I Can Give You What You Want

Jerry Nutter “The Twelve Days Of Christmas” – In this adaptation of the holiday standard, sound artist Jerry Nutter replaces the usual french hens, maids-a-milking and fiiiiiiiiiive gooooooooooolden riiiiiiiiiiings with an announcer shilling products from some vintage radio broadcast. (ie, “A three year supply of Libby’s frozen fruits and vegetables!”) The result is amusing, if a bit tedious. By the sixth verse, it gets to feel like an endurance test, but that’s well within the spirit of the holiday for many of us. This is a selection from Stay Free‘s The Best & Worst Of Xmas 2004 compilation, which is only available as a bonus gift if you buy a subscription to the magazine during this holiday season. (Click here to order it from Stay Free.)

New Young Pony Club “Ice Cream” – If I were to describe this song, you’d probably want to skip it since it wouldn’t sound much different from every other middling post-punk/electroclash single to come along since 2002, but you’ve just got to trust me that this one is a) a cut above the rest and b) not quite so typical in spite of its style and arrangement. Too many of the post-DFA/Kitty-Yo bandwagon jumpers end up sounding too oppressive and cold for my taste, but New Young Pony Club are good enough to keep it fun and visceral while maintaining the requisite pose of aloofness.