deck the halls with auditory delight

It is the Christmas season, so in the spirit of giving, I give you the following links …

According to saddlecreek.com, Peta2.com is giving away a few copies of the Spend an Evening with Saddle Creek DVD. Members of The Faint autographed one, and Cursive signed the other. Here’s the link: peta2.com.

USA TODAY published an article today about how to get heard when you’re a musician. It includes this quote: "Technology has changed things all the way through the chain," says Kelli Richards, a digital music pioneer who co-wrote The Art of Digital Music. "You can, in a garage, create (recorded) music that 10 years ago would've cost $100,000, and you can instantly reach a global audience."

It really is amazing. Yesterday, iTunes introduced NBC shows to its offerings, and it included snippets from Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien. Right now, there are no live performances, but wouldn’t that be incredible? I would love to have Conor’s “When the President Talks to God” performance so I can watch it and think back to the day I sat right on the front row, breathing the same air as Mr. Oberst in his cowboy hat.

The article also mentioned GarageBand.com, a site that any unsigned musician can post his or her music to. Listeners are asked to rate songs.

Pitchfork Media announced today that The Postal Service is finally releasing a new song ... sort of. They are joining The Cure, Snow Patrol and Duran Duran on an album of John Lennon covers to benefit Amnesty International. Read the story here. The songs will be available to purchase on the Web at amnesty.org/noise. Check out the graphic -- remember the Rock For Choice logo? Looks kind of familiar, eh?

Said the Gramophone, an awesome mp3 blog, is posting the author’s top songs of the year – and you can download mp3s of the whole darn batch – The Strokes, Imogen Heap, Broken Social Scene, Sufjan Stevens, Wolf Parade, Stars, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and many others.

This one’s for you, Christy, and everyone who loves The Smiths and tattoos! We Like Morrissey Tattoos

Between Thought and Expression, another cool mp3 site, offers up a mashup of The Arcade Fire’s “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)” and that hideous “My Humps” song from Black Eyed Peas, which come together to create “Hump My Tunnel,” of course. Don’t even get me started “My Humps” – that song is insipid. By the way, I had to get measured for a tuxedo today, and my chest is an inch larger than my pant measurement. Is that possible? The voice in my head screams, “Time to go back to the gym!!”

Iron & Wine and Calexico played the 9:30 Club in D.C., recently, and NPR being the essence of cool that it is, posted the show on its Web site. So Much Silence, another kickin’ mp3 blog, posted the downloadable files. Get them while you can – they won’t be up there for long!

The new White Stripes’ cover of Tegan & Sara’s “Walking With the Ghost” is now available on iTunes. Are those the right lyrics?

By the way, anyone see Rent or Walk the Line yet? Christy and I saw them on the same day – two films that are entirely different and yet both feature drug addiction as a central plot theme and the kind of music I can’t get out of my head. I literally cannot stop singing along to my Broadway soundtrack on Rent in the car. It was weird to watch it and know what their next words would be. I really enjoyed it. Walk the Line is going to be the one to beat at the Oscars. Reese and Joaquin both deserve Academy Awards for their performances. Incredible! And I had no idea that June Carter Cash wrote "Ring of Fire."

December 24. 9 p.m. Eastern standard time. From here on in, I shoot without a script; see what comes of it.