TOP 11 of '11

It's the 5th year we get to thank you and wish you Happy Holidays from the heart (no joke).

We honestly love you for watching & sharing My Damn Channel original videos.

We promise to deliver the goods again in '12‚ and we'll be launching our new daily live show with YouTube, strangely titled: MY DAMN CHANNEL: LIVE


The staff took an informal poll and picked 11 faves from the past year‚ they're all HERE for your holiday dining and dancing pleasure:

1. WAINY DAYS - Kelly & Arielle (Part 1)
David Wain returns in the triumphant Season 5 of our longest-running hit comedy series with a killer new cast & a new sponsor: FIAT!

2. GIGI: ALMOST AMERICAN - Donate Good Cause
Josh Gad stars as "Gigi," an awesome, original character that infected our fans on My Damn Channel and on YouTube.

3. GARFUNKEL & OATES - David Wain is Sexy
Garfunkel & Oates created this chart-topper to honor WAINY DAYS with David Wain guesting on vocals and guitar.

4. DAILY GRACE - Official Sexy Friday song with Rebecca Black
Rebecca Black recently told YouTube that our My Damn Channel goddess, Daily Grace was one of her favorite people on YouTube. Grace invaded Rebecca's studio for the surprise awesome duet of the year.

5. HARRY SHEARER - Touch My Junk
Our patron saint and in-house hero has blown our brains with original videos since day ONE back in 2007. Here's his musical love note to airport TSA pat-downs.

6. MARK MALKOFF - Apple Store Challenge
MARK MALKOFF - Big Wheel vs. Bus
Every Malkoff adventure captures our imagination, lotsa video views and tons of well-deserved press. He tied for #6 with two videos that tapped the zeitgeist in 2011.

7. VERSAILLES - Episode #7
David Hunt created one of the most original series on My Damn Channel this year with an amazing cast joining him including Patricia Heaton, William H. Macy, Eve Gordon, Martha MacIsaac & the great Fred Willard.

8. SLACKTORY - Slackgeist 2011: The Year in Stupidity
We launched a new My Damn Channel Blog Network this year and Nick Douglas is running an awesome new site for us called Slacktory. Their blog posts are toooo good and they make videos tooo. Here's their year-ender.

9. WAINY DAYS - Kelly & Arielle (Part 4)
Thomas Lennon reunites with David Wain in this new episode from Season 5.

10. SAUL HERNANDEZ - Molecular (from our music channel produced by Don Was)
Don Was is one of the greatest musicians and music producers there is. He's been running our music channel here since day one in 2007 & we all fell in love with one of this year's original songs by Saul Hernandez, lead vocalist and songwriter for the Mexican bands Caifanes and Jaguares.

11. DICKI - Making Friends
We're in love with Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe from "24"). She's a new member of the My Damn Channel fam with an original character comedy, DICKI.

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Don Was is a Super Producer Who Brings Us Superstars

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Today we're 4 years old.

It's hard to believe that on this exact date four years ago, we launched this site.

We had only three artists to start: Don Was, Harry Shearer and David Wain. 

Daily Grace didn't even exist in 2007, when we were born.  Did you know that we made her in a factory in late 2008? Yeah, special order from the same company that makes Segways!  It's true!

Look at all the people wishing us Happy Birthday:



We're so lucky to have so many good friends...and we count YOU, dear readers, among them.  Because if you've found our blog, it means that you REALLY like us... and we like you back.  Thanks for helping us survive another year.  When we get to 10 years old every single one of us, employee and viewser, will get all-expenses-paid vacations to the Turks and Caicos.*  Here's to us AND you!  We wouldn't be here without you!  Buy yourself a cake and have some of it!  Yay!

*Totally, absolutely and appallingly untrue.

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Swag the Dog

(*Actual product will most likely look nothing like this. Also, wings not included.)

Lately, My Damn Channel swag has been flying off the shelves and onto people's bodies at an alarming rate.  It seems like everyone wants a new T-shirt in their hands (or on their torso, at least.)  After all, who wouldn't want a slice of pie from the larger bakery that is the world of My Damn Channel paraphernalia?

Take My Damn Channel viewser JustNeph... please!  When we asked folks to tweet at us with the phrase "I want #MyDamnPen!" Neph responded.  And we didn't let his plea fall on deaf ears, hooking him up with not one but TWO My Damn Channel pens, and a MY DAMN CHANNEL STICKER.

And here's our pal Dom Galati donning a sharp new My Damn Channel tee...

And if you want your very own My Damn Channel shirt, you can follow Rocky Rector's example and be the one this week to get the most friends to sign up for our ongoing Versailles sweepstakes.  Additional info is here.

Go ahead and sign yourself up, while you're at it.  Winner gets a free trip for two to L.A. to meet Versailles (watch it!) co-stars and creators Patricia Heaton and David Hunt.  There's only one week left to enter, so if you need to, now would be a good time to buy a working mouse.

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Don Was, Saul Hernandez, Caifanes, Coachella

Attention music fans - cool things happening in the world of our resident Producer/Hero, Don Was. 

Don recently sent us a great video of the first single from Mexican rocker, Saul Hernandez. The song is called "Molecular", and not only will the melody be stuck in your head, but the video documentation of the in-studio experience is as awesome as it gets. Saul's album, produced by Don Was, will be released in May and is his first solo record after fronting the Mexican rock band Caifanes. 

Speaking of Caifanes, they reunited this weekend at the Coachella music festival in Indio, CA. It was a huge moment for the fans of these Rock en Español pioneers and one of the biggest reunion acts at the festival this year. 

Watch Don's vlog about working with Saul, then check out the music video and turn it up!

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My Damn Channel: Our 3rd Birthday

My Damn Channel is 3 years old today.

Punk was still a baby when this photo was taken. Nixon is looming in the background. He's pointing the finger!

The pic is taken during a time called "college radio" before consultants sucked freedom out of the souls of rock radio madmen and mystical women who turned us onto music completely capable of changing and defining our lives.

I first met Harry Shearer that year. I chased rock dreams through radio, television and film - and called Harry in late 2006, with the idea to start a then-unnamed business which became My Damn Channel. I called Don Was. I called David Wain.

We launched My Damn Channel exactly 3 years ago, on July 31, 2007.



We give artists we love, trust and respect all the tools they need to skip over stone walls of multi-national media empires and create video delivered directly to you.

We've never been stupid enough to think www.MyDamnChannel.com would be the most visited online destination in the world. But we built a home base big and bad enough for every creator to have their own channel and we built a massive distribution network to move video onto every digital platform where we can make a solid business deal to support the work. The good shit ain't free.

We built a business driven by advertising, licensing and the certainty that we can bring you talent and content in special events later this year - worthy of a buck or two from you to support the art. Crazy, right?

Artists like Illeana Douglas prove that companies like IKEA can connect in a whole new way with millions of people watching millions of videos every hour. Illeana birthed a baby called "Easy to Assemble," which Ad Age dubbed "the most-watched sponsored web show."



We survived the world's worst economy and found our way to success because YOU watch and share our videos. THANK YOU.

We have artists that trust us to respect their art. THANK YOU.

We have sponsors and business partners who believe that we can deliver the good shit and guarantee millions of eyes on it all. THANK YOU.

We have backers who put their faith and coin into a vision for a new show business as powerful today as television was in the 50's. YOU GET IT! THANK YOU!

We have a man named Warren Chao, our Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, who knew how to stop us from avoiding most of the mistakes baby companies make to screw it all up. Warren: I've never known a single human being as smart, dedicated and effective inside a company as you. THANK YOU.

Biggest thanks to our families for not killing us when the hill seemed to high to climb! 

RESPECT and THANKS to every one of you who have spent a day inside our small, evolving staff of rebels and business partners.
(Keep an eye out for your party invite!)



We start year four today. Documented in "the world's longest press release" here - with all our new channels for your immediate inspection.

One more major announcement is coming out in days to prove that you'll still have My Damn Channel to kick around for years to come. 
F Nixon.

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3 Years Ago: Launch Mode

Good things come in 3's.

3 years ago, a small band of true believers were readying the launch of My Damn Channel: 7/31/07.

Here are the inaugural videos from the first 3 artists we signed.

David Wain came in with the world's fastest pitch for Wainy Days: (paraphrasing) "I want to make out with the hottest women in the world and every date goes horribly wrong."

His first episode (a 3-parter) co-stars Elizabeth Banks as Shelly:


David Wain as David Wain, Elizabeth Banks as Shelly.



Harry Shearer was the first hero we signed. He sat in prosthetic makeup for over 4 hours to become Dick Cheney, singing sexy for Scooter Libby:


Harry Shearer as Dick Cheney.


We wanted music to marry comedy in our company from Day One. We turned to another brother and one of the best musicians and producers on the planet, Don Was.

Don's "Wasmopolitan Cavalcade of Recorded Music" is an earful of the best music you can't get anywhere else.

His first My Damn Channel production starred one of the smartest singer/songwriters we know, Jill Sobule:


Don Was, Rob Barnett, Jill Sobule, Warren Chao at the My Damn Channel west coast launch party, 2007.


Here's a rare, bonus video from the archives. Day one back on 7/31/07 also starred Big Fat Brain, the geniuses behind You Suck at Photoshop, and the web designers of all things DAMN. One of our only spoof vids looked 20 years into the FUTURE and poked our pals at Funny or Die, who had launched a few months earlier:



Matt Bledsoe, Troy Hitch

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Boxee Makes One Million Miracles

Boxee is the best way to get TV shows, movies, videos, music, and photos from the Internet on your TV. We’ve been watching this company grow and we’ve seen people’s heads turn every time their name is mentioned…inna good way. Put simply, this company is hot – with the right ideas to build the future with you in the driver’s seat. Here’s more.

Boxee just gave My Damn Channel access to one million new households. We just gave Boxee every single video we’ve had on My Damn Channel since launch in 2007.

You can now see our original music and comedy in the comfort of your own domestic domicile – on the largest screen of your choice. This is a HUGE win for our fans, artists, and sponsors … even our moms will finally think we’ve all got real jobs.

We’re launching this new chapter of our life by giving Boxee exclusive off-site distribution of the premiere of David Wain’s new “WAINY DAYS.”  This is episode 32 from one of the most-watched comedies in the new world - starring David along with Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman & Zandy Hartig.

If we weren’t working so hard to entertain you – we’d be home right now partying our brains out watching Wainy Days, Easy To Assemble, the entire catalog of the Don Was Cavalcade of Recorded Music, all those You Suck at Photoshop and Horrible People episodes and the deadly smart creations by Harry Shearer.  

It's all there waiting for you. New stuff we can't even tell you about yet will be there soon, too.  Admit it: you want to go there.  It's okay.  We want you to go to there, too.

THANKS BOXEE!

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Webby Awards 2010

My Damn Channel was born 7/31/07. We were still in diapers when the Webby Awards first starting loving our artists with 7 nods in 2008.

They honored our family 5 more times in 2009. And this year, 8 new acts of love. We suck at math, but that's a lotta Webby lovin'.

The Webby Awards were just announced today.

THANKS to every human who voted - the judges, the fans...and congrats to every creator in webland for the recognition for your work n' fun that goes into forging the new world.

BIG love and respect to all in our family. Here are links to the My Damn Channel honored class of 2010:




Extra special love to Illeana Douglas and the "Easy To Assemble" team for her nomination for Best Individual Performance...and to David Wain and Amanda Peet and the whole Wainy Days fam for their nomination for Best Individual Episode for "Jill."

New "Wainy Days" and New "Easy To Assemble" episodes are in the works now.

 

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My Damn Channel Oscar Predictions

Movie geniuses everywhere, including the amazing Roger Ebert, say this year's Oscars are more predictable than ever before. My Damn Channel opens our Hurt Locker full of fun to reveal the full list of winners you'll need to pick to take home the Oscar pool cash at tonight's viewing party. We'll be ready to be attacked or thanked in the morning:

Actor:   Jeff Bridges*

Supporting Actor:   Christoph Waltz

Actress:   Sandra Bullock

Supporting Actress:   Mo’Nique

Best Picture:   The Hurt Locker

Director:   Kathryn Bigelow

Foreign Film:   The White Ribbon (Germany)

Animated Film:   Up

Art Direction:   Avatar

Cinematography:   Avatar

Costume:   The Young Victoria

Documentary Feature:   The Cove

Documentary Short:   China’s Unnatural Disaster

Editing:   The Hurt Locker

Makeup:   Star Trek

Original Score:   Up

Original Song:   The Weary Kind (Crazy Heart)

Animated Short:   A Matter of Loaf and Death

Live Action Short:   The Door

Sound Editing:   Avatar

Sound Mixing:   Avatar

Visual Effects:   Avatar

Adapted Screenplay:   Up In The Air

Original Screenplay:   Inglorious Basterds


* Note: An inspiration for Jeff Bridges' character in "Crazy Heart," and the man who wrote most of the songs in the film, is the great Texas musician, Stephen Bruton. Stephen died last May, just two weeks after finsihing all his work on the film with T Bone Burnett.  You can see two of Stephen's songs produced by Don Was on our music destination at My Damn Channel. They're on Stephen's site linked above as well.

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