Since you're likely drunk as shit on eggnog and festive cocktails, now is a great time to listen to Blue Oyster Cult. Read on for your holiday fill of 70's head-bobbing rock!

Photos from a solstice show I participated in a couple of years ago.

If you read my prior article detailing the Crunk Genius of Chattanooga's own Admiral Daye, you might be glad to know that he now has a Youtube channel and Facebook page. Shit Yea.

Put Your Hands Up!!!


Drop That Coochie!!!


You have no idea how happy this makes me. Drop that coochie, you don't know where it's been.

01. You shall have no other gods before me
02. You shall not make for yourself an idol
03. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God
04. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
05. Honor your father and mother
06. You shall not murder
07. You shall not commit adultery
08. You shall not steal
09. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
10. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife

Jazz standards. You've heard hundreds of them. Take the 'A' Train, It Don't Mean A thing, and the ubiquitous Round Midnight, are all prime examples. If you're a jazz musician you're expected to be able to play these tunes at the drop of a hat. As a result, jazz fans end up hearing them quite a bit. They're good songs and all, but after half a century of being played by every aspiring jazz musician, they tend to lose some of their teeth. Sometimes though, someone comes along and breathes new life into one of them. The classic example is John Coltrane's later versions of My favorite things. Here goes the original version recorded by Mary Martin for the Broadway production of The Sound Of Music:



And this is what happens when Mr. Coltrane takes it, packs it full of eastern modes, and solos over a vamp of the song's two tonic chords:



Yea, fantastic.

Then you've got a song like Cherokee. It's been around since the late 30's and damn near everyone in the history of jazz has recorded a version of it. One of the most well known is Charlie Barnet. It is widely considered to be his signature tune:



Very much a middling vanilla jazz number that you never really expect much from. Then along comes guitarist Bireli Lagrene and completely changes the way you feel about it. He manages to take the song in several different directions, often within the course of a single solo: samba, modality, bebop, and a few dixieland flourishes for fun:



Yea, I know, incredible. Want one more? Go listen to Bireli and Didier Lockwood absolutely shredding George Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm"

Also known as the coolest thing ever. Most of the really well known bad guys from the Ultraman Tokusatsu series performing the dance sequence from Thriller while being judged by the many incarnations of the Ultra family. Further proof that Japan > Everything else.