HOLIDAY SONG DRAFT with Amanda Dobbins and Rob Mahoney

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

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• 0:35Speaker 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!

• 1:15Yasi 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.

• 1:41Speaker 03

  It's the honor of a lifetime.

• 1:43Speaker 04

  I honestly, I can't believe I finally made it. I'm really excited.

• 1:46Yasi 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.

• 1:55Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 1:56Speaker 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?

• 2:05Speaker 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.

• 2:28Speaker 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.

• 2:34Speaker 04

  The package that I got is up to like 10 people. So, you know, come online.

• 2:38Yasi 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.

• 2:52Yasi Salek?

  You guys?

• 2:53Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 2:53Yasi Salek?

  Tell me in general your relationship to holiday music, traditionally, historically.

• 2:57Speaker 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.

• 3:20Speaker 04

  That's beautiful.

• 3:21Yasi Salek?

  All, all holiday music is sad.

• 3:22Speaker 03

  Truly.

• 3:23Yasi Salek?

  I'll die on that hill.

• 3:23Speaker 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.

• 3:58Yasi Salek?

  That being said.

• 3:59Speaker 03

  The pivot is powerful.

• 4:01Speaker 04

  I have been working hard in the Christmas music space my entire life.

• 4:07Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 4:07Speaker 04

  On several levels.

• 4:08Yasi Salek?

  Okay.

• 4:09Speaker 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.

• 4:49Speaker 04

  Because my parents, my mother shoved me into like every single, I played every instrument.

• 4:57Speaker 03

  There are a lot of instruments.

• 4:58Speaker 04

  Lots of, listen, violin, cello, piano, and organ, right off the bat. Organ was dabbling. Did you just shrug at her?

• 5:08Speaker 03

  No.

• 5:08Speaker 04

  Do you know how to play any of those?

• 5:09Speaker 03

  No, I was a viola player. So I was splitting the difference.

• 5:12Speaker 04

  Oh, that's cool. That's cool. You know, it's like.

• 5:14Speaker 03

  It's the alt of the orchestra.

• 5:16Speaker 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?

• 5:59Speaker 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.

• 6:39Speaker 03

  You made the cut.

• 6:39Speaker 04

  Yeah. So. Incredible.

• 6:41Speaker 03

  You made other people cry to make it.

• 6:43Speaker 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.

• 6:58Yasi Salek?

  It could be wide and deep, much, much like Santa's.

• 7:02Speaker 04

  And I'm happy to be here.

• 7:04Yasi Salek?

  I'm stunned.

• 7:08Yasi Salek?

  I'm shook.

• 7:09Speaker 03

  I feel like modern dance does track for you. I feel like there's something about that.

• 7:12Speaker 04

  Yeah, it was, I had both classical and modern training, and of course, tap.

• 7:15Speaker 03

  Of course.

• 7:16Speaker 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.

• 7:26Speaker 03

  Comprehensive, though.

• 7:27Yasi 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?

• 7:54Speaker 04

  Yeah. Did you do a Lessons and Carols? Who doesn't love a Lessons and Carols service?

• 7:58Yasi Salek?

  I don't think I did, no.

• 7:59Speaker 03

  I have no idea what you're talking about.

• 8:00Speaker 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

• 8:07Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 8:07Speaker 04

  Jesus-coded.

• 8:08Speaker 03

  Of course.

• 8:09Speaker 04

  It is, it is a birthday celebration.

• 8:10Yasi Salek?

  Right.

• 8:11Speaker 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?

• 8:16Yasi Salek?

  Like, like the Persian kids that are friends.

• 8:18Speaker 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.

• 8:35Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 8:36Speaker 04

  And, and people go all out.

• 8:38Speaker 03

  I mean, it sounds beautiful. I grew Catholic, so we didn't do all that. It was just a lot more shame.

• 8:42Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, but you have midnight mass.

• 8:44Speaker 03

  Yes, which is honestly a very powerful thing, even as someone who has lapsed.

• 8:47Yasi Salek?

  I'm going this year with my father.

• 8:49Speaker 03

  It's a very cool experience.

• 8:50Yasi Salek?

  In the Cotswolds.

• 8:51Speaker 04

  Oh, that's beautiful.

• 8:52Yasi Salek?

  That's right, bitch.

• 8:53Speaker 03

  As one does.

• 8:53Speaker 04

  Okay, but so in the Cotswolds, but a Catholic midnight mass, not an Anglican.

• 8:58Yasi Salek?

  Oh, actually, I don't know.

• 8:59Speaker 04

  I don't know either. I believe it doesn't really matter.

• 9:02Speaker 03

  Famously, they don't care if you understand the difference. They're very cool.

• 9:06Yasi Salek?

  They're welcoming, yeah. Do you have to, like, participate? I can just sit there, right?

• 9:10Speaker 03

  I mean, mildly.

• 9:10Speaker 04

  Yeah, of course.

• 9:11Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, look, there's some casual call and response sometimes, but you're gonna be cool.

• 9:15Speaker 04

  You should see if they're doing Lessons and Carols in the Cotswolds, because it's usually like a 4:00 PM.

• 9:19Yasi Salek?

  Happy to go.

• 9:20Speaker 04

  And then there's music, you know?

• 9:22Yasi 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.

• 9:29Speaker 04

  Well, so here's the thing, though.

• 9:30Yasi Salek?

  The pressure is off.

• 9:31Speaker 04

  There's, what I, what I just, like, described to you was mostly funny for me, but it's also...

• 9:39Speaker 03

  And for us too, I have to say.

• 9:40Speaker 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?

• 9:50Yasi Salek?

  That's true.

• 9:51Speaker 04

  Like, you know, what great, what song from The Messiah do you want?

• 9:55Yasi Salek?

  Well, you had an opportunity to voice this concern in the Slack channel when we were batting around the potential draft category.

• 10:04Speaker 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.

• 10:10Yasi Salek?

  Would've been fine.

• 10:11Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 10:11Speaker 03

  Well, you do have wildcard to pick whatever your heart desires.

• 10:14Speaker 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?

• 10:22Yasi Salek?

  All music comes from God.

• 10:24Speaker 04

  Sure, that's true.

• 10:27Speaker 03

  We might test the limits of that today. I don't know.

• 10:29Yasi 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.

• 10:40Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 10:40Speaker 03

  What's the, like, the gray area we're trying to navigate?

• 10:43Yasi 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.

• 11:09Speaker 03

  I think we're covering a lot of bases.

• 11:11Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 11:12Speaker 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.

• 11:18Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, we're gonna have to have like a hearty honorable mentions.

• 11:21Speaker 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.

• 11:31Speaker 03

  Just run it back.

• 11:32Speaker 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?

• 11:37Speaker 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?

• 11:42Speaker 04

  But there's so much to work with.

• 11:45Yasi Salek?

  Once we start, the first person picks.

• 11:49Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 11:50Yasi Salek?

  Then the second person picks.

• 11:51Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 11:52Yasi Salek?

  Then the third person picks twice.

• 11:54Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 11:55Yasi Salek?

  And then it goes backwards again.

• 11:56Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 11:57Speaker 04

  And then to the second and the first. It's a snake draft, so it goes

• 11:59Yasi Salek?

  Got it.

• 12:00Speaker 04

  Much like a snake.

• 12:01Yasi 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.

• 12:08Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 12:09Speaker 03

  So if you don't, if you aren't authentic, you do lose. Okay? We all lose, I guess.

• 12:14Yasi Salek?

  In my humble opinion.

• 12:15Speaker 03

  I look, I agree with you.

• 12:16Yasi Salek?

  I'm not a, I'm not the queen of drafting.

• 12:19Speaker 04

  Do you have a preference of what order you want to be?

• 12:22Speaker 03

  I am very concerned, uh, there's one thing that if I do not get, I will be a little heartbroken about.

• 12:27Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 12:27Yasi Salek?

  Thing is, like, at least we still get to talk about it.

• 12:29Speaker 03

  Completely.

• 12:30Speaker 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.

• 12:38Yasi 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.

• 12:48Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 12:49Yasi Salek?

  The draft order.

• 12:49Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 12:50Yasi Salek?

  Rob, Amanda, Yasi.

• 12:53Speaker 04

  Oh, Yasi with the turns. So Yasi, that's what it's called.

• 12:56Yasi Salek?

  Oh, okay. Well, maybe ideal.

• 12:57Speaker 04

  All right, I honestly, being middle is Is usually the bummer, but that's okay.

• 13:02Speaker 03

  I mean, still.

• 13:03Speaker 04

  Number one. Do you know what you're gonna do?

• 13:04Speaker 03

  I know exactly what I'm gonna do.

• 13:05Speaker 04

  Okay, I'm excited. Don't fuck me.

• 13:07Speaker 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.

• 13:18Speaker 04

  Delete from my list.

• 13:20Speaker 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.

• 13:26Yasi Salek?

  Your alcoholic Irish roots.

• 13:27Speaker 04

  I could have been someone.

• 13:29Speaker 03

  But so could anyone.

• 13:31Speaker 05

  I could have been someone. Well, so could anyone.

• 13:38Yasi Salek?

  One of the most iconic, uh, original, this was an original.

• 13:42Speaker 03

  Yes, that's where.

• 13:43Yasi Salek?

  Presuming. I didn't wanna, I didn't wanna put it in your mouth. Uh, original compositions, Christmas wise, it's sad.

• 13:51Speaker 03

  Incredibly.

• 13:52Speaker 04

  It is, but also, you know.

• 13:53Speaker 03

  Bittersweet.

• 13:54Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 13:55Speaker 04

  It, it has that Christmas tinge of everything is supposed to, to be perfect, but maybe next year it will be.

• 14:02Speaker 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.

• 14:11Yasi 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.

• 14:21Speaker 03

  That is.

• 14:21Yasi Salek?

  You were always on my mind.

• 14:22Speaker 03

  Very sad to me.

• 14:23Yasi Salek?

  That was number one.

• 14:24Speaker 04

  Plays an incredible role in a recent devastating Christmas movie. All of Us Strangers.

• 14:29Speaker 03

  All of Us Strangers, yeah.

• 14:30Speaker 04

  Oh, man, when they're dancing around the Christmas tree, listening to Pet Shop Boys. I wanted to draft that.

• 14:35Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 14:35Speaker 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.

• 14:59Speaker 03

  That sounds lovely.

• 15:00Speaker 04

  On Netflix. Yeah, it's wonderful.

• 15:01Speaker 03

  I gotta get up on that.

• 15:02Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 15:02Yasi 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.

• 15:11Speaker 03

  It's really what makes it, honestly. You know, anyone can do a sea shanty.

• 15:15Yasi Salek?

  Shout out.

• 15:16Speaker 03

  But ultimately.

• 15:16Yasi Salek?

  Shout out Marsha.

• 15:17Speaker 04

  How many sea shanties can you do in your repertoire as a Mahoney?

• 15:20Speaker 03

  More than I'm willing to admit.

• 15:23Speaker 03

  It just comes with the territory.

• 15:24Speaker 04

  Okay, if we get those skinny girl margaritas in you.

• 15:26Yasi Salek?

  I know, then maybe.

• 15:27Speaker 03

  Maybe for the second draft.

• 15:28Yasi Salek?

  Okay, I think it's an excellent start.

• 15:30Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 15:31Yasi Salek?

  Excellent choice.

• 15:32Speaker 03

  Again, I am following my truth.

• 15:33Yasi Salek?

  Amanda's upset, but you know.

• 15:35Speaker 04

  Well, it's, it's okay, because.

• 15:37Yasi Salek?

  Because I know what she's gonna steal right out of my heart and soul.

• 15:40Speaker 04

  No, I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna do that. I'm going.

• 15:42Yasi Salek?

  You could.

• 15:43Speaker 03

  You should.

• 15:44Speaker 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.

• 15:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:57Speaker 04

  So you really, as you said, you have to follow your heart. You have to be authentic.

• 16:00Yasi Salek?

  It's not about strategy.

• 16:01Speaker 04

  And so I.

• 16:01Speaker 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.

• 16:15Speaker 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.

• 16:38Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 16:39Yasi Salek?

  Wow, unexpected.

• 16:40Speaker 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.

• 17:17Speaker 03

  It's powerful.

• 17:18Speaker 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.

• 17:47Yasi Salek?

  That's what, that's what the spirit of the holidays is. I needed that one.

• 17:50Speaker 03

  I feel moved.

• 17:51Yasi 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.

• 17:57Speaker 03

  Things, things are, yeah. Let's, let's see what you got on the board.

• 18:00Yasi Salek?

  Okay, well, in original.

• 18:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, here it is.

• 18:02Yasi 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.

• 18:46Yasi 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.

• 19:17Speaker 03

  Phenomenal.

• 19:17Yasi 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.

• 19:55Speaker 04

  I have never heard the Spice Girls cover of Christmas rapping.

• 19:58Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 19:59Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 20:00Yasi 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.

• 20:08Speaker 03

  You mentioned two things in there that I think are very important to the-

• 20:11Yasi Salek?

  Suicide.

• 20:11Speaker 03

  Well, suicide is obviously-

• 20:13Yasi Salek?

  Having an original holiday song that you didn't know about called Hey Lord.

• 20:16Speaker 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?

• 20:24Yasi Salek?

  Yes.

• 20:25Speaker 03

  Because I feel like now that we are in a full-on, not to poke too much at the Overlord streaming era.

• 20:30Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 20:30Speaker 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.

• 20:39Yasi Salek?

  No, because, like, who would do that?

• 20:41Speaker 04

  Yeah, who's organizing it?

• 20:42Speaker 03

  Well, we should.

• 20:43Speaker 04

  What's their incentive?

• 20:44Speaker 03

  I think we are the council that will take responsibility for this.

• 20:46Yasi 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.

• 20:54Speaker 03

  But isn't this the case for all art? Like, we've done a lot of stuff, but we have to trudge forward.

• 20:58Speaker 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.

• 21:07Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 21:07Speaker 04

  Like, let it keep going.

• 21:08Speaker 03

  Truly.

• 21:09Yasi Salek?

  We just ask AI.

• 21:10Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 21:10Yasi Salek?

  Can you make us? In the style-

• 21:13Speaker 03

  As all music is made now.

• 21:14Yasi Salek?

  In the style of Geese and Sabrina Carpenter.

• 21:16Speaker 03

  Oh, boy.

• 21:17Yasi Salek?

  But yes, anyways, I love this song so much. Bah humbug. No, that's too strong, because it's my favorite holiday.

• 21:23Speaker 03

  Well, what's your second pick?

• 21:24Yasi Salek?

  I'm sorry, Amanda. I have to.

• 21:25Speaker 04

  Three, two, one.

• 21:29Yasi Salek?

  Oh, the beat goes dumb.

• 21:32Speaker 03

  Somehow I knew this was coming.

• 21:34Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, this is, you know what? There's nothing better than this song. It is Justin Bieber featuring Busta Rhymes.

• 21:42Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 21:43Yasi Salek?

  Drummer Boy.

• 21:53Yasi 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

• 22:08Speaker 04

  Yeah, no, it's Justin Bieber.

• 22:09Yasi 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...

• 22:20Speaker 04

  So that was 15 years ago, and I think he's around 30. So I think he's in his teens.

• 22:24Yasi 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.

• 22:49Speaker 03

  It is quite unlikely.

• 22:50Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. Amanda, this was like one of the greatest bonding moments. I have like many reasons I love Amanda Dobbins.

• 22:56Speaker 04

  It was a new level of our friendship.

• 22:58Yasi Salek?

  It unlocked a new level.

• 22:59Speaker 04

  At the Pasadena Houston's.

• 23:00Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 23:01Speaker 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...

• 23:19Yasi Salek?

  This was like a rom-com for us.

• 23:20Speaker 04

  That's how people find each other.

• 23:22Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 23:22Speaker 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.

• 23:33Yasi 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.

• 23:43Speaker 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

• 23:56Yasi 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.

• 24:04Speaker 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.

• 24:12Yasi Salek?

  Talk about it a lot.

• 24:13Speaker 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.

• 24:22Yasi Salek?

  The beat goes dumb.

• 24:22Speaker 04

  It's the energy, you know? Sometimes you need a party spirit.

• 24:25Speaker 03

  You do.

• 24:26Yasi 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?

• 24:36Speaker 03

  It's back to Amanda.

• 24:36Yasi Salek?

  Oh, it's back to you. I really don't understand.

• 24:38Speaker 04

  I'm gonna go normie.

• 24:40Yasi Salek?

  Okay, love it.

• 24:41Speaker 04

  But in cover?

• 24:42Yasi Salek?

  Okay.

• 24:43Speaker 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.

• 24:51Yasi Salek?

  It's a good one.

• 24:51Speaker 03

  It somehow redeems a bad song.

• 24:53Speaker 04

  It's really a very annoying song.

• 24:56Speaker 03

  And yet, and yet.

• 24:59Speaker 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.

• 25:30Speaker 06

  Everybody out there been good or what? Oh, that's not many, not many. You guys in trouble out here.

• 25:39Speaker 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.

• 25:51Speaker 03

  That's the behind the scenes we really need.

• 25:52Speaker 04

  Yeah, there we go.

• 25:53Speaker 03

  The narrativization of this exact song.

• 25:55Speaker 04

  Exactly.

• 25:56Yasi Salek?

  Phenomenal.

• 25:57Speaker 04

  A classic. Thank you. Thanks so much.

• 25:59Speaker 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?

• 26:10Speaker 04

  I did.

• 26:11Speaker 03

  Okay. So I feel like the rest of my covers are pretty safe for now.

• 26:14Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 26:15Speaker 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.

• 26:28Yasi Salek?

  Jack Frost it up in your nose.

• 26:30Speaker 03

  He does.

• 26:31Speaker 05

  Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

• 26:38Yasi Salek?

  I listened to that this morning and I gotta say it.

• 26:41Speaker 03

  It really gets you.

• 26:41Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, of course.

• 26:42Speaker 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.

• 26:48Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 26:49Speaker 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.

• 26:59Yasi Salek?

  It's also depressing, like every single holiday song.

• 27:01Speaker 03

  They all are.

• 27:01Yasi Salek?

  It's impossible. Well, ba-rum-ba-bum-bum, ba-rum-ba-bum-bum.

• 27:05Speaker 03

  We'll have to do a deep lyrical analysis. There's a lot of pain in those ba-rum-ba-bum-bums.

• 27:09Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, good point, good point. Great choice.

• 27:12Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 27:13Speaker 04

  You have another pick?

• 27:14Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 27:14Speaker 03

  Oh, my God. I totally forgot.

• 27:15Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 27:18Speaker 03

  I'm gonna go unlikely genre.

• 27:19Yasi Salek?

  Okay.

• 27:20Speaker 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."

• 27:34Yasi Salek?

  This is why we invited you on this program.

• 27:36Speaker 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?

• 28:09Yasi Salek?

  Not us not drafting Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You."

• 28:15Speaker 03

  This is a superior version.

• 28:16Yasi Salek?

  But someone drafting the My Chemical Romance.

• 28:19Speaker 03

  I mean, Mariah.

• 28:19Speaker 04

  I don't know what you think, what you thought was gonna happen when you did it.

• 28:23Yasi Salek?

  I definitely thought someone was gonna snatch that off the board as...

• 28:27Speaker 04

  It is, it's a classic.

• 28:28Speaker 03

  It is.

• 28:29Yasi Salek?

  But it's like too classic.

• 28:30Speaker 03

  We've also gone around the loop so many times with it.

• 28:33Speaker 04

  I prefer "Baby, Please Come Home" to "All I Want for Christmas Is You."

• 28:36Yasi Salek?

  And you're being honest with your heart.

• 28:37Speaker 04

  So that's where I went for original.

• 28:39Yasi Salek?

  I prefer Christmas wrapping. It's a good pick.

• 28:42Speaker 03

  Thank you, I appreciate it.

• 28:43Yasi Salek?

  He does have the vocal.

• 28:44Speaker 03

  Oh, no doubt.

• 28:45Yasi Salek?

  You know, strength to carry it off.

• 28:47Speaker 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.

• 29:00Yasi Salek?

  That's beautiful.

• 29:01Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 29:02Yasi Salek?

  Well, there's like no need for strategy here, I feel like. It's kind of just like.

• 29:06Speaker 04

  So my next pick.

• 29:07Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, is it you now or is it?

• 29:08Speaker 03

  It is.

• 29:08Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's me.

• 29:09Yasi Salek?

  Okay.

• 29:10Speaker 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?

• 29:26Speaker 03

  I'm a little worried about what you're gonna say.

• 29:27Speaker 04

  Um, what, of Julian Casablanca's solo album?

• 29:31Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 29:31Speaker 04

  And, and the, and the B-sides. So in unlikely genre, I will be taking Christmas Treat as performed by Julian Casablanca.

• 29:39Speaker 03

  It's great.

• 29:40Speaker 04

  I don't care about anything except hearing those sleigh bells ring-a-ding-ding.

• 29:44Yasi Salek?

  Talk about depressing, yeah.

• 29:46Speaker 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.

• 30:09Speaker 03

  Is, is he back to being cool?

• 30:12Speaker 04

  I don't think so. I think, well, I haven't checked in.

• 30:15Speaker 03

  That's the thing, I honestly don't know.

• 30:16Speaker 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.

• 30:26Speaker 03

  Excellent.

• 30:26Speaker 04

  So, so good. Uh, I don't care about The Voidz at all, but.

• 30:31Yasi Salek?

  No, that's.

• 30:32Speaker 03

  The solo stuff really, really slaps.

• 30:34Yasi Salek?

  So. Really respectfully, none of my business.

• 30:35Speaker 04

  And, and I do also feel that, um, Julian Casablanca's holiday song on a solo album is unexpected.

• 30:43Speaker 03

  Completely.

• 30:44Speaker 04

  So that will be my unexpected genre pick.

• 30:46Speaker 03

  It's like just the right amount of like irony soaked.

• 30:48Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 30:49Speaker 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.

• 30:55Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 31:02Yasi Salek?

  It's a phenomenal pick.

• 31:03Speaker 04

  Thank you.

• 31:03Yasi Salek?

  Now, I can't get Ultra Anything Once Out of My Head. Seven Ways to Go Through School.

• 31:09Speaker 03

  Ten Decisions Shape Your Life.

• 31:10Yasi 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.

• 31:20Speaker 04

  Did you know, while you're deciding?

• 31:22Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, great.

• 31:22Speaker 04

  Yasi and I went to see the Sofia Coppola, Mark Jacobs documentary in-

• 31:27Speaker 03

  In Venice?

• 31:28Speaker 04

  Yeah, we did.

• 31:29Speaker 03

  Again, thanks for the invite. Very chill.

• 31:31Speaker 04

  We're very fancy people.

• 31:31Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 31:32Speaker 04

  And she, listen, that's one of the great songs, but she reuses the cue.

• 31:38Speaker 03

  Did she really?

• 31:38Speaker 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.

• 31:47Speaker 03

  See, I disagree.

• 31:49Speaker 04

  I don't-

• 31:49Speaker 03

  I think if you know it plays and it is that level of song-

• 31:52Speaker 04

  Well, it's not really hitting as in the same way, as in somewhere that you're just like-

• 31:56Speaker 03

  It's in a Mark Jacobs documentary, so I could have told you that part.

• 31:58Speaker 04

  Everything turns out well. It's a good show, you know?

• 32:01Speaker 03

  Okay, that you can't. You can't play it when everything is going great.

• 32:04Yasi 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-

• 32:12Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 32:13Yasi Salek?

  -in this documentary.

• 32:14Speaker 03

  God, now that song is just stuck in my head. So, thank you, I think.

• 32:16Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 32:17Speaker 03

  Always perpetually stuck in my head.

• 32:18Yasi Salek?

  You're welcome. All right, I'm gonna go with cover. This is a bit of a weird one.

• 32:25Yasi Salek?

  It is No Doubt covering Oi to the World, which is actually a Vandal song. Just a song written by the Vandals.

• 32:34Speaker 03

  But why not the Vandals version?

• 32:35Yasi Salek?

  Because the No Doubt version is better.

• 32:37Speaker 03

  I haven't heard the No Doubt version.

• 32:38Yasi Salek?

  You've never heard the No Doubt version?

• 32:41Speaker 04

  I haven't either, Yasi.

• 32:41Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 32:42Speaker 04

  That's why I said, I'm not an expert. I'm just a connoisseur, but-

• 32:46Speaker 03

  Yeah. Well, you're an expert in Christmas, but not necessarily Gwen.

• 32:49Speaker 04

  Right.

• 32:49Yasi Salek?

  No disrespect to Joseph.

• 32:51Speaker 03

  It sounds like maybe a little disrespect.

• 32:53Yasi Salek?

  I love the Vandals. I've seen the Vandals play probably more times than anyone at this table.

• 32:57Speaker 03

  Probably so.

• 32:58Yasi Salek?

  So, but the Oi to the World cover by No Doubt is one of my faves.

• 33:03Speaker 04

  Okay. That's beautiful.

• 33:05Yasi Salek?

  It's my cover twist.

• 33:12Speaker 04

  Okay, you have another pick.

• 33:14Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 33:14Speaker 04

  Oh, it's two.

• 33:15Yasi Salek?

  Yes, you keep going. I do two both times?

• 33:17Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 33:18Speaker 03

  Both times.

• 33:18Yasi Salek?

  Drafts are so confusing. CVS Core, I'm gonna go Wham.

• 33:23Speaker 03

  It's very good.

• 33:24Yasi Salek?

  Last Christmas.

• 33:25Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 33:26Yasi Salek?

  I mean, there's so many good ones, but I just love Last Christmas.

• 33:30Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 33:32Speaker 03

  It's also, I would say, uncoverable. I've heard so many versions.

• 33:35Speaker 04

  And none of them get there.

• 33:36Speaker 03

  Don't get it.

• 33:37Speaker 04

  I will.

• 33:38Speaker 03

  They miss it.

• 33:38Speaker 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.

• 33:51Speaker 03

  How long is that thing running?

• 33:52Speaker 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.

• 34:00Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 34:01Speaker 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.

• 34:10Speaker 03

  See, that should be illegal.

• 34:11Speaker 04

  Someone I'm married to.

• 34:12Speaker 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.

• 34:19Yasi Salek?

  I love it. Why would you not like it?

• 34:20Speaker 03

  Phenomenal.

• 34:21Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 34:30Yasi 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.

• 34:38Speaker 04

  That's why I think we should do a second, no-prep, 20-second lightning round draft.

• 34:41Yasi Salek?

  Great, love it.

• 34:41Speaker 04

  Okay, happy. I have one pick left.

• 34:43Speaker 03

  You do.

• 34:44Speaker 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.

• 35:03Speaker 04

  And jamming out to Grown Up Christmas List as performed by Miss Amy Grant.

• 35:07Yasi Salek?

  Oh.

• 35:08Speaker 04

  Guys.

• 35:09Speaker 03

  What a pull.

• 35:10Speaker 04

  Guys, are you kidding me? Do you remember the Grown Up Christmas List? I'd love to tell you.

• 35:15Speaker 03

  Please tell us about it.

• 35:16Yasi Salek?

  Give it.

• 35:16Speaker 04

  No more lives torn apart and wars would never start.

• 35:19Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 35:20Speaker 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.

• 35:27Speaker 03

  She did solve it.

• 35:28Speaker 04

  Okay, right there.

• 35:29Speaker 03

  Do you have any additions you would like to put on that list?

• 35:31Speaker 04

  I think that I was thinking about it, but right would always win.

• 35:36Speaker 03

  See, that's tough.

• 35:37Speaker 04

  Well, but it does cover a lot.

• 35:38Speaker 03

  But what if you're wrong?

• 35:39Speaker 04

  Well, I.

• 35:41Speaker 03

  Then you always lose.

• 35:42Speaker 04

  I'm, well, you don't want to be wrong. You want right.

• 35:45Speaker 03

  You do.

• 35:46Speaker 04

  In the goodness.

• 35:48Yasi Salek?

  I'm just morally right.

• 35:49Speaker 03

  There's an adjudicator out here that's making all these decisions about who's right.

• 35:52Speaker 04

  And it is probably like the Christian God, because I think this is still Amy Grant.

• 35:56Yasi Salek?

  Christian musician.

• 35:58Speaker 04

  Hold on.

• 35:59Speaker 03

  I mean, it's not a judgment.

• 36:00Speaker 04

  Hold on.

• 36:01Yasi Salek?

  We love Amy.

• 36:02Speaker 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.

• 36:21Speaker 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.

• 36:30Yasi Salek?

  One of the best songs of all time.

• 36:31Speaker 04

  To the pop market, yeah, a heart in motion, okay? That's her.

• 36:35Yasi Salek?

  It's really one of the best songs of all time.

• 36:36Speaker 03

  I mean, Amy Grant, I'm glad she's represented here, honestly.

• 36:39Speaker 04

  I don't accept, I did hear a cover of this at the Americana the other day, which is what's.

• 36:43Yasi Salek?

  Who's, who dare?

• 36:44Speaker 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.

• 36:51Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 36:52Yasi 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.

• 37:00Speaker 03

  That seems expensable.

• 37:02Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 37:02Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 37:02Speaker 03

  I mean, Amanda, you're the senior person at this table in terms of rank.

• 37:05Speaker 04

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 37:06Speaker 03

  Are you signing off on that?

• 37:07Speaker 04

  Yes, absolutely.

• 37:08Speaker 03

  All right, we're done.

• 37:08Speaker 04

  I'm sending that expense right through. I've never been to the Ryman.

• 37:11Speaker 03

  Cleared it.

• 37:11Yasi Salek?

  Phenomenal. Let's do it.

• 37:13Speaker 03

  I think I have back-to-back picks.

• 37:14Speaker 04

  You do?

• 37:15Speaker 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?

• 37:28Yasi Salek?

  More, even more Irish than already choosing the Pogues.

• 37:30Speaker 03

  I think the answer is more.

• 37:31Yasi Salek?

  Okay.

• 37:32Speaker 03

  Undercover, I'm gonna take Sinead O'Connor's version of Silent Night.

• 37:36Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 37:36Speaker 03

  If you played it in a street, everyone would stop.

• 37:39Yasi Salek?

  Absolutely devastating.

• 37:41Speaker 03

  It's just like arresting, droning, beautiful song. Thank you.

• 37:44Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, it's really good.

• 37:45Speaker 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.

• 37:51Yasi Salek?

  You can't just put it on a playlist on shuffle.

• 37:53Speaker 03

  It's an assault on my own senses, but I'm willing to participate in that.

• 37:57Speaker 04

  That's really powerful.

• 37:58Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 38:08Speaker 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?

• 38:18Speaker 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.

• 38:25Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 38:26Speaker 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.

• 38:40Speaker 04

  At the Presbyterian version of Midnight Mass, where I often performed, Silent Night was the, don't worry about it.

• 38:46Yasi Salek?

  I don't know if you're aware, I was a performer.

• 38:49Speaker 03

  She's big timing was so bad.

• 38:51Yasi Salek?

  Theater.

• 38:51Speaker 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.

• 39:16Speaker 03

  Is there a way to lightly catch your hair on fire? I feel like it's a binary thing.

• 39:20Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. Depends how much of it. It's not like going like whoosh.

• 39:23Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 39:23Yasi Salek?

  That happened to me once, though, because of hairspray. Hmm. At a wedding. Oh, oh, no.

• 39:27Speaker 03

  What was the flame coming from?

• 39:28Yasi Salek?

  A candle in the bar.

• 39:30Speaker 03

  And then you got like flames.

• 39:31Yasi 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.

• 40:03Speaker 03

  Oh, my god.

• 40:04Yasi Salek?

  She like hit my head with like a bar towel and the entire ballroom smelled like burnt hair.

• 40:12Speaker 03

  Yeah, so you had to be padded out?

• 40:14Yasi 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.

• 40:24Speaker 03

  So that hairspray saved your life?

• 40:26Yasi Salek?

  I suppose so. Okay.

• 40:27Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 40:27Yasi Salek?

  Particularly devastating memory for me. I was 23. It was not ideal.

• 40:31Speaker 03

  It does sound pretty intense and traumatizing. I'm sorry that happened to you.

• 40:34Yasi Salek?

  Thank you so much.

• 40:35Speaker 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.

• 40:42Yasi Salek?

  Okay.

• 40:43Speaker 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.

• 41:02Yasi Salek?

  Okay.

• 41:03Speaker 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.

• 41:41Yasi Salek?

  Not bad, Rob.

• 41:42Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 41:43Speaker 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.

• 41:51Speaker 03

  Well, I was inspired by Yasi telling us to live our truth.

• 41:53Speaker 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

• 42:09Speaker 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?

• 42:29Yasi Salek?

  Sure.

• 42:30Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 42:30Speaker 03

  I am not.

• 42:31Speaker 04

  You don't know, so it's electronic, it's in the, it's in the vein of like

• 42:37Yasi Salek?

  Are they German?

• 42:38Speaker 04

  Trans-Siberian orchestra.

• 42:40Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 42:40Speaker 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.

• 42:47Yasi Salek?

  They're actually from Omaha.

• 42:48Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 42:48Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 42:49Yasi Salek?

  I thought they were German.

• 42:50Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 42:50Yasi Salek?

  I had to do a Google.

• 42:51Speaker 03

  But spiritually German.

• 42:52Yasi Salek?

  Apparently technically they are filed under New Age music.

• 42:55Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 42:56Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 42:56Speaker 04

  I mean, which is really not surprising, anyway.

• 42:58Yasi Salek?

  It's very 70s. It's like the 70s was full of this shit.

• 43:01Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 43:02Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 43:02Speaker 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.

• 43:17Speaker 03

  You're welcome to.

• 43:18Yasi Salek?

  You didn't make a lot about how much you've performed live.

• 43:21Speaker 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.

• 43:50Speaker 04

  I don't know why we listen to Manheim Steamroller so much.

• 43:53Yasi Salek?

  Like, it's a great question.

• 43:55Speaker 04

  I mean, I

• 43:56Yasi Salek?

  Aunt Betty. Aunt Betty was getting into some weird shit.

• 43:59Speaker 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.

• 44:34Yasi Salek?

  This is genetic.

• 44:35Speaker 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.

• 44:42Speaker 03

  Absolutely.

• 44:43Yasi 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.

• 44:53Speaker 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.

• 45:00Yasi Salek?

  Yeah. I'm just gonna, I feel like the bands plan audience might side with my

• 45:06Speaker 03

  I can't imagine why.

• 45:07Yasi Salek?

  But maybe not.

• 45:08Speaker 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.

• 45:18Yasi Salek?

  This is going to be the most popular episode of the year.

• 45:21Speaker 04

  You have one more pick, right?

• 45:22Yasi 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.

• 45:34Speaker 03

  What's the division between you and bands plan? Because you are bands.

• 45:38Yasi Salek?

  Well, bands plan mode is when I pick something that's like, has a lot of backstory.

• 45:41Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 45:42Yasi Salek?

  Because that's what we do here.

• 45:44Speaker 03

  Natural.

• 45:44Yasi 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.

• 46:14Speaker 04

  I think they will honor it. I'm sure that August and everything after is really big in the Cotswolds.

• 46:19Yasi 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.

• 46:41Speaker 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?

• 46:49Yasi Salek?

  Drove up to Hillside Manor sometime after 2 a.m. Talk a little while about the year.

• 47:02Speaker 04

  I mean, Phil Spector's Christmas is also very LA. If you don't want to be totally depressed the whole time.

• 47:06Speaker 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.

• 47:19Speaker 04

  Born and raised. I'll hear you.

• 47:21Speaker 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.

• 47:31Yasi 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.

• 47:52Speaker 04

  I was gonna say, I always think of that one because

• 47:54Speaker 03

  I think you should.

• 47:55Speaker 04

  it's impossible to get to the ocean until everyone leaves for Christmas.

• 47:58Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 47:59Speaker 04

  But I have regularly, you know, after Christmas.

• 48:02Speaker 03

  That's a great call, though.

• 48:03Speaker 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.

• 48:09Speaker 03

  That's what we want.

• 48:10Yasi Salek?

  Na na na na, na na na.

• 48:17Speaker 07

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• 48:47Speaker 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?

• 49:06Speaker 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.

• 49:24Speaker 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.

• 49:45Speaker 03

  I'm so glad you picked the Julianne Casablanca song.

• 49:47Speaker 04

  Thank you. It's really, it's very good.

• 49:49Yasi Salek?

  I'm gonna say we all have a band spleen Christmas spirit within our list.

• 49:52Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 49:53Yasi Salek?

  Like, you got a My Chem, you got a Julianne Casablanca. It's like, it's anyone's game.

• 49:57Speaker 04

  So you're not doing a Manheim Steamroller, band spleen, anytime soon. There's a lot to learn.

• 50:02Yasi Salek?

  2028 is wide open right now, so like, check back in.

• 50:07Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 50:07Yasi Salek?

  How does the lightning round work?

• 50:09Speaker 04

  I will, I was gonna get my timer out. And we can just do-

• 50:14Yasi Salek?

  Do we say the category and then you go 111? Or no?

• 50:18Speaker 03

  I mean, we could do that.

• 50:18Yasi Salek?

  How does that go?

• 50:19Speaker 03

  That could make it easier, or we could just-

• 50:20Speaker 04

  Do you like, yeah-

• 50:21Speaker 03

  Just go back through the same order.

• 50:23Speaker 04

  You have, yeah, and you have 20 seconds?

• 50:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, just keep it punchy.

• 50:26Speaker 04

  Okay. Yeah.

• 50:27Speaker 03

  That's what we do on Bandcamp, right? We keep it punchy.

• 50:29Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 50:30Speaker 03

  You know, a notorious-

• 50:31Yasi Salek?

  Brevity, it's what we're known for. Okay, great.

• 50:33Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 50:33Yasi Salek?

  I might have to remind it whose turn it is.

• 50:35Speaker 04

  You're first, right?

• 50:36Speaker 03

  I'm first, okay.

• 50:37Speaker 04

  Okay, hold on.

• 50:37Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 50:38Speaker 04

  Three, two, one.

• 50:40Speaker 03

  I think we can be trusted to move efficiently, can't we?

• 50:42Speaker 04

  But don't you think this is fun?

• 50:44Speaker 03

  You know what, timer is fun.

• 50:45Speaker 04

  I timed Chris Ryan holding his breath on a big-picture episode recently about Avatar, and it was really funny.

• 50:50Speaker 03

  I cannot wait to watch that, that watch-along.

• 50:53Speaker 04

  Three, two, one, go.

• 50:55Speaker 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?

• 51:05Speaker 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.

• 51:17Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 51:17Speaker 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.

• 51:30Yasi Salek?

  Gorge.

• 51:31Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 51:31Yasi Salek?

  In original, I'm taking The Ramones' "Merry Christmas, I Don't Wanna Fight Tonight".

• 51:35Speaker 03

  Nice.

• 51:36Yasi Salek?

  The demo version.

• 51:38Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 51:38Yasi Salek?

  By Joey Ramone, which is very sad and very beautiful, and very Phil Spector-y.

• 51:42Speaker 04

  Okay, you have another pick?

• 51:43Yasi Salek?

  That's right, and it is unlike, no, it is wild card.

• 51:47Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 51:47Yasi 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.

• 51:59Speaker 03

  Jossi, let's fucking go.

• 52:00Yasi Salek?

  Let's fucking go, bitch.

• 52:01Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 52:02Yasi Salek?

  You thought it came to play? I didn't come to play.

• 52:04Speaker 03

  All right, Amanda, what you got?

• 52:04Speaker 04

  Okay, resetting. In CBS Corp.,

• 52:08Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 52:08Speaker 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?

• 52:18Yasi Salek?

  He snapped on that one.

• 52:19Speaker 04

  Yeah, really, he stole a lot of things, but this one, he had it locked down. Okay.

• 52:24Speaker 03

  Now I'm back to two picks, right?

• 52:25Speaker 04

  Yeah, okay. So you have 40 seconds. Time is yours, but the clock is running.

• 52:28Speaker 03

  Uh, unlikely genre, I'm gonna take We Three Kings as covered by Fuel.

• 52:33Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 52:33Yasi Salek?

  Oh, yes!

• 52:35Speaker 04

  Just wanted to let you know that Manheim Steamroller also does an incredible We Three Kings.

• 52:38Speaker 03

  Well, I can assure you it does not go as hard as the Fuel version.

• 52:40Speaker 04

  No.

• 52:40Speaker 03

  For reasons I can't even articulate, it's mostly, it's mostly like acoustic guitar.

• 52:44Yasi Salek?

  Fuel has really slept on.

• 52:45Speaker 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.

• 52:55Speaker 04

  Okay, great.

• 52:56Speaker 03

  I think there's something about the sheer enthusiasm of him wanting to wish you a Merry Christmas so urgently and desperately.

• 53:03Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 53:04Speaker 03

  That really speaks to me, so I will be taking that one.

• 53:05Speaker 04

  That was right under. Okay. In cover, I will be taking White Christmas as performed by The Drifters.

• 53:12Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 53:13Speaker 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...

• 53:23Speaker 03

  Inescapable.

• 53:24Speaker 04

  Yeah, there you go.

• 53:25Yasi Salek?

  Is it me?

• 53:25Speaker 04

  Yeah, see, yeah, you got two. Okay, clock is on.

• 53:27Yasi 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.

• 53:39Speaker 03

  Yeah, see, there's no one doing it like you, I gotta say.

• 53:41Yasi 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?

• 53:54Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 53:55Yasi Salek?

  Cobble?

• 53:55Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 53:56Yasi Salek?

  From Red House Painters and Sun Kill Moon.

• 53:58Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 53:58Yasi Salek?

  Cover has a whole Christmas album and it's incredible.

• 54:01Speaker 04

  Five seconds.

• 54:01Yasi Salek?

  Do you hear what I hear?

• 54:03Speaker 04

  Ah, okay, sure.

• 54:04Yasi Salek?

  Mournful voice.

• 54:05Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 54:06Yasi Salek?

  Okay.

• 54:06Speaker 04

  Okay. For myself, in unlikely genre.

• 54:11Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 54:11Speaker 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.

• 54:28Speaker 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.

• 54:50Yasi Salek?

  Rob Mahoney went full bands plan mode here. He was like, you ever heard guitar rock, bitch?

• 54:54Speaker 03

  Look, I'm here to introduce everyone to it.

• 54:56Yasi Salek?

  He was like, you guys know the Lorum playlist?

• 54:59Speaker 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.

• 55:22Yasi Salek?

  Last one, CBS Core, I'm going bands plan mode, but also classic mode, rocking around the Christmas tree, Brenda Lee.

• 55:28Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 55:28Yasi Salek?

  Deck the halls with boughs of holly.

• 55:32Speaker 03

  We went two rounds and didn't do Mariah, you know?

• 55:35Speaker 04

  Well, you kind of.

• 55:36Speaker 03

  I checked the box.

• 55:38Yasi Salek?

  The spirit of her is there. And I think in our graphic, we should have both our picks for each one.

• 55:43Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 55:43Speaker 03

  Do two rounds, why not?

• 55:44Speaker 04

  Do you still have any, like, honorable mentions?

• 55:46Yasi Salek?

  Absolutely. I'm so glad you asked. Well, take it away, Amanda.

• 55:50Speaker 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.

• 55:59Yasi Salek?

  Someone else was just talking to me about this.

• 56:01Speaker 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.

• 56:12Yasi Salek?

  Whoever was like, you haven't seen that? Oh, because that's where she met.

• 56:16Speaker 04

  Vince Minnelli.

• 56:17Yasi Salek?

  Vince Minnelli. It was you that was telling me. And then she became.

• 56:19Speaker 04

  Or Vicente Minnelli.

• 56:20Yasi Salek?

  And then she became his beard.

• 56:21Speaker 04

  Excuse me if I didn't get the Italian. Yes, he's the director of that.

• 56:24Yasi Salek?

  Correct.

• 56:24Speaker 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.

• 56:30Yasi Salek?

  Never seen it, but.

• 56:31Speaker 04

  Yeah. Uh, I mean, it's a classic Hollywood musical, you know?

• 56:34Yasi Salek?

  I've never seen A Christmas Story. Do you, this is how.

• 56:36Speaker 04

  That's the one with the lamp.

• 56:37Yasi Salek?

  Foreign my parents are. I've never seen A Christmas Story.

• 56:39Speaker 04

  We didn't do it that much.

• 56:41Yasi Salek?

  Never seen Neverending Story.

• 56:42Speaker 04

  Oh, that's the one.

• 56:43Speaker 03

  That one you should make it around to.

• 56:45Speaker 04

  It's the Falconer.

• 56:45Speaker 03

  Falconer, yeah, he's a luck dragon.

• 56:46Yasi Salek?

  There's a girl in my high school that people called Falconer.

• 56:49Speaker 04

  That's really mean.

• 56:50Yasi Salek?

  I know.

• 56:51Speaker 03

  I'm scared to ask why, but it seems mean. Cause she looked like him. Oh, no.

• 56:56Yasi Salek?

  I didn't, I didn't participate.

• 56:57Speaker 04

  Okay, have you seen, what are the other Christmas classics? Have you seen A Charlie Brown Christmas?

• 57:01Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 57:02Yasi Salek?

  Yes.

• 57:02Speaker 04

  Okay, have you seen It's a Wonderful Life?

• 57:05Yasi Salek?

  No.

• 57:05Speaker 03

  Yeah. White Christmas?

• 57:06Yasi Salek?

  No.

• 57:07Speaker 04

  Um, have you seen, uh, Love Actually?

• 57:11Yasi Salek?

  Only 2,700 times.

• 57:13Speaker 04

  Well, I don't know, you know? I don't know.

• 57:15Yasi Salek?

  On this podcast, I reference Stan, like, To Me You Are Perfect, about songs. That's just me.

• 57:21Speaker 04

  Listen, we all know memes from movies that we've never seen.

• 57:24Yasi 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.

• 57:33Speaker 04

  Um, also, speaking of the UK, the UK and things, Happy Christmas War Is Over, the John and Yoko song.

• 57:41Speaker 03

  Has to be mentioned.

• 57:42Speaker 04

  Makes me cry every single time I listen to it.

• 57:44Yasi Salek?

  I did turn it off this morning. So, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm doing my makeup.

• 57:46Speaker 03

  You know?

• 57:47Speaker 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.

• 57:57Speaker 03

  Thanks a lot, John and Yoko.

• 57:58Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 57:59Speaker 03

  While, while we're Beatles, though, I, I will.

• 58:01Yasi Salek?

  While we're Beatles, yeah.

• 58:02Speaker 03

  I will ride for Wonderful Christmas.

• 58:03Speaker 04

  I almost had it in CBS core.

• 58:05Speaker 03

  If we had like a song you love, but everyone else seems to hate for some reason, it would absolutely.

• 58:10Yasi Salek?

  I love it. Again, it came on this morning in my playlist and I was like.

• 58:13Speaker 03

  I think we.

• 58:14Yasi Salek?

  Let's go Macca.

• 58:14Speaker 03

  I think we were just coming out of an era where that kind of cyn- yes.

• 58:18Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's fucking amazing.

• 58:19Speaker 03

  Where that kind of cyn-ness was frowned upon. And now it's like, I'm, I'm fully in it.

• 58:22Yasi Salek?

  Those people need to search their hearts. Fearless and searching moral inventory.

• 58:26Speaker 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.

• 58:33Yasi Salek?

  Everyone has to be who they are.

• 58:35Speaker 04

  Yes, that's true.

• 58:37Yasi 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.

• 58:53Speaker 03

  I simply have to mention Happy Holidays You Bastard from Blink 182, a song about-

• 58:57Yasi Salek?

  I'm surprised you didn't bring that up earlier.

• 58:58Speaker 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.

• 59:13Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 59:13Speaker 04

  The Whitney Houston Christmas album is very controversial in my home in that I love it.

• 59:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, what's the controversy?

• 59:19Speaker 04

  Listen, he-

• 59:21Yasi Salek?

  Grinch.

• 59:21Speaker 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-

• 59:31Yasi 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.

• 59:41Speaker 04

  I think he cropped it, just so you know.

• 59:43Yasi 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?

• 59:49Speaker 03

  It's messed up.

• 59:50Speaker 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-

• 1:00:17Yasi Salek?

  Pitchforks.

• 1:00:17Speaker 04

  Sometimes you have to-

• 1:00:19Speaker 03

  3.4 out of 10.

• 1:00:20Speaker 04

  I don't agree with him. And sometimes you really have to blast Whitney doing Oh Holy Night.

• 1:00:25Speaker 03

  No doubt.

• 1:00:25Speaker 04

  As loud as you possibly can.

• 1:00:27Yasi Salek?

  Couldn't agree more.

• 1:00:28Speaker 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.

• 1:00:39Speaker 03

  We're all in there together, just waiting for it.

• 1:00:41Speaker 04

  But Whitney always hits it.

• 1:00:43Yasi Salek?

  I love it.

• 1:00:43Speaker 03

  I can only hope that when it's time to bring the Christmas lights down.

• 1:00:47Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:00:47Speaker 03

  That he can queue up this episode of Bandsplain, his first ever episode of Bandsplain.

• 1:00:50Yasi Salek?

  That he's ever heard in his life.

• 1:00:52Speaker 03

  And enjoy the picks that we've made, you know? Hopefully we've won him over a little bit.

• 1:00:55Yasi 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.

• 1:01:07Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:01:08Yasi Salek?

  Mention, uh, Death Cab for Cuties version of Christmas, "Baby, Please Come Home."

• 1:01:12Speaker 03

  Without a doubt.

• 1:01:14Yasi 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?

• 1:01:21Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:01:21Speaker 03

  I mean, the je ne sais quoi on it.

• 1:01:22Speaker 04

  I'm just being brought back to college in a way that like, I don't always want to be, you know?

• 1:01:25Speaker 03

  Well, some of us never left, you know? I've just been living in that space perpetually.

• 1:01:29Yasi Salek?

  Those are still 16 years old.

• 1:01:29Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:01:30Yasi Salek?

  These are a couple of songs that, much like "Along December,"

• 1:01:34Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:01:35Yasi Salek?

  are in my heart and soul holiday songs.

• 1:01:38Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:01:39Yasi Salek?

  Boney Bear's "Blood Bank."

• 1:01:41Speaker 04

  Okay, sure.

• 1:01:42Yasi Salek?

  Put that under "Kill Yourself" music.

• 1:01:43Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:01:44Yasi Salek?

  Um, it's Christmas, it's a Christmas song, I can't.

• 1:01:47Speaker 03

  We could really do a whole separate "Kill Yourself" Christmas list. I mean, including "Suicide," you know, like, right off the top.

• 1:01:52Yasi Salek?

  Um, and then Heim's "Hallelujah."

• 1:01:55Speaker 03

  I actually have not heard this version.

• 1:01:56Yasi Salek?

  It's not a cover of "Hallelujah."

• 1:01:58Speaker 03

  What is it, what is it?

• 1:01:59Speaker 04

  Is it a cover from "The Messiah"?

• 1:02:01Yasi 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.

• 1:02:14Speaker 03

  That sounds lovely.

• 1:02:15Yasi 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."

• 1:02:27Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 1:02:27Yasi Salek?

  Again, not an explicit Christmas song, but.

• 1:02:30Speaker 03

  I do love "The King's Father Christmas."

• 1:02:32Yasi Salek?

  Yeah, wonderful.

• 1:02:33Speaker 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.

• 1:02:42Speaker 04

  Also, high energy.

• 1:02:44Speaker 03

  Oh, definitely.

• 1:02:44Speaker 04

  Can I rank Christmas carols really quickly?

• 1:02:46Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 1:02:46Speaker 04

  Not just, just, you know, the songwriting themselves.

• 1:02:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:02:50Speaker 04

  Number one, "You Gotta Go Hark the Herald Angels Sing."

• 1:02:53Speaker 03

  It's.

• 1:02:53Speaker 04

  You know, it's just.

• 1:02:54Speaker 03

  Never misses.

• 1:02:55Speaker 04

  But it's really like the chorus at the end, it is like a war cry of a Christmas carol.

• 1:02:59Speaker 03

  My only objection, as far as a Christmas carol goes, I mean, that range is really pushing it for some people.

• 1:03:04Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 1:03:04Speaker 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?

• 1:03:12Speaker 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.

• 1:03:19Yasi Salek?

  I think Carol the Bells is my number one.

• 1:03:21Speaker 04

  That's your, is that a carol?

• 1:03:23Yasi Salek?

  I don't know, I just Googled Christmas carols and it's in the list, I wouldn't know.

• 1:03:26Speaker 03

  Also like distinctly haunting.

• 1:03:28Yasi Salek?

  Exactly.

• 1:03:28Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:03:29Yasi Salek?

  It's a goth, it's a goth Christmas carol.

• 1:03:31Speaker 04

  I'm gonna put for my, for my young self, Angels We Have Heard On High.

• 1:03:35Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 1:03:36Speaker 04

  On there because I used to really like to do the glow.

• 1:03:39Yasi Salek?

  Can you sing a few bars?

• 1:03:40Speaker 04

  When I was five, yeah.

• 1:03:43Yasi Salek?

  Oh yeah, okay.

• 1:03:45Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:03:45Yasi Salek?

  I don't know them by name.

• 1:03:46Speaker 04

  But like when I was like five, you know, that was, that was kind of like my big number.

• 1:03:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, we just call that one glory.

• 1:03:52Speaker 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.

• 1:04:14Speaker 03

  Man, the stars are brightly shining.

• 1:04:15Speaker 04

  And I think Jingle Bells is really annoying.

• 1:04:17Speaker 03

  Is there a question?

• 1:04:18Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:04:19Speaker 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.

• 1:04:27Yasi Salek?

  There's a really good Frosty the Snowman cover by Cocktoe Twins.

• 1:04:30Speaker 03

  Really?

• 1:04:31Yasi Salek?

  Have you not heard it?

• 1:04:31Speaker 03

  No. Well, it's like, what's the, what's the energy? What is redeeming it?

• 1:04:35Yasi Salek?

  It's cock, it's like.

• 1:04:37Speaker 03

  I can gather.

• 1:04:38Yasi Salek?

  It's literally if the Cocktoe Twins did Frosty the Snowman, it's a cool and weird.

• 1:04:41Speaker 04

  It's all, that's also preferable to 12 Days of Christmas. Also very annoying.

• 1:04:45Speaker 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.

• 1:05:03Yasi Salek?

  Okay.

• 1:05:04Speaker 03

  This tradition needs to be put to bed. You cannot be doing it all the way through.

• 1:05:09Yasi Salek?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:09Speaker 03

  Mercifully, like 10 years ago, we cut it to, okay, let's just start.

• 1:05:13Yasi Salek?

  I'm so sorry.

• 1:05:13Speaker 03

  With the final rundown.

• 1:05:14Yasi Salek?

  I have so many more questions.

• 1:05:15Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:05:15Yasi Salek?

  Like, at what time, is there a scheduled time for this?

• 1:05:19Speaker 04

  What's the age range here?

• 1:05:20Yasi Salek?

  Where is everyone?

• 1:05:21Speaker 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.

• 1:05:28Yasi Salek?

  Does someone print out the lyrics and like?

• 1:05:29Speaker 03

  No.

• 1:05:29Yasi Salek?

  Pass them around?

• 1:05:30Speaker 03

  Yeah, see, they're off the dome.

• 1:05:31Yasi Salek?

  Got it.

• 1:05:32Speaker 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.

• 1:05:39Speaker 04

  One year, we got-

• 1:05:40Yasi Salek?

  Can't believe you buried that in the beginning of this podcast.

• 1:05:42Speaker 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.

• 1:06:18Speaker 03

  How big are these crackers that you could fit a little, like a recorder in it or something?

• 1:06:22Speaker 04

  No, it was like this big.

• 1:06:24Speaker 03

  I've seen them, but the actual compartment that houses the toys is like very small.

• 1:06:28Speaker 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-

• 1:06:38Speaker 03

  It wasn't a miniature cello in there?

• 1:06:40Speaker 04

  No.

• 1:06:41Yasi Salek?

  There are some things I've never heard of here.

• 1:06:44Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 1:06:44Yasi Salek?

  Ding dong, merrily on high.

• 1:06:46Speaker 04

  The Christmas bells are ringing, ding dong, something da da da.

• 1:06:49Speaker 03

  That's not real.

• 1:06:50Speaker 04

  Bum bum bum bum bum.

• 1:06:51Yasi 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.

• 1:06:57Speaker 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.

• 1:07:07Yasi Salek?

  The Christmas carols are absolutely in the public domain.

• 1:07:10Speaker 03

  Why aren't they using them?

• 1:07:11Yasi Salek?

  They are.

• 1:07:12Speaker 03

  Well, sometimes. I've seen enough where it's like, meant to evoke them, but it's not actually those songs.

• 1:07:17Yasi Salek?

  No, I don't think you have to pay copyright for "Oh, come all ye faithful," or whatever. I think that's firmly...

• 1:07:22Speaker 04

  That one's a little slow, you know?

• 1:07:24Yasi 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.

• 1:07:47Speaker 04

  That is the spirit of Christmas.

• 1:07:48Yasi 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.

• 1:08:02Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 1:08:02Speaker 04

  When is this coming out? Oh, I think that... Oh, great. Okay.

• 1:08:05Yasi Salek?

  It'll be well passed.

• 1:08:06Speaker 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.

• 1:08:14Speaker 03

  Amen to that. Congratulations.

• 1:08:15Speaker 04

  Incredibly important.

• 1:08:16Yasi Salek?

  One of his greatest works of art.

• 1:08:17Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:08:17Yasi Salek?

  I couldn't... David Lee Roth likes the menorah.

• 1:08:20Speaker 04

  Drink your gin and tonica and smoke your marijuana.

• 1:08:23Yasi Salek?

  Bowser from Shaun and I, and Arthur Fonzarelli, too.

• 1:08:26Speaker 04

  Tom Cruise isn't, but I heard his agent is. Yeah.

• 1:08:31Yasi Salek?

  What a fine-looking Jew. Um, yeah, we have to.

• 1:08:35Speaker 03

  You gotta do it.

• 1:08:35Yasi Salek?

  Not all holiday songs are Christmas songs.

• 1:08:37Speaker 03

  No.

• 1:08:38Yasi Salek?

  Most, most of them are, though.

• 1:08:40Speaker 03

  I think we listed a bunch of nondenominational slash not actually that religious Christmas songs, so we're covering bases.

• 1:08:46Yasi Salek?

  Okay, sorry. No one said Madonna, "Santa Baby."

• 1:08:48Speaker 03

  No.

• 1:08:49Yasi Salek?

  That's important. That's a really important one for me.

• 1:08:51Speaker 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.

• 1:08:57Speaker 04

  Yeah. The Ariana Grande cover is okay as well, I think.

• 1:09:01Speaker 03

  She's in the lineage of performers where it makes sense.

• 1:09:03Speaker 04

  Not a lot of...

• 1:09:04Yasi Salek?

  Sexy.

• 1:09:06Speaker 04

  Well, it's not a sexy Christmas music.

• 1:09:08Speaker 03

  Also, like, not a lot of recent entries.

• 1:09:10Speaker 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?

• 1:09:19Speaker 03

  Do you think that says something about music or about you?

• 1:09:21Yasi Salek?

  We're aggressively secular society now, so.

• 1:09:24Speaker 04

  That's what it is?

• 1:09:26Yasi Salek?

  Even like Taylor Swift's not doing holiday songs as far as I know.

• 1:09:29Speaker 04

  Taylor Swift has also recorded "A Santa Baby," which I heard once.

• 1:09:33Speaker 03

  That's gonna be a no from you.

• 1:09:34Speaker 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.

• 1:09:41Speaker 03

  It doesn't seem like it would be.

• 1:09:43Yasi Salek?

  Okay, and the last thing I have to mention, Cat Power.

• 1:09:46Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah, sure.

• 1:09:48Yasi Salek?

  She does many amazing.

• 1:09:49Speaker 03

  I love to have yourself a merry little Christmas.

• 1:09:51Yasi Salek?

  That's the one, though. That's the one.

• 1:09:53Speaker 04

  That is the one. That's the one.

• 1:09:54Yasi 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.

• 1:10:04Speaker 03

  Likewise, truly. I mean, this is, my heart is warmed.

• 1:10:07Yasi 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.

• 1:10:12Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 1:10:12Yasi Salek?

  That's very beautiful.

• 1:10:13Speaker 03

  I do need gifts from both of you, especially because I've been excluded from every social activity.

• 1:10:17Yasi Salek?

  You need gifts from your family who's traumatized you for

• 1:10:20Speaker 03

  I mean, that is true.

• 1:10:21Yasi Salek?

  20 years, making you sing this like 18-minute-long Christmas carol.

• 1:10:24Speaker 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.

• 1:10:46Yasi 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.

• 1:11:03Yasi 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.

• 1:11:51Yasi Salek?

  Diet Coke is such a bad idea, by the way.

• 1:11:53Speaker 03

  Is it?

• 1:11:54Yasi Salek?

  I mean, for podcasting and then just...

• 1:11:56Speaker 03

  I mean, it's the carbonation. See, it's driving me. It's powering me.

• 1:11:59Yasi Salek?

  Sorry to interrupt.

• 1:12:00Speaker 03

  I'm feeling energized with the spirit of Diet Coke.