I’ve been passionately (er, obsessively) sharing The A.V. Club’s YouTube channel with everyone and anyone lately – specifically, their great A.V. Undercover series. It may be old news to many, given that the most recent videos were posted seven months ago, but I was just recently turned on to the series by a pal (thank you, Dani France!).

Sometime in between hours spent being alternately impressed by (Punch Brothers) and amused by (GWAR) the featured performers with my husband, and sharing video links to various friends’ Facebook walls, I remembered “duh, I AM THE EDITOR OF A MUSIC BLOG AND CAN THEREFORE SHARE THIS WITH EVERYONE AT ONCE.” Woops.

Justin Townes Earle doing his best Springsteen.

The A.V. Undercover series features amazingly talented musicians like Trampled by Turtles and Shearwater doing rad covers. In most of the videos, they are covering other cool, but generally more famous, artists; however, roughly one quarter of the covers are popular hits of the 1980s. As each clip’s intro explains, the A.V. Club collects a list of songs based on their readers votes, and then invites artists in to cover their song of choice in “the little round room.” There’s nary a bad cover to be found in either the 2011 or 2012 playlists, but several of the renditions are especially awe-inspiring. I’ve included a few of my esteemed choices below, but I definitely suggest you get yourself over to the A.V. Club’s YouTube channelto pick and share your own favorites.

Sometimes you find the next thing you’re meant to fall in love with completely by accident.

In late 2011, a venue that seemed to be the only one in the area to draw any of the bands that my husband, Steve, and I actually want to pay money to see shut down due to a classic dispute between owners. The Southgate House split in two; one of the owners reinvented the historic Newport home Southgate House as the Thompson House, and the other owner cleverly transformed a beautiful, old church building in to the Southgate House Revival. So far the two venues have truly been like two halves of a split personality, with Southgate House Revival continuing to draw many of the alternative folk, punk, and bluegrass groups that we once sought out at the original Southgate House, and Thompson drawing bands that can range from questionable (Trapt) to fantastic (Bad Books featuring Kevin Devine).

Steve  and I were scrolling through the list of upcoming shows at Southgate House Revival when I saw the name Shovels & Rope. I had a nagging feeling I’d once told myself to look them up after hearing a song I liked on local radio station WNKU, so I switched over to YouTube and typed their name in the search bar.

Steve and I are both pretty set in our musical tastes and band preferences – open to new bands but rarely finding one to get excited about. We’re both the kind of people that seek out new or reissued releases from groups we already like versus searching for the fresh or unknown. I couldn’t even write a “best of 2012″ list this past new year, because the only things I bought were releases from First Aid Kit, Tegan and Sara, and Tilly & the Wall, and being the only albums I bought certainly doesn’t make those the best releases of 2012.

However, we’re both music lovers, and the hope is always alive that there are new, wonderful songs to discover. Thus, when we began watching the first Shovels & Rope video that a YouTube search produced, we were pleasantly surprised. Extremely, pleasantly, surprised.

They. Were. Fantastic. We watched the entire video for “Gasoline” in a stunned silence, a buzz of excitement palpable in the space between us as we watched the two members, Michael Trent and Cary Ann Hearst, flawlessly play a raucous tune under a tree. I clicked on another video, and another, and another. We listened to Shovels & Rope’s toe tapping, rebel-with-a-heart country the rest of the night. We smiled watching the obviously in love (and married!) duo croon to each other in the melancholy ballad “Lay Low.” We laughed watching the two shout at each other in the rowdy call and response song “Tell the Truth,” and I danced around in the kitchen while a video of their album’s title track “O’ Be Joyful” played. The night ended in exclamations of future plans to start a husband and wife band of our own.

Hearing Shovels & Rope is delightful in its own right, but watching the duo is even better. There’s just something utterly charming about them, and that’s why I think this post will be lost in an amorous sea of thousands after their performance on the Late Show with David Letterman airs on Wednesday, Jan. 30th. I’m not bitter, though, about their surely forthcoming notoriety.  If a rude businesswoman asks me if I’ve ever heard of Shovels & Rope, I won’t even let it get to me (read: like that time I got all uptight about Mumford & Sons).

The Letterman performance will kick off a two week sweep of the Southeastern US for Shovels & Rope, including a stop at Newport’s Southgate House Revival on Feb. 5th. You can keep up with Cary and Michael – which I highly suggest you do! –  at www.shovelsandrope.com.

Last year I wrote a blog post detailing neat gift ideas a mere 10 days before Christmas, because well….that’s when I was buying Christmas gifts. I adore gift hunting and giving, and I’m admittedly cocky about my ability to bestow a unique gift perfectly tailored to the personality and interests of the giftee (true story: I gave my friend Cassie this dinosaur muffin pan today and she unabashedly flipped over it in the middle of Caribou coffee – ergo, I rock). However, I am completely horrible about waiting to the last minute to go shopping for gifts – and I feel that if you’re going to give someone their gift late, it sure as hell better one up all the gifts they received on time.

So here we are, three and a half shopping days before Christmas, and all I’ve purchased is the aforementioned dino muffin pan and some delightfully weird art for my husband.  If you, like me, are still hunting for that perfect gift that’s really going to send your pal/family member/significant other over the edge, providing you the warm holiday buzz that bringing others happiness yields, then scroll down and find some inspiration! With the help of Amber Valentine, I’ve compiled another list of truly awesome gifts for the eclectic, eccentric, and intrinsically hip people in your life that will help you to belatedly bestow holiday joy in style.

-Mylynda Guthrie

Amber’s Picks

The world’s best Canadian indie rock charity has a hoodie that’s
perfect for any banjo loving hipster. Support a good cause in style!

Yellowbird Project Hoodie

For the indie rock fan who has everything, give the gift of new music
all year round with a Daytrotter membership! And if you’re a
cheapskate, you can spring for a one month membership for your pals.
It’s only $2!

Daytrotter Membership

Almost everyone has an iphone these days but me, right? Well, since I
can’t enjoy these sweet classic rock phone covers, you should gift
them to the biggest Beatles and Bowie fans in your life, respectively.

Urban Outfitters Bowie iPhone Case

From the Ramones to Tupac to Kiss, Funko has something for everyone in
their line of Pop figurines. I don’t know about you, but I think these
would be just the thing to spice up any boring desk top.

Funko.com

Wilco coffee mugs!

Wilco Coffee Mugs
Perfect to drink your Wilco coffee out of!

Kanye West’s twitter is one of the more meme-worthy things to happen
on the internet since the advent of social networking. What living
room is complete until they have a little bit of Kanye’s trademark
egotistical witticisms hand stitched and framed on the wall?

Supervelma Etsy Shop

Another hand crafted etsy gem are these cookies that feature one of
the best characters on television, Ron Swanson from NBC’s indie-tastic
Parks & Rec. I mean, the show did name drop Neutral Milk Hotel twice
so it’s obviously got cred.

Whippedbakeshop Etsy Shop

Mylynda’s Picks

I started going to Modcloth.com for the clothes, but I stayed for the whimsical home accessories.

These classic yet unconventional mugs come with an owl, fox….or shark. Amazing.

Beau-tea-ful Surprise Mug in Owl

I also lust for Modcloth’s carefully plucked collection of DIY craft books, like this all-encompassing book of indie-inspired crafts from Jo Waterhouse.

Indie Craft book

Antique frames can cost a pretty penny, but this tin frame from Anthropologie can be had for $28.

Weathered Tin Frame

These chalkboard skulls from Etsy seller iamhome come in a variety of colors, but in my home we live by the mantra “when in doubt, paint it flat black.”

iamhome on Etsy

Dinner and a Murder has several kits for hosting a murder mystery party, as well as costumes, music, and game packs available for instant download to help you throw a New Year’s Eve party that no one will soon forget.

Dinner and a Murder

Print media is not dead. Gift a magazine subscription the easy way – pay online and have it sent straight to their home. I like the element of surprise in giving magazine subscriptions, and getting an unsolicited issue of AMP is so much better than ValuPak coupons for new gutters and fruit baskets.

AMP magazine                                         Filter Magazine

As ThinkGeek writes in their description “First the spirit inhabits the skull, then it inhabits you.”

Doomed Crystal Shotglass