Holiday Special with John Roderick, Jonathan Coulton, The Polyphonic Spree, and MBMBaM

Episode notes

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Gift Giving with The AV Club: Tarantino XX and Rediscover Jigsaw PuzzlesJosh Modell and Andrea Battleground from The Onion’s AV Club join us this week with some holiday gift ideas. Josh recommends Tarantino XX, a 10-disc, Blu-ray collection of several of Tarantino’s most loved films. Andrea suggests picking up one of the Rediscover jigsaw puzzles of your gift recipient’s favorite album covers.

(Embed or Share The AV Club’s Gift Guide)

John Roderick, Jonathan Coulton, and a Wunnerful ChristmasJohn Roderick and Jonathan Coulton each carved his own warm, authentic, relatable space in the indie rock scene, and their sounds and aesthetics are complementary enough to make a collaboration welcome and exciting. That the collaboration comes in the form of a Christmas album is unexpected, but the end result, One Christmas at a Time, is a fun and charming exploration of familiar holiday themes — from coping with drunk uncles to the one ultimate childhood gift. Roderick and Coulton join us this week to discuss their first meeting, the challenge inherent in capturing the feelings and emotions of the holiday season while maintaining secular points of view, and why celebrating Christmas in Los Angeles is contemptible.

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Cockney Accents, Gift Cards, and Christmas Music with My Brother, My Brother and Me Navigating the holidays can be a treacherous task; between divining proper party etiquette, appropriately selecting gifts for your loved ones, and just coping with all of the little things that spring up around this time of the year, you’re probably aching for some guidance right about now. Fortunately, an ace team of (terrible) advice-giving brothers joins us this week to set us straight.

If you’re hungry for more wisdom, seek out Justin McElroy, Travis McElroy, and Griffin McElroy’s podcast My Brother, My Brother and Me on MaximumFun.org or in the iTunes store.

(Embed or Share Holiday Advice from MBMBaM)

Tim DeLaughter on The Polyphonic Spree’s Holiday ExperimentThe choral symphonic band The Polyphonic Spree’s new album, Holidaydream: Sounds of the Holidays started out as an experiment — what happens when you take The Polyphonic Spree’s ethereal, angelic sound and apply it to holiday favorites? The Polyphonic Spree’s lead singer Tim DeLaughter joins Bullseye contributor Daniel Ralston to explore this question, the role of spectacle in the act, and DeLaughter’s experience collaborating with his young son on the record.

Daniel Ralston is a co-host, producer and editor of The Low Times Podcast.

(Embed or Share this interview with The Polyphonic Spree)

The Outshot: Donny Hathaway’s “This Christmas”Popular Christmas music can be pretty hit or miss, and a relatively small catalog of options combined with seasonal overexposure to the genre can make the hits seem few and far between. One Christmas pop song that never disappoints Jesse: Donny Hathaway’s “This Christmas”.

(Embed or Share The Outshot: “This Christmas”)