Most of you have probably heard this already, but Neil Diamond has a holiday album with a cover of Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah Song.  Besides the general strangeness of covering the song, it is very bizarre that he feels the need to change “tom cruise isn’t, but I think his agent is” to “…but Jesus Christ is.”  Also bizarre that he felt the needed to say “don’t smoke your marijuanica.”  But if that wasn’t enough, he does a song called “Cherry, Cherry Christmas” where he takes the names of all his popular songs and inserts them into a new song about the holidays.  You can check them out at the hype machine or his myspace.

But there’s more!

• Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings just released a new 45, called “Ain’t No Chimneys in the Projects.”  And in the spirit of the season, are giving away the mp3 of it for free through their website.
• One of my favorite blogs, Soul-Sides, is giving away a mixtape of Aretha Franklin songs.
• While not a holiday song, it would be a great gift for me: White Stripes Live dvd “Under the Great White Northern Lights.”  You can now see the full version of “Let’s Shake Hands” on their myspace.
• This might be a stretch, but Christmas just came early for a couple bands.  They just released all the inductees for this the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year.   For once, I am happy with all of the picks: ABBA, the Hollies, Genesis, Jimmy Cliff, and The Stooges.

This will probably not be the last time that I report about a site’s best-of-the-year list or best-of-the-decade list. Berkeley Place put up a list of the best independent albums put out this year. One I hadn’t seen/read before was #2: Frank Turner. The site proclaims him as the next Joe Strummer, and I tend to agree. Describing him as “Punk Folk,” couldn’t be more spot on. I couldn’t get his myspace to work, so check him out on the Hype Machine or with the song on Berkeley Place that turned me on to him:

I don’t have anything great to put up, so here are a couple things; hopefully you like at least one of them.

• “Fuck Patience, Lets Dance” says Them Crooked Vultures (Grohl, Homme and JP Jones) cause they now have their new cd on the youtubes.
• Pixies did “Here Comes a Man” on the Co Co Show.
• More Gaga: she has a new song out and another cover of Poker face by Cartman.
• Weezy gots a documentary.  I hope he explains why his leather is so soft.
• Pearl Jam dressed up as Devo for Halloween, and here is Stone Gossard Rick-Rolling ya.
• I don’t know if this is supposed to be funny, but I laughed pretty hard.  Thanks Kristen.

I usually only do one Neil pic a post, but when I added the “Party In The USA,” I couldn’t help myself.  After the jump…

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