The World Series kicks off tomorrow night, with the New York Yankees squaring off against the Philadelphia Phillies. But today is an important day in baseball history, especially if you grew up rooting for Dwight Evans in a New England suburb. On October 27, 2004, the Boston Red Sox finally snapped an eight decade run of futility and won their first World Series since 1918, finishing off the St. Louis Cardinals in four straight games. Though it was an emotional run for the Red Sox, the 2004 World Series may be one of the most anti-climatic of all time. In the four game sweep, the Cardinals were never really in any of the games, and the Red Sox had already overcome incredible odds during the American League Championship Series, where they won four straight games after sitting on the brink of elimination against the Yankees. The playoffs that year were full of extra-inning tilts, incredible comebacks, dramatic home runs and pitcher Curt Schilling's famous bloody sock. The Red Sox didn't have to wait another 86 years to bring home another championship, as they won again in 2007 (also via a four game sweep, against the Colorado Rockies).

One of the greatest moments from the 2004 World Series had very little to do with the games themselves, but rather with Fox, the network that broadcasts baseball's championship every year. After the final game ended (with pitcher Keith Foulke snagging an easy ground ball and flipping it to first baseman Doug Mientkeiwicz for an easy out), Fox put together a highlight package to commemorate Boston's miraculous run through the playoffs. The song they used to score that montage? Beck's "The Golden Age," from his moody 2002 breakup album Sea Change. The song was probably chosen because of one lyric — "Let the golden age begin" — but Fox should really pay attention to context, as "The Golden Age" is about escape and depression (the official chorus is "These days I barely get by/I don't even try"). Fox tends to do that a lot on their sports broadcasts — a few years back during one of their Sunday NFL shows, they aired a package about Eli Manning fumbling, and the song they used to underscore it was Good Charlotte's "Hold On," which as it turns out is not about clutching pigskin but rather about suicide.

Anyway, inappropriate context aside, "The Golden Age" remains a wonderful little sad-eyed ballad with a trippy video. Enjoy.

By Cara Alwill

It seems like you can't throw a stone without hitting some kind of supergroup lately. The likes of Chickenfoot (Red Hot Chili Peppers' Chad Smith, guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani and former Van Halen members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony) and the planned Trent Reznor/Gary Numan collaboration have brought together like-minded artists from disparate backgrounds and so far produced some interesting results. The latest marriage of rock royalty sees Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke joining forces with Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea, OK Computer producer Nigel Godrich, Beck drummer Joey Waronker and percussionist Mauro Refosco (who has worked with They Might Be Giants and David Byrne). Yorke made the announcement on Radiohead's website earlier today that the group will make its live debut this Sunday and Monday, October 4 and 5, at Los Angeles' venerable Orpheum Theatre.

"In the past couple of weeks I've been getting a band together for fun to play The Eraser stuff live and the new songs to see if it could work," Yorke wrote. "We don't really have a name and the set will not be very long, but come and check it out if you are in the area."

Though Yorke has spent much of his time recently performing solo, and this new musical alliance should satiate his desire to bring The Eraser to the stage with a full band. Considering Yorke recently called his new song "The Hollow Earth" a "bass monster," Flea should be able to put his magical touch on that and other songs on the album.

Happy birthday to Beck, who turns 39 years old today. The man born Bek David Campbell (later Beck Hansen) has been an MTV staple since his first big breakout with "Loser" in 1994. Beck has always had a pretty stunning visual sense — his videos for "E-Pro" and "Think I'm In Love," though not seen by many people, still try to extend the video as an art form. His musical focus has always seesawed between stoic neo-folk and raucous electro mash-ups, but it's his first hit that remains a perfect distillation of what we love about Beck: The marble-mouthed croon, the nods to funk, the grittiness of it all.

Incidentally, more than a few people here in the Newsroom have a deep history with the original Beck, as James Montgomery's IM name is built around the man and Rya Backer had a Beck-themed bat mitzvah. Here's to them, and here's to the original "Loser."

If I've ever had a complaint about Beck, it's that the guy is not nearly as prolific as he should be. I've always imagined that there are rooms full of songs that he has never shared with us that are every bit as good as the stuff he has officially released. But that all could change. His official site will be undergoing an overhaul over the next month, and when it relaunches it will have a new section called "Record Club."

According to his peeps, whenever one of the Beck's musically inclined friends is in Los Angeles and has a bit of free time (some of the names that are dropped in the press release include Devendra Banhart, MGMT, Jamie Lidell and producer Nigel Godrich), they've been invited to drop into his home studio to record an entire classic album in one day, with no rehearsals or arrangements ahead of time.

"Record Club will be an ongoing experiment visitors to the site will be able to follow from week to week," read the release announcing the Club. "Due to the time constraints involved in recording a record in a day, an album will be chosen to be covered and used as a framework for the proceedings." The first experiment will be the 1967 classic The Velvet Underground & Nico. No announcement has been made yet about when fans will start hearing the results, but according to plans, one track per week will be uploaded once the site relaunches.

Here's hoping that Beck and his pals decide to delve into Funkadelic's 1971 classic Maggot Brain, the Rolling Stones' twisted 1967 mindwarp Their Satanic Majesties Request, *NSYNC's No Strings Attached (just for the challenge) and Metallica's black album (with Banhart on vocals, of course). What classics do you hope Beck and his buds put down on wax?

We here at MTV News are a pretty diverse bunch, so the views expressed by some in our more official-type year-end lists (like James Montgomery’s Top 25 Albums and Best Songs, and the Mixtape Monday Awards) are not necessarily shared by the rest of the newsroom. So we’re giving everyone else a chance to chime in with their own lists and explain (or defend) their choices. You’ll find the staff faves of 2008 all together here.

By Rya Backer, Production Assistant

I'm actually on vacation right now, and am typing this on a computer that might as well be operated by foot pedal, so no fun webcam plea from me. I don't think I could pick a definitive favorite song from 2008 anyway, not because I didn't especially like anything, but because I liked too many songs! Anyway, here are my favorite albums of 2008:

10. Passion Pit, Chunk of Change EP — These guys have, like, seven songs to their name thus far. Very excited to hear what's next.

9. Neil Young, Sugar Mountain - Live at Canterbury House 1968 — I don't think this counts as a "new" album, per se, but half the bands I've listed would be nothing if it weren't for him. "Birds" and his between-song banter are heartbreaking and heartwarming, respectively.

8. The Streets, Everything Is Borrowed — Hooray! It's more A Grand Don't Come for Free than The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living!

7. Dodos, Visiter — At first, I listened to "Jodi" on repeat, then I realized there were a lot more songs on the album that were just as good.

6. Marnie Stern, This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That — Between Marnie Stern's fingerpicking and Zach Hill of my beloved Hella on drums, this album makes me feel untalented and boring; luckily, I need that kind of motivation. Read more...

Late yesterday, the MTV Newsroom was all aflutter with excitement, and not just because Brangelina might have just had twins!!!

No, it was because Beck's much-anticipated new album, Modern Guilt (which we sorta totally hipped you about back in May), finally made its worldwide debut via — of course — the vast file-sharing nether-regions of the Internet. And while some of the younger members of the News Team (ahem, Rya) have already criticized the album based on a few listens to one track, there's a whole bunch of us who couldn't wait to hear what Beck and co-producer Danger Mouse had cooked up, because we love both of them (and because we're old enough to remember the halcyon days of 1994, when "Loser" blared on every boombox and there was a flannel-clad chicken in every pot).

So what's the verdict? Was Guilt worth the wait? You can find out below the jump. Read more...

· The jury's still out on what Amy Winehouse's early-stage emphysema diagnosis means, but it's still shocking that the singer was apparently photographed smoking on Monday after her dad revealed that she might be suffering from the deadly lung disease.
 
· He's been caught impersonating a federal agent and busting through a security gate, popped by traffic cameras for allegedly setting land speed records in a car with his name written across the windshield and just about every other driving offense you could imagine. So it wasn't surprising to hear that DMX (born Earl Simmons) was arrested Monday afternoon in Miami on a warrant for not having a driver's license. Read more...

· Beck has finally confirmed the release date for his upcoming Danger Mouse-produced album, Modern Guilt. The 10-track LP — featuring the trippy first single, "Chemtrails" — will drop July 8. A release announcing the disc describes it as vacillating between "economy and experimentation, hybrid and pop classicism, while consistently manifesting Beck and Danger Mouse's shared interest in psych-rock, folk, electronic minimalism and orchestration." What, no space-age polkas? No drum-machine-assisted cumbias?

· Mötley Crüe shout at ... their former manager. The band has filed a suit against Burt Stein and his companies, alleging that Stein screwed them out of lots of cash.

· It's the battle of the century! Perez Hilton has been saying mean things about Lily Allen, and she's pissed! Go, Lily go!

· Michael Jackson might be coming out with his own clothing line. Blah, blah, blah, designer surgical mask joke.

This just in from MTV News intern Rya, who basically has opinions about everything:

Let me make this terse: I’m a gigantic Beck fan. Like, huger-than-huge. As in “I listened exclusively to Odelay for an entire year from ages 12-13.” Sold? OK.

Beck just released “Chemtrails,” the first cut from his new album, Modern Guilt. After a good 30+ listens, I’m ready to release my verdict: I feel like I just lost my BFF.

While I don’t want to say I’ve been less than pleased with Mr. Hansen’s repertoire for the past four-odd years, I will say that I only listen to three-ish songs on The Information. While the (Grammy-nominated! ooooh!) “Timebomb” did alleviate some of my worries that he might have lost all joy/spontaneity, I have since become concerned.

“Chemtrails,” like its namesake, is a total downer. But the song makes me sad for other reasons… Read more...

· Beck has released one of the new songs from his upcoming album with Danger Mouse. It’s called “Chemtrails,” and it’s trippy.

· Brian Wilson will play some North American dates this summer, leading up to the release of a new album in September.

· Janet Jackson’s set to tour this fall for the first time in seven years.

· Poor Danny Noriega. First, he was booted off "Idol,” then he had to call to get tickets to the show’s finale -- only to find it was sold out.