Advent Calendar - Christmas Day - Horace Goes Skiing

A true festive classic for Christmas Day - Horace Goes Skiing. Yep, the ZX Spectrum classic is back thanks to the efforts of MySpeccy.com. Click the screenshot below to launch the game in a new window - you'll need Java, but it's well worth it.


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Advent Calendar - Christmas Eve - Domino Rewind 2010 Free Compilation

So Christmas is just a day away, and we've got another quality offering for you lucky little bleeders today on the Popsiculture Advent calendar. So good in fact we had to move it to Christmas Eve so as not to upstage our other recent entrants.

Domino Rewind 2010 is a free 14 track compilation of some of Domino Records' favourite tracks of the past year, including a great track from Villagers' debut album Becoming a Jackal, which I missed when it was released back in May, but has just made a (very) late entrance onto my Christmas wish list.

You'll also find some better known acts on here though including Clinic, Four Tet, The Fall, and Tricky. Listen to the whole thing on the player below or hit the 'MP3' icon to download all 14 tracks, entirely free.

Merry Christmas folks!


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Advent Calendar - Dec 23rd - Guinness Christmas Jingle

Guinness's Christmas Jingle is a viral bit of fun from a brand famed for its engaging marketing campaigns. OK, clonking a half-empty Guinness doesn't have the eerie appeal of a full-on wine-glass orchestra, but it's easy to get the hang of. Check the demonstration below and the annotated video that lets you get stuck in for yourself.


And now your turn...


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Advent Calendar - Dec 22nd - Scissor Sisters - Invisible Light

A bit of a preview from the Scissor Sisters here - it's the rather raunchy video for Invisible Light, the closing track from their album Night Work. We can only embed the censored version below, but if you like what you see head over to YouTube for the explicit video - providing you're over 18.


And the naughtier version can be found here.

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Advent Calendar - Dec 21st - Belle & Sebastian 'Holiday Spectacular' Live Concert Webcast

Another good one for you today. With Christmas a matter of days away Belle & Sebastian and the lovely people at Matador Records and Rough Trade have teamed up with The Guardian and NPR to give us an early pressie - a full free Belle & Sebastian concert to be webcast live HERE at 9pm GMT tonight.

The Scottish art-pop group are touring in support of their new album The Life Pursuit, but have promised a selection of older tracks and fan favourites as well. There's even support from Canadian indie-rockers The New Pornographers.

Take a look at the short promo video below, and be sure to tune in later (and we'll try to find an archive of the performance afterwards for posterity).


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Advent Calendar - Dec 20th - Super Santa Kicker

Some festive fun today - Super Santa Kicker, courtesy of Bored.com and Gameshot.org. If you find this as addictive as we did, you'll be here for at least the next half an hour - unless you're some kind of Santa-flinging ninja...


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Advent Calendar - Dec 19th - Wye Oak - Civilian

Wye Oak's third album, Civilian, is due out on March 7th 2011 on City Slang records. But that seems like an awfully long way away, so here's a sneak preview - just hit the play button below to hear the title track via SoundCloud.

If you like it enough, you can download it for free by clicking here to visit the track's SoundCloud page and then clicking the download link.


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Advent Calendar - Dec 18th - Hurts - All I Want For Christmas Is New Years Day - iTunes Free Christmas Single of the Week

Okay, we missed this one on the Christmas Number One round-up at the beginning of the week (and a number of others no doubt). It's iTunes' free Christmas Single of the Week, from British synthpopsters Hurts, All I Want For Christmas Is New Year's Day.

As you might guess from the title this isn't your usual cheery seasonal song, in fact it even goes beyond familiar Christmas curmudgeon, to downright slit-your-wrists depressing. So if this is your season to be melancholy, hey, get on board!

And because we like to give you a little bit extra here on Popsiculture, we've thrown in a version of Hurts hit Better Than Love as remixed by LightsOverLA for your consideration.


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Advent Calendar - Dec 17th - BBC Sound of 2011 Artists

A quick look forward into 2011 now, and the BBC have looked into their crystal ball once again and selected their top 15 ones to watch in the year ahead. Previous winners of the BBC's 'Sound of...' lists have included 50 Cent, Mika, Adele and last year Ellie Goulding, so like it or not they probably know what they are talking about.

Go on over here to check out the talent for 2011, where you'll find videos for most of the artists, and a whole host of reviews, links and biographical information on all those included.

Popsiculture's favourites are intense singer-songwriter type Jamie Woon, and US rockers Mona, but we can also see really big things on the horizon for Jessie J. Check out her single Do It Like A Dude below, or go ahead and download it from iTunes here.


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Advent Calendar - Dec 16th - TRON: Legacy iTunes download

If you're planning to go see TRON: Legacy, you could do worse than to book your seat with Cineworld. Right now they're offering a free iTunes download of a track from the TRON: Legacy soundtrack when you book online or at one of their box offices. It's not totally free, admittedly - you still have to pay to see the movie - but if you're a fan it's a nice perk.


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