Today I ran across this:

I waited with great anticipation for Not So Silent Night: Christmas with REO Speedwagon because I thought “this is it, this is gonna rock the Yuletide.” But there are lessons in all of life’s experiences, and REO Speedwagon taught me that there is only so much you can do with “Silent Night.” But did they have to include that darn “Little Drummer Boy”? Sheesh!

First, do people seriously anticipate anything from REO Speedwagon in 2010? This is so hard to imagine. “Can’t Fight this Feeling” is 25 years in the rear view mirror, and songwriter/guitarist Gary Richrath left the band in 1989.

REO fan Bob Eiter leads into this by writing:

It’s not that I hate Christmas music, there are songs that I actually like very much (“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!,” and “Sleigh Ride.”). Even that old standard, “Jingle Bells,” is welcome this time of year.

But as with cover songs of all genres, I like to hear them updated, brought into the current decade, or at least the current century. One way to refresh old tunes is switch genre completely—reggae those “Jingle Bells,” zydeco that “Blue Christmas.” I’ve given up on a Me-First and the Gimme Gimmes Christmas release (but at least I’ve got Jonny’s Bar Mitzvah).

He anticipated REO Speedwagon bringing Christmas music into the current decade or current decade – 0 for 2 – but his desire for contemporary Christmas songs is one I’ve thought about. I collect Christmas music, and I’ve had mixed feelings about the relative lack of rock Christmas songs in my collection. I get the desire to have a music made for you and your generation (we’ll put aside the whole REO issue). Part of my interest in electronic music today is rooted in an interest in music that reflects the technological world we live in now. Still, I’ve preferred older Christmas music – or modern versions that sound old – because it’s a holiday that’s steeped in tradition and nostalgia. Older music seems more in keeping, and rock versions often have an underlying anxiety about seeming uncool. Spirituals and songs about Santa are rarely classically cool.

But a friend felt challenged by my yearly Christmas disc (this year leaning heavily on R&B and rare groove) to make one of his own, and though it has the Monsters of College Rock – Mojo Nixon, Dash Rip Rock and Rev. Horton Heat – it’s not as self-conscious as I expected. Dash’s “Christmas in El Paso” was clear-eyed and sentimental, but the Young Fresh Fellows’ version of “O Come All Ye Faithful” reminds me why I find Christmas music fascinating. They motor the song along like good power pop, and it’s only dated by an oddly big, distorted guitar. Scott McCaughey sings it without any particular piety; in fact, he sings it as if it were a song about a girl, a baseball team (he is part of the Baseball Project) or anything else that would catch his lyrical fancy. As a Christmas song, it lacks the evocative quality I look for, but I’m entertained by how it reveals the band as a pop machine that could take almost anything and make it sound like Saturday night.