What's New? The end of the year is fast approaching, and that means inventory time. Yes, those of us at GEARHEAD HQ will be counting each individual product in the GEARHEAD warehouse. Which means, last minute sale, which means less for us to count if you take advantage of this berzerko offer, so win-win for everyone! Enter XMAS2018 at checkout and get 50% off of any CD in your cart! Artists We Love The header for this newsletter was created by Doug Mansfield, who has done alot of cool art for GEARHEAD these last few years, including the Santa's Got a GTO Vol. 2 record, and The Mansfields Hollywood Babylon record. We are so lucky to be selling a few of his goodies, such as magnets and keychains, so please check out the webstore! Our friendly Christmas monster Lewis was painted by Cuz'n Bill Lorenz, who did the cover for the current issue of GEARHEAD Magazine as well as several t shirts, includingMotorskull and Live Fast, Be Weird. Gearhead owes a great debt of gratitude and appreciatiation to these amazing talented artists, so thank you for your support this year fellas! Special Offer
We're clearing out some of our limited edition Christmas doo-dads, so make sure you check out the CLEARANCE section for special discounts, no code necessary! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, The dedicated team at GEARHEAD HEADQUARTERS HO HO HO ho ho ho, Santa's Got a GTO! If you missed out on picking up this limited edition record, you still have a chance before it goes out of print. Available as an LP with full color artwork and liner notes, a digital download or a digital download card, shake up the holiday season with these raucous irreverent Christmas tunes, curated exclusively for Gearhead Records by DJ Rodney Bingenheimer (Rodney on the Rock), the Mayor of Sunset Strip, and the man responsible for introducing the world to The Ramones, The Runaways, Blondie and so many more bands. Featuring the retro art of Doug Mansfield, the bright red cover and vinyl will surely put you in the Christmas mood! And while you're at it, stuff the stockings of the rock fan in your life with exclusive accessories including keychains, magnets, pocket mirrors and die-cut stickers. Add a touch of holiday funky to your party decor with these limited edition full-color posters, measuring 11 x 17
As The Tearaways sing, "It's Gonna be a Helluva Christmas!" Christmas movies have a special place in my heart, but not just any Christmas movie. Sure, I enjoy the sappy, heart-warming endings that most Christmas movies wrap up with (yes, pun intended), but I hate being talked down too, like a Hallmark greeting card. I want a bit of bite to my movies, a bit of angst, humor, and as in the case of my favorite Christmas movie, Surviving Christmas, some connection to the underground pop culture as well as loveable but totally wacked out characters. Surviving Christmas came out in 2004 to horrible reviews and a 7% rating on the movie review website Rotten Tomatoes. It was considered a box-office bomb and was released two months later on DVD. Honestly, I wonder if critics even bothered to watch the movie. The reviews all echo each other claiming the film was a horrific waste of time, a movie with little humor and grace and to be avoided at all costs. Featuring Ben Affleck as the eccentric millionaire Drew Latham who doesn’t want to spend Christmas alone and Christina Applegate as the snarky sarcastic daughter Alicia with James Gandolfini as the cantankerous father Tom Valco and Catherine O’Hara as his “so over it” wife Christine, the movie is hilarious from start to finish, with a stellar cast to boot. Drew has avoided Christmas because of painful childhood memories and after his vapid girlfriend Missy breaks up with him when he presents her with first-class tickets to Fiji instead of bringing her home for Christmas to meet his family, he follows the counsel of her therapist and journeys to his childhood Chicago suburbs home to clear his heart and start afresh by writing his grievances on a piece of paper and setting them on fire in front of his childhood home, now occupied by the Valcos. After Tom whacks Drew over the head with a snow shovel for displaying pyro tendencies, Drew bribes the family with $350,000 to be his family for the holidays, to which they readily agree considering the parents are getting ready to split up and have zero holiday cheer anyway. Drew sets about writing a script for the family to follow so it perfectly recreates his memories of his childhood Christmases past and pushes the family into re-enacting his demands with the threat of “breach of contract” hanging over their heads if they don’t. Meanwhile, younger brother Brian stays sequestered in his room, watching porn on his computer. Look at the posters in the background of Brian’s bedroom and you will see Gearhead posters V/A Runnin’ On Fumes (the original art for this was featured also on the cover of Gearhead Magazine No. 19) and The Hellacopters Cream of the Crap (originally only available as an insert with the record but now for sale as a stand alone poster) as set dressing! Coupled with a killer soundtrack featuring everything from Cherry Pie by Warrant and Feliz Navidad by Jose Feliciano Jingle Bell Rock by Chet Atkins, an off-key rendition of Oh Christmas Tree sung by Affleck and Gandolfini, and the classic Christmas Wrapping by The Waitresses as well as a vintage cherry red Chevelle SS (guessing but not sure, 1970) the movie is not only smart and funny, but it has great pop culture references through out. The script is well written, fast paced and just twisted enough to keep you laughing but not cringing. I honestly don’t know how this movie was trashed so badly unless the cretins writing about it were stuck in their own version of holiday hell. Maybe they hated it because Affleck is playing a pretty unlikable character. Or maybe because the movie doesn’t sugar coat the dysfunctional family dynamics brought out by the holidays. I have no idea, and I can’t really guess why they hated it so much.Everyone I have turned on to this movie loves it and thinks it's hilarious. All I know is ignore the critics, track down this movie and enjoy some really funny clever moments with Surviving Christmas. And don’t forget to look for the Gearhead posters in the background!!
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