I was lucky enough to get to hang out with Okie singer Samantha Crain recently, as she recorded her contribution to this year's Fowler Volkswagen Christmas compilation. You might recall last year's edition — of silly cover — which was recorded by Chris Harris at Hook Echo Sound and even spawned a really great free holiday concert. 

This year's edition currently is being recorded at Blackwatch Studios, and owner/producer Jarod Evans says the album will feature Colourmusic, Sherree Chamberlain, Chrome Pony, Ol' Savior and more, including Ryan Lindsey singing the wonderfully titled "I'm Coming Down Your Chimney." Nathan Poppe's been tapped to shoot a promotional music video for the album, and he subsequently tapped yours truly to help out.

Watching Sam work on her Oklahoma-themed girl-crush seasonal song with Jarod and Daniel Foulks, her friendly fiddle player was a delight. At first, they considered doing a Lucinda Williams number, but decided it'd be more fun to layer a bunch of vocals over a steady, crackling-fire beat with plenty of sleigh bells, like a '60s girl-group song. Of the tracks I've heard, it's my favorite so far. Looking forward to picking up a copy come Christmastime! Watch video of her and Daniel recording their parts. Apologies for me being a bit of a wobbly videographer. Musicians make me nervous:

I’ve only enjoyed the pleasure of hearing the Starlight Mints play once, but it was most definitely enough to make the email I received from Allan Vest today a very happy one. 

According to Vest, the band’s two earliest albums, 2000’s “The Dream That Stuff Was Made Of” and  2003’s “Built On Squares” are now available for purchase from  iTunes, Amazon MP3, eMusic, Rhapsody, Napster and other digital music outlets. While OKS is personally very fond of “Rhino Stomp” and “Drowaton” in general, this is good news that the band’s older material’s finally found its way online. Now go buy it!

Vest, of Edmond, also said that he’s currently working on solo material in pursuit of a career in film and television scoring. Go, Oklahoma!

So Akron, Ohio, neo-blues icons Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney (no relation that I can be certain of) are busy boys these days. News broke a few weeks ago that they’ll soon be releasing a sequel to 2009’s “Blackroc” that’ll include producer Damon Dash and a slew of other rappers — Curren$y, U God, Jay Electronica, Jim Jones and Wiz Khalifa among them. 

You’d think a rock band that’s sold nearly 2 million records and won a Grammy for their last album wouldn’t be too interested in following up on a seemingly one-off passion project, but that’s just the kind of guys Dan and Pat are.

They also can’t stop writing songs or coming up with hilarious ways of promoting them. The video below hit the Internet yesterday, via the newly built website, wannabuyavan.com. It features Bob Odenkirk (of cult-level “Mr. Show” and “Breaking Bad” fame) doing his thing as a frustrated car salesman. While I did love the “Frank the Dinosaur” bit that promoted the last record, and this wonderful, wonderful bit of single promotion Odenkirk’s berating of the idiot driver behind him is hysterical.

If you call the number listed on the site, you hear a recorded message from Pat (who also tweeted the number with the hashtag “elcamino” yesterday) describing an El Camino with “a quarter-million miles on it.” Pitchfork’s reporting that “El Camino” is the title of the album, and it’s due out in December. Pretty excited for this one, guys.

On Tuesday night, Syracuse indie-pop mini-orchestra Ra Ra Riot (or “the not-so-dancey Passion Pit,” as my old boss once so aptly described it) stopped by the big city to play “Shadowcasting” for “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.”

We’re less than a month away from the band’s Nov. 2 appearance at ACM@UCO, and I couldn’t be more excited. Its first record, “The Rhumb Line,” was somehow tender, vulnerable and catchy all at the same time, and one of my favorites from 2008. Watch:

In the Oklahoma music scene, few are eerier than Norman's Magnificent Bird, and just last week, the band posted an odd, alluring video to YouTube, to go with the song “Nowhere to Hide.” All rainy and black-and-white, a pretty, pale ghost haunts a depressed English major around the University of Oklahoma's campus. Watch it below.

You can stream their album “Superdark Can Happen to Anyone” at their Bandcamp page for free, or purchase it for $9.99. Also, the track “Cowboys are Blue Because of What They Have to Do” is available for free download.