Newsletter December 2005

Every time we add something new, you'll see a linked guide to it here, with our archive of past Newsletters.

If you join the Stereo Society, you will receive a monthly newsletter with direct links to everything new and announcements about fresh downloads etc.
Please forward a copy to a friend.

At last, we are delighted to report that Hilly Kristal’s Christmas Mud is available, only for download, on iTunes. It’s a long way from Hilly’s CBGB’s club lair but, hey, punks celebrate too.

There are three tracks, available as a collection for $2.97 or individually for $0.99 each
- Mud Christmas Extended (7’16”) – the definitive long version with much more material and song and dance. This is the holiday version of the slightly longer ‘birthday’ version on Hilly’s Mad Mordechai CD.
- Mud Christmas (3’52”) – the short version, for those of us with short attention spans, such as four-year-olds.
- Barnyard Breakdown (2’26”) – a deconstruction to the animal noises that appear towards the end of the extended version. Guaranteed to make kids laugh, but don’t blame us if they imitate the pig grunts all through the season.

If we were you, we’d get the extended version. 7’16” of holiday party for 99 cents looks like the best seasonal value anywhere.

Click here to link directly to the Mud Christmas at the iTunes US store.

Big BETTY news is their return to Washington DC with BETTY Rules (the exception to the musical). Following their sold-out run earlier this year, they play a long run, from December 19 to January 29. At Theater J.
For booking, go to http://www.theaterj.org.

Seats are $15-$40. For $5 off all regular tickets booked before December 15 quote discount code TJ5. Under-25s get $15 at the door and $20 online at any time.

And a final reminder to see BETTY at Joe’s Pub in New York, December 8-10. Hurry – tables are sold out for the eighth, although a few tickets remain. 9&10 are going fast and will sell out. 9.30pm show each night. This is the definitive Snowbiz release celebration. Look for special guests every night, including Indigo Girl Emily Saliers (Thursday), Nona Hendryx and LeTigre’s JD (Friday) and Everett Bradley (Saturday). Thursday night, the bar’s open till late, and if you can’t make the performance come on down anyway (around 11.30pm, no door charge).

The Shirts emerge from recording (getting to mixing now) for a one-off New York gig Saturday night, December 3rd at Desmond's Tavern, 433 Park Avenue South (between 29th & 30th Streets), 212-725 9864. Your party for just $5, whiskey and Guinness extra.

Lene Lovich has always had full-page versions of her classic photos scattered around the site, linked from the small versions incidental to articles and interviews. Next week, we will link through them all so you can view them as a click-through gallery. Also, by special arrangement, we make available two of Lene’s classic eighties black-and-white shots for hi-res download (in addition to the 2005 contemporary studies).

We still await iTunes’ posting of Hilly Kristal’s Mud in its seasonal Christmas version, expected no later than December 9. The little wiggly pig still gets all sorts of terrific presents he doesn’t want, even though all he wants is the brown gooey stuff. Check out this unique song, and then try to imagine how it sounded blasting out of the CBGB’s jukebox for so many years. You can hear a longer excerpt than iTunes will provide (and download it) on our site. We’ll send out a special newsletter just to alert you when it’s finally available for paid download.