I know this has nothing to do with announcing, but I post this collection of songs every single year. Once again, EA Sports has put together an amazing collection of songs and artists for Madden '10, and here's who you can listen for when the game comes out on August 10th....

2Pac - Can't C Me
Airbourne - Heads Are Gonna Roll
Alice In Chains - Them Bones
B.o.B - Created A Monster
Bang Camaro - Revolution
Beastie Boys - Sabotage
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Cypress Hill - Get ‘Em Up
Helmet - Unsung
Iron Maiden - Aces High
Judas Priest - Painkiller
Kid Rock - I Am The Bullgod
Killswitch Engage - Reckoning
Korn - Blind
Mastodon - Divinations
Nas feat. Puff Daddy - Hate Me Now
Nirvana - Breed
Pantera - Walk
Public Enemy - Shut Em Down
Rage Against The Machine - Guerrilla Radio
Set Your Goals - Gaia Bleeds (Make Way for Man)
Slipknot - Duality
System Of A Down - Sugar
The Vanity Plan - Before I Die
Young Dre The Truth - Cheah Beah

If you want to check out the songs for the rest of EA's 2010 releases, click below....

EA Announces Fall Music Line Up for Sports Franchises (PR Business Wire)

Every year, Major League Baseball brings together a wide range of performers for the All Star Game Concert, and this year is no different. MLB will be taking you on a trip back into the mid 90s with such acts like Sheryl Crow and Ginuwine (who knew he was still alive?) throughout the week, and you'll also be getting a rockin' show by American Idol winner, David Cook, before the HR Derby! Via MLB PR....

Major League Baseball today announced the All-Star lineup of musicians that will perform during the MLB All-Star Game, the State Farm® Home Run Derby and other events during All-Star Week in St. Louis next week.

Nine-time Grammy award-winner and Missouri native Sheryl Crow, who will be fresh off headlining the free MLB All-Star Charity Concert presented by Pepsi under the Gateway Arch, will perform the U.S. National Anthem as part of the special pre-game ceremony prior to the 2009 MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday, July 14 at Busch Stadium, which will be broadcast on FOX beginning at 8:00 p.m. ET. United States President Barack Obama along with former U.S. Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter will appear in an unprecedented video address as part of the special pre-game ceremony honoring the 30 “All-Stars Among Us,” men and women who are being recognized by Major League Baseball and PEOPLE magazine for their selfless acts of giving and service to their communities. Following the video, President Obama will throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

Later in the game, country music sensation Sara Evans -- also a Missouri native -- will perform “God Bless America” during the 7th inning stretch. The 80th Major League Baseball All-Star Game will be televised nationally by FOX Sports, with pre-game ceremonies beginning at 8:00 p.m. ET, in Canada by Rogers Sportsnet and Sportsnet HD and televised in more than 200 countries and territories by Major League Baseball International. ESPN Radio will provide exclusive national radio coverage, while MLB.com will provide extensive online coverage.

On Monday, July 13, rock singer/songwriter and 2008 America Idol season winner David Cook will perform two songs with his band prior to the start of the State Farm® Home Run Derby at Busch Stadium. Prior to Cook’s performance, Nikko Smith -- singer/songwriter and 2005 American Idol finalist, and son of St. Louis Cardinals legend Ozzie Smith -- will perform the U.S. National Anthem. Smith performed the U.S. National Anthem prior to Game 4 of the 2006 World Series at Busch Stadium. The State Farm® Home Run Derby will be televised live on ESPN at 8:00 p.m. ET.

On Sunday, July 11, multi-Platinum selling R&B Artist Ginuwine will perform the U.S. National Anthem prior to the 11th annual XM All-Star Futures Game. The game will begin at 2:00 p.m. ET and can be viewed live on ESPN2, ESPN2 HD and MLB.TV. XM will provide satellite radio play-by-play coverage of the XM All-Star Futures Game on XM 175 in addition to its other comprehensive live coverage from St. Louis.

I guess Sheryl Crow is as good as anyone else they could get, but Ginuwine?! The last time I saw him was on TRL back in 1996 singing that "Pony" song. Was Jodeci or Snow not available?

The ACC once again has a completely random musical sponsor for this year's tournament. Last year it was Lil Mama, who graced the Raycom airwaves, and this year they've stepped up their game. American Idol winner, David Cooke, is your official ACC Tournament sponsor, and he would like to tell you about the song "Heroes" that you'll be hearing Ad nauseam, if you live in ACC Country....

It's no Jonas Brothers for the LLWS, but David Cooke is still an impressive pull for Raycom. I give the song until 7pm tonight, before it becomes completely and utterly annoying.

(FYI- If MD loses to NC State tonight, you can expect a day off from me tomorrow as I will be drinking myself into a coma tonight.)

The ACC Tournament Has One Of The Oddest Sponsors Ever (Awful Announcing)

The highlight of today's match between Tiger Woods and Brendan Jones wasn't Woods' convincing win over the youngster, or any of the shots or putts he hit. No, it was far and away this spot that the Golf Channel ran throughout his round....

Now the Sam Jackson one was entertaining, but that one gave me goosebumps. It's so refreshing to have him back.

Not sure if you've been watching much ESPN this week, but if you have, you may have noticed a new set of songs being played during highlights. Those tunes are from Bruce Springsteen's new album, and in what's becoming a growing trend, music companies are coming to ESPN asking for the network's help. Via Sports Business Daily....

Columbia Records, Springsteen’s label, initiated contact with ESPN about how it could incorporate the Boss’ music from the new CD into football highlights leading up to the Super Bowl. “This all kind of came about nicely,” ESPN Dir of Music Kevin Wilson said. “We were talking about the idea that Bruce was a possibility and then they reached out.” With Springsteen already slated to perform at halftime of Sunday’s game, the combination of the two seemed natural. Wilson: “They talked to us also about the interest for us to maybe include some of his catalog songs and we brought the concept back to production. They thought it was a great idea. Between us and Sony (Columbia's parent company), they helped get the deal done with Bruce.”

Wilson said the network does not “have a specific genre in mind” in regards to using music but admits there are “certain sounds that seem to fit sports better than others.” “We usually reach out and say, ‘We’re just looking for a couple acts and a handful of songs … to bed our [programming with],’” Wilson said. “Then see what they come back with or we have ideas on our own.” Deals with music labels can include the use of one band’s music or access to a larger library of music, but ESPN Coordinating Dir of Music Claude Mitchell said instead of specific labels, it is “what we can provide to our shows that’s the key in what we look for.” “We’ve been very lucky in that we’ve been able to find good ways to bring value to our label partners and the artists. At the same time, we’re getting good artists we want to be on the network to work with our sports and shows,” Mitchell said.

Makes sense on both ends, and if it gets us to here new stuff and not the old elevator music that ESPN has used in the past, I'm all for it. It's odd to think that record companies would now be approaching ESPN instead of MTV, but that's what happens when you turn into a reality show channel.

ESPN Diving Into Using Music With Content (Sports Business Daily - $)

I don't know what it is about January 18, 2009, but multiple athletes plan on using the date to launch ad campaigns. The Williams Sisters will battle the Manning Bros in the DSRL on that date, but they might get shown up by Lebron. James was recently photoed wearing a Browns jersey (above), and released this Youtube video a few days ago...

While the possibilities are endless, and Lebron the Football player would be crazy, the real story is that musician Buckethead has decided to create two instrumental songs for King James! You can listen to the awesomeness below....

Lebron James (Buckethead Land)
Lebron's Hammer (Buckethead Land)

ROCK!

LeBron James Going Bo Jackson? (WFNY)
LeBron's Least Probable Fan: That Guy With the KFC Bucket On His Head (The Sporting Blog)

Ahh, hockey. Where else would you find a clip of Def Leppard playing a concert on Versus, having members of the Red Wings bring the Stanley Cup on stage, and the lead singer subsequently placing the thing on a podium upside down?

Rock! The years of drugs have probably destroyed Joe Elliot's brain cells, but seriously....who would ever think that a trophy would go little side down? Hell, the thing has names written all over it. You'd think that would have been a clue.

Def Leppard Singer's Upside-Down Stanley Cup (Going Five Hole)

I'm not really sure what Bob Costas is doing at a John Cougar Mellencamp concert, but after just posting Al Michaels on Hawaii Five-O, nothing will surprise anymore. Via Scott's Shots comes this video of Costas intro'ing the rocker at Farm Aid this past Saturday....

Ten seconds my ass, Bob. That was more like forty or so, and a very unimpressive forty seconds at that. I guess there really isn't a "cool way" for Costas to intro Mellencamp, but he should have at least tried to get a "fetus-faced windbag" line in the somewhere.

Bob Costas Appears at Farm Aid (Scott's Shots)

Okay, over the years I've used that "randomness" tag pretty liberally, but I have to say that this is by far the most random thing I've ever come across. ESPN Page 2 writer, and Uniwatch founder, Paul Lukas is going on tour. No it's not a book tour, or anything for his website(s), he's actually opening for the rock band The Magnetic Fields....and he'll doing so by showing a random PowerPoint presentation....seriously. From Uniwatch via SbB....

Today’s lead entry takes a break from uni-related content, cuz I’ve got an unusual announcement to make. As most of you know, I’ve done several spoken-word gigs over the past year or so — readings, lectures, “performances,” whatever you want to call them. Now, in a really unusual twist, I’m going to be opening for a rock band, and I’m pretty excited about it.

Here’s the deal: My longtime pal Liz Clayton and I have been asked by our friends the Magnetic Fields (that’s them in the photo above) to serve as their opening act for part of their upcoming fall tour. Liz will be doing a PowerPoint presentation based on her awesome web site devoted to transparently repurposed fast-food outlets, Not Fooling Anybody (a few of you may have seen her present this same program at Union Hall back in January — it was hilarious), and I’ll be doing a PowerPoint devoted to … I’m not sure yet. My topic might be trade magazines (my topic at that Union Hall show), or it might be one of the other things I’ve presented lately, like the design evolution of butchery charts or the cultural history of the baseball cap. Or it might be something else entirely. I’m still deciding.

Liz and I, who are calling ourselves the Forewords, had hoped to do five or six shows on the tour, but it looks like logistical conflicts will limit us to just two: October 10th at the State Theater in Minneapolis, and October 11th at the Capitol Theater in Madison.

Now, I'm not all that into The Magnetic Fields, but that seems like a pretty awesome idea. If I was going to see a band I liked, I would much rather learn something I didn't know about than have to wait through a crappy band I've never heard of. This could have staying power. I'm thinking that the Dropkick Murphys should have Bill Simmons do a presentation when his new book comes out. Nothing bad could happen right?

And Now for Something Completely Different (Uniwatch)
Uni Watch Gives Rock & Roll, PowerPoints To You (Sports By Brooks)