The real Grammy drama: even scarier than that Joe Jonas-Taylor Swift reunion
And yeah, I had no idea until the show was over about the Chris Brown scandal. What I get for watching WKRP instead of the red carpet coverage, and paying more attention to the pre-ceremony winners list than the actual news during commercial breaks. But apparently, Chris Brown is being held on $50,000 bail in a felony assualt investigation. That cost him a Grammy performance, and his (hopefully ex) girlfriend Rihanna likewise bowed out. Their slot was filled by the Al Green-Justin Timberlake-Keith Urban performance, which explains their respective ubiquities on the show, and proves my theory that Timberlake is a day-saving pop-culture superhero. Rihanna, rumored to be the victim of Brown’s assault (not officially confirmed), was slated to perform at least a portion of “Live Your Life,” as my comments during “Dead and Gone” had wished. But thanks to Chris Brown’s aggressive hands (allegedly, natch), no such luck. Full story here, and I’m sure all along the blogopshere.
Adventures in liveblogging: The 51st Annual Grammy Awards
So I’ve never done a live blog before, but having read those of blogs and publications with vastly wider audiences (including many real-time readers) than this one, it always looked like an enjoyable way to spice up special cultural events, specifically awards show. And so begins a grand experiment, one that will test my wits, my blog savvy and my blind typing skills. And hopefully produce a handful of worthwhile observations (and I’m sure a fair share of trite comments) in the process. At the very least, we’ll see how many of the previous post’s eight predictions come true.
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Dwelling on 2008 part 1: Predicting the preposterous Grammys
Some people, Dave Karger and Tom O’Neil come immediately to mind, have established entire careers predicting the Oscars. Because it’s a miniature industry, the Oscars are the easiest awards show to predict; the far less organized (and prestigious) major awards—the Emmys and the Grammys—are a lot tougher to handicap. However, that has never stopped me from making a valiant and often humiliating effort. So, to kick off my ever-delayed 2008 wrap-up (which, at this rate, should actually wrap up some time in July), here are my semi-informed (hey, I’ve intently followed the Grammys for twenty years), totally under-the-wire (this will be irrelevant in 24 hours) thoughts on eight key races: the big four, Alternative, Producer and two more that caught my ever vigilant eye. In other words, they looked intriguing, though not intriguing enough to actually be presented on the show, I’m sure.
PRODUCER OF THE YEAR (NON-CLASSICAL)
Danger Mouse
Nigel Godrich
Johnny K
Rick Rubin
will.i.am
An arbitrary list as usual, as none of these guys had particularly fantastic 2008 track records. Johnny K is your average corporate-rock knob twiddler, responsible for making Staind and 3 Doors Down sound even more sterile. Wins for Godrich or Danger Mouse would be as retroactive as Al Pacino’s Oscar, as neither had a remarkable 2008: Godrich did In Rainbows and little else, and Danger Mouse spent Modern Guilt and The Odd Couple on autopilot, leaving Beck and Cee-Lo to upstage him. Rubin helped Metallica return to relevance (less so for Weezer and Jakob Dylan). But, on the strength of “American Boy” and (let’s admit it) his incessant, occasionally holographic Obama campaigning, will.i.am will claim this one. Of these five, his profile was the highest in 2008, and that’s usually enough to snatch the Producer of the Year Grammy.
TV on the Radio won Pazz + Jop…last week!
This year's Pazz + Jop cover
Pazz and Jop results were posted a whole week ago, and are thus old news in the blogosphere. But this here blog will be launching its best-of-2008 feature in February 2009, for reasons as diffuse as I’ve been sick for half of January, or I have a job and a life to maintain, or I have actual deadlines to meet, or it’s my fucking tiny pocket of the web and I can do whatever the fuck I want with it. Besides, the Internet makes history immediate, and as long as Christgau’s comprehensive website is running, Pazz & Jop (now Pazz + Jop, apparently), the Village Voice’s annual music critic’s poll, offers a historical snapshot of the year just past. Like most historical snapshots dictated by the whims of a small, fairly insular group, P&J can be infuriating and baffling, but the attempts of rock-criterati to make sense, even achieve consensus, of music-in-whatever-year is reliably enthralling.
Rock Hall to Gen Y: Your music doesn’t matter yet!
If there’s a mustier-than-usual odor emanating from Cleveland this April, it just might be the 2009 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees. In keeping with recent patterns and eroding relevance, the 2009 class enshrines two freshly eligible no-brainers (Metallica and Run-DMC) alongside three great-but-not-groundbreaking oldies/classic rock acts (Jeff Beck, Little Anthony and the Imperials, Bobby Womack), acts whose talent is far less debatable than their influence. Despite exceeding three of the five inductees in most forms of measurable importance, The Stooges (passed over for the seventh time, worsening an already shitty New Year), Chic (rejected for the fifth go-round) and first-time nominees War were all snubbed. Furthermore, Wanda Jackson, though initially nominated as a Performer, was appropriately if suspiciously, inducted under the Early Influence banner. (She blazed more trails for women in rock than she did for rock itself.) Three seminal sidemen were also inducted: Spooner Oldham, and Elvis Presley’s Blue Moon Boys—bassist Bill Black and drummer D.J. Fontana.
