What time of year is it? That’s right! It is the time to watch every iteration of A Charlie Brown ­_______ (insert holiday here) and reflect upon the true spirit of the season. Personally, I’m still waiting for one on Festivus. It’s the time of year to start worrying about how much of your inner fatkid (no pun intended) you are willing to let out. It’s the time for making lists and writing down “What we have to be thankful for?”

For this post, we reflect on the holiday season and the recently passed commemoration of Thanksgiving, and offer (via helpfully relevant clips from UncensoredInterview.com) 10 things we found ourselves especially grateful for in the last handful of weeks. Even the pilgrims couldn’t have made a list this good.

10. We’re thankful for reasons to celebrate.

Uncensored Interview had its first birthday on November 6. Did you know that in some Asian cultures, when a child turns one year old, it is cause for a large, sometimes ceremonious celebration? So what did we do? Well, actually, I think we were working. Nevertheless, it gave us great opportunity to bring to you ­­­inspiration from the likes of The Watson Twins.

9. We’re thankful for some functional democracy.

It is an election year, and there is no greater culmination of democracy than the day we get to exercise our right to choose. It’s a privilege to get to voice our opinions, and no one knows that better than our artists. This is what November 4th is really about.

8. We’re thankful for famous friends.

Everybody Loves Ray…Amy Ray that is. If you don’t believe me, try resisting her hypnotic awesomeness.

7. We’re thankful for sound financial advice.

Who couldn’t stand to learn a few money saving tips nowadays, especially in the financial black hole of indie music? Magnetic Morning knows how to make the money stretch when you’re working for peanuts…or beans.

(MORE UNCENSORED THANKS, RIGHT HERE)

!!! have had several lineup changed over the years. It felt like members dropped off like flies for a while, but the band is still going strong. As one of the pioneers of the dance-rock hybrid revival, the band have spawned several offshoots and have a vast array of peers.

(DON’T STOP NOW!!! KEEP READING)

Apologies for the long gap in updates, yours truly had a busy week last week; training for and running the Philadelphia Marathon and starting a new temporary gig at a large, evil corporation which shall remain nameless for fear of the torture and death of my loved ones due to insubordination. Hey, bills have to be paid and Christmas gifts must be bought, so don’t judge me, man!

Speaking of employment, I was reading an interesting article the other day about how The Pawn Shop Industry is booming thanks to the horrible recession that we’re in. When Michael Phelps is selling his goddamn gold medals to pay rent, we’re really fucked.

But don’t despair frightened private sector employees! Even though you might’ve lost your chic six-figure a year job due to the world market downturn, there are still plenty of jobs available out there to help pad your holiday coiffers–you just have to get off Main Street and start looking on the side streets.

Whit, my twenty-something co-worker, reached out like an infant with his curious fingers and sampled the texture of the fabric on my dress sleeve. “I wish I could wear one of those. It looks so comfortable.”

“You can,” I replied. “I give you permission to wear a dress.” Walking away I couldn’t help thinking it was interesting that a man wanted the privilege of doing something that I take for granted. He doesn’t want to wear a dress for any latent homosexual reasons or because he has a repressed desire to have sex with his mother or even for fashion reasons, but merely because it seems the more comfortable choice.

Wearing a dress connotes weakness, while the person who “wears the pants” is apparently the person who is in charge. But since historically men were the ones who traditionally “wore the pants,” then how have they overlooked this? Whit couldn’t be the first man to realize that a dress would be the more comfortable option.

(SO WHO WEARS THE DRESS? KEEP READING)

All weekend long I have been racking my brain in an attempt to come up with a Thanksgiving-themed post since Turkey Day is just around the corner. Ultimately though, I have come to a sad conclusion that Thanksgiving might be the most musically lacking holiday there is.

The Fourth of July (along with Memorial Day and any other political holidays) can call to mind a vast array of America-oriented songs. “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” “America the Beautiful,” and so on. Though Thanksgiving is also like July 4th, for some reason “The Star Spangled Banner” just doesn’t work the same on the fourth Thursday in November.

Love songs have Valentine’s Day covered, no question. If you happen to be as bitter as I am, spiteful songs work as well! Any spooky song is appropriate on Halloween. “Monster Mash,” Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” or any song with “hell” or “devil” in the title works.

(KEEP READING SILENCE OF THE TURKEYS)

Good news for bands! Last week oil dropped to under 50 dollars a barrel, and I also noticed the other day that gas was $2.49 at a station in Manhattan (you know, the island where everything is inexplicably more expensive). Why post this economic news on a music blog? Well, folks, it means that indie bands can get back on the road and start playing shows again.

It seems like not long ago everyone was running stories about how the high cost of gas was going to kill the touring industry or how bands were looking to “go green” to save money on touring. (This, of course, came after articles about how touring was going to save the music industry; either way, the music industry is fucked). Now that the tyranny of high gas prices is over, bands can go back to saving money the old fashion way: by buying old, inefficient vans.

Looks like These Are Powers might not have to convert their van after all (unless they, you know, actually care about the environment or something):

Now we can all look forward to new articles about how the music industry is fucked, like how even though bands can afford gas prices again, no one will come to their shows because nobody has jobs in the current economic crisis! Ah, what a brave new world we live in.

Oh and apparently, Michael Jackson is now a Muslim–sorry, I couldn’t resist bringing that up!

Hot tubs are the sort of thing that are hard not to love. There is a unifying quality about a hot tub and The Whip certainly has a strong emotional reaction to them.

One of the best things about going home to Canada to visit my family is that my mother has become a “hot tub enthusiast.” What this means is that a few years ago she moved into a new house that had not only an outdoor but also an indoor hot tub. I’m not talking about some rinky-dink bathtub whirlpool. I mean that the previous owner of the house installed a legitimate, full force, two person hot tub in the master bathroom. It is a soaking vessel of monolithic proportions whose retractable vinyl cover doubles as a catch-all for towels during the summer months.
The indoor hot tub has been enjoyed so much that this fall the aging outdoor hot tub was replaced with a brand new model, complete with variable jets and underwater disco lighting. For my mother the hot tub has become a new child or a lap dog; something that receives constant attention. Now she’s buying accoutrements for it like plastic pillows and a new pergola to keep the snow off in winter. Every morning she wakes up and heads for the tub and in the evening her favorite activity is to have a glass of wine and wind down in 102 degrees of frothy heaven. It’s like she’s marinating herself with a red wine jus in a giant crock-pot. I’ve realized that this is the house you go to die in relaxing comfort.