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.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
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
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"
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"
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
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
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
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
