Hands Down, Worst Celebrity Scandal Of The Year.

London's News Of The World:
"Proclaimers Star Is A 2-Timing Bum"


Says the tabloid:

"GEEKY Proclaimers star Craig Reid must have had the chorus of his biggest hit on his mind when he bedded a fan behind devoted wife Petra's back.
The bespectacled pop rat went 500 miles from home just to be the man who fell down at 37-year-old Elizabeth Kim's door.

Trouble is he also fell down badly in the bedroom.

And the picture above of snoring Reid's hairy rear is Elizabeth's best memento of a romp that barely lasted longer than a Proclaimers song."

Yikes. But that's not the best part of the story...here's a line that nearly made me fall out of my chair with laughter:

Says Kim, "The more passionate we kissed the harder his glasses banged into my head."

Read the rest here.

Sune from The Raveonettes Spins Friday Night

Sune from The Raveonettes spins tomorrow night at Robot Rock at Hiro. It's free with rsvp here.

The Raveonettes - "Aly, Walk With Me" mp3

And here's The Raveonettes' insanely good "Dead Sound" video:

Christmas + Misfits Covers = Chrisfits!

A Canadian Misfits cover band that changes the lyrics to suit the holiday season?

Yes, please!

I give you Calgary's The Chrisfits:

The Chrisfits - "Astro Tidings" mp3

From their MySpace page:

About The Chrisfits:
The Chrisfits are the self-proclaimed #1 seasonal Misfits tribute act in all of Alberta. We play classic Misfits songs with a yuletide twist; heartwarming hits such as "Mommy, Can I Go Out and Carol Tonight", "I Turned Into a Reindeer", "Teen-Angels from Bethlehem", and many, many more.

Band Members: Cranzig, Merry Only, Joyle, Hoho.


Nice. Merry Christmas from extrawack!.

Sexy Santa? You Be The Judge...And A Few More Sweet Christmas Jamz.

I was hipped to the fact today that a search of the words "sexy santa" on Flickr would bring me 2,780 photos of Santas in varying states of sexiness. I couldn't resist posting a hefty sampling here. Look for musical download goodness at the bottom.





























Orba Squara - "Blue Christmas" mp3

Forro in the Dark - "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer" mp3

Cracker - "Merry Christmas, Emily" mp3

Kele Bloc Party Spins Tonight At Robot Rock...And It's Free.

Kele from Bloc Party is special guest DJ tonight at Robot Rock at Le Royale. One of the nicest dudes in the biz, Kele's also one of the few musicians who can actually spin a great set.

It's free entry with an email to "list@gbh.tv".

Bloc Party - "Banquet" mp3

MOJO HD's "Three Sheets NY Pub Crawl" Contest

You may not even realize it, but if you've got cable, there's a good chance you have a channel called MOJO HD, which they describe as a "new 100% hi-def channel that is tailored to fit your interests from exceptional food to extreme locales, from high tech toys to high stakes antics, from Wall Street to easy street and the best of sports, music, movies and more. It's 180° from ordinary and 100% high definition, because life is how you see it." Wordy sales-pitch aside, it's actually got some great programming.

One of the best things about MOJO HD is their show Three Sheets, which is more or less just comedian Zane Lamprey cruising around the world to investigate local drinking customs and trends. He's funny, the show's a lot of fun and surprisingly educational, and I end each episode wanting to leap off my couch to speed off to the liquor store.

So naturally I'm psyched to hear that Lamprey and Three Sheets have taped Three Sheets: N.Y. Pub Crawl, which they'll broadcast New Years Eve at 9pm ET/PT. The show will feature stops at sake house Satsko and beer joint Burp Castle (both on East 7th), mook champagne & cigar joint Bubble Lounge, white-cap-wearing-frat-boy hang McSorley's, and three other interesting boozeaterias.

In honor of this show featuring our own backyard haunts, extrawack! would like to give one lucky reader a Three Sheets prize pack featuring a copy of Three Sheets Season One box set, a Three Sheets T-shirt and a MOJO HD magnet set. To win this swag, be the sender of the tenth email to extrawack@gmail.com with the subject line "THREE SHEETS". Contest only open to U.S. readers...sorry Iceland!

Watch a full episode of Three Sheets (in Croatia!) here.

Get a map of the pub crawl here.

Check out MOJO HD's London Live hosted by one of my pretend girlfriends Sara Cox here.

In New Jersey, MOJO is available on:
- Comcast Union/Verona channel 206

In Manhattan, MOJO is available on:
- Time Warner Southern Manhattan channel 796



Siberian - "Belgian Beer and Catholic Girls" mp3

Eastern Conference Champions Make Last Minute Run For Video Of The Year

One of our fave albums of '07 was Eastern Conference Champions' Ameritown, so we were psyched to find their new creepy-cool animated video for "The Box" floating around today...check it:

Eastern Conference Champions - "The Box" mp3

link courtesy Rock Insider

A Place To Bury Strangers This Friday at Bowery, Everywhere Else Next February & March.

NYC's best example of "sonic overdrive", A Place To Bury Strangers, is soon headed out on their most ambitious tour to date...but you can catch them in their last city date before they blow-up for real this Friday at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets for that show (also featuring The Cloud Room and The Giraffes) here.





Tour Dates For A Place To Bury Strangers:
12/21 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
12/29 - Toronto, ON - The Drake
02/14 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Bar
02/15 - Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
02/16 - Indianapolis, IN - Locals Only
02/17 - Chicago, IL - Schuba's*
02/18 - Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock*
02/20 - Winnipeg, MB - Parkway Theatre*
02/21 - Regina, SK - The Exchange*
02/22 - Edmonton, AB - Velvet*
02/23 - Calgary, AB - The Hifi Club*
02/25 - Vancouver, BC - Richards On Richards*
02/26 - Seattle, WA - TBA
02/27 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir
02/29 - San Francisco, CA - Bottom Of The Hill*
03/01 - Los Angeles, CA - Spaceland
03/03 - San Diego, CA - Casbah
03/04 - Tucson, AZ - Plush
03/06 - Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge*
03/07 - Denver, CO - Larimer*
03/08 - Kansas City, MO - Record Bar*
03/09 - Omaha, NE - The Waiting Room*
03/10 - St. Louis, MO - Bluebird*
03/11 - Oklahoma City, OK - Conservatory*
03/16 - New Orleans LA - One Eyed Jacks
03/17 - Atlanta, GA - Drunken Unicorn*
03/18 - Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
03/19 - Washington, DC - Rock 'N Roll Hotel
03/20 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's
03/21 - Boston, MA - Middle East (Upstairs)
03/22 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall Of Williamsburg
* with Holy Fuck

A Place to Bury Strangers - "To Fix a Gash in Your Head" mp3

New downloads from Malkmus, Sia, Cursive, Louis XIV, and more.

As we try to get ourselves back on track here, our last minute holiday gift to you is this handful of fine (and free) tunes...perfect for drinking eggnog or a can of Sparks to:

Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks - "Baltimore" mp3

Sia - "Electric Bird" mp3

4hero - "Morning Child" mp3

Louis XIV - "Guilt By Association" mp3

Health - "Triceratops (CFCF remix)" mp3

Cursive - "Bad Sects (Ocelot Remix)" mp3

Odawas - "I Tell Lies (Odawas Remix)" mp3

She's Mammoth in Monmouth, Sweet Talkin' In Weehawken, Representin' In Trenton.

I guess this has been out for a few months, but I received three different emails about it this week. It's pretty excellent...

Chunky Pam - "Dirty Jerzy"



And in case you missed her holiday jam last year ("I'm Giganta, Bigger than Santa..."), here's her "XXXLmas":

Be Back Shortly...Free New Pornographers MP3

Sorry for the lack of updates here...I'm in Boston for the week on business, and right now it's a snowy winter wonderland here:



I did get to catch The New Pornographers & k-os at Berklee Performance Center last night, which helped to warm things up a bit for me...

Please accept this excellent download in lieu of another witty post:

The New Pornographers - "My Rights, Versus Yours" mp3

We'll be back more regularly soon.

The Greatest Concert Shirt Ever?...Yo La Tengo, The dB's, Eugene Mirman, Jim James @ Maxwell's, 12/6/07

I picked this shirt up at the insanely awesome Yo La Tengo Hanukkah Night #3 show at Maxwell's in Hoboken, which also featured The dB's, Eugene Mirman, and Jim James of My Morning Jacket.



Genius, no? And t-shirt sales profits at these shows go to charity.

The dB's were fantastic, and I thought much better than when I saw them on the same stage last year. I was thrilled to be able to hear one of my favorite Christmas tunes, their "Home For The Holidays", live for the first time.

Eugene Mirman killed with a bunch of hilarious stuff about those strange ads that show up on the Internet asking you to vote for dopey topics like "Should Hilary Clinton Run For President"...even though she already is. He also took a poll amongst audience members about the best way to defend yourself in case you come upon a bear. One of the best answers was "Run into a bar", which Mirman liked since bears are probably not good at opening a door with a doorknob, and don't carry ID to get past the guy at the door checking ages.

YLT was just flat out great. There was literally not a moment where I thought, "I hope this song ends soon". Ira played like a man possessed, and they were joined at various moments by nearly every member of The dB's, and Jim James of My Morning Jacket.

Here's a shot of the amazing Yo La dB's combo...if there's a Hoboken Music Hall Of Fame, there are six shoo-in members in this photo:



Check my photo of Eugene Mirman and the set list at Brooklyn Vegan.

Yo La Tengo - "Don't Have To Be So Sad" mp3

The Story Of Stuff.

A friend of mine, whose taste I implicitly trust, sent me a link to a short film he was involved in the production of, about the economy of materials used in consumer goods. Not surprisingly, I found the flick entertaing, compelling, and fun to boot. I'm pleased to suggest the film to you, the smart and wise readers of extrawack!.



Here's the press release:

"The Story Of Stuff" Challenges American Consumerism
Just In Time For The Holidays
New Online Film Details Costs and Consequences of Consumer Culture

Berkeley, Calif. (Dec. 4, 2007) - As the holiday shopping season kicks into high gear, do consumers ever wonder what happens to their stuff from holidays past? "The Story of Stuff" (www.storyofstuff.com), a new short film released today online, takes viewers on a provocative tour of our consumer-driven culture - from resource extraction to iPod incineration - exposing the real costs of this use-it and lose-it approach to stuff.

Last year Americans spent $456.2 billion during the holiday season, and this year sales are predicted to rise 4 percent to $474.5 billion**. "The Story of Stuff" reveals that holiday consumption is not a seasonal phenomenon, rather an American maxim that has devastating consequences for our environment, third-world nations, working class Americans, personal health and even the general state of happiness in America.

Throughout the 20-minute film, activist Annie Leonard, the film’s narrator and an expert on the materials economy, examines the social, environmental and global costs of extraction, production, distribution, consumption and disposal. Her illustration of a culture driven by stuff allows her to isolate the moment in history where she says the trend of consumption mania began. The "Story of Stuff" examines how economic policies of the post-World War II era ushered in notions of consumerism - and how those notions are still driving much of the U.S. and global economies today.

According to the film, consumer mania may have been born from the post World War II era, but economic manipulation has driven consumerism to where it is today. From the limited life cycle of personal computers to changes in footwear fashion, Leonard demonstrates that products are either designed to be regularly replaced or to convince consumers that their stuff needs to be upgraded. This notion of planned and perceived obsolescence drives the machine of American consumerism year round.

The film features Leonard delivering a rapid-fire, often humorous and always engaging story about "all our stuff - where it comes from and where it goes when we throw it away." Written by Leonard, the film was produced by Free Range Studios, the makers of other socially-minded, web-based films such as "The Meatrix" and "Grocery Store Wars." Funding for the project came from The Sustainability Funders and Tides Foundation. A screening of the film will be held at the GAIA Arts center in Berkeley, Calif. on December 6.

The film’s Web site, www.storyofstuff.com, serves as an interactive launch pad for information and activism. The site features hundreds of organizations working to change the cycle of the materials economy and offers viewers "another way." The site includes resources and information, a footnoted script, a suggested reading list and ideas for educational activities and discussion topics for local screenings.

**Source: National Retail Federation (NRF); derived from U.S. Department of Commerce data.


Here's a teaser:



Interesting, right?

Watch the whole thing here, or click the button below to download a copy to stick in your portable media player:

Daft Punk Is Playing In My Zune, In My Zune...Alive 2007 Poster Giveaway

As one of approximately twelve people in the NYC area that DID NOT make it out to Coney Island this Summer to see what was obviously the concert of the year, I'm thrilled that the new Daft Punk Alive 2007 is finally released today. Now I can recreate the sensation of having a couple of crafty French dudes in helmets blasting crazy-hard disco beats at my face and insane sound levels...at home. In fact I'm doing it right now as I type this post. Now I'm gonna call the missus in to turn the light switch on and off to the beat.

OK, so it's not quite the same...but the music part is damn close. Alive 2007 is a pretty fantastic album, doubling as a live document of their tour and a just-in-time-for-the-holidays hits album.

Don't just take it from me, stream the whole thing right now at AOL Spinner.

To celebrate the release of Daft Punk's Alive 2007, extrawack! wants to give one lucky reader a limited edition Daft Punk Alive 2007 poster. Just send the fifteenth email to extrawack@gmail.com with DAFT PUNK in the subject line, and the poster is yours. Contest only open to U.S. residents...sorry Tajikistan!

extrawack!'s Top Ten Albums for 2007

Lest we get one more email or phonecall from a publicist or music mag asking us for a sneak peek at our year-end album list, I thought I'd post it up about three weeks earlier than we have in the past.



Ladies & Gentlemen, without further ado, and in alphabetical order...the extrawack! Top Ten Albums of 2007:


Nicole Atkins Neptune City
The Besnard Lakes The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse
The Cake Sale The Cake Sale
Calvin Harris I Created Disco
The Fratellis Costello Music
Gabby Glaser Gimme Splash
LCD Soundsystem Sound Of Silver
Ra Ra Riot Ra Ra Riot
M.I.A. Kala
White Rabbits Fort Nightly

As you can see, we were moved mostly by music that made us move. A bunch of the artists above gave us some of the best live sets of the year as well...James & LCD had us grooving with friends at Webster Hall and in the middle of thousands of strangers at the Virgin Festival in Baltimore. The Fratellis had us pogoing like it was 1979 at the Filter Courtyard Party @ SXSW. Nicole Atkins and The Besnard Lakes both hypnotized us in different but amazing ways at shows in Austin and Hoboken respectively. And M.I.A. made us feel like we were citizens of some sort of Groove Nation and she was that country's Queen Of Dope Beats when we saw her in Maryland and on Coney Island.

Here's our year-end gift to you, enough downloads to make your Zune/iPhone/whatever sound like ours:

Calvin Harris - "Acceptable In The 80s" mp3
Nicole Atkins - "Party's Over" mp3
The Besnard Lakes - "And You Lied To Me" mp3
The Cake Sale (featuring Nina Persson) - "Black Winged Bird" mp3
Gabby Glaser - "Spirit Of Long Island" mp3
The Fratellis - "Chelsea Dagger" mp3
White Rabbits - "The Plot" mp3

WOXY Running Hip Holiday Music 24/7

The good folks at WOXY.com have launched their "Holiday Mixer", a channel of streaming holiday tracks heavy on indie artists and sounds...

From their website:

From now through Christmas, we're pleased to offer up the WOXY HOLIDAY MIXER! This unique 24/7 collection of seasonal tunes is filled with vintage renditions of your holiday favorites by modern rockers from around the globe. We have a little bit of something for everyone with new music this year from the likes of Sufjan Stevens, Aimee Mann, Over The Rhine, and The Teenage Prayers. If you stick around long enough, you'll probably hear some irreverent selections from "A John Waters Christmas" and Spinal Tap but we've balanced them out with some classic tracks from Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and James Brown among others. To round things out a little more, we've also included some tunes about winter, snow falling, and the month of December because we know you can only hear "Jingle Bells" so many times...

As a example, here are the last 10 tracks the channel has played as of this morning:

10:38am
Judah Johnson - Cold Hands, Warm Heart
10:36am
The Raveonettes - The Christmas Song
10:34am
Elvis Presley - Santa Bring My Baby Back
10:31am
Kay Starr - The Man With The Bag (remix)
10:28am
The Partridge Family - Rockin' Around The...
10:23am
Natalie Merchant - Children Go Where I...
10:21am
Math And Physics Club - A Marshmallow World
10:18am
Bright Eyes - Blue Christmas
10:16am
The Young Republic - Oh Snow
10:15am
The Boy Least Likely To - Little Donkey

Cool, right?

Launch your WOXY Holiday Mixer player of choice here:
Winamp [aacPlus]
iTunes [MP3]
WinMedia [aacPlus]
WinMedia [MP3]

And here's a couple good 'uns to download right now:

Robbers On High Street - "Seasons Greetings" mp3
MINK - Little Drummer Boy (Girl) mp3

Cheeseburger, Neckbeard Telecaster, The Big Sleep, & Coin Under Tongue for free at Jinners' bash at KF Monday night...New Big Sleep download here.

To celebrate the five-year anniversary of her always insightful and fun blog Jinners.com, Jinners herself is putting on a crazy-great lineup of Jin-approved bands at The Knitting Factory Monday night...for free (see RSVP link below).

I'm in the midst of growing a beard to see if I can sneak onstage while Neckbeard Telecaster is playing, just to see if anyone notices...

As a teaser, here's a brand new track from The Big Sleep, from their forthcoming Sleep Forever out on Frenchkiss Records in February:

The Big Sleep - "Pinkies" mp3