Here we have an offering from The Twang, which is not this The Twang, but rather the German (!!!) Pioneers of Countrification as they like to call themselves. Their albums are full of countrified hits, like “Seven Nation Army”, “Oops I Did It Again” or the dazzling “I Just Called to Say I Love You.”

The Twang – Last Christmas

This track is available off their amazingly named tour holiday e.p. “A Fistful of Presents” now available here

Genetic Sequence aka DJ Mattrick was kind enough to send us his version recently. He explains that he made “a heavy techstep version in 2003, opinions were polarised but I have to say on the whole, people were into it.” So are we Matt! Visit his many sites and check out his many other projects and wish him a hearty “merry Christmas!”

Genetic Sequence – Last Christmas

Strap in, here we go:

We received this version the day after we ended our postings last year, so we didn’t get to add it to the count until now. It was brand new when it was sent to us, so it’s had a year to mature and here’s what we think…it’s great! You could probably call this pop and dance, though those terms aren’t mutually exclusive.

As far as we know, this is the only place you can find it! EXCLUSIVE


Cloud9 – Last Christmas xMix



This is a brand new cover for the ’07 season by Ms. Swift. I think she’s considered “country” at her day job, but her version doesn’t have that twang we’ve come associate with country music (there is a little violin (fiddle?) toward the end). It does sound country in it’s vastness though, if that makes sense.

This is found on her Target exclusive Sounds of the Season cd, which it appears you can only get in store. It’s only $6.99 though.


Taylor Swift – Last Christmas



Oh you’ve been so patient with us. We should have hunted further last year to bring this to you. Mr. Movtosky makes accordion based music…that’s right! Polka! It’s nothing new in terms of structure but just imagine all of George Michael’s vocals replaced with an accordion. He gets the Magical Snowflake Award for being the only accordion version we’ve found so far. Way to go Valentin! You can find this on his album Golden Accordion Vol.1 on itunes with ABBA and Celine Dion covers while his volume 2 album boasts covers by Berlin, Lionel Richie, and more Wham!



Valentin Movtosky – Last Christmas



Our first video pick was Pete Doherty singing Last Christmas acoustic(!) but embedding is disabled on that video.

So you get this instead:

For the past few years, the Parenthetical Girls have released Holiday EPs, the first of which had a pretty awesome version of “Last Christmas.” (This year’s EP has a track called “Last Christmas part 2,” but they say it’s related to the original only by name, so we’re not going to post it.) At the Parenthetical Girls site, you can find a few more Christmas gems and songs from their other releases as well. I’m not sure how to best describe how engaging their music is, so I’ll let Pitchfork help me out: “Xiu Xiu fans hungry for the new nervousness would do well to seek out the work of … Zac Pennington’s Parenthetical Girls, for a strong dose of panic-pop.” Panic pop? Ok, sounds good to me.

Well, we had the great pleasure to see the Parenthetical Girls when they came through town a month or so ago. Lead singer Zac Pennington took a minute and talked to us about his version and his love for holiday music in general, and then somehow we convinced him to give us a hand with today’s reviews. He got a good day, too; all today’s tracks are Magical Snowflake Award winners!