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Tag: Bruce Springsteen

Grammy Week!: SonicClash’s 2010 Predictions: Rock

For my guesses on who’ll win the rap categories, click here.

The issue with a lot of categories that the Grammy Awards choose to recognize is the fact that the categories themselves are so amorphous. OK, it’s easy to figure out what constitutes a “rap” performance, and “pop” is an all-encompassing term. But “rock” is one of those terms that means different things to different people, and when you look at a group of nominees in a rock category, there tends to be a lot of “those two bands do NOT belong in the same category”.

It’s the same premise as the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In that case, “rock” refers to any American music made after the rock era began in the mid-Fifties (which is why artists as disparate as Miles Davis, Bob Marley, Madonna and Grandmaster Flash are in the HOF). No one can really argue with that definition, can they?

Well, of course they can, because most people think of the word “rock” and immediately conjure up an image of five white guys with long hair playing guitar (there might be one black guy-he plays bass). However, even THAT definition is pretty amorphous: I mean, The Beatles are a rock band, but so is Against Me! So is Vampire Weekend. And you’d never see any of those three bands playing a bill together or hear them on the same radio station, right?

My point is that it occasionally leads to some head-scratchers, lilke Train’s “Drops of Jupiter” winning Best Rock Song in 2002, or Pink’s “Trouble” winning Best Female Rock Performance a year later. I mean, when you break it down, both bands can be considered “rock”, but…tell that to some kid listening to Led Zeppelin who has a fairly narrow definition of rock (which probably wouldn’t even include the blues singers and players Plant, Page and co. stole from).

By the way, “Drops of Jupiter” popped up on my iPod today, and I was reminded of what a great fucking song it was.

Anyhow, off my soapbox. This year’s Grammy nominees in the rock category have a very “old guard” quality to them thanks to the presence of Springsteen, U2 and Green Day (yes folks, Green Day is now classic rock). Even the nominees in the “harder” categories are a bit aged. Not sure what to attribute that all to, but here are the nominees.

Best Rock Song (awarded to the songwriter)

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

Will Win: Kings of Leon

Should Win: Pearl Jam

Three Grammy favorites (including U2, who have won more Grammy Awards than any band in history) are here, along with a moderately-recognized band who made a great record in Pearl Jam and a team of relative new jacks in Kings of Leon. So why am I picking the new jacks to win? Because “Use Somebody” is the only one of these records nominated in a major category (Record and Song of the Year), because KoL won in this category last year (for “Sex on Fire”), and because “Use Somebody” was freaking ubiquitous last year. As much as I like the Followill boys, though, I think Pearl Jam made an amazing record (the album, “Backspacer”, was released after the eligibility deadline) and should get recognized for something. Won’t happen, though.

Best Rock Album

Nominees: “Black Ice” (AC/DC), “Live from Madison Square Garden” (Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood), “21st Century Breakdown” (Green Day), “Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King” (Dave Matthews Band), “No Line on the Horizon” (U2)

Will Win: U2

Should Win: ????

This is what I’m talking about: yes, AC/DC and DMB both qualify as rock bands, but should they be competing against one another, considering their styles of music are worlds apart? That said, this is a ridiculously interesting category, and anyone could win. AC/DC’s got the long-overdue recognition thing going for them (they’ve never won a Grammy), as well as the anti-establishment vote. Clapton and Winwood have the superstar collaboration thing going for them that worked so well for Alison Krauss and Robert Plant last year. Dave Matthews Band have the only one of these five albums in a major category (Album of the Year), plus this is their first album following the death of sax player LeRoi Moore. U2 is, well…U2. So this one is a toss-up with the only sure loser being Green Day (who got MTV and American Music Awards anyway). Thing is, though, with the exception of Clapton and Winwood (the only one of the five nominations I’ve never heard), everyone in this category made a sub-par album (to be fair, AC/DC’s wasn’t exactly subpar, it just sounded like every other album the band’s ever made). None of these guys really deserves this award. Is that sad or what?

Best Solo Rock Performance

Nominees: Beyond Here Lies Nothin’ (Bob Dylan), Change in the Weather (John Fogerty), Dreamer (Prince), Working on a Dream (Bruce Springsteen), Fork in the Road (Neil Young)
Will Win: Bruce Springsteen

Should Win: I think I’ll sit this one out, too.

I couldn’t pick a “Should Win” for the last category because no one really deserved it. I won’t pick a “Should Win” for this category because I’m fairly unfamiliar with the nominated songs. I’m not sure if I even ever knew that Fogerty and Young released albums last year. That said, I was sort of surprised that Grammy voters didn’t show Bob Dylan love in any of the major categories, since they’ve slobbed Zimmerman’s knob plenty over the course of the past decade or so. This could be his consolation prize. It’s between him and the Boss, who had the closest thing to a universally-recognized critical and commercial success out of any of the five nominees. One thing I will say is that when 51-year old Prince is the youngest nominee in a category, it’s time for an infusion of some new blood, STAT.

Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group

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

Will Win: Kings of Leon

Should Win: Kings of Leon

My Spidey Sense tells me that KoL will also win this category, with Grammy deciding to award the band that currently has the best balance between commercial recognition and “cool” factor. I wouldn’t count out either Green Day or U2, though. “21 Guns” was far and away the best thing on “21st Century Breakdown” (probably the most disappointing purchase I made in 2009) even though it was a bald-faced rewrite of “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”. U2 got a surprising amount of critical love for “No Line on the Horizon” (Rolling Stone named it the best album of the year), so…who knows? Whoever wins Best Rock Song will also win this award, so the most likely scenarios point to U2 or Kings of Leon winning this award.

Best Hard Rock Performance

Nominees: War Machine (AC/DC), Check My Brain (Alice in Chains), “What I’ve Done” (Linkin Park), “The Unforgiven III” (Metallica), “Burn it to the Ground” (Nickelback)

Will Win: AC/DC

Should Win: Alice in Chains

If Nickelback wins in this category, there will probably be a riot. Count them out immediately. I first picked Linkin Park to win this award (because Grammy voters honoring a live version of a 2-year old song sounds like something they would do), but then I thought about it some more and realized that now might be a good idea for the voters to finally acknowledge AC/DC’s contribution to rock and roll. With the double-platinum success of “Black Ice” and the probability that there probably won’t be another AC/DC album to nominate in the near future, if ever again, I say Angus, Brian and company finally walk away with a golden gramophone. Since Grammy folks like to award bands retroactively, this will be their consolation prize for not winning anything for “Highway to Hell” or “Back in Black” (although, to be fair, this category didn’t exist when those two classics were released). Personally, I don’t have a problem with AC/DC winning, but it would also be nice to see AiC rewarded for making a near-improbable comeback both creatively and commercially.

Best Metal Performance

Nominees: “Dissident Aggressor” (Judas Priest), “Set to Fail” (Lamb of God), “Head Crusher” (Megadeth), “Senor Peligro” (Ministry), “Hate Worldwide” (Slayer)

Will Win: Slayer

Should Win: I am NOT a metalhead

This is the one category in which I can safely say my familiarity with any of these songs is minimal. I know who all the bands are. I’ve heard music from all these bands before. I just haven’t heard the nominated works, and none of the bands ranks as anything I would listen to regularly. Metallica won in this category last year, and this year they have slid over to the Hard Rock category. Of the five nominated bands, Megadeth has seven nominations over their career without a win, while Ministry has six without a win. The only band in this category with an actual Grammy win to their name is Slayer, so my gut says they will prevail again and Dave Mustaine will continue to be the Susan Lucci of the Grammy Awards.

Best Alternative Music Performance

Nominees: “Everything That Happens Will Happen Today” (Brian Eno and David Byrne), “The Open Door” (Death Cab for Cutie), “Sounds of the Universe”(Depeche Mode), “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix” (Phoenix), “It’s Blitz!” (The Yeah Yeah Yeahs)

Will Win: Brian Eno and David Byrne

Should Win: Phoenix

Here’s another thing I don’t get. What qualifies as “alternative”? Alternative to what? That’s yet another amorphous category that has in the past awarded everyone from Green Day (post-punk) to Gnarls Barkley (R&B) to The Beastie Boys (hip-hop). This year’s nominees nod to the new wave of yesteryear while also giving a glance to morose singer-songwriter pop and French dance/rock. “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix” was, after Animal Collective’s “Merriweather Post Pavillion”, the year’s best reviewed album in any genre, so Phoenix could be a sleeper winner here. However, in line with Grammy voters recognizing artists belatedly, this one could also go to either the very solid Depeche Mode album, or the Eno/Byrne collaboration. That said, the latter album was only released digitally, and it’s hard to think that the industry would award an album that was released as kind of a “F*ck you” to the current label distribution structure. Hell, even Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” (the album that won last year) was released through traditional distribution channels.

Anyhow, we’ve now wrapped up the rock categories (except for the Best Rock Instrumental Performance category, which doesn’t interest me and probably doesn’t interest you either). Next, we jump on the Soooooooooul Train and check out this year’s R&B nominees).

January 27, 2010
Always Something There to Remind Me

Sufjan Stevens. Image via Wikipedia

On my second day in Peru, my iPod died. I was on a bus the size of a Volkswagen, trying to stand in the narrow row between seats as we careened around hairpin turns. People sat on the roof; people sat on furniture that had been tied to the roof. Many passengers had portable radios in their laps, cranked over the din of kids whining, babies crying, couples bickering. One minute, I was safe inside my headphones, and the next, I could hear everything—a cacophony of chaos where my travel playlist should be. On the iPod screen, a sad face drooped over the URL for Apple support.

I restarted, I reset—nothing but the grind-click of a seriously sick machine.

I had three weeks to go; at least six long bus rides, two long plane rides, and countless hours of meandering. Music wasn’t a luxury, it was a necessity.

Music provokes more intense and contextualized emotional reactions to places and allows us better access to the aesthetic of a city or a work of art, or even our own brains. As a solo traveler, I learned this quickly and employ it regularly: Sufjan Stevens in my ancestors’ birthplace, Sigur Ros in the Sistine Chapel, Aphex Twin in the Van Gogh museum. Silence in Auschwitz.

Headphones help me keep my distance, which is especially useful when passing through cities or ports where people try to sell everything from personal services to carpets to baby llamas to hotel upgrades, or when in an area populated by pesky and/or intoxicated men who regard American women as spectacles worthy of dogged harassment. Plug in, check out, and cruise on, (relatively) unbothered.

The iPod drowns out the boy band LPs played in bars and coffee shops, the muzak of stores and trains, car horns, screaming children (and adults), and snoring hostel-mates.

Certain music makes me feel more connected to home, friends, and family, which at times feel so far away that they seem nonexistent.

Thus, my iPod is in the “top five items I can’t do without” list, along with my passport, my notebook, a positive bank account balance, and underwear.

When I got back to my hostel that night, I went online to Apple support. The consensus was that the sad iPod face was a bad, bad sign, and indicative of hard disk problems. A couple of guys at the hostel took a look and listen, and one even made a go of plugging my iPod into his laptop and trying to reformat it, but they supported the terminal diagnosis and we pronounced the iPod dead. I thought about buying a cheap MP3 player, but Peru isn’t known for its electronics, and I would then have had to find a way to download/upload all the songs I wanted, which meant squandering far too much time doing what I do every day at home.

I made a drastic decision: for the next three weeks, I would actually listen to the sounds and music around me.

Myriad street performers play pan flutes and windpipes, many of them dressed in traditional Incan garb. At first they sounded like any random track on a traditional cheesy world music cd, but then I realized that I recognized some of the songs they were playing, such as Elton John’s Sacrifice, Every Rose has its Thorn, and Like a Virgin.

Peruvians have discovered and are almost uniformly obsessed with 80s music. When I first arrived in Arequipa, my cabbie rocked out to Dire Straits’ Walk of Life, which, I had forgotten, is a great song and almost impossible not to rock out to (though, since I heard it at least six more times, I won’t be listening to it again until 2015). And Karma Chameleon! The first time I heard it, I felt like I was reuniting with a good friend from college—I got all nostalgic for my crappy little dorm room and 8 o’clock classes. I heard Bon Jovi, which makes me fantasize, just a little, about feathered hair and mullets and boys who play hockey. Erasure, the band that made me realize at the age of ten my fondness for flamboyance.

Peruvians can’t get enough of Queen; I love Under Pressure anytime and anywhere, and I chuckle a little remembering Vanilla Ice and his ridiculous hair and dance moves. Of course, Michael Jackson was ubiquitous; I was asked at least a dozen times how I was handling his death. Bruce Springsteen, who, despite his Born in the USA stretch, I’ve come to appreciate. Even though Sting has been annoying for a while now, listening to the Police brought back the good times, including the memory of reading Lolita in high school after listening to Don’t Stand So Close to Me on repeat.

In addition to the cultural, historical, social, and environmental characteristics of Peru, the likes of which I’ve never experienced anywhere else, the trip provided an unexpected visitation of my own history and landscape.

I’d be in a remote village 13,000 feet above sea level, catch someone singing or playing INXS, and become instantly transported back to the fourth grade talent show, in which I played the piano wearing a jean jacket over a mustard-yellow knit dress and a shy kid named Corey blew everyone away with a shockingly seductive rendition of I Need You Tonight. I’d recall the day Michael Hutchence died, and think about how he always seemed like a poor man’s Bono. Then I’d spend far too long thinking about Bono. At the end of these reveries, I’d stop for a minute, look around me and think, holy shit, I’m in the Andes!

The extent to which Western culture has infiltrated other countries, especially developing ones, is obscene. But outside of Lima, there weren’t many McDonald’s, no TGI Fridays, and only one Dunkin Donuts. At times, Peru felt still fairly untouched—until I turned on the radio or went out to hear live music, which invariably would be an 80s cover band. Even the bad asses, like our army vet canyon guide, listened to Van Halen and Journey and Mr. Mister. Unlike with other aspects of Western culture, Peru’s absorption of American 80s music charmed me, especially because through their love of the music they thoroughly embodied the spirit of it.

Surprisingly, for the most part, the death of my iPod enhanced my experience in Peru. It also made me realize how often I’m plugged in, and thus, tuned out. How often I create my own aural landscape rather than listen to the sounds around me. How much I might be missing by effecting, and visibly expressing, that preference. How sometimes, music best exercises its power when we take off our headphones and let the playlist assemble itself.

August 21, 2009
Review: Bruce Springsteen’s “Working on a Dream”

As one of the web’s most esteemed (and self-dubbed) Bruce Springsteen scholars, I’ve been trying for weeks to figure out what it is about Working on a Dream that enraptures me so. It’s something other than the most obvious answer, which is “because it’s Springsteen, and I love Springsteen.” That particular answer doesn’t really explain away Human Touch and The Ghost of Tom Joad, after all. No, I’ve decided that there’s a very strange explanation for this affection: Working on a Dream doesn’t really sound much like Springsteen at damn old all.

Let me explain. We’re all grown-ups here; we all know that rockers stagnate as they age. Once-great artists in their twilight years are often reduced to pale imitations; oh, sure, their new albums may offer a peak or two between songs that NOBODY WILL EVER EVER REMEMBER lesser compositions, but how often do they retain their creative vigor, the youthful viscera of their most hungry recordings? It’s rare, indeed, and I could go into a treatise of once-great artists plagued by this malaise, but it’d be reductive and full of lots of bitterness towards the Stones.

So it’s with great pride for my beloved Boss that I proclaim: after floundering creatively for the better part of the 90s treading water with undercooked versions of old-school Springsteen, new-millenium Bruce has bounced back, creatively if not commercially, through several batches of lively (and just plain GOOD) tunes and a wise refusal to adhere slavishly to his signature sound. This is a Bruce competing with the litany of new kids highjacking his sound all the way to critical acclaim, not a Bruce obsessing over his glory days. (Ha!)

And Working on a Dream sounds terrific. Bruce’s domestic bliss yields his best returns since domestic dischord proved a qualitative boon for him on 1987’s Tunnel of Love. This time, he’s writing shiny retro pop tunes, for the most part planted firmly in the soil of 60s pop. There’s a lot of Brill Building songwriting, and a lot of Phil Spector moments–think back to The River, and try to imagine an album of variances on “I Wanna Marry You”. Shoulda-been single “My Lucky Day” is the sunniest thing I’ve heard from any artist in quite a while, all tight harmonies and jangly guitars. The title track sounds like an outtake from Magic, albeit a particularly optimistic one. And the only indication that checkout-girl fantasy “Queen of the Supermarket” didn’t come from the era that it so effortlessly evokes is the surprise f-bomb. (And I’d be remiss not to mention “This Life”, which fits the milieu quite nicely, but has the best hook on the album, a soaring melody that demands summer mix slots from everybody that listens.)

In fact, Springsteen rarely missteps here. Opening up with an 8-minute folk tale (“Outlaw Pete”) might not have not been the best harbinger of things to come, and it’s far from the album’s strongest song, but it’s fascinating to listen to the keyboard-spackled Springsteen-by-way-of-Killers-by-way-of-Springsteen paradox he’s created for himself as the song’s tone. AndÂ deep cut “Kingdom of Days” threatens to be really boring, but smacks you with a killer second chorus while you’re napping. (There’s all sorts of interesting stuff nestled in the album’s second half, too–the folksy “Tomorrow Never Knows” sounds kind of Seeger Session-y, and “Surprise, Surprise” sounds like someone picked a fistful of these retro pop tunes that hopefully will prove to be new-Springsteen’s signature, and found this polished beauty among their ranks.) If there’s a misstep, it’s “Good Eye”, full of ugly distorted vocals and an overabundance of harmonica–sure, it might be the worst thing Bruce has come up with since, well, Human Touch, but residing as it does in the midst of such an impressive playlist, I’m sure we can all be understanding.

(Side note: “The Last Carnival” concludes with an a cappella outro of wordless harmonies. It sounds fantastic, but it’s interesting to note that it sounds an awful lot like the end of “Slapped Actress” by the Hold Steady, perhaps the band most notorious for accusations of E Street aspirations. Homage, or simple curiosity? Either way, it’s cool.)

Pretty much universally terrific, Working on a Dream is Bruce Springsteen’s best post-heyday record. There’s an energy and a craft here that most aging artists tend to shy away from; the songs are great, the arrangements impeccable, the production gloriously glossy. Bruce has graduated from young, grungy small-town escapee to domesticated, middle-aged troubador–and manages, in the process, not to sound worse for the wear. It’s terrific work, and I can only hope it entices back those who may have bailed on the Boss.

He may take a while to find his footing, but there’s a crucial truth at play here: you never doubt The Boss.

February 26, 2009