HO HO WHO:

A CHRISTMAS CAROL: The song's title and opening lines had the Sleigher worried that the weird, witty Merritt was experiencing some unfortunately normal seasonal bliss, but the song quickly takes a turn for the perfectly strange: "Why sit in your dark and lonely room?/Must your every word be sincere?/Here's a vial of laughing-gas perfume/See that people laugh when you're near." Buh-wuh? Anyway, following that comes, according to the album's press notes, a "lusty chorus sung in German." The Sleigher finds it extremely lusty!

AN AMERICAN CAROL: Still, the Sleigher sometimes find himself pining for Magnetic Fields' synthier days—a thought that isn't entirely irrelevant to the subject of holiday songs. Take the group's early anthem "100,000 Fireflies," whose gorgeous, twinkly keys beg for yuletide use. Luckily, Merritt says his three-album moratorium on synthesizers is over following Realism's release. Boys, lock up your Korgs!

CHEER FACTOR: Tough call. Clearly, Merritt is thinking about the false grins we often don this time of year; he's also grinning pretty hard himself. 8/10.

LISTEN:

Good morning, y'all! Did you miss us yesterday? Bet you did! Especially the theater trolls! Top of the news pile this morning: According to the Student Press Law Center, the University of Maryland's Board of Regents opted to not make a constitution-violating anti-porn policy for the university. "The students couldn't be happier," Sarah Elfreth, the student rep on the board, told the SPLC. Good on the board, I say, and good on the students for defending what's important; free speech is the shit.

The one band everyone–save for me and NME–forgot to put on their best of the decade list, how to solve a Rubik's cube, more still on Dave Eggers' foray into newspapers, and more, after the jump.

- The "Best of the Decades" lists are EVERYWHERE. Here in the U.S., there's a lot of Brooklyn on these things. But in the U.K., where the taxes are higher and trust-fund rockers have to do more with less, the lists are also better. Why, just yesterday I was telling Ted Scheinman, "Someone should include Queens of the Stoneage's 'No One Knows' on a best of the decade list. It's timeless, even though it's like, seven years old." Lo and behold, NME includes the entirety of Songs for the Deaf on its 50 best albums of the decade. So, high-five, self! At least you're in touch with the Brits!

- Here's a step-by-step for solving a Rubik's cube.

- Hermione Hoby interviews Dave Eggers about that fancy ass newspaper he's putting out. It. Is. Surreal. On what newspapers do best: "Paper is a uniquely beautiful format, more so than the web, I think: you need to invest in the aesthetics. We're resurrecting practices from 100 years ago – like printing full-page comics. We want to give young people ways to engage with it, feel ownership of it." TRANSLATION: Make newspapers prettier, to hell with the costs! On how papers can survive: "[T]he main way they can continue to exist is to differentiate themselves as much as possible from the internet." TRANSLATION: Be slower, less amenable to correction, and more expensive, and everyone will love you!

- The new Call of Duty has sold twice as well as the last GTA game. I'm impressed.

OK, folks. Shorter roundup, I know, but it's Tuesday. I'll give you something big and fatty tomorrow.

NME reports that the Shins frontman is set to star in a feature-length film titled Some Days Are Better Than Others. Director Matt McCormick says the film's all about "lonely people trying to create their own abstract forms of communication." Sounds pretty heavy. It's slated for release in August 2009.

Over at MOG, Charley Rogulewski observes an uncanny resemblance between Mercer and Kevin Spacey. Shins biopic, anyone? I'd be down, assuming it doesn't prevent Spacey from directing, producing, and starring in The Mike Huckabee Story. Both scenarios would offer the actor ample opportunity to indulge his well-established fondness for channeling musical personae.

McCormick and Mercer have collaborated on two Shins videos (see below): "The Past & Pending" (from Oh, Inverted World) and "Australia" (from Wincing the Night Away). If these are any indication, Some Days will probably involve a lot of abandoned farmhouses, an old-school camera, and balloon abduction.

"The Past & Pending":

"Australia":

Photos courtesy of pinguino and Victory NH: Protect Our Primary! on flickr