Musical Advent Calendar: The Long Winters, 'Christmas With You Is The Best'

I know it's a sore spot for many of you that lived 'round these parts while it was on the air, but not everything that had to do with "The O.C." was that bad. There was their many volumes of compilation CDs, for instance, which, if you can get past the murky ickiness of a TV show dictating to people what cool hip young kids should like, did a lot of good work exposing some great bands to wider audiences.

One of those bands was Seattle pop heroes The Long Winters; Barsuk records labelmates with Death Cab for Cutie, who owe at least some of their current success to being namedropped on the show. On "Music From the O.C. Mix 3: Have a Very Merry Chrismukkah," the Long Winters appeared alongside Jimmy Eat World, Ben Kweller and Ron Sexsmith, contributing the original song "Christmas With You is the Best."

I'd like to embed a video, but again, I can't find one, but I did find the song available for free on this crazy Asian Web site. For all I know, there might be a way to stream it from there, but I have no clue. I'm a pretty bad Asian.

The Long Winters just released a live DVD yesterday, featuring a 2007 performance at Seattle's famed Showbox. Barsuk's site is currently hosting three free mp3s ("Scared Straight," "Clouds," "Cinnamon") from the show, here.