Hey Johnny!

Hi all - it’s Kim. 

As you can tell by the lack of posts here, Mark & I have moved onto other things over the last couple years since writing this blog together. 

I am excited to say that I’m getting back into covering shows & getting more into photography. To follow my upcoming adventures, check out my personal blog: heykimie.tumblr.com Links to my Twitter & Instagram are there as well. 

Can’t wait to share some new stuff with you!

Hey Everyone! So, we are two days away from Christmas. Offices and places of employment are starting to shut down, and those lines full of last minute shoppers are growing. Here are five of our favorite Christmas songs!

Last Christmas - Jimmy Eat World

Finally a cover of Last Christmas that made the song easy to listen to! Alt darling Jimmy Eat World nail it during this song.

New Found Glory - Ex Miss

It is hit or miss when bands write Christmas songs. New Found Glory doesn't take themselves too seriously on this one and it makes it work. Here is their take on Christmas love.

John Lennon - Happy Christmas (War Is Over)

This song is about as perfect as a Christmas song can get. 

Linus and Lucy - Vince Guaraldi Trio - Let's be real A Charlie Brown Christmas is one of the best Christmas movies ever. There are so many memorable moments, and it brought about a instrumental number that is synonymous with Christmas. If you don't know it by the name, you will know it when you press play. 

Run DMC - Christmas In Hollis You didn't think we were going to leave off one of the best and corniest Christmas songs of all time did you? What type of blog do you think we are running here? Anyway, if you've never heard it, enjoy it. If it is a personal favorite of yours (like it is Mark's), this is our Christmas gift to you.

"Why does my dating habit seem so familiar, I know I have definitely seen this somewhere before"

Then two awful truths become very apparent. The first is that my love life is the storyline to the Dane Cook “blockbuster” Good Luck, Chuck (minus the sex). The second awful truth is that I have seen Good Luck, Chuck in it’s entirety. However, since this is a segment about dating let’s talk about the first truth. Fans, don’t worry, I will deal with the second truth later on in therapy. 

It’s almost Christmas and that means that concerts and things to do in general slow down due to the holiday season and the fact that it’s too damn cold to walk out of your house.

Here’s some of your choices for this weekend –

You can embrace the cold temperatures and see the Milwaukee Admirals take on the San Antonio Rampage on Friday December 20. It’s been done before on Weekend Preview but seriously – the human sling shot and racing cheese spread! And of course seeing someone get slammed into the Plexiglas is pretty great too. Event is at 7pm, Bradley Center.

In other sports, the Milwaukee Bucks are set to take on the Sixers. Philadelphia 76ers if you’re looking for the full and proper name. They tip off at 7:30pm at the Bradley Center on Saturday, December 21. Appropriately the Bucks rock Christmas colors every game. How festive of them. 

You can also get really into the holiday and go see The Nutcracker. It’s live at the Performing Arts Center on Sunday, December 22, at 1:30pm and 7:30pm. You could also rent the movie on VHS like it’s 1992 and get a similar feel without having to get dressed up. 

If none of this seems appealing and you want to go an edgier route – you can get crazy and go see rapper Riff Raff. He will be at The Rave on Friday, December 20. Show is at 8pm. 

We absolutely love stand up comedians. Here are our five favorite comedy hours from 2013:

1) Pete Holmes - Nice Try, The Devil: Here Pete shows you how to totally destroy a fun time.

2) Moshe Kasher - Live In Oakland:  Moshe Kasher tells how to have success at "da club"

3) Eugene Mirman - An Evening Of Comedy In A Fake, Underground Laboratory

4) Kurt Braunohler - How Do I Land? Did you forget how to talk to humans? Kurt Braunohler has you covered. 

If you are located in the Midwest, or really anywhere around the country, you are probably getting blasted with cold air. When the holidays are over what is there to look forward to? Well, never you fear because some amazing artists and bands are announcing tours that will make the winter months go a little quicker

Dr. Dog

The guys in Dr. Dog released B-Room and now they are hitting the road in support of the new album. They are bringing Saint Rich, Fly Golden Eagle, and Moses Sumney as support. For tour dates go to: http://www.drdogmusic.com/tour/

St. Vincent

If you have never heard of St. Vincent, drop what you're doing and listen to her stuff, and then go see her shows. She is amazing. You can also check her out on tour in support of her new album that will be out in Spring 2014: http://ilovestvincent.com/#tour

Brett Dennen

Brett Dennen embodies what it means to be care free. He is one of the most talented and under rated songwriters around. He has been putting out albums since 2005, and his most recent Smoke and Mirrors is proof that he is anything but lacking talent. He is on tour starting in February and going all the way through May check out his entire tour schedule here: https://www.facebook.com/brettdennen/app_123966167614127

Lorde

She might never have seen a diamond in the flesh, but she is going to see a lot of America as the 16 year old superstar brings her live show, and her album Pure Heroine to the states for the first time.  Check out tour dates here: http://consequenceofsound.net/2013/12/lorde-announces-2014-north-american-tour/

With much success, they have played with the likes of Alien Any Farm, Mindless Self Indulgence, and …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead to name a few. You can see them live TONIGHT supporting Sponge and Spacehog. They’re playing the Rte. 20 Outhouse in Racine, WI, show starts at 6:30pm. More show and ticket info can be found here: www.route20outhouse.com

To hold you over until the show, check out the video above for their most recent single “Wasps”.

One of my favorite episodes of How I Met Your Mother revolves around the option of knowing anything you need to about someone by just doing a simple Google search. Ted Mosby is going on a date with a woman who he is absolutely smitten with, and the two make a promise that they will not do any research on each other until the date to truly get to know each other. To some older viewers this premise may seem unlikely or even absurd. However, it is becoming an normal thing in the world of dating.

Obviously, there is a vast amount of information on the internet. If you look hard enough you will be able to find information on just about everything you are looking for. So, of course this will have an effect on dating and getting to know somebody. Initially it may appear that we are referencing mainly online dating, but that is not mainly the case. If someone meets a woman or man when they are out with friends, and the two really hit it off, within minutes of getting home just by going on to Facebook or Google each person can know about the other. So doesn't this take the fun out of getting to know each other? Or, is it easier since you may have more topics to talk about? 

We feel like it is a little of column A and a little from column B. Catfishing is a real thing and of course you need to protect yourself when going out on a date. So doing a little bit of research could be a smart thing. Facebook and Twitter are often places where people post everything about everything on their pages. That leads to great risks about having a potential date finding something that they don't particularly care to see, or information they don't particularly care to learn. This can absolutely spell a bad ending to something that didn't have the chance to get started in the first place.

This weekend there is one obvious choice in the way of concerts – FM102/1’s Big Snow Show 8 at The Rave.

It will be cold, there will without a doubt still be snow (if not more of it) and there will definitely be a show. Two night’s worth of a show. This Thursday, December 12, is night one of the festivities. Grouplove, Alt J, Bastille, and a band you may have heard of once or twice, Phoenix, will bring all the heat that’s lacking outside to the stage. Friday, December 13, brings night two with acts including NoNoNo, Foals, and headliners Arctic Monkeys. Which accurately describes the environment of the Midwest this time of year…when you look at the people as monkeys…it can be argued that we are, though that’s not what this post is about. They’re also going to kick off night two with a preshow cocktail hour where Moon Taxi will get you excited for the remainder of the evening. Oh, and this show is sold out so if you don’t have tickets, you have roughly 24 hours to figure out how the hell you’re getting in! We’re pretty sure you can get some semi legit suggestions from Google as a starting point.

If you’re among the unfortunate few who won’t be attending Big Snow Show 8, you can always stay home and knit. It’s cold out, you could be a hit with your friends by giving them scarves to keep warm, maybe mittens too.

And if knitting is just too crazy for you – you can always go see Sister Hazel in Chicago. Remember, they had that one song back in the late 90s. They’ll be at House of Blues on Friday night and it will be ‘All For You’… see what we did there?

Christmas is 15 days away. With this fact in mind there are two things that are true. The first is that if you have to go out shopping you are going to fight traffic and pissed off shoppers who are in the same situation you are in. So naturally everyone is going to have that Christmas cheer. The second fact is that you are going to be hearing a boat load of Christmas songs, and it is going to be everywhere. So those two facts are true, Hey Johnny! has a third fact that is new and improved for the 2013 Holiday Season....

R. KELLY LOVES CHRISTMAS MORE THAN YOU

We know what you're thinking. "Didn't R. Kelly just release his new album Black Panties? Why yes, he did. However, he also has a new song featured on the soundtrack to 'The Best Man Holiday'. Now we haven't seen the movie, but we are pretty sure we can accurately describe the scene that this song is in. If you don't believe us that's fine, here is a video of it on YouTube. 

Oh. You think this is Mr. Kelly's first attempt at a successful Christmas song? Wrong again. He brought the world this treasure:

We hope you enjoyed this. Getting back to our original point. No matter who you think is the best at Christmas, you're really wrong because it is R. Kelly. Mainly because of this:

This past Friday night, December 6, Hey Johnny! sat down with MiMOSA before his show at The Rave. We talked about his music, the tour, his label, and more. It may have been freezing outside but the crowd inside was pumped for the fun the night had in store.

Be sure to look for MiMOSA's new album, due out in spring and get ready for some hype around his upcoming show with Trinidad James in Denver at the end of the week.

Interview can be found here: https://soundcloud.com/heyjohnnyblog/mimosa