Gorillaz

Plastic Beach


[Parlophone / Virgin; 2010]

Links: Gorillaz | Parlophone | Virgin | Purchase on Insound

Read the full story

Smashing Pumpkins

“A Stitch in Time”
Track Three from Teargarden by Kaleidyscope

[Self-released; 2010]

Links: Smashing Pumpkins | Teargarden by Kaleidyscope Feature

Read the full story

Was three seconds of Janet Jackson’s breast really that offensive? That’s what I kept asking myself on Sunday as I watched one of the two or three most important bands of my musical development put on the most pathetic Super Bowl halftime show I’ve ever seen. I know that the NFL and CBS have been trying to play it safe since Janet’s “wardrobe malfunction” in 2004, but it’s gotten to the point where enough is enough. These boomer-centric halftime shows play to the worst aspects of football fandom—they’re almost the musical equivalent of the 50-year-old guy at your Super Bowl party who never let go of his high-school football glory and still makes sure everybody at the party is made aware of the fact that he could throw the ball better than Peyton Manning even at his age.

Look, I like the Who as much as anybody. I took up the drums when I was 11 because my dad played me Who’s Next and Tommy and I was blown away by Keith Moon. I love Quadrophenia and The Who Sell Out and the early, “My Generation”-era material. For my money, there wasn’t a better or more consistent rock band working in the late 1960s. I get, at least in theory, why they were picked to play the Super Bowl. Like U2, Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Prince, Tom Petty, and Bruce Springsteen, the Who have a handful of songs that the majority of the billion-or-so people who watch this game worldwide will actually know. Two of the songs they played last night have been “CSI” theme songs. The scream at the end of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” sounds great in network promos leading up to the game. The idea of the Who playing this show is a perfectly reasonable one, on paper.

I’m not even going to hold the whole two-original-members-are-dead thing against Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend either. Sure, Keith Moon and John Entwhistle are probably the best rhythm section in rock history, but bassists and drummers can be replaced more easily than lead singers. It’s not like they tried to replace Jim Morrison with the guy from the Cult. Remember when the Doors tried to reunite and actually had to change their name to Riders on the Storm because of legal issues? The Who haven’t quite sunk to that level yet. But their Super Bowl performance gave them a hard push in that direction.

The show was bad enough that it somehow offset the considerable awesomeness of the LED-lighted stage. I was actually in physical pain watching Roger Daltrey, quite possibly my favorite rock vocalist of all time, barely get through “Baba O’Riley” and “Who Are You,” and I had to physically restrain myself from walking out of the room to avoid hearing him attempt the “Won’t Get Fooled Again” scream. I swear his voice wasn’t completely shot when I saw them three years ago. One of the drawbacks of having two members of your band be replaced by sidemen is that the two remaining original members have to carry the show by themselves. If Entwhistle were still alive, they could have at least pretended that this was a real band. But when all the focus is on Pete and Roger, there’s nothing to hide the fact that they just don’t have it anymore.

But as sad as this display was, I wouldn’t be this mad about it if it weren’t part of a bigger problem. Namely, how much longer is the NFL going to keep doing this? At this point they’ve used up most of the A-list classic-rock names. The only major one I can think of that still hasn’t played the Super Bowl yet is AC/DC (which, by the way, I wouldn’t be against in the slightest). Are they really going to try to trot out the Eagles, or Journey and their YouTube replacement singer? In a way, the league’s reaction to Nipplegate did the service of moving the format of the halftime show back to a rock-oriented single-band performance. But the part I don’t get is why the bands they book are required to have AARP memberships. I recently watched the entire 2004 halftime show on YouTube, and even the more pathetic performances of the dinosaur-rock renaissance (meaning the Who and the Stones) are more enjoyable than the non-Janet stuff from that year—I could do without hearing Nelly and Kid Rock performing one-minute versions of their hits in any future halftime shows. But can we please get some younger bands? Certainly Muse would be up to the task. Green Day is probably too politically risky to ever happen, but they’d be a great fit as well. The NFL ran a terrific ad during the game featuring “Wake Up”—is there any reason at all why Arcade Fire couldn’t pull this gig off? The most qualified person to do it right now is Lady Gaga, but Roger Goodell would sooner let Kanye West and Taylor Swift on his stage together than book anyone with Gaga’s potential for a PR disaster.

Roger, Janet’s nipple had that star thing over it! And it was on TV for literally two seconds. You can see way worse stuff any night of the week on network TV. So now might be the time to stop pretending to take the moral high ground and not put us through another performance like this one.

The release of the 2009 Grammy nominations marked probably the last time the words “Grammys” and “relevant” were ever used in the same sentence. Remember when Radiohead’s In Rainbows was up for Album of the Year? Or how Lil Wayne received eight nominations for Tha Carter III? Yeah, that’s not happening again. This year, the Grammys reverted back to their normal selves, favoring baby boomers for the rock categories, veteran heavyweights for the rap ones, and Beyoncé and Taylor Swift for pretty much everything else. Beyoncé led the night with six trophies, while T-Swizzy took home the coveted Album of the Year honors. With Kanye West safely blacklisted from the ceremony (he wasn’t invited to perform with Drake, Eminem, and Lil Wayne on “Forever,” a song he’s featured on), the 19-year-old country superstar was able to deliver her acceptance speech without interference.

But this is the Grammys. Nobody actually watches these things for the awards, especially not those of us on the west coast who were forced to watch the entire presentation on a three-hour tape delay. Thanks to Twitter, I knew the winner of every award before the show was even aired in my time zone. But I still watched the whole thing. And here are 10 things we can take away from it:

Best Performance: This isn’t even up for discussion. Following a typically arty horror-movie skit and a brief run through “Poker Face,” Lady GaGa sat down opposite Elton John, and the two traded lines on “Speechless,” working in a bit of “Your Song” at one point. The performance was an absolute powerhouse, both visually and musically, ranking up there with the most memorable Grammy collaborations in recent years (for those keeping score at home, here’s the rest of the top 5: Kanye and Daft Punk doing “Stronger” in ‘08, Eminem and Elton doing “Stan” in ‘01, Radiohead and the USC marching band doing “15 Step” in ‘09, and Moby, Jill Scott, and the Blue Man Group doing “Natural Blues” in ‘01).

Award Given Most Obviously to Compensate for a Previous Snub: Green Day’s 21st Century Breakdown winning Best Rock Album. By all rights, American Idiot should have won Album of the Year in 2005. Unfortunately, Ray Charles happened to die that year and put out a posthumous duets album, and of course that’s the kind of thing the Grammy judges fall all over themselves to vote for, and as a result arguably the finest rock album of the decade got the shaft. The 21st Century nod in the rock category was a little surprising, as you’d figure that the Dave Matthews Band’s Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King should get this one…you know, what with it being the token rock record nominated for Album of the Year and all of that nonsense. Not that I’m complaining–21st Century was the best album of the lot (which also included entries from such contemporary rock upstarts as U2, AC/DC, and, for some reason, an Eric Clapton/Steve Winwood live album), and the band performed a pretty good version of “21 Guns” with the cast of the soon-to-hit-Broadway American Idiot stage musical.

Most Obvious Proof That People Need to Shut Up About How Axl Rose Has No Right to Use the Guns N’ Roses Name Without Slash: The bizarre trainwreck of a performance by Jamie Foxx and T-Pain of their heavily AutoTuned hit “Blame It,” which featured everything from opera singers to a pointless Doug E. Fresh cameo and ended with Slash reprising his legendary “November Rain” solo over the whole mess. Between this and his recent performances of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” with Fergie, I’m absolutely taking Axl’s side in the debate over who has more respect for the Gunners’ legacy. Chinese Democracy had 6 or 7 songs that were as good as anything in the original GNR catalog, and all of it is better than the entire recorded outputs of Slash’s Snakepit and Velvet Revolver put together. So Slash, please don’t play the “November Rain” solo over random hip-hop songs on nationally televised awards shows anymore.

Award That Proved How Out of Touch I Am With Most of What America Listens To: Something called the Zac Brown Band winning Best New Artist. I had thought for sure MGMT would be a lock–”Time to Pretend,” “Kids,” and “Electric Feel” are three of the most memorable singles of the last couple of years, and they’ve opened stadium shows for Paul McCartney. I had never even heard of ZBB until last night, and a read over their Wikipedia page reveals that their latest album (their third, for the record–and yet Lady GaGa was somehow ineligible on a technicality) peaked at No. 11 and spawned three Top 40 singles. I guess I just don’t listen to the radio enough, because never mind knowing any of their songs–I had never heard of them. They get props for landing Leon Russell as a guest during their performance, but their music seems pretty generic. Think Jack Johnson gone country, with a heavy, heavy flag-waving lyrical bent.

Big-Name Winner I Thought I’d be Annoyed At But Wasn’t: Beyoncé is the kind of artist that you take for granted as being nominated for these awards every year, so when it was announced that “Single Ladies” won Song of the Year, my instant reaction was that the Grammys were getting conservative even by their standards. I already liked Beyoncé a lot (and “Crazy in Love” could very well be the best pop song of the last two decades), but that’s such a predictable pick. But her inspired medley of “If I Was a Boy” and “You Oughta Know” (yes, the latter is an Alanis Morissette cover) and her surprisingly humble victory speech (in which she weirdly refused to refer to her husband by name) won me over. Again.

Biggest Giveaway That the Academy Doesn’t Mean a Word of its Anti-Kanye Posturing: Out of the five nominees for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, three of them featured Kanye West, and another was “I’m On a Boat,” the instant-classic Lonely Island SNL digital short featuring T-Pain. If you’re the Academy, you’ve already told West that he can’t come to perform with Eminem, Drake, and Weezy. You could either: a) treat attendees and TV viewers to an Andy Samberg/T-Pain acceptance speech, or b) force Jay-Z and Rihanna to go up and make a speech for “Run This Town” and dance around the issue of why Yeezy wasn’t there to accept the award with them. Three guesses which direction the judges went with that one.

What, Apparently, Michael Jackson Wanted: If Lionel Ritchie is to be believed, Jacko’s last wish was for Grammy viewers to be forced to wear 3D glasses to see the tribute portion of the show. I threw away the glasses I got when I saw Avatar, so the entire thing just looked awkward. The “Earth Song” cover, with singing courtesy of Celine Dion, Usher, and Carrie Underwood, among others, was actually surprisingly good, especially when Smokey Robinson came in and made the rest of them look like amateurs. Having MJ’s two oldest children come onstage to accept his posthumous lifetime achievement award was a nice touch as well. Overall the tribute was a success.

Artist That’s About to Blow Up Who is So Not Worth the Hype> Drake. First of all, he rose to fame as an actor on DeGrassi: The Next Generation. Second of all, his flow is a substantially less interesting mix of Kanye and Lil Wayne. In the final performance of the night, these three doing the Drake single “Forever” and the Rebirth track “Drop the World,” Weezy and Eminem were an absolute pleasure to watch, both bringing it in a way they hadn’t been doing in quite some time. And then there’s Drake, warbling with AutoTune and awkwardly trying to keep up with the two virtuoso MCs he’s sharing the stage with. I’d feel bad for the kid if he hadn’t just signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Lil Wayne’s Young Money Records.

Emptiest Words of the Night: Academy President Neil Portnow’s obligatory “please stop downloading music” speech. He talks a good game about unknown artists needing exposure. If only he were in charge of an organization that puts on a hugely-publicized awards show every year, then he could give some of these up-and-comers awards instead of just passing out more hardware to Beyoncé and Bruce Springsteen.

Dance-Off that Needs to Happen: Dave Matthews. Thom Yorke. One stage. Can someone please get on this for next year?

Lil Wayne

Rebirth

[Cash Money; 2010]

Links: Lil Wayne | Cash Money | Purchase on Insound

Read the full story

I don’t know why it is that I spend time every year thinking about who will win at the Grammy Awards. They never get anything right, and mostly provide an excuse for industry insiders to congratulate each other. Even last year, when they showed signs of something resembling relevance by nominating Lil Wayne and Radiohead in the top categories, they ultimately fell back on the safest choice imaginable (Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ Starbucks favorite Raising Sand). But no matter how little stock we should realistically put into these things, they never fail as conversation starters, and it’s endlessly fun to try to predict the exact ways in which the voters will get it wrong. This year, the major subplot is Kanye West’s unofficial blacklisting, a precaution taken to prevent any “I’mma Let You Finish” moments–in other words, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences are doing everything in their power to ensure that, unlike the VMA’s, everybody will forget about the Grammys in two days. This will probably result in a very good night for Taylor Swift and a disappointing one for anybody who’s expecting to have stuff to talk about the next day. But for what it’s worth, here are a few of my predictions for some of the major categories.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Record of the Year

Nominees: Beyonce – “Halo”; Black Eyed Peas – “I Gotta Feeling”; Kings of Leon – “Use Somebody”; Lady GaGa – “Poker Face”; Taylor Swift – “You Belong With Me”

This is all Kanye’s fault. The Grammys love to make political statements with certain awards, but only when the public is already on their side. Remember when the Dixie Chicks ran the table in 2007? The voters would never have dared give them the big awards when the backlash about Natalie Maines’ Bush-bashing comments from the rest of the country-music world was in full force. But once Dubya’s approval rating was safely in the mid-20s? No problem. That’s why Taylor Swift is going to clean up at the Grammys this year. The list of nominees for all of the big categories is fairly weak this year anyway, with Lady GaGa being clearly deserving, but the voters will be hard-pressed to pass up the public goodwill that will come with rewarding the sweet and innocent 19-year-old country singer that big bully Kanye embarrassed at the VMAs. Great job, Yeezy.

Should Win: Lady GaGa

Will Win: Taylor Swift

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Album of the Year

Nominees: Beyonce – I Am…Sasha Fierce; Black Eyed Peas – The E.N.D.; Lady GaGa – The Fame; Dave Matthews Band – Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King; Taylor Swift – Fearless

The DMB nomination has to be a makeup gift to fans for the Grammy producers forgetting to put the group’s sax player, LeRoi Moore, in the “In Memoriam” section of the 2009 show. That’s the only way I could explain Big Whiskey as the token safe, inoffensive rock choice. I was mildly shocked not to see U2 or Springsteen get the nod. Maybe the voters figured that would be too predictable–although when Dave Matthews is your definition of a curveball, you’re not exactly on the cutting edge of current musical trends. Normally DMB would be the favorites to win this one, because the Grammys have a tendency to give this award to the album by an established name that nobody actually listened to when it was released (see also: Herbie Hancock, Robert Plant/Alison Krauss). If only Taylor Swift had been allowed to give her VMA acceptance speech in peace.

Should Win: Lady GaGa

Will Win: Taylor Swift

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Song of the Year

Nominees: Beyonce – “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)”; Kings of Leon – “Use Somebody”; Lady GaGa – “Poker Face”; Maxwell – “Pretty Wings”; Taylor Swift – “You Belong With Me”

I have this weird fantasy that Beyonce and Taylor Swift will share one of the major awards, causing Kanye’s head to explode. If I had to put money on his reaction, I’d have to guess that he would break into the Staples Center and declare that Maxwell was robbed. Or, more likely he’d just voice his displeasure at the decision in a caps-locked blog post, which would be more practical but also have less of a chance of deciding next year’s Billboard Music Awards the way the VMAs are deciding this year’s Grammys.

Should Win: Lady GaGa

Will Win: Taylor Swift

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Best New Artist

Nominees: Zac Brown Band, Keri Hilson, MGMT, Silversun Pickups, The Ting Tings

So Lady GaGa isn’t allowed to be considered for this category because she had a single nominated last year, but Silversun Pickups are when their most well-known song, the one that’s been featured in Guitar Hero, is on an album that was released in 2006? Not sure how that one works. Regardless, this award belongs to MGMT.

Should Win: MGMT

Will Win: MGMT

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Best Pop Vocal Album

Nominees: Black Eyed Peas – The E.N.D.; Colbie Callait – Breakthrough; Kelly Clarkson – All I Ever Wanted; The Fray – The Fray; Pink – Funhouse

These are all pretty safe choices. Pink always does well at awards shows, Kelly Clarkson is arguably the most successful American Idol winner of all time (only Carrie Underwood can even be included in that discussion), the Fray are popular with people who watch Grey’s Anatomy, and Colbie Callait is popular with people who find Jack Johnson too hard-edged. But there’s no competition here–the Black Eyed Peas take over the world for an entire summer every two years, and this summer was no different. Everybody was just as annoyed by “I Gotta Feeling” and “Boom Boom Pow” as they were by “My Humps,” “Where is the Love,” and “Let’s Get it Started.” Which means there’s no way Fergie, Will.i.am, and company don’t win this.

Should Win: Kelly Clarkson

Will Win: Black Eyed Peas

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Best Electronica/Dance Album

Nominees: The Crystal Method – Divided by Night; David Guetta – One Love; Lady GaGa – The Fame; LMFAO – Party Rock; Pet Shop Boys – Yes

Naming five nominees for this one is nothing more than a formality. Lady GaGa is weird, talented, and ubiquitous enough to have a very real chance of being the new Madonna, and that’s not an exaggeration. She should by all rights be sweeping the big three, but those hopes were, ironically enough, dashed by her would-be tour partner. Give yourself a hand, Kanye.

Should Win: Lady GaGa

Will Win: Lady GaGa

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance

Nominees: Bob Dylan – “Beyond Here Lies Nothin’”; John Fogerty – “Change in the Weather”; Prince – “Dreamer”; Bruce Springsteen – “Working on a Dream”; Neil Young – “Fork in the Road”

Yup, nobody under 50 in this category. If the Grammy voters want to know why nobody takes them seriously, it’s stuff like this. This is conservative even by their standards. Even someone like John Mayer would at least give the illusion that they were trying to stay current. Neil Young’s electric car concept album is represented on here? Really? I’d be shocked if Springsteen doesn’t walk away with this one. Being discovered by a rock critic who later becomes your manager has its advantages when it comes to these things.

Should Win: Dylan

Will Win: Springsteen

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal

Nominees: Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood – “Can’t Find My Way Home”; Coldplay – “Life in Technicolor II”; Green Day – “21 Guns”; Kings of Leon – “Use Somebody”; U2 – “I’ll Go Crazy if I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight”

Four of these are reasonable (if extremely predictable) choices given the voters’ tendencies, and I wouldn’t hate to see any of them win. But they’ve already tipped their hand by including a live version by of a song originally released in 1969. There’s no reason Clapton and Winwood should be nominated unless they’re going to win. Otherwise, why not give the fifth spot to Phoenix or something?

Should Win: Coldplay

Will Win: Clapton/Winwood

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Best Rock Song

>

Nominees: Green Day – “21 Guns”; Kings of Leon – “Use Somebody”; Pearl Jam – “The Fixer”; Bruce Springsteen – “Working on a Dream”; U2 – “I’ll Go Crazy if I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight”

Rock Grammys 101 right here. A couple of Rolling Stone-friendly legends, a couple of ’90s vets, and one very safe current choice. “The Fixer” is the best song of the five, but nobody’s actually cared about Pearl Jam for at least a decade. The Boss adds yet another trophy to his collection.

Should Win: Pearl Jam

Will Win: Springsteen

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Best Rock Album

Nominees: AC/DC – Black Ice; Eric Clapton & Steve Winwwod – Live From Madison Square Garden; Green Day, 21st Century Breakdown; Dave Matthews Band – Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King; U2 – No Line on the Horizon

Absolutely shocked that Springsteen isn’t nominated here. My guess is that the voters know that they are contractually obligated to give this award to the “rock” representative on the Album of the Year list (meaning that Kanye’s transgressions won’t force Dave to go home empty-handed), but they are also contractually obligated to give Bruce any award he’s nominated for, so they just decided to cut their losses and spread the love a little bit. Again, Dave Matthews is their idea of “diversifying.”

Should Win: Green Day

Will Win: DMB

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Best Alternative Music Album

Nominees: David Byrne & Brian Eno – Everything That Happens Will Happen Today; Death Cab for Cutie – The Open Door; Depeche Mode – Sounds of the Universe; Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix; Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!

I’m a little bit surprised that the two albums from 2009 most frequently acclaimed by websites like this one, Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion and Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest, were passed over. I guess an EP of Death Cab B-sides was more deserving (another notable omission: The Dead Weather’s Horehound–Jack White usually gets a reasonable amount of Grammy love). They could do worse than to give it to any of these five, but the two clear favorites are French garage-rockers Phoenix and New York art-punks Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The “Should Win” and “Will Win” selections below are essentially interchangeable.

Should Win: Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Will Win: Phoenix

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Best Rap Solo Performance

Nominees: Drake – “Best I Ever Had”; Eminem – “Beautiful”; Jay-Z – “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)”; Kid Cudi – “Day N’ Nite”; Mos Def – “Casa Bey”

Mainstream hip-hop has been in somewhat of a holding pattern for the last several years. It’s nice to see Mos Def get love, but the rest of these are pretty underwhelming. Jay-Z or Eminem will probably win–at this point, they’re the U2 and Bruce Springsteen of the rap categories.

Should Win: “Casa Bey”

Will Win: “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)”

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group

Nominees: Beastie Boys & Nas – “Too Many Rappers”; Eminem, Dr. Dre & 50 Cent – “Crack a Bottle”; Fabolous & Jay-Z – “Money Goes, Honey Stay”; Kid Cudi, Kanye West & Common – “Make Her Say”; Kanye West & Young Jeezy – “Amazing”

See above–Eminem’s got this. What, did you think they were going to give it to Kanye?

Should Win: “Amazing”

Will Win: “Crack a Bottle”

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration

Nominees: Beyonce & Kanye West – “Ego”; Keri Hilson, Kanye West & Ne-Yo – “Knock You Down”; Jay-Z, Kanye West & Rihanna – “Run This Town”; The Lonely Island & T-Pain – “I’m On a Boat”; T.I. & Justin Timberlake – “Dead and Gone”

I’m not gonna lie, a victory for “I’m On a Boat” in this category would almost absolve the Grammys of all Jethro Tull-over-Metallica-related crimes of decades past. This is one of those awards that inexplicably gets presented during the live telecast even though it’s about the 40th-most significant Grammy. Maybe they’ve been setting up an Andy Samberg/T-Pain joint acceptance speech since this category was created. Keep your eye on this one–odds are it’ll be the only award Kanye West wins. Given the circumstances behind Kanye’s exile from this year’s show, a win for “Ego” is almost worth hoping for, on the off chance that Taylor Swift rushes the stage to declare that T.I. and Justin Timberlake created one of the best rap/sung collaboration of all time. “Run This Town” is the safe bet, because the Grammys like Jay and Rihanna more than they hate Kanye.

Should Win: “I’m On a Boat”

Will Win: “Run This Town”

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Best Rap Song

Nominees: Drake – “Best I Ever Had”; Jay-Z – “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)”; Jay-Z, Kanye West & Rihanna – “Run This Town”; Kid Cudi – “Day N’ Nite”; T.I. & Justin Timberlake – “Dead and Gone”

This slate makes me wish the Grammys would be more like the Oscars and wait until the end of the calendar year to release the nominations. Jay-Z had released two singles from Blueprint 3 before the August 31 cutoff date, but the album itself didn’t come out until early September, which means it will inevitably get the U2 treatment and be nominated in a bunch of categories two years in a row. Blueprint 3 is one of Jay’s weakest albums and doesn’t even deserve to get nominated in a bunch of categories one year. Regardless, “D.O.A.” and “Run This Town” will split the Hov vote, clearing the way for Jimmy from DeGrassi: The Next Generation to take this one.

Should Win: “Day N’ Nite”

Will Win: “Best I Ever Had”

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Best Rap Album

Nominees: Common – Universal Mind Control; Eminem – “Relapse”; Flo-Rida – R.O.O.T.S.; Mos Def – The Ecstatic; Q-Tip – The Renaissance

This is really bad. I guess the voters thought that nominating Common would give them underground cred, and maybe it would have in 1995. But Common now has Coke commercials and a Jonas Brothers collaboration under his belt, so I guess Universal Mind Control is a perfect fit for a Grammy-nominated album. Eminem wins this one as a lifetime-achievement award.

Should Win: Mos Def

Will Win: Eminem

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Best Americana Album

Nominees: Bob Dylan – Together Through Life; Levon Helm – Electric Dirt; Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel – Willie & The Wheel; Wilco – Wilco (The Album); Lucinda Williams – Little Honey

It’s a little bit odd that the voters stuck Dylan and Wilco into this little-talked-about category. Wouldn’t have made more sense to put Dylan up for Best Rock Album instead of the Clapton/Winwood live album and Wilco up for Best Alternative Album instead of the Death Cab outtakes EP? That way, they wouldn’t have to snub their beloved Lucinda Williams here.

Should Win: Bob Dylan

Will Win: Wilco

Smashing Pumpkins

“Widow Wake My Mind”
Track Two from Teargarden by Kaleidyscope

[Self-released; 2010]

Links: Smashing Pumpkins | Teargarden by Kaleidyscope Feature

Read the full story

Paul McCartney

Good Evening New York City

[Hear Music; 2009]

Links: Paul McCartney | Hear Music | Purchase on Insound

Read the full story

Read the full story

This week onethirtybpm has rolled out end-of-year lists documenting the best albums, songs, and cover art of 2009, among other things. But such lists don’t capture the full spectrum of things that happened this year. After all, a lot of times a year isn’t remembered by the albums that were released from January 1st to December 31st, but rather by landmark events in popular culture. This is especially true in this day and age, when an album’s technical “release date” matters less and less as the years go by. With that in mind, here are the five things you are most likely to give as answers when your grandkids ask you what happened in the music world in 2009.

01. The Death of Michael Jackson
Has there ever been a musician whose public image so dramatically improved overnight upon their death? Maybe Elvis. The last six months’ media coverage already makes it hard to remember what people generally thought of Michael Jackson before June 25th, but years of seclusion and tabloid reports on his bizarre personal life put Jacko’s public approval rating squarely in the post-resignation Sarah Palin zone. When he announced a run of shows at London’s O2 Arena for the summer of 2009, with the sadly prophetic title “This is It,” nobody was speculating about the content of the shows—all of their press seemed to center on the question of whether MJ would even show up. But almost from the minute word of his death broke to the public, the tables turned in the most dramatic fashion imaginable. His albums instantly became sold out in every record store in the world, magazines from Rolling Stone to Time published issue-length tributes to the King of Pop, tickets to his nationally-televised memorial service went for thousands on eBay, and Sony released This is It, an excellent documentary of the rehearsals for his London concerts. Jackson had already secured his place as one of a very short list of 20th-century American musical icons (pretty much the only people who could be mentioned in the same breath as him on that list would be Sinatra, Elvis, Miles, Dylan, and Hendrix). His death just reminded everybody of that.

02. Kanye West Finally Goes Off the Deep End

Something tells me we’re not going to stop hearing the phrase “Yo, ______________, I’m really happy for you and I’ma let you finish, but _________________ had one of the best _______________ of all time!” anytime soon. It’s just too ridiculously applicable to any situation you could think of, musical or otherwise.

03. Chris Brown and Rihanna Become the 21st-Century Ike and Tina

Details of what happened in that car on February 9th are sketchy, but all evidence is pretty incriminating. Chris Brown has deservedly become Michael Vick in the court of public opinion, while Rihanna has become a prominent advocate against domestic violence. It will be impossible to ever have a conversation about either one of them without referencing this incident for the foreseeable future.

04. The Beatles Update Their Catalog, Finally

Even three months after the September 9 release of the Beatles’ remastered catalog, it’s still pretty mind-blowing that before that, you could only own what is inarguably the most important body of work in the history of popular music in the CD versions that were released in 1987. Every other act of that time, from the Stones to Dylan to Bowie, have remastered and reissued their catalogs in basically every fashion imaginable over the last two decades, forcing fans to buy the same albums over and over again for improved sound and bonus features. Although it was frustrating to not have updated versions of the Beatles’ albums until now, in a way it is admirable that they took the time to do it right before giving the albums an overhaul. Add to that the simultaneous release of a Beatles-dedicated Rock Band game, and you have one of the biggest marketing coups in recent memory, and the greatest rock band of all time finally showing that they could stay current.

05. Eric Cartman Sings Lady Gaga
South Park’s brilliant sendup of “Poker Face” was the point where Stefani Germanotta made the leap from “potentially interesting pop star” to “potential Madonna successor.” Lady Gaga has proven herself all year to be a force of nature in pop music, making headlines for bizarre videos and outrageous live performances, and dominating the charts with some of the smartest, most subversive dance-pop in recent memory. And like any cultural phenomenon that gains some semblance of popularity, the South Park spoof was inevitable. Cartman’s straightforward take on Gaga’s biggest hit, “Poker Face,” went viral almost instantly, proving to be nearly as popular as the original.