Harkpodcast

By request, this week we cover a kitschy tune from a 70's children's record - and then try to out-do it. "10,000 Santa Clauses (But Not One Gift For Me)" by The Caroleers is a strange delight, but it's in "Roly Poly the Polar Bear" by the Peppermint Kandy Kids that we discover a cool new friend. Thanks to Thom and our anonymous listener for requesting The Caroleers!

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, we're listening to holiday music about the Emerald Isle! Join us for "Christmas in Killarney" by Bing Crosby and "Christmas Hooley" by Declan Nerney, songs about which we feel just as ambivalent as we do about the whole dang holiday.

This week, we fall in and out of love with two songs that were totally new to us - "Christmas Love" by Martha Bass and "Love Is Christmas" by Sara Bareilles. Thank you to the anonymous listener who requested "Christmas Love"!

The Oscars are this weekend, so we're talking about Christmas songs from movies! Good songs, from good movies? Naaaaw. Grab your popcorn and listen in to our discussion of "Grinch 2000" by Busta Rhymes featuring Jim Carrey and "Ludacrismas" by Ludacris from the Fred Claus soundtrack. Correction: In this episode, we said that we did not choose from films that won Oscars, but How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) actually won an Academy Award for Best Makeup. Live and learn!

This week we cover a request for two animated holiday musical numbers! We delight in the Seussian turns of phrase in "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" performed by Thurl Ravenscroft and ponder the murky moral implications of "Oh, Santa!" performed by Larry the Cucumber and the cast of Veggie Tales.  RJ was a guest on the Book Club for Masochists podcast this week, check them out! Thank you to kiragecko for this week's requests!

It's Ash Wednesday! It's Valentine's Day! And possibly more relevant to this episode, it's International Condom Day! We listen to two Christmas songs about sex, a sub-genre of holiday music that runs deep enough to haunt us for the rest of our days. Enjoy our slightly extra-long, extra-spicy musings about "Dick In a Box" by Lonely Island featuring Justin Timberlake and "Not Tonight Santa" by Girls Aloud.

It's Family Day here in British Columbia! Grab your sister, your Aunt Marie, and your weird uncle, and listen to some high-spirited holiday music with us! We review and rank "Come On! Let's Boogey to the Elf Dance!" by Sufjan Stevens and "Latke Clan" by The Leevees, two somewhat eccentric songs that remind us of everything there is to love about the holidays.

This week we hear some songs from returning requesters! "Please Come Home For Christmas" as performed by The Eagles has us contradicting ourselves and each other, while "Til Santa's Gone (Milk and Cookies)" by Clint Black finds us unexpectedly in sync. Thank you to Dave and Mindy for these requests!

This week we cover two songs that force us to contemplate fear and desire, love and hatred - "'Zat You, Santa Claus?" by Louis Armstrong and "All I Want For Christmas Is You" as performed by Burnaby's own Michael Bublé. Our anonymous requester presents us with a puzzle - one song is beloved and one is despised. Which is which? Can we be sure? Can RJ get over their anti-Bublé bias long enough to figure it out? Find out! Thanks again to our anonymous requester!

Buckle up for a car-centric episode of HARK! By request, we listen to "Driving Home for Christmas" by Chris Rea and "Home for the Holidays" as performed by The Carpenters. We also dunk on a bunch of American states, PROBABLY unfairly, so uh, sorry. Thank you to lettinggosthehardestpart for the request!

It's Alexander Hamilton's birthday this week? And there are (at least) two Hanukkah-themed a capella Hamilton medleys available at a professional recording quality? Barack Obama endorsed one of them? So anyway, this week we're talking about "Hasmonean: A Hamilton Hanukkah" by The Maccabeats and "A Hamilton Chanukah" by Six13.

The twelve days of Christmas continue and in this episode, we celebrate Epiphany with two versions of "We Three Kings"! Pink Martini's rendition offers a smooth, fun take on this somber carol, while Patti Smith's version is completely grave.

For our final episode of the year, we're covering two 2017 songs by artists best known for their childhood work - in a sequel of sorts to one of our favorite episodes of HARK ever, we're talking about "Finally It's Christmas" by Hanson and "Christmas Memories" by Billy Gilman!

Happy holidays everyone! It's that time of year - time for a milestone episode in which Ian & RJ surprise each other with picks aiming for the top and bottom of the list! RJ's pick for the top offers a message of possibility in uncertain times, while Ian's pick for the bottom submits some extremely specious advice about dance partners. Here's the article that RJ mentioned about ranking versions of "This Christmas": http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/12/06/ranking_the_best_versions_of_donny_hathaway_s_this_christmas.html

Happy Hanukkah! This week we celebrate with two modern versions of a traditional Hanukkah song - "Hanukkah Oh Hanukkah" as performed by The Barenaked Ladies and Erran Baron Cohen. We recorded this episode from our hotel in Seattle, where we attended Podcon this past weekend!

We know not everyone is as keen on the holiday season as we are, and this episode goes out to them. This week we review two melancholy Christmas tunes - "Nothing Left to Do (Let's Make This Christmas Blue)" by The Both and "Things We Don't Need Anymore" by Jenny Owen Youngs. Thanks to the anonymous listener who requested these songs!

We take on two puppet-related requests this week and end up hitting the extremes of our list. "The Christmas Wish" by Kermit the Frog, arguably the greatest puppet of all time, delights us -- while "Christmas Tree" by Dustin the Turkey, an all-around troublesome audio-visual experience, dumbfounds us. Philip Lopez's amazing playlist of every song we've ever ranked is here! You can support HARK on Patreon!

Black Friday. Cyber Monday. Dragon Tuesday. Join us as we celebrate with songs worthy of this fabled holiday. We stare into the face of our own mortality with Dragon Tuesday founder John Darnielle's rendition of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and harken to an epic tale of bravery and righteousness with Gods of Fire's "The Quest For the Latke Oil".

We get back into some requests, covering two intriguing songs that were both released in 2016. "Joy" by Jeremih & Chance the Rapper is a deceptively simple jam that delivers some complex ideas, while "The Carol" by Loona is a sweet enough K-pop tune by a band that... only kind of exists? Thanks again to Quincy and anonymous for the requests! You can support HARK on Patreon!

We're back and we're celebrating RJ's birthday! For their birthday boi's choice, RJ has selected two songs themed around a Christmas standard that we've actually never covered on the show - the kind of thing they can get away with on their birthday. This year, to save us from tears, we listen to "Last Christmas" by Carly Rae Jepsen and "George and Andrew" by The Boy Least Likely To. And FYI: you can now support HARK on Patreon!