My friends and I spotted Lou Reed last night. It was far more intense than spotting a soulless Jessica Simpson or Tom Cruise...it made us all silent and gawky out of awe and respect.

I polled a few friends via SMS to see what, if anything, I could say to this iconic rocker. Only one person could think of a question:

"Ask him if, given what he knows now, he'd rather go to bed with Nico or Marianne Faithfull."

Needless to say, the question was not asked. What would you have asked him?

It's crunch time if you want to avoid mall madness and get things shipped out for the holidays. I did a bit of fussing for your benefit, so take advantage.

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UNDER $25:
IceBot Cell Phone Charm - $4
Kid Robot put out these bot-tastic cell phone charms so you can flaunt them while taking cameraphone pictures at your next show.

Poo Santa - $6
Poo and fart jokes are timelessly funny.

Sonic Youth - The Destroyed Room: B-Sides and Rarities - $15
This new release of obscure material from Sonic Youth is not for the name-droppers.

Pavement - Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels
Third in a series of goodie-packed 2-disc album reissues from these smart-assed indie darlings. Some Malkmus-tastic songs like "Give It A Day" and "No More Kings."


UNDER $60:
Griffin iKaraoke - $50
I hate karaoke bars. I hate listening to stupidhead lounge singers sing songs I don't recognize because I never paid attention to my mom's soft rock repertoire. With this small iKaraoke gizmo, any song from your iPod becomes karaoke-ready from your stereo. After all, it's going to be a long time before Bright Eyes shows up on a karaoke catalog.

Guitar Pick Earrings - $53
Wear just one and relive the 80's! Or ironically mock the decade if you were still breast-feeding in 1985.

Built By Wendy Custom Guitar Straps - $40
Wendy Mullin has finally revamped her guitar strap line to include some more up-to-date materials and colors. In the 90's Courtney Love, Sonic Youth, and yours truly sported these straps in their patent-leather-and-glitter glory days. The bet part is that you can customize them, which is sure to touch even the ingrateful Johnny Rotten in your life.

Buy a British Title - $??
For the person who's obsessed with Oasis and pretends to dig Razorlight on the mere premise that they're big in Britain. You can buy them a Lordship or Ladyship for only 27 pounds! (The currency rate sucks, so this translates to about $600.)


UNDER $200:
Assemble-Your-Own Theremin Kit - $95
A theremin is the instrument that makes melodic, ghostly sounds based on how your hand interacts with it. That sounds dirty.

The Clash: Singles Box Set(vinyl) - $83
A perfect reproduction of nineteen 7-inch singles from the Clash. For those who don't do vinyl, here's the CD version.

iPod DJ Mixing Console - $110
Working real turntables takes time and skill...pick this up for your friend and he/she could be iPod DJing in the Lower East Side before you can say "Ultragrrl."

Atech Flash iPod Stereo Dock AND Toilet Paper Holder - $90
Awesome and completely impractical. I predict that in 2007 some drunkard will wipe his ass with his iPod.


TOO RICH FOR YOUR OWN GOOD:
Minimoog Voyager in Electric Blue - $3395
Forget the Maroon 5 and Black Eyed Peas references on the site and think Brian Eno. This awesome new model of Moog has a 3D touch surface that you can use to control the sound with your finger based on pressure/location. Nerd the fuck out.

Remixes of two Thom Yorke tracks from The Eraser are available for download on his site. The tracks will be available for one week only starting today.

In: The Mermaid Inn, Christmas, White Russians, jackets, and dim lighting.
Out: Handbags, pop culture, daylight, laundry, and cleaning.

So...finally a weekend cold enough to rationalize the complaints. People have been grumbling, grimacing, and shivering since the first time the temperature fell below 60 degrees. It kills me, we go through this every year. Come early spring, you are all in your flip flops and shorts the first day we climb out of the 50's. It's nonsense. But this weekend got my teeth chattering for the first time.

Friday night I saw David Dondero at the Living Room (upstairs). It was a great show, I'll save the details for you to read in a live review we will be posting shortly. I was thoroughly satisfied with my evening and tried to be a good girl and make it home before the witching hour. However, I was intercepted by a run in with friends outside of 2a, and ended up seeing the gates of the bar close, the door lock, and the sun come up. When will I ever learn. I apologize once again to my loyal friend and bartender, Donovan, for once again, taking advantage of his hospitality and over staying my welcome.

Saturday night I attended a Rocky Horror Picture Show theme party in Brooklyn. I forgot how much fun a costume party can be, even though I didn't dress up, I was very disappointed in myself. I love to dress up, I was just too tired. But I have to thank my host Buffy for all the brownie treats, jello shots, and conversation. I always bitch about going to Brooklyn, and end up having oodles of fun.

Sunday was spent watching movies in my pajamas amongst the mess I made of my apartment during the booze fueled weekend. It started getting dark, and I still have failed to change the blown out light bulbs in my apartment. I have been operating in extremely dim lighting for longer than I care to admit, I think it is starting to get to me. I managed to muster up the energy to meet up with friends at The Mermaid Inn for dinner. I can't say enough good things about this east village restaurant. Great food, killer music, and it's super close to my apartment. BTW, the lobster roll is aces.

Tonight, I may head to B.B. King's to see Sizzla, a dance hall reggae performer. I know, I'm skeptical too. Don't judge me. But I have heard a lot of good things, from people I trust. If I make it, I'll be sure to let you know if it was worth it.

All of my favorite trashy reality shows seems to be over. The celebrities have been boring me. It's time to go out and see some live music!

If I were you, I'd go see David Dondero play tonight 12/8, upstairs at the Living Room . I'm not you, and I'm still going.

David Dondero is with Conor Oberst's label Team Love. I saw him play last year at CMJ and went home and bought most of his albums within a week. Don't miss it. Loose Record will be covering the show, so stay tuned for the review.

You need this.
I want this.


Bigby is a 2GB flash drive filled with music.

Win one courtesy of Loose, Record Collection Music, and Mimoco.

More details on our contests page...

Priced the same as an iPod, the Microsoft Zune is slowly proving to be the only contender that has a chance in hell of competing with Apple. The iPod has been such a massive success from the get-go due to its brilliant click wheel, whose ironclad patent protects it from being mimicked. It's certainly taken the industry long enough to get their foot into the ring...

The Zune is slightly bulkier than the iPod but still retains style. It has a much bigger [and color] display and a built-in FM tuner. If that's not enough, the catchiest gimmick is that the Zune is WiFi-enabled and allows file sharing with other Zunes. The downside to this gimmick is that a borrowed tune can only be played 3 times in 3 days. Another downside to the Zune is that it only works with PC's[thank you Bill Gates], and like the iPod the battery is irreplaceable.

Microsoft has sold over 1 million units of this product, but so far the Zune remains but a speck on the iPod empire.

Im somewhere very far away right now but an early Christmas gift from the Little Ones just flew into my inbox and I thought I'd share:

A Christmas Gift from The Little Ones

The Little Ones have designed a special Holiday screen saver as their Christmas gift to you - once you install it, it will begin a countdown to Christmas Day. It's also chock full of Holiday trivia and fun facts! But the best thing about it is that on Christmas Eve, you will be able to access a free download of an exclusive track from The Little Ones. It will only be available for those who download the screen saver and only available for one day - Dec. 24!

THE LITTLE ONES CHRISTMAS SCREEN SAVER FOR MAC USERS

THE LITTLE ONES CHRISTMAS SCREEN SAVER FOR PC USERS

I know its a lot of work and a lot of build up, but if you want some form of a gift on Christmas I'd suggest giving it a chance.

Here's a popular track off of their latest Sing Song:
Lovers Who Uncover (mp3)

Go see my favorite bartender, Donovan, and his band play tonight at Piano's at 10pm.

Kiss or Kill

• Spoon has been confirmed to play Webster Hall on 12/30. Tickets are on the 'spensive side($32).
  

• For your holiday shopping needs, Tower Records has been in 40-70% off bankruptcy mode for a little while now. Though the CD's are mostly overstocked or unknown titles at this point, I did manage to dig up Jim Noir and Pedro the Lion for about $7/each. DVD's(even the porno section) are priced dirt cheap.
  

In: Winter dresses, white wine, and whispering.
Out: Cell phones, underwear, and bar hopping.

I am thrilled to report that my weekend was filled with open bars, erratic weather, charity events, and dance music.

By the way, my name is Maggie McQuade, and this is my first blog posting ever! I am new to the world wide web, as tentative and vulnerable as a baby lamb. So please don't yell at me, or at least let me get my sea legs first. I know a lot of people are very sad that Jay is not with us anymore, and it's natural to lash out at the innocent when you're in pain. But, if you yell at me I might cry. Jay doesn't like to see girls cry.

Anyways...Thursday night I went to a charity event with my family at Gotham Hall to help raise money to send kids in bad neighborhoods to private schools. I watched adorable uniformed children sing in a chorus while enjoying an open bar. It was heart warming. I got drunk and started talking about making a difference. I went to the Mercury Lounge instead, to see the The Head Set. This is probably my 3rd time seeing the Head Set and it was by far the best. If you haven't checked out this band yet, do it. We had a writer cover the show, so you'll hear all about it from them. Spent the rest of my night at 2a, as usual.

I spent Saturday indoors hoping to restore enough homeostasis to see my friend Marcos' band, Chico Mann, at Sin-e. Marcos is one of the many men behind one of my favorite groups, Antibalas. Chico Mann is an Electro/Afro-beat/Funk group. Their sound is one guaranteed to make you pierce your lips together and thrust your chin in arbitrary directions . I even found myself so overcome by the funk that I was forced to shake my head back and forth in an effort to pantomime the sentiment, "too dirty, too sexy"! Listening to Chico Mann makes me feel like throwing understated bedroom eyes at sexy strangers, smoking cuban cigars, and wearing leisure suits. The band that followed Chico Mann, American Watercolor Movement, was a pleasant surprise. AMW is an experimental indie rock group from NJ. This band was so different than anything that I have heard recently, that it is going to take me awhile to decide exactly how I want to explain them to you. You'll be hearing more on them from me as soon as I can gather my thoughts.

I have Marcos to thank for my Saturday evening. Marcos got me on the list for a charity event in Tribeca where Antibalas would be playing. Unfortunately, I still cannot remember the name of the charity organization it was for, I'm an ass. But, I thank them dearly for all the hard work they've been doing and the free booze, food, and dancing.

I'm going to finish this up by explaining a bit about something I think is Out.

Attention: Will everyone please stop using their phones during live shows! The little blue glow of people text messaging all their friends from the front row is killing me. If you need to make contact with someone, you're going to have to lose your spot up front. The same goes for conversation. I understand that you are psyched that your friend just arrived, or your just dying to tell someone something before you forget, but save it, or take it to the back, or at least whisper it in their ear for the love of god! It's disrespectful to the band, and all the people who are really invested in the show. I'm cleaning your slate, you all know who you are, change your behavior or you will become another victim of my deadly evil eye.

Hope you all had a great weekend! My first blog is officially complete. I'll get better, I promise.

Sufjan Stevens Songs for Christmas 5-EP box set is streaming for free online here. Jesus music suits Sufjan.

Check out a new track from Pinback frontman Rob Crow's third solo release, Living Well. Rob will be on tour starting in February 2007.

Rob Crow - "I Hate You"

This afternoon, I saw sunlight for the first time in days. It feels grand.

We played in Rhode Island Wednesday night and began the road to redemption after our morbid Shitford experience. Kids in RI are attentive, friendly, and apparently love to hug musicians. I never really understood the "can I give you a hug?" fan culture, but when it happens it's so endearing that you can't help but melt and say yes. [No doubt in a couple years my sense of germophobia will heighten.]

Hugs are in.