Thursday, December 30, 2010

The Wit And Wisdom of Jeff Shropshire Episode 1: The Noid

So I recieved a text message from my best friend Jeff Shropshire the other day telling me to read the wikipedia page for The Noid. You remember The Noid right?



The part we were focusing was about Kenneth Lamar Noid
"On January 30, 1989, Kenneth Lamar Noid, a mentally ill customer who thought the ads were a personal attack on him, held two employees of an Atlanta, Georgia, Domino's restaurant hostage for over five hours. After forcing them to make him a pizza and making demands for $100,000, getaway transportation, and a copy of The Widow's Son, Noid surrendered to the police.[3] After the incident had ended, police Chief Reed Miller offered a memorable assessment to reporters: "He's paranoid."[4] Noid was charged with kidnapping, aggravated assault, extortion, and possession of a firearm during a crime. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity."

We laughed about this particular situation, I specifically like that he forced them to make him a pizza. But Finally Jeff started to speak.. and when Jeff speaks you listen, because it's normally something brilliant... this time was on exception:

"The Noid makes me realize that the Josie and the Pussycats movie wasn't too far off. Kids are dumb and will buy anything if you market it correctly. Seriously, how did a generation allow not one, but TWO games based on an advertising character get released. That shit's ridiculous. However the biggest injustice is that the Noid conned us into allowing him to have two games while the Kool Aid Man only got one."

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Top 10 Albums From 10 Years Ago - 2000 Edition

Today Geekscape released it's Top 10 Albums of 2010 and if you read it that you saw my list (I assume I'm at the end of the article like secret after-thought). I did this Last Year and people seemed to like it (Editors Note: by People Matt means of course himself) (editor's Note on Editors Note: Matt is his own Editor this is a bizarre multiple personalities thing, Matt should be committed)

ANYWAY I know you're all waiting so here are the TOP 10 ALBUMS FROM 10 YEARS AGO (2000 Edition):

10. The Dandy Warhols: Thirteen Tales from urban Bohemia



The Dandy Warhols have always been a bit of the go-to Hipster band. Regardless on however “overrated” you may find them; their third album is their masterpiece. All the tracks flow into each so wonderfully that it almost feels like one long song. The stand-out track is their hit single “Bohemian like you” with such catchy tongue-in-cheek lyrics like “Hey, I wait tables too/No I haven’t heard your band, but you guys are pretty new”. Other tracks became TV show theme songs. One inparticular (Solid) became the them for Undeclared one of the greatest TV shows ever.

9. Soul-Junk: 1956


The first time I ever heard of Soul-Junk it was seeing them open up for Five Iron Frenzy. They were completely out of place, the show consisted of 2 pop punk bands, 2 ska bands and then soul-junk a strange hip-hop/experimental/electronica group. I picked up their double album 1955 and was frankly disappointed. The fun dancy hip-hop was almost nowhere to be seen except a few tracks here and there. However, I was obsessed with the song Ill-M-I which I found on an old 5 Minute Walk Comp. Eventually I tracked down a copy of 1956 and was blown away, here was the Soul-Junk I knew. Not as religiously explicit this album focused more on just having good catchy jams, interesting beats and sweet ass rhymes. The stand-out track is Sea Monsters & Gargoyles featuring Pigeon John possibly the most under-appreciated hip-hop rapper ever.

8. Dilated Peoples: The Platform



Dilated People’s debut album is the definition of game changer. While hip-hop was demonated with mostly violent and misogynstic gangster rap; the Dilated Peoples came from the Alternative Hip-hop/Native Tongue style of hip-hop of telling detailed stories that were emotionally driven. Did these album ever really change the face of hip-hop? Not completely, but you can’t help listen to it and start to miss the days of hip-hop where Emcee’s had DJs who were turntablists instead of just a guy who played beats from his computer.

7. Del Tha Funkee Homosapian: Both Sides of the Brain



Del is most famous for being Ice Cube’s cousin and the rap vocals on the first Gorillaz album. This is a shame since Del is tight as fuck rapper. This album is so deliciously perfect that you can easily find yourself listening to it on repeat for days at a time. Be it his cautionary tale of the dangers of drunk driving (Skull & Crossbones) or his gamer bragging rights (Proto Culture) one thing is obvious, Del is a bad-ass emcee, who’s still down to earth.

6. Marilyn Manson: Holy Wood



Manson’s fuck you to critics is possibly the best album of his career. After the terrible columbine tragedy, Manson kinda hide himself from public eye, this album shows him attacking the very media that attacked him. With his on going motto of Guns, God and Government Manson intelligently presents to the listeners ways in which the Bible and Government & News Stations promote violence in a much more dangerous way than Manson does.

5. Eminem: The Marshall Mathers LP



Marshall Mathers is a man with A LOT of problems. While Slim Shady LP was a funny and witty album poking fun at celebrities, drugs, violence and Eminem himself. Marshall Mathers is a diary of a darky haunted man. Taking his own name in the albums title is just the beginning of this auto-biographical story of a boy who comes from nothing, can’t handle his fan-base or fans and thinks about murdering his wife and mother constantly. Is it dark? Yes Is it Twisted? Yes Is it Beautiful? Yes… conclusion fuck you Kanye West… THIS album should have been called My Dark Twisted Beautiful Fantasy.

4. Our Lady Peace: Spirtiual Machines



Inspired by the futuristic novel The Age of Spiritual Machines, Our Lady Peace went from being “that Canadian band that sounds like Smashin Pumpkins” to a rock group worthy of our attention. It wasn’t that the band was releasing bad records before this, but none of their albums gripped our attention quite like this one. Mixing readings from inventor Raymond Kurzweil’s book and hopeless and dark lyrics Our Lady Peace shows us a vision of Dystopia that we can only pray never actually comes.

3. Outkast: Stankonia



Stankonia came out of nowhere and left the whole world confused as to what we just heard… and it did it in a good way. Blending damn near every genre with hip-hop Outkast created the most unique and original hip-hop album of the decade and possibly of all time. From the heavy metal influenced Gasoline Dreams, to the bluesy Ms Jackson to your in your face club bass-n-drum beats of Bombs over Bagdad this album has something for everyone. On to of it all, it contains various skits that are actually funny (a rarity in rap music).

2. Eels: Daisies of the Galaxy



Mark Oliver Everett is one depressed but hopeful dude. However unlike most musicians he’s earned the right to be this depressed. After losing his sister and his mom being diagnosed with cancer he penned “Electro-Shock Blues” (one of the most beautiful albums ever recorded). His follow-up Daisies of the Galaxy continues where Electro-Shocked left off. At this point Mark (Stage Name E) was the last surviving member of his family blood line. That loneliness is the main driving force in this album and each track is sadder than the one before. “It’s a Motherfucker” is a vulgar but heartfelt song about the pains of missing a loved one (I assume it’s in reference to his mother).

1. Jurassic 5: Quality Control



Jurassic 5 took the Jazz influenced Alternative hip-hop created by groups like De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest and completely perfected it’s sound. There’s not a single track on Quality Control to NOT like. Using such creative samples as James Brown, The Barbershop-y HiLos or the funky Blowfly the whole album is practically a “how-to” guide to making incredibly catchy and perfect hip-hop. Make sure you check out the closing track the instrumental sample-heavy Swing Set.

Monday, December 27, 2010

December Mix!!!

The December Mix is Up and Ready for you to Listen to; a few stand-out tracks include:

When We First Met by Hellogoodbye I needed to put on this mix because after being disappointed by Hellogoodbye's debut album, their new CD is a complete change of direction and it works perfectly!

After reading Stephen King's The Body there was no way I couldn't put Ben E. King's Stand by Me

I already spoken heavily about how much I loved mc chris goes to hell; the song 006 is without a doubt the standout track.

December = Christmas... I didn't want to put an extremely holiday specific song so I went with the snarky and dark Yule Shoot Your Eye Out by Fall out Boy

And the mix ends with Ben Folds' song Belinda which is without a doubt the most beautiful song to appear on a Ben Folds album since Rockin' the Suburbs' The Luckiest

FULL TRACK LIST:
1. Van Halen - Nerf Herder
2. Hey Jude - The Beatles
3. When We First Met - Hellogoodbye
4. Little Lion Man - Mumford & Sons
5. Stand by Me - Ben E King
6. 006 - mc chris
7. My First, My Last, My Everything - Barry White
8. Carolina in my Mind - James Taylor
9. I Haven't Tried it - Piebald
10. Airplanes (f/Hayley Williams) - B.O.B.
11. Yule Shoot Your Eye Out - Fall out Boy
12. Now That You're Home - Manchester Orchestra
13. For Once in My Life - Stevie Wonder
14. Comfort Eagle - Cake
15. Friends of P - The Rentals
16. My Annie - Craig's Brother
17. Bat out o Hell - Meat Loaf
18. Belinda - Ben Folds

To download visit either mediafire or Rapidshare

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas THE 25TH SONG OF CHRISTMAS

So I've officially hit 100 posts so that's exciting. Also it's Christmas! I'm not going to post every little thing that i got but as a movie and music fan I made a great collection today. The highlights though were the complete series of Freaks & Geeks as well as The Prisoner so I know how i"ll be wasting my week off from work haha

Anyway, I bet you thought I'd post something ridiculous as my #25 song like "I fucked Mrs. Claus" by Size 14, well you'd be WRONG (although that might make next years list). But no here is the song; the extremely beautiful and touching "Old City Bar" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. It's a lovely song about the magic and miracles that can occur on christmas.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas Memories (the 25 Songs of Christmas Part 24)

I decided before I post my song #24, I'd like to reflect on a few of my favorite christmas memories. I hope that you enjoy these memories and post some of your own.

1) I had a vhs tape my aunt made where she taped different christmas specials for me. The tape contained specifically The Claymation Christmas (which contained the California Raisins version of Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer), Pee-Wee's Christmas Special, Garfield's Christmas Special and the Muppet Family Christmas. I've watched this video every year (and even when it wasn't christmas time). I still need to watch these 4 specials every year; and every year... I cry. It's not christmas until I've listened to the muppets sing their christmas carol medley.

2) One year my mom signed up for this weird deal with Victoria Secrets. They were selling christmas albums and needed someone to put all the CDs together. They'd send a spool of CDs, empty jewel-cases and the front and back artwork. We'd put them together and box them up and send them to various stores. We'd spend most of my the night sitting watching christmas specials and putting these CDs together. I'm aware this sounds like we had a little sweat-shop going and in later years I'd discover that my mom didn't get paid nearly what she was promised; but I wouldn't trade the time we spent working as a family for anything.

3) The year that my grandfather died was a really rough one. I spent many nights online sulking. I was a very emo kid (some of my close friends just collectively went "WAS?!?"... fuck you guys). One of the people I complained to was a girl in my class, Stefanie. One christmas Eve while driving home I saw a car driving away from my house; I didn't know what it was or who the car belonged to at the time; but when I reached the top of the stairs I found a christmas bag with an inspirational card from Stefanie. I don't remember what the card said any longer, but I know that I have it somewhere. What was written didn't matter anyway; it was the thought that counted. It has and will always be the most touching christmas gift i ever received.

4) The Second most important gift I ever received was two years ago from my friend Sean. He bought me a book called "Jim Henson's Doodle Dreams: Inspiration for Living Life Outside the Lines". I loved the book, but it wasn't until recently the gift really made it's impact. I sat awake at night worrying about my move in July; when I saw the book on the shelf. Again, I don't remember the specific quotes; but I do know that it soothed me and I slept well at night.

5) My final memory is from my Freshmen year of High school. The TV studio had a holiday coffee-shop with christmas lights and an open mic. It was a total blast. At that show my friends Mike, Ant and Brian's band Franklin's Submarine performed a set, including the worst cover of "Christmas Day" by MxPx I've ever heard... at the time I'm sure I loved it. So here it is; Song #24 Christmas Day... by MxPx

Thursday, December 23, 2010

The 25 Songs of Christmas Part 23

Number 23 is one of my all-time favorite songs (not just christmas songs) from one of my all-time favorite movies (not just christmas movies)... "Baby, It's Cold Outside" as performed by Zooey Deschannel & Leon Redbone on the Elf Soundtrack

UPDATE: so apparently youtube has literally disabled the embedding abilities :/ so HERE is where you can hear the song on youtube in the mean time here's two other versions of the song not quite as good; but still decent

1) Will Ferrell and Zooey singing in the Actual movie



2) (this maybe my second favorite version) Selma Blair and Rainn Wilson:

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

The 25 Songs of Christmas Part 22

Nothing says Christmas like The Ramones; they just desperately don't want to fight... see?

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Insane Debate About Clowns (The 25 songs of Christmas Part 21)

Today, I received the following email from my friend Matt Voigt; the other person emailed was none other than Judge John Hodgman; the email reads:

well Hello...

My name is Matt and I humbly submit this dispute for Judge John Hodgman to consider. I feel as if there is an obvious answer, and while this is not a dispute that causes consistent friction...it is something that legitimately makes me think differently of one of my friends due to his musical preferences....

The Insane Clown Posse. By all accounts my friend (also named Matt) is a level headed, creative, and artistic individual. I go to him for music suggestions frequently and he has a finely attuned musical palate. He's a writer, musician and film-maker, not to mention one of my best friends. I usually default to him on educated opinions when it comes to entertainment. Except for this. Matt STRONGLY believes that the Insane Clown Posse are in on the joke and are awful on purpose. He thinks this is brilliant. He compares them to Andy Kaufman anti-humor. This is obviously not the case and it bothers me that an otherwise intelligent individual could think this way.

Now i'm usually tolerant of people who are wrong....but when we go on extended road trips (which happens semi-frequently) this argument begins anew and is worth at least 5 minutes of me screaming.

This is a dispute that must be settled for the legacy of ironic-semi-full-of-themselves comedians and our friendship.

Respectfully yours...

Matthew


now hopefully we'll get on the show and you'll get to actually hear my debate; but my opinion is that no one can honestly be serious when they write lyrics like "I met Milinko he gave me three wishes/That night i fucked three fat bitches" or "I'll cut your finger off and shove it up your butt... then glue it shut".

Anyway, fingers crossed that I'll have a chance to prepare songs and such in my defense (and that I win the case)

That being said (and on a completely unrelated note) song #21 on the 25 songs of Christmas is No Use For a Name's cover the Pogues christmas classic "Fairytale of New York"; enjoy the song and this video which contains a cute picture of a dog (among other things)

Monday, December 20, 2010

The 25 Songs of Christmas Part 20

I hate the Mariah Carey version; but I love this cover by Dave Melillo; go figure

Sunday, December 19, 2010

The 25 Songs of Christmas Part 19

Before I post the 19th song in the 25 Songs of Christmas I gotta give a shout-out to my friend's band Those Galloping Hordes has a new song that's on Deep Elm's Emo Diaries 12: I love you but in the end I will destroy you. The group is an incredible experimental instrumental indie rock group in the same vein as Explosions in the Sky and Sigur Ros. Please check them out and if you like them buy their album. That being said song #19 has absolutely nothing to do with them.

Song 19 is a cover of an obscure song from the 1920's called Zat You Santa; this version is performed by Buster Poindexter (the ghost of christmas past in Scrooged) which i first heard on the Beavis and Butthead christmas special. Once again, I can't find the real music video so enjoy this anyway

Saturday, December 18, 2010

The 25 Songs of Christmas Part 18

This is one of the saddest and most depressing songs I know, not just specifically Christmas but in general. I decided I wanted to include it because it's sincerely one of my favorite songs ever. It's constantly cited as a Relient K song (and it did appear on their christmas album) but when the song was originally released it was under the solo project of their lead singer Matthew Thessien under the name Matthew Thessien & the Earthquakes. The only recording of it I was able to find on youtube is composed of clips from the Office; but enjoy it

Friday, December 17, 2010

Jaws the Revenge: Greatest Christmas Movie Ever? (25 Songs of Christmas Part 17)

So Jaws the Revenge has long been considered one of the worst movies of all time; for starters it has one of the most action packed box covers of all time.



Beyond that it has the 2nd* shittiest looking shark in film history



That shark does it all, it roars, it eats fucking planes, and it explodes unexplainably. Jaws the Revenge is remembered for a lot of things; but few remember that the whole movie takes place around christmas time; It's actually quite genius; I mean... sure christmas time for most of us means no more fear of sharks; Specifically up north we're not thinking about swimming at all for quite some while... Jaws the Revenge has a very select audience, people that leave in the south (specifically Jamaica) who have to deal with a fear of sharks all christmas long. Perhaps we only thing its a shit movie becuase we don't know the true fear of opening christmas gifts and then FEARING FOR YOUR FUCKING LIFE!

Speaking of Christmas, Gatsby's American Dreams Nintendo-Core Christmas Metal Epic St. Nicholas is #17 on the 25 songs of Christmas



* = For the record the worst looking shark of all time is in 1980's The Last Shark (Great White)

Thursday, December 16, 2010

The 25 Songs of Christmas Part 16

I'm going to get hate for this, but I think Polyphonic Spree did this John Lennon Classic better than the original "Happy Christmas (War is Over)"

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

The 25 Songs of Christmas Part 15

South park always has amazing Christmas songs; sadly they're not amazing at allowing people to post clips from their episodes; so enjoy this still frame while Christmastime in Hell Plays!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

The 25 Songs of Christmas Part 14

Roses are Red is a band I've never heard except this cover of George Michael's Last Christmas, but it's definitely my favorite version of this song

Monday, December 13, 2010

The 25 Songs of Christmas Part 13

Okay, it's time to really have a geeky christmas song (like mc chris didn't cut it already?) here is Rush Coil's 8-bit Christmas song GLORIA

Sunday, December 12, 2010

The 25 Songs of Christmas Part 12

What an excellent weekend. mc chris read and retweeted my last post and Troll 2 star George Hardy as confirmed himself as a guest on the Saint Mort Show. There's also so more news for the other Power Down Productions shows we're working on... more to come.

Now for now Song #12 for the 25 Songs of Christmas we have The Temptations cover of Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer... as performed by the California Raisins

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Why mc chris goes to hell Is the Best Rap CD of 2010 (25 Songs of Christmas Part 11)

Every magazine I've opened in the last few weeks has been doing their top 10(20/50/100) Albums of the year and every single list so far has contained Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and album that plays much like a Vincent Gallo film. It's starts strong and then becomes a slow, boring and draw-out piece of pretencious bullshit. Kanye literally made the Brown Bunny of hip-hop.

"But Matt, if not Kanye... then who has the best Rap album of 2010" you may be asking (if you haven't read the title of this particular blog entry), the answer is simple... mc chris (lowercase no dots) goes to hell. mc chris is one of the most respected indie mc's in the world. He started with humble beginnings, animating brilliant cartoons and earning a nerdcore label which he's always had mixed feelings with. Sadly nerdcore is much like christian music; can't someone JUST be a rapper and sing about their religion (and/or their love of star wars & harry potter), I think so. mc chris is one of my top 5 favorite rappers, not favorite nerdcore rapper, not favorite white rapper... just favorite rapper PERIOD end of sentence.

"well matt, what makes this mc chris so great?" asks the people that don't really exist because I have no readers... it's simple. Chris loves his fans, he knows what they want to hear and he has a wicked sense of humor. The CD opens with a skit which continues (and possibly concludes) the on-going story of mc and his manager. While there's lots of references to past albums, even if this is your first mc chris experience the jokes hit. This is shocking since science has proven that 98% of all "skits" on rap albums are completely fucking retarded and unfunny.

Immediately mc gets right into rapping about a topic he knows extremely well "Star Wars Bounty Hunters" with IG-88's '57 Chevy (one of 3 songs on the subject) this song and track 4 Awesome Fucker have mc chris using auto-tune which comes of brilliantly satirical (specifically in fucker) when he screams "i'm fucking all the time".

Then you've got songs like Drinking Blunts so catchy that even a straight edge kid like myself can't help but sing along. The Harry Potter fan in me can't resist the catchiness of Neville and while I don't want to break this album down piece by piece the James-Bond inspired 006 is one of the funniest songs I've ever heard.

The album concludes with a preview for Race Wars which I assume is his next album, but deep down I really wish it was an animated movie.

In conclusion fuck Eminem and Kanye West's over-rated bullshit, Sorry Drake and B.O.B. but despite your albums being good they are intensely similar... if you want to know how to mix hip-hop, punk and complete sincerity about your nerd-dom look no further than mc chris goes to hell. In honor of this albums' brilliance I present song #11 in the 25 songs of Christmas... Evergreen by mc chris

Friday, December 10, 2010

Open Letter to B101 (25 Songs of Christmas #10)

Dear B101,

My work has had your radio station on 24/7. I've heard the song Last Christmas by Wham (George Michaels) at least five times but not a single time have you played Run-DMC "Christmas in Hollis". I get it, your target audience is middle-age white people... but mid-age white people tend to like Run-DMC. I'm sure they'd rather here this than the a capella version of "Little Drummer Boy"

Thursday, December 9, 2010

The 25 Songs of Christmas (Part 9)

Song #9 comes from Nerf Herder and it's a Christmas song the only way Nerf Herder knows how to do them, vulgar and crude. I present "I've got a Boner for Christmas"

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

25 Songs of Christmas Part 8

My Favorite Cover of a Christmas Song that Sounds exactly the same as the original goes to one of my all time favorite bands The Format. Check out their delightful cover.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

25 Songs of Christmas Part 7

Today I have two articles up on Geekscape the first one is a list of DVDs coming out this Month and the other is the Geekscape Awards (which you should join Geekscape and vote for me)

Alright Song #7 in the 25 songs of Christmas is Viva Voce's hard rock cover of God Rest ye Merry Gentleman

Monday, December 6, 2010

Come in and know me Better man! (25 Songs of Christmas Part 6)

Before I post Christmas Song #6 in the the 25 songs of the Christmas I just wanted to post my review for Tis the Season to be Gotee which is up right now at absolutepunk.net.

Okay now song #6 isn't nearly as ridiculous as the songs in the last 5 days, but if you know me it's not really that surprising that it's on my list. Song 6 comes from the Muppets film "Muppet Christams Carol" it's the delightfully catchy (and the song that was stuck in my head ALL day at work) "It Feels Like Christmas"

Sunday, December 5, 2010

How Jonathan London Ruined My Social Life (The 25 Songs of Christmas Part 5)

Today Geekscape founder Jonathan London turns 32 years old. While having a long and bizarrely complicated relationship with Mr. London I only actually got to meet him in person very recently. He is without a doubt one of (if not the) biggest driving force/motivation to my move to LA in July. Geekscape has indirectly (and directly) been one of the most important things in my life but I've never really told the whole story. I think it'd make an awesome blog entry myself.

Back in December of 2006 I got my first laptop; it's currently been my ONLY laptop. It was a mac-book pro that my friend (who worked for Apple) got me using an employee discount. I now had access to iTunes and I decided I'd check out these things called podcast I've been hearing so much about. I didn't really know what I wanted and somehow (and I honestly don't remember how anymore) i noticed a title that struck my interest... Geekscape. The episode was Episode 5: Nutpunch featuring co-host Scott Culver, to this day he is still one of my top 5 favorite Geekscape guests (despite NEVER returning for a second episode). I remember laughing my ass off and feeling like I could really relate to these guys, but what really struck my attention was hearing these two guys talking about bands like Don't Look Down who I knew of, but only thought I knew them because of growing up in the Tri-State area.

Using Facebook and Myspace I decided to track down the creator and host of this show, Jonathan London. London will tell you, he's one of the easiest internet personalities to get in touch with and it's true. His facebook has his screen name on it and I immediately IMed him, I told him how I just watched an episode and how great it was and we talked about different punk bands. Everyone week I'd listen to the new episode and then IM him to tell him how much I liked it. But that was really the extent of our friendship and relationship, until December of 2007.

Geekscape was getting ready to celebrate it's one year and I contacted Jonathan with an idea. "You should do a what a difference a year makes type segment, looking back at the first episode and seeing how far we came". Jonathan's answer was simply "if you're willing to watch episode 1 and give me notes... I'll do just that." So I did.

I think this single decision of doing exactly what he asked me to do is what changed our friendship. He started asking me if I'd be interested in doing other things, Join the forums, run the youtube page, run the facebook page, even write an occasional article. Geekscape started to become a second home; I'd spend hours on the forums, sometimes refreshing the page every couple minutes to see if someone had posted a new post. I even got my girlfriend at the time to become a scapist, and when my girlfriend dumped me... Geekscape was there to support me in ways that I was never able to ask my friends here in PA for help.

I began to distance myself from Geekscape in the spring of 2009. I just stopped watching, I'd still post occasionally, but I really stayed out of the loop. I'll never completely know why I did this, but I did. By the winter of 2009 I was at my lowest. I had no girlfriend, no job and was living with a married couple (though very good friends). I never really felt at home there, while M & L were very welcoming, I couldn't help but feel like I was always in the way, invading a honeymoon if you will. During this unhappiness, I started to watch the months of old Geekscape episodes.

Then I watched their coverage of that Summer's San Diego Comic Con. As I watched I couldn't help but think to myself... why aren't I out there? Almost a day or two later it was announced that Geekscape was going to have a booth at Comic Con that year and needed someone to run the Merch table. I contacted Jonathan and asked (and begged a little) for the job. If I got my own plane ticket and willing to help put up for the Hotel room... the job was mine. I accepted.

I got more involved with the site again, writing articles, running the twitter account, I was re-energized. As the trip kept nearing, I got more and more excited. I had already decided that I was going to move to LA the following summer, but this was the first time I'd ever actually see the city. I had developed many friendships with scapists and was curious to see how we'd get along. While i predicted that I'd hang out with a bunch of the scapists alot and only really see Jonathan here and there, I couldn't be further from wrong. I didn't anticipate that London and I would get along super well, in the end he was the one of the two people I became closed with. Perhaps it was just because we were forced to spend lots of time together between driving to San Diego and manning the booth together... but I'd like to believe it was because we both respected each other as creative minded people.

Regardless, July I'll be finally moving to LA. It's something I've said I'd do for over 13 years, but it's actually happening now, because of one man and his website. Thank You Jonathan London, you're one of the biggest inspirations in my life and I hope you have the Happiest of Birthdays.

In your honor I dedicate the 5th song in the 25 songs of Christmas to you; It's the Mark Hoppus and Ben Fold's covering the Blink 182 classic "Happy Holidays, You Bastard"

Saturday, December 4, 2010

November Mix and 25 Songs of Christmas Part 4

It's a little late again but here's my mix for the month of November; Some of the stand out tracks are as follows:

Make Up Your Mind - Vacations and Never Been - In All The Same Houses are songs by local bands; One is new (Vacations) and the other has since broken up (In All The Same Houses) regardless both songs are insanely catchy and well crafted; check out both these groups for their other songs!

Mansions of Los Feliz - Eels, We Are Sex Bob-omb - Sex Bob-Omb and Bullet - Steel Train are all songs released this year that are on albums that are strong competitors for Album of the year. Meanwhile Fuck You - Cee Lo Green is the best single of the year as I declared back in September

Evaporated - Ben Folds Five has been one of my top 5 favorite songs since I first heard it in high school. I've named countless unproduced scripts Evaporated after this song title

I Wish - Skee-Lo is a throw-back to a simpler times in 90's hip hop, The News From Your Bed- Bishop Allen is just a catchy as hell song and while watching Angel for the first time i discovered It's Not Easy Being Green - Andy Hallett and found it to be a wonderfully beautiful and touching cover.

Full Track List
1. Make Up Your Mind - Vacations
2. Fuck You - Cee Lo Green
3. Clumsy Shy - Weston
4. Dance With me - The Leftovers
5. Evaporated - Ben Folds Five
6. Interstate Love Song - Stone Temple Pilots
7. Skull & Crossbones - Del Tha Funkee Homosapien
8. Mansions of Los Feliz - Eels
9. I Wish - Skee-Lo
10. On* - MC Chris
11. My Dad is Rich - Draco & the Malfoys
12. Pray for Rain - The Ergs
13. A Little Respect - Wheatus
14. Perfect Day - Suicide Machines
15. We Are Sex Bob-omb - Sex Bob-Omb
16. The Weight (Take a Load off Annie) - The Band
17. The News From Your Bed- Bishop Allen
18. Right Behind you - Our Lady Peace
19. Bullet - Steel Train
20. It's Not Easy Being Green - Andy Hallett
21. Dexter - The W's
22. Never Been - In All The Same Houses
23. Stolen - Dashboard Confessional

Downloadable at Rapidshare and Mediafire

Furthermore the Christmas song of today is one that was recently requested and well it's such a great song I couldn't turn it down. "Weird Al"'s 1986 demented christmas Carol Christmas At Ground Zero

Friday, December 3, 2010

The 25 Songs of Christmas Part 3

People keep telling me what songs to put on the list; I enjoy this and ask you to continue suggesting songs! If anything it makes me feel like people are actually reading my blog which is always a great feeling!

I'm getting increasingly more and more excited about christmas, after two "punk-rock" christmas songs... (Ben Folds is Punk Rock For Sissies) I decided to post a christmas classic done by that delightful group Barenaked Ladies. This is without competition my favorite cover of this carol... Sleigh Ride

Thursday, December 2, 2010

The 25 Songs of Christmas Part 1 & 2

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. While Halloween is my favorite holiday, I absolutely adore Christmas. I love have spending time with my crazy ass family, watching christmas specials, fire-places, christmas carols, the xmas movies, Santa, The insomnia of not being able to sleep Christmas Eve, opening gifts, giving gifts and for the most part people just seem cheerier. And most of all I love the christmas music!

So I will be doing the 25 songs of CHristmas this month, each day for christmas I'll be posting some of my favorite christmas songs.

Let's get this kicked off because it's December 2nd so I'm already a day behind.

Day 1's Song is No Doubt's Cover of Oi to the World. I love this cover and I love the original but something about No Doubts ska-tastic version has always stuck with me. It's definitely one of the ultimate punk rock christmas songs.




Day 2's Song is a completely different beast; it's one of the most vulgar but hilarious christmas songs I can think of; Ben Fold's Bizarre Christmas Incident