Your Weekend Holiday has been pre-empted to bring you this fine holiday classic. John Denver & The Muppets - Twelve Days Of Christmas When I was a kid, I heard this album on vinyl every Christmas, complete with the hiss and pops. John Denver is dead and The Muppets have sold-out with their high-definition Bohemian Rhapsody crap. Kermit's solo stuff is still cool though. Merry Christmas and Your Weekend Holiday will return next weekend. [...]
Lambchop - Christmas Time Is Here [Note: This is the radio-friendly version. I have tried and tried and tried searching my music collection for the uncensored version, but have come up empty. It's a shame, because the completely-unexpected (and very loud) cursing in the middle of the track is the best part of the song. If you happen to have a copy of the uncensored version, hit me up. And if you're wondering why a beloved Christmas song ended up needing to have parts beeped out, go ahead and [...]
This Townes Van Zandt tribute album all started when Jenny at ForTheSakeOfTheSong woke up one morning with the idea. She searched bands on the Internet, looking worldwide for artists who were accomplished, yet not well known. The end result was an album consisting of nineteen artists, performing eloquent versions of the late and great troubadour's finest songs. As posted in August , I'm a big fan of Townes Van Zandt. After learning of this project, Introducing Townes Van Zandt, Via The Great Unknown quickly became the most [...]
The Record Machine - one of the finer record labels I've stumbled upon in the last couple months - have a free Christmas compilation called The More The Merrier . It features 10 tracks compiled by one of the label's artists, Sam Billen . Listen to it below (note: if you subscribe to our RSS feed, you probably won't be able to see this): If you wanna download the album, go here and give them yer juicy, juicy email address. Secondly, if you have twangier [...]
The Decemberists - Please Daddy Don't Get Drunk (This Christmas)
If this post will prove anything, it's that I'm sick of writing this end-of-whatever nonsense. Let's keep it short and sweet, then, okay? Here's my favorite album of the year: Truelove's Gutter by Richard Hawley . Read my band of the decade post and attach all the same platitudes here. Here's my favorite song from the album, the majestic "Remorse Code": Richard Hawley - Remorse Code [...]
Belle And Sebastian - Are You Coming Over For Christmas?
AC/DC simply RAWKS. I mean, not only is the band awesome, but their album, Who Made Who , which is the awesome soundtrack to Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive , totally shreds. I saw the Aussie band in 1991 and for a short while during the show I sat next to legendary Nashville music critic, Robert K. Oermann . He was a nice man and said the best show he ever saw was Bruce Springsteen at Murphy Center, during the Born In The USA tour. Here's [...]
Roy Wood Singer/Songwriter Wizzard Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
This is the final part. Part One can be found here . Part Two is over here . Of note: The Gigi song is a very last-minute entry, as I heard it for the first time just a couple days ago. Other than the description over at Fluxblog (where I found the song), I don't know anything else about this band. It flows nicely into the A Camp song that follows, though. As stated in the prior parts, if you like what you hear, please spread some holiday cheer to the artists [...]
Eddie Argos & Keith Totp - Mistletoe And Wine (Narcissistic Fun Fact: The song appeared in a British compilation last year that also featured two songs from my band . I just wanted to point that out.)
Part One can be found here . One thing of note: My favorite song of the year can be found within the over-falsettoed mess that is "The Night, The Night" by Chet . As outlined in this prior post , there is a 70-second stretch of pure beauty that begins at around the 1:38 mark. Though I'm indifferent towards the rest of the song, those 70 seconds got stuck in my head like nothing else this year. If you like what you hear, go out and purchase the albums which contain these songs. [...]
Otis Redding - Merry Christmas, Baby
worst picture ever? worst picture ever. Due to an abundance of quality songs, combined with an equal abundance of very long songs (I'm a total sucker for 10-minute tracks, and there were lots of good ones this year), I'm gonna split this up over the next three days. As with the end of decade post , this isn't a definitive list - it's just a bunch of favorites arranged in a nice, pleasing way. If you like what you hear, go out and purchase the albums which contain these songs. If you don't like what [...]
The awesome air-violin performed with cat-gut strings Today is Violin Day which would also make it Fiddle Day. I've always wondered the difference between the two instruments and after doing some online research, apparently there's no difference, except in the genre of music one chooses to play. Page France - Mr. Violin And Dancing Bear During the eighties, Vanessa Mae was the young, British prodigy child who could play the hell out of Bach on her fiddle violin. She's all grown-up now and still [...]
Just don't mention Feist around her. Jenny Owen Youngs - Things We Don't Need Anymore
With Yo La Tengo foregoing their week-long Hanukkah shows this year (they're touring Japan instead), someone needed to take over the mantle for music-related Hanukkah festivities. Thankfully, Paul Burch is here to fill the void. The Nashville troubadour, who happens to be one of the most respected musicians in town (and who also did some fantastic vibraphone playing for Lambchop back in the day), will kick off a series called 8 Nights Of Rock beginning at sundown this Friday. If you visit his site at that time, you [...]
The Wedding Present - White Christmas And here's a bonus Wedding Present Christmas video, featuring some girl whose voice gets on my nerves for some reason:
Twisted Sister simply RAWKS. I mean, not only is the band awesome, but who can forget Dee Snider's Oscar-worthy performance in Strangeland ? Last September I ventured to the Las Vegas Hilton to catch Cheap Trick's Sgt. Pepper Live show. I just might be returning to the Hilton again this month to see Snider and the gang perform their critically acclaimed <a href=" http://www.visitlasvegas.com/v egas/play/shows/details.jsp?ev entId=16555" Twisted Christmas . I was going to post an MP3 of this song, but since it's a bit [...]
The Opening Acts
iamamiwhoami: kin - Teaser
Album Review: alt-J – An Awesome Wave
Azealia Banks – ’1991′ & ‘Van Vouge’
Big Boi & Theophilus London (feat. TRE LUCE) - 'She Said OK'
