I'm Still Enchanted by Your Funny Ways

Pat DiNizio of The Smithereens has an incredible offer for those of you in New Jersey: lessons in songwriting, singing, and guitar! Unreal. Get all the details here.

Also, catch up on the latest Smithereens and DiNizio tour dates - including several living room performances - at TheirSpace. Rock on.

I Hope the Party Never Ends

Holy freakin' moly, look at this lineup for the Charlotte Pop Festival on September 24-26, 2009 -

The Posies | Roger Joseph Manning Jr. | The Spongetones | Pat DiNizio | Mike Viola | Myracle Brah | and so much more!

Tickets are $25 per day. Proceeds from Charlotte Pop Fest will benefit The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science. I have no idea what the hell that is, but it sounds like a good enough cause for me!

Charlotte is 3 hours from me. Anyone up for a road trip??!!??

Christmas Time Is Here Again

The Smithereens have released a Christmas album because, well, they can.

"THE SMITHEREENS set out to re-invent the Christmas album and turn the genre completely upside down with this record," says Pat Dinizio, the band's lead vocalist and principle songwriter. "We made a real Smithereens rock & roll record that stands on its own, yet somehow channels the ghost of Christmas past, and in the process, also pays tribute to and reinvents some of our absolute all-time favorite rock & roll Christmas records. I don't think it's been done quite this way before, and hopefully it's an album you wouldn't mind listening to the other 11 months of the year."

Here's the tracklist:

1. WAKING UP ON CHRISTMAS MORNING Smithereens original, written by Jim Babjak
2. SANTA BRING MY BABY BACK (TO ME) Elvis Presley
3. MERRY CHRISTMAS, BABY The Beach Boys
4. ROCKIN' AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE inspired by Bill Haley
5. CHRISTMAS TIME ALL OVER THE WORLD Smithereens original, a Christmas remake of "All Revved Up"
6. CHRISTMAS The Who (from "Tommy")
7. 'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS inspired by Art Carney
8. RUN RUDOLPH RUN Chuck Berry
9. MERRY CHRISTMAS (I DON'T WANT TO FIGHT TONIGHT) The Ramones
10. CHRISTMAS (I REMEMBER) original, written by Dennis Diken
11. AULD LANG SYNE inspired by The Ventures and Dick Dale
12. CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE AGAIN The Beatles

Read more here. Download Christmas with the Smithereens here. Sample tracks at TheirSpace. Visit their website here. Evidently, according to iTunes, this album was originally released in 1994. News to me, and I'm a big Smithereens fan. Guess I'm just about 13 years late on this one.

In related news, the distinctive voice of the Smithereens, Pat Dinizio, has released another solo album.

Download the self-titled release here. Buy it from Amazon.com here. Sample tracks at HisSpace. Visit his website here.