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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Grammy Awards

  • SonicClash Handicaps the 2009 Grammy Awards: Viva La Coldplay!!

    radioheadWas 2008 a mediocre year for rock music? Judging from the nominees in Grammy’s rock categories, it’s pretty easy to think so. Almost no new artists are represented here. Even the alternative category is filled with veterans. Also, what’s up with the continued absence of a Female Rock vocal category. There are still quite a few rockin’ chicks out there. I’m surprised women’s groups haven’t protested this oversight!

    Anyway, here are the categories…

    Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance: “Gravity” (John Mayer), “I Saw Her Standing There” (Paul McCartney), “Girls in Their Summer Clothes” (Bruce Springsteen), “Rise” (Eddie Vedder),”Hidden Path” (Neil Young)

    Will Win: Springsteen

    Should Win: Can’t argue with The Boss

    Mayer and McCartney are pretty much spaceholders-nominated for live performances of old songs. While it would be nice to see Eddie Vedder pick up a Grammy for his haunting “Into the Wild” soundtrack, this one goes to Springsteen, whose profile is higher than it’s been in years.

    Best Rock Performance, Duo or Group: “Rock ‘n Roll Train” (AC/DC), “Violet Hill” (Coldplay), “Long Road Out of Eden” (The Eagles), “Sex on Fire” (Kings of Leon), “House of Cards” (Radiohead)

    Will Win: Coldplay

    Should Win: Kings of Leon

    I feel a Coldplay sweep coming on. The Eagles’ appearance in this category is laughable, and while it’s cool to see AC/DC nominated for a Grammy (for the FIRST time), they probably won’t win (now watch them turn around and give the award to AC/DC). I say this award (and most of the others in this category) goes on Chris Martin’s mantelpiece, although “Sex on Fire” is one of the best songs of the year, regardless of genre.

    Best Hard Rock Performance: “Inside the Fire” (Disturbed), “Visions” (Judas Priest), “Wax Simulacra” (Mars Volta), “Saints of Los Angeles” (Motley Crue), “Lords of Salem” (Rob Zombie)

    Will Win: Disturbed

    Should Win: ???

    Rob Zombie’s automatically excluded, because his entry is a live performance. Every once in a while, the Grammy folks like to prove that they’re cool, which means that they’ll bypass old-school faves Judas Priest and Motley Crue and give the award to relative newcomers Disturbed.

    Best Metal Performance: “Heroes of Our Time” (Dragonforce), “Nostradamus” (Judas Priest), “My Apocalypse” (Metallica), “Under My Thumb” (Ministry), “Psychosocial” (Slipknot)

    Will Win: Metallica

    Should Win: Dragonforce

    Oh, come on. Any metal Grammy category that includes Metallica has already been decided. The four-headed behemoth will trounce the competition. However, Dragonforce deserves some props for delivering metal that takes it all the way back to 1983, albeit with superior instrumental prowess.

    Best Rock Song: “Girls in Their Summer Clothes” (Bruce Springsteen), “House of Cards” (Radiohead), “I Will Possess Your Heart” (Death Cab for Cutie), “Sex on Fire” (Kings of Leon), “Violet Hill” (Coldplay)

    Will Win: Coldplay

    Should Win: Death Cab for Cutie or Kings of Leon

    Remember I said something about a Coldplay sweep? It will continue in this category. The Springsteen track is too old, Radiohead will win the alternative category (see below), and KOL and Death Cab are still relatively new artists. However, DC4C’s Ben Gibbard deserves this award just for writing the creepiest stalker song of the year.


    Best Rock Album: “Viva La Vida or Death & All His Friends” (Coldplay), “Rock ‘n Roll Jesus” (Kid Rock), “Only by the Night” (Kings of Leon), “Death Magnetic” (Metallica), “Consolers of the Lonely” (The Raconteurs)

    Will Win: Coldplay

    Should Win: Kings of Leon

    In this category, the biggest seller usually wins, but in this case, the biggest seller is Kid Rock. Ain’t nobody givin’ Kid Rock a Grammy award. Metallica has an outside chance, but Coldplay’s picking up steam and will most likely snatch this one up too. How’d The Raconteurs end up here? Does anyone even remember that they released an album last year?

    Best Alternative Performance: “Modern Guilt” (Beck), “Narrow Stairs” (Death Cab for Cutie), “The Odd Couple” (Gnarls Barkley), “Evil Urges” (My Morning Jacket), “In Rainbows” (Radiohead)

    Will Win: Radiohead

    Should Win: Any of these is worthy.

    Five nominees, five excellent albums, all of which are Grammy worthy. However, Radiohead’s got the nomination in the major category (Album of the Year), so they’ll take the prize, and thank goodness that Coldplay wasn’t nominated here!!

  • So Much for Prognostication: The 2009 Grammy Award Nominations

    Well, for the most part, it was out with the old and in with the (fairly) new when the Grammy nominations were announced last night. With 8 nominations for Lil’ Wayne, 7 for Radiohead and Coldplay, and 6 apiece for Jay-Z, Kanye West and Ne-Yo, the hipness quotient got raised quite a bit. There were also a couple of surprise shutouts, as Alicia Keys and Mary J. Blige, both Grammy favorites, got relegated to minor categories despite two of the biggest selling albums released during the eligibility period. There were a ton of surprises. Here are a couple of them.

    *Ne-Yo for Album of the Year: An album that kind of slipped by unnoticed on the critical scale, Ne-Yo’s third album is sharing space with Lil’ Wayne, Radiohead and likely winner Robert Plant and Alison Krauss for Album of the Year. Pretty impressive.

    *Where’s Leona Lewis for Best New Artist? “Bleeding Love” got nominated for Record of the Year and Leona got a nod for Best Female Pop Performance, but she got beat out by Duffy, Adele (who scored a surprise nomination for Record of the Year), The Jonas Brothers (!!!), Lady Antebellum and Jazmine Sullivan (with an unexpected 5 nominations) for this award.

    *AC/DC gets nominated for Best Rock Performance, Group: Not so much a surprise, but I bet our own Mikey Hersh just peed his pants.

    There are plenty of other surprises-and surprise omissions-but you’ll just have to rifle through the list of nominations yourself.

  • Grammys 2008: Really?!? Herbie Hancock?!?!

    So, I braved the NYC elements (it’s 17 degrees over there), hopped on a plane West, checked into my hotel and cleared up some work so I could be back in my hotel room to view the 50th Annual Grammy Awards in their entirety. Considering I shut it off before it even finished, color me a little underwhelmed by a show (and a voting committee) that has gotten better than they were, but still leads all award shows in WTF decisions?

    First of all, I was a little upset by what didn’t happen at the show. A rumored Michael Jackson performance commemorating the 25th Anniversary of “Thriller” didn’t happen (presumably because Michael refused to perform unless he received some kind of award), and an expected fireworks fest between Aretha Franklin & Mary J. Blige didn’t happen due to Mary somehow not appearing on the show (despite wearing two Grammys last night). Not sure what happened, but it’s possible Aretha (who’s back to looking like a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day float after losing a pretty decent amount of weight) ate her.

    The highlights were expected. No one that I didn’t expect to wow me already wowed me. Those “wow” moments? Kanye West’s futuristic performance of “Stronger” with Daft Punk followed by an emotional performance of “Hey Mama” that proved dude could potentially have a singing career as well, and Amy Winehouse’s excellent medley of “You Know I’m No Good” and the now completely ironic “Rehab”. Both also had the best acceptance speeches of the night. Winehouse was quite overwhelmed (and bringing her parents on stage with her was a nice touch), and West was deservedly surly as he started to get played off the stage in the middle of his speech. Vince Gill and Prince also provided chuckles (Prince DOES have a sense of humor) with subtle knocks on Kanye and Sinatra, respectively.

    Everything else was just kind of standard and boring, honestly. I hereby pronounce a future ban on all Beatles tribute unless John and George come back from the dead. I hereby pronounce a moratorium on ANY performances of “No One” by Alicia Keys (who performed the same song on the VMAs in September and the AMAs in November). I fell asleep during the performance by Lang Lang and Herbie Hancock. Musical virtuosity is great, folks. Now try to give us some excitement, k?

    While it was nice to see The Time together, I grinned at the irony of the band playing the instruments on “Jungle Love”, a song that no Time member (except guitarist Jesse Johnson and Morris Day) played on individually. Not to mention the fact that I thought Morris and co-performer Rihanna had no chemistry whatsoever. Ditto for Beyonce and 69-year old Tina Turner, although Tina surprised me by performing with the energy of a woman 1/3 her age.

    My personal biggest offense was this. Since the Grammys appeared on tape delay here at West, I decided to fight temptation and not check any news sites for a winners list. Curiosity got the best of me and I finally broke down and went to cnn.com, where I saw a picture of Herbie Hancock’s grinning mug accompanied by the words “Album Of The Year”. Don’t get me wrong, I dig Herbie Hancock. Although I’ve only heard parts of the winning album, “River” (a Joni Mitchell tribute), I don’t think it’s bad. Besides, how can you be mad at someone who played with Miles Davis? Still, though, in light of excellent albums by West and Winehouse being nominated, the night’s major prize went to the height of fuddy-duddyness, highlighting a problem that’s been Grammy’s Achilles heel for as long as I can remember.

    If you want to bring this show into the 21st century and resonate with music listeners today, it might be time to stop making this show a back-slapping fest for record executives and older artists (especially in light of slumping music sales), and figure out some way to get the voting and nominating committees a little more in step with the times.

    I had high hopes for this show, but in the end, the Grammys turned out to be just another tired award show, and this year’s show was one of the most boring ones I’ve ever had the misfortune to watch.