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Four (Christmas Songs) for Friday

I say four, but since Christmas is about giving, I’m choosing to [give more] than the usual amount. Needless to say, this is Christmas music in the key of Chino.

Sleeping at Last – Christmas Is All Around // Do you remember the movie Love Actually? Of course you do.

Seryn – Go Tell It On The Mountain (feat. Mark Apel) // Some Seryn nearly made it on my “Best Of’s.” Love what they have done here.

Beta Radio – The Song the Season Brings // “Ring your bell now / Hear the swell now / The Christ is come a child our king!”

Andrew Belle – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas // I’m not really a huge fan of this song in its original form, but somehow Belle makes is sound so good.

The Civil Wars – O Come, O Come, Emmanuel // One of my favorite Christmas songs sung by one of my current favorites.

Quiet Company – O Holy Night // I should mention that several of these songs come from Fuel/Friends’ 2011 Midnight Clear December Mix that my good friend Bryan made me aware of.

Red Mountain Church – What Child Is This? // Goodness.

Sufjan Stevens – Silent Night (with Bryce and Aaron Dessner of The National and Richard Parry of Arcade Fire) // No Christmas is complete without Sufjan. Add some The National and Arcade Fire and it is enough to make your head explode.

Should you desire all the songs in a handy .zip file, HERE it is.

Merry Christmas!

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Four for Saturday?

Ok, so sort of slacking around here.  What else is new?  Here’s your songs.

Mumford & Sons – Unfinished Business (White Lies Cover)

Ugly Casanova – Here’s to Now

First Aid Kit – Tiger Mountain Peasant Song (Fleet Foxes Cover)

Sufjan Stevens – Heirloom

Happy Weekend!

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Four (Random Things) for Friday

Ok, while I know each of you looks to this weekly post for the very best in music, I’m making a slight departure from my normal routine.  Instead of four of the finest for your listening enjoyment, I’m putting up four things that I found interesting this week.

Here goes…

1)  dalton ghetti – This stuff is pretty fascinating.  I spoke this week on the intimate nature of God’s creative work.  I think these photos capture that idea some.

2) “Man Crisis” – Kind of hard to top the pencil art, but saw this video a few days ago and after a string of posts on man-stuff, this one sort of slapped me in the face.  I’m not buying everything he’s selling, but at least the video is well done.

3) 180° South – A good friend passed this doc/movie my way this week.  And given my love for mountains and such, they had me at “Patagonia.”

The idea is cool.  The story was a bit thin.  The message was simplistic, vapid, and blunt.  But the cinematography was incredible!  The whole time I’m watching, I’m thinking, “Who is the Bad A filming all this?”  I wasn’t even a little surprised when the credits rolled to discover that Jimmy Chin was one of the men behind the camera.  Oh yeah, and the soundtrack is slammin’ too.

4) Great Cover – For all you Journey fans out there (and honestly, who isn’t a Journey fan?), here is a cover of one of their all time classics.

Clem Snide – Faithfully (Journey Cover)

Bonus – I feel guilty for not giving you the goods on music, so here’s a little foretaste of what’s to come from good ol’ Sufjan Stevens.

Sufjan Stevens – I Walked

He just released an EP entitled All Delighted People.  So far, there are a couple of standouts for me.  This track is off a full-length album, The Age of Adz, that he’ll be releasing sometime this fall.

Happy weekend!