A Christmas Yuleblog

Throughout the 2006 Christmas downloading season, a great number of sites and blogs went above and beyond the call of duty with Christmas shares. Brainwerk's always hip and always fun blog entitled " Check The Cool Wax " contributed mightily to the festivities last year with a boatload of Christmas mirth. Throughout the other eleven months of the year, Brainwerk posts some of the most incredulous vinyl finds on the planet. For example, his latest post is a super ultra rare Bob Crane / "Hogan's Heroes" album that has Klink and Schultz hovering over Hogan behind a drum kit in Stalag 13! (Bet I just lost about 1/4 of my readers... DIS missed!) Back to last December. Brainwerk included among his Christmas shares the Mistletoe Disco Band's "Yuletide Disco", "Christmas With Melis" (Jose Melis), and an assortment of select MP3s and amazing artwork. Calm yourself - most of those links are down. Two days before Christmas last yea

Nearly two weeks ago, we travelled across the Atlantic to look at some amazing Christmas comps from Sweden - two from Anna-Lena Lodenius and two from Martin Klasch . We quickly cash in some frequent flier miles and head back once again to the country that brought us ABBA, the Nobel Prizes, and Ann-Margret to find a blog that's... well, Ultra Swank . A lad named Chris runs this amazing home of "playful lifestyle and design adventures from a happier time." Since he began the blog in September, 2005, he has posted a treasure trove of stylish postcards, links to other design sites, and incredible music from the lounge age. It was one of Chris' earlier compilations that led me to his blog. Last July, he issued the phenomenal comp " Retro Shopping Volume 1 - Music to Buy Toasters By " that featured brilliant music, including some of the famous Capitol Hi-Q recordings . This is the same stuff Ren & Stimpy used in their cartoons and it's STILL av

Welcome to week four of our two month look at Christmas comps. Last week, we spent looking at various comps sent to us via our P.O. Box. This week, we'll be looking at Christmas comps found online during the 2006 Christmas downloading season. During that magical time last Thanksgiving to Christmas Day, I surfed many sites and blogs looking for anything Christmas related. One said search brought me to a blog entitled Music For Maniacs . Their post of December 15th informed me "one of the Grand Poobahs of maniacal music" had just issued a holiday compilation. Who could it be? You know him, you love him - the one & only Otis Fodder. Otis has been involved in more online projects than I can count and has worn more hats than Kevin Smith during the filming of " Clerks ". Fodder was the main person behind the groundbreaking "365 Days" project in 2003. Every new calendar day brought an obscure or rescued MP3 offered to the public. He

Sure is quiet around the yuleblog on Sundays... Many longtime readers of the yuleblog (around four I think) will tell you that I'm never here on the weekends. That's because I have forever reserved this time to be spent with my wife and three children. Recently, there has been a spate of Saturday posts but a majority of these were written the Friday afternoon or evening before. It's then just a matter of a few mouse clicks on Saturday morning and nothing further. So what got me charged up on a Sunday to sit down at my computer to bang on the keyboard? Two weeks ago, I reviewed a Christmas comp from my friend Jonathan Melton entitled "Melton Mistletoe Mix 2006". RadioJonD has been busy with a number of Christmas projects this past year but an e-mail I received this afternoon reminded me of one of his other projects: "Your reviews are hitting the ole Christmas audio g-spot for sure this year! Thank you for your tireless effort day after day, year

(Due to computer problems, this week's schedule has been pushed back one day. Sorry for the mess!) Our latest Christmas comp hails from Tony Madejczyk of Durham, North Carolina (home of the legendary Durham Bulls minor league baseball team). Tony's note was very simple: "This CD is for your January review. I mixed it myself, I've been making these since 2000. Great blog!" A man of few words, it seems. So I sent Tony a set of standard questions I will be asking everyone who sent a comp. His answers are as follows: 1.) When did you begin creating your Christmas compilations? As early as Labor Day, or as late as the day after Thanksgiving, depending on what's going on around here. I try to wrap it up by my birthday, December 9, or at least the 15th! I'm also always on the look out for Christmas music all year long. This year was an embarrassment of riches on the blogs. THANKS, Y'ALL! 2.) Explain the process on creating your Christmas

Three weeks are on the yuleblog, five more weeks to go. I hope you're having fun because I'm having a blast going through these Christmas comps! This past week, we focused on comps that were sent to the P.O. Box. Next week, we're going to look at comps that I found online - several of which are still available for your listening pleasure! Here's what I'll be reviewing and you will be reading starting on Monday, February 26th: Monday, February 26th - Otis Fodder's Holiday Freaks 2002 & 2006 (TWO REVIEWS) Tuesday, February 27th - Retro Christmas Wednesday, February 28th - Check The Cool Wax V2: Christmas Wax Thursday, March 1st - Katya's Office Holiday Party 2005 Friday, March 2nd - Ton Rückert's 2003 & 2004 Christmas Comps (TWO REVIEWS) Many of you have these downloaded already but for those who haven't, you can use the almighty Google and find it for yourselves or wait until Monday when I'll have the links waiting for you.

(Due to computer problems, this week's schedule has been pushed back one day. Sorry for the mess!) Our next compilation comes from the sunny state of Florida (you know, where our friend Ernie (not Bert) hails from?). John Wells of Clearwater, FL sent us an extra copy of his comp to the P.O. Box. Or was that Colleen who sent us the comp? Hard to say considering whoever sent it placed their address label on the front cover! Reading the attached letter inside confirms that it was indeed John who sent the comp. To quote verbatim: "Hello! I've enjoyed your blog for sometime now and thought I would send a copy of my first annual compilation WITH some notes of explanation. "My wife and I have some very good friends that do a musical act called "When Buffett Meets Sinatra". Through them, we have met a group of people that we hang around with. Most of the copies of "Jingle Belles From The Wellses" went to friends in this group. "One of

(Due to computer problems, this week's schedule has been pushed back one day. Sorry for the mess!) Last December, as the comps began to flood my PO Box, this one stood out (not because of the semi-racy cover located above). It was the first package that I received that contained multiple copies of Christmas comps. I had assumed everyone would send me a copy of their work and that was that (what were YOU thinkin'?). Mike Quinn of Overland, Missouri obviously read and re-read the yuleblog entry asking for comps and noticed that I never had said "Limit one comp per package". I smiled thinking that was the most I'd receive from one person (what were YOU smokin'?). Along with the three submissions came a letter (more on that in a moment) and another disc that I thought was an audio CD at first. Boy, was I wrong! It was a tape-to-DVD copy entitled " Peter Clark's Christmas Tree Tips " that we played at our Christmas party. The 30 minute DVD