Music Review: Vampire Weekend, “Vampire Weekend” * * * *
Buzz started building around New York quarted Vampire Weekend two years ago, and a few key songs such as “Mansard Roof” and “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” crept into hipster consciousness via MySpace and two EPs, but that does not diminish the freshness of the band’s exhilarating debut. Combining Township Jive rhythms and a cultured, well-bred pop sense with hyper-literate lyrics, “Vampire Weekend” could reset the standards for indie cool.
The first impulse is to call this a love letter to Paul Simon’s “Graceland” — after all, the band even calls its sound “Upper West Side Soweto.” But there’s more to it than four smart kids shuffling through Dad’s old LPs. “Oxford Comma” places a lyric about complicated communication against an irresistible pop hook, while “M79” brings harpsichords and strings into the mix on a song about finding social bearing, sounding like it could be the great missing song from the “Royal Tenenbaums” sound track.
This doesn’t come across as strictly academic — Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig seems interested mainly in pairing great words with uncommonly arranged melodies. “One (Blake’s Got a New Face)” takes a funny lyric (“Oh, your collegiate grief has left you dowdy in sweatshirts, absolute horror”) and drives it home with purloined island rhythms and sunny chanting, yet nothing about it sound contrived or stretching sincerity. The key here is that Vampire Weekend taps into a kind of pop exoticism that few expected and probably even fewer requested. But now that the band is here, it’s hard to imagine not having them around.
Film Review: “Definitely, Maybe” * * * 1/2
Isla Fisher and Ryan Reynolds in “Definitely, Maybe.”
“Definitely, Maybe” is so smart and packed with the fine details of life, it seems an injustice to label it as a romantic comedy. If anything, writer-director Adam Brooks has created something more like a personal epic. Many things happen in “Definitely, Maybe,” and star Ryan Reynolds proves he can carry it all the way.
In the present day, Will Hayes (Reynolds) is a bored advertising executive who just received his divorce papers. It is his afternoon to pick up his precocious daughter Maya (Abigail Breslin), who has just had a difficult day at school and whose mind is full of questions. She wants to know about love, about all the women Will knew before he and her mother met and fell in love, and why it’s ending this way. She wants to hear the whole story.
Will changes all the names — he doesn’t want Maya to know who her mother is in the story until the end — and begins a sweeping tale of ambition and love set against ’90s politics. The key women in the story are college sweetheart Emily (Elizabeth Banks), her worldly ex-roommate Summer (Rachel Weisz) and April (Isla Fisher), a friend who is always there to open Will’s eyes but always out of reach romantically.
The emotional and dramatic arc of “Definitely, Maybe” is set against the political life of former President Bill Clinton; this is an effective device. Will begins his adult life as a Clinton volunteer in the 1992 election. His personal fortunes rise during the presidency and crash during the 1998-99 scandal. Along the way, Brooks has bolstered the action with nicely chosen musical timepieces from Nirvana, Stereo MCs, A3 and Belle & Sebastian that will resonate with people who came of age in Will’s time.
The real beauty of “Definitely, Maybe” is in the details. In what could have been a throwaway character, Kevin Kline is great as Summer’s boyfriend, Hampton Roth, a pompous, aging social ideologue who stirs up Will’s ambitions. The people around Will are unusually well-formed — few stock characters emerge around him.
At its core, this is a clever whodunit — Brooks feeds his script with abundant clues and red herrings — all leading to how Maya came into this world and why her father is not a happy man. Much like “Jane Eyre,” a novel that figures prominently in the plot, “Definitely, Maybe” is a story of self-development that follows Will from youth to maturity, carrying viewers through the twists that got him there.
But even among a first-rate cast, the big surprise is Reynolds, a gifted actor who previously has been starved for good material. In “Definitely, Maybe,” Reynolds has great female foils across the board, from Breslin to Fisher, but he must do the heavy lifting in this film, and he succeeds. “Definitely, Maybe” could be the film that finally kicks off Reynolds’ serious movie career, and given the richness of the story, he could not have chosen better.
Welcome to Staticblog’s Live Blog of the 50th Annual Grammy Awards
7:00 p.m. Okay, so welcome to Staticblog’s coverage of the Grammys, live from my bed. This kind of reckless behavior on my part is what you call dedication to craft and reporting. But the first thing we see is Alicia Keys, looking stunning, duetting with Frank Sinatra on “Learnin’ the Blues,” and for Natalie Cole-type constructions, this isn’t bad. But is it necessary? Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Still, Alicia brings class when Celine would only bring crass.
7:04 p.m. Carrie Underwood performs “Before He Cheats” with Stomp! (their exclamation point, not mine) creating a sort of odd ’80s industrial underpinning, like somebody decided to mash up Some Hearts with an old KMFDM album.
7:08 p.m. Prince announces:
FEMALE R&B VOCAL PERFORMANCE
”Just Fine,” Mary J. Blige
”When I See You,” Fantasia
”No One,” Alicia Keys
”If I Have My Way,” Chrisette Michele
”Hate On Me,” Jill Scott
And the winner is:
Alicia Keys — who else? Would you vote against her? This is likely to be a big night for Keys, since she’s one of the few sustaining stars currently on the charts. The sad part is that even though her disc is currently No. 1, it only sold 61,000 copies this week. As the good folks at The Business mentioned recently, that’s in a nation of 300 million people. Sad.
7:17 p.m. Jimmy Jam, chair of NARAS, kicks off the friggin’ Time! Morris Day, Jerome Benton, O-EE-O-EE-O. There’s not a thing wrong with this, though from what mad dream did this spring? And now they’re backing up Rihanna on “Umbrella.” Yes, this is mad mash-up night, but in this case it works fairly great. Rihanna might not be a great singer, but she would have made an awesome robo-funk starlet in the Prince constellation. She’s even got the Sheena Easton hair to prove it.
7:24 p.m. Tom Hanks awards The Band the lifetime achievement award. The only member they show in the audience is Robbie Robertson, which probably won’t make relations get any better between him and Levon Helm. Then, Hanks introduces the tribute to…
The Beatles. Cirque du Soleil is performing to “A Day in the Life.” This is pretty remarkable stuff, and Staticblog friends Matt and Kevin say it’s extraordinary live — brings tears to your eyes.
7:31 p.m. But then comes the cast of the execrable “Across the Universe” singing “Let it Be,” which only brings tears to my eyes because I have to sit through it. Okay, it’s not the worst thing about that film. At least it’s not a bunch of people standing around a closet singing to a dejected, sexually confused ex-Midwestern cheerleader, ”Dear Prudence, won’t you come out to play?”
7:34 p.m. Miley Cyrus and Cyndi Lauper announce…
NEW ARTIST
Feist
Ledisi
Paramore
Taylor Swift
Amy Winehouse
And the winner is…
Wino, who isn’t there, but will be “performing” via satellite later in the program. I hope she surprises everyone and is sober and amazing, but I also hope to be get a six-figure publishing deal next week.
7:35 p.m. The coolest man in the world, Jason Bateman, is outside Staples Center, talking about the latest My Grammy Moment hoopla, in which an instrumental accompanist competes to perform later in the show with Foo Fighters and an orchestra conducted by John Paul Jones — “from Led Zeppelin — for the morons.” Jason, you have to realize that half the population still spells it “Led Zepplin,” so knowing who played bass, keyboards and did most of the band’s orchestration is like Final Jeopardy for those people.
7:45 p.m. Kanye West is playing in Daft Punk’s house. And there they are in the pyramid. This truly is one of the best visual conceits of any techno act — with full neon outlines for their spacesuits, they look like Jeff Bridges in “Tron.” Nice and inspired. Then he sings “Hey Mama,” and he does it “Eleanor Rigby” style — string quartet and nothing else. West’s singing voice is developing well, and this was a truly heartfelt performance after a visual showstopper.
7:52 p.m. But then why is Fergie singing with John Legend? The melisma monster simply doesn’t have what it takes to share a stage with Legend, and then he just plays the piano and doesn’t sing a note. Travesty, I say. Then they announce …
COMPILATION SOUNDTRACK ALBUM FOR A MOTION PICTURE, TELEVISION, OR OTHER VISUAL MEDIA
Across The Universe, Various Artists
Dreamgirls, Various Artists
Hairspray, Various Arists
Love, The Beatles
Once, Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová
And the winner is…
George and Giles Martin for Love. Sure, there is a lot of love for Once, but I still put on Love and cannot get over how well they took this material and made it sound so immediate and fresh when I thought I had heard everything I could in The Beatles’ music.
8 p.m. Was that Moby in an ad for E-Trade? Or just one of his many, many doppelgangers on the NYSE trading floor?
8:03 p.m. “The one and only Cher” introduces Beyonce, who launches into a pretty cool rundown of famous African-American singers, culminating in a performance by Tina Turner that is surprising on at least a few counts. First of all, I haven’t heard anything from her in years — thought she was completely retired to Switzerland, and was no longer pursuing any visibility in the U.S. She seemed to be done with us.
But then she comes out on stage, and at age 69, she knocks it out. She performed two songs from Private Dancer, “What’s Love Got to Do With It” and “Better Be Good To Me,” but then she brings Beyonce back out and the two women just completely rock the hell out of “Proud Mary.” Beyonce doesn’t exactly hold her own against Tina, but how is that even possible?
8:14 p.m. Nelly Furtado and Andy “Straight Outta Branson” Williams present a lifetime achievement award to Burt Bacharach — where is Costello when you need him? Then they announce …
SONG OF THE YEAR
”Before He Cheats,” Josh Kear & Chris Tompkins, songwriters (Carrie Underwood)
”Hey There Delilah,” Tom Higgenson, songwriter (Plain White T’s)
”Like A Star,” Corinne Bailey Rae, songwriter (Corinne Bailey Rae)
”Rehab,” Amy Winehouse, songwriter (Amy Winehouse)
”Umbrella,” Shawn Carter, Kuk Harrell, Terius “Dream” Nash & Christopher Stewart, songwriters (Rihanna Featuring Jay-Z)
And the winner is…
Amy Winehouse. She’s cleaning up tonight. I hope she’s cleaned up tonight.
8:18 p.m. CBS runs an ad for its reruns of Showtime’s ”Dexter” that completely glosses the fact that the central character is a serial killer. They must be editing the hell out this thing.
8:24 p.m. Violinist Ann Marie Calhoun wins the right to accompany Foo Fighters and John Paul Jones. As Patton Oswalt would say, “Write her name in the sky with gossamer teardrops!”
8:26 p.m. “The Pretender” sounds so much better with Jones giving it the full “Kashmir” orchestral blast.
8:33 p.m. Brad Paisley sings “Ticks,” and for Staticblog readers who don’t listen to country, the pivotal line here is “I wanna check you for ticks.” This guy has always exhibited a great sense of humor, but after hearing this song, I might actually be a fan. No wonder Ben Folds and William Shatner had him on Has Been.
8:38 p.m. Solange Knowles, Chris Brown and Akon announce Best Rap Album. I’m ticking away the minutes on Akon’s 15-minute clock. Roger Troutman had more soul in his mouthpiece than Akon has in his entire Vocoder. Look it up, kids…
RAP ALBUM
Finding Forever, Common
Kingdom Come, Jay-Z
Hip Hop Is Dead, Nas
T.I. vs T.I.P., T.I.
Graduation, Kanye West
And the winner is…
Kanye. This is probably the greatest acceptance speech he’s given, mainly because he pressured the orchestra to pipe down so he could thank his mother. I’ll support anyone who can fight back against being played off and do it with such skill: “It would be in good taste to stop the music then,” he said after starting to thank her. They stopped, the audience cheered. Somehow, these shows need to find a better way of pushing people off the stage than this old ploy.
8:42 p.m. Ludacris pays tribute to lifetime achievement winner Cab Calloway, then leads into a gospel medley with performances by BeBe Winans and Aretha Franklin. As usual, Aretha was astounding. And she was great with Calloway in “The Blues Brothers,” which is my way of saying I’m a pasty suburban kid.
8:56 p.m. Dierks Bentley and Carole King announce the lifetime achievement award for Earl Scruggs before introducing …
Feist doing “1, 2, 3, 4,” which she give a great ramshackle acoustic-and-horn arrangement, marred only slightly by unintentional feedback at the end.
9 p.m. So, Keely Smith, Louis Prima’s old vocal foil, sings “That Old Black Magic” with Kid Rock, who doesn’t seem to really care what he’s doing. Oddly, that makes the whole, strange mess more appealing, since everything the man usually does seems calculated down to the milisecond. Then, they announce Best Rock Album, and the award goes to …
Foos. And yes, Kev, it is nice to see Pat Smear up there with them. Personally, I don’t think they’ve been the same without him all these years. Everybody could use some Germs.
9:11 p.m. Stevie Wonder gives a lifetime achievement award to Berry Gordy. That seems like someone they should have already honored. Then he introduces …
Alicia Keys doing “No One,” which she does with John Mayer doing some unwarranted blue-rock riff-o-rama, which doesn’t really mesh with the song. I was loving it up to that point. Mayer’s not a bad guy, but he can be used to better effect, like Common did with “Go.” Which is exactly the word I said when he started doing his SRV routine just now.
9:18 p.m. In a completely incongrous move — I mean, he did record a Buck Owens song, but seriously — Ringo Starr and Dave Stewart announce …
COUNTRY ALBUM
Long Trip Alone, Dierks Bentley
These Days, Vince Gill
Let It Go, Tim McGraw
5th Gear, Brad Paisley
It Just Comes Natural, George Strait
And the winner is…
Vince. “I just got an award given to me by a Beatle. Have you had that happen yet, Kanye?” Funniest line of the night. Kanye’s getting in touch with Sir Paul as we speak.
9:25 p.m. Joe Mantegna (CBS really pulled that one out, but the network’s been unusually light on pushing its repertory players tonight) announces lifetime achievements for Max Roach and Itzhak Perlman. Then he introduces Lang Lang (not really related) and Herbie Hancock playing Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” which is pretty damn amazing. Herbie’s been everywhere lately, and he’s up for Album of the Year, but even in a strange year like this one, it’s a long shot.
9:33 p.m. Juanes and Taylor Swift announce Best Rap/Sung Collaboration — which doesn’t seem grammatically correct. The winner is…
Rhianna feat. Jay-Z, “Umbrella.” And according to Sean Carter, “She’d like to thank Jigga Man for being the greatest in the world.” Hova, let the woman have her moment, why don’t you?
9:41 p.m. “Daddy Day Camp” star Cuba Gooding Jr. introduces the Winehouse live from London. And perhaps you can just chalk this one up to the lowest of low expectations, but she rose to the occasion when she needed to really pull off a good performance.
She’s still a little wobbly, and not performing at the level she was when “Back to Black” first came out, but this medley of “You Know That I’m No Good” and “Rehab” came off strong, especially when she vamped it up at the end. Long Live Wino!
9:47 p.m. Tony Bennett and Natalie Cole, who was probably trying to figure out why she wasn’t allowed to do the Frank duet at the top of the show, give Doris Day the lifetimer. Then they announce…
RECORD OF THE YEAR
”Irreplaceable,” Beyoncé
”The Pretender,” Foo Fighters
”Umbrella,” Rihanna Featuring Jay-Z
”What Goes Around…Comes Around,” Justin Timberlake
”Rehab,” Amy Winehouse
And the Wino is…
Amy, and after all the playing up by the announcers as “the performance you’ve all been waiting for,” it would have been a real downer, so to speak, if she hadn’t won. She looked stunned and started hugging everyone when she heard it, and dedicated it to her “Blake, incarcerated” and to London. The award seems like a move to keep her going, and that’s fine. I’m definitely not in the camp with the shameful schadenfreude addicts who only want to see more disasters from Amy Winehouse. The woman has great talent, and I don’t just want to hear another album from her. I want to hear a sixth album from her.
9:57 p.m. President of NARAS Neil Portnow does the annual time waster. Lights growing dim. Grammy Museum… Brrrrrrrrr…. Snnnnnn….
9:59 p.m. Portnow says, “Please welcome, Eldar”? Great piano playing, but with that name, I was expecting him to saw a lady in half.
10 p.m. Bring out yer dead. Pimp-C, we hardly knew ye. Oh, and Ike Turner. Thankfully, no cutaways to Tina.
10:03 p.m. Andrea Bocelli pays tribute to Luciano Pavarotti by singing a duet with … Josh Groban? Bocelli is a singer of great subtlety and power. In contrast, Groban seems to only know one level — that which keeps the ships from dashing themselves against the rocky shores. It was like hearing a Stradivarius and a kazoo fighting for space.
10:13 p.m. Bonnie Raitt introduces Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard playing with John Fogerty. The swamp thing sounded just like he does on KRXO every day — I think I heard my lifetime fill of CCR about 25 years ago. But man, Jerry Lee looked and sounded frail. He gets points for making it as long as he has, but man he was rough. In contrast, Little Richard is just as great and crazy as he’s always been. Wooooo!
10:24 p.m. Will.I.Am. does a deeply stupid medley of past winners before Usher Raymond and Quincy Jones announce Album of the Year. And then I get to eat crow quite happily…
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, Foo Fighters
These Days, Vince Gill
River: The Joni Letters, Herbie Hancock
Graduation, Kanye West
Back To Black, Amy Winehouse
The winner is…
Herbie Hancock. Yes, as he said, Grammy was “courageously breaking the mold this time.” Wow and wow.
Well, that was a lovely three hours plus. As I’m certain you know, I desperately need to fall down right about now. In the tradition of Murrow and Olberman, good night and good luck.
Power Up Your Laptops, WGA!
A tentative deal was announced last night at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium between the Writer’s Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Negotiators are expected to sign off on the the agreement today, and then, according to EW.com, a finalized deal would be hammered out over the next 48 hours which would put the writers back to work.
In the Staticblog world view, the writers are getting something in line with their peers in other segments of the entertainment industry: they will receive residual payments for their content when it is made available online. From the beginning, my contention has been that script writers should get a deal roughly analogous to what songwriters have gotten for decades whenever their songs are played on the radio. The medium may be different, but the situation is the same.
Now, let’s spit out some more episodes of “Lost” and “The Office.”
Live Blogging the Grammys and Other Feats of Strength
Beginning at 7 p.m. tonight, I will be live blogging the 50th Annual Grammy Awards, which will be broadcast live on CBS. I’ll be offering frequent updates on winners and commentary on the various personal victories and plotzing that takes place at these events, and will certainly be hoping that the Winehouse stays suitably corked during her performance.
I’m taking the rare opportunity to make some personal comments, mainly to shed light on how technology makes it possible for something like tonight’s live blog session to happen when, just a few years ago, it might have been impossible or too cumbersome to undertake. Two weeks ago, I had some outpatient surgery that, while minor in terms of surgical speed, has a difficult recovery. Then, to compound the problem on Thursday, I caught the virus that nearly everyone has right now, some kind of monster flu that reduces everyone to quivering masses. By Friday, I wondered if I would even be able to make the live blog happen, and NewsOK stopped promoting the event.
But, thanks to antibiotics, wi-fi, and the ever-increasing portability of technology, I am able to do this live blog tonight with a great assist from TiVo, which will help me get the quotes just right and manage my time codes. Even a couple of years ago, I would have had to schlep over to my home office, move a TV in there and try to approximate real time reporting while not feeling exactly peak. And without the current level of tech, there is no way I would have filed as many stories, reviews and posts as I have in the last two weeks, many of them from a decidedly horizontal position.
Generally, I’m not in favor of publicly whining about my personal situation — I like to keep it all about music, TV, film and affiliated trash, and I’m always mindful that everyone has their individual struggle. But, sometimes you want people to understand that you’re not just slacking when you miss a couple of days of blog entries. At any rate, join me tonight for this Grammy mess — we’ll have great fun hurling snark with abandon and bestowing laurels as needed or demanded — and when I say “demanded,” I mean that in reference to whether Graduation wins in the major categories.
I mean, seriously, Mr. West, keep it together.
See you tonight,
George
“Rainbow” Around SXSW
Spectacular news alert: Rainbow Around the Sun, the semi-autobiographical musical starring Staticblog friend Matthew Brown of the Fellowship Students and directed by Staticblog friends Kevin Ely and Beau Leland, will debut at the South By Southwest Film Festival, March 7-15 in Austin.
Fair warning and full disclosure: if you look at the trailer, you’re likely to see the pasty visage of this blogger for a few seconds, doing his Kurt Loder shtick. Beyond that, I’m certain it’s a masterpiece. Kevin, let’s set up a screening post haste!
Congratulations to everyone involved — the critics will be raving.
Music Review: Hot Chip, “Made in the Dark” (EMI) * * * 1/2
On its full-length debut, 2005’s “Coming on Strong,” the snide London electro-rock band Hot Chip were dealing in sparse arrangements and funny in-jokes — the scathing “Down With Prince” came out just as alt-rock bands such as Spoon started emulating the Purple One. But with each new release, Hot Chip has beefed up its sound and written better melodies, and “Made in the Dark” sounds like Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard’s bid for greatness.
At first, “Made in the Dark” sounds like a prickly affair: “Out at the Pictures” and “Shake a Fist” are dragged down by abrasive organ sounds and cacophony. But like 2006’s “And I Was a Boy from School,” “Ready for the Floor” is one of those stellar fantasy tracks that begs the question: what if Paul McCartney collaborated with New Order?
Hot Chip could be angling for a hit here: “We’re Looking for a Lot of Love,” with its gauzy, 10cc-style harmonies, is just warm and snuggly enough to qualify for a Valentine’s Day mix tape, as is the gorgeous, gospel-tinged title track. But as one might expect from a band heavily influenced by Ween, Hot Chip revels in its range, rocking out on “One Pure Thought,” hitting the Afro beat on “Hold On,” and aping Timbaland on the beat-down anthem, “The Wrestler.” And you have to love a band that refers to “Willie Nelson” as a wrestling move.
Music Review: MGMT, “Oracular Spectacular” (Columbia) * * * 1/2
From its first few seconds, MGMT’s “Oracular Spectacular” boasts both the comfort of the familiar and the shock of the new. Producer Dave Fridmann’s signature grandeur booms out of the speakers on “Time to Pretend,” a propulsive dance-rock explosion that begins with decadent Hollywood plans that quickly fall by the wayside when Andrew Van Wyngarden and Ben Goldwasser opt for simple pleasures. “Oracular Spectacular” is filled with such pleasures: batty lyrics and straight-from-heaven melodies arrive on cue as MGMT finds a cushy middle ground between futuristic psychedelia, whacked-out disco and the experimental hinterlands of classic rock.
Given Fridmann’s involvement, a Flaming Lips comparison might seem too easy. In fact, MGMT’s big, bright and beautiful noise closely resembles a freshened-up Mercury Rev — tanned, rested and ready to get down. “Electric Feel” is an immediate favorite, a gloriously throbbing disco anthem that the Brothers Johnson would have begged to record, but only if they’d spent the previous week freaked out of their gourds at Burning Man.
But MGMT is equally adept at more down-to-earth styles, which is evident on the spacious psych-folk of “Pieces of What?” and “Of Moons, Birds and Monsters,” which could be a lost Zombies track. Fridmann gives “Oracular Spectacular” all the requisite spacey embellishment it deserves, and when a band is making music this off-kilter and gorgeous, it only makes sense that the wizard of Tarbox Road Studios would get his hands in it.
Hacking Away at Smoke-Filled Rooms
The Oklahoma Alliance on Health or Tobacco (yes, that’s a strange or, but whatever) will be holding a press conference to support SB 1875, which would eliminate current exemptions that allow smoking to continue in some public establishments, including bars and smoking rooms in restaurants. SB 1875 is authored by Sen. David Myers (R-Ponca City).
The press conference is scheduled for 3 p.m. Wednesday at VZD’s, 4200 N Western, and local, presumably tobacco-free musicians will perform following the press conference. Definitely not a black lung affair.
I know a lot of smoky friends of Staticblog will be hating this, but passage of these laws are as inevitable as the sunrise or sunset — just ask your friends living on the coasts. It’s also inevitable, ahem (cough-cough), that certain establishments that have not benefited from the exemptions might be pushing really, really hard to level the playing field. Right? Right?
I kid my neighborhood bar because I love my neighborhood bar.
Grammy Awards Live Blog and the Best New Artist Category
This is your first warning: at 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10, I will be live-blogging the 50th Annual Grammy Awards, analyzing the reasons for each win, critiquing live performances and being that cranky guy that shows up at every awards show watch party, except you don’t have to feed me beer and chips and I go home without having to be told.
I encourage all regular and new readers to chime in with comments during the event — we’ll make it a town hall meeting that has nothing to do with war or the cost of health care. After all, the Grammys are about many things, but “change” isn’t one of them.
The big question being bandied in the entertainment press is whether Wino wins Best New Artist. EW is suggesting that country singer Taylor Swift might pull an upset, mainly because she can be reasonably expected not to vomit on anything.
But my position is that Best New Artist is the absolute last Grammy that anyone would want.
The track record is atrocious for people who win this thing – it’s career death. I think most of the winners end up on an island with Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly and are never heard from again, so if you’re against the mainstreaming of your favorite indie act and consequently you’re sick of Feist, root for her to collect a gramophone this year.
And its nominees (and, occasionally, winners) have often been recording for years before some yutz at NARAS finally notices them. Again, Leslie Feist released her first disc nine years ago. Wino put out Frank in 2003, Ledisi released her debut in 2001, and Paramore’s first disc came out in 2005, but who’s counting? Well, no one at NARAS. As far as I can tell, Taylor Swift might be the only one who is genuinely qualified to win this thing.
The noms for Best New Artist are:
Amy Winehouse
Paramore
Ledisi
Taylor Swift
Feist
