So we all know that Christmas is a time for joy, a time for giving, and a time for giving, but sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's about avoiding your family at literally any cost, because suddenly you've come back from your first semester at Wesleyan and you've done acid a bunch of times and are now a communist and you recognize your uncle's small roofing business as THE BASTION OF CAPITALIST EXPLOITATION THAT IT IS. Or maybe you just are hung over because you went to the bar last night and got too drunk because you have nothing to talk to your high school friends about anymore. Whatever. The point is, if you don't really want to be paying attention to your family, we dug around and found three projects that might make your Christmas a little bit more bearable.Sweet Valley - JenovaTrue fact: Nathan Williams of Wavves is in a production duo along with his brother Kynan, and they're actually super fucking rad—dubby, hip-hoppy, smoked-out and fun in all the right ways. Out of nowhere they decided to release a Christmas mixtape, and it's weird and kind of perfect.Optimal Familial Excuse: "MOM, GET OUT OF MY ROOM THAT'S JUST A LAMP I PROMISE NO IT DOESN'T SMELL LIKE POT IT'S JUST INCENSE MERRY CHRISTMAS."Troy Ave - White ChristmasTroy Ave really went for it with this one in terms of the whole "Holiday-Themed Rap Mixtape" thing, way more than the dude Mr. MFN eXquire did last year. For one he called his tape White Christmas, which is pretty hard considering Troy essentially makes nails-hard coke rap, and then he enlisted DJ Holiday of "Holiday SEEEEEEASON!" fame to host the tape, and capped it off by singing an endearingly off-kilter version of "White Christmas" for the tape's intro. In case you were wondering how real he was, Troy got Pusha T and N.O.R.E. to guest on this, and those guys don't just show up for anybody. "Concrete Jungle," the aforementioned Pusha collaboration, contains the line, "I got red bottoms too, mine's from murders." Which, just, damn.Optimal Familial Excuse: "POWDERRRRRR"XLR8R's Top Downloads Of 2012XLR8R just posted a .zip file of their 100 most-downloaded tracks of the year, and XLR8R is great and benevolent and kind, and if you want to know what you missed from good, progressive electronic music this year, this is probably the easiest way to catch up without going to that one weird record store in DUMBO and spending like four hundred bucks on twelve-inches from England.Optimal Famililal Excuse: "Sorry Dad, I'm a robot now.In closing, Merry Christmas, y'all. Listen to music. Give someone a hug. And after you're done listening to this stuff, actually talk to your family. They're cool, probably.
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