Christmas Music Blogs (did you know about this?)

All denizens of the Couch know of my personal perchant for all things Christmas. It is not so much the commercial aspect of it all as much as it is the nostalgia and trying to recapture it. As a kid, we had a stack of Christmas albums that my parents had collected that was nearly 3 feet high, and we played them until the vinyl turned to pulp. As of late I have become rather disenchanted with the Christmas compilations put out by third-party, Rent-a-Center record companies in an attempt to cash in on this delicious memory festt, because it is always the same recordings by the same artists over and over again. So last year I set out on a quest to recapture the some of the classic vinyl records (the more obscure the better, as you know,)of many a Christmas past. After buying a couple and digitizing them myself, I found out that there are legions of vinyl freaks out there that share the same passion, 10-fold, and have made the digitizing of classic vinyl a near cottage industry.

There are a few that I have frequented and found some AMAZING stuff, all of which have combined to make my season just that much brighter.

Check the Cool Wax
Go here RIGHT NOW and download the Brainwerks Check the Cool Wax Compilation 2: Christmas Waxx. From the very cool to the downright disgusting, it is represented. I have also downloaded several complete albums here that are great for long Holiday Drives.

A Christmas Yule Blog
Loving this one, as it is mostly in the vein of really awesome vinyl in the grand Christmas tradition of our parents. You know that smell of old records that permeates The Record Collector in Sugarhouse (is that still open?) Well you can almost smell it when you navigate to this blog.)

http://falalalala.com
Another really good one, but a little lighter on the FREE DOWNLOADS side, as this is more appreciation of older Christmas music. Some great free stuff though.

As today is DAY 2 of Christmas 2008, we have to take advantage of all this Yule Tide glee while we can. Navigate, download, share, and enjoy! Yes, I love Technology!

Let Me Remind You...

We Live In a Strange, Frightening World, Friends.

A World where you could be sitting around on a lovely Thanksgiving Morning, minding your own business, watching the Macy's Parade, and suddenly, out of nowhere, RICK FRIGGIN' ASTLEY appears out of nowhere and ushers in the funniest and most bizarrely orchestrated tie-in between half-assed children's programming and 80's nostalgia I have yet to see.

My ladies and I were watching this live and I could not stop laughing. I mean, IT DOESN'T EVEN WORK ON PAPER!!!! Who was the parade planner who's brainchild this was!?! Were a couple of schlomos just sitting around going "Well...all we got left is this crappy Nickelodeon float, we got any place to put the Has-Been?"

Watch in awe, my friends, and have a great Black Friday!

Couch Reunion

"I'm sort of an expert in Photoshop." - Michael Scott

Musicola 2008

I'm lovin' the Couch's new streamlined look! Makes me feel like I am in a board room or something! It's fun, nicely done, Cap'n Skooch!

My friends, I have been horribly remiss! Since 1995, I have been making yearly music mixes for my friends every Christmas of my favorite sounds of the year. These usually included new and obscure items I had found over the course of the previous months, a cool 80's tune, some kind of Beatle song or cover, and anything else I could find that floated my boat that year.

But, careers, relationships, and other unavoidable items at times combine to create distractions. Sad to say that there has been a lack of REALLY good music on the scene in the past couple of years; by which I mean that I have not really been looking like I used to. Oddly enough, I have been listening to a lot of old Rush and Level 42 albums lately (that, in its self, is a blog entry to consider: why do we return to the music of our youth?)

I don't want to go off on a rant or anything, but shopping for music just isn't the way it used to be. Have you seen the music department in any given Best Buy lately? Barren. Ironic that so many of the haunts that we used to scour for good music have been devoured by the infiltration of the corporate mega-mart, only to see the demise of such by Das Infobahn. For me, it used to be all about the search; to hear about some excellent -yet little-known- band and actually GO to the record store to see if MAYBE they had it. Gone are the Utopian "High Fidelity" days of hunting and collecting. These days even if you do find some cool record store to scavenge in, it is usually full of the same crap that has been floating around since the late 90's.

I have discovered one cool thing lately: all those stores that got shut down went on-line to Amazon. I am not one who likes to shop on the internet, but I have recently found some killer deals from the vendors in that arena.

Suffice it to say that I have started looking again and actually found some killer music to compile a Musicola 2008, though this one will have to encompass the finds of the last two years. I know this is not the kind of news that will shake the rafters or anything, but there are "some" that might be pretty stoked on it (I can probably count them on one hand, but I digress.)

Here are some of the records that I have been in high rotation for the last couple of years, and that made the cut:

Silverchair: Young Modern - This should be no surprise to our moderator. No longer the watered-down Australian version of Nirvana, Skooch and I discovered the band's massively over-orchestrated pop second coming about 5 years ago with their record "Dioramma". This album is so over the top that I have not stopped listening to it since it came out in 2007. It takes a couple of listens to get into, but it plays more like a concept album...with no concept. Like a work of art, or a performance piece. Got to see them play it live at the Wilturn in LA and it was one of the best shows I have ever seen.

The Pink Spiders: Sweat it Out - Power Trio makes good by listening to a lot of Marvelous 3 albums. I really like this band, and this, their latest, plays like a pageant to the would-be rock star that didn't. Stunning guitar rock with candy in its pants.

McFly: Just My Luck - No one in the USA knows who they are, but this boy-band from the UK is the biggest thing to hit Brittania since Take That! The Jellyfish influence is so heavy it makes my teeth ache. Though my English friends all make fun of me for it, I can't get enough.

The Major Labels: Aquavia - How can you go wrong when Mike Viola (of Candy Butchers-fame and the singing voice for The Wonders' Jimmy Mattingly Jr.) and pop neer-do-well Bleu get together to pay homage to 70's AM Radio? The perfection of this album is almost frightening, and you can download it for free simply by recommending it to 4 friends. I did, and I do!

My Chemical Romance: The Black Parade - Speaking of concept albums, this one about ripped my head off. I would not listen to this record for the same reason y'all probably haven't: its what the pastey emo kids with their overly-tight trousers and their pasted-down bangs are listening to. When I got around to checking it out and ingnored the title track, the rest of the album's Queen-thievery kicked me in the head and actually kinda pissed me off that I had not written it.

Office: A Night at the Ritz - Think The Scissor Sisters, but not quite so gay and sugary. This Chicago band was a Free Download of the Week on Itunes, and I had to pull it just to see if it was Michael Scott singing "Total Eclipse of the Fart". It ended up being something pretty spectacular.



Klaus Nomi: Encore - Normally you wouldn't associate the tones of a New Wave gender-confused German contra-tenor with the likes of me, but I have to confess, I have been listening to it and its musical merit it starting to outweigh the kitsch factor. IRS records' amazing 1982 concert film "URGH! A Music War" featured this performance by this....guy?...and it made me so confused and repulsed that I had to check out the recent documentary "The Nomi Song" to get the full picture. Honestly, it grows on you.

Ludo: You're Awful, I Love You - More mid-West guitar pop that gets really good when you listen to it the second or third time.

Plain White T's: Big Bad World - Their last record was much better, but this one is pretty good too!

The rest will have to wait for another post, or simply wait until Christmas and you can hear for yourself!

Everything Is Negotiable

We've had some changes at my "Wealth Distribution Employment Opportunity". There have been 2 new office positions created. One for a new sales manager. One for the occupant of this cubicle.





This is not a prop. Look closely at the picture. This thing is a real door frame with 2x4's and is bolted to the sides of the cubicle! The doornob has a key lock on it.

Let this be a lesson to you - if you don't get what you want, there are alternatives...

I prefer to be disappointed in the order George Lucas intended

I realize I haven't talked much (read: at all) about our trip to the greater L.A. area a couple of weeks ago, and for that I apologize. Rest assured your pleas for stories and information have not fallen on deaf ears.

One of the coolest things we did (aside from going to Disneyland) was to go to the Warner Brothers studio. We took the tour (which beats Universal's by a country mile), and we managed to finagle our way in to see a live taping of an episode of one of my favorite new shows, The Big Bang Theory.

Being part of a "live studio audience" gave me a whole new appreciation for the four-camera sitcom, and the amount of work that goes into it. We were there for over three and a half hours to film a 22 minute episode.

Anyway, the episode we saw being filmed, "The Lizard-Spock Expansion," aired last night. As surreal as it was to be in the audience, it was even more surreal to see it on TV last night. And yes, that's us you can hear laughing in the background. Well, Natalie, anyway. (Seriously, there's one moment where we heard her laugh standing out from everyone else's. At least, we choose to believe it's her. Don't judge us. We have so few victories.)

I'll be happy to sign any autograph requests you may have. I'm not stingy like Ringo.

Lyin' in Bed, Just Like.........

Yeah, I haven't been around much lately. Been too buried in the mire of corporate presentation, ulcer-inducing stress, and film editing. Michael Scott may end up being grateful he was never transformed into a "Presentation Tool" because sometimes I think PowerPoint is going to kill me.

However, other than my ladies being awesome and all being well at home, there is one really cool thing that happened to me this week:



I have a really good rant saved up for posting next week. In the meantime, enjoy one of the greatest websites I have yet to see:

Sad Trombone

For so many years I was doing this with my mouth when I could have gotten it from the web (that's what she said.)

Vlad Blackout

Bart already has a rock name, but for the rest of us click the pic and you can generate your own rock name. Mine is Vlad Blackout (I guess Blacky Lawless is still taken).

Rock On...

100 movies spoiled all at once.

No, I'm not kidding. Don't say you haven't been warned.

Im sorry... sort of...

My obsession for Rick Astley is questionable at best...

Cool websites I've found

Y'know... in case you're looking to waste time. Apparently the internet is great for that.

The coolest t-shirts you'll ever find. They're imported from the UK, so they're not cheap, but man, oh man... me wantee.

¡ʇxǝʇ ɹnoʎ dılɟ

Social networking status generator. Dean-O is filmed in front of a live studio audience.

Toast-it notes. Someone has combined my love of writing with my love of toast. Finally.

Graphjam. Music and pop culture, written out as, well, graphs. Think LOLcats, but without the cats. And the LOL.

It keeps getting funnier...

You may have noticed that The Bloggess is one of our Man's Couch Recommends sites. Her post from yesterday is about 10 reasons why. Take a gander if you get a minute, but be warned, she curses like a sailor...

See it here

Oh Zephyr Winds Which Blow on High.....

Hi Boys-

Sorry for the delay in posting. Things have been crazy here in North Carolina...as all of you have commented on the presidential race I will save my thoughts for another post but as most of you know it has been a real battleground here. I have loved all the posts and concur as usual. Loved the Obama supporter video...I'm in an office full of them.

I have a HUGE rant that I want to post later this week. In the meantime, thought all of you would love to know that I had to speak in Sacrament this week on "Overcoming Adversity" and used "Oh Mighty Isis" and "Shazaam" in my talk. I'd tell you more but I'm saving all of my talks now so I can present them in General Conference someday....or maybe Michael McLean will write a soundtrack to accompany them.

Thought all of you would enjoy a brief flashback into the world of Saturday morning...where you didn't have to worry about seeing re-runs of "The Real World." I'll be back soon!

I love The Onion

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Bart's post from yesterday echoed vaguely familiar. I know from experience that having poo on your person that did not come from you changes your view... on alot of things. As that experience repeats itself, you will not like any more in the future than you do now. You will, however, notice other parts of your life will seem slightly more trivial in nature.

I can agree with the deep sense of uneasiness about our future. I had really hoped I wouldn't have to wake up every morning for the next few years and eat my Marxist Mini-Wheats while watching SNN (Socialist News Network). Then walk to my newly assigned "wealth distribution employment opportunity" and help my underprivileged, labor-allergic, fellow citizens to realize their dreams. But I digress...

There really is no anticipation anymore. No build up. Why show up to the movie theater three days early when I can watch it on my super deluxe home theater system before it's realeased in theaters? Why stay up late when I can watch the full vesrion of the movie (swears and all) on my iPod while I lay in bed. Why should I have to wait for anything?

It's unnerving to us because we know what it's like to sleep overnight on a sidewalk to see the best concert that will ever come to the Salt Palace. We know what it's like to have to convince our parents that staying up late to watch Solid Gold will really increase our IQ's. We know what it's like to hear about the 2nd coming and then have to wait for it, instead of downloading the "pirated" version into our cellular phone-computer thingy's. Maybe we're just older and putting that much energy into being excited about something just makes us sleepy.

I dont know how Im going to instill the sense of excitement and anticipation about anything into my kids. The 2 year old throws a fit if the Muppet Show DVD doesnt start itself over at the end. We actually have to create events, like going to the pumpkin patch to pick halloween pumpkins. That one's good for at least 2 more years...

A Night at the Movies

I woke up this morning feeling bleak. I might be able to attribute that to the fact that my daughter shot -as was once said on "The Worst Show"- LIQUID POO at me whilst a 3:00am diaper changing was commencing. Maybe it is the thought of political and economic uncertainty in the wake of a media darling occupying the most powerful seat on Earth. Is it moral bankruptcy, lost innocence, the nature of the sacred and how it is mocked by our populous? Is it because -as My Chemical Romance has so eloquently shouted- these teenagers scare the living s*** out of me, simply by their all-encompassing yearning to live like they do on The Hills? Is it the sense of entitlement our society has that is eroding all hope? Is it that my hairdresser used too much bleach in my coiffure last night, and my vain attempt at holding fast to my youth has left me looking like a pock-less Gordon Ramsey?

Or is it simply because all excitement has been kaibached from the movies we are subjected to thanks to cable TV and the over accessibility of film on DVD? See kids, back when there was no accessible media and cable was something that only Greg Funkhouser had access to because of that giant dish in his backyard, you could usually count on one of the THREE major networks blocking off a couple of hours of prime time air to show last year's great blockbuster. But it wasn't just showing a movie on TV. They would advertise it far in advance to get you prepped for it, and every show would open with some cool intro like the one above. Am I the only one that misses getting permission to stay up until 10 to watch the Network Television Premier of (fill in the name of any 70's or 80's movie here,) after anticipating its airing for weeks? Remember what it was like to fill a paper grocery bag with popcorn fresh from the hot air popper and gather with your family to watch it? It was a friggin' event! As time went on, you would even tape it and be very careful to edit out the commercials so you could move through it easier during repeated viewings! Do you remember how comical it was to watch "Arthur" in such a fashion because the network's editors obviously over-dubbed Dudley Moore saying "wash my NECK" when you knew he said something much more dirty in the real film?

Do you remember when you anticipated the release of "The Empire Strikes Back" so much that you would clip any scrap about it out of your mom's Good Housekeeping just so you could prepare yourself for it? Am I just an angry old man, spurned on by the flash-in-the-pan nature of today's infotainment-overload? Could be, but there is just nothing to look forward to any more because all of the pageantry has been taken away in lieu of more choices.

Case in point: Billy Crystal once said that cable was a sham because "....you pay 40 bucks a month and you get to see 'The Beastmaster' 53 times." It is happening more literally than he could have joked. "The Wedding Singer" has been on TV EVERY NIGHT THIS WEEK on three different cable networks. I am not even kidding. It was funny once.......once.

Maybe we were just more easily entertained back in the day. Maybe I just need to put more effort into making an event out of something trivial purely for the sake of recreating that kind of feeling for my daughter.

Speaking of which, I should probably start working and stop typing this so I can do so. Sorry for the rant. Discuss......

You Must Use the Force Wisely

What a waste of a fantastic url:

Skooch.com