10 Days to Christmas (Paul Baribeau - Christmas Lights, live)

It took a while, but I'm finally starting to feel a bit Christmassy. And it's about time...just ten days to go!

We bought a small tree and decorated it...

...and I bought some presents...now all that's missing is some proper Swedish mulled wine.

Christmas songs...there are alot of terrible, terrible Christmas songs out there, so many that it's easy to forget the amazing ones...and there are plenty of those as well. So, I thought I'd do a countdown, featuring some of my personal favorites. It might not just be songs, could be random video clips as well. Who knows?

Anyway, today's one is from Paul Baribeau. A beautiful song, performed live here in someone's house.

Line that gets me every time...

"Sometimes I don't want to make new friends. Sometimes I just miss my old friends"

Perfect.

Paul Baribeau

I've written about Paul Baribeau before, but he's absolutely amazing, so here we go again. Paul's a guy from Michigan and is currently releasing music on ubermega-fair-and-legit-DIY-with-some-erious-street-cred label plan-it-x, who is also home to a bunch of other awesome artists including Best Friends Forever and Ghost Mice.

He writes modern folk songs that are simple and instantly accessible, but also extremely moving. Every single song is straight from the heart, zero bullshit, no metaphors, just hard core emotions laid bare for whoever wants to listen. And listen you should, cause he deserves to be heard.

Most of his recordings are just him and an acoustic guitar, but he has also recorded some stuff with a full band, under the name Yikes Baribeau.

A few songs for you to sample, all through mediafire.

Paul Baribeau - Through The Walls (Demo)

Paul Baribeau - Ten Things (from the album Grand Ledge)

Yikes Baribeau - Nervous Feet (From Yikes Baribeau - download the whole release for free from $Big Record Label$

Paul Baribeau myspace

Paul's blog/website

You can buy his music from a variety of online outlets, but I would recommend getting it straight from plan-it-x

Rain, rain, rain and blue skies

So the weather is as schizo as only London weather can be. Last week we were in the middle of snow-induced chaos and now it almost feels like spring is on its way. My walk home from work was really, really pleasant. The sky was blue...well, at least until it got dark. 

I feel like I should be getting on with stuff, writing new songs, whatever...but I'm also feeling extremely restless and impatient. I just started watching a film and was really enjoying it. I wasn't getting bored or tired. I just couldn't keep watching. 28 minutes was all I could handle. Hmmm.

The big 3-0 is getting ever closer. In less than one month I will be one of the oldest people in the world. Guinness Book of Records, look me up.

I'm not really dreading it, but I am very aware that it's approaching. Like something will happen. But, chances are extremely high that it will just be a day like any other. 

Anyway, it's bed time. When I wake up it'll be Thursday, which is almost Friday, so there. Until then, here is my most listened to song of 2008 and, according to last.fm, my seventh most listened to song ever. 

Paul Baribeau - Ten Things

I don't really know much about Paul, apart from that he is an incredible songwriter. But, you should visit him in myspace land, where you can buy both of his great albums. This particular song is from Grand Ledge.

Paul Baribeau's myspace

Good night.