:18 Speaker 03 I'm gonna go unlikely genre.
27:19 Yasi Salek? Okay.
27:20 Speaker 03 I'm not the biggest "All I Want for Christmas Is You" fan, but a semi-ironic cover of "All I Want for Christmas Is You" I can get behind. And so I'm gonna go way emo. The My Chemical Romance cover of "All I Want for Christmas Is You."
27:34 Yasi Salek? This is why we invited you on this program.
27:36 Speaker 03 Again, it just... You're really hitting them in the sweet spot of like, it's got the little bit of the snarl before they've completely eradicated that from their like general vibe. And at the same time, it is still quite sweet. It's the nice mix of like, we're throwing away some of the verses because we're too cool to be doing this. But then the chorus comes in and it is just like bleeding sincerity. And who would I be if I did not choose a song like that for Christmas?
28:09 Yasi Salek? Not us not drafting Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You."
28:15 Speaker 03 This is a superior version.
28:16 Yasi Salek? But someone drafting the My Chemical Romance.
28:19 Speaker 03 I mean, Mariah.
28:19 Speaker 04 I don't know what you think, what you thought was gonna happen when you did it.
28:23 Yasi Salek? I definitely thought someone was gonna snatch that off the board as...
28:27 Speaker 04 It is, it's a classic.
28:28 Speaker 03 It is.
28:29 Yasi Salek? But it's like too classic.
28:30 Speaker 03 We've also gone around the loop so many times with it.
28:33 Speaker 04 I prefer "Baby, Please Come Home" to "All I Want for Christmas Is You."
28:36 Yasi Salek? And you're being honest with your heart.
28:37 Speaker 04 So that's where I went for original.
28:39 Yasi Salek? I prefer Christmas wrapping. It's a good pick.
28:42 Speaker 03 Thank you, I appreciate it.
28:43 Yasi Salek? He does have the vocal.
28:44 Speaker 03 Oh, no doubt.
28:45 Yasi Salek? You know, strength to carry it off.
28:47 Speaker 03 You gotta reach, but I appreciate the reach. I think that's, that's what's great about All I Want for Christmas is You covers. Like, nobody is doing it like Mariah, obviously. But everyone is kind of aspiring to something. And I, I appreciate that in terms of just like a little Christmas longing.
29:00 Yasi Salek? That's beautiful.
29:01 Speaker 03 Thank you.
29:02 Yasi Salek? Well, there's like no need for strategy here, I feel like. It's kind of just like.
29:06 Speaker 04 So my next pick.
29:07 Yasi Salek? Yeah, is it you now or is it?
29:08 Speaker 03 It is.
29:08 Speaker 04 Yeah, it's me.
29:09 Yasi Salek? Okay.
29:10 Speaker 04 My next pick, I was slightly worried about Rob. Just the tiniest bit worried about. Because I know that Rob, like myself, is an appreciator of the underheralded. What, what's, what's happening?
29:26 Speaker 03 I'm a little worried about what you're gonna say.
29:27 Speaker 04 Um, what, of Julian Casablanca's solo album?
29:31 Speaker 03 Yes.
29:31 Speaker 04 And, and the, and the B-sides. So in unlikely genre, I will be taking Christmas Treat as performed by Julian Casablanca.
29:39 Speaker 03 It's great.
29:40 Speaker 04 I don't care about anything except hearing those sleigh bells ring-a-ding-ding.
29:44 Yasi Salek? Talk about depressing, yeah.
29:46 Speaker 04 Um, I, this means so much to me, this song. First of all, like, it is, it is high energy. It really, like, I was driving along with a baby in the back with a Christmas tree strapped on top of the car, just blaring this on repeat for like 15 minutes. And it brings me back to my youth and to when I thought Julian Casablanca was cool, which I think he was for about 15 years.
30:09 Speaker 03 Is, is he back to being cool?
30:12 Speaker 04 I don't think so. I think, well, I haven't checked in.
30:15 Speaker 03 That's the thing, I honestly don't know.
30:16 Speaker 04 I just, I'm, I have let that go. In this phase of my life, but he was very important to me then. That album rules. It is so.
30:26 Speaker 03 Excellent.
30:26 Speaker 04 So, so good. Uh, I don't care about The Voidz at all, but.
30:31 Yasi Salek? No, that's.
30:32 Speaker 03 The solo stuff really, really slaps.
30:34 Yasi Salek? So. Really respectfully, none of my business.
30:35 Speaker 04 And, and I do also feel that, um, Julian Casablanca's holiday song on a solo album is unexpected.
30:43 Speaker 03 Completely.
30:44 Speaker 04 So that will be my unexpected genre pick.
30:46 Speaker 03 It's like just the right amount of like irony soaked.
30:48 Speaker 04 Yeah.
30:49 Speaker 03 Again, where I can't tell where the bit ends and he begins, uh, which is always part of the experience with him. But in this case, I think really plays.
30:55 Speaker 04 Yes.
31:02 Yasi Salek? It's a phenomenal pick.
31:03 Speaker 04 Thank you.
31:03 Yasi Salek? Now, I can't get Ultra Anything Once Out of My Head. Seven Ways to Go Through School.
31:09 Speaker 03 Ten Decisions Shape Your Life.
31:10 Yasi Salek? Ten Decisions Shape Your Life. Okay, well, I don't want to think about that. It's depressing. It's my turn, which I also was, just so you know.
31:20 Speaker 04 Did you know, while you're deciding?
31:22 Yasi Salek? Yeah, great.
31:22 Speaker 04 Yasi and I went to see the Sofia Coppola, Mark Jacobs documentary in-
31:27 Speaker 03 In Venice?
31:28 Speaker 04 Yeah, we did.
31:29 Speaker 03 Again, thanks for the invite. Very chill.
31:31 Speaker 04 We're very fancy people.
31:31 Speaker 03 Yep.
31:32 Speaker 04 And she, listen, that's one of the great songs, but she reuses the cue.
31:38 Speaker 03 Did she really?
31:38 Speaker 04 If she closes the documentary, that song, I was like, ma'am, you are my hero. This is one of the great songs. You can't do it twice.
31:47 Speaker 03 See, I disagree.
31:49 Speaker 04 I don't-
31:49 Speaker 03 I think if you know it plays and it is that level of song-
31:52 Speaker 04 Well, it's not really hitting as in the same way, as in somewhere that you're just like-
31:56 Speaker 03 It's in a Mark Jacobs documentary, so I could have told you that part.
31:58 Speaker 04 Everything turns out well. It's a good show, you know?
32:01 Speaker 03 Okay, that you can't. You can't play it when everything is going great.
32:04 Yasi Salek? Right. Maybe she was just like on a redemption tour of both Mark Jacobs and Julian Casablanca. She's like, let me kill two birds with one stone and lift up both these men-
32:12 Speaker 04 Yeah.
32:13 Yasi Salek? -in this documentary.
32:14 Speaker 03 God, now that song is just stuck in my head. So, thank you, I think.
32:16 Speaker 04 Yeah.
32:17 Speaker 03 Always perpetually stuck in my head.
32:18 Yasi Salek? You're welcome. All right, I'm gonna go with cover. This is a bit of a weird one.
32:25 Yasi Salek? It is No Doubt covering Oi to the World, which is actually a Vandal song. Just a song written by the Vandals.
32:34 Speaker 03 But why not the Vandals version?
32:35 Yasi Salek? Because the No Doubt version is better.
32:37 Speaker 03 I haven't heard the No Doubt version.
32:38 Yasi Salek? You've never heard the No Doubt version?
32:41 Speaker 04 I haven't either, Yasi.
32:41 Speaker 03 Yeah.
32:42 Speaker 04 That's why I said, I'm not an expert. I'm just a connoisseur, but-
32:46 Speaker 03 Yeah. Well, you're an expert in Christmas, but not necessarily Gwen.
32:49 Speaker 04 Right.
32:49 Yasi Salek? No disrespect to Joseph.
32:51 Speaker 03 It sounds like maybe a little disrespect.
32:53 Yasi Salek? I love the Vandals. I've seen the Vandals play probably more times than anyone at this table.
32:57 Speaker 03 Probably so.
32:58 Yasi Salek? So, but the Oi to the World cover by No Doubt is one of my faves.
33:03 Speaker 04 Okay. That's beautiful.
33:05 Yasi Salek? It's my cover twist.
33:12 Speaker 04 Okay, you have another pick.
33:14 Speaker 03 Mm-hmm.
33:14 Speaker 04 Oh, it's two.
33:15 Yasi Salek? Yes, you keep going. I do two both times?
33:17 Speaker 04 Yes.
33:18 Speaker 03 Both times.
33:18 Yasi Salek? Drafts are so confusing. CVS Core, I'm gonna go Wham.
33:23 Speaker 03 It's very good.
33:24 Yasi Salek? Last Christmas.
33:25 Speaker 04 Yeah, yeah.
33:26 Yasi Salek? I mean, there's so many good ones, but I just love Last Christmas.
33:30 Speaker 04 Yeah.
33:32 Speaker 03 It's also, I would say, uncoverable. I've heard so many versions.
33:35 Speaker 04 And none of them get there.
33:36 Speaker 03 Don't get it.
33:37 Speaker 04 I will.
33:38 Speaker 03 They miss it.
33:38 Speaker 04 I will also say, like, the radio edit is really an improvement on the original, in my experience, speaking to the CVS Core of it all. But yeah, on one of the playlists, we had the extended version.
33:51 Speaker 03 How long is that thing running?
33:52 Speaker 04 For a while. I don't know. And it takes them a little too long to actually get to, like, the organ starting, you know? And you're just like, give me my Last Christmas, you know? I want to be in the spirit.
34:00 Yasi Salek? Yeah.
34:01 Speaker 04 It's a great song. I think it's another one that might be banned in my house. Like, it came on the other day, and then suddenly it wasn't on anymore. And I was like, hmm, I wonder who skipped this.
34:10 Speaker 03 See, that should be illegal.
34:11 Speaker 04 Someone I'm married to.
34:12 Speaker 03 You cannot opt out of Last Christmas. It's just part of the season. You have to go through it with the rest of us and enjoy it with the rest of us.
34:19 Yasi Salek? I love it. Why would you not like it?
34:20 Speaker 03 Phenomenal.
34:21 Yasi Salek? Yeah.
34:30 Yasi Salek? This is so hard, because I'm like, looking at my beautiful doc, and I'm like, all of this is just sitting now on the table.
34:38 Speaker 04 That's why I think we should do a second, no-prep, 20-second lightning round draft.
34:41 Yasi Salek? Great, love it.
34:41 Speaker 04 Okay, happy. I have one pick left.
34:43 Speaker 03 You do.
34:44 Speaker 04 I'm doing CVS Core. And this is really when I'm being my truest self. Instead of CVS Core, this is like a 1996 Kroger in Atlanta, Georgia, looking for the extra-large Christmas cookie platter.
35:03 Speaker 04 And jamming out to Grown Up Christmas List as performed by Miss Amy Grant.
35:07 Yasi Salek? Oh.
35:08 Speaker 04 Guys.
35:09 Speaker 03 What a pull.
35:10 Speaker 04 Guys, are you kidding me? Do you remember the Grown Up Christmas List? I'd love to tell you.
35:15 Speaker 03 Please tell us about it.
35:16 Yasi Salek? Give it.
35:16 Speaker 04 No more lives torn apart and wars would never start.
35:19 Speaker 03 Okay.
35:20 Speaker 04 And time would heal the heart. Everyone would have a friend and right would always win. And love would never end. She solved it.
35:27 Speaker 03 She did solve it.
35:28 Speaker 04 Okay, right there.
35:29 Speaker 03 Do you have any additions you would like to put on that list?
35:31 Speaker 04 I think that I was thinking about it, but right would always win.
35:36 Speaker 03 See, that's tough.
35:37 Speaker 04 Well, but it does cover a lot.
35:38 Speaker 03 But what if you're wrong?
35:39 Speaker 04 Well, I.
35:41 Speaker 03 Then you always lose.
35:42 Speaker 04 I'm, well, you don't want to be wrong. You want right.
35:45 Speaker 03 You do.
35:46 Speaker 04 In the goodness.
35:48 Yasi Salek? I'm just morally right.
35:49 Speaker 03 There's an adjudicator out here that's making all these decisions about who's right.
35:52 Speaker 04 And it is probably like the Christian God, because I think this is still Amy Grant.
35:56 Yasi Salek? Christian musician.
35:58 Speaker 04 Hold on.
35:59 Speaker 03 I mean, it's not a judgment.
36:00 Speaker 04 Hold on.
36:01 Yasi Salek? We love Amy.
36:02 Speaker 04 Because I obviously listened to this on the way here. And let me tell you, like, the third time she hits that Christmas list, like, I was belting it out with Miss Amy. Okay, like, as loud as I could go, I put my whole heart into it.
36:21 Speaker 04 And then I rolled right into Baby Baby, which is not a Christmas song, but an absolute jam and was a crossover from the Christian.
36:30 Yasi Salek? One of the best songs of all time.
36:31 Speaker 04 To the pop market, yeah, a heart in motion, okay? That's her.
36:35 Yasi Salek? It's really one of the best songs of all time.
36:36 Speaker 03 I mean, Amy Grant, I'm glad she's represented here, honestly.
36:39 Speaker 04 I don't accept, I did hear a cover of this at the Americana the other day, which is what's.
36:43 Yasi Salek? Who's, who dare?
36:44 Speaker 04 Probably Kelly Clarkson or Josh Groban or one of those. You know, all the people are trying to belt it out, but it's only Amy Grant for me.
36:51 Speaker 03 Yes.
36:52 Yasi Salek? Just want you to know that if we could just get to Nashville in the next week, we could go see Amy Grant and Skill perform Christmas music at the Ryman Theater.
37:00 Speaker 03 That seems expensable.
37:02 Yasi Salek? Yeah.
37:02 Speaker 04 Yeah.
37:02 Speaker 03 I mean, Amanda, you're the senior person at this table in terms of rank.
37:05 Speaker 04 Yeah, absolutely.
37:06 Speaker 03 Are you signing off on that?
37:07 Speaker 04 Yes, absolutely.
37:08 Speaker 03 All right, we're done.
37:08 Speaker 04 I'm sending that expense right through. I've never been to the Ryman.
37:11 Speaker 03 Cleared it.
37:11 Yasi Salek? Phenomenal. Let's do it.
37:13 Speaker 03 I think I have back-to-back picks.
37:14 Speaker 04 You do?
37:15 Speaker 03 To clean up my board. So so far, I have Fairy Tale of New York. I've got The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole. I've got My Chemical Romance's version of All I Want for Christmas Is You. I think my soul-searching moment right here is like, how Irish do I want to be?
37:28 Yasi Salek? More, even more Irish than already choosing the Pogues.
37:30 Speaker 03 I think the answer is more.
37:31 Yasi Salek? Okay.
37:32 Speaker 03 Undercover, I'm gonna take Sinead O'Connor's version of Silent Night.
37:36 Speaker 04 Wow.
37:36 Speaker 03 If you played it in a street, everyone would stop.
37:39 Yasi Salek? Absolutely devastating.
37:41 Speaker 03 It's just like arresting, droning, beautiful song. Thank you.
37:44 Yasi Salek? Yeah, it's really good.
37:45 Speaker 03 That one, like, again, it's like, when it comes up on the playlist and I just have it shuffling through, it's like I have to pull over on the side of the road.
37:51 Yasi Salek? You can't just put it on a playlist on shuffle.
37:53 Speaker 03 It's an assault on my own senses, but I'm willing to participate in that.
37:57 Speaker 04 That's really powerful.
37:58 Speaker 03 Thank you.
38:08 Speaker 04 All versions of Silent Night are kryptonite to me in the best way, where I'm like emotional Holocaust, like devastated, but the Sinead O'Connor version?
38:18 Speaker 03 Particularly potent. This is, Silent Night to me is the most midnight mass-coded song that exists. I've never been to a midnight mass where it was not sung or performed.
38:25 Speaker 04 Yeah.
38:26 Speaker 03 And so it is, it's bringing back the flood of memories. It's hitting in a different way because it's Sinead O'Connor. I mean, frankly, anytime Sinead O'Connor is singing about anything that is tranquil, it's like, okay, I'm internalizing it in a totally different way. So it's, it's a song that really sticks with me.
38:40 Speaker 04 At the Presbyterian version of Midnight Mass, where I often performed, Silent Night was the, don't worry about it.
38:46 Yasi Salek? I don't know if you're aware, I was a performer.
38:49 Speaker 03 She's big timing was so bad.
38:51 Yasi Salek? Theater.
38:51 Speaker 04 It started at 11:00 PM because like Protestants do not stay up till midnight, everyone. Um, it was, it was always the closer and it was the thing where you traded the candles. And then on the last verse, you have to light your candle, you have to hold your candle up really high and they've like dimmed the lights in the church, but inevitably someone's hair caught on fire, you know? Like very lightly or something caught on fire and then you like put it out. It was okay. Yeah. I mean, we, we controlled the fire, but yeah.
39:16 Speaker 03 Is there a way to lightly catch your hair on fire? I feel like it's a binary thing.
39:20 Yasi Salek? Yeah. Depends how much of it. It's not like going like whoosh.
39:23 Speaker 03 Sure.
39:23 Yasi Salek? That happened to me once, though, because of hairspray. Hmm. At a wedding. Oh, oh, no.
39:27 Speaker 03 What was the flame coming from?
39:28 Yasi Salek? A candle in the bar.
39:30 Speaker 03 And then you got like flames.
39:31 Yasi Salek? Yeah, so I was a bridesmaid. Sure. So I had had so much hairspray and a very tight chignon situation since like nine in the morning. Finally at that party. It's so brutal when they make you. Do you know what I mean? I do, yeah, but really the call time for the bridesmaids is like eight AM. And this is a Persian wedding, which means like this shit's going until three in the morning. So like, we're at the bar, me and my cousin, and I'm like, my fucking head hurts, bitch. And she's like, just take your hair down now. And I'm like, okay, I take it down, candle in the bar. Yeah. Burst into tears.
40:03 Speaker 03 Oh, my god.
40:04 Yasi Salek? She like hit my head with like a bar towel and the entire ballroom smelled like burnt hair.
40:12 Speaker 03 Yeah, so you had to be padded out?
40:14 Yasi Salek? Yeah, like what happened to your hair from there? It was fine, like it was just like. Was it like the hairspray was on fire and not the hair? Yes, I think, yeah, there was a little bit of like, you know, but it was.
40:24 Speaker 03 So that hairspray saved your life?
40:26 Yasi Salek? I suppose so. Okay.
40:27 Speaker 03 Wow.
40:27 Yasi Salek? Particularly devastating memory for me. I was 23. It was not ideal.
40:31 Speaker 03 It does sound pretty intense and traumatizing. I'm sorry that happened to you.
40:34 Yasi Salek? Thank you so much.
40:35 Speaker 03 I have one remaining pick in wild card. Obviously, there's lots of directions you can go with this. I would like to choose one of the songs from the film The Muppet Christmas Carol.
40:42 Yasi Salek? Okay.
40:43 Speaker 03 The question for me, which song do you choose? The most gut-wrenching song is a song called When Love Is Gone that Michael Caine sings in refrain, basically about the dissolution of his, I think, engagement, Ebenezer Scrooge's engagement in the movie. It's so messed up, they literally took it out of, I think, the streaming version because it was making people too upset.
41:02 Yasi Salek? Okay.
41:03 Speaker 03 Incredibly powerful song, but I already have a lot of sad songs. I think I'm gonna go with One More Sleep Till Christmas from The Muppet Christmas Carol, which is a very jolly, Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, and by said that, I mean Kermit the Frog and little Kermit the Frog, walking down the street together, enjoying the beauties of Christmas Eve. You know, and really this, this time in which we can be present with each other, in which we can celebrate Muppet to Muppet, everything that is beautiful about the holiday season. So One More Sleep Till Christmas is my Muppet Christmas Carol pick.
41:41 Yasi Salek? Not bad, Rob.
41:42 Speaker 03 Thank you.
41:43 Speaker 04 So I have wildcard left and I thought I knew what I was gonna do, but you inspired me to broaden my horizons a little.
41:51 Speaker 03 Well, I was inspired by Yasi telling us to live our truth.
41:53 Speaker 04 Make my favorite, well, also because I know we're gonna do another lighting round, so I might have this opportunity. So instead, I think that I am going to honor my childhood
42:09 Speaker 04 and also maybe educate some people here. Educate the listeners, educate you. This one, this is for my beloved Aunt Betty, who really taught me everything I needed to know about Christmas and also diving under waves in the ocean, two most important things in life. Are you familiar with Manheim Steamroller?
42:29 Yasi Salek? Sure.
42:30 Speaker 04 Yeah.
42:30 Speaker 03 I am not.
42:31 Speaker 04 You don't know, so it's electronic, it's in the, it's in the vein of like
42:37 Yasi Salek? Are they German?
42:38 Speaker 04 Trans-Siberian orchestra.
42:40 Yasi Salek? Yeah, exactly.
42:40 Speaker 03 I was about to say, just the words, Manheim Steamroller. If you asked me to explain what that could be, I would have no idea where to start.
42:47 Yasi Salek? They're actually from Omaha.
42:48 Speaker 04 Okay.
42:48 Speaker 03 Wow.
42:49 Yasi Salek? I thought they were German.
42:50 Speaker 04 Sure.
42:50 Yasi Salek? I had to do a Google.
42:51 Speaker 03 But spiritually German.
42:52 Yasi Salek? Apparently technically they are filed under New Age music.
42:55 Speaker 04 Yeah.
42:56 Speaker 03 Okay.
42:56 Speaker 04 I mean, which is really not surprising, anyway.
42:58 Yasi Salek? It's very 70s. It's like the 70s was full of this shit.
43:01 Speaker 03 Yeah.
43:02 Yasi Salek? Yeah.
43:02 Speaker 04 Christmas is their first album and the first track on Christmas is Deck the Halls, which just fucking goes, okay? And like they're like, I mean, I could sing it for you, like I could sing the synths.
43:17 Speaker 03 You're welcome to.
43:18 Yasi Salek? You didn't make a lot about how much you've performed live.
43:21 Speaker 04 But there is, there is no singing. This is the power of instrumentation, just locking you in and saying, guess what, motherfucker, it's Christmas, deck the halls. There is, there is nothing like it. And there is like a very particular thrill when I like hear like the thunder synths starting it of being like, oh yeah, it is Christmas season.
43:50 Speaker 04 I don't know why we listen to Manheim Steamroller so much.
43:53 Yasi Salek? Like, it's a great question.
43:55 Speaker 04 I mean, I
43:56 Yasi Salek? Aunt Betty. Aunt Betty was getting into some weird shit.
43:59 Speaker 04 Some freaky shit. Aunt Betty once went to a Manheim Steamroller concert and they played the, their version, their interpretation of the Hallelujah chorus from the Messiah. And Aunt Betty stood up because traditionally when the Messiah, when the Hallelujah chorus is performed in Messiah, like you stand up. And she was no surprise, the only person at the Manheim Steamroller concert standing up for Hallelujah was very angry with everyone else and kept being like, well, what if you're supposed to stand up? It's the Hallelujah chorus. So that is the spirit I bring to this draft.
44:34 Yasi Salek? This is genetic.
44:35 Speaker 04 And to Manheim Steamroller and to the spirit of Christmas. Check it out. I'm going to play it for you after we record.
44:42 Speaker 03 Absolutely.
44:43 Yasi Salek? I'm so pleased with you guys because I really feel like you took to heart when I said there's no winning or strategy and like literally just let's, let's go freak mode. And we all went freak mode.
44:53 Speaker 03 For the record, I am winning. I want you to know that I'm, I'm having it all, you know? I'm, I'm being a freak and I'm winning this draft at the same time. Both things are possible.
45:00 Yasi Salek? Yeah. I'm just gonna, I feel like the bands plan audience might side with my
45:06 Speaker 03 I can't imagine why.
45:07 Yasi Salek? But maybe not.
45:08 Speaker 04 No, they, they started crying a long time ago in the comments and that's fine. You know, I think once choir performances came up, they were like, I'm going to opt out of this experience.
45:18 Yasi Salek? This is going to be the most popular episode of the year.
45:21 Speaker 04 You have one more pick, right?
45:22 Yasi Salek? That's right. And here's where I'm at a crossroads, but I made my decision, given that we're in freak mode. It's not really a freak mode, but I was like, I could go full bands plan choice or I can go with my absolute heart and soul.
45:34 Speaker 03 What's the division between you and bands plan? Because you are bands.
45:38 Yasi Salek? Well, bands plan mode is when I pick something that's like, has a lot of backstory.
45:41 Speaker 03 Sure.
45:42 Yasi Salek? Because that's what we do here.
45:44 Speaker 03 Natural.
45:44 Yasi Salek? But instead, I'm gonna say, maybe this year will be better than the last bitch. It is A Long December. What did I say? Is this a holiday song? Brother, this is the holiday song. This goes so hard. December 1st, fucking 6 a.m. in my house. This shit is blasting until December 31st at midnight, okay? We do not stop listening to A Long December. This is my spiritual practice. This is my religion. I'm gonna request they play it at the midnight mass in England.
46:14 Speaker 04 I think they will honor it. I'm sure that August and everything after is really big in the Cotswolds.
46:19 Yasi Salek? Um, this one is actually after, off of Recovering the Satellite. But I'll allow it. Yeah. It's album two, after Adam Duritz has moved to Hollywood. Check out the HBO Ringer Music Box Documentary on The Counting Crows, if you will. But yes, Adam Duritz is living in Hollywood. It's one more night up in the canyon. It's one more.
46:41 Speaker 03 This is why I was very tempted to take this in original, is this is my first LA Christmas. And what more LA Christmas song is there than this one?
46:49 Yasi Salek? Drove up to Hillside Manor sometime after 2 a.m. Talk a little while about the year.
47:02 Speaker 04 I mean, Phil Spector's Christmas is also very LA. If you don't want to be totally depressed the whole time.
47:06 Speaker 03 I mean, it's not like there's a shortage of show business oriented songs also relating to Christmas. But this one, I think speaks to, at least from my very, let me tell you guys about LA. I know all about it. I've been here for five minutes. I know the vibe of the place.
47:19 Speaker 04 Born and raised. I'll hear you.
47:21 Speaker 03 I mean, you simply have to capture the loneliness of LA. You simply have to capture the regret of LA. And in this case, like the want for reconciliation, right? Like, that is a very Christmas ideal.
47:31 Yasi Salek? I think the thing about LA and Christmas is so much of it is experienced in your car. Driving at night with the Christmas lights that are like so cutting for some, and so beautiful, but so cutting. You're just removed from people, but also you're seeing all this like cheer around you. But it's also sad. It's been so long since I've seen the ocean.
47:52 Speaker 04 I was gonna say, I always think of that one because
47:54 Speaker 03 I think you should.
47:55 Speaker 04 it's impossible to get to the ocean until everyone leaves for Christmas.
47:58 Speaker 03 Wow.
47:59 Speaker 04 But I have regularly, you know, after Christmas.
48:02 Speaker 03 That's a great call, though.
48:03 Speaker 04 Make the drive west. It's beautiful time, but it is sort of sad also, you know, because Christmas is winding down. It's a great pick.
48:09 Speaker 03 That's what we want.
48:10 Yasi Salek? Na na na na, na na na.
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48:47 Speaker 04 Okay, I have in original, The Waitress's Christmas Wrapping. In CVS Core, Wham! Last Christmas. In Cover, No Doubt, Oi To The World. In Unlikely Genre, brrumpa bum bum bum bum bum bum bum. Justin Bieber and Busta Rhymes, Drummer Boy. And in Wild Card, Along December by The Counting Chris. Rob?
49:06 Speaker 03 I have in original, Fairy Tale of New York. I have in CVS Core, The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole, AKA Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire. In Cover, I have Sinead O'Connor's Silent Night. In Unlikely Genre, I have My Chemical Romance's cover of All I Want For Christmas Is You. In Wild Card, I have One More Sleep Till Christmas from the masterpiece, The Muppet Christmas Carol.
49:24 Speaker 04 Wonderful. In original, I have Baby Please Come Home by Darlene Love. CVS Core, Grown Up Christmas List as sung by Amy Grant. No substitutions. In Cover, I have Santa Claus Is Coming To Town by Bruce Springsteen. Unlikely Genre, Christmas Treat by Julianne Casablanca. And in Wild Card, That's Right, Deck The Halls, as performed by Manheim Steamroller.
49:45 Speaker 03 I'm so glad you picked the Julianne Casablanca song.
49:47 Speaker 04 Thank you. It's really, it's very good.
49:49 Yasi Salek? I'm gonna say we all have a band spleen Christmas spirit within our list.
49:52 Speaker 04 Yeah.
49:53 Yasi Salek? Like, you got a My Chem, you got a Julianne Casablanca. It's like, it's anyone's game.
49:57 Speaker 04 So you're not doing a Manheim Steamroller, band spleen, anytime soon. There's a lot to learn.
50:02 Yasi Salek? 2028 is wide open right now, so like, check back in.
50:07 Speaker 03 Yep.
50:07 Yasi Salek? How does the lightning round work?
50:09 Speaker 04 I will, I was gonna get my timer out. And we can just do-
50:14 Yasi Salek? Do we say the category and then you go 111? Or no?
50:18 Speaker 03 I mean, we could do that.
50:18 Yasi Salek? How does that go?
50:19 Speaker 03 That could make it easier, or we could just-
50:20 Speaker 04 Do you like, yeah-
50:21 Speaker 03 Just go back through the same order.
50:23 Speaker 04 You have, yeah, and you have 20 seconds?
50:25 Speaker 03 Yeah, just keep it punchy.
50:26 Speaker 04 Okay. Yeah.
50:27 Speaker 03 That's what we do on Bandcamp, right? We keep it punchy.
50:29 Speaker 04 Yeah.
50:30 Speaker 03 You know, a notorious-
50:31 Yasi Salek? Brevity, it's what we're known for. Okay, great.
50:33 Speaker 04 Okay.
50:33 Yasi Salek? I might have to remind it whose turn it is.
50:35 Speaker 04 You're first, right?
50:36 Speaker 03 I'm first, okay.
50:37 Speaker 04 Okay, hold on.
50:37 Speaker 03 Yeah.
50:38 Speaker 04 Three, two, one.
50:40 Speaker 03 I think we can be trusted to move efficiently, can't we?
50:42 Speaker 04 But don't you think this is fun?
50:44 Speaker 03 You know what, timer is fun.
50:45 Speaker 04 I timed Chris Ryan holding his breath on a big-picture episode recently about Avatar, and it was really funny.
50:50 Speaker 03 I cannot wait to watch that, that watch-along.
50:53 Speaker 04 Three, two, one, go.
50:55 Speaker 03 In original, I'm gonna take Joni Mitchell's "River", a classic, like, I gotta get out of this town song. In addition to a Christmas song, there's the underlying sadness. There's also, I just wanna skate away from all this, you know?
51:05 Speaker 04 Okay, okay, good. Uh, that was beautiful, and under 10 seconds, okay. Uh, I'm gonna reset. Here I go. Um, in original, I will take "Christmas Time Is Here", uh, the Vince Guaraldi Trio.
51:17 Speaker 03 Yeah.
51:17 Speaker 04 The soundtrack of, uh, "A Charlie Brown Christmas", and, um, and many other movies that have since tried to use it. This entire album cheers me and guts me at the same time. A stone-cold classic. Go.
51:30 Yasi Salek? Gorge.
51:31 Speaker 04 Yeah.
51:31 Yasi Salek? In original, I'm taking The Ramones' "Merry Christmas, I Don't Wanna Fight Tonight".
51:35 Speaker 03 Nice.
51:36 Yasi Salek? The demo version.
51:38 Speaker 04 Okay.
51:38 Yasi Salek? By Joey Ramone, which is very sad and very beautiful, and very Phil Spector-y.
51:42 Speaker 04 Okay, you have another pick?
51:43 Yasi Salek? That's right, and it is unlike, no, it is wild card.
51:47 Speaker 04 Okay.
51:47 Yasi Salek? And I'm choosing "Red Water (Christmas Morning)" with a U by Typo Negative. This is a dark goth song about grieving death during the holidays.
51:59 Speaker 03 Jossi, let's fucking go.
52:00 Yasi Salek? Let's fucking go, bitch.
52:01 Speaker 04 Okay.
52:02 Yasi Salek? You thought it came to play? I didn't come to play.
52:04 Speaker 03 All right, Amanda, what you got?
52:04 Speaker 04 Okay, resetting. In CBS Corp.,
52:08 Speaker 03 Mm-hmm.
52:08 Speaker 04 I think this is insulting to the song, but it does often play in public spaces. "Blue Christmas", Elvis Presley. Get the fuck out. Are you kidding with how good this song is?
52:18 Yasi Salek? He snapped on that one.
52:19 Speaker 04 Yeah, really, he stole a lot of things, but this one, he had it locked down. Okay.
52:24 Speaker 03 Now I'm back to two picks, right?
52:25 Speaker 04 Yeah, okay. So you have 40 seconds. Time is yours, but the clock is running.
52:28 Speaker 03 Uh, unlikely genre, I'm gonna take We Three Kings as covered by Fuel.
52:33 Speaker 04 Okay.
52:33 Yasi Salek? Oh, yes!
52:35 Speaker 04 Just wanted to let you know that Manheim Steamroller also does an incredible We Three Kings.
52:38 Speaker 03 Well, I can assure you it does not go as hard as the Fuel version.
52:40 Speaker 04 No.
52:40 Speaker 03 For reasons I can't even articulate, it's mostly, it's mostly like acoustic guitar.
52:44 Yasi Salek? Fuel has really slept on.
52:45 Speaker 03 They're strumming the hell out of that thing. So I will take We Three Kings. I will also take in CVS Core, my favorite of like the very basic Christmas songs, Feliz Navidad, Jose Feliciano.
52:55 Speaker 04 Okay, great.
52:56 Speaker 03 I think there's something about the sheer enthusiasm of him wanting to wish you a Merry Christmas so urgently and desperately.
53:03 Speaker 04 Yeah.
53:04 Speaker 03 That really speaks to me, so I will be taking that one.
53:05 Speaker 04 That was right under. Okay. In cover, I will be taking White Christmas as performed by The Drifters.
53:12 Speaker 03 Hmm.
53:13 Speaker 04 You know? A little old school 50s duop with your Christmas spirit. Also, this song is somehow incredibly sad, even though it's really just about whether you're gonna get some snow, but...
53:23 Speaker 03 Inescapable.
53:24 Speaker 04 Yeah, there you go.
53:25 Yasi Salek? Is it me?
53:25 Speaker 04 Yeah, see, yeah, you got two. Okay, clock is on.
53:27 Yasi Salek? I'm going unlikely genre, Jim Jones of Dipset off 2006's Dipset Christmas. It is called Ballin' on Christmas featuring the now deceased Stack Bundles.
53:39 Speaker 03 Yeah, see, there's no one doing it like you, I gotta say.
53:41 Yasi Salek? Deck the halls, it's a Dipset Christmas. Fa la la la la, it's a just, okay, anyways. And then for cover, I am doing, I can't ever pronounce his last name properly, and love and respect, Mark Qualcheck?
53:54 Speaker 04 Okay.
53:55 Yasi Salek? Cobble?
53:55 Speaker 04 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
53:56 Yasi Salek? From Red House Painters and Sun Kill Moon.
53:58 Speaker 04 Yeah.
53:58 Yasi Salek? Cover has a whole Christmas album and it's incredible.
54:01 Speaker 04 Five seconds.
54:01 Yasi Salek? Do you hear what I hear?
54:03 Speaker 04 Ah, okay, sure.
54:04 Yasi Salek? Mournful voice.
54:05 Speaker 04 Yeah.
54:06 Yasi Salek? Okay.
54:06 Speaker 04 Okay. For myself, in unlikely genre.
54:11 Speaker 03 Hmm.
54:11 Speaker 04 This is off a Christmas album compilation, um, but I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas as performed by Lake Street Drive. It's a little samba situation. It's honestly, it's pretty good. Also Aunt Betty loved this song. Okay, go.
54:28 Speaker 03 Back to me for two. I'm gonna go, one of my other favorite standards, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Lots of great versions. I'm gonna take the version by the New Zealand band The Beths, AKA The Biths. Very low key, very understated, very beautiful. Also, in wildcard, I'm gonna take another new one. It's Christmas and I Fucking Miss You by Charlie Bliss and PUP, the band. Nice little, kinda punky COVID era Christmas.
54:50 Yasi Salek? Rob Mahoney went full bands plan mode here. He was like, you ever heard guitar rock, bitch?
54:54 Speaker 03 Look, I'm here to introduce everyone to it.
54:56 Yasi Salek? He was like, you guys know the Lorum playlist?
54:59 Speaker 04 No, it's my turn again, but now I'm done. My last pick in wildcard, which I was gonna take in the last wildcard, but I already had another song involving the phrase "come home." So this will be, uh, Please Come Home for Christmas, Charles Brown, which is one of my favorite Christmas songs of all time. I think I'm very fixated on the idea of, um, yeah, being here for Christmas. A jam. Okay, go, Yasi.
55:22 Yasi Salek? Last one, CBS Core, I'm going bands plan mode, but also classic mode, rocking around the Christmas tree, Brenda Lee.
55:28 Speaker 04 Sure.
55:28 Yasi Salek? Deck the halls with boughs of holly.
55:32 Speaker 03 We went two rounds and didn't do Mariah, you know?
55:35 Speaker 04 Well, you kind of.
55:36 Speaker 03 I checked the box.
55:38 Yasi Salek? The spirit of her is there. And I think in our graphic, we should have both our picks for each one.
55:43 Speaker 04 Okay.
55:43 Speaker 03 Do two rounds, why not?
55:44 Speaker 04 Do you still have any, like, honorable mentions?
55:46 Yasi Salek? Absolutely. I'm so glad you asked. Well, take it away, Amanda.
55:50 Speaker 04 Well, someone, you drifted Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, but not the Judy Garland version, which is from the film Meet Me in St. Louis, and.
55:59 Yasi Salek? Someone else was just talking to me about this.
56:01 Speaker 04 About how it originated, that song. Anyway, I mean, that, I can't, well, it's like a controlled substance. I actually can't be driving around and listen to it because I just get too wrecked, but.
56:12 Yasi Salek? Whoever was like, you haven't seen that? Oh, because that's where she met.
56:16 Speaker 04 Vince Minnelli.
56:17 Yasi Salek? Vince Minnelli. It was you that was telling me. And then she became.
56:19 Speaker 04 Or Vicente Minnelli.
56:20 Yasi Salek? And then she became his beard.
56:21 Speaker 04 Excuse me if I didn't get the Italian. Yes, he's the director of that.
56:24 Yasi Salek? Correct.
56:24 Speaker 04 Uh, my three-year-old went through a big phase of Meet Me in St. Louis. We watched it a lot. Trolley Song, really hits.
56:30 Yasi Salek? Never seen it, but.
56:31 Speaker 04 Yeah. Uh, I mean, it's a classic Hollywood musical, you know?
56:34 Yasi Salek? I've never seen A Christmas Story. Do you, this is how.
56:36 Speaker 04 That's the one with the lamp.
56:37 Yasi Salek? Foreign my parents are. I've never seen A Christmas Story.
56:39 Speaker 04 We didn't do it that much.
56:41 Yasi Salek? Never seen Neverending Story.
56:42 Speaker 04 Oh, that's the one.
56:43 Speaker 03 That one you should make it around to.
56:45 Speaker 04 It's the Falconer.
56:45 Speaker 03 Falconer, yeah, he's a luck dragon.
56:46 Yasi Salek? There's a girl in my high school that people called Falconer.
56:49 Speaker 04 That's really mean.
56:50 Yasi Salek? I know.
56:51 Speaker 03 I'm scared to ask why, but it seems mean. Cause she looked like him. Oh, no.
56:56 Yasi Salek? I didn't, I didn't participate.
56:57 Speaker 04 Okay, have you seen, what are the other Christmas classics? Have you seen A Charlie Brown Christmas?
57:01 Speaker 03 Sure.
57:02 Yasi Salek? Yes.
57:02 Speaker 04 Okay, have you seen It's a Wonderful Life?
57:05 Yasi Salek? No.
57:05 Speaker 03 Yeah. White Christmas?
57:06 Yasi Salek? No.
57:07 Speaker 04 Um, have you seen, uh, Love Actually?
57:11 Yasi Salek? Only 2,700 times.
57:13 Speaker 04 Well, I don't know, you know? I don't know.
57:15 Yasi Salek? On this podcast, I reference Stan, like, To Me You Are Perfect, about songs. That's just me.
57:21 Speaker 04 Listen, we all know memes from movies that we've never seen.
57:24 Yasi Salek? We've been through the wringer with that fucking film, haven't we? Excuse the pun. I'm like, you tried to get me to hate it? You think I care that it's misogynist? Take a hike.
57:33 Speaker 04 Um, also, speaking of the UK, the UK and things, Happy Christmas War Is Over, the John and Yoko song.
57:41 Speaker 03 Has to be mentioned.
57:42 Speaker 04 Makes me cry every single time I listen to it.
57:44 Yasi Salek? I did turn it off this morning. So, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm doing my makeup.
57:46 Speaker 03 You know?
57:47 Speaker 04 I mean, I like, I wanted an incredible first line right up there with, um, She Was an American Girl Raised on Promises. Just of like, well, now, um, my entire day is ruined. Yeah, incredible.
57:57 Speaker 03 Thanks a lot, John and Yoko.
57:58 Speaker 04 Yeah.
57:59 Speaker 03 While, while we're Beatles, though, I, I will.
58:01 Yasi Salek? While we're Beatles, yeah.
58:02 Speaker 03 I will ride for Wonderful Christmas.
58:03 Speaker 04 I almost had it in CBS core.
58:05 Speaker 03 If we had like a song you love, but everyone else seems to hate for some reason, it would absolutely.
58:10 Yasi Salek? I love it. Again, it came on this morning in my playlist and I was like.
58:13 Speaker 03 I think we.
58:14 Yasi Salek? Let's go Macca.
58:14 Speaker 03 I think we were just coming out of an era where that kind of cyn- yes.
58:18 Speaker 04 Yeah, it's fucking amazing.
58:19 Speaker 03 Where that kind of cyn-ness was frowned upon. And now it's like, I'm, I'm fully in it.
58:22 Yasi Salek? Those people need to search their hearts. Fearless and searching moral inventory.
58:26 Speaker 04 And, you know, and, and John and Yoko are taking on like very soulful, important things. And he's just like, do, do, and Paul and along being like, woo.
58:33 Yasi Salek? Everyone has to be who they are.
58:35 Speaker 04 Yes, that's true.
58:37 Yasi Salek? Big Star has a song called Jesus Christ off their third album. Called Third. And it's a really sad and beautiful and random, literally randomly, very explicitly Christmas song. That is just on a normal album of theirs and it's amazing. Alex Chilton.
58:53 Speaker 03 I simply have to mention Happy Holidays You Bastard from Blink 182, a song about-
58:57 Yasi Salek? I'm surprised you didn't bring that up earlier.
58:58 Speaker 03 I mean, it was very tempting just to draft, to shoehorn into one of these categories. But about not having wrapped enough presents yet and also things that you want somebody's mom or dad or grandpa to do to you, it's complicated, but it is indisputably a great Christmas song.
59:13 Yasi Salek? Yeah.
59:13 Speaker 04 The Whitney Houston Christmas album is very controversial in my home in that I love it.
59:18 Speaker 03 Yeah, what's the controversy?
59:19 Speaker 04 Listen, he-
59:21 Yasi Salek? Grinch.
59:21 Speaker 04 When I left the house today, he was outside installing Christmas lights and listening to a podcast, probably the Philly special, at like 10 a.m. You know, like-
59:31 Yasi Salek? How devastating, by the way, let me address Zach Bear right now. How devastating for me to learn during wrapped by his post that he is not a Bandsplain fan. That only two podcasts were on his list.
59:41 Speaker 04 I think he cropped it, just so you know.
59:43 Yasi Salek? And I did write him and I said, wow, interesting. And he said, this is a very Aussie comment. And I was like, you think I'm gonna stand by silent?
59:49 Speaker 03 It's messed up.
59:50 Speaker 04 So he was out there listening to, you know, a podcast about his pathetic football teams and putting up Christmas lights for me. So this man has come a long way and in terms of putting up with my shit. But there are still some limits and one of them is- One of them is the Whitney Houston Christmas album, which I think he just does not agree with some of the production choices. That's fine, but sometimes-
1:00:17 Yasi Salek? Pitchforks.
1:00:17 Speaker 04 Sometimes you have to-
1:00:19 Speaker 03 3.4 out of 10.
1:00:20 Speaker 04 I don't agree with him. And sometimes you really have to blast Whitney doing Oh Holy Night.
1:00:25 Speaker 03 No doubt.
1:00:25 Speaker 04 As loud as you possibly can.
1:00:27 Yasi Salek? Couldn't agree more.
1:00:28 Speaker 04 It's, and that to me is the, Oh Holy Night is sort of like my midnight mass where like 11 a.m. You know, someone has just like really been gearing up all year to hit that note and are they gonna get there or not? It's very exciting.
1:00:39 Speaker 03 We're all in there together, just waiting for it.
1:00:41 Speaker 04 But Whitney always hits it.
1:00:43 Yasi Salek? I love it.
1:00:43 Speaker 03 I can only hope that when it's time to bring the Christmas lights down.
1:00:47 Speaker 04 Yeah.
1:00:47 Speaker 03 That he can queue up this episode of Bandsplain, his first ever episode of Bandsplain.
1:00:50 Yasi Salek? That he's ever heard in his life.
1:00:52 Speaker 03 And enjoy the picks that we've made, you know? Hopefully we've won him over a little bit.
1:00:55 Yasi Salek? You guys, I would be remiss if I did not mention the Ying Ying Twins, Carol of the Bells, which is about strip clubs. It's Christmas night, time to hit the club, get a stack of ones, show the girls some love. This is a Rob Mahoney coded.
1:01:07 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah.
1:01:08 Yasi Salek? Mention, uh, Death Cab for Cuties version of Christmas, "Baby, Please Come Home."
1:01:12 Speaker 03 Without a doubt.
1:01:14 Yasi Salek? I know it's not quite the, it's not quite the original, but it has that special Ben Gibber je ne sais quoi on it, you know?
1:01:21 Speaker 04 Yeah.
1:01:21 Speaker 03 I mean, the je ne sais quoi on it.
1:01:22 Speaker 04 I'm just being brought back to college in a way that like, I don't always want to be, you know?
1:01:25 Speaker 03 Well, some of us never left, you know? I've just been living in that space perpetually.
1:01:29 Yasi Salek? Those are still 16 years old.
1:01:29 Speaker 03 Yes.
1:01:30 Yasi Salek? These are a couple of songs that, much like "Along December,"
1:01:34 Speaker 04 Mm-hmm.
1:01:35 Yasi Salek? are in my heart and soul holiday songs.
1:01:38 Speaker 03 Yes.
1:01:39 Yasi Salek? Boney Bear's "Blood Bank."
1:01:41 Speaker 04 Okay, sure.
1:01:42 Yasi Salek? Put that under "Kill Yourself" music.
1:01:43 Speaker 04 Mm-hmm.
1:01:44 Yasi Salek? Um, it's Christmas, it's a Christmas song, I can't.
1:01:47 Speaker 03 We could really do a whole separate "Kill Yourself" Christmas list. I mean, including "Suicide," you know, like, right off the top.
1:01:52 Yasi Salek? Um, and then Heim's "Hallelujah."
1:01:55 Speaker 03 I actually have not heard this version.
1:01:56 Yasi Salek? It's not a cover of "Hallelujah."
1:01:58 Speaker 03 What is it, what is it?
1:01:59 Speaker 04 Is it a cover from "The Messiah"?
1:02:01 Yasi Salek? No, it's literally just an original song called "Hallelujah." That's really beautiful and sparse about, it's, I think, it's one of those songs that actually makes me cry every time you hear it. It's about like, being so grateful for their having each other.
1:02:14 Speaker 03 That sounds lovely.
1:02:15 Yasi Salek? Considered a Christmas song, even though I believe it came out, I believe it came out during the summer or the spring. Um, so those are two for me. There's also a Guided by Voices song called "Father Sergeant Christmas Card."
1:02:27 Speaker 04 Okay.
1:02:27 Yasi Salek? Again, not an explicit Christmas song, but.
1:02:30 Speaker 03 I do love "The King's Father Christmas."
1:02:32 Yasi Salek? Yeah, wonderful.
1:02:33 Speaker 03 Uh, mostly about being a Santa, helping for charity and getting like harassed by young kids. It's a side of Christmas we need to capture in these songs. I think the representation is important.
1:02:42 Speaker 04 Also, high energy.
1:02:44 Speaker 03 Oh, definitely.
1:02:44 Speaker 04 Can I rank Christmas carols really quickly?
1:02:46 Speaker 03 Sure.
1:02:46 Speaker 04 Not just, just, you know, the songwriting themselves.
1:02:50 Speaker 03 Yeah.
1:02:50 Speaker 04 Number one, "You Gotta Go Hark the Herald Angels Sing."
1:02:53 Speaker 03 It's.
1:02:53 Speaker 04 You know, it's just.
1:02:54 Speaker 03 Never misses.
1:02:55 Speaker 04 But it's really like the chorus at the end, it is like a war cry of a Christmas carol.
1:02:59 Speaker 03 My only objection, as far as a Christmas carol goes, I mean, that range is really pushing it for some people.
1:03:04 Speaker 04 Okay.
1:03:04 Speaker 03 In terms of the "Glory to the Newborn King" section. Does a, does a Christmas, does the platonic ideal Christmas carol need to be for the people?
1:03:12 Speaker 04 No, I want it like, I want it blasted as, as loud as it can and with as room for as many instruments as possible.
1:03:19 Yasi Salek? I think Carol the Bells is my number one.
1:03:21 Speaker 04 That's your, is that a carol?
1:03:23 Yasi Salek? I don't know, I just Googled Christmas carols and it's in the list, I wouldn't know.
1:03:26 Speaker 03 Also like distinctly haunting.
1:03:28 Yasi Salek? Exactly.
1:03:28 Speaker 04 Yeah.
1:03:29 Yasi Salek? It's a goth, it's a goth Christmas carol.
1:03:31 Speaker 04 I'm gonna put for my, for my young self, Angels We Have Heard On High.
1:03:35 Speaker 03 Sure.
1:03:36 Speaker 04 On there because I used to really like to do the glow.
1:03:39 Yasi Salek? Can you sing a few bars?
1:03:40 Speaker 04 When I was five, yeah.
1:03:43 Yasi Salek? Oh yeah, okay.
1:03:45 Speaker 04 Yeah.
1:03:45 Yasi Salek? I don't know them by name.
1:03:46 Speaker 04 But like when I was like five, you know, that was, that was kind of like my big number.
1:03:50 Speaker 03 Yeah, we just call that one glory.
1:03:52 Speaker 04 It was, yeah, they would either let the kids sing Angels We Have Heard On High or Away in a Manger. Which it is very cute when you have like a bunch of kids and like some stuffed animals singing Away in a Manger. And they like kind of look lost, but they remember that they were performing it. So that's a pretty good one, but then like songwriting wise, I, I, Oh Holy Night, as previously mentioned, incredibly important.
1:04:14 Speaker 03 Man, the stars are brightly shining.
1:04:15 Speaker 04 And I think Jingle Bells is really annoying.
1:04:17 Speaker 03 Is there a question?
1:04:18 Speaker 04 Yeah.
1:04:19 Speaker 03 I mean, I think it's, it's marginally less annoying than your like real storytelling Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman genre of carol.
1:04:27 Yasi Salek? There's a really good Frosty the Snowman cover by Cocktoe Twins.
1:04:30 Speaker 03 Really?
1:04:31 Yasi Salek? Have you not heard it?
1:04:31 Speaker 03 No. Well, it's like, what's the, what's the energy? What is redeeming it?
1:04:35 Yasi Salek? It's cock, it's like.
1:04:37 Speaker 03 I can gather.
1:04:38 Yasi Salek? It's literally if the Cocktoe Twins did Frosty the Snowman, it's a cool and weird.
1:04:41 Speaker 04 It's all, that's also preferable to 12 Days of Christmas. Also very annoying.
1:04:45 Speaker 03 I need, I need, I need to make one quick, a direct address about the 12 Days of Christmas. To the entire side of my family, the Triska family. It has been an annual tradition when we would get together to, for Christmas to sing the 12 Days of Christmas in full as an entire family. This is a war crime. We need to stop.
1:05:03 Yasi Salek? Okay.
1:05:04 Speaker 03 This tradition needs to be put to bed. You cannot be doing it all the way through.
1:05:09 Yasi Salek? Yeah.
1:05:09 Speaker 03 Mercifully, like 10 years ago, we cut it to, okay, let's just start.
1:05:13 Yasi Salek? I'm so sorry.
1:05:13 Speaker 03 With the final rundown.
1:05:14 Yasi Salek? I have so many more questions.
1:05:15 Speaker 03 Yes.
1:05:15 Yasi Salek? Like, at what time, is there a scheduled time for this?
1:05:19 Speaker 04 What's the age range here?
1:05:20 Yasi Salek? Where is everyone?
1:05:21 Speaker 03 This is everyone in the family, from at that point, grandparents to the youngest kids. We all are gathering, and I'm talking like 40 people.
1:05:28 Yasi Salek? Does someone print out the lyrics and like?
1:05:29 Speaker 03 No.
1:05:29 Yasi Salek? Pass them around?
1:05:30 Speaker 03 Yeah, see, they're off the dome.
1:05:31 Yasi Salek? Got it.
1:05:32 Speaker 03 And there are tambourines, there's various percussion happening, it's a lot. No one should ever do it, and we certainly should not have been doing it.
1:05:39 Speaker 04 One year, we got-
1:05:40 Yasi Salek? Can't believe you buried that in the beginning of this podcast.
1:05:42 Speaker 04 One year, like, our Christmas, you know, Christmas crackers? It's a primarily a British thing, but then you, and there was something, and there were like little toy instruments, and not quite sheet music, but like numbered music, so that everyone could do, like, everyone could like play a little Christmas song together, and the numbers told you when to do it. It was sort of like, do you remember that scene in, uh, You've Got Mail, when they're singing like, "The violins ringing," you know, as a group? It was that kind of vibe? But it was better because it was toy instruments instead of people singing, and it was not also 12 verses. So I recommend that for you.
1:06:18 Speaker 03 How big are these crackers that you could fit a little, like a recorder in it or something?
1:06:22 Speaker 04 No, it was like this big.
1:06:24 Speaker 03 I've seen them, but the actual compartment that houses the toys is like very small.
1:06:28 Speaker 04 Yeah, but like, listen, the toys was like, like a plastic castanet, or like a clicker, or like a tiny, you know, it was real, like, you know, baby music class type instruments, but, um-
1:06:38 Speaker 03 It wasn't a miniature cello in there?
1:06:40 Speaker 04 No.
1:06:41 Yasi Salek? There are some things I've never heard of here.
1:06:44 Speaker 04 Okay.
1:06:44 Yasi Salek? Ding dong, merrily on high.
1:06:46 Speaker 04 The Christmas bells are ringing, ding dong, something da da da.
1:06:49 Speaker 03 That's not real.
1:06:50 Speaker 04 Bum bum bum bum bum.
1:06:51 Yasi Salek? Okay, okay, okay. I watch a lot of Christmas and holiday movies, so I've heard all of these songs, I just didn't know their names.
1:06:57 Speaker 03 There's also a whole new genre within that, of like all of these Lifetime and Hallmark movies, but then have to make like generic- Like, fair use versions of Christmas songs, basically.
1:07:07 Yasi Salek? The Christmas carols are absolutely in the public domain.
1:07:10 Speaker 03 Why aren't they using them?
1:07:11 Yasi Salek? They are.
1:07:12 Speaker 03 Well, sometimes. I've seen enough where it's like, meant to evoke them, but it's not actually those songs.
1:07:17 Yasi Salek? No, I don't think you have to pay copyright for "Oh, come all ye faithful," or whatever. I think that's firmly...
1:07:22 Speaker 04 That one's a little slow, you know?
1:07:24 Yasi Salek? It's for the sad. It's for the sad. I love that you guys have these incredibly, like, strong and burned-in Christmas song traditions backing it. And my only one is that my mother, not Christian, I would always come home and she would have like an eight-foot Christmas tree and blasting the Mariah Carey album, singing and decorating it, because we play fast and loose.
1:07:47 Speaker 04 That is the spirit of Christmas.
1:07:48 Yasi Salek? Yeah. On that note, I must give a nod to my, my half-Jewish heritage, the Jewish side of my family. We would be remiss if we didn't mention the Hanukkah song by Adam Sandler. Put on your yarmulke.
1:08:02 Speaker 03 Yep.
1:08:02 Speaker 04 When is this coming out? Oh, I think that... Oh, great. Okay.
1:08:05 Yasi Salek? It'll be well passed.
1:08:06 Speaker 04 Okay, the big-picture episode with the Adam Sandler Hall of Fame is already out, and I did successfully get the Hanukkah song as one of the 10 in the Hall of Fame.
1:08:14 Speaker 03 Amen to that. Congratulations.
1:08:15 Speaker 04 Incredibly important.
1:08:16 Yasi Salek? One of his greatest works of art.
1:08:17 Speaker 04 Yeah.
1:08:17 Yasi Salek? I couldn't... David Lee Roth likes the menorah.
1:08:20 Speaker 04 Drink your gin and tonica and smoke your marijuana.
1:08:23 Yasi Salek? Bowser from Shaun and I, and Arthur Fonzarelli, too.
1:08:26 Speaker 04 Tom Cruise isn't, but I heard his agent is. Yeah.
1:08:31 Yasi Salek? What a fine-looking Jew. Um, yeah, we have to.
1:08:35 Speaker 03 You gotta do it.
1:08:35 Yasi Salek? Not all holiday songs are Christmas songs.
1:08:37 Speaker 03 No.
1:08:38 Yasi Salek? Most, most of them are, though.
1:08:40 Speaker 03 I think we listed a bunch of nondenominational slash not actually that religious Christmas songs, so we're covering bases.
1:08:46 Yasi Salek? Okay, sorry. No one said Madonna, "Santa Baby."
1:08:48 Speaker 03 No.
1:08:49 Yasi Salek? That's important. That's a really important one for me.
1:08:51 Speaker 03 I think "Santa Baby" might be like an eject into the sun situation, but if anyone is allowed to sing it, Madonna is allowed to sing.
1:08:57 Speaker 04 Yeah. The Ariana Grande cover is okay as well, I think.
1:09:01 Speaker 03 She's in the lineage of performers where it makes sense.
1:09:03 Speaker 04 Not a lot of...
1:09:04 Yasi Salek? Sexy.
1:09:06 Speaker 04 Well, it's not a sexy Christmas music.
1:09:08 Speaker 03 Also, like, not a lot of recent entries.
1:09:10 Speaker 04 Like, you had a COVID song, but I don't really have anything recorded in the last 10 years that I can say. You know, what's happening with the youth?
1:09:19 Speaker 03 Do you think that says something about music or about you?
1:09:21 Yasi Salek? We're aggressively secular society now, so.
1:09:24 Speaker 04 That's what it is?
1:09:26 Yasi Salek? Even like Taylor Swift's not doing holiday songs as far as I know.
1:09:29 Speaker 04 Taylor Swift has also recorded "A Santa Baby," which I heard once.
1:09:33 Speaker 03 That's gonna be a no from you.
1:09:34 Speaker 04 I only heard it when I was like driving around North Carolina, visiting my family one Christmas like 10 years ago. It wasn't the best.
1:09:41 Speaker 03 It doesn't seem like it would be.
1:09:43 Yasi Salek? Okay, and the last thing I have to mention, Cat Power.
1:09:46 Speaker 04 Oh, yeah, sure.
1:09:48 Yasi Salek? She does many amazing.
1:09:49 Speaker 03 I love to have yourself a merry little Christmas.
1:09:51 Yasi Salek? That's the one, though. That's the one.
1:09:53 Speaker 04 That is the one. That's the one.
1:09:54 Yasi Salek? You guys, what a holiday miracle it's been to spend this time with you and to talk so lovingly and enthusiastically about holiday music.
1:10:04 Speaker 03 Likewise, truly. I mean, this is, my heart is warmed.
1:10:07 Yasi Salek? Yeah, I don't even need any gifts from Santa anymore because I got all I wanted, which is to spend time with my friends.
1:10:12 Speaker 03 Wow.
1:10:12 Yasi Salek? That's very beautiful.
1:10:13 Speaker 03 I do need gifts from both of you, especially because I've been excluded from every social activity.
1:10:17 Yasi Salek? You need gifts from your family who's traumatized you for
1:10:20 Speaker 03 I mean, that is true.
1:10:21 Yasi Salek? 20 years, making you sing this like 18-minute-long Christmas carol.
1:10:24 Speaker 03 I wanna make a clear dividing line. My mother, who is a Christmas saint and is more in the spirit than anyone I've ever known, not her fault. In fact, I would guess if you queued up the first part of that Amy Grant song, it would come back to me like a flood. Like, I would go into a fugue state and I would emerge with all of it buried in my subconscious because of my mom. So Merry Christmas, Mom. You know, you are innocent, the Triscas, on the other hand, are not.
1:10:46 Yasi Salek? Okay, well, and lastly, Merry Christmas to Jimmy Orle, who I forgot to mention last Christmas. And that's it. Thank you for spending this time with us. This is the last episode of 2025. Maybe this year will be better than the last, and we'll see you next year.
1:11:03 Yasi Salek? If you liked what you heard today, subscribe for more episodes of Bandplain. Our guests today were Amanda Dobbins and Rob Mahoney. This episode was produced by Rob Sanderman and edited by Adrian Ridges with help from Justin Sales. Video production was by John Jones and video animation and graphics are by John Richter. Executive producers for Bandplain are Gina Dalvec and me, Yasi Salek. Our gorgeous and catchy theme song was composed and performed by Bethany Cosentino and Jennifer Clavon, and graciously recorded by Carlos Delagarza in Los Angeles, California. Special thanks to our producer emeritus, Producer Dylan, aka Dylan Tupper Rupert, and also Sean Fantasy, Sam Hunt, and all of the Netflix original Christmas movies that I'll be watching the rest of the month. Come back every Thursday for a new episode of Bandplain, but not till next year, on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.
1:11:51 Yasi Salek? Diet Coke is such a bad idea, by the way.
1:11:53 Speaker 03 Is it?
1:11:54 Yasi Salek? I mean, for podcasting and then just...
1:11:56 Speaker 03 I mean, it's the carbonation. See, it's driving me. It's powering me.
1:11:59 Yasi Salek? Sorry to interrupt.
1:12:00 Speaker 03 I'm feeling energized with the spirit of Diet Coke.
Previous Best Albums of the Year With Chris Ryan Next Our Most Anticipated Albums of 2026 with Shaad D’Souza, Plus An Interview with Real Lies’ Kevin Lee Kharas Page updated October 31, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated