Left 4 Dead 2's Midnight Riders Reveal Christmas Wishes with Long Lost Holiday Song

Though the Midnight Riders didn't hit the big time until their explosive debut in Left 4 Dead 2 circa November 2009, the fictional quartet's YouTube Channel has been updated with an overlooked

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Though the Midnight Riders didn't hit the big time until their explosive debut in Left 4 Dead 2 circa November 2009, the fictional quartet's YouTube Channel has been updated with an overlooked 1998 single, titled "All I Want For Christmas (is to Kick Your Ass)."

As can be surmised from its title, the festive jingle isn't exactly safe for work.

As for the history behind the tune, the legendary rockers explain:

In 1987, the Midnight Riders were asked to participate in a children's charity Christmas album with their rock peers. The Riders refused. In a 1993 Guitar God Magazine article, Dusty explained: "Givin' kids charity just makes 'em weak, man. Teach a kid to fish, he can eat fish his whole life. Teach a kid NOT to fish, he starves to death. Where I come from that's murder, Homes." A few years later, the Riders grudgingly agreed to participate in a 1998 Christmas album in exchange for not having to do 30,000 hours of community service. "All I Want For Christmas is to Kick Your Ass" was written, recorded and mailed in less than one hour.

The seasonal wishes come on top of Left 4 Dead 2's recently released mod tools and support, with developer Valve planning to unleash a new downloadable campaign, which just so happens to feature the original Left 4 Dead crew, in the new year.

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    December 28, 2009 1:08 PM

    that's weirdly painful to listen to. It's like the audio is clipped or something. makes it feel like someone is putting the volume up and down over and over.

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      December 28, 2009 1:35 PM

      i think it was intentional to make this raw garage feel.

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      December 28, 2009 1:36 PM

      In the description it says it was done in less than an hour. Whether or not that is true for the reality of it, the fiction of it has to sound like it was only done in an hour.

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      December 28, 2009 1:50 PM

      If you look at the file in Audacity, it looks like it has dynamic compression applied liberally. Everything after the intro is basically maximum loud.

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        December 28, 2009 2:12 PM

        " Everything after the intro is basically maximum loud."

        Sounds like ROCK to me! \m/

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          December 28, 2009 2:42 PM

          Sounds like horrid engineering to me.

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            December 28, 2009 2:45 PM

            It sounds like a casualty of the loudness war - something to be hung on a wall next to Lily Allen and newer Metallica as a cautionary tale of What Not To Do When Mixing Music.

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            December 28, 2009 5:48 PM

            sounds like crankypants to me!

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        December 28, 2009 3:40 PM

        They probably did that on purpose.

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