wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] Jeffrey Slott from East Elmhurst December 23, 2008 - 09:08AM

  I can't stand to listen to any one kind of music 24/7. The commercial oldies station in NY has been doing just that since >before< Thanksgiving with christmas music. It is not only a drag but it is also, in my opinion, comtemptuous of their audience.

  Every other station in this city has been playing this stuff to death for weeks now!

  And when you have a great album like Vince Guaraldi's "A Charlie Brown Christmas", something which should be played at other times of the year, you feel hesitant about doing so because it's so played to death during the month of December.

  
  
• [2] David Williams from Fond du Lac, WI December 23, 2008 - 09:54AM

  For me, there is no Christmas spirit without Christmas music.

  I personally prefer a blend of the traditional (e.g., old-time carols in four-part harmony) and the contemporary (e.g., new holiday-themed ditties by bands like the Barenaked Ladies).

  I recently wrote about this very topic in my weekly lifestyle column: www.fdlreporter.com/article/20081221/FON04/812210315.

  
  
• [3] David Hume from Staten Island, NY December 23, 2008 - 10:26AM

  John,

  You guys are hilarious. A Smack down on Christmas Music? You better do the intro "SMACKDOWN" in heavy echo.

  LET"S DO THIS!

  
  
• [4] Winston Smith from Miniluv Rm 101 December 23, 2008 - 10:26AM

  The Kinks' Father Christmas is my top holiday song.

  I can't take the g/d Trans-Siberian Orchestra. God, if i have to here the Chorus of the Bells again im gonna go postal.

  The only holiday music worse then christmas music is Chanukkah music - Im so glad the is no TSO Ma'Oz Tzur.

  
  
• [5] Soundcheck producer Joel Meyer from WNYC December 23, 2008 - 12:49PM

  Fire away with your comments! Tell us what you think of Christmas music. And -- do you have a good story to share? Do you have a favorite (or least) favorite piece of holiday music?

  
  
• [6] Soundcheck producer Joel Meyer from WNYC December 23, 2008 - 12:51PM

  RE: #4 -- Hey Winston: I'm no fan of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, but why do you think they're so popular?

  
  
• [7] Soundcheck producer Joel Meyer from WNYC December 23, 2008 - 12:59PM

  RE: 2 - DAVID: You're a fan of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. You recommend their "Carol of the Bells" for people stuck in a holiday music rut. What's their deal? (P.S. Nice list!)

  
  
• [8] Anne from Manhattan December 23, 2008 - 02:08PM

  Please, make it stop! It's just too much repetition, too much cheesey, over-simplified crap. Hate hate hate it!

  
  
• [9] Tomasz Haehn from Berkeley, California December 23, 2008 - 02:10PM

  If Christmas music were good, we'd hear it throughout the year.

  I carry earplugs year round and I use them

  most heavily in November and December.

  
  
• [10] Soundcheck producer Joel Meyer from WNYC December 23, 2008 - 02:12PM

  Tomasz -- really? You carry earplugs? Where do you use them?

  
  
• [11] SteverR from Manhattan December 23, 2008 - 02:14PM

  I think Penn Station finally did away with its blaring 24/7 best of Vivaldi. Thank God!

  
  
• [12] Dan from Kearny, NJ December 23, 2008 - 02:14PM

  You won't hear these the rest of the year.

  ITS CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!!!!

  
  
• [13] Emily from temporarily in Albany December 23, 2008 - 02:14PM

  Love Christmas music, but what makes my blood run cold? "The Christmas Shoes".

  
  
• [14] Soundcheck producer Joel Meyer from WNYC December 23, 2008 - 02:15PM

  Anne: What's the least-appropriate place you've heard Christmas music? For me, it's the ATM lobby on Houston and Lafayette. There's just no Christmas spirit there.

  
  
• [15] Jeff from Madison, NJ December 23, 2008 - 02:16PM

  Every classic Christmas song has been ruined by overuse (mostly by advertisers). I'd go a bit further and say that quite a bit of popular music has been ruined the same way.

  Repetition and inappropriate use are the most common abuses by Advertisers

  
  
• [16] Winston Smith from Miniluv Rm 101 December 23, 2008 - 02:16PM

  I dont pretend to understand the populartiy of the TSO. But, its so overplayed that it makes you nuts.

  We've been exposed to the christmas genre for 2 whole months (since haloween ended)at this point. I can take anything for a month, so i'm sick of it by Dec 1. But i cant take 1 day TSO.

  its popular becuase people find it powerful and modern, but i find it soul grinding. Give me the Halleujia chorus and some carolers

  
  
• [17] CT from Manhattan December 23, 2008 - 02:18PM

  John, your mother is adorable!

  
  
• [18] Tomasz Haehn from Berkeley, California December 23, 2008 - 02:19PM

  I use earplugs...

  - on public transit

  - in cafes with bad music or loud conversation

  - in the presence of crying babies

  I find earplugs to be indispensible for city

  living.

  
  
• [19] Lloyd from Manhattan December 23, 2008 - 02:19PM

  "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is a dark song. Sung originally by Judy Garland during a very sad family time in "Meet Me in St. Louis"

  
  
• [20] Voter from Brooklyn December 23, 2008 - 02:21PM

  I like Christmas and secular holiday music, I’ve caught myself singing it on the sidewalks this season, but there’s a limit. It’s blaring in every store you go in and it’s not the instrumental hymns or the best of Vince Guaraldi’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas”… something pleasant that fades into the background. It’s assaults on the holiday. Grandma gets run over by reindeer, a capella groups swoon, Streisand attacks us with her manic Jingle Bells, and we get to hear every star’s from the ‘70s and ‘80s version of The Christmas Song. A little too much holly jolly repetition for me.

  (BTW, what is it about “Christmas Time is Here” that reduces grown men to tears?)

  
  
• [21] Winston Smith from Miniluv Rm 101 December 23, 2008 - 02:24PM

  NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! YOU DID IT

  
  
• [22] Elise from East Village December 23, 2008 - 02:24PM

  Last night I saw Jackie Hoffman at Joe's Pub... her opening Hanukkah medley included a sexy jazz version of "S'vivon Sov Sov Sov" and a musical theater ballad style version of "Maoz Tsur." It was absurd and hilarious. The show closed with "White Christmas" in Yiddish. She has completely rejuvenated Hanukkah music!

  
  
• [23] Liz from Brooklyn December 23, 2008 - 02:25PM

  I think it really depends on the quality of the Christmas music. It's so fun to find vintage Christmas records, jazz or bluegrass Christmas songs or just funny stuff. I hate Christmas muzack or Celine Dion crap! That's what turns my stomach all year long!

  
  
• [24] david from jersey city December 23, 2008 - 02:25PM

  Louis Armstrong's "'Zat You Santa Claus?" is the best Christmas song - evah! Def. good enough to play year round. You can put Miles' "Blue X-Mas" in there, too.

  Cheers to all you guys.

  
  
• [25] Sofia from East village December 23, 2008 - 02:25PM

  My family drives to Boston every Christmas Eve, and I always insist on 106.7 lite FM, even though it's awful...it has christmas music on all the time.

  I love the music from the Grinch, can we hear some of that?

  
  
• [26] Dennis from UWS December 23, 2008 - 02:27PM

  I LOVE Christmas music, but when I walk into Starbucks the day after Halloween and hear Silent Night, I want to shoot the Barrister. Please, there should be a law, punishable by death, that Christmas music cannot be played in commercial settings until after Thanksgiving ... at the EARLIEST!

  Thank you,

  Dennis

  
  
• [27] Kelly from NJ December 23, 2008 - 02:27PM

  I love obscure Christmas songs and I listen to Jon Solomon's 24-hour marathon every Christmas Eve on Princeton's WPRB. No where else have I heard The 12 Days of Christmas by the cast of Twin Peaks or all the Christmas songs The Fall ever recorded.

  
  
• [28] Anina from the village December 23, 2008 - 02:27PM

  HATE THEM HATE THEM HATE THEM, except for "Merry Christmas from the Family" (Robert Earl Keen), Xmas in Prison (John Prine) and my friend Dave's hilarious Banana Boat Xmas (I'll sing it if you twist my arm). The most surprising place I head canned Xmas music was a few days ago, blaring from a housing project's mysterious speakers on Wyckoff St in Brooklyn. The most annoying place was a mostly bluegrass jam I go to in Manhattan. What a dissapointment.

  
  
• [29] Deborah Foster from Morristown, NJ December 23, 2008 - 02:27PM

  I love Christmas music, but am also just about finished with the cheesy, overplayed so called popular ones. I took my 19 yr old son to the Endodontist to have this 4 wisdom teeth pulled out this morning and a cheesy overplayed very limited selection of Christmas music was playing in the recovery room. I can bet it had a weird effect on his psyche as he came out of the anesthesia.

  
  
• [30] sarah December 23, 2008 - 02:27PM

  a Christmas without Tom Waits' "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis" is no Christmas at all.

  
  
• [31] jennifer from brooklyn December 23, 2008 - 02:28PM

  My husband is a pharmacist at a major chain and has been subjected to Christmas music 12 hr/day for 14 days a month during the holiday season! And he doesn't celebrate Christmas. It's horrible music and worse than the usual lite FM that he is forced to listen to during the off-holiday season. Make it stop! (I'm writing on behalf of him b/c he's driving and listening to your show right now).

  
  
• [32] Dan from Kearny, NJ December 23, 2008 - 02:28PM

  If you have music playing while haviong sex, you tend to 'do it' in rythm with the music. Christmas music should NOT be played at that time...it's either too slow, or too fast.

  
  
• [33] Scott from Manhattan December 23, 2008 - 02:29PM

  I worked retail in college and they had the same 90 minute loop of Christmas music that played from Thanksgiving until Christmas eve. In a 10 hour shift I heard each song 6 or 7 times. I listened to the same songs over 100 times.

  I still have nightmares.

  
  
• [34] Caryn Lombardo from New York, NY December 23, 2008 - 02:29PM

  OH NO. You didn't. You just played the Trans-Siberian Orchestra? Ouch.

  OK - I worked retail, and one holiday season in the Tower Records classical department, a regular daily staff torture was holiday music for handbells - a brilliantly compiled Harmonia Mundi classic, bordering on plucking out fingernails. BUT I developed a skill of tuning out all things in my listening periphery.

  Until last year, when my sister said that she loved the dang Charlie Brown Christmas album. Clearly, she didn't have to hear that 2x a day for three 4-week shopping seasons in a row, starting the day after Thanksgiving. I know of nothing as bad as that one.

  
  
• [35] Marielle from Brooklyn December 23, 2008 - 02:29PM

  This show today is HILARIOUS! One of the best editions of Soundcheck to date.

  
  
• [36] Sofia from East village December 23, 2008 - 02:30PM

  How about Player's Ball by Outkast?

  
  
• [37] Maggie from NYC December 23, 2008 - 02:33PM

  most inappropriate place for christmas music - on hold for the IRS. 15 minutes of Trans Serbian like music while trying to get approval for my extension to pay 2007 taxes. Bad enought to think about taxes before holiday but worse to be stuck listening until a representative can serve your needs.

  
  
• [38] Josh Grzyb from Bellingham, WA December 23, 2008 - 02:34PM

  good show today, but just wanted to let you know that I have the same last name as "dr. christmas", and it's pronounced:

  "Grizb" (not "Gra-Zib" as was online......although I've heard it all, same as the Dr. I'm sure!)

  Grzyb is the word 'mushroom' in Polish

  
  
• [39] Emily from Albany, temporarily December 23, 2008 - 02:34PM

  Is no one else troubled to the core by "The Christmas Shoes?" I mean "Let It Snow" is annoying in large doses, but my-mama's-dying-so-needs-shoes-to-wear-when-she-meets-Jesus is in a whole 'nother realm...

  
  
• [40] Yvette from Westchester, NY December 23, 2008 - 02:35PM

  Loved listening to Chris Botti's "December" CD while baking cookies alone late at night! Ah...the quiet and peace. Everyone asleep and just beautiful music - not so much wallpaper, but more a mood setter and inspiration for what I'm doing. Also love the classical choral music and jazz versions rather than the junk pop. Good music is good music, no matter what genre. However, we all have a saturation point. "The Nutcracker" is beautiful music, but even that gets old if you get an overdose of it! Moderation and variety are essential - just as all things in life!

  
  
• [41] Soundcheck producer Joel Meyer from WNYC December 23, 2008 - 02:35PM

  SARAH - RE: #30 Have you seen this video of Tom Waits doing "Christmas Card?" Must-see!

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12qBoy2rhVw

  
  
• [42] Soundcheck producer Joel Meyer from WNYC December 23, 2008 - 02:37PM

  DAN RE: #32. Thanks for sharing. (Er, I think.)

  
  
• [43] Mike Cesarano, Asst Prof of Theatre and Media from Westbury, NY December 23, 2008 - 02:37PM

  I love Christmas music but like so many other forms of creative expression, you have to weed through the garbage to get to the tiny percentage of it that is good. So it's a quantity vs. quality question for me. I go for quality; more is not necessarily better.

  A little gift for you:

  https://www.yousendit.com/download/TTZsZ28rK3g4NVhIRGc9PQ

  It's a Christmas mashup of 19 versions of Jingle Bells I made. How many versions can you recognize? Enjoy!

  
  
• [44] Gerry Grzyb (Dr. Christmas) from Oshkosh, Wisconsin December 23, 2008 - 02:41PM

  First, my chancellor would want you to know that I'm at University of Wisconsin OSHKOSH, not to be confused with the flagship campus at Madison.

  Second, if you want to hear a portion of America's most musically diverse Christmas music radio program (featuring over 150 CDs in 7 days), give our streaming audio a try at the link WNYC has provided, 1 - 8 PM CST. To see what I've played and will play, you can get to my program's webpage by clicking on Christmas Programming on the lefthand side of WRST's homepage. You'll also find a link to my roundup review of 150 CDs--beating by 50 the one just published by USA Today.

  Merry Christmas, New York--we're sending more Upper Midwest snow your way!

  
  
• [45] Soundcheck producer Joel Meyer from WNYC December 23, 2008 - 02:41PM

  ANINA #28 -- Wow. For the rest of you, here's the first verse of John Prine's "Christmas in Prison"

  It was christmas in prison

  And the food was real good

  We had turkey and pistols

  Carved out of wood

  And I dream of her always

  Even when I dont dream

  Her names on my tongue

  And her bloods in my stream.

  Chorus:

  Wait awhile eternity

  Old mother natures got nothing on me

  Come to me

  Run to me

  Come to me, now

  Were rolling

  My sweetheart

  Were flowing

  By god!

  
  
• [46] danielle from upper west side - the suburbs December 23, 2008 - 02:42PM

  can someone tell me the name of joel myers xmas cd of the year. john played alittle of it - sounded kind of like beastie boy rap. thanks.

  
  
• [47] Soundcheck producer Joel Meyer from WNYC December 23, 2008 - 02:48PM

  RE: Mike #43 -- That's awesome! You must have heard our CD Picks of the Year segment: expert mash-up producer Girl Talk made the grade with his latest, "Feed the Animals." A good refuge, if you're dodging Xmas music this year. But be prepared to run into loops of Rick Derringer and Shawty Lo.

  http://www.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/episodes/2008/12/23/segments/119346

  
  
• [48] Soundcheck producer Joel Meyer from WNYC December 23, 2008 - 02:53PM

  RE: DANIELLE, #46 My CD pick of the year is the album “Feed the Animals” by Girl Talk.

  You can download it here, under a “pay what you wish” system:

  http://74.124.198.47/illegal-art.net/__girl__talk___feed__the__anima.ls___/

  It's also available as a CD from retailers.

  FYI: Here’s an interview we did with Gregg Gillis, a.k.a. Girl Talk, a few months back:

  http://www.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/episodes/2008/10/08/segments/111720

  
  
• [49] Soundcheck producer Joel Meyer from WNYC December 23, 2008 - 02:59PM

  RE: WINSTON, #21. We couldn't resist!

  
  
• [50] mary from suffern, ny December 23, 2008 - 07:12PM

  I like obscure Christmas music, probably because newness is refreshing. For the past few years I've really looked forward to hearing "Christmas in the Trenches". It's about the Christmas Eve during WWI when English and German soldiers put down their weapons and had an impromptu celebration on the battlefield. Of course, the war continued with daylight. It's really very touching. This is a link to it, although I prefer to hear Robbie O'Connell sing it on the Celtic Christmas C.D.

  +http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9coPzDx6tA

  
  
• [51] Soledad Robledo from santiago January 03, 2009 - 02:51PM

  I do think smackdowns are so entertaining!

  But this edition focused on repetition which is certainly horrible not matter what music your talking about.