In honor of the High Holy Days, we’re covering two Hanukkah songs this week! Both of our selections come from the album Hanukkah+ – a fresh, hip compilation from 2019 featuring some of our long-time favorite bands and artists. Or, well… one of our long-time favorite bands (Yo La Tengo with “Eight Candles”) and also an artist that we definitely don’t not like but who even can tell (Adam Green with “Dreidels of Fire”).
Our ranking music this week is “Jessica” by Adam Green.
This week, for reasons, we’re listening to some songs about sex and butts: “All I Want for XXXmas” by Slayyyter feat. Ayesha Erotica and “Christmas Butt” by Puss n Boots. FYI, we really earn that explicit tag on this one! And also, for an episode that’s mostly about sexual Christmas music, there’s a weird bummer section in the middle? Hey, thanks for listening.
This week’s ranking music is, in fact, “WAP” by Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion.
This week on HARK: two requests from 19X7, possibly requested in 20X7! We are digging into some old, old requests and wind up listening to two songs that feel very representative of their respective decades. “It Must Have Been Love (Christmas for the Broken Hearted)” by Roxette feels so 80s for a song that didn’t reach its peak until the 80s were (arguably) over, while “Christmas” by Blues Traveller is the kind of song you probably couldn’t get away with writing after 1997 unless you’re Phish (also, Phish did kind of write this song).
Our ranking music this week is “Hook” by Blues Traveller.
Thank you to Mindy and paulsebert for these requests!
It’s World Elephant Day, and for unrelated reasons, we’re covering some listener requests! We’re transported to the 00’s by “Christmas for Two” by Sixpence None the Richer, while it takes a moment for us to find our footing in “O Holy Night” as performed by Charlie Rich.
Our ranking music this week is “There She Goes” by Sixpence None the Richer.
For this week’s HARK, we return to a request that we split up earlier in the year. Listener Tim requested Yogi Yorgesson and paired it with “Reindeer” by Swedish band The Knife, for a tenuous Sweden theme. This week, we’re honoring the spirit of that request by pairing “Reindeer” with a song by another Swedish artist: “Correspondence: Silent Night” by Annika Norlin.
This week’s ranking music is “iPod X-Mas” by one of Norlin’s other projects, Hello Saferide.
It’s that time of year again! Time for BIRTHDAY BOY’S CHOICE! As per tradition, Ian is given license to choose whatever songs he wants to listen to this week, and also as per tradition, he chooses some weird bullshit. Revisit some earworms from his youth with us: “Tennessee Christmas” as performed by Lee Greenwood and “Our Love Is Like a Holiday” by Michael Bolton.
Our ranking music this episode is “Christmas in L.A. (Yippee Ki Yay)” by Marian Call.
This episode of HARK is here just in time for Canada Day (in our time zone, anyway), and we’re listening to some Canadian content by request! “First Christmas” by Stan Rogers is up first, and we find ourselves unprepared. But we quickly get back into our groove by dissing Michael Bublé’s rendition of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”.
Our ranking music this week is “Exiles Among You” by The Weakerthans.
Thank you to Joe, Carl, and Dave for these requests!
The solstice fast approaches, and we’re marking it with two seasonal songs! Er, sort of. The real theme of this episode is “Not Winter Wonderland” – “Winter Wonder Land” by Animal Collective is just a boldly named original, while “Summer Wonderland” by Ronan Keating is a southern hemisphere re-write of the classic.
Our ranking music this week is “White Wine In the Sun” by Tim Minchin.
This week, we cover a listener request that may be a ploy to get us to talk about musical theatre again – just in time for the Tony Awards (if, you know, those were happening)! “Holly Jolly Christmas” as performed by Idina Menzel is a pretty good rendition of a pretty bland Christmas song, while “Silver Bells” as performed by Kristin Chenoweth offers an unexpected new flavor.
Thank you Philip (and Olaf) for these requests!
Our ranking music this week is “Christmas Bells” by the cast of RENT.
If you can, please take a moment to donate to one of these bail funds. You will not only be supporting protesters standing up against racist state violence, but potentially saving lives by keeping people out of US prison facilities where COVID-19 has been allowed to flourish.
In this episode, we’re talking about two holiday songs themed around the color red! …sort of! …for Pentecost, I guess! “Wrapped In Red” by Kelly Clarkson gives us an excuse to talk about Love Actually, again, so it’s hard to fault it for that. Whereas “Red-Suited Superman” by Rod Stewart gives us an excuse to talk about Rod Stewart, for the very first time!
The ranking music in this episode is “Christmas Is All Around” by Billy Mack.
