Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Tuesday, 21 December 2010

"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" - She & Him duet with Conan O'Brien

You may or not be aware of She & Him, the band comprised of folk musician M Ward and Zooey Deschanel - the gorgeous one from Elf, Yes Man, 500 Days of Summer etc. They make gentle, warm acoustic folk music where simplicity is the buzz word.



There's a lot of crap spouted about She & Him. Overly twee, sickeningly sweet, forced, are just a few of the judgements passed on them and their music. Poor Zooey draws a lot of the abuse as well from snobbish indie types who say she embodies a fake idea of what an "indie" girl in "indie" films and "indie" music is, due to the roles she picks and because she's so doe-eyed, stop dead in your tracks beautiful.

But I think those kind of insults and such totally miss the point and show an inability for snobbish indie types to let their guards down and just enjoy music that is simple, sweet, heartfelt and organic. And in this festive season, She & Him have allowed their wonderfully disarming sweetness to shine through in a private duet of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" which they performed with US talk show host Conan O'Brien in his dressing room when they visited his show.

The performance is sweet, open, cosy, friendly, warm and Christmassy. I just wanted to share it in the hope of injecting some warm Christmas cheer into your day :) It makes me feel like I'm watching Elf all over again...

Summer Camp - "Christmas Wrapping"



First of all, sorry it's been a good while since my last post! A mixture of end of year business and laziness has been responsible I'm afraid. I'd been planning a run of Christmas related posts and it's a bit more short notice and slap-dash than I'd have liked sadly, but oh well. Onwards!

Summer Camp have quietly grown into one of my favourite new acts of 2010, and they haven't even released an album yet. Their song "Veronica Sawyer" kicked off my Top 20 Tracks of 2010, and it's the perfect showcase for their echoey, melancholy yet heartwarmingly twee indie-pop. Now they've recorded a cover of The Waitresses' mildly popular festive hit "Christmas Wrapping" as part of a Moshi Moshi Christmas compilation entitled A Christmas Gift For You - available for purchase here.

It's fairly faithful to the original but has definitely been reworked with their trademark bouncy synth mannerisms, with chiming Christmas synths that sound just like the ones in "Last Christmas". Elizabeth Sankey's vocal delivery is as warm and natural as ever. The whole thing feels like warm cuddles with the one you love by the fire, under the mistletoe, wearing ghastly Christmas jumpers but not really caring because, hey, it's Christmas.

Click here to download it on Pitchfork. Hopefully should have a few more Christmas posts over the next couple of days!