Welcome to Raw Impression! Bitty, Music, Christmas! How's your jingle bells? I love Christmas jingle bells.
Yeah, this was a... This was a great investment. I'll be honest, I think they always sound good in pretty much any song you're round. I like jingle bells.
No, they're called jingle bells or just Christmas bells. Oh no, yeah, what is the official name of a jingle bell? Hmm. I kinda like it.
I don't know. Stick-mounted. It looks like a Brussels sprout stick. It does.
It does resemble a Brussels sprout stick. Merry Christmas, Lou Barlow. Thank you, Adele. I love you.
I love you too. Thanks. And I'm grateful to be here, grateful to see another season come into our life, another holiday and passage of time, and our very first Raw Impression's Christmas mini episode. Yeah.
That's exciting. Yeah, I got some special things lined up for this one. Some commercials, I did a couple of commercials for this one. Oh.
Remind me of my youth, big ones from my youth. You know, ones that were very important. Ubiquitous, I would say. Ubiquitous.
Ubiquitous. They were everywhere for a while. Oh, is that what that means? It doesn't work.
It doesn't work. It's a good word. Ubiquitous. I've never felt confident enough to use Ubiquitous.
It's a really satisfying word. It sounds great. I just don't know how to use it in a sentence. Can you give me another example?
Ubiquitous. So wait, what exactly does it mean? Everywhere. Okay.
So all the time. So, let's check this out. Four jingles. These are the name of the nation, Veman, innovative Chevrolet, and it ain't worth a dollar.
It's a ricksit every day. Now here's Kennedy's SSP, smash it dirty, and you can't hit him. Nothing yet. Crash bang, crack him up, put him back in here.
Crash bang, smash him up. It's my shit, I'm not a friend. Kennedy's SSP smash it dirty, and it's what everything is saying. Rachi.
He didn't lose all the pieces already. Damn it, Louie. I love that. 1973.
1972, Kennedy's smash up dirty was the thing these cars that you sent flying towards each other by way of this special mechanism called the SSP strip, also known for being the, for being, for the evil, can evil toy that it was used for that would send him down a ramp and jumping and crashing. So you were six years old? I was six years old. There's a great, great picture of my mother playing on Christmas day, playing with that toy with smash up.
They actually got it for me, which was like momentous. Oh, wow. Do you remember if it was you or Santa who got you that? Oh, it was Santa.
Yeah. Santa really came through. My mom was a, she was nine months pregnant. There's a great picture for a nine months pregnant on the floor playing that toy with me.
They got me that toy, I think, to kind of reassure me that Santa was on my side. Everything was going to be okay. But you guys are really excited for Abby though, right? They didn't have to really worry about that.
They didn't necessarily have to get me this mashup, don't be to make me. We were excited for Abby, which she was a very wanted child. We really wanted her and we really enjoyed her as a baby. My parents set us up really well for that one.
It's amazing. And speaking of Abby Barlow, we will be celebrating her 50th birthday this New Year's Eve. We will leave. And that's going to be our family holiday.
Yeah, that'll be fun. The next couple of days it's just you, me and Izzy here. Yeah, that's right. And then when you got your mashup, Derby, what did you feel just overwhelming joy?
I did. Yeah. I lost all the pieces within a day or two. Oh, no.
Because there were all these tiny pieces. Because when the cars would crash, the doors and tires would fly and then you'd have to go put them all back together again. But I've never been known for like, being that, like, track of my stuff. Little parts.
Almost kind of an early example of me just basically losing something almost immediately before receiving it. Yeah. Well, and also it is kind of a challenging toy. It's sort of setting maybe some kids up for disappointment if they're not.
So, come back to me. Oh, jiggles. Out of sight. Making things with the light, right?
Light, right. The toy that lets you create beautiful pictures with light. Light, right. Light, right.
Light, right. And being, right. Work with colorful tanks that flow with light. Light, right.
Light, all that included. Make people, animals, things, and with refills, butts, bunnies, or bozo, the clown. You can make lots of pretty pictures with light, right? That commercial.
That commercial. I mean, I don't, I'm going to be honest. I don't think I did such a great job with that one and I was really debating whether to even play it for you or share it on the podcast because it really is a great commercial. They aired that for years.
Ever. Well, listening to that version, I was sent back to my youth. Oh, yeah. Honestly.
Oh, yeah. I really loved the idea of light, right? I did too. And the song itself is, I mean, I could have probably spent another week working on that one to really get the music right because it's, the music is really special and that one and I encourage people to go on to YouTube and find that original one.
The toy itself, I never got the toy. Although I did want it and it looked amazing on TV. But the people who did get it, I found that it was like, you know, it wasn't that exciting. Or I, I'll be perfectly honest and mom, if you're listening, did we get a light bright because I actually, I can't remember.
So we did have a fair amount of toys. I don't know. But I think what you're saying, the idea of it was more exciting than what it delivered, I have that memory. So I'm wondering if maybe I did get it and then it was like, eh, you know what?
I used a lot though that I loved. I mean, I worked this thing, the Speak and Spell. Oh, yes. I really loved that.
Yeah, that was a little bit of an early handheld computer basically. A little after my time as far as something that I really wanted. That's true. I've been in the 80s for me.
Years and years later, I played a series of shows with the flaming lips called the Music Against Brain Degeneration Tour, which featured Sonic Boom, who is a member of a band called Space Man 3. But he did a solo set where he wired all of these Speak and Spell together so they sort of messed with him, you know. So they were all just spouting gibberish. And then he mixed all of this to Speak and Spell gibberish into a mighty arc of improvisational noise.
And he gave me one at the end of the tour. Wow, that's so cool. That's like a modern art installation or something. Yeah, he would smoke a little blunt before he mixed these things together.
That must have been really a cool tour. Was that for the flaming lips? Which one? Soft bulletin.
It was the first first. Dang it, I love that album. It was a great. I saw them for that album.
Or that other band. So I don't know who it is. They did several tours for Soft Bulletin. We were on the first leg of that tour.
Okay. And they made it kind of like this little traveling festival with Wayne Coyne, who would make an excellent Santa. Wayne Coyne. Yes, he is.
He was a Santa. That's true. I like following him on Instagram. He has two little cute boys now who are just adorable and I bet they are having really a fun time.
They look like they're having a good time with Christmas and he's really enjoying them. But I saw, yeah, I saw the flaming lips perform Soft Bulletin at First Avenue and it is still hands down. One of my favorite live shows I've ever been to. Alright, well.
So thank you, Flaming Lips. Yep. I'm not, I mean, I don't know if I should try to play any other Christmas themed songs or whether we should just call it a, call it an episode, a mini episode. Well, what happened to the Christmas Blitz?
Um, I don't know if I, I wanted Izzy to do the Christmas Blitz with me and I implored her to do so or to practice with me yesterday, but she had, she wanted nothing of it. Yeah, sometimes she's not vibing it. Well, I mean, I could play well. But anyway, I'm going to play the one song that I've written, my one original song that is, that is, let me poke you with this.
So. Lewis moving across the room right now and he's shifting his microphone stand. So awkwardly reaching as I often do. So you're going to play something live?
Yeah, I'm going to play this live. That's a lie. Okay. This is, this is the only kind of Christmas themed song that I've written.
It's not a spot that they ever knew. You sold out the manger. Well, all right. The mystery baby got a supernova spotlight.
They saved. He's the one. Brother Joseph got a king for a stepson. A red Mary under the air of stars.
You changed the world, you broke my heart. I think you, Mary. You saved me too. It's not a spot they've ever.
Mary kissed me and we lost control. The oldest story, never told. Crazy Mary of forever divine. I'll never know the baby's mine.
Mary, Mary, under the air of stars. You changed the world, you broke my heart. I think you, Mary. You saved too.
That's don't I spoke for forever. You'll never know the baby's mine. Merry Christmas everyone. Merry Christmas.
Thanks for joining us. And we would like to end with some gratitude for you all being here on this new journey with us on the podcast. We're very grateful for the people who are listening and writing comments and liking and enjoying the podcast. Thank you so much.