Harkpodcast

This week, we made the ill-advised decision to theme an episode around Armed Forces Day! The strangeness of "Snoopy's Christmas" by The Royal Guardsmen is somewhat overwhelmed by nostalgia, but we have no such fond attachments to "Christmas in Fallujah" by Cass Dillon. Thanks to Chris and Matt* for the request!

This week, we're going back to basics. No gimmicks, no conspiracy theories, just straight-up rock 'n roll. An anonymous request leaves RJ and Ian pondering a pair of somewhat sleepy indie-rock songs: "It's a Lonely Christmas" by The Charters and "Come on Santa" by The Raveonettes. We discover a novel way to improve the latter, but find the former mostly unsalvageable.

In honor of the Kentucky Derby (and in the interest of listening to at least ONE good song to re-calibrate our sensibilities), we discuss two horse-themed Christmas tunes. "Sleigh Ride" by The Ronettes is a refreshing treat with way more horse stuff than we remembered. "Hang An Ornament" by Grandaddy and Band of Horses is a bit more meandering in comparison, but still pretty impressive for a band composed of literal horses.

We lose a joke into the ether, discuss the fate of the project after we die in the post-podcast future, and reveal STARTLING new information that will change the holiday romcom world... forever. What does Administrative Professionals Day and two Christmas novelty songs from the UK have to do with all this? We're connecting the dots this week. Wake up, sheeple. Thanks to Russell for the request!

4/20 nice nice nice it's the fucking weed day man fuck This week we listened to "Be Claus I Got High" by Bob Rivers and "I'll Be Stoned for Christmas" by Dent May. Did you think we were out of weed holiday songs after last year? We are not even out of weed holiday songs *by Bob Rivers*.

We're typically more of a Santa show (on the Santa/Jesus Christmas spectrum) but this week to celebrate Easter we discuss two modern religious Christmas songs. As far as that description goes, we could have done much worse, but we still end up scratching our heads as we discuss "Mary Did You Know" by Pentatonix and "Who Would Imagine a King" by Whitney Houston. Thanks to Dylan for the request!

We get back into some Hanukkah music just in time for Passover, covering two modern takes on a traditional song - "Ma'oz Tsur/Rock of Ages" by folk musician Julie Silver and "Ma'oz Tzur" by bossa nova band Nossa Bossa Nova.

In what could barely pass as an April Fool's Day themed episode, we cover two versions of "Santa Baby" because fuck it this holiday is the worst. We come to Taylor Swift's version by way of an anonymous request, but including Michael Buble's version is our own damn fault. Things get a little rough for RJ.

An innocuous anonymous request uncovers Ian's deep-seated bias against a popular band - The Killers. We discuss two of their many Christmas originals - "Great Big Sled" and "Don't Shoot Me Santa" - and come to divergent conclusions.

As we await spring here in Canada, we take a week to recognize our friends who are right now moving into autumn. Two Australian holiday songs come to us by anonymous request: "How To Make Gravy" by Paul Kelly and "White Wine in the Sun" by Tim Minchin.

It's International Women's Day, and so we're doing songs about Mrs. Claus, goddammit. Santa's often-nameless wife gets a sort-of kind-of feminist anthem in "Mrs. Santa Claus" by Angela Lansbury. Then there's "Mrs. Santa Claus" by R Kelly. Guess what that one's about. Thanks again to Andy for the requests!

This week we cover some punk rock by request: "I'm Getting Pissed for Christmas" by Peter and the Test Tube Babies and "Oi to the World" by The Vandals. Thanks to cs2-6 for the requests! We had a technical issue while recording and Ian did his best to fix it, but the audio quality is a bit off on this episode. Apologies, angels!

Ian and RJ celebrate Mardi Gras the only way they know how: talking about Christmas music. Specifically, New Orleans themed Christmas music: "Christmas in New Orleans" by Louis Armstrong and "Santa's Second Line" by New Birth Brass Band.

This week we listen to selections for Black History Month, covering Billie Holiday's 1937 recording of "I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm" and the 1973 single by father-daughter team Akim and Teddy Vann, "Santa Claus Is a Black Man".

We keep knocking out requests with two songs for Valentine's Day! "Santa Forever" by Mia Crosby and "Dear Santa" by Girls Generation both implore Father Christmas to help solve romantic troubles - though one song pretty explicitly seeks matchmaking services while the other is asking for, I don't know, cheer? Who knows, but the costumes are amazing.

In our third straight week of covering requests, we tackle a recent Christmas original, "No Snowmen in LA" by Ms. Maura and the Misters. And since the Superbowl approaches, we make a tenuous sports connection, pairing it with a song we like MUCH less about a city we like much more: "Merry Merry Merry Frickin' Christmas (World Champion Red Sox Anthem)" by Frickin' A.

We joke a lot about not knowing anything regarding music on this here music podcast. This week, we take a request that has us analyzing another medium we're not particularly qualified to talk about: TV! Hear what we had to say about "California Christmastime" performed by the cast of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and "That's What Christmas is For" performed by the cast of Community, plus our unpopular opinions about some other beloved/not-beloved shows.

This week, we get back to requests and cover two very different songs about the haves and/or the have-nots - "No Christmas in Kentucky" by Phil Ochs and "Toy Jackpot" by Blackalicious. Thanks again to Benito for the request!

This week on HARK, we cover a pairing of songs that we've had in mind for one hundred episodes - cover versions of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" and "Wonderful Christmastime" by two bands that make us talk about high school again, The Polyphonic Spree and The Shins.

After some travel mishaps and a busy holiday season, we finally sat down to record this week's episode of HARK - with our family/friends, Emma Holliday & Ian Burnette! You may remember Emma and E from their fabulous parody episode of our show, "Hey You Over There" - in this episode, we talk with them about two satirical songs from "A Colbert Christmas", and also the nature of comedy, and Christmas, and maybe capitalism? Thanks again to Emma and E for being on the show, and also for letting us record with their microphone in their apartment so that there could be a new episode sort-of kind-of on time this week!