Hey, so I’ve finally finished this years Xmas CD! Very indie this year, sorry pop punk fans… Enjoy!
Download it by clicking the cover art (pretty chuffed with that too!) ;)
Tracklisting:
1. Christmas Party (Feat. Nicole Sheahan) – The Walkmen
2. Christmas Isn’t Christmas – The Boy Least Likely To
3. Got Something For You – Best Coast & Wavves
4. Christmas TV – Slow Club
5. Kindle A Flame In Her Heart – Los Campesinos
6. iPod Xmas – Hello Saferide
7. It’s Christmas – Coconut Records
8. Christmas Is Only Good – Of Montreal
9. Electronic Santa – Blazer Force
10. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – The Raveonettes
11. All I Want For Christmas – The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
12. Xmas Song – Fireflies
13. We Come Back – Local Natives
14. Snowflakes – Evangelicals
15. Christmas Eve For Two – Summer Fiction
16. Just Like Christmas – Fanfarlo
17. Blue Christmas – Bright Eyes
18. Lo, How A Rose E’re Blooming – Feist
19. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – She & Him
20. No Christmas For Me – Zee Avi
21. My Dear Aquaintance (A Happy New Year) – Regina Spektor
If that’s not quite enough Xmas-ness for you then here’s another song. Recorded last Xmas by a load of artists from This Is Not Revolution Rock Records including members of Hold Your Horse Is, Tellison and Our Lost Infantry, among others. You can download it from Itunes and all the proceeds go to the charity Shelter, so go download it!
Ok, so after many sleepless nights and after more pain than when I got hit in the chest by a police baton on thursday, blog soon to come , I’ve finally finished my xmas cd for this year, phew! I hope you like it! If you don’t I will shoot you in the back of the head with a bb gun when you’re not looking! I’m also pretty chuffed with my artwork You can just play it by clicking play below, you can download the whole thing by clicking the artwork or you download the individual songs by right clicking them etc.
Also for some comedy Christmas songs, Amateur Transplants have released a Christmas album called “Have Yourself A Sweary Little Christmas” which is hilarious. you can buy it from their online shop or on Itunes. They’ve made videos to a few of the songs and put them up on Youtube. Here’s one of my favourites:
I’m an atheist and I fucking love Christmas! I’m not ashamed to say that, and why should I be? Why should I be ashamed to love Christmas lights and decorations, Christmas music, family, friends, presents, big meals, Christmas TV, playing in the snow and all the other great things about this time of year? I think most people are aware that the birth of Jesus has very little to do with Christmas these days. (Side note: I live a couple miles from a village called Bethlehem!) As much as I enjoy pointing out to Christians that Christmas is actually a pagan festival, as is Easter too , it’s really neither of those anymore it’s very much a secular thing for most people I feel, if anything it’s a capitalist festival!
Anyway as I start thinking about what presents to get people and think about where to put the Christmas tree, it’s nice to get in a Christmassy mood with some Christmas music. As well as the traditional Christmas music, there is so much great alternative and rock Christmas music out there. One thing I’ve started doing over the last couple years is making my own alternative Christmas mix CD and sharing them with friends. I think it’s about time I got round to making this year’s one so look out for it in the next week or so, but for now here are my first 2 Christmas mixes available for you to download, just click on the cheesy artwork ;-)
1. It’s Christmas (And I Hate You) – Josh Weller & Paloma Faith
2. Christmas Song – Weezer
3. All I Want For Christmas Is You – My Chemical Romance
4. Yule Shoot Your Eye Out – Fall Out Boy
5. Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End) – The Darkness
6. Happy Xmas – Street Drum Corps. Feat Bert McKracken
7. Oi To The World – No Doubt
8. I’ll Be Home For Christmas – Matchbook Romance
9. Frosty The Snowman – Less Than Jake
10. It’s Christmas So We’ll Stop – Frightened Rabbit
11. Little Drummer Boy – The Dandy Warhols
12. White Christmas – Zakk Wylde
13. Christmas Eve – Teenage Fanclub
14. I Want An Alien For Christmas – Fountains Of Wayne
15. I Won’t Be Home For Christmas – Blink 182
16. Ex Miss – New Found Glory
17. 12/23/95 – Jimmy Eat World
18. Christmas At The Zoo – The Flaming Lips
19. In Like A Lion (Always Winter) – Relient K
20. Is This Christmas – The Wombats
21 Christmas Is Awesome – Reuben
1. What’s This? – Jack Skelington
2. Mistress For Christmas – AC/DC
3. I’ll Be Home For Christmas (Feat. Lita Ford) – Twisted Sister
4. Santa’s Got A Mullet – Nerf Herder
5. Snoopy’s Christmas – Goober & The Peas
6. Don’t Shoot Me Santa – The Killers
7. I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Claus – Stand Still
8. Last Christmas – Jimmy Eat World
9. Come On Santa – The Raveonettes
10. Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight) – Asobi Seksu
11. When I Get Home For Christmas – Snow Patrol
12. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Death Cab For Cutie
13. Christmas Eve, Driving Home – Frontier Ruckus
14. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus – The Thrills
15. Goodbye England (Covered In Snow) – Laura Marling
16. It’s Christmas and I Can’t Find You A Present – Josh Weller & The Arctic Circle Ensemble & The Puffin Voices
17. Are You Coming Over For Christmas – Belle & Sebastian
18. Xmas Prison Blues – Seasick Steve & The Level Devils
19. Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis – Tom Waits
20. Baby It’s Cold Outside – Leon Redbone & Zooey Deschanel
21. White Wine In The Sun – Tim Minchin
And to finish, my favourite Christmas song and video ever!
On Friday, after coming back from Swansea having launched Swansea SitP the night before, I found on my pillow a little red new testament… How did the Gideons find their way into my house?! Of course I knew it wasn’t the Gideons sneaking in like ninjas but in fact my little sister and her sense of humour!
She is 11 years old and like me an Atheist. She came to this on her own, neither I nor my parents have ever forced Atheism on her, never told her that there is no God. We just simply smiled and said “ooh that’s nice” when she would come home from school telling us about Jesus. It doesn’t take much for a child to come this realisation other than simply a lack of religiosity at home. I myself came to it fairly young, I suppose about 8 years old. My sister I think was maybe 9 or 10 when she told me “Raymond, I don’t think there’s a god. It’s just silly.” I loved this moment, my sister put it perfectly “it’s just silly”. To believe in these ridiculous things is just silly. I’m not denying that it’s hard for some to see through this when they have been brought up in the religion, certainly not, it must be a very hard thing to do. But when you look at the kind of things religion asks you to believe without the weight of indoctrination and family ties the ridiculousness of it becomes all too clear.
I’ve had some very funny comments from my little sister that have given me an insight back into that world of primary school. She once told me how when they were about to sings some hymns her friend asked the teacher “Why do I have to sing? I don’t believe in God” to which the teacher simply replied “It’s nice to sing along”. I love the confidence of youth sometimes, they really do ask some piercing questions. I wonder how many teachers who are atheists have to get kids to sing carols and say prayers? It is absurd to me that there should be an act of Christian religious observance in schools. Forgetting for a moment that religion and education should be separate, it is simply divisive in today’s multicultural society.
Another funny comment, which had me in tears, was last month when she was telling me about her friend who was getting confirmed “she’s being accepted into the church or something, you know where they have the wine and cheese or something” brilliant!
She’s told me of her R.E. lessons at school and her developing understanding of terms such as atheist and agnostic. I always enjoy hearing about this and discussing with her things such as how you can be both atheist and agnostic, she particularly liked learning Russell’s teapot argument!
And so I come to her latest comment of “Have you been up to your room?” which she said with a giggle. This led to me discussing with her my memories of when the Gideons came to my school and handed out little red books. I remember people using them as footballs! She was telling me how the Gideons had said “They can help you in tough times, when you need some guidance” to which she said “No they can’t!” Aside from her funny little story of it, when I hear of the Gideons saying “They can help you in tough times” it makes my skin crawl. Religion is always preying on the weak and vulnerable. As the Stewart Lee joke goes “My tragic and ultimately fatal addiction to various forms of lethal and illegal class A drugs has helped me to overcome my previous dependence on Born-Again Christianity!”. There is also the issue of why exactly do Gideons have the privilege of coming into schools, handing out new testaments and preaching to the kids? I don’t know of any other religion that has this huge privilege. I might see if I can go and hand out copies of The God Delusion (not that I have the money too) and put across just some of the arguments against religion or perhaps give a talk about what humanism is…
RT @marcuschown: I did not have sex with that woman - Bill Clinton. Would I lie to you? - Tony Blair. The NHS is safe in my hands - Davi ... 9 hours ago
, I’ve finally finished my xmas cd for this year, phew! I hope you like it! If you don’t I will shoot you in the back of the head with a bb gun when you’re not looking! I’m also pretty chuffed with my artwork 
