1.  Cover Me’s tribute to covers of Lady Gaga!  Go here and check out the tunage.

2.  GHOSTFACE RnB Fish.  Mixtape by DJ Lord Finesse.  Cop it here.

3.  Win the new Rogue Wave album here.

4.  A bunch of covers of You Keep Me Hangin’ On are at Versions Galore.

5.  B.O.B.’s album release date has been pushed back. So he leaked a track.  Cop it.

6.  The Mixtape by the Kanye West endorsed CyHi Da Prynce.  Here.

7.  RAS KASS-Endangered Lyricist mixtape.  Cop it here.  Ras is one of the vastly underrated underground rappers.

1. The Smoking Section lists the most slept-on albums of 2009. Some real underrated gems in here.  They also posted their list of the best mixtapes of 2009. Most are good, unsurpising picks (No Ceilings, J.Cole) but 50 Cent?

2. 24 Hour Party Pooper has a very personal tribute the late Vic Chesnutt.

3. Playback lists the top disappointing comics of 2009. I have to agree with #1–Fantastic Four. That’s one title that never seems to be very good.

4.  Self hype!  Part one: Go here to win a rad cool giftpack of 5 CDs.

5.  Cover Me had a neat little New Years Day cover post, including a cover of the classic U2 song.

6.  Self hype!  Part two: Go here and read this post that I put a lot of work into and think is really cool.

Go here.  Free album of bands that played at a recent Strummerville event, Joe Strummer’s charity.

Wherein I continue in the largely unthanked task of telling you all to go away and read someone else’s blogs . . .

1. Pat Boone covers Guns N Roses. Nuff said.

2. Indie Shuffle has waaay more indiestreetcred than I do. They picked their top 10 most important rappers of the decade and included Aesop Rock, Mos Def, and Talib. It’s a solid, if unsurprising, list for an indie blog. My list is here, just so you can tell me how stupid I am. (It is so painful putting my feelings and opinions on the line every day, just to have you all -sniff sniff- reject me with bad grammar and BIG CAPITAL LETTERS.)

3. And speaking of best of lists, I usually respect Passion of the Weiss–he’s a great writer and has good taste–but Cuban Linx 2 as the best album of the year? I mean, it was solid and all, but it was also a lot of reheated Cuban Links 1 stuff. Anyhoo, if you go to his page he’s got mp3 samples and a full album download of Danny!’s mixtape, which a lot of people liked a lot. I dug it, but not as much as everyone else. If you visit the site, or any site on this page, please do me a favor and tell them I sent you.

4. And speaking of Talib and Mos, check out Hi-Tek and Talib’s New Year’s mixtape by Statik Selektah. It’s got stuff by the two of them, plus Jay Electronica, J. Cole (tremendous new talen), Termanology, Royce Da 5′9, Styles P., Erykah Badu, Kanye West, Jay-Z, and many more.

Taste it:

Get By RMX ft Mos Def, Jay-Z, Kanye West & Busta (produced by Kanye).

Fortified Live-Mos Def and Mr. Man

Get it here.

5. Another blogger fave of mine, who has become all-too intermittent of late, is Fong. Check out his favorite covers and worst movies of the decade. Cover Me also has posted their favorite covers of the year.

6. And Retromusicsnob is always a place to go for great referrals. Check it out this year!

7.  Oh, and I had to throw in this quiz: How Many Baboons Could You Take In a Fight Using a Giant Dildo?

A few Christmas shout outs today!

Cover Me is tweeting a Christmas cover every day for each of the 25 days before the big day!

Cover Lay Down covered some snow songs.

Suburban Sprawl has a shitload of free Santa tunes here, like this Holiday classic: Santa Just Crashed Into My House and He’s Drunk as Fuck-Arranged Marriage.

And finally, with the purchase of certain featured new releases at independent record stores, you will receive a free RED Best of 2009 sampler CD. The albums that come with the sampler aren’t independent, but some of them are pretty good. They include Cage The Elephant, Passion Pit, Phish, Phoenix, and The White Rabbits (4th best album of the year!). The sampler isn’t new stuff, it’s stuff from some of 2009 albums. Still, it’s free, so buy someone White Rabbits for X-Mas and keep the sampler for yourself!

BONUS: One of rap’s most talented underground MCs, Elzhi, is offering a free street album, with production from the likes of Black Milk and others.  Go here for details.  Here’s a sample:

Red Black and Green-Elzhi (Produced by Black Milk)

Nobody seems to appreciate it, and yet I keep telling y’all where some cool stuff is on the webs and nets.  Nobody comments to thank me, none of the sites I reference hit me back.  I’m so unappreciated.  Either that or I have a sinus infection.  Not sure which.

1.  Neil Young covers the Theme to Fresh Prince of Bel Air (follow link)!  (not)

2.  Here’s a few legit covers of it . . .

Beyond the Nile

Stealing Jane

3.  Cover Me kicks off the Christmas covers with Reliant K.  Pretty cool.

4.  NYC Taper has a Meat Puppets bootleg, whereon they cover Freddie Fender!

5.  This is kind of sad. But also kind of great.  Exile on Main Street for just three bucks.

6.  This Magic Moment (Jay and the Americans)-The Mountain Goats.

7.  This dude’s blog is pretty funny.

8.  For shits and giggles, here’s Mother Hips’ cover of Neil Young’s Cinnamon Girl.  Since we blasphemed old Neil up above, we can treat him alright down low . . .

9.  Tim at The Blue Walrus is a helluva guy, and a pretty damn good blogger, too.  Go visit him.  Drop a comment and tell ‘im I sentcha.

10.  Rock Czar has tons of time-wasting lists, like the top 30 Nirvana songs.  If need to do more procrasturbating.

I do these shout-out posts periodically, but don’t get much reciprocation. Bloggers used to be much more community oriented. Kinda sad.

1. Danny! is a fresh voice in hip hop, and here’s his new mixtape.

2. Covered In Folk just featured a bunch of Cure covers. I’ve been thinking about doing that, too . . . I’ll probably get around to it soon.

3. And check this out . . . A buncha covers of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Sinead’s best tune!

4. Rich Girl-Curtis Peoples (Hall & Oates cover). (Direct link)

5. Coverme is answering requests for Thanksgiving–and he offers a cover of Arlo’s Thanksgiving song.

6.  Puritan Blister, always good for a laugh and a mashup, has a Thanksgiving post, too.

7. Turn On Your Lovelight-The Grateful Dead with David Crosby.

8. I already had most of the songs on Mystic Chords of Memory’s recent “20 on the 20th” mix, but you’ll find some very cool oddities there. Including duets between Eddie Vedder and Pete Townshend, and Will Ferrell and Dave Grohl doing Leather and Lace. Check it out, and tell him I sent you.

So I’m trying something different right now. I’m going to link to 10 blogposts that I think are particularly good.

I’m going to ask you, my readers, to thumb-up or digg or whatever both this post and some of the ones I linked to, if you like them.

Then, I’m going to ask the owners of those blogs that I link to to make their own posts, linking to me and to some posts that they like. Then ask their readers/bloggers to do the same. None of those bloggers know I am doing this. I’m hoping this will help build out little community (as well as drive traffic to some of our favorite little sites).

Finally, if you want to be on my blogroll, drop me a comment or an e-mail.  I’m happy to trade links.  Ups the Google scores and all, y’know.

Please help make this work!

1. Ryan’s got a post on Middle Distance Runner. I wonder why they didn’t contact me about their new work . . . I’ve been hyping them for years! But I won’t take it personal.

2. Cara posted on U2 and Jay-Z sharing the stage.

3.  I’m not sure I get this, but I think it’s funny.  I think . . .

Courtesy of this site.

4.  To Die By Your Side has Bon Iver covering Feist.

5.  AWMusic reviews the new Weezer.  Never been a big fan, but I appreciate them.

6.  Blowin’ Your Cover doesn’t post nearly often enough, but they recently posted five covers of Big Star’s “13″.

7.  Fong can always be counted on for coolness and oddness.  Recent posts have included Red Hot Chili Peppers covering Coldplay, Ben Kweller covering Neil Young, and Neil Diamond covering Adam Sandler (!)

8.  Moka’s always got a cool mix.

9.  Like “Best Of” the year/decade lists?  Go to LHB.  He’s got ‘em all!

10.  Pigeons and Planes have some new cuts from Birdman.  Not a fan, but I know a lot of you are.

11.  And just so this one goes up to eleven, here’s some tunage!  All live, direct links.

I Used to be a Cop-Patterson Hood

Psycho Killer-Mars Retrieval Unit

Christmas Song-Mogwai

Don’t You Forget About Me-Perpetual Groove

And speaking of The Breakfast Club, how do you like them now?

No, not the old them, the new them:

If you’re not watching Community, I’m mad at you.  Because I so don’t want this show to be cancelled.  It’s by the folks who did Arrested Development, and they took that show away too early, too.

1. I just discovered this weird blog that has lots of cool, rare music by Hendrix, ukelele Beatles coverers, and even Burt “Robin” Ward! Check it out! And drop a comment telling him I sent you.

2.  Cover Me has a “songs about stalkers” post, here, with some interesting covers of The Police and U2, among others.

3. This picture is funny because the tennis balls represent my love and the cops represent all the people who are too afraid to be loved by a man with a gigantic backpack full of love and a FOOPing love gun.

4.  Comics Alliance posted the Worst Sex Scenes in Comics.

5. Raise your hand if you remember Godzuki!

6.  Andrew Bird, My Morning Jacket and Weezer have signed on to a Muppets tribute album.  Cool.

HEY EKKO!  You been postin’ all these pickshures and wordz about comick books an’ all, HOW ABOUT SOME FUCKING MUSIC???

This is primarily a music blog, after all.

Madlib & Guilty Simpson – “The Paper”

Some Girls (Rolling Stones cover)-Back Yard Tire Fire

Mary Shelley Overdrive-Karate (follow link–free album!)

Lil’ Wayne-No Ceilings (mixtape)

Thriller (Michael Jackson cover)-Back Forty

Cover Freak refuses to link to me or acknowledge me, despite many “shout outs” from me, but I’ll continue because it’s a damn fine blog.  They just posted a bunch of Radiohead’s Creep covers.  Now, go away.