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December 10, 2009 · 8:21 PM

Jam of the Day – Hoping for Change, Dear God

Today, three Senators, John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, Joseph Lieberman, Independent of Connecticut, and Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina sent President Obama a letter outlining their plan for a climate change and energy bill that they believe can win the necessary votes (60) to push the bill through next year. They timed this proposal to ensure that the delegates that are attending the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen know that the U.S. Senate is serious about getting a climate bill passed and enacted. According to the Times “The Kerry-Graham-Lieberman proposal sets a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target “in the range of” 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, the level contained in a bill passed by the House earlier this year.” It’s encouraging that these Senators are working together on this bill but the U.S. needs to make some major changes soon, before it’s too late.

Another collaboration that is still maintaining their status as our favorite (and folkiest) of the year, are Jim James (or Yim Yames as he is referring to himself these days), Conor Oberst, M. Ward, and Mike Mogis, who together form the Monsters of Folk. Many of the songs on the album are stellar but my favorite of the moment is the first track, “Dear God.” There is something very seventies and soothing about this jam. The boys of Monsters of Folk are soliciting entries for homemade videos for “Dear God.” The winner will receive a prize including $5,000, Final Cut Pro software, a signed Gibson Guitar and the winning video will be featured on monstersoffolk.com. I just checked and I don’t see anything up there yet so get your submissions in!

Monsters of Folk – Dear God:

-Melissa

Jam of the Day – Watch Out for Monsters

Watch out! There are all kinds of monsters lurking about today:

(Where the Wild Things Are trailer; this excerpt of Dave Eggers’ new novel edition of the screenplay that he wrote with director Spike Jonze of the Sendak classic is pretty great too)

(random video; the scariness of these monsters goes down by about 20 points because of the Blink-182 soundtrack, for sure)

Monsters of Folk – Ahead of the Curve:

But wait, what are those sweet sounds I hear? These last ones don’t seem to be monsters at all..

Oh that’s right, it’s because they’re Monsters of Folk! The “supergroup” Monsters of Folk, which consists of Coner Oberst and Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes, Jim James of My Morning Jacket (performing here as Yim Yames), and M. Ward (most recently performing as part of She & Him with Zooey Deschanel), apparently doesn’t like to be called a “supergroup” (but will accept super group as a moniker). And admittedly, after a listen to the whole album, Monsters of Folk, which was released today, I wouldn’t necessarily categorize the project as “super” whether there’s a space in between the words or not. But still, there are a lot of solid tracks here, especially the track above, “Ahead of the Curve,” which is probably my favorite on the album (hence Jam of the Day status). Other standouts are the opener, “Dear God (sincerely M.O.F.),” and “Temezcal.”

Monsters of Folk perform on Conan tonight, and you can listen to the entire new record on their myspace page. Don’t be scared, it’s just folk.

-Drew