As May approaches, we’re celebrating… May, I guess? May. Christmas songs that mention May? Yes. And no, not “May your days be merry and bright”. We’re talking MONTH OF MAY ONLY.
First up (appropriately enough) is “First of May” by The Bee Gees. Then we hear the endearingly baffling “When Was Jesus Born?” by Lil Gee (no relation).
The ranking music in this episode is “First of May” by Jonathan Coulton.
It’s that time of year again! And for this rare holiday equinox which sees Easter, Passover, and 4/20 overlapping, we endeavor to cover some weed-tacular winter holiday songs with more of a religious connection than in previous years.
We find great joy in the sincere silliness of “Little Dealer Boy” performed by Willie Nelson and Stephen Colbert. Then, unfortunately, we really fucked up by listening to “Angels We Have Heard on High” by a band that we’re not even going to mention by name here because we don’t need that kind of heat. Suffice to say, they are definitey, definitely not Rastafarian, even if their t-shirt that says “Not a Rasta” in green, yellow, and red letters with a big lion winking on it is raising a lot of questions answered by the shirt. (Note: there’s also another artist featured on the song who we confused for a member of the band because she isn’t credited well on the youtube video, so we’re just going to go ahead and leave her out of this too.)
We would like to formally apologize for our failure. We promise next year to properly blaze it and keep the vibes chill and tight.
The ranking music in this episode is “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy” performed by Bing Crosby and David Bowie.
Blobby blobby blobby blobby! Blobby blobby? …Blobby. Blobby blobby blobby!
…Nah, just kidding. But we did listen to “Christmas in Blobbyland” by Mr. Blobby and friends, followed by “Cheeky Christmas” by the Cheeky Girls. See ya at Nandos, I guess!
The ranking music in this episode is “Brodyquest” by Neil Cicerega.
Thank you to Liam for these requests!
Let’s get existential up in here!!! In this episode, we discuss two bummer songs beautifully delivered: “Christmas Eve Can Kill You” by the Everly Brothers, followed by “Christmas Will Break Your Heart” by LCD Soundsystem.
The ranking music in this episode is “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House” by LCD Soundsystem.
International Women’s Day is right around the corner, and in this episode, women are taking the mic! Uh, a few women, anyway. Performing a pretty specific sub-category of songs. And they are all from the same one country. Regardless!! First, by request, we listen to “Merry Christmas Everybody”, a cover of Slade’s Christmas hit performed by Sohodolls. We pair it with another woman vocalist covering another UK Christmas #1 song, “Merry Christmas Everyone” performed by Rae Morris and Lucy Rose.
The ranking music in this episode is “Punk Rock Christmas” as performed by Majorettes.
Thank you to CJ for requesting “Merry Christmas Everybody” by Sohodolls!
Valentine’s Day is almost here, and we’re celebrating! Uh, sort of? Most importantly, the songs are good. They’re decent. Give them a chance. In fact, “Christmas Baby” by Infinity Song is practically begging to be given a chance, for better or worse. If second chances (or lack thereof) are more your thing, try our next selection, “We Should Be Together” by Rosie Thomas and Sufjan Stevens. This is a simple theme! It’s romance songs!! Simple!!!
The ranking music in this episode is “We Belong Together” by Mariah Carey.
As Groundhog Day approaches, we recognize the cultural association of the holiday with the concept of repetition and take some repeat requester’s requests! The two songs suggested by longtime listener Liam present us with two distinct flavours — though both are very much of the year 2020, and both come to us from Scottish artists. “Humans Are Not Worth Saving” by Michael M is a catchy little pop-punk ditty about immortal zombie Santa having an existential crisis (like you do). On a completely different emotional wavelength, “(I Wish You) Peace In Your Heart” by Blue Rose Code featuring Karine Polwart is a heartfelt gift offering solace in hard times.
The ranking music in this episode is “Maybe This Christmas” by Ron Sexsmith.
Thank you to Liam for these requests!
I don’t want to mislead you. We don’t actually have any Dragonball Z related holiday hip-hop songs to cover. Sorry. To be clear: we’re very, very open to theming an annual celebration around them if you find any! For now, all we have is “Grinch” by Jae Wes, followed by “Grinch Rap (Santa Diss)” by Ess.
The ranking music in this episode is, of course, “Grinch 2000” by Jim Carrey and Busta Rhymes.
It’s our first annual, definitely real and permanent, mark-it-on-your-calendar-for-January-2026 feature: Danuary, a celebration of singer-songwriter Dan Wilson! You might know him (and love him) from his band Semisonic (FYI, all of Feeling Strangely Fine slaps, not just “Closing Time”, and you should revisit it), but did you know he’s written lots of songs for other artists? Learn this and more in this inaugural Danuary episode!! To kick off Danuary, we review “Holiday (What Do You Want?)” performed by Mike Doughty and Rosanne Cash (but written by Dan Wilson, of course), followed by “What a Year for a New Year” by (who else???) Dan Wilson.
The ranking music in this episode is “Busting Up a Starbucks” by Mike Doughty.
Our 2024 milestone episode is here! Aiming to hit the highest of holiday highs, Ian tries to select something dear to Jam’s heart, but may have miscalculated. Looking for the worst of the worst, Jam does a bad music cram-session and comes up with something properly bad but also slightly inscrutable.
The ranking music in this episode is “Together At Christmas” performed by Kermit the Frog and the cast of The Christmas Toy.