A cappella holiday music

December 10, 2003 10:29 AM

A Cappella Holiday is a refreshing alternative to the tired, workaday holiday fare that may be piped into your office. All holiday tunes, but all a cappella, with some real gems you've never heard before. If your ears have been malled by Muzak and it's making you anything but merry, this free, streaming radio station might be the tonic. (There's a non-holiday a cappella station too, if you're just fa-la-la'ed out.)
posted by bradlands (12 comments total)

wait...there are people who actually like this stuff?

/me boggles
posted by Stynxno at 10:42 AM on December 10, 2003

My brother loved the Din and Tonics when he was in law school. I just sent the link to him...thanks!
posted by OneSmartMonkey at 10:42 AM on December 10, 2003

A couple of years ago, when I was really poor, I put together an alternative Christmas CD for my family. It had an excellent mix of tunes and each and everyone of them loved it.

Christmas music doesn't HAVE to suck, but most of the mainstream stuff is just pure crap.

Though I do confess to loving Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby".
posted by fenriq at 10:46 AM on December 10, 2003

Offices pipe in music? I thought offices simply reverberated with the quite hum of computers and muted exchanges.
posted by the fire you left me at 11:00 AM on December 10, 2003

This is just the ticket. There's a local radio station that plays only Christmas music from just after Thanksgiving to just after New Year's Day. It's a dreadful pop station, so you'd expect the music to be bad, but the other day I was in the mood for Christmas, so I turned it on, and first there was Wham! doing something I'm glad I can't remember, and then Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers (I swear, I am not making this up), followed by Paul McCartney before they played that skull crushingly awful song about some kid who's buying his dying mom a pair of shoes for Christmas (hey, kid, ditch the shoes and score mom some morphine). That was all I could take. But this is good.
posted by anapestic at 12:01 PM on December 10, 2003

I'd check it out if I could without signing up for something.

Tit for tat:
Ben Folds' Christmas mix, available on the iTunes Music Store.
posted by emelenjr at 12:08 PM on December 10, 2003

I'd check it out if I could without signing up for something.

For what it's worth, I've never received a piece of e-mail I didn't ask for or been otherwise pestered by Live365 for signing up with the service.

If you're really dead set against creating a user account but still want to enjoy the a cappella goodness, I understand that A Cappella Always may soon be an "official" iTunes radio station as well.
posted by bradlands at 12:17 PM on December 10, 2003

Do offices actually exist that have music piped into them?
posted by jon_kill at 1:18 PM on December 10, 2003

See the mansions of the stars - valet elves are parking cars
reindeer strippers in the bars
It's Christmas in LA

When I fly down from San Francisco
I hear music in the air
a million car alarms are caroling - no one seems to care

Take this with a grain of salt - they've un-frozen Uncle Walt
don't know if it's Goofy's fault
It's Christmas in LA
The Bobs- Too Many Santas, weird 80's style a capella group.

See also http://www.bobs.com/Audio/MarchFanfare.mp3 for a soundbite. It was also my answering machine message for many years.

On a slightly less related note, see the Pogues.
posted by leapfrog at 1:40 PM on December 10, 2003

I understand that A Cappella Always may soon be an "official" iTunes radio station as well.

Well that's good, becase for the life of me I can't get this brand new OS X (10.3.1) machine to play the stream, in Safari or iTunes 4.1. Anyone else?
posted by Fofer at 8:51 PM on December 10, 2003

This is really nice! thanks!
posted by dreamling at 5:17 AM on December 11, 2003

As expected, it was announced yesterday that A Cappella Always is now among the iTunes radio stations, listed under the Holiday tab. That makes it easier than ever to enjoy its delicious vocal goodness.
posted by bradlands at 11:53 AM on December 12, 2003