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Discovered this Belgian band via the Facebook page Cool Christmas Songs. This is from their 2007 album Stars on the Wall, which you can download from Amazon. They appear to be a power-pop ensemble, and while this sounds a little dour, the lyrics are a bit on the optimistic side. Don't know what eventually happened to the girl who keeled over after biting into the enchanted pizza, though....

Here's a sprightly pair of gifts from the ex-Talking Heads couple, available only from their site as MP3s back in 2002, with no indication they'll ever be back. UPDATE: The two songs, along with two additional remixes of "Club," are on an import-only EP called, strangely enough, Mistletunes! Anway, "Club" is a dance-floor stomper with vocorder alternating with Tina Weymouth's singing. "Il Est Né" is more languid and melodious, with synth and cello counterpoint. A traditional tune, the title means "He Is Born" or "See Him Born," depending on whose automatic Internet translation you believe.

This 2006 single comes from Hipjoint Productions, the Canadian production/promotion house that works with such folks as Katie Melua, Shiloh, Kelly Rowland, Daniel Powter and others. There's no artist credits for this thing, other than a press release that states the performance is "led by our own Mike James and the Hipjoint staff." A Nettwerk page for Troy Samson gives the song as one of his compositions, and that's pretty much all I can find out. Nevertheless, it's a strong acoustic/electric pop-rocker, with guitar figures reminiscent of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)." Lyrically, it's all about those signposts that tell you it's the holiday season. UPDATE: In an odd twist, this record has been reissued for 2011 with the artist changed to The Young Goulets and the record label from Nettwerk to Hipjoint. To my ears it's the same record, remixed, after a/b'ing the sample on Amazon against my original copy. Click the cover art to download the current version from Amazon.

This Wisconsin parody band mashes up the best of the Beatles and Metallica on their previous albums, and for 2009 snuck out this four-song EP in which they Metallicize "Wonderful Christmastime" and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" for your heavy metal delectation. Two other songs on the EP are "Hella Day (For Holiday)" and "Heretic," the band's first completely original tunes, the former a Christmas tune, the latter not. Both are far more Tallica than Beat, so let that guide your purchasing decisions.

We've briefly mentioned this Beatles tribute band in the past, as their "Joy To the World" based on "Please Please Me" has turned up in movies and on TV. (And we also noted the Fab Four had done nearly the same exact thing.) What amazes me is that it's taken me this long to get their full album from 2005 to the site. Apparently, the group had needed several years to put together an LP's worth of tunes together, as the members live in far-flung locales. As per the liner notes, they recorded batches of this in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2005. Aside from the one coincidence noted above, The Butties have nothing to worry about concerning their originality, even given the existence of previous works in this vein like the Fab Four and the Rubber Band's now-hard-to-find Xmas! The Beatmas! "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" meets "Twist and Shout," "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" is rendered as "Can't Buy Me Love," they do "O Little Town of Bethlehem" once as "In My Life" and again as a medley with three other carols all set as the various movements of "Happiness Is a Warm Gun." Another highlight is the "Sgt. Pepper" reprise and "A Day in the Life" done as a medley of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" and "Up on the Housetop." Once more, I have to restrain myself from spoiling all the surprises. You can get this as hardcopy from CDBaby or from iTunes by clicking on the album cover. By the way, you might not be surprised to find that two of the Butties are with the Blanks, the band that appeared on "Scrubs" singing commercial jingles a capella.

This popular alt-country-rock band put together a nice holiday ballad for 2007, which I just stumbled over on the way to tracking this year's holiday singles. It's heavy on the jingle bells and light on the country, good news for Mistletunes listeners.

From 2009, this St. Louis group marshaled eight originals and three not-often-chosen covers for this holiday collection. Of the covers, Paul Kelly's "How To Make Gravy" has a touch of country, not surprising since it's about a guy in prison; "One Special Gift," from Low's iconic 90s collection, is a complete slow-motion homage to that band; and "Once Upon a Christmas" has an ethereal intro before moving into a rock style not quite in the mold of its author, Dolly Parton. On to the originals: the title song is a nice midtempo rocker that sets the scene, "Big Man Under the Tree" pokes gentle fun at old Kris Kringle as he gets into the liquor cabinet and fiddles with Mom's panty hose, "This Silent Night" compares holiday dreams to reality and finds reality lacking, "Christmas One More Time" is a "Bobby McGee"-styled duet about screwing up the gumption to celebrate one more holiday, "Santa's Last Stop" is a kind of "last call" ballad for the holiday, and "Happiest New Year" closes things out with a string band symphony and one arm around a lover. It's a fairly mellow collection, but it has its moments.

These folks have all the buzz of the season this year because of their Hyundai ads in which they perform either "Jingle Bells" or "Up On the Housetop." Needless to say, these songs aren't available anywhere unless you're happy listening to the 30 or so seconds available via the car ads, and since Hyundai doesn't have a blog affiliate program, I can't be bothered. UPDATE: Stubby's Christmas proves us wrong again, although you need to take part in an elaborate Christmas charity donation in order to get a 5-song Christmas EP featuring all the songs mentioned here plus a version of "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy." For now, what is generally available, and free from the band's website, is a download of the ancient carol mentioned in the title as done by this quirky pop chamber orchestra. They also have a video of this, as well as their original Christmas song, "Always In the Season," which also isn't available other than via the video. Enjoy.

MC Lars previously addressed the Christmas season with "Gary the Green-Nosed Reindeer," an uproarious hip-hop-influenced takeoff on Rudolph, and for 2008 he (and Jaret Reddick) came out with this, a similar kind of humorous take on the holiday, only this time the green isn't just for contrast, it's all about Santa battling climate change while delivering on everybody's holiday wishes. Great number, part of an EP that includes three non-holiday tunes as well.

Stumbled over this lately, a 2008 EP of punk rock Christmas verities, mostly original except for "Good King Wenceslas," short and to the point. This British band has its roots in the original 70s punk revolution, continued into the 1980s and reformed in 2006, grinding out a prolific number of albums and EPs over both stretches of their career. The songs here are mostly snarky and irreverent, in keeping with the style, and there's a nearly obligatory "F*&k Christmas," but everything is well played, and if you need a song with this collection's title or one called "Punk Rock Christmas Song" for your mix discs, here's where you'll turn. For those of you interested in occasion-based music for other holidays, their latest album is Helloween.

A contemplative folky ballad for 2009 from this Scottish band about braving the title weather event to get to a Christmas celebration, with a downbeat ending. They were giving it away last year, but the link I discovered only lets you stream it now, so it's off to the download stores we go. Nice work. I came across a reference to a "holiday version" of the song "My Maudlin Career," so if anybody has any info on that, drop the site a line or leave a comment.

This was out in 2009 and the band, an Atlanta group that identifies as "Christian crunk rock," toured behind it that year and is set to emphasize this disc on a string of dates this December as well. This is a bunch of white guys playing hip-hop who do a decent job of it, while leaving the Parental Advisory sticker behind as well. There's not much in the way of rapping, other than on "The Night Before Christmas," which is a good vehicle for that sort of thing. Otherwise, this is all singing, lots of vocal distortion and auto-tune carrying the mostly familiar carols over some contemporary beats. They even emulate the R'nB convention of doing "My Favorite Things" as a Christmas song. Two originals are part of the proceedings, the ballad "It's Christmas Day" and "The Baby," which has just a slight taste of "Gangsta's Paradise" about it musically, but I don't think there's any guessing about which baby they're singing about. They wrap up by contemporizing Sir Paul's "Wonderful Christmastime." Some rock fans find hip-hop material a bit monochromatic, but I have no problem recommending this, it's an excellent piece of work.

Brett is a YouTube sensation, having come to attention for his goofy videos featuring him playing such things as "Beat It," Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" and his famous Justin Timberlake medley on stylophone and keytar. The Michael Jackson cover even got him featured on "Britain's Got Talent." He did this extended single for 2008, featuring two original songs and a remix of the title song, which is a well-produced upbeat pop-rock tune featuring his nerdlinger vocals. The flip side is "Hello Mistletoe," a piano ballad that features an even nerdier "rap" in the middle. Catch him doing the title song here:

Following a tip for Vol. 2 led me to Vol. 1, and so we'll just wrap up both in this single post. There isn't much to choose between the two EPs, it's the same band two years apart following the same Christian alt-pop-rock framework. All the songs on both collections are religious Christmas songs except "Little Drummer Boy" from Vol. 1 and the original from Vol. 2, "The Earth Stood Still," which both focus on the Nativity story as well. Accordingly, the tone across both collections is serious and reverent, less celebratory than anticipatory, and no lighter moments. But this is strong rock-flavored work from a musical standpoint. Vol 1 is from 2008 and Vol. 2 is new for 2010.

Another vinyl single from 2009 now available from iTunes. Damaged Goods is a punk/alternative label in England, and Piney Gir takes the alt-country approach to music. This song is a bit more vaudeville, with woodwinds taking the lead, and lyrics that are Christmas-agnostic, though they address the universal feelings of longing, belonging and caring for others that are a hallmark of most Christmas songs. The two tunes on the B-side are the old standard "I Wanna Be Like You" and a vocal / instrumental, "Brady's Bluff," non-holiday. They also have some holiday tunes on XO For the Holidays Vol. 3 as well.

Rumblefish is a music licensing company, and this 2007 collection features indie artists they've contracted to have their music placed in video productions, TV shows, and so on. It's fairly listenable in an eclectic alt-indie way. Things kick off with "Christmas on the Moon" by Slink Moss Explosion, a country-inflected rocker about actually celebrating on the moon. Mike Schmid offers "Full House," a midtempo reflection on having all the relatives and friends over that will fit. Hot Tin Roof's "A Christmas Wish" rocks things up nicely, and then Josh Jesty does a mash-up style arrangement of "Silent Night" in which the typical slow rendition is dressed up with various bits of electronic soundscaping. "I Saw Three Ships" gets a folk-rock arrangement from Rye Hollow, and "We Three Kings" is done in an electro-pop arrangement by Heathersong. Jeff Saltzman does a spaghetti-Western instrumental version of "Jingle Bells," and then Supersuckers rock the house with "Call It Christmas Time," and Ron Rogers and Deborah Giles go 60s pop with "Hey Santa Claus." Trashcan Joe caps things off with a novelty, a bunch of little kids telling Santa to "Bring Me Some Bling."

Three British songwriters collaborated to write and produce this perfectly enjoyable 70s-sounding holiday song for 2009. The Stars are Mike Read, Elliot Frisby and Roy Wood -- yes, the author of "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day," going for the Christmas market one more time, this time in service to the Shooting Star Children's Hospice, for which this single was released as a fund-raiser. I couldn't get my hands on it last year, but it appears to have migrated to the usual download sites this year. While Roy isn't singing lead on this, you can hear a little of his musical approach in the arrangement. Elliot Frisby solos on the B-side's acoustic ballad "Christmas Day."

I went looking for this thinking it was going to be some kind of Star Trek-related novelty (yes, I know the "true" fans like to be called "Trekkers"; in my world a Trekky is somebody who insists on being called a Trekker) but no, Trekky is a record label of indy folk-pop-rockers based in Chapel Hill, N.C., and this is a Christmas record made by what appears to have been the label's entire roster as of this album's 2006 release. It's 12 familiar songs and carols done in a sort of chamber-pop setting with a few inventive touches to the arrangements and a certain spontaneity of performance. It's not bad, but there's not much in the way of rock 'n roll attitude here, other than a nicely rocked-up version of Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You." If I had to do the Venn diagram, I'd put Bright Eyes to one side, Polyphonic Spree to the other, and overlay these guys a little toward the Bright Eyes side. A visit to the website shows that the Orchestra plays gigs in the label's hometown region at Christmas time, so this album does serve as a souvenir for the folks who encounter them live.

This bunch of retro-rockers from Wurstville, UK, put out this single in 2009, a Sixties-style instrumental called "Black Santa" and a strong cover of Bob Seger's "Sock It To Me Santa." They shout more than sing on both sides of the record, but that's by no means a bad thing.

This popped up while I was searching for something else entirely. There are two bands called The Refreshments; this one is from Sweden and is probably less known in the USA, though they have a connection to the much-loved Rockpile in that Billy Bremner produced two albums for them and actually played in the band for a while. They also backed Rockpiler Dave Edmunds on a live album. There is no relationship to the other band by the same name from Arizona that recorded the theme to "King of the Hill." For those of you who think Sweden = Abba, this is a hard-working pub-rock band with a taste for honky-tonk, and they put out this full Christmas album in 2003. It's mostly standard rock and country tunes like "Run Rudolph Run," "Santa Claus Is Back In Town," "Blue Christmas," "Jingle Bell Rock," "Pretty Paper," "White Christmas," adding Mickey Jupp"s "It's Not Christmas In My House" and Jerry Lee Lewis' "I Can't Have a Merry Christmas" to the roster of covers. No surprises in style given the previous description, and indeed the Jerry Lee tune is done just the way he would have. But band member Joakim Arnell wrote some originals for this outing, including the shuffling title song, the Chuck Berry-inspired "I'm the Real Santa," the mildly Bo Diddley-like "The Billy Goat" that throws in a bit of fiddle on the chorus, and the fully countrified midtempo ballad "The Time I Needed You the Most." Good stuff, rather like the Tractors' work. Just noticed before I hit the publish button on this piece that the album has been reissued for 2010 with a different array of songs, including "Christmas Wishes" (title song for the new collection), "X-mas Race," "What A Merry Christmas This Could Be,""Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy," "Merry X-Mas Everybody," "Christmas Must Be Tonight," "She's In Love WIth Santa," and "Santa's Gonna Rock." Missing from the new collection are "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," "Pretty Paper," and "It's Not Christmas (In My House)." Also lurking about is a single from 2007 with "Silent Night" and "On Christmas Day."

I had this 2009 EP last year and completely forgot about it until now. A nice midtempo ballad of love 'n thanksgiving, presented in full-band and acoustic arrangements along with acoustic versions of six songs previously released by the band. You can choose to download just the version you like, as I believe this was a digital-only release.

Hailing from Rochester, N.Y., these guys keep the early-60s rock band flame burning on these two almost perfect Christmas songs from a 2009 single. The A-side, "Christmas Lights," is an uptempo pop rocker with a Crickets-like sound about getting ready for the holiday and "What Christmas Time Means To Me" is a surf band workout. This was a vinyl single and is near the end of its availability, according to the band, though they point folks to a European source.

This was a free download in 2009 and seems to have migrated to file-sharing sites since (thanks to Martin Johns for hooking me up). The catch was that, as in many cases lately, you had to join the online fan club to get the link. What you got was five standard carols, one acoustic guitar and one voice, performing "O Come Emanuel," "Silent Night," "Noel," "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "Away In a Manger." A bit of a departure for a band known for leading its songs with piano, as they did with their 2006 live cover of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)." Performances are fine if a bit unremarkable. The official link has gone away, but who knows, this might become available again some way or other.

This son of a preacher man and surfer boy put together this soulful little holiday strut for 2009, a self-penned tune as near as I can tell. It's got a nice little midtempo lilt and Jason sings it like he learned it in church.

The 80s icon and sometime DJ in the modern age layered the classic carol over a combination of dancehall and ska with a nice corny jazz trumpet playing through the whole song. If "Karma Chameleon" still features in your iPod's playlist, you'll want this 2009 song. It's on an EP with two non-holiday tunes, but you've got the option to just download this song.

I'm remiss in getting this 2009 tune to you from this Tempe, Ariz. pop-rock band, a sharp uptempo rocker led by piano and strong vocals with a great lyrical sentiment. I just dug this out of my out-of-control iTunes playlist and I'm loving it all over again. At the same time I found this, I also found this band's "Dream of Christmas," a nice ballad from 2008. I'll have to watch to see if these guys plan to make a habit of doing Christmas singles. (While checking up on them, I saw they recently did a cover of "Paper Planes" by M.I.A. as well, currently on their MySpace playlist. Not Christmas of course, but I like it when rock bands cover hip-hop tunes.)

This Liverpool punk-thrash band put this out there for 2009, and there's not much to say after describing the band -- this goes by at the speed of sound, a minute and a half of cynical sentiment about the holiday. You can listen to it on their MySpace page, and they even link you to a free download from the blog page. So go crazy.

The self-described jazz-psychedelic-rap act from Seattle put this EP out for Christmas 2009. It's just six songs, none over two minutes, and they use their influences to deconstruct a handful of Christmas readymades, from "The Christmas Song" to Sir Paul's carol on "Simply Cracking." It's an interesting melange of influences -- in addition to their own self-description, they throw in a bit of soundtrack and showtune influence, all frosted with a bit of garage electropop. The title song is fully original, kind of cute, and it could have been part of the Flaming Lips' movie "Christmas On Mars." It's all pretty experimental, but since it's so short it avoids the main pitfall of this kind of music -- it doesn't wear out its welcome. You can stream it and download a couple of the cuts from this link.

This band was one of the mainstays of the old album-oriented rock radio format right up through the 80s, when they managed to steal a march on progress by offering one of the first rock concert albums for home video -- an achievement that got them early and frequent play on the original MTV. You know, the one that used to play music videos.... OK, tired old joke deployed, onto the latter-day REO, whose sound hasn't changed much from their early 80s salad days, judging from their 2009 Christmas album. This collection follows a typical holiday blueprint for classic-rock-era bands, consisting mainly of old standby carols played with that 70s-era crunch, though cleaned up with a little 80s studio sheen. The only non-traditional song on the album is a version of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," one that, unfortunately, is heavy on the drama and light on the rock. Not to be too negative, however, the album starts with a brief slice of "The First Noel" that segues quickly into a blues-boogie take on "Winter Wonderland," and "Deck the Halls" rocks things up nicely, though I could have done without the kids-on-Christmas-morning intro to that one. The semi-title song "Silent Night" gets a slow gospel treatment, and they go back to church for "Children Go Where I Send Thee" in a faster tempo. Considering this band had a hits compilation called The Ballads, fans of that approach will enjoy "The White Snows of Winter," "I'll Be Home For Christmas," and, for that matter, a slower and more dramatic "Little Drummer Boy." They take the country approach to "Blue Christmas" and end on an up note with "Joy to the World." REO fans should be ecstatic, and classic rock fans will find much to like here. UPDATE: Reissued for 2010 with three additional songs, "Sleigh Ride," "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" and "I Believe in Santa Claus." Amazon is offering both versions side by side for now, so if you want the additional songs you want the red cover, not the blue shown above. They even offer the new one with a Yule Log DVD, which appears to be the latest trend at Sony Music as I've seen a couple of other of their Christmas albums so packaged.

Sheryl's been to the holiday well before with a few tunes in the Very Special Christmas series, but this full album is all new, though she revisits "Blue Christmas" here in a bluesier version than the Very Special performance and does a studio version of "Merry Christmas Baby" as opposed to the live performance she shared with Eric Clapton. As this endeavor was commissioned by Hallmark for 2008, it stands to reason that this is going to be something that regular Hallmark store customers would be comfortable with, but Crow manages to avoid going too middle of the road here, falling back on blues and soul readymades in a lot of cases, even recasting "O Holy Night" as an R'nB showstopper. "Go Tell It On the Mountain" gets the requisite gospel treatment, though "I'll Be Home For Christmas" and "There Is a Star That Shines Tonight" are definitely for the Hallmark crowd. After you bring a copy of this home, you can download "Hello My Friend Hello," which may or may not be a Sheryl original but is another mellow Christmas ballad. I would have preferred a little more like her version of "Run Rudolph Run" from VSC, but I understand why that wasn't likely. UPDATE: This album is back in the racks for 2010 at Target with a different cover, and "Hello My Friend Hello" is promoted to the new disc's track listing.