The holidays are a great excuse to give gifts to the people in our lives who we appreciate. As much as we would love to say “fuck capitalism!” and give everyone a bunch of super-cool handmade gifts…due to a shortage of time, things don’t end up working that way, and we’ll probably end up buying gifts manufactured by others. Finding the perfect gift can be quite a task. Because we love you, we did some legwork and have assembled a list of awesome Verbicide-approved gift ideas — things that are unique, funny, sustainable, and/or just plain cool. We hope this makes things easier for you. Happy holidays!
First off, let’s start with music.
One thing I’d love to see under my tree is the new remastered vinyl edition of Nine Inch Nails’ Pretty Hate Machine that was released this week. After the original masters changed hands from TVT to Bicycle Records, Trent Reznor worked with Tom Baker to remaster and polish the classic album. They spiffed up the cover art, too. It’s on vinyl for the first time since its original release on TVT, so go pick that sucker up at your favorite indie record store!
Next, I want to mention this BYO box set: Let Them Know: The Story of Youth Brigade and BYO Records. We wrote up a glowing review of the set earlier this year. Any punk buff you know will be delighted to receive this thing. The box set includes two colored LPs and features exclusive tracks from Pennywise, NOFX, Youth Brigade, Dropkick Murphys, Leatherface, Bouncing Souls, 7 Seconds, and more. It also includes a DVD of the full length documentary directed by Jeff Alulis and a big, glossy coffee table book full of photos and stories. You can also get it on CD, if you’re not into vinyl. Either buy it directly from BYO, or get over to your local indie record store.
Moving on to another wonderful box set: Bill Hicks’ The Essential Collection. This is a two CD/two DVD set that includes some of his best material. Hicks called himself “Chomsky with dick jokes.” He was one of the funniest, most controversial comics ever, and I seriously wish he were still around. This set is a great primer for anyone who doesn’t yet have Rant in E Minor or Arizona Bay, or a fan that would like to view the DVDs.
The next item I’d like to highlight on this cheery holiday list is the collection of The Walking Dead graphic novels. Everyone loves the new series on AMC, and the graphic novels are the perfect gift for the zombie-obsessed horrorholic in your life. Yay! Zombies! I’d suggest heading over to your favorite local comic book store to pick them up. Image, the company that originally published the comic, has a nifty comic store finder on their page that’ll help you locate a shop near you.
If you’re looking for a unique, artist-created piece of wonderful to give to someone, a great place to check out is buyolympia.com. They have a ton of interesting items there to choose from. Some of our favorite stuff is done by the artist Tiny Meat. There’s a bunch of wallets, passport holders, and checkbook covers posted that are fucking fantastic. Laser Kitty! Protect my passport!
A couple more buyolympia finds:
Refillable, one-of-a-kind notebooks made out of vinyl records
If you want to buy DIRECT from artists, though, one amazing place to do so is of course, Etsy. Here’s some of our favorite etsies:
Typewriter Jewelry by qacreate
Monster iPad case and Moustache iPhone cozy by yummypocket
Hanging Air Plant Pod by mudpuppy
Glass Pendants (most under $10!) by cuteworkz
If you’re interested in saving the planet, why not buy your friends and family gifts that are made of recycled materials? For example, these t-shirts from Stay Vocal:
….and these pendants made from recycled eyeglasses by Jen McCleary on Etsy:
Last, but not least, here’s an idea that’s very dear to our hearts here at Verbicide. Why not buy one of these amazingly cool thumb drives from Mimobot and fill it with all of our free Verbicide Select Mixtapes? They’ve got Star Wars, Halo, Hello Kitty, Domo, and more, with storage space ranging from 2GB to 16GB, depending on how much you’re willing to pay.
