The Stand Ins debuts via cover songs, Obama pulls more viewers than the Oscars, and horses doping with chili peppers in Beijing.

In a curious case of intentionally putting the cart before the horse, Okkervil River are releasing a series of videos to promote their album The Stand Ins, out September 9th.

But Will Sheff and co. made an interesting move, farming out duties for each song to a different one of their musical friends. So leading up to next Tuesday, before we get to hear the quote-unquote “real” recorded versions, their Youtube channel will feature lo-fi covers of every track from the likes of A.C. Newman (of The New Pornographers), Bon Iver, Bird of Youth, David Vandervelde, and other surprise guests to be announced — they’re only half-way through so far.

Of course it is a clever play on the theme and title of the album — having stand-ins singing their songs for them, har har — but fans must be a little puzzled by this stunt. The gypsy crooners from Beirut did a similar project with their latest album, recording a live version of each track for online viewing with the folks who do the Take Away Shows. But they played the songs themselves, and in suitably bohemian places like bars, lofts, and alleyways. It fit well with their sound and personality, and it was a nice way to test drive the songs before going out to pick up the CD.

With this experiment, Okkervil River fans will hear the new songs for the first time with minimal instrumentation, no percussion, and various voices. The lyrics have the unmistakable density and structure of the band’s previous work, but each cover artist also brings their own flavor to the performance. It’s a bit like if you were to see a sneak preview for a movie with different actors than the film itself; the ideas are there but you’re left to wonder what the real thing will feel like.

It strikes an odd balance between not wanting to spoil the experience of the first listen and building anticipation for an album that’s sure to be as good or better than last year’s The Stage Names. We’ll forgo any lengthy discussion of the possible artistic statement that could be made by ’setting the songs free’ like this to be experienced in cover form before buying the whole album. Let’s just hope that none of their friends upstage the originals before the band even gets a chance to put out the final product.

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Serious political junkies were sure not to miss Obama’s acceptance speech last week at Mile High Stadium in Denver. After all the build up, his supporters couldn’t wait to see what he had in store for the big moment, and his detractors crossed their fingers that it would be an empty display of arrogance that could fuel further ridicule.

However, the AP reported an uplifting and surprising statistic that might have slipped under the radar going into the holiday weekend: there are either a lot more campaign fanatics this time around, or Americans in general are less stupid and apathetic than previously believed:

Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention was seen by more than 38 million people.

Nielsen Media Research said more people watched Obama speak than watched the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing, the final “American Idol” or the Academy Awards this year.

It’s reassuring that of the many media circuses to tune in to this year, more people opted for the one that could help them pick the future leader of our country than, say, the self-congratulatory Hollywood fashion show, the Cirque du Soleil pageantry in Beijing, or the corporate-sponsored madness of Idol. It’s also shocking and hard to believe. Even more so when you compare it to the number of votes cast for Kerry (59,028,444), or Gore (50,999,897), or Bush ( 62,040,610, 50,456,002) in the past two elections. If you assume that maybe two-thirds of the people watching go on to vote for him (this wasn’t a debate, after all, but a Democratic Party event), that alone would be 25.3 million votes. That’s half the amount needed to win in 2000, and this was on a Thursday night going into a holiday weekend.

Content of the speech aside, it’s good to know so many people out there are engaged, assuming they weren’t waiting for the number to pop up so they could text their votes in during the show, or patiently zoned out until the good old American non-digitally enhanced fireworks display at the end. Ratings like these put a lot of pressure on McCain’s follow-up act, too. Cross your fingers that doesn’t mean exposing Governor Palin’s breast in an ‘accidental’ Half Time show wardrobe malfunction to get some seriously impressive Super Bowl type numbers.

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And one last little bit of fun from a while back now that the Olympics are over (sweet relief, good TV returns again). It seems burly athletes and underage gymnasts don’t get to hog all the controversy; the Olympic wildlife wanted a piece of the scandal as well.

HONG KONG — Four horses and their riders were suspended from Olympic show jumping on Thursday after preliminary tests suggested that the skin of the horses might have been treated with a banned derivative of chili peppers.

Combinations of horses and riders from Brazil, Germany, Ireland and Norway were suspended after initial tests showed the presence of capsaicin, which is widely used in topical ointments for the treatment of minor horse injuries. The substance is banned at the Olympics because it can also serve as a mild stimulant.

Really, the standards are so strict that a chili pepper extract is off the table? Does Shawn White get kicked out of the Winter Olympics if he pounds a Red Bull too?

I can understand the desire to maintain purity in these global competitions of pointless pursuits like horse jumping — wait, no I can’t, these horses are already born and bred and raised in horribly unnatural ways for our amusement — but the line between performance-enhancing and health-maintaining must be a weird and awkward thing to draw. Perhaps it would have been preferable to feed the horse some extra-hot chili peppers so it could cartoonishly hop around, with steam coming out its ears for a grand finale.