Episode 351: Grinch Rap Granuary

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To kick off our tenth year of HARK, we’re writing the first page of what will surely be many chapters exploring the question of our time: why are there so many hip hop songs about the Grinch? “I Am The Grinch” by Tyler the Creator is a pleasant but not very illuminating entry in Grinch Rap subgenre, while “The Grinch” by Bad Lucc gives us a little more to speculate on, but is, you know, no “Landy in My Eggnog”.

The ranking music for this episode is “Grinch 2000” by Busta Rhymes featuring Jim Carrey, and the intro/outro music sting is “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch” by Thurl Ravenscroft.

Episode 350: Lawrence the Network Technician

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It’s finally here: our 2023 milestone episode! When looking for a candidate for all-time greatest Christmas songs, Jam attempted to laser-focus their pick to Ian’s taste. When looking for the worst of the worst, the song Ian selected has more of scattershot strategy. 

The ranking music in this episode is “Christmas Unicorn” by Sufjan Stevens.

As mentioned in this episode, we were recently quoted in an article about Christmas music! You can read it here: How Simon Cowell and John Lewis killed the British Christmas song

Episode 349: Fresh Cut Holiday Songs

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The 2023 holiday season has arrived! We’re celebrating with some brand new holiday songs. Since Hanukkah begins this week, we begin with the delightfully catchy “Just A Little Hanukkah” by Oliver Richman featuring Jessica Toltzis and Nathan Brewer. Then we consider the new Christmas release by Wheatus (remember Wheatus?), titled “Christmas Dirtbag” (now you probably remember Wheatus).

The ranking music in this episode is “Hanukkah” by The Manischefits.

Episode 348: Edgy Pants

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Season’s Eatings! This very food-centric episode kicks off with a listener request. While he’s perhaps best known to Christmas nerds for his work in White Christmas, we totally ignore that while discussing Danny Kaye’s “Eat Eat Eat” and instead try to discern how light-hearted this holiday patter song actually is. We follow up this deceptively complex piece with a song so utterly devoid of deeper meaning that Carrie Underwood literally titled it “Stretchy Pants”.

The ranking music in this episode is “8 Days of Latkes” by Ben Schwartz.

Thank you to Myles for requesting “Eat Eat Eat”!

Episode 347: There’s Nothing Funny About Weezer

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Jam’s birthday is here again, and that means it’s BIRTHDAY BOI’S CHOICE TIME!! And this year, they’ve chosen chaos. Covering two Weezer songs (“The Christmas Song” and “The Deep and Dreamless Sleep”) might seem like a fairly conventional and orderly episode concept, but this thing got away from us pretty much as soon as it began. In the words of Nietzsche, “…when you gaze long into the [Weezer], the [Rivers Cuomo] gazes also into you.”

The ranking music in this episode is “I Want a Dog” by Weezer, and I have to tell you that it does unfortunately absolutely slap.

Episode 346: A Country-Twanged Clusterfuck

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Halloween approaches, and as is tradition, we’re covering two Christmas tunes with a Halloween-y kick! The first is “Hell of a Holiday” by the Pistol Annies, which offers a mish-mash of Halloween and (select) winter holiday flavors, as well as some intriguing questions about what spells their respective cleric domains would have. Then it’s “Flappie”, a dark Christmas tune beloved in the Netherlands, hauntingly performed in English by Todd Rundgren. Oath of Miranda Lambert paladins would not approve.

The intro music in this episode is the theme from “Goosebumps”, composed by Jack Lenz. The ranking music is “It’s Halloween (A Christmas Song)” by Randy Brooks.

Episode 345: Very Much Another Christmas Song

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Here in the brief window between August Got Run Over By a Reindeer and Halloween, we’re taking a minute to get to some listener requests! “Not Another Christmas Song” by Blink-182 is more or less what you’d expect, except maybe for the fact that it was released in 2019. In contrast, we weren’t sure what to expect from “Thank God It’s Not Christmas” by Sparks, but it still managed to surprise us.

The ranking music in this episode is “Nothing Better” by The dang Postal Service!

Thank you to Andy for these requests!

Episode 344: Jingle Horse 6: Jingle Horse with No Name

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World Animal Day approaches (probably), and we are celebrating (kind of) with two festive songs about animal companions! “Santa Claus Rides a Strawberry Roan” by Jim Lowe is unfortunately less about celebrating its titular animal companion and more about shit-talking reindeer. “Jingles the Christmas Cat” by Freddy Cole doesn’t give us much more in terms of lore, but dang, does it go down smooth.

The ranking music in this episode is, of course, “A Horse with No Name” by America.

Thank you to Myles for requesting “Santa Claus Rides a Strawberry Roan”!

Episode 343: An Inexplicably Good Time

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Since the High Holidays are just around the corner, we’re listening to two songs celebrating their winter-time relative, Hanukkah! By request, we hear “The Night of the Dreidel” by Craig Carothers, a song with an epic-sounding title that tells a smaller, sweeter story about a drama-free holiday. But don’t worry, “The Chanukah Song (We Are Lights)” performed by Jane Olivor has plenty of dramatic flair. Also: we got an email!

The ranking music in this episode is “Eight Candles (A Song for Hanukkah)” by Dave Koz.

Thank you to Jo for requesting “The Night of the Dreidel”!

Episode 342: Our Podcast Got Run Over By GGROBAR

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It’s been a long month, and we’re closing it out by going back to the beginning. Randy Brooks’s own version of “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” joins our list, as does his own parody of his own novelty hit, “Grandma Got Run Over by Corona”. The bar is low and he’s just gotta clear it to get us to the end of this freaking month!!

The ranking music in this, and all August Got Run Over By a Reindeer (AGROBAR) episodes, is “Everything Sucks” by Reel Big Fish, and you can’t take that away from us.