Well, Chris and Dodge already set the bar high with their year-end best-of lists. So it got me thinking about mine, and there’s little doubt in my mind that Elbow’s Leaders of the Free World will end up somewhere at least in the top 10, if not in the top 5. They seem to be forgotten amid all the UK exports.

It’s a bit of misnomer to call this track a “b-side” — from a Forget Myself single — because it didn’t come off a vinyl pressing. Nevertheless, it’s a great song, with some thick guitars and a heavy drum beat. Although, if you’ve listened to Leaders, it might seem out of place; so it probably was best left on the cutting room floor.

Elbow | The Good Day

In sports news, today is the Territorial Cup, the fight for bragging rights in Arizona: Univ. of Arizona at Arizona State. I’d be more amped up about it if I actually thought my Sun Devils would win. That’s right: I’m conceding victory to UA (reverse psychology?). This year has been such a disappointment that it wouldn’t surprise me at all to top it off with a loss to the hated rivals.

A win guarantees ASU nothing more than a trip to the Insight Bowl on Dec. 27, just across the Valley in Phoenix. Needless to say, this isn’t the glamorous bowl I had in mind when ASU opened the season ranked in the top 15.

Still, the rivalry is fun and intense and maybe a little overlooked during rivalry week. Those punks from UA got our ‘A’ Mountain with red and blue paint. Both schools have an ‘A’ Mountain that is heavily guarded during the week of the game. I’ve been to games in both Tempe and Tucson, and the drinking, swearing and trash-talking is ruthless. If UA is losing, it’s a sure bet their fans will come back with this trusty line: “Wait til basketball season.”

Well, for what it’s worth, here’s an mp3 of the Maroon and Gold fight song.