LightNews LightNews
cinescoper1998.bsky.social
@cinescoper1998.bsky.social
9 followers 16 following 4 posts
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted
trwesterman.bsky.social
Day 20

Main pick:
The Island of Misfit Toys, covered fittingly by the Misfits.
youtu.be/Q7gn47Qccvo
Bonus:
The Snow Miser song by 45 Grave
youtu.be/zz7KTvkcFlA

#music #musicsky
#musicchallenge #musicadventcalendar #adventcalendar #tuccac #xmas #nowplaying #carols #christmas #misfits #45grave
Day 20 of the Underplayed Christmas Carol Advent Calendar 2025. We see a pic from the Island of misfits toys from the Rankin/Bass claymation holiday special “Santa Clause is Coming to town” with Misfit band action figures added, and a Misfits skull logo on the Jack in the Box misfit toy. There’s also the controversial Penguin happy meal toy from Batman Returns added by the Jack-in-the-Box. There’s also a Lego Shiva the chawennie, and a Lego depiction of 45 Grave next to a Snow Miser and Heat Miser figurine toy, as they provide a bonus cover of another Rankin/Bass track from The Year Without a Santa Clause. The Misfits, an American punk rock band, have some of the most iconic iconography since the Grateful Dead; rock and roll aficionados recognized the Misfits as pioneers of the horror punk subgenre, blending punk and other musical influences with horror film themes and imagery. The group was formed in 1977 in Lodi, New Jersey, by vocalist, songwriter, and keyboardist Glenn Danzig. 45 Grave had a lesser-known career than the Misfits, acolytes and first followers of the horror punk genre, forming in 1979 and disbanding in 1985 until reformed by lead singer Dinah Cancer, operating continually again since 2005. A seminal LA Punk band, regardless of subgenre, they also have more California in their sound, making them also proto-Beach Goth, just preceded by the Doors. Jim Morrison’s associated hippie imagery may not seem Beach Goth, save the black leather holding in his lizard king, but they provided the blueprint with songs like the Ghost Song, their cover of Bertolt Brecht’s “Alabama Song” (3 Penny Opera), “the Unknown Soldier,” “Ship of Fools,” and “Light my Fire.” Jim Morrison evoke fatalism and his early death providing Paris with its most visited attraction for some years, make them important prior-art. 45 Grave perhaps greatest cultural impact came from the use of “(It’s) Party Time” on the soundtrack for my Letterbox top 4 film “The Return of the Living Dead.”
December 20, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Reposted
trwesterman.bsky.social
Day 15

Candy Cane Children
by the White Stripes.
youtu.be/_xkh6b53Z2M?...
Live bonus:
youtu.be/5WtJJ8jiwBY?...

#music #musicsky #musicchallenge #adventcalendar #tuccac #nowplaying #musicadventcalendar #vinyl #xmas #whitestripes #jackwhite #megwhite #rockhall2025
Day 15 of the Underplayed Christmas Carol Advent Calendar 2025, the White Stripes Candy Cane Children. Jack paints a drumhead with Meg’s favorite candy, a peppermint swirl, that gives the band their name. Meg in pigtails sits on the drum head, on a peppermint cushion while holding a have eaten peppermint lolly in her toes, tempting Tarantino. Lego White Stripes set on the drumhead. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame logo comes from Jack’s brush as well, labeled 2025 inductees (2nd ballot, 2nd year eligible). 15 is written over Jack and Meg sitting on peppermint drums. Also seen: the white vinyl 2002 Xmas single, today’s Song Selection. I included a live version to show what a raw and great live cabaret act the Stripes were. The B-Side has Jack reading the story of the Magi followed by Meg singing Silent Night. It’s a thoughtful, sincere and raw single so please seek out the B-side too. Jack married Meg to take her name, annulment being cheaper than legally paying to change Jack Gillis to Jack Stripes, both wanting a namesake stake in the band; their romantic relationship ended before the White Stripes recording career began. Both belonging to close knit Detroit families, they avoided “Will they, won’t they?” dynamics by taking the stage persona of siblings. The White Stripes lyrical themes often deal with childhood, reinforced by the band’s dress, use of toy / learners instruments, and aesthetic of doing the simple exceptionally well, following the rock rules in rock club colors. Meg White’s primitive, untrained approach to drumming unlocked Jack’s songwriting on guitar, finding her grooves infectious and akin to Robert Johnson keeping time tapping his foot on the wooden board (never got to worry about locking the door). This approach overlayed with Jack filling the rest of the sound out left plenty of room for his lyric storytelling, focused on growing up. Candy Cane Children also became the White Stripes’ fandom’s collective name. I’ve seen Jack live 30x A polar bear and penguin tour poster for the White Stripes London show. A Christmas goose in a Christmas hat in red, white and black—rock club colors—for the White Stripes Paris tour poster.
December 15, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Reposted
trwesterman.bsky.social
Day 12: theme finale!

Stuff the 🦃 by 👽 Sex Fiend
www.youtube.com/watch?v=67eP...

Bonus (not under-spun but 😮): Away in a Manger, by Cattle Carol, a true “farm aid” BabyJ Bday anthem!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5fo...

#music #musicsky #musicchallenge #adventcalendar #tuccac #nowplaying #vinyl #xmas
Day 12 placard from the Underplayed Christmas Carol Advent Calendar 2025. A chaotic scene of English punk revelry and a priest getting a snowball in the face at a row house—buggers flung, beer guzzled, legs and 🎁 wrapped presents sticking out of metal garbage bins, with a poster for Stuff the Turkey by Alien Sex Fiend nailed to the fence. Three punks hold up a banner reading: bonus, away in a manger by Carol Cattle. This is the last day of the second quarter theme. Can you guess it? English rock band Alien Sex Fiend formed in London in 1982. The current lineup of the band consists of Nik Fiend and Mrs Fiend. Five of the group's albums and 12 of their singles reached top 20 positions in the UK indie charts in the period up to 1987. And giving new meaning to “farm aid,” Carol Cattle, an auto-tuned tune for BabyJ on his natal Bday, that makes an almost recognizable version of barnyard sounds in a carol that might have an inspirational relationship to all 4 themes of the Underplayed Xmas Song Advent Calendar 2025. Unwrap the mystery of the mini-game in this music challenge this Xmas! 🎧 🎵 🎄 The beautiful jade green vinyl for Alien Sex Fiend’s album that includes today’s choice track, Stuff the Turkey!
December 12, 2025 at 4:52 PM
cinescoper1998.bsky.social
I.C.E. collects checks to be nasty they ho ho hoes.
December 11, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Reposted
trwesterman.bsky.social
Day11

Applescruff scuttlebutt goes #Beatles Paul keeps his best Xmas recordings for family but here’s…
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZsa...

& a most maligned song revived:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY3M...

#music #musicsky #musicchallenge #adventcalendar #tuccac #nowplaying #reggae #paulmccartney #macca
Even Beatle Paul, the ultimate insider, must feel like a bit of an outsider at Christmas (albeit that’s not this weeks’ theme). To say “Wonderful Christmastime” divides families at Xmas, wouldn’t be an understatement, or an overstatement, but a just-right statement. I once saw a bookseller involuntarily shout a short, distraught, “no!” as the dounce-dounce bounce of WC’s synth intro reverberated from the pre-programmed store holiday radio ceiling speakers; he dropped a stack of books with such a clatter, a manager came to see what was the matter. It was Paul. The Beatles became my favorite band in grade school, and despite introducing this advent calendar with a dig at Paul, I got to stan the most successful singer songwriter ever.   More on topic, here’s Rudolph the Red Nosed Reggae from the Paul McCartney The 7” Singles, (159 tracks with 80 singles). Wonderful Christmastime has 100s of millions of plays, and this Macca track on has 80,000 plays on Spotify, but it’s completely inoffensive and great background music for a holiday party, that allows Paul to have fun and play around with Reggae music, as he did when producing Linda’s “Sugartime” with lifelong friend Lee Scratch Perry; the McCartneys’ generous producing fee set up the Upsetter for his black arc studio years, and may have burned it down as an anti-racist statement inspired by his loyalty to Paul. That alone warms my heart, as I too am not a big fan of the production of his bigger Xmas song (albeit I included a bonus, version, that while not my favorite style, fits this simple lyric and shows what’s sort of catchy and beautiful about the song). Also heartwarming, the music video of Paul and Linda together, despite Paul’s nose being as red as Rudolph the Reggae Reindeer’s (that track just sounds like musical cocaine [allegedly])—and I need warming; it’s a snowy, cold winter. So today I’ll pretend I’m in Jamaica albeit it feels here more like a Dickensian winter.
December 11, 2025 at 12:14 PM
cinescoper1998.bsky.social
That's good; I mean it's two months too late for when I would want to watch that. Right now, I'm watching Christmas horror. I don't know for sure when it would have fared better fiscally.
December 10, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Reposted
trwesterman.bsky.social
Day10

🐧, James 🐧
By Brad Paisley

From a weird Italiano-Tues (albeit Donkeys unlike reindeer cameo in the Xmas story), to the 2nd #westernWednesday

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeI5...

A 🐧 with a license to Chill.

#music #musicsky #musicchallenge #adventcalendar #tuccac #nowplaying #country #penguin
The Underplayed Xmas Song Advent Calendar 2025: Penguin, James Penguin by Brad Paisley on a Paisley patch. The advent calendar square in the corner has a 10 with the Batman the Animated series Penguin on it. The crowded background scene shows the Penguins from Batman Returns’ zoo sewer in the background, with a secret agent penguin and decoy hiding amongst the movie’s webbed footed stars. As a fun mini game, you can guess the new faces on the past-incarnations of the Penguin, aka Oswald Cobblepot. Burgess Meredith, Colin Farrell, the Caped Crusader lady Penguin, and 80s cartoon Penguin in the foreground all have new faces playing them, as does Devito in the background. Can you name all 5 actors disguised as Penguins? The 80s cartoon one is the hardest to spot (as the weakest morph). Anyway, it’s a kooky but fun song from 1 of country’s well-established stars so I hope you enjoy the crazy image. Photoshop is my passion (har-har).
December 10, 2025 at 4:25 PM
cinescoper1998.bsky.social
2 months too late
December 9, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Reposted
trwesterman.bsky.social
Day 9.
“Hey, chingedy ching, hee-haw, hee-haw.” Dominick 🇮🇹🎄🫏

2 weird tracks, the o.g. Novelty NJ DJ Lou Monte…
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRMj...
…& a “special” cover…
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQs1...

#music #musicsky #musicchallenge #adventcalendar #tuccac #nowplaying #Football #Italian #animals
Day 9 of the Underplayed Xmas Carol Advent Calendar 2025, WWII vet turned novelty NJ DJ Lou Monte’s “Dominick the Donkey,” the Tristate area staple from the mean Lyndhurst stables—and a cover by the Philly Specials, a recording group formed by 3 Philly Eagles (NFL): Lane Johnson, Jason Kelce, and Jordan Mailata whose 2nd charity Xmas album with their Peanuts avatar singing in front of a red curtain in a spotlight wearing winter wear. The calendar imagine shows a brown and grey donkey with poinsettia-wreath-crowns laying their heads over a barnyard fence covered in ivy. There’s also a label for the Peaceful Valley Donkey rescue, an animal charity. A Lyndhurst-raised Italian-American, Lou Monte served in WWII, then returned to his home state to work as a novelty song comedy DJ, a niche in entertainment Dr Demento fills (grandfathered in, the last shop in a dying industry), and originated by the Big Bopper (who died the day the music did with Buddy Holly and Richie Valens). Monte, like Sly Stone would after him, filled this same niche and in 1960 released the regional standard “Dominick the Donkey.” He regularly joked about his roots, earning epithets like “The Godfather of Italian Humor” and “The King of Italian-American Music,” as he also played Italian songs. Monte even had a local tv program and was also well-known as a comedy MC in NYC clubs. His act failed to travel nationally—keep in mind in America at this time Italians were sometimes more welcome in black jazz combos than white country clubs. While the song never left NJ, or Italian American homes with physical copies, A Xmas compilation in 95 reintroduced the song. In 2011, the song had another resurgence when Chris Moyles, A UK DJ, played it heavily and his audience helped land the song a surprise #3 spot on the charts (ironic enjoyment from the UK hipster streak). Jason Kelce loves the song and covered it with War of Drugs drummer and producer Charlie Hall, leaning into weird psychedelia. It’s their best.
December 9, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Reposted
trwesterman.bsky.social
Day 5.

Holly, Carol, Candy and Joy.
by JD McPherson.

In 2018, a 41yo JD released Socks—the best-written originals Xmas album of this Century.

JD will tour the Socks set extensively this month (tickets still available)!

#music #musicsky #nowplaying #vinyl #JDMcpherson #TUCCAC #adventcalendar
Day 5 of the Underplayed Xmas Song Advent Calendar 2025. Artist: JD McPherson, song “Holly, Carol, Candy & Joy” from the album Socks. A child in bed dreams of a woman with a holly leaf dress, a candy cane woman, a bell woman, and a present personified as a woman, holding hands in a chain. A female director’s speech bubble, spoken through a bullhorn, points out that the lineup of cartoon women doesn’t match the title’s name ordering. Today’s Advent Calendar square works off the single’s album cover. This is the 1st male artist on my underplayed Advent Calendar; yet it probably won’t throw you too much if you already guessed the theme for the 1st-quarter, 4 themes of 6 days each. Tomorrow will be the last day for this theme with the 1st Lady of American Song. Another JD song from Socks will appear later on in Dec., my favorite. Holly… fit the obvious theme (keeping it easy for the first 6 like a Monday crossword). The number of unique concepts for Xmas songs with poetic-principled lyrics that track perfectly over JD’s rockabilly revival style songs, evokes rock and roll’s 1st mainstream era while also feeling contemporary. Like the greatest standards, JD’s songs seem timeless, like they should have always been in our lives. Rockabilly often jettisoned the storytelling side of country, yet JD tells a unique Xmas story with each track. After hearing so many failed attempts at writing Xmas songs, for maybe even the last 40 years—the 40s crooners always resurrecting each Xmas into the mainstream culture—you have to think many songwriters heard this new batch of songs and had to smack themselves—you mean these ideas were just there for the taking!? I already knew JD & Socks but the great Terri Gross who studies songwriting feat. a rare live sesh on Fresh Air—and she’s Jewish (albeit many Jewish Xmas songwriters wrote standards so maybe it’s unsurprising). https://www.npr.org/2018/12/11/675628082/a-roots-and-rockabilly-holiday-concert-with-jd-mcpherson-and-his-band A JD McPherson tour poster for 2025. Check his website https://www.jdmcpherson.com/tour for tickets! He’s covering the map, hitting up as many cities as Santa! Tickets remain available, a Christmas miracle for you and a great cultural injustice for JD. This is not a paid promotion. This is fan promotion. A beautiful Christmas colored splatter vinyl, red and green streaks on white. A kid in a leather jacket sulks, armed cross, on the floor, in the foreground of a Christmas tree, legs splayed on the floor, surrounded by socks with an unwrapped present box.
December 5, 2025 at 12:58 PM
cinescoper1998.bsky.social
dude...they took your side...

cowards never apologize.
September 21, 2025 at 4:29 AM