I spend a lot of my time these days tracking down blogs that post our stuff for free online. Yeah, yeah, they all say it’s “good exposure” for the bands and labels, and that if people like what they download for free, they’ll end up buying it. It’s all BS though – I’ve seen sites offer our Penetrators and Kilaueas CD’s for free download, and right there on the Rapidshare download page it shows that these discs have been downloaded over 1,000 times! I usually only make 1,000 CD’s at …

If you are a collector of obscure holiday music, you probably already recognize the name of Andy Cirzan. He is an avid collector of Christmas and holiday music, and each year he puts together an unbeatable compilation of obscure holiday tunes that it’d probably take you or I years to put together (even in the internet age). His 2009 compilation is now available online, and as an added bonus, you can hear him on the current Sound Opinions podcast.

I’ve been sucked into this great blog, Classic Television Showbiz, that collects lots of great videos from YouTube and other streaming video sites. If you grew up in the 50’s – 80’s, this site is packed with all the shows you remember from your childhood. This month they’ve been featuring tons of holiday specials, Christmas episodes of various TV shows, and musical performances. Faves so far include the Thunderbirds Christmas episode, Judy Garland’s trippy appearance on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, the Christmas episode from C.H.i.P.s, and the Garry Moore show …

How sad, my childhood heroes, who not-so-long ago battled against evil and injustice, are now doing crappy infomercials for hearing aids and mattresses.

I’m a huge fan of vintage books, including Ian Fleming’s James Bond books, classics from Jack Kerouac, crime and trash, and sci-fi. When I pick up vintage books, in shops or online, I always pick the version with the coolest cover, since there are usually a bunch of options to choose from with classics. The i09 website has a look at 16 classic sci-fi book’s covers, most pretty cool, some hideous, and some ridiculous (I’m lookin’ at you, War Of The Worlds with the Star Trek USS Enterprise on the …

I just stumbled upon a cool album cover site called LP Cover Lover – because collecting vinyl is just as much about the cover art as the music (in my opinion). The site has loads of cool covers from all eras and all genres of music – it’s well worth checking out! Of special interest to most of us is their surf music section.

“Is this some sort of weird-ass hootenanny?” I never really thought of the “Spotnicks Theme” as fast pickin’ country n’ western tune, but that’s the way it’s used in The Wild World Of Batwoman. I was watching the MST3K version of the movie tonight and was surprised to hear one of my favorite Spotnicks tunes used in a goofy chase scene towards the end of the flick. It wasn’t the original version, which got me to thinking… How did a bunch of low budget film producers in the late 60’s …

Norton Records is launching a brand new series of books under the name Kicks Books. The first one, which has me very excited, is by famed R&B artist Andre Williams and is called “Sweets & Other Stories”. The cover has the look and feel of the Hard Case Crime books, of which I am a huge fan. This book can be ordered from Norton Records in November.

Seattle’s just 80 miles from where I live, but it took someone from California (my buddy Otto from Tiki News) to tell me about an exhibit going on at the Experience Music Project. I have to admit, I haven’t been to the EMP yet, but I think this new exhibit is just what I need to get me to go (I’m sorry, but I’m just not a big Jimi Hendrix/classic rock fan, which is what I think the EMP primarily features – I could be wrong though…).
The new exhibit is …