Christmas is approaching fast but our Holiday Party still has a few more days to go. Today’s guest at the Modern Mystery Holiday party is Kay Stanton from the incredible Casper and the Cookies!

Kay is one of my favorite women in rock and roll. Actually, she is my favorite.  From making music to art, there is nothing this girl can’t do. Kay kindly shared with us her Top 10 Albums of the Year as well as a beautiful Christmas memory.

I can’t wait to hear Casper and the Cookies’ Modern Silence that is due out next month!

Kay’s Top 10 albums (in no particular order)

1. Everthus the Deadbeats – John Kill and the Microscopic Lullaby
2. AQUASERGE – TAHITI COCO
3. Keith John Adams – Unclever
4. Atlas Sound – Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel
5. Big Fresh – BFF (Big Fresh Forever)
6. Dead Confederate – Wrecking Ball
7. The Flaming Lips – Christmas on Mars
8. Okay – Huggable Dust
9. Lake – Oh the Places We’ll Go
10. Deerhoof – Offend Maggie

Best Show:

Yo La Tengo @ The Melting Point, Athens, GA, 1/14/08

Best Thing that Happened to You This Year:

The best thing that happened to me this year was probably getting to do a small Japanese tour back in February with the Cookies. It was a pretty amazing trip, despite (or maybe because of) blizzards, small spaces, strange toilets, and crazy rides. We got to play shows in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Kyoto, squeezing in as much sightseeing and eating as possible.

Weirdest Thing that Happened to You This Year:

Weird stuff happens to me all the time, but I suppose the weirdest thing that’s happened to me recently was being bitten by my pet frog, Wayne (yes, he’s named after Wayne Coyne). I guess he mistook my fingers for lunch, latched on and wouldn’t let go. Wayne is an Argentina Horned frog (aka Pac Man frog) and he doesn’t have teeth, exactly, but he has a bony ridge that feels kind of like a series of razor blades. So, I would have been feeling like a fool with this large frog attached to my hand if I hadn’t been shocked by how much it freakin’ hurt. I got him to let go, and my hand was bleeding, and it felt like it was covered in extra sticky snot. Maybe I should do a remake of the Flaming Lips’ ‘Spiderbite Song,’ but call it the ‘Frogbite Song.’

Favorite Holiday Memory:

My favorite holiday memory is of hanging ornaments on my grandparents’ tree in Pennsylvania. I was probably only five or six, but I remember it being dusk outside, but I could still sort of see the snow glowing bluish (and that was a pretty amazing thing to a kid who was born in Georgia). The ornaments were these beautiful glass bells and baubles; some of them had the little starburst cut-outs that some ornaments have. It was warm, and I was with my sister, and the whole family. I’ve had lots of good ones, but that’s still gotta be my favorite.