In a recent interview with the the UK version of GQ, Jack White said he had recorded a track with hip-hop legend Jay-Z a couple of weeks earlier.

Now, you must first understand the context of both Jack White and Jay-Z. White, first off, is notoriously tight-lipped in interviews. Sure, he’ll talk, but it’s out of character for him to speak about something off-the-wall like collaborating with Jay-Z.

And Jay-Z is unquestionably the coolest person to watch create music because it’s absolutely immediate.  He’ll get in the studio, listen to a beat and then lay down an intricate rap song right off the top of his head.  No pen, paper or notes.  Just the beat, the mic and Jay.  In fact, rumor has it that Jay recorded the entire Blueprint album, one of the best rap records ever, in one weekend.

“I just did a record with Jay-Z,” said White. “We did a song together a few weeks ago. It was incredible. I played him something that I’ve been kicking around for a while and he immediately came out with words for it. It’s unbelievable-sounding.”

The way I read the quote (and why I felt the need to explain the context) was with White still in awe of Jay-Z. I picture him sitting down to do the interview and just talking about Jay like Jesus himself had come into the studio, heard White’s beat and recorded a song in 10 minutes. I get the impression that even with people who work as quickly as White does, they look at the sheer brilliance of what comes out of Jay’s mouth in the studio and continue to think and talk about the experience years later.

Kinda like seeing a boob for the first time.

Anyway, this song’s going to be nuts. I don’t think anybody doubts the brilliance either party.

Julian explains in this interview with ABC News where he dropped the “Boombox” vocals, his role in writing the melody of “Boombox” and how much fun he had with the Lonely Island crew. Is it of much-watch status? Yes, yes it is.

The one thing he doesn’t address in the video is what’s up with copping Dom Howard’s style.

Yeah, I know. You’re ready to kill somebody.

So am I.

Let’s just get to the ProJo quote about Strokes IV in the piece where Julian talks about his new record and the upcoming Phrazes tour across the United States…

As for The Strokes, Casablancas says they’re still at work on their fifth record, and “it’s coming along” — he foresees a January 2011 release.

I guess the only thing we can hope for is that the author of this piece – Rick Massimo – fucked up the date when Julian expects the fourth record to come out like he did with which album they’re on. But, given that Julian will be on the road for the next three months – which is approximately the amount of time between a September 2010 and January 2011 release – I doubt it.

I have no rational words at this point. I can’t say that seeing them in August will make everything better because it won’t.  I really just want an album at this point.  Think about it – January 2011 is going to be five years since First Impressions of Earth. That’s a long fucking time and I hate to say it, but a part of me is getting the same feeling I had back during this past summer.  I’m getting the feeling that we may never get a fourth (or fifth) album.

The greatest thing about the NCAA Tournament is that for 90% of the players involved, it will provide them with the most important experience of their lives. And, in some rare cases, the NCAA Tournament will make the player involved famous for the rest of their life. The Tournament often sends a college kid into a lifetime of infamy they will be unable to shake until death. We still remember Chris Webber’s crunch-time choke job during his time in the Final Four with Michigan back in the early 90s – he called a timeout when his team didn’t have any more timeouts, which is a technical foul. And it’s my guess that Luke Harangody’s final game in a Notre Dame jersey will forever taint his storied career at the university.

While some players choke, other seize the huge moment. Like Danero Thomas’ buzzer-beater to knock No. 4 Vanderbilt out on the opening-day of the Tournament. Murray State fans will never forget Thomas’ name.

A lot of people sit back and argue that the NCAA’s product of basketball is vastly inferior to the NBA’s and it’s true. No one can argue with that. But the thing that’s different is that every single moment of the NCAA tournament has the potential to be the biggest moment in the life of each player involved. It is unquestionably the best sporting event of the year and, for the viewing audience, truly dramatic television.

I’m two episodes away from finishing The Wire, which has lived up to every single television critic’s praises.  The Wire is the best show that I’ve seen – it’s interesting, heartbreaking, poignant and, at times, devastatingly funny.  This cold open to an episode in the show’s second season features Det. Jimmy McNulty (Irish) listening to Irish music on his ride home from a night of binge drinking at the bar. I urge you to make it all the way through.

This is a little while away, but I don’t think it’s early enough to make note that Julian Casablancas will be on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on March 29.  Is it?

Via the JulianCasablancas.com newsletter…

Julian and his band will be performing on LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON on Monday, March 29th, so mark your calendars and tune into NBC at 12:35/11:35C to catch the show. The band will be performing a song from the album not yet performed on TV.

“A song from the album not yet performed on TV”?  Hmm – let’s think for a minute.  To make it easy on ourselves, we can eliminate ‘11th Dimension’, ‘I Wish It Was Christmas Today’ and ‘Out of the Blue’.  And we can probably eliminate ‘4 Chords’ and ‘Tourist’ because they’re such a slow tempo.

The song that makes the most sense is “River of Brakelights” because it’s the most up-tempo song and, many would argue, the best song on Phrazes for the Young.  But it’s also more than five-minutes long, which is a big reason why I don’t think ‘River of Brakelights’ or ‘Ludlow Street’ are going to be the pick on the 29th. If I had to bet money on which song Julian and the Sick Six were going to perform on Late Night, I would go with ‘Left and Right in the Dark’ because it’s a song that plays very well to a wide audience (it’s extremely poppy) and it’s shorter than nearly every other song that’s still a possibility.

What would you like to see Julian and the Sick Six perform on Fallon?

Note: Predictions are very much appreciated in the comment section.

This time of the year, I think it’s safe to say that a lot of non-basketball fans enter NCAA Tournament pick ‘em pools. These people – one might be you – sit down at the office and fill out a bracket and pick teams that they don’t know anything about and, quite possibly, choose schools based on reasons other than basketball. And that’s fine. These people might get lucky and pick a few upsets correctly in the first couple of rounds to make the tournament exciting and, for many people who don’t pay attention to college sports, that might be enough. Just pick the games so that you have a reason to watch March Madness.

But for people who want to win these pools and make some money, I have some rules that you must always live by when filling out your bracket. These are a simple set of ethos that will hopefully serve as a guide to give the uneducated fan a strategy to stay alive while heading into the Final Four.

Now, this isn’t a guarentee that you’ll win if you follow my steps. But it is a guarentee that you will stay competitive. Let’s get to the guide…

1) Upsets Are Flashy, But Idiotic After Round 1 – College basketball is extremely watered down. There is, very rarely, quality depth outside of teams that have grabbed 1 or 2 seeds.  Depth gives coaches more ways to play, more options if a player gets injured and gives players time to rest and stay fresh. So in 7-10 and 8-9 games, you’re basically flipping a coin to see who wins most of the time.  6-11 and 5-12 usually produce upsets, but picking the correct upset is always difficult.  Know that any team in any of these four sets of games can fall and probably won’t go past the second round (excluding the 5-12 game), so choose who you feel confident with but don’t go crazy with the 6-11 and 5-12 games.  Chalk often prevails.

What This Means: If you’re going to pick upsets, do so in the first round.  You’re typically going to get one point in the first round for a correct pick, but the point total is going to double in subsequent rounds.  The strategy is to keep teams with the best odds of advancing around for the subsequent rounds. Don’t pick 1, 2, 3 or 4 seeds to lose because they probably won’t.  And if you pick an upset in the first round – let’s say San Diego St. over Tennessee – have the lower seed lose in the second round.  You don’t want to compound the mistake if San Diego St. loses in the first round.

2) Go (Mostly) With Chalk – Chalk is always the safe bet in the tournament, but especially since college basketball has so few great players outside of the top 12 teams in the tournament.  In 2008 and 2009, I picked all number 1 seeds to make the Final Four.  Last year, I had two teams in the Final Four and in 2008, I had all four.  At that point in the tournament, your pool should give you 8 points for correctly picking a team to go to the Final four, 16 points for correctly picking a team to advance to the championship game and 32 points for the National Championship winner.

What This Means – If all your teams are eliminated before the Final Four, you’re going to lose.  It’s imperative to have teams alive during the final three games of the tournament and the safest way to do that is to choose four of the best teams in the field.  This year, I am picking two #1 seeds and two #2 seeds to go to the Final Four and I feel very good about it.

3) Don’t Pick With Feelings – I like rooting against Duke, but picked them to advance far in this year’s tournament.  When it comes down to picking games, you need to just remember the strategy involved and to not pick Texas A&M to advance deep in the tournament because you got laid there during your sophomore year.

What This Means - Remember the strategy we’re talking about here.  Stay disciplined.

4) Coaching Experience is Underrated (Pick the Teams You Know) – Teams with a winning history in recent years that are ranked highly in the tournament – like Duke, Kansas, Ohio State and Syracuse – are more likely to advance further in the tournament because they have experienced coaches who the players trust.  It seems stupid, but something that seemingly doesn’t matter – like the timing of the pre-game meal – can make a huge difference to ensuring that players feel right before a game.  So much of basketball is timing and feeling comfortable on the floor that if you’re deciding between two seemingly evenly-matched teams, I would go with the better coach.

What This Means - Big Ten teams are often a smart bet in the tournament because they typically have really good coaches and big-name basketball programs you’ve heard of are probably a solid bet. It’s incredibly hard to pick mid-major schools to advance deep in the tournament because of what we’ve talked about previous to this point, but also because it’s often the first time their coaches have been there too.  And, finally, be wary of teams like Baylor and New Mexico. It might be fun to go around the office Thursday morning and say ‘Look! I’ve got New Mexico winning the National Championship!” But then, when they get bounced out of the tournament before the Final Four because Steve Alford is a crappy coach, you’re going to look like a dope.

5) Home-Court Advantage Doesn’t Matter: Just because a team plays in, for example, Utah and gets to stay close to home by traveling to Washington doesn’t mean they have a home-court advantage.  The only home-court advantage in March Madness is if a team gets to play where their school is located or where they have a large fan base. Example #1 is Villanova playing in Philly. Example #2 is Illinois playing in Chicago.

What This Means: Round 1 is the only time to really focus on match-ups and you shouldn’t worry about home-court advantage unless the team in the match-up falls in one of the two above categories. If an underdog is threatening to knock off a favorite, the crowd is going to get behind the underdog unless it’s one of the two above scenarios.

6) Pick the Best Team: This is the last point to consider.  When you’re selecting which team is going to navigate their regional to go to the Final Four, do so by picking the 1 or 2 seed you feel confident in. If you don’t follow college basketball and don’t know the context of the team, please do some research about the things I’ve listed above. Ask your father, a friend or go on the Internet. It’s a lot for non-basketball fans to know who coaches Syracuse, but a lot of the NCAA brackets are pure luck and feel.  If you feel good about Syracuse for some reason, then go ahead and pick them.  Just don’t pick anybody below a 1 or 2 seed because the odds are so stacked against you actually picking the right team that’s going to come out of the haystack.  The key to winning is to pick the team that wins the championship and, because college basketball is so watered down, it could be any of the best eight teams in the field.

What This Means: No one offering advice about who’s going to advance to the Final Four and win the National Championship knows anything. Have fun with this, but remember the basics about how to pick your bracket.

Now, let’s get to the fun part.  What is your Final Four and who do you think is going to win the National Title?

Let’s hope Dave gets better soon.

I know I’m going to hell in a leather jacket, least I’ll see an @Casablancas_J before eternally resting in my casket.

“Baby” has a ‘Someday’ feel before it gets all trippy. And by “a ‘Someday’ feel,” I mean that it’s a bunch of dudes hanging out and not one of the prettiest songs I’ve ever heard.  No offense Devandra.