I Like To Listen to My Morning Jacket In The Morning

My Morning Jacket [mp3]Rocket Man

If You Look Up The Word "Cool" In The Dictionary It Just Says Usain Bolt

As we grow up we wish to be many things.. Kids wish to be many things, grown ups wish to be many things. Many different kids want to be many different things. Some want to be doctors and some want to be ballarinas and some want to be Major League baseball players. Some want to build bridges and some want to run our country. There is, however, one thing that every kid wishes to be. Up through elementary school and into middle school, into high school and even as a post graduate student challenging his buddy in the parking lot of a baseball game. We all, at one time or another, have wanted to be the fastest. The fastest on the playground or the fastest in your PE class or the fastest in your school or the fastest in the world. It doesn't matter who you are, at one time in your life you wanted to be the fastest. The fastest kid in your class was the coolest. This was not a coincidence. The fastest kids are the coolest.
Your mother, the one person you can not picture running anywhere at any time, one day toed a line in her PE class and peered over at her classmates internally praying that her feet would move faster than theirs and she would be known as "The fastest person in school".
This is why we love Usain Bolt. His enthusiasm and excitement, which is unfortunately mistaken as arrogance by some, is accepted by most because what he has done is exactly what we all have dreamt about at one time in our lives. He is the fastest, and by definition, the coolest person on planet earth.
He is so fast that he doesn't even have to run the full 100m in an Olympic Final. He is so confident that he has a casual conversation, possibly about breakfast cereals, while he is standing in front of his starter blocks. He is so cool because he is the fastest kid in the class and the fastest kid in the class is always the coolest.

Here You Go, Listen To Tyler Ramsey. There Is No Way You Won't Like It.

All of these are from Daytrotter Sessions
Tyler Ramsey Please Stop Time

Tyler Ramsey Long Dream

Tyler Ramsey Ships

Tyler Ramsey No One Goes Out

Will Sheff and Carl Newman Singing a New Song From The Stand Ins

I pretty much just relay information from Pitchfork over here.

I Just Hope I Am Cool Enough To Listen To Electronica

Never would have thought to listen to this group. I like this song and its all because of my music correspondent Gary.
Here is a little electronic music to get you going on this Monday morning. A real Monday morning that involves waking up at 6am and earning a paycheck until 6pm.

MGMT [mp3] Time To Pretend

Santagold--Lights Out

I like this video a lot. I guess I like the song a lot more than I like the video. Before I heard this song I just thought she sounded like MIA. This song does not sound like MIA. More like Cyndi Lauper.

Okkervil River Is So Good They Are Great

I am excited for fall, and Monday Night Football playing in the background, and fall concerts and not complaining about my air conditioner not working, and winning money on College Football (when you win a bet it almost feels like you've won the game), and I am looking forward to the next Okkervil River album called The Stand-Ins. It comes out in September.

Okkervil River - The Stand Ins from David Lowery on Vimeo.

There are a lot of good times to be had here in the next few month. Find some shade and take a nap until we get there.

My Morning Jacket With The Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra Playing Gideon

This video has been there for 6 months but I saw it for the first time this evening. I like the idea for this video a lot less than I like the song. You can't get much better than Jim James can you.

Olympics 2008 Means As Much As An NBA Regular Season Game...Maybe Less

It has been years and years since I really cared about the Olympics. In the early 80's we cared because we wanted to beat Russia so badly. The Cold War and Star Wars and all that stuff that was going on when we were barely able to understand; it was the fuel for our hatred and the one way we could fight it was to beat them in the Olympics. We had Carl Lewis, Edwin Moses, and Michael Conely and we followed Greg Luganis and we secretly watched gymnastics. I remember in 1984 coming home from a tough day of 1st grade being momentarily pissed off that Scooby-Doo would not be seen due to the Olympics. I quickly forgot about cartoons as I got sucked into the competition and our battle with the Russians and that guy with the coffee stain on his forehead. It wasn't the US against the rest of the world it was US vs. Russia. It was awesome.
The last time I truly got interested in the Olympics was in 1992 when we had the Dream Team. Never again will there be a hype around a team like that. It was the best basketball players to ever play the game on one team. Bird, Magic, Isaiah, Jordan, Barkley. That is rediculous. We bought their jersey's and tried to wear them out and we drank dozens of large Cokes from McDonalds in our effort to collect all of the Dream Team cups. They beat their opponents senseless and watching those games gave you the same euphoric feeling as you did when you played Double Dribble on the easiest level and you beat your opponent 125-12. It was all quite amazing.
Today just doesn't have that feeling. The feeling of excitement the games once held. No one marks their calendar for the Opening Ceremony and no one really knows any of our track and field stars. There are no great divers we are looking forward to watching and some swimming chick has already been kicked out for taking an illegal substance. We know our basketball team is great but we secretly hope someone beats us because Kobe is not Jordan and Lebron is not Magic and Dwayne Wade is not Larry Bird. They are not a team, but a collection of individuals.
The one athlete I look forward to watching is Michael Phelps. I hope he wins 18 gold medals or something.
The Black Masks

Now I am embarrassed. It's bad enough that the entire world hates us. I don't mean dislike I mean HATE. I am not ashamed to be an American...its the best place in the world to be regardless of what those green shaded hippies say. I mean fuck everyone for hating us, you know. But now in the midst of everyone thinking we are the stuck up, rich, prep school assholes we enter Beijing with some of our athletes wearing surgical masks. Oh fuck, what the fuck. They say they were not trying to make a statement, only that they were concerned about the smog and pollution invading their precious temple bodies. Bullshit! They are all wearing black surgical masks. I have been to a few hospitals in my life and I am pretty sure I have never seen black surgical masks. Black masks, black gloves (Tommie Smith, John Carlos 1968 Mexico...yeah)...that means something. So thats a nice way to start things right. Show the world up close how pretentious and elitist we can be.
I will watch the Olympics this year. I love watching track and field and I hope table tennis is still an Olympic sport. There just isn't as much excitement.

Conor Oberst

I kind of hope Conor Oberst continues to make albums like this one for the rest of his music making career. Every good songwriter seems to be a traveling man. Married men with their roots in the ground tend to make less interesting music. This is just an observation without any real examples to give. Conor Oberst seems to be one of those traveling men. Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson...none of them you can picture mowing their lawn and firing up the barbecue pit.
Here is a song off of the Conor Oberst by himself album. All the songs on here are really good and if you like this song you will probably like the rest of it.

Conor Oberst [mp3] Cape Canaveral

A CD by Nas not called "Untitled"

I downloaded this album the other day. I haven't purchased "Untitled" yet, but I can't imagine it being much better than this.
Click on the link below and it will take you to a screen where you can download the entire album. It's called The Nigger Tape featuring Green Lantern. I don't know much about rap music, but I know that I like this.

I don't like this word one bit and I really have a hard time even typing it.
The cd is pretty great though.

Nas The Nigger Tape (zip file)

I Am Ill, But I'm Not Dead (Frightened Rabbit Week Continues)

Modern Leper

Frightened Rabbit--Modern Leper

I like ordering things off of Amazon because waiting for it to arrive gives you something to look forward to.
Both Frightened Rabbit cds are really good. Midnight Organ Fight and Sing the Greys are their two albums. They are from Glasgow. If you have an accent you can get away with making bad jokes and writing bad lyrics. Frightened Rabbit does not have to worry about bad lyrics because they don't have any. This song is so good that I will listen to it over and over until I can't listen to it anymore.
Its the first day of August and there is a full month of hell ahead of us.

Now that Manny is gone I think I kind of miss him. Jason Bay???? Really???

Frightened Rabbit [mp3] Modern Leper