Monday, February 13, 2012
News Today's Music News: Reactions to Reactions to the Grammys
Posted by Jackson Hathorn on Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 11:33 AM
Reactions to Reactions to the Grammys: I worked most of last night, and the bar I went to after work had its three TVs devoted to The Walking Dead, so I missed the Grammys, which saw its largest television audience since 1984 (most likely due to people tuning in to see a Whitney Houston memorial. RIP Whitney). Here are my reactions to reactions to the Grammys:
Reading Tweets (Really Bums Me Out): Echoing last year's "Who the fuck are the Suburbs?" after Arcade Fire won Album of the Year, many people took to Twitter to ask "Who the fuck is Bonny Bear"? Clearly not everyone is familiar with Bon Iver (who took home Best New Artist, after refusing to perform at the ceremony with the Beach Boys, but remains totally fine with being in Bushmills ads. I never thought I could get annoyed with someone who makes his type of benign music, but Justin Vernon's acceptance speech "It's also hard to accept because you know, when I started to make songs I did it for the inherent reward of making songs" really irritated me. Just say "fuck the world" like Fiona Apple and get on with your life). And I hate to break it to you if you hadn't already lost faith in my generation, but apparently lots of young dolts have no idea who Paul McCartney is either. In even worse news, as Kelly O already pointed out, BuzzFeed complied a list of 25 women who said they would let Chris Brown beat them up.
Longer Than 140 Characters: If you'd like a longer read, there's already a write up on Line Out by Christopher Frizzelle, and another good one comes from New Yorker critic Sasha Frere-Jones, who calls Chris Brown a "woman-beating rage-broccoli."
Non-Grammy News: St. Vincent will be on a very special episode of Gossip Girl tonight! Stream new albums by Perfume Genius and Damien Jurado! Jay-Z and Kanye West (who won every rap category at the Grammys, but likely didn't attend the awards because My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was snubbed in Album of the Year category) have a video for Watch the Throne that could give you seizures. Finally, have you been listening to Cloud Nothings? Here's the video to my favorite song from the new album (with production from Steve Albini) that's been my most-played of 2012, and watch out for a March 6th date at the Crocodile.
http://www.pitchfork.com/news/45403-stre…
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Foo fighters - They seem to be at all the network TV music events that have a rock act. Is commercial rock so hard up for bands that the Grammys had to use them twice Sunday? Maybe so. Both their numbers were forgetable loud and noisey. With three guitarists you'd think we'd get a couple hot guitar licks, but it was mostly overdriven power chords and Grohl's shouting.
Except for a couple riffs by Coldplay's guitarist, there was no electric leads until McCartney's 6-way finale. There was Joe Walsh's acoustic work on Paul's new boring Valentine song, the only thing that saved it from complete drivel. But the finale was excellent.
A fair amount of crap music Sunday, like the outdoor dance/ electronica stuff by Dead Maus(?). Atleast they kept it outside, but it's just a matter of time before it's main stage, encroaching on rock's stage time,, and hopefully rap, which there seems to be less of at awards shows in recent years.
A little ironic that Grohl talked about the "human element" of making music being of importance, just singing into a mic and your instrument. "It's not about what goes on in a computer." Then his band is part of the electro-dance party and he's shown admiring the DJ with the big mouse head playing computer generated music(?)
I really liked the Beach Boys/Foster/Maroon segment. Brian and Love's lead vocals sounded good. Hard to tell about the original BBs' harmonies as there were so many voices on stage. Saw a few of Brian's players, including Jeff Foskett. Wonder how big their touring band will be. Cool to see David Marks as part of the band and Walsh and his wife doing some jitterbugging alongside Paul singing along.
75 yo Glen Campbell was having a good time, walking the stage, miking the near-stage group and saying "I've got a choir" a few times during Rhinestone Cowboy. He was sure chatty, asking "where do I go now?" and "I guess I'll go... and shut up". The Band Perry and Blake Shelton were good on Gentle On My Mind and Southern Nights.
Bruno Mars swinging song and ensemble dancing was as fun as Springsteen's opening performance and new song was gripping. Adele was fab. The devotion to Whitney Houston was about right. Lady Gaga --- the net a fisherman cut loose with her as by-catch was still stuck to her face. Chris Brown - decent gymnast. Alicia Keys with Bonnie Raitt were so-so. Katie Perry was dazzling. Taylor Swift and Coldplay were both very good, but why play the same songs they did at other awards shows. Minaj's exorcist thing was a real wtf’r.
I was rooting for the Fleet Foxes and Decemberists for best Rock Song and Performance. Nope, but The Decemberists did get a split second of screen time. Best new artist - Bon Iver? Haven't heard their albums but have seen them on TV and couldn’t decipher a word he sang. Nope, twenty years from now no one will be singing along with the Grammy singers on stage.
Photos of some of what I liked:
http://mtheads.yuku.com/topic/2364/The-G…
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