The often hard and heavy duo take it down a notch on the holiday classic.

The Kills stopped by the BBC this weekend and played a rather intimate and cozy version of the Christmas standard, “Silent Night.” While many people like to venture into the song’s mostly unknown second verse, or take a stab at the tune’s original German, Alison Mosshart forgoes all that and makes up her own lyrics.

Since the dissolution of The White Stripes in February, our eyes have turned to Jack White’s other projects, one of which is the Mosshart fronted Dead Weather, which has remained dormant this year. Since the Stripes’ split, we have yet to hear a peep from the once unyielding band – their first two albums were released less than a year apart and were pretty essential listening for anyone with a penchant for dark, electrified blues. Mosshart’s been pretty busy with The Kills in 2011, having put out “Blood Pressures” back in April, but hopefully she and the rest of The Dead Weather will have a clear enough slate in 2012 to deliver a followup to “Sea of Cowards.”

You can hear The Kills cover “Silent Night” at Pretty Much Amazing. For the sake of contrast, here’s the video for the swaggering rocker “Future Starts Slow” below.