Tag Archives: Christmas

December 19, 2021 – Christmas Music Special

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Come on in everybody, and thanks for joining us on The Arcade’s 15th annual Christmas Music Special!

The M.O. for this show is to bring you music for the season you probably haven’t heard before. And boy howdy, do we deliver on that once again this year. Kicking off this year’s show is the Ludicrous Leadoffs, which are themed around internet humor and Christmas comedy. What falls into that category, you might ask? Well, Jon Lajoie for starters, followed by Garfunkel & Oates, the band My Dick out of Ohio, as well as a holiday assortment of audio treats from Homestar Runner. Looking to keep the good times rolling and bring a bit more energy to the party, we take a trip down to the Big Easy for a New Orleans Christmas which features some jazzy tunes, some Dixieland ditties, and the great “Satchmo” himself, Louis Armstrong. If you’ve listened to any of these music shows through the years, you’ll know that Mike and Dennis enjoy music on the heavier side of the spectrum. It shouldn’t surprise you then that this year’s Christmas show has some metal music offerings. Specifically, these are metal songs covering or inspired by classic Christmas movies. That isn’t the only group of darker holiday music we have for you as we also dig into the world of music from Christmas monster movies. Yes, it’s true, Christmas monster movies are totally a thing. Tune in to learn more!

As always, we encourage you to follow the links below to add these songs to your collection. We hope you enjoy this show, and we wish all of you out there a Merry Everything and Happy New Year!

What Was Played:
(click on the links below to listen)

Dennis’ Nickname:

The man who has to quickly mentally prepare for an in-person Christmas this year

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December 19, 2020 – 14th Annual Christmas Music Special

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Welcome one and welcome all to our 14th annual Christmas Music Special! Holiday traditions might be looking a bit different this year, but this is one that forges ahead.

As always, we here at The Arcade endeavor to bring you some Christmas music selections that you’ve probably never heard before, and this year is no different. We start this show with not one, not two, but three unique twists on the old Chipmunk song, Christmas Don’t Be Late. After that, we share a selection of songs that attempt to accurately capture the Christmas mood as it exists in 2020, this the year of the endless dumpster fire. That is to say, it’s Christmas music for when you’re just not feeling Christmas this year! If that brings you down a bit, don’t worry, because we’ll try and lift your spirits with some songs from across the pond in the UK. To close out this year’s show, we celebrate the 30th anniversary of a truly timeless Christmas movie, Home Alone. We’ll share a selection of songs composed by John Williams from some of the movie’s most memorable moments.

As always, we encourage you to follow the links below to add these songs to your collection. We hope you enjoy this show, and we wish all of you out there a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

What Was Played:
(click on the links to listen!)

Dennis’ Nickname:

The man who, for a change, is okay with how woefully underprepared for Christmas he is

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December 20/19 – January 3/20 – 13th Annual Christmas Music Special

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Welcome, one and all, to The Arcade’s 13th annual Christmas Music Special!  If you’re new to this kind of episode, well, it’s one of the special shows we do each year where we put together an assortment of holiday-themed music you won’t hear anywhere else.

Starting things off this year is the Ludicrous Leadoffs, (those Christmas songs that are just an extra special kind of special), which include selections from South Park, Futurama, Radio Free Vestibule, Spider-Man, and a rendition of Silent Night done entirely with goats!  From there, we go beyond the borders of North America to bring you some Christmas music from different corners of the globe, including Japan, Australia, Barbados, and more.  After a musical trip around the world, we come back home with some solid classic rock Christmas offerings from the likes of Foghat, Blues Magoos, Kenny Wayne Shepard, and Cheap Trick.  To round this year’s program, we pull a few highlights from the 1999 album, “I Wanna Be Santa Claus” by none other than Ringo Starr.  Somehow, we only became aware earlier this year that Ringo Starr had a Christmas album, and by gawd, we weren’t going to miss a chance to share it with you!

As always, we encourage you to follow the links below to purchase these songs for yourself and add them to your collection.  We hope you enjoy this show, and we wish all of you out there a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

What Was Played:
(click on the links to buy!)

Dennis’ Nickname:

The man who is glad that the Christmas season is able to sustain the Pot of Gold company for the rest of the year

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December 15-29, 2017 – 11th Annual Christmas Music Special

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Friends, the holiday season is now upon and what better way to celebrate than with our 11th annual Christmas Music Special.  It’s easy to get bored and tired of the same Christmas songs year in and year out, which why we’ve have our noses to the grindstone working hard to dig up some rare gems you won’t hear anywhere else.

On this year’s program, we turn to the world of video games for the first-time ever for some new seasonal favorites from Nights into Dreams, Super Mario 3D World, Blue Stinger, Sonic 3D Blast, Mario Kart 8, and Parasite Eve: The 3rd Birthday.  Yes, you read that right, music from a Parasite Eve game has found its way onto one of our Christmas specials.  From the new, modern art form of video games, we pivot and dabble in the art form of classic comedy from the National Lampoon.  After starting life as a successful comedy publication, the National Lampoon branched out and began a syndicated radio show in the 1970’s.  During its brief run, the National Lampoon Radio Hour gave us two Christmas specials, which we’ll share some of the best clips from.  Cold winter weather got you down?  Don’t frown, because we’ll be giving you warm vibes with a few reggae holiday songs from Yellowman.  Rounding out this year’s program, we turn the show into a drag queen Christmas, because yes, that’s totally a thing.  If you’ve watched any of RuPaul’s Drag Race, you’re likely already familiar with names such as Jackie Beat, Jinkx Monsoon, and Bob the Drag Queen.  But did you know a number of contestants from past seasons of Drag Race have come together to form the Christmas Queens?  And they have released a few, highly entertaining Christmas albums?  Don’t worry, we’ll fill you in on all that you’ve been missing.

As always, we encourage you to follow the iTunes links below to purchase these songs for yourself and add them to your collection.  We hope you this show as much as we’ve enjoyed putting it together, and we wish all of you out there a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

What Was Played:
(click on the links to buy!)

Dennis’ Nickname:

The Stocking Stuffer

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Dec. 16-Dec. 30, 2016 – 10th Annual Christmas Music Special

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Around this time of year, everybody has certain traditions that they look forward to and we here at The Arcade are no different, which is why we’re proud to present to you our 10th Annual Christmas Music Special.  Yes, you read that correctly, this is our tenth time doing a special show for the holidays and in all that time, our goal of bringing you Christmas music you’ve never heard before has never changed.  If anything, we’ve learned in these past ten years that the world of Christmas music is almost endless, and the amount we get exposed to each season represents only a small fraction of what’s out there.

As tradition dictates on these shows, we start off with the Ludicrous Leadoffs, those Christmas songs that are just an extra kind of special, and this year, we have Bill Murray and George Clooney crooning, a song about a zombie Christmas, and a ridiculous parody of the overplayed song Do They Know It’s Christmas.  From there, we go to a totally unique genre with dubstep covers of classic Christmas music, before showcasing something special for our friends of the Jewish faith with a collection of songs all about Hanukkah. We end off this year’s program by bookending our Halloween music show.  If you recall, that episode began with silly hip-hop songs which were lacking in street cred.  Well, on this show, we present seasonally-appropriate songs from hip-hop artists with immense street cred, such as Snoop Doggy Dogg, Busta Rhymes, and even Eazy-E himself.  Yes, Eazy-E did a Christmas song, and yes, it’s every bit as explicit as you think it might be.  You’ve been warned.

As always, we encourage you to follow the iTunes links below to purchase these songs for yourself and add them to your collection.  We hope you this show as much as we’ve enjoyed putting it together, and we wish all of you out there a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

What Was Played:
(click on the links to buy!)

Dennis’ Nickname:

The giver of presents, the taker of souls

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December 2, 2016

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Ludicrous Leadoffs:

News of the Week:

Dennis’ Nickname:

The man who succumb to the sweet siren song of a Black Friday sale

Blast From The Past:

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June 24, 2016 – E3 Wrap-up (Part 2)

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Friends, this week is part two of our E3 wrap-up where we focus on the other big news and noteworthy items to come out of last week’s event in Los Angeles.

News of the Week:

Dennis’ Nickname:

The man who is oddly enthralled by this Brexit vote

Blast From The Past:

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Dec. 18, 2015-Jan. 1, 2016 – 9th Annual Christmas Music Special

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Friends, it’s that time once again when we get in the festive spirit and bring you a bundle of Christmas cheer with our 9th Annual Christmas Music Special!  Year after year, too many of the same Christmas songs are played over and over again, which is why we’ve put together a great line-up of seasonal songs you won’t find anywhere else.  Did you know there are booty-call Christmas songs out there?  Well, we’ll play some from Steel Panther and RuPaul.  We’ll also revisit the Christmas episodes from some of your favourite 90’s cartoons with songs from Ren and Stimpy, Animaniacs, Dexter’s Lab, Goof Troop, and Bump In The Night.  The heavier side of the musical spectrum gets visited with songs focused on Krampus, but we’ll bring you back up with a selection of surf-pop Christmas ditties.  As always, we encourage you to follow the iTunes links below to purchase these songs for yourself.  So tune in, turn on, and enjoy a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays us here at The Arcade.

What Was Played:
(click on the links to buy!)

Dennis’ Nickname:

The Grinch

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December 19 & 26, 2014 – 8th Annual Christmas Music Special

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Friends, it’s time once again for us here at The Arcade to celebrate the holiday season in our own special way as we present to you our 8th annual Christmas Music Special!  On the show this year, we bring you four completely unique takes on the holiday favorite, Carol of the Bells.  We also have a group of songs from unlikely Christmas crooners that is sure to surprise you, as will our always popular Ludicrous Leadoffs.  To close out the show, we dug deep and unearthed Christmas instrumental covers of AC/DC, Green Day, and Metallica.  Oh yes, they exist, and they are tremendous.  Like all of our music specials, we encourage you to click the purchase links below and add these songs to your own music collection.  As an added gift to you this week, we have two movies as Blasts From The Past which are sure to cure any seasonal blues you might be suffering.  Listen, enjoy, and all the best to you and yours from us at The Arcade.

What Was Played:
(click on the links to buy!)

Dennis’ Nickname:

The frantic last minute holiday shopper

Blasts From The Past:

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November 7, 2014

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Ludicrous Leadoff:

News Of The Week:

Dennis’ Nickname:

The man who encourages all listeners to check out and support their local production of Evil Dead: The Musical

Blasts From The Past:

Also Worth A Look:

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