Song Of The Day – Stereophonics (Lying In The Sun)

Stereophonics is an iconic rock band from the UK, they have had multiple #1 albums, but their UK success hasn’t really lead to equal success in the U.S. I first heard of Stereophonics in 2001 when I got the album “Just Enough Education To Perform.” J.E.E.P., as it is usually called, is one of the best albums to be released in the UK that year and was a huge hit. Kelly Jones, the lead vocalist of Stereophonics, has such a nice voice, sound a bit like Ray LaMontagne with a pinch of Adam Levine from Maroon 5.

I started to dive deeper into the Stereophonics catalog and found another album that should have been a hit in the U.S. “Performance and Cocktails” was released in 1999, but sadly at that time the U.S. radio was crowded with bands like Limp Bizkit and Korn, so bands like Stereophonics didn’t get enough airplay. The album had great tracks like “T-Shirt Sun Tan,” “Is Yesterday, Tomorrow, Today?,” and my favorite, “A Minute Longer.”

Stereophonics have released many albums since “J.E.E.P.” and “Performance and Cocktails” and had their most success in the U.S. with the single “Dakota” off of their “Language, Sex, Violence, Other?” album.

It’s not too late for Stereophonics to make a huge splash in the U.S., but if they didn’t win us yankees over with their earlier work, I’m not too sure if it will ever happen now.

Here is a live performance of the song “Lying In The Sun.”

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A-Rod – Desperate Housewives Edition

There are reports that Alex Rodriguez and have allegedly split up. I can’t say that this is surprising, but for a extremely rich athlete who is in the public eye as A-Rod is, it’s hard to keep a marriage together. There are rumors that A-Rod has been seeking the solace of Madonna and his wife has been spending a lot of time with Lenny Kravitz. Really? Is A-Rod imitating Jose Canseco’s career to a tee? Canseco was link with Madonna years ago and both have also been linked to a certain “pharmaceutical” craze in baseball as well.

I can’t remember a more polarizing figure in baseball than Alex Rodriguez. Curt Schilling is very polarizing, but the Red Sox are a lovable team and it saves him from receiving even more scrutiny than he already does. Schilling has one thing going for him, he’s actually had success in the post-season, something A-Rod hasn’t accomplished. The next time the Yankees make the post-season, A-Rod can do himself a favor and carry his team to a World Series championship and save himself from a lot of the bad press he receives.

I think being single could be a good thing for Rodriguez. Imagine what kind of action he could get with Derek Jeter working as a wingman or “bro.” He can take care of a slump the old fashion way and take one for the team, a.k.a. “Slumpbuster.”

Suit Up!

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Song Of The Day – The Rocket Summer (Brat Pack)

As you can tell by my recent addition of a last.fm widget, I like The Rocket Summer. I found this band about five years ago when browsing around the web looking for new music. I ended up buying the “Calendar Days” album and I basically listened to it everyday for as long as I can remember. I got the “Hello, Good Friend” album when it came out and was very pleased by it. The Rocket Summer released “Do You Feel” last year and I haven’t warmed up to it yet, but give me some time.

The Militia Group has a way of finding some really nice talent. Bryce Avery started The Rocket Summer as kind of a one-man show. I think the young man has enough talent to sell a lot of albums and his work could transcend after this generation’s music is covered in dust. The Rocket Summer signed with Island Records and released “Do You Feel,” but they have changed their style a little and could need another album to really shine in their new sound.

Here is a video for “Brat Pack,” it’s a nice song about living life and having a great time with your friends, while trying not to live in the past.

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Smart Move?

I those glasses on Baron Davis, there were some photos recently of Baron Davis sporting those large frames while playing soccer, I think he needs to wear those in an NBA game next season. He could be the next Kurt Rambis, but he wouldn’t best be known for getting clothes-lined during a NBA Finals game.

Baron Davis opted out of the last year of his contract and is becoming an unrestricted free agent. He has had some beef with the Golden State Warriors, but I think most of it stems from him being in Don Nelson’s doghouse for much of the season last year. Davis has said he would like to stay in the Bay Area, but you have to think that him leaving over 17 million dollars on the table for next season, something has to change.

I think Davis is one of the best point guards in the game. He reminds me of a “good” Stephon Marbury, he is a fluid scorer and can run the offense much better than Marbury ever could. I liked him with UCLA and also with the Hornets (I do like Chris Paul a little better), Golden State seemed like a good fit for him at the time, but with Boston winning the title last year within a year of being the worst team in the league, I have a feeling that some of today’s NBA stars will start to speak to one another and try to duplicate this pattern.

Elton Brand has also opted out of his contract, he left a lot of money on the table. He only played 8 games last season and a lot of people can second-guess this move, but Brand was solid for a few years before his injury for the Clippers. A team out there will still pay out of their nose for him. The Clippers still seem to have interest in him and they are also eyeing Baron Davis. If the Clippers can pull off what the Celtics did last year, I will be amazing.

Clippers Owner, Donald Sterling, has been scrutinized for years about not wanting to pay for talent. Over the last few seasons he has increased his payroll a little in hopes of being competitive. If he ends up signing both Brand and Davis to new large contracts, the Clippers may be able to compete again.

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A Thigh Is Chipper’s Kryptonite

I have a vested interest in the success of Chipper Jones. No, he is not on one of my fantasy teams (I wish!), I own nearly every one of his rookie cards and I hope he can tack on a few more amazing seasons so he’ll be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Jones was batting over .400 for most of the season, but he re-injured his quadricep a few weeks ago and has dropped down to .394 (it’s still like 2 1/2 Tulowitzkis).

The Braves could end up being sellers at the trading deadline, which would mark the first time in over a decade that they will be attempting to build for the future before the deadline. They have been plagued by injuries to Yunel Escobar, Brian McCann, and John Smoltz. The Braves disabled list looks like an all-star team, so it would be smart for Bobby Cox to get thrown out of some more games to at least pad his already staggering record of tosses.

The Braves are an older team, but they have some young players that could step in and be competitive in the coin-flip that is the NL East. They will most likely lose Mark Teixeira at the end of the season if they don’t try to trade him. Tom Glavine and John Smoltz are mostly likely going to the Hall in five years and I don’t know how many more seasons Bobby Cox has left in him.

It would be great to see Chipper Jones on a contender again. He was like Derek Jeter in his earlier days, always in the post-season and doing things to win games. If the Braves aren’t a contender within two seasons, look for Jones to either go somewhere else to win or the Braves may have to deal him to build for the future.

If Chipper ends up batting .400 this season, imagine the effect he would have on my baseball card collection?!

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Song Of The Day – Black Star (Definition)

I watched “Be Kind Rewind” last night and I was reminded how much like Mos Def as an actor. I loved Mos Def in “The Italian Job” and think he did a good job in this film as well. He is a much better actor than Andre Benjamin. I did like Andre-3000 in “Four Brothers,” but I watched “Semi-Pro” a month ago and that movie was a stinker. I guess I should get to discussing my pick for “Song Of The Day,” I was really close to posting Mos Def’s “Ms. Fat Booty” only to have pervs find the site and like what they see.

Black Star is a duo that consists of Mos Def and Talib Kweli. The entire album reminds me of the summer of 1999 when my friend, Mixin’ Nate, bought it and listened to it in his Mazda that entire summer. I didn’t know much about either of the guys then, but I have became a fan since that summer. Kweli could be considered as one of the best lyricists in hip-hop today (with Common coming in at a close second). Black Star have been “working” on a new album for awhile and something should be done within the next couple years. They have guest-starred on each other’s albums and a new Black Star album would be very popular.

Here is Black Star’s video for “Definition.”

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Fantasy God – Evan Longoria

Evan Longoria was deemed the savior of the Tampa Bay Rays, much like Jay Bruce is being coined in Cincinnati. Longoria was supposed to be the starting 3rd basemen at the start of the season, but the team wanted to give him a month in the minors to ease him into the league. They saw Longoria as more of a Ryan Bruan-type talent that needed a month in the minors to sharpen up before making his major league debut. This was a smart idea, since the Kansas City Royals had a similar scenario last season with their prospect, Alex Gordon. He ended up struggling his first two months in the Majors, but ended up turning it on towards the end of the season.

Evan Longora was finally brought up the majors in mid-April with much fanfare. He started out hot, but cooled down in May. He has been a monster in June, he has hit over half of his 15 homers so far this month. He has been extraordinarily hot over the past week. He has hit 4 homers, driven in 12 runs and batting .448. Some would suspect that his hot streak is due to inter-league play, but I think it should carry on throughout the rest of the season.

Tampa Bay is off to its best start in franchise history (48-32) and are in contention for both the AL East crown or the Wild-Card spot this season. Longoria, Carl Crawford, Scott Kazmir, and B.J. Upton arer the thank for their surprisingly great start. If Carlos Pena ever gets back his power stroke and they somehow get Rocco Baldelli back healthy, this team will not only be playoff-worthy this season, but the nucleus is young and should be great for years.

If you have Longoria on any of your fantasy teams, hold on to him. If you are in a keeper league, I would keep him for years to come. I look for Longoria to hit around 33 homers and have around 108 RBI. He is currently hittin .254, but look for a spike in his average once he figures out better pitching. Longoria should end up with a .286 average, give or take a few points.

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Song Of The Day – Rogue Wave (Eyes)

I like to watch television. I like that the new season of Real World, when they play a song during the show, they list the artist and song on the bottom of the screen. There has been two occasions this year where I’ve heard a song on a television show and I had to use the power of Google to find the song I desperately need to download. The first occasion was during a re-run of The O.C. (yes, the White Boy used to watch that show, quite often with the roommates), the song ended up being a song by Rogue Wave called “California.” I was shocked that the second time this occurred it was the same band.

My roommate has the first two seasons of Heroes on his PC. I was bored and I do not have cable at the moment (please see previous post about my anger at my female roommate). I ended watching the entire first season of the show within a three day period and there was a song that appears in the first couple of episodes. I thought it was Bright Eyes, but clearly not whiny enough, so I was confused. I ended up using some key phrases in google and found out that it was Rogue Wave’s “Eyes.”

Is Rogue Wave the kings of sitcom music? Kind of…I found out that their music has been used in other programs like Scrubs, Chuck, Friday Night Lights, Nip/Tuck, and a few others. They have three albums out and are currently on Brushfire Records, good news for Jack Johnson and Matt Costa fans.

I really like this song and I think it is rather catchy. Here is a video that was made for Rogue Wave’s “Eyes.” I rather doubt that it is the official video, but rather poetic.

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Song Of The Day – Ray LaMontagne (Empty)

I don’t have many things that I regret in life, but one of them was not seeing Ray LaMontagne live in concert. Two years ago, right when I was moving from Northern Indiana to Columbus, Ohio, I won a radio contest and I received two free tickets to Guster/Ray LaMontagne concert. I wanted to save money and didn’t see myself driving all the way down to Indianapolis and then driving back home to just drive to Columbus the next day. I didn’t know who Ray LaMontagne was at the time, but I have seen Guster before and they were amazing.

About three months after I moved to Ohio I decided that I wanted to investigate how Ray LaMontagne sounded. I wasn’t too impressed at first, but the album “Til The Sun Turns Black” started to be played everyday. I ended up getting his two previous albums (“Raycharles LaMontagne” and “Trouble), both of the albums are excellent and led me to download a live performance at Bonnaroo Festival in 2005.

At first I thought Mr. LaMontagne was British, his style of musicianship sounded very influenced, plus his voice sounded as if there were a hint of accent. I saw a picture of him and I still thought it was British, I mean look at that beard (a bit Cat Stevens-ish). I later found out that he was born in New Hampshire, but his family moved quite a bit and he ended up living in about every corner of the United States.

Ray LaMontagne makes great music and should be shared by all. Here is a performance of “Empty” that was performed on the BBC (see, I knew he was at least popular in the UK).

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Suit Up! – The 2008 NBA Draft Analysis

The NBA Draft is now officially over and every team has forgotten about the disappointment of last season and are excited for a new season. A new trend may have started this year, I didn’t see any funky suits. What happened to the Jalen Rose and Hakeem Olajuwon? The only suit that I could take a swing at was the suit O.J. Mayo wore. It was a 3-piece suit, but it was super tight and appeared to be a bit short on him.

Also, I would like to note that this year’s “Best Hair Award” goes to Robin Lopez. Any hair that is barely dented by a hair, gets a trophy. Here is my recap of this year’s lottery selections.

1 – Bulls – Derrick Rose, Memphis , PG – No surprise here, we’ve known that he was going here for awhile. He should have a decent season this year, but the team still needs a few more pieces to compete with Boston and Detroit.

2 – Heat – Michael Beasley, Kansas State,PF – I am still a little shocked about this one. All the news you heard from Miami pre-draft was how this guy wasn’t their guy, but they still picked him. I guess it still seems a little fishy, unless it was all political and was trying to bait a trade. Beasley will fit well with Wade and Marion and they will have a much better season this year.

3 – Grizzlies – O.J. Mayo, USC, G – Minnesota did a good job in picking Mayo, but maybe a move was trading him away. The T-wolves received Kevin Love and Mike Miller, which will help a young team. Mayo can play the 1 or 2 and is a very versatile player, but with Mike Conley at the point, Mayo will look to fill the 2 spot. Look for Mayo to do well out of the gate and make Memphis, but they are still a few drafts away from filling the void that Pau Gasol left.

4 – Sonics – Russell Westbrook, UCLA, G – Westbrook was the perfect pick for the Sonics. He can defend, which was a serious need for the Sonics, plus he can help run the offense and get the ball to Durant.

5 – Timberwolves – Kevin Love, UCLA, PF – I didn’t think Love would go this high, but Minnesota finagled a trade with Memphis for the big man who can hit full-court shots. Kevin McHale still needs a lot for the T-wolves to be competitive, but this move looks like a smart one. Minnesota knows that they have a lot of work ahead of them, but for now, the Love/Jefferson combo in the post will drive defenses crazy. Good move McHale, it will take about ten of these moves for the people of Minnesota to forget about KG.

6 – Knicks – Danilo Gallinari, Italy, SF – Time will only tell if this pick will be a good one. His success depends on his ability to handle the pressure of playing in New York. The analysts are comparing Gallinari with Toni Kukoc and Dirk Nowitzki, but don’t they usually compare any big European who has a jumpshot with those guys?

7 – Clippers – Eric Gordon, Indiana, G – As you may already know, “America’s White Boy” have been critical of Eric Gordon in the past. Gordon reminds us of Sam Cassell-type of player who can score in bunches. Cassell had success with the Clippers, in the short time he was there. If Gordon can put together a full season, the Clippers made a good pick here.

8 – Bucks – Joe Alexander, West Virginia, SF – The Bucks were in love with Alexander for a long time now. This pick didn’t come as a surprise to anyone. They drafted three small-forwards in this year’s draft. Tou have to think that they will be good at that position for a few seasons. By the way, “Vanilla Sky” is the best nickname of any draft prospect since Fred Hoiberg’s “The Mayor.”

9 – Bobcats – D.J. Augustin, Texas, PG – A definite surprise here from the Bobcats. Charlotte is trying to trade Raymond Felton and by selecting Augustin, you have the exact opposite of Felton. Augustin isn’t going to be a big-time scorer, but he can handle the ball and run the offense much better.

10 – Nets – Brook Lopez, Stanford, C – “I know the Nets really like Brook Lopez,” that is how I started out my preview for this pick, but I never thought Lopez would be undrafted at this point. The Nets have had a really good day. They picked up Bobby Simmons and Yi for Richard Jefferson, which is making them much more physical. The Nets have needed a frontline scorer since Kenyon Martin left, Lopez fills the need.

11 – Blazers – Jerryd Bayless, Arizona, PG – The Pacers originally picked Bayless, but traded the pick with Ike Diogu to Portland for the #13 pick (Brandon Rush), Jarrett Jack, and Josh McRoberts. The GM for Portland has looked like a genius the last couple seasons, so I can’t really second-guess any of his decisions at this point. Portland will be a contender in the West next season, with or without a healthy Greg Oden.

12 – Kings – Jason Thompson, Rider, PF – Thompson is one of those under-the-radar type of guys, so this was surprising that he would be picked this high. They really needed a point guard, but without Bayless or Augustin available, they had to go with Thompson’s upside. I don’t see him being a factor the next season or two.

13 – Pacers – Brandon Rush, Kansas, SG – (see Pick #11) The Pacers have been in need of a shooting guard since the retirement of Reggie Miller. Rush is a good defender and is a proven winner. He has great size (6’7) and should give other guards troubles with defending his shot. The Pacers traded Bayless for Rush and gained a player that seemed more NBA-ready.

14 – Warriors – Anthony Randolph, LSU, PF – I thought the Warriors would pick Mario Chalmers with this pick, but NBA teams seemed to fall out of love with him. Instead of picking for need, the Warriors picked the next best prospect on the board with Randolph. I don’t understand the logic behind this pick since they drafted a clone of Randolph last season (Brandan Wright). They both are tall, but both need to get much, much stronger. Randolph is 6’10 and only 197lbs, he will end up in the D-League the next two seasons and it would still take a lot of hard work for him to live up to being a lottery pick.

After all the trades shake out, look for a “Draft Winners and Losers” post.

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Josh McRoberts Is Still In The NBA?

As I predicted, kind of, the Pacers would get another white boy on the team by the end of the night. I predicted that it would either be Kosta Koufos or Joe Alexander, but it turns out to be Josh McRoberts. Yep, the same McRoberts that should have went pro out of high school, but went to Duke and collected dust for two years and watched his draft stock plummet. He spent last season with Portland, but mostly on their D-League team roster.

The Pacers obtained McRoberts as a “throw-in” with the Jerryd Bayless/Ike Diogu for Jarret Jack/Brandon Rush trade. I didn’t find out that McRoberts was even involved until I was looking around on the internet and his name was mentioned last.

Josh McRoberts “could” end up being an average player in the NBA, but I am not sure where he will play. He still has one more season of D-League eligibility left, that’s always an option I guess. He grew up in Indianapolis and played at Carmel High School, where he won basically every National Player Of The Year awards you can win. One could assume that with him coming back home, he might be relaxed and play up to his potential.

He has been linked, in the past, with Lauren Conrad from “Laguna Beach” and “The Hills” fame. She is in the picture above with him, but she was too ashamed to be photographed. Sadly, I would also use something to cover my face if I were to ever be in a photograph with Mr. McRoberts…ask me this time next year and I could change my opinion.

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Song Of The Day – Abba (Take A Chance On Me)

Abba….that’s right! “Take A Chance On Me” is the Song Of The Day for one reason, the NBA Draft is tonight and plenty of teams will take a chance on players and sadly most won’t pan out. Mike & Mike In The Morning likes to play this song a lot around NFL Draft and NBA Draft periods and Greeny and Golic do a little chair dance. I wish I had a camera and I would post a video of me doing a chair dance, ’cause I’m sure it would equal about a million uniques views…minimum.

Abba has always been a guilty pleasure of mine, you try being in a bad mood while listening to “Dancing Queen,” “Waterloo,” or this song. Try it now, play this video and try and hold a frown, it’s impossible.

Here is the video for Abba’s “Take A Chance On Me.”

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