Elliotte Friedman on the Viral Michael Phelps Race Call

By now you’ve probably seen the viral video of a Canadian announcer messing up the call while Michael Phelps wins yet another gold medal. Michael Rosenberg spoke with the announcer for Sports Illustrated and it’s a master class in taking responsibility and dedication to your profession:

He only has two requests. One is that I write that if an athlete messed up like that, we would want the athlete to talk, and that’s why he is doing this. He is no hypocrite. The second request is that I put the mistake entirely on him. When I ask if a producer or production assistant was in his earpiece during the race, he bristles. It’s his fault, he says. Entirely his. Write it that way.

Sponsor: Thanks to the Descendents

Descendents

Once again I’d like to offer my thanks to the Descendents for sponsoring Chorus this week. The band released their brand new album (and first in over a decade), Hypercaffium Spazzinate, about two weeks ago and you should definitely go give it a listen or pick it up. Do you like pop-punk? These guys are one of the first, and best, to ever do it. The new album is no exception. It’s full of fast, fun, and catchy pop-punk music.

Dates for their North American tour kick off September 15th in Minneapolis at First Avenue and wrap up November 12th in Portland at Roseland Theater. The full tour routing can be found below.

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Bon Iver Announces New Album; Streams New Songs

Bon Iver

Bon Iver will release 22, A Million on September 30th. Two songs are now up for your listening pleasure and pre-orders are as well.

22, A Million is part love letter, part final resting place of two decades of searching for self-understanding like a religion. And the inner-resolution of maybe never finding that understanding. The album’s 10 poly-fi recordings are a collection of sacred moments, love’s torment and salvation, contexts of intense memories, signs that you can pin meaning onto or disregard as coincidence.

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A Decade Under The Influence

For this week’s playlist I decided to celebrate some of the albums quietly turning 10 this year. The albums without anniversary tours, reissues, or major recognition. 2006 was a great year for music — it saw new releases from established acts like Yellowcard, Senses Fail, Brand New, Sugarcult, and debuts from bands like +44 (I’m still holding out for another album) and Cobra Starship (I will always love While the City Sleeps, We Rule The Streets).

You can check out the full tracklist below, and stream the playlist now on Spotify and Apple Music.

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