MY KIND OF CHRISTMAS MUSIC: Being Santa

This was supposed to be all about The Dollyrots.

You see, even though Kelly and Luis formed the Dollyrots during the administration of H.W., I became acquainted with them about two years ago.  Their cheerfully agressive form of what I like to call 'power pop punk' really helped me through a traumatic year, and being in touch with them via Twitter--maybe the first celebrities I communicated with on that social medium--elevated my mood as I navigated some real horror.

Perhaps their biggest hit is 'Because I'm Awesome,' an ode to self-confidence that is as peppy and uplifting as anything on the pop scene (hell, I'd say it aces out that Lego Movie song something fierce).  With crunchy guitar riffs and Kelly's growly vocals, it never fails to elevate my spirits.  Hell, most of their work does so.

...and Kelly and Luis love them some Christmas.  But usually, amidst all the baking of homemade brownies (made available to fans), they have made a tradition of releasing a Christmas single every year.  It's usually a typically pop-punked-up cover of a Christmas fave...but for 2012, they decided to adapt 'Because I'm Awesome' for the Yuletide...and it is glorious.

Not only is it glorious, it is available on a name-you-price through Bandcamp as part of their Mini-Christmas Album, which includes a bunch of covers and such interesting originals as 'I Saw Mommy Biting Santa Claus.'

I'm a sucker for POV songs--there's a reason two of my favorite Bond themes are those that are written explicitly from a character's POV (Chris Cornell's 'You Know My Name' and Garbage's 'The World Is Not Enough')--and there's something joyous and...for a moments...kinda creepy about Kelly's voyage inside Santa's mind.  And it retains the original song's earwormy nature.  It's not just a rocking song, it's one that celebrates Christmas' biggest brand without appearing saccharine.

(Incidentally, this year's Christmas single is a cover of my absolute favorite Christmas song of all time, 'Fairytale of New York,' which is also available on a name-your-price basis.

Now this would have been enough if I just put that wonderful piece of work here and walked away.  But I stumbled across this when I went looking for a video to accompany the Dollyrots song....

This is Psychostick's 'Zombie Santa,' a Yuletided up version of Rob Zombie's Dragula (a song I used to shred on when I was doing karaoke shows).  These Chicago-by-way-of-Tempe boys take the same tack as the Dollyrots--giving Santa an 'I am' song--and ratchets up the creep factor.  We're not even halfway through the number when our metalled-out Santa is boasting of being a dictator abusing his slave labor force.  And those little additions make some of the boilerplate admissions come across as skeevy--not just that 'sees you when you're sleeping/knows when you're awake' thing, but the simple 'have you been a good/bad girl/boy this year?' kinda sounds like this Santa isn't asking about whether you helped old ladies across the street and ate all your vegetables.

I love both of these songs.  They take the same idea--adapt an already extant song to be a Santa Claus POV--but go in different directions.  And they both manage to make you pause when considering that 'Jolly Ol' Elf.'

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