In honor of their 25th anniversary and their new album "Back From the Dead," just released last month, Spinal Tap is asking the fans to get involved.

David St. Hubbins, Derek Smalls and Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap are inviting fans to create an original video to be posted on YouTube for one of the following songs off of their album BACK FROM THE DEAD — Hell Hole, Warmer Than Hell, Big Bottom, Stonehenge, Back From The Dead and/or Short & Sweet. Judging the contest, will be Colman Hickey, who created the classic video for Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight using characters made of Legos.

One lucky winner will receive an autographed, limited edition Spinal Tap prize pack!

No idea what the autographed prize pack consists of, but what the hell. More details available at YouTube and you can see a sample contest entry here.

Also they've produced an official Spinal Tap iPhone app. Listen to music, watch videos, get the latest Tap news, and see what other fans are writing on their wall. Free app, but it looks like you'll need to be connected to get anything from it so put it on the phone or keep your iPod Touch near a wifi connection.

If you haven't picked up the new CD "Back From the Dead," you should. Amazon has it for just $10.99 and you get 19 original songs, a one-hour DVD, and a "unique pop-up diorama package that unveils three 12-inch action figures (courtesy of Sideshow Collectibles) of the band along with a proportionally sized Stonehenge." What's not to love?

Neil has generously given KNTR an autographed copy of the original motion picture soundtrack of the big screen adaptation of his popular book, Coraline!  As if that weren’t enough, he also donated an autographed Coraline t-shirt (adult size extra large)!  Neil wrote a little note on the shirt that says, “Sweet Dreams”, along with his signature.

As always, proceeds go towards getting books on library shelves. Kids need to read!

Also, here's Neil and Amanda Palmer in a bathtub:

Derek Smalls: Remember at Luton Palace we were talking about writing a rock musical based on the life of Jack the Ripper.
David St. Hubbins: Yeah!
[singing]
David St. Hubbins: You're a naughty one…
Derek Smalls, David St. Hubbins: Saucy Jack…
David St. Hubbins: You're a haughty one, saucy Jack.

Now, only 25 years later, the title track "Saucy Jack" from that fateful, unproduced rock musical by the world's greatest fake* heavy metal band has finally been released as a free download to help celebrate (and, obviously, promote out the wazoo) Spinal Tap's 25th Anniversary CD, "Back from the Dead", which comes out June 16th.

And they're going all out for the CD:

Back From The Dead is a deluxe CD/DVD package containing 19 original Spinal Tap songs, a one-hour DVD and unique pop-up diorama package that unveils three 12-inch action figures (courtesy of Sideshow Collectibles) of the band along with a proportionally sized Stonehenge. Back From The Dead is destined to be a collector's item, especially among collectors.

* If they've released a documentary, go on tour, and release three albums, are they still a fake band? They've already outlasted Big Country, Twisted Sister and Flock of Seagulls.

There were only 1,000 CDs pressed and they're signed and numbered by Marian herself. After they're gone you'll be able to buy the songs electronically.

Just $15.95 for a fantastic collection of 'Verse and BSG-inspired tunes. You can find sample tracks here.

And don't forget to check out my interview with Marian from last week.

Last year she also released a CD of her work called "Vanilla," with a special Browncoat edition that included the winning Saffron song along with her other amazing music.

And now QMx has declared her their "QMx Artist of the Month" in their latest Insider newsletter. Way to go Marian! And if you haven't gotten her CD yet, there's only about 30 left of the Browncoat version. E-mail her at mariancall@mac.com to get one, and ask about autographs. You can also visit her site at www.mariancall.com, or listen to her music at www.myspace.com/mariancall . And really, you should. She'll be big soon, and you'll want to get the CD now before it's going for hundreds on eBay.

It’s hard to explain, for those of you who weren’t around then, how big a change this was. You just popped a CD into your player, and it played. That was it. No longer did we have to go through the rituals of cleaning and wiping our vinyl albums to reduce (but rarely eliminate) the hisses and pops. No longer did we have to wince as our 8-tracks clunked to the next track. No longer did we have to fast-forward our cassettes when they started making that straining, whining sound. Music appreciation was not for the faint-hearted.

CDs changed the way we stored our music, too. Records had to be kept in the sleeves, upright, away from damp areas, or we’d find we had a wonderful collection of big taco shells. 8-tracks never stacked well and quickly filled up your car’s passenger side floor, and eventually they’d wear out and play the same four songs over and over and over, driving your mom insane when you left one running all night. We all became amateur splicers and learned how to get spilled Coke of our cassettes, and I remember the panic when the sound would suddenly stop and I’d have to scramble to pop it out before the tape erupted like the stereo was throwing up.

For the most part CDs just… worked.

True, we did have to give up the big album art, and for a while CDs came packaged in this odd double-size box to address this loss (and so they’d fit into the existing record bins), but we managed. After I finally saved up enough to buy a player I jumped into CD collecting with both feet. I don’t remember the first one I ever bought, but knowing me it was most likely something from Weird Al.

But that still wasn’t the biggest and longest-lasting change that came with CDs, which was this: We learned that the recording industry could not be trusted.

Sure, we all know that now, but then we had a childlike naivete about these things. They were in it for the music, man, just like we were! They’re just bringing us the very best music reproduction possible, how cool is that? Sure, they cost more than records did — by that point LPs had risen to over $7 each, unheard of and already causing grumbling when CDs suddenly debuted at $12 a pop – but we were assured that was only because CDs were brand new and R&D costs had to be recouped. Prices would surely drop, they told us. Records cost $2.50 each to make, after all, but CDs cost maybe a buck. Go ahead and buy that new CD player, kids, and just wait for music to become cheap and plentiful.

Funny thing, though. R&D must have cost them more than three space shuttles, because 25 years later the price still hasn’t dropped. Fancy that. It couldn’t be because the industry didn’t want to give up the profit share they’d become accustomed to, that would be… well, just what we expect from them now, actually. We learned what all the musicians, agents and DJs already knew: They’re in it for the buck. A hard lesson for '60s and '70s musicphiles.

But that’s fine, because the disc is always turning. Lately the music industry has been learning a hard lesson of its own. Along with the smaller size, hardier construction and better sound, by putting music in a digital format CDs also made music portable in a way it had never been before. We could loan records or we could make mix tapes, but each one required some attention and labor. Once you rip a CD into MP3s, spreading the music around is easy, almost inevitable. CDs these days are more like backup storage for the music that we immediately copy to our iPods, our computers and our friends. Finally music is as cheap and plentiful as we were promised all along, if not quite the way they intended, and CD sales are dropping as people buy (or otherwise acquire) the music through downloads.

Don’t worry, recording industry. Of course it won’t last. I’m sure that any day now we’ll all spontaneously go back to paying top dollar for music that can only be played under your strictly defined conditions. Rest assured, people are only taking your music right now without paying to… um…. to cover their R&D costs. Yeah, that’s it.

Happy birthday CD, and thanks. You don’t even know what you started.

ComicCon guests got first crack, but it's now available from the Done the Impossible website for $14.95.

Done The Impossible – The Fans' Tale of Firefly & Serenity Soundtrack

1.  "Done The Impossible (Ballad Of Serenity)"    by Rob Kuhlman
2.  "Autumn In Asheville"    by Emerald Rose  
3.  "Gwydion's Song To Lleu"    by Emerald Rose
4.  "The Fall Of Serenity Valley"    by Brobdingnagian Bards
5. "Take Me Down (To Her Water)"    by  Emerald Rose
6.  "Urania Sings"    by  Emerald Rose
7.  "Deventure"    by Vitulari
8.  "Big Damn Heroes (Instrumental)"    by Emerald Rose
9.  "Firefly Main Title – The Ballad Of Serenity"    by Emerald Rose
10.  "Big Damn Trilogy (Instrumental)"    by The Bedlam Bards
11.  "Come To The Dance"    by Emerald Rose
12.  "Sail The Sky (Instrumental)"    by The Bedlam Bards
13.  "The Rock Garden"    by The Bedlam Bards
14.  "I'm Gonna See Serenity"    by Dan Sehane
15.  "Big Damn Trilogy"    by The Bedlam Bards
16.  "Mal's Song"    by Michelle Dockrey
17.  "Big Damn Heroes"    by Emerald Rose
18.  "The Ballad Of Lux"    by The Bedlam Bards
19.  "Mal's Song (instrumental)"    by Tony Fabris
20.  "Done The Impossible (Ballad Of Serenity) Instrumental"    by Rob Kuhlman

Read more about it here. In the meantime, the Bards would like you to enjoy an absolutely free MP3-postcard of "Sail the Sky," a Browncoat anthem they used to conclude the album.

Track Listings
1. Firefly – Main Title
2. Big Bar Fight
3. Heart of Gold Montage
4. Whitefall / Book
5. Early Takes Serenity
6. The Funeral
7. River’s Perception / Saffron
8. Mal Fights Niska / Back Home
9. River Tricks Early
10. River Understands Simon
11. Leaving / Caper / Spaceball
12. River’s Afraid / Niska / Torture
13. In My Bunk / Jayne’s Statue / Boom
14. Inara’s Suite
15. Out Of Gas / Empty Derelict
16. Book’s Hair / Ready For Battle
17. Tears / River’s Eyes
18. Cows / New Dress / My Crew
19. Boarding The Serenity / Derelict
20. Burgess Kills / Captain & Ship
21. Saved / Isn’t Home? / Reavers
22. Reavers Chase Serenity
23. River’s Dance
24. Inside The Tam House
25. Dying Ship / Naked Mal

Currently #18 in music at Amazon, and climbing fast…

Downsides: The songs are in WMA format, you have to have a US credit card to buy them, IE to download them, and a Microsoft-approved player to play them. Also, no "The Hero of Canton," no Serenity Valley music, no Riverdance music from "Safe." I'm guessing they didn't have a dialogue-free copy of Jayne's song, dunno about Serenity Valley, and Greg Edmondson said in an interview that the music they used for River's dance in "Safe" was something they pulled from a music library.

Upsides: Firefly soundtrack! Sure I'm going to have to burn it to CD and then rip it to MP3s to play it the way I want to, and yeah, FOX is capitalizing on the movie to make money, but so what? We asked for this! And the Angel sountrack started out the same way before getting released as a CD. I'm hopeful. And c'mon, it sounds great.