We On Award Tour: 2013 Grammy Nominations

The Grammy’s hit primetime again to announce next year’s nominations, or at least to the categories that anyone cares about (you will have to hit the internet to see if you were nominated for Best Hawaiian Album) with some performances by artists not good enough to perform on the actual show (sorry Ne-Yo, no major nominations for you). Oddly one of the big four (Song of the Year) was relegated to search the internet. The big news this year is they unsegregated the categories by genre which did not favor male pop performers (all chicks), RnB or country chicks (only one nominated in each). Here are the categories that were televised:


Pop Vocal Album
Stronger – Kelly Clarkson
Ceremonials – Florence + the Machine
Some Nights – Fun.
Overexposed – Maroon 5
The Truth About Love – P!nk

Should Win: Some Nights
Will Win: Stronger
Should Have Been Nominate: Little Broken Hearts - Norah Jones – Norah Jones

Kind of a boring category, but pop has been boring lately so I guess it is apropos because I had a hard time think something else that deserve to be nominated, maybe Norah Jones who I do not think qualifies as pop anymore, or possibly Kimbra, but she did not have much success except for singing with Gotye.


Record of the Year
Lonely Boy – The Black Keys
Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You) – Kelly Clarkson
We Are Young – Fun featuring Janelle Monáe
Somebody That I Used to Know – Gotye featuring Kimbra
Thinkin Bout You – Frank Ocean
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together – Taylor Swift

Should Win: Lonely Boy
Will Win: Somebody That I Used to Know
Should Have Been Nominated: Ho Hey – The Lumineers

Just throw out Clarkson and Swift for being extremely cheesy and the final four is extremely competitive category, any of which are deserving of winning. The only way they could have made it tougher had they added the much deserved Ho Hey or Norah Jones Happy Pills.


Best New Artist
Alabama Shakes
Fun.
Hunter Hayes
The Lumineers
Frank Ocean

Should Win: The Lumineers
Will Win: Frank Ocean
Should Have Been Nominated: Gotye

Best New Artist is the only category that seems to have quotas so Hunter Hayes took the token country spot that should have gone to the more deserving Gotye who got the shaft because Fun. took the token pop slot probably because they were able to score a second hit (sorry teen girls, no love for the crappy Carly Rae Jepsen and / or One Direction). The big surprise was the inclusion on Alabama Shake who put out a good album but it was little listened to outside of rock critics. And since this is always the most shocking category, do not count them out.


Best Country Solo Performance
Home – Dierks Bentley
Springsteen – Eric Church
Cost of Livin' - Ronnie Dunn
Wanted – Hunter Hayes
Over – Blake Shelton
Blown Away – Carrie Underwood

Eh, do not care.


Album of the Year
El Camino – The Back Keys
Some Nights – Fun.
Babel – Mumford and Sons
Channel ORANGE – Frank Ocean
Blunderbuss – Jack White

Should Win: El Camino
Will Win: Babel
Should Have Been Nominated: Handwritten – The Gaslight Anthem

Over the last couple years the Grammy’s usually likes to throw in some crappy pop artist to make them seem cool (see Katy Perry) so it was shocking that they actually nominated five really good albums. Really any of them deserve to win, I think Mumford and Sons have a slight edge because they are the biggest artist right now not named Adele. But aparently rock is not dead with three of the five come from that genre, four if you count Fun. because they do play their own intraments.


If you go through all 100 plus categories, six artists tied with six nominees each: Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys (he also got nominated for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical along with all his band’s nominations), Frank Ocean, Fun, Mumford and Sons, while Jay-Z and Kanye West racked up all theirs in the not cool enough for prime time. You will have to head over to Grammy.com for the full list, but here is the other big catergory that was missing from the live telecast.


Song of the Year
The a Team - Ed Sheeran, songwriter (Ed Sheeran)
Adorn - Miguel Pimentel, songwriter (Miguel)
Call Me Maybe - Tavish Crowe, Carly Rae Jepsen & Josh Ramsay, songwriters (Carly Rae Jepsen)
Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You) - Jörgen Elofsson, David Gamson, Greg Kurstin & Ali Tamposi, songwriters (Kelly Clarkson)
We Are Young - Jack Antonoff, Jeff Bhasker, Andrew Dost & Nate Ruess, songwriters (Fun. featuring Janelle Monáe)

Should Win: We Are Young
Will Win: Stronger
Should Have Been Nominated: Anything but Call Me Maybe

I now understand why they did not televise this category: Call Me Maybe was nominated. Keep in mind this is a songwriter’s award. “I just met you, and this is crazy, so here's my number, call me maybe.” Seriously. You know there is something wrong when Kelly Clarkson quoting Nietzsche is not the most absurb nomintion for a songwriting award.

I Want My Music Television - 10/30/12

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.

Begin Again - Taylor Swift


Begin Again may just overtake Mine as the most Taylor Swift-y video Taylor has ever made. And I know women do not like wearin the same clothes more than once, but Taylor, it is perfectly okay if you wear that purple dress again and frequently. Actually come to think aqbout it, she may have already reused it because it kind of looks like the Speak Now cover dress.


Here Comes My Man - The Gaslight Anthem


It is clear that Elisha Cuthbert found the role of her career on Happy Endings where she plays a half wit whose charm is that she cannot take a joke because trying act serious again in the new Gaslight Anthem is not working.


Stubborn Love – The Lumineeers


Ho Hey is a great song, but a bit of a novelty because it cribs its chorus from Naughty by Nature (or so I assume), Stubborn Love shows that The Lumineers can still write a great song without novelty, just awesomeness. Also, “The opposite of love is indifference” may be the best lyric of 2012.


Let’s Go – Matt and Kim


When Matt and Kim released their first music video for Let Go, I was a bit disappointed because they always release creative videos and it only featured a dude dribbling a basketball. The new video is much more entertaining featuring ever cheesy family portrait that may or may not be taken by Ross Geller.

The Peter Bjorn and John Award for Catchiest Indie-Pop Song of the Summer of 2012

A couple days I heard some people discussing what the song of the summer was and depressingly they came up with Call Me Maybe and really there was not much of a debate. But that got me thinking about last summer when I made an off comment that The Naked and Famous would have won the Peter Bjorn and John Award for catchiest indie-pop song of the summer if it were not for Foster the People. Since the actually songs of the summer list would be boring, I thought I would make the Peter Bjorn and John Award (who may not invented catchy indie-pop, but certainly perfected it with Young Folks) a real thing. So without further ado, here are the top five catchiest indie-pop songs of the summer, some bonus picks, along with the official inaugural winner of The Peter Bjorn and John Award.

Honorable Mention: Call Me Maybe – The Roots, Jimmy Fallon, and Carly Rae Jepsen: Yeah, I just said I was disappointed that the original version is everything that was wrong about the summer of 2012 (severe droughts are what happens when you let a Canadian rule pop culture), but The Roots, along with some children toys, can make anything awesome. If you have not seen The Roots version, which is the only version worth listening to, check it out below:


Legacy Artist: Don't Leave Me (Ne me quitte pas) – Regina Spektor: No one does indie-pop better than Regina Specktor who dusted off one of her older songs and managed to make it weirder and better at the same time. Who else could make Paris the rain sound fun?

5. Bottom of the River– Delta Rae: A big year for folk this year with three songs on this list that could also be categorized in the genre. This song is just handclapping and footstompingly awesome.

4. Tongue Tied – Grouplove: Nothing like a good shout along chorus to get you in consideration for this award. Bonus points for the weird backwards video that went along with the song.

3. Warrior – Kimbra, Mark Foster and A-Trak: Yeah the chick from the Gotye song (which is not on the list because it was more of a winter / spring song and it is not really peppy enough) released her own album this year while you were trying to teach yourself the xylophone solo, this is the catchiest song from it with a little help from last year’s unofficial winner of the Peter Bjorn and John Award.

2. Little Talks – Of Monsters and Men: Whenever you encourage shouting, you are destined for this list. And music does not get more awesomely weird then when it comes from Iceland, where this sextet hails from. Horns are also a plus too.

1. Ho Hey – The Lumineers: But when it comes to shouting during the summer of 2012, no one will make you go hoarse faster than The Lumineers. The trio took a hip-hop phrase mainstay (I want to ignorantly believe this song was inspired by Naughty by Nature) and essentially turned into the percussion for the song. I dare you to try and listen to this song and not put it on repeat for the next hour or two.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 8/11/12

Quote of the Week: Life is cheap in prison, Vicente and I'm a very rich man. (J.R. – Dallas)

Song of the Week: God's Gonna Cut You Down – Johnny Cash (Dallas)

Scene of the Week:


Big News of the Week: Canada Blames: I played soccer all throughout my youth, was a referee in college and watch every American match in the World Cup, Olympics and other random friendlies, and I do not remember anyone call a goalie for holding the ball too long, seen a couple warnings (apparently the Canadian goalie was warned by the assistant referee previously), but never actually called. It is so prevalent that the networks usually aired replays while the goalies stroll around the box for a minute or two before getting rid of it. It is kind of like a travel in basketball where you have to take an extra step or five to get called (I had to laugh when Chris Paul actually got called for it not knowing NBA superstar rules do not apply in international basketball). For the record, the rule is six seconds and the goalie held it for over ten before the penalty was called. But it is silly for Canadians to complain because it is a rarely called foul because it would be telling a judge you should have not have to pay your jaywalking ticket because cops rarely write anyone up for it. And if that is not enough to keep you Cunucks from complaining, please watch the video of Melissa Tancredi stomping on Carli Lloyd’s head which went uncalled. It was poetic that the Americans ended up winning the gold medal on that very head of Lloyd.

Preview Picture of the Week:


Falling Skies: I have to wonder just how Pope knew of Maggie’s deep dark secret. Why exactly would she tell her former captor something like that if she did not want to share with someone else?
You can download Falling Skies on iTunes.

Weeds: It is a shame that Andy got himself a new show already on NBC this fall because I would have been up for an Andy and Doug, My Two Dads style spin off.

Pretty Little Liars: Did they really need to introduce yet another guy who looks just like every other guy? When Erza’s brother showed up on screen I was trying to figure out if that was the dude who ended up hosting the party or the one guy who was in the secret fight club. It turns out neither. Now usually when talking about Mr. Fitz(Gerald) I make a Better than Ezra reference, but instead suggest Aria take the advice of Steve Miller and take the money and run. That family is bad news.

But the big news was the introduction of The BetrAyal which will happen at the end of the season. Despite the stylization it is unclear if The BetrAyal will turn out to be “A”, just a member of “The A Team” or just a someone forced by “A” to betray the Liars, or just a random betrayal. ABC Family even set up a suspect tracker where Paige is currently in the lead with 34%. Conspicuously absent is my leading contender for the new A in Allison and my new favorite character CiCi. Since I am hoping that the BetrAyal is by one of the Liars, I am going to predict Aria will be doing the betraying. Her name does start with an A.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.


Free Download of the Week: Tracks from the Attic – The Lumineers (Noise Trade)

Deal of the Week: Hip-Hop Classics for 2.99: Amazon went for some classic rap albums for their deeply discounted albums this week including A Tribe Called Quest, Wu-Tang Clan, Dr. Dre, and Nas.


New Album Release of the Week: Just Tell Me That You Want Me - Tribute To Fleetwood Mac

New DVD Release of the Week: Shaft [Blu-ray]

Video of the Week: Wait, Coach Taylor helped kill Osama bin Laden? I guess that makes sense.


Next Week Pick of the Week: Boss, Friday at 9:00 on Starz: For the three of you that have Starz, the second season of Boss returns later this week. The first season was weirdly frantic and I could not turn away. For those that do not have Starz, t5he first season is available on Blu-ray and DVD, you can check out my review here: One Necessary Evil Leads to Another until One Day You Can’t Differentiate Between What’s Necessary and What’s Merely Expedient.