You can count on one thing every year at this time, TV footage of people rushing into a Wal-Mart at 5am on Black Friday. Now, that's the Christmas spirit right there, trampling on your fellow man to save $5 on a Coby DVD player.
So while the jerks of America waste a day off, you can sit back with a cappuccino and your internet connection and buy these MusicSnobbery approved gifts for that music snob in your life.
The Brit Box: U.K. Indie, Shoegaze, and Brit Pop Gems of the Last Millennium: My good friends at Rhino have outdone themselves again with a primer on all things BritPop. While most of the songs you probably have in your collection anyway, it's the nifty packaging in a British phone booth that lights up that will peak your interest. With a smartly structured selection starting with the founders like The Smiths and Jesus & Mary Chain and ending with later acts like Rialto and Super Furry Animals, the box will convert you into a true Anglophile. I personally like the essays from Stephen Street and Alan Moulder.
Ramones - It's Alive 1974-1996: Also from Rhino comes a comprehensive career-spanning DVD set of rare live performances from back in the CBGBs and Max's Kansas City day. It shows a little bit of what it was like in the 70s NYC punk scene.
Daft Punk - Alive 2007: I guess if you want to be different, you have to name your live CD or DVD ALIVE, rather then LIVE. In any event, the second official live CD release finds the guys in their home planet of Paris where they scramble your brain with their influential catalog.
The Best Northern Soul All Nighter...Ever: I picked this up in the U.K., but you should be able to get reasonable price on ebay for this import. Virgin Records released this 2-CD set in 2001, but since expanded the set of party tracks that had Britons heading to the Wigan Casino. You can find Jackie Wilson, The Isley Brothers, Archie Bell and Gloria Love alongside some lesser known acts. It was a real ear opener for me, discovering some great tunes I'd never heard of before.
IPOD Cosy: About half my female friends are into knitting, so if you're stuck for cash and want to give the gift on yawn, try this pattern for an IPOD cosy. My wish is that somebody makes an IPOD case made out hard candy, so you can lick your IPOD. It's an ILolliPop!
Elvis Cologne: Who wouldn't want to smell like the King? Well, maybe not today, which would be like friend peanut butter & jelly and banana with bacon sandwiches and embalming fluid, but this discontinued scent will have you saying, "thankyoumame." Nothing says Merry Christmas like discontinued cologne that costs $175.
Frampton Comes Alive T-shirt: I was trying to think of a concert shirt that would combine hipster irony and kitchy humor -- similar to when Barry wears a Yanni shirt in High Fidelity. Low and behold, as I type this, a Geico commercial comes on with Peter Frampton. Problem solved. Your friends will be ALIVE with this Frampton Comes Alive t-shirt. I want yooooouuuuu, to show me the shirt. Day after to daaaaaaayyyyy.
1000 Record Covers: Taschen is my favorite book company. They make big, expensive gift books on every subject and they are not afraid to be controversial or outlandish. A $1,000 book on a porn star!? I personally own their 20 lb, $200 Stanley Kubrick book and a few of their bizarre postcard series of inexpensive books. The 1000 Record Cover book has everything you can think of from the iconic to the obscure to the WTF?
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