2008 HOLIDAY GIFT IDEAS

To help you get your shopping in order (and to supplement our Christmas Guide), here are some suggestions that haven't been previously posted in these pages, a few gift ideas for all those music lovers on your list...

BOOKS

THE PITCHFORK 500: OUR GUIDE TO THE GREATEST SONGS FROM PUNK TO THE PRESENT
SLEEVEFACE: BE THE VINYL

We'd also recommend the recently-reviewed Rough Guide To The Best Music You've Never Heard, but those partial to lists or sight gags will respectively burn through either of these new books, both indebted in their own way to this digital age.

MAGAZINES

OXFORD AMERICAN SOUTHERN MUSIC ISSUE 2008
SPACING HOLIDAY GIFT PACK    

 

Although we regularly stock a wide assortment of monthly music magazines, these two items will only be available in the coming month or so, so now's the time to grab them. The 10th annual Southern Music Issue of the Oxford American features high-quality essay-length musings by the likes of Greil Marcus, Robert Earl Hardy, Grant Alden, Peter Guralnick and many more, as well as a 2CD set of songs from such article subjects as Jerry Lee Lewis, The "5" Royales, Neko Case, Furry Lewis, Ella Fitzgerald, and even The Residents! For something somewhat different and much closer to home, the amateur urban geographer of the family might prefer a Spacing Holiday Gift Pack, with all three '08 issues and three postcards handily wrapped in a TTC route map.   

BLUES

CLASSIC BLUES ARTWORK FROM THE 1920s, VOL. 6: 2009 CALENDAR (w/ CD)
R. CRUMB'S HEROES OF BLUES, JAZZ, & COUNTRY (book & CD)
EARLY BLUES/JAZZ/COUNTRY GREATS (trading cards)

For the oldtimey-obsessed among us, may we recommend: this coming year's installment of the Classic Blues Artwork Calendar, full of full-sized promotional paraphernalia from the Golden Age of the blues (it also includes a 19-track CD); the book that gives you the biographies of the storied lives of R. Crumb's personal heroes of blues, jazz and country, similarly including a CD, and accompanied by full-colour Crumb illustrations, naturally; or the spinoff trading cards that shrink all that info down to just the stats, ma'am.   

AMERICANA

HANK WILLIAMS - The Unreleased Recordings (3CD)
VA - Dim Lights, Thick Smoke & Hillbilly Music, 1945-1950

For tastes that veer more towards mid-century honkytonk, this Time-Life 3CD box of never-before-heard Hank Williams recordings could do the trick, as could this Bear Family single-disc series of Country & Western hit parade classics.

SOUL

JAMES BROWN - I Got The Feeling (3DVD)
CURTIS MAYFIELD - Movin' On Up (DVD)
OTIS REDDING - The Legacy Of Otis Redding (DVD)
VA - Respect Yourself: The Stax Story (DVD)
VA - Stax/Volt Revue: Live In Norway 1967 (DVD) 
VA - Stax Double Feature (2DVD)
PARLIAMENT-FUNKADELIC - The Mothership Connection Live 1976 (DVD)

This heaping stack of Stax, JB, Curtis and P-Funk videos will surely end your search for what to get that soul aficionado of yours!     
    

CLASSIC ROCK

CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL - Reissues
THE WHO - At Kilburn 1977 (DVD)
THE ROLLING STONES - Shine A Light (DVD/soundtrack CD)
AC/DC - No Bull: The Director's Cut (DVD)

All of the above feature tried, tested and true rock legends at their live best; even the CCR remasters are now each appended with energetic bonus live recordings.

'80s & '90s POP/ROCK REISSUES

THE CLASH - Live At Shea Stadium (regular/deluxe CD)
THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN - The Power Of Negative Thinking (4CD box)
THE REPLACEMENTS - Reissues
R.E.M. - Murmur (2CD Deluxe Edition)
THE SMITHS - The Sound Of The Smiths (regular/deluxe 2CD)
NEW ORDER - Reissues (2CD Collector's Editions)
WEEN - At The Cat's Cradle 1992 (CD/DVD)
PAVEMENT - Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition (2CD)

Many classics of the punk rock, college rock, alt-rock and indie-rock eras (as well as previously unreleased live material) have been reissued as remastered discs, deluxe editions and box sets over the last year, so it's high time for hardcore fans of the above acts to complete and supplement their collections.          

CHILDREN'S

THE POINT! (DVD)
VA - See You On The Moon!: Songs For Kids Of All Ages
VA - Mamma Yamma And Friends
JENNY OMNICHORD - Charlotte Or Otis: Duets For Children, Their Parents, And Other People,  Too             

For the youngest listeners (and their parents, and other people, too, to quote Jenny "Omnichord" Mitchell), try the animated cartoon musical adaptation of Harry Nilsson's classic kid's fantasy, Paper Bag's 2006 set of Can-Con all-stars, the CBC's brand-new disc honouring Kensington Market's TV puppet chef par excellence, or Ms. Mitchell's ode to the then-impending birth of her child.

GIFT CERTIFICATES

And if you're still stuck, there are always good old gift certificates, available all year round in any denomination.