Tag: "GRAMMY Awards"

Didn’t listen to the radio over the past year? You’re not alone. Terrestrial radio listenership has been declining steadily. Listeners turn more to Internet radio, which is usually tailored to the listener’s specific tastes. Thus they don’t get the kind of broad-spectrum popular music survey represented at the Grammy Awards.

If you are among those who need (and, importantly, want) a crash course on what’s popular in music right now, Spotify has made a playlist of winners from last night’s ceremony. Check it out here.

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• 55th Annual Grammy Awards Recap
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The Grammys are a funny thing. On one hand, the awards have been long derided as out-of-touch, self-congratulatory celebration of mediocrity and irrelevancy. On the other hand, the Grammys remains the standard-bearer of the very top of the music world. An award means sales and attention for winning artists. Just ask Milli Vanilli. Oh, I kid the Grammys.

See full list of winners below.

Last night hammered home that the awards ceremony can also do glitz, glamour, and the good life like the Oscars. Jay-Z (Best Rap Performance, Song, and Collaboration) sipped cognac in the front row, seeming to anoint pop stars with his approbation, rubbing elbows with Mrs. Timberlake, and generally holding court. The beautiful people were out in force, looking beautiful, mostly adhering to the controversial dress code…even if some of the winners were a little more rag-tag.

Mumford & Sons (Album of the Year and Long Form Music Video) had a good showing with two wins, bringing, along with The Lumineers, a new wave of folkpop to the masses. When will we ever again see a Grammys featuring two separate performances with the stand-up kick drum stomp?

Fun. (Song of the Year and Best New Artist) also had a big night, literally making it rain inside the theater. I know not what additional sorcery these men are capable of – but it must have taken some kind of black magic to win Best New Artist moments after announcing that they’d been doing this for 12 years.

Another big winner was Dan Auerbach (Producer of the Year) and his band The Black Keys (Best Rock Song and Rock Performance), who represented quality rock and roll for the ceremony. Their performance of “Lonely Boy” with Dr. John and The Preservation Hall Jazz Band was a beautiful match.

And Justin Timberlake – let’s admit it, the guy has the world on a string. A gifted performer, funny, and a seemingly nice guy, who has made some really good pop music, JT can do whatever he wants now, including duet with Jay-Z before easing into a faux-big band number. The sepia tint was too much, ABC. Let the man’s classic style speak for itself. In the end, though, there’s just something that keeps Timberlake from being truly great – and it’s his voice. I’m not saying the dude can’t sing, I’m just saying that he’s still got the N’Sync voice. It has no…gravitas. I bet he’s not sweating my critique though.

Other thoughts…

That Frank Ocean (Best Urban Contemporary Album and Rap Collaboration) performance was weird, right? I mean, bad-weird. Do what you want, Frank, we’re here for you, but you’ve gotta stay in tune.

Sting’s price to show up and play with you is apparently no higher than just being asked, so there he was with Bruno Mars, and, man, it was pretty good. “Walking On The Moon” was a great choice, and I’m glad he was rocking the bass.

And you may be sick of it, or it may never have been your kind of thing, but if you try to tell me that “Somebody That I Used To Know” is not a killer track, you are a liar and probably a jerk. What the world needed now was a Human League for the next generation, and Gotye and Kimbra (Best Pop Duo/Group Performance) gave it to us. Very nice and appropriate nods to Prince from both of them.

The Levon Helm tribute performance of “The Weight” was nice, with standout performances by Mavis Staples (who memorably sang the song with Helm in The Band’s film The Last Waltz) and Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard. Too bad Elton John was just taking a song-length piano solo all over the damn thing.

Oh hey, Taylor Swift wants you to know that she’s the world’s biggest music fan, ok? Did you see her? With the arms up and the singing? She knows the songs, ok?

And finally, if anyone needs to tie a hobo bindle on the end of a stick, just follow Johnny Depp for a few minutes. He has bandannas falling off of him.

Full winners list after the jump…

Continue reading ’55th Annual Grammy Awards Recap’

It’s officially awards season. Sure, it can be an obnoxiously gratuitous, self-congratulatory time, but there’s always a little entertaining drama to keep things interesting. Then, of course, there are the performances to look forward to. And now, music enthusiasts, the first batch of performers for the Grammy Awards have made the rounds.

Among this year’s Grammy performers will be first timers The Black Keys and fun., along with Taylor Swift, Mumford & Sons, and Rihanna. All these performers are nominated in various categories, including fun., Mumford & Sons and the Black Keys competing for Album of the Year.

View the full list of nominees right here and don’t forget to tune in as LL Cool J returns to host the 55th Annual Grammy Awards live at 8p.m. EST Sunday, February 10th on CBS.

If you like Mumford & Sons check out OurStage artist Kory Murphy.

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You know the end of the year is fast approaching when the nominees for 2013 awards shows begin being announced.

The nominees for the 55th Annual Grammy Awards Nominations were announced earlier today, and in a surprising twist of historical fate the powers that be actually chose quite a few young acts for the competition. You can view the full list of nominees below.

The 55th Annual Grammy Awards will air live on February 10 from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA.

Album Of The Year:
“El Camino” — The Black Keys
“Some Nights” — FUN.
“Babel” — Mumford & Sons
“Channel Orange” — Frank Ocean
“Blunderbuss” — Jack White

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 Continue reading ’55th Annual Grammy Awards Nominations’

Lucinda Williams was already a multi-GRAMMY Award-winning singer songwriter in 2009 when she married music industry insider Tom Overby on stage at her Minneapolis concert prior to her .

But finding the man she calls “my best friend, my soul mate,” actually bumped her artistry up even more levels. You’ll hear that on her GRAMMY Award- nominated album Blessed and perhaps even more so in her live performances, especially when she performs songs she has just written and will soon record. At a recent sold-out show at the Birchmere Music Hall in Alexandria, Va., just outside of Washington, D.C., Williams did the near impossible. She and her musical partner for the evening, virtuoso guitarist Doug Pettibone, performed a two-hour show before a packed room that had the intimacy of a house concert. Continue reading ‘Your Country’s Right Here: Lucinda Williams’ New Music Shines Bright’

Even months after Amy Ray released her latest solo project Lung of Love, it is difficult to listen to it and not hear nuances that weren’t apparent earlier.

Like some of the best movies that need repeated viewings before you begin to grasp the full intent of the filmmakers, Lung of Love is filled with such subtle variegation that repeated listening is a joy. Perhaps some of that variation can be credited to Ray, half of the internationally renowned GRAMMY Award-winning folk duo the Indigo Girls, taking inspiration for the array of artists she enjoys.

“I love all the different kinds of music,” said Ray. “I listen [to] Josh Ritter and Patti Smith and a lot of funky stuff. I always go back to that for inspiration. There is so much good stuff, it’s hard to name it all.”

The same, of course, can be said for Ray’s music both in her Indigo Girls’ partnership with Emily Saliers and as a solo artist. On this album, Ray stepped out of her comfort zone—she and Saliers write alone for the Indigo Girls—and co-wrote four songs on this album with producer Greg Griffith.

Continue reading ‘Your Country’s Right Here: “Lung of Love” Tour is Amy Ray’s Labor of Love’

Let’s face it, sometimes the past should stay dead. But when an awesome artist fades from popularity, their fans later wonder, “Where are they now?”  You may not know it, but many artists you’ve loved in the past are still hard at work writing new albums or preparing to tour once more. Fortunately, you now have “Second Coming” to reintroduce some of your favorite acts of the last few decades and give you the scoop on what you can expect from them in the future.

THEN: The year was 1984, and, like many of their friends, Seattle residents Chris Cornell and his roommate Hiro Yamamoto decided to form a band. The singer and bassist recruited a drummer and guitar player to form a grunge rock/metal group called Soundgarden, named after a local park sculpture that made strange noises in the wind. After releasing two EPs, the band put out their first LP, Ultramega OK. The punk-infused record garnered national attention along with a GRAMMY award nomination for Best Metal Performance. Following the release of two more LPs at the dawn of the ’90s and a successful tour opening for Guns ‘n’ Roses, the band was perfectly poised for the grunge takeover . Then, in 1994, Soundgarden released Superunknown. The album’s first single “Black Hole Sun” was a huge hit. Three million copies sold and two GRAMMY Awards later, Superunknown solidified Soundgarden’s place as one of the most prominent grunge bands to date. Unfortunately, the public’s interest in grunge waned by Down on the Upside‘s release in 1996, and the group disbanded in 1997.

NOW: After the breakup, the members of Soundgarden continued to play music in separate groups; most notably, Chris Cornell formed the group Audioslave with former members of Rage Against The Machine. Cornell also had a successful solo career, for which he recorded three albums over the span of ten years. After shooting down reunion rumors for years, Soundgarden finally confirmed their reunion in 2010. Since then, they have played a few shows and festival dates, but have yet to embark on a full-fledged tour. The band has been hard at work in the studio writing their next album, their first studio album since 1996. Most recently, they contributed a song to the Avengers soundtrack, which marks their first new recording since reuniting. Look out for their new record coming later this year!

Any true 90′s rock fan knows every word of this song by heart. Let’s reminisce over the trippy video for “Black Hole Sun”…

Let’s face it, sometimes the past should stay dead. But when an awesome musical artist fades from popularity, their fans later wonder, “Where are they now?”  You may not know it, but many artists you loved in the past are still hard at work writing new albums or preparing to tour once more.  Fortunately, you now have Second Coming to reintroduce you to some of your favorite acts of the last few decades, and give you the scoop on what you can expect from them in the future!

THEN: The year was 1961 and a brand new musical soundscape was about to unfold. The three Wilson brothers (Brian, Dennis and Carl) along with their cousin and friend formed a band called the Beach Boys. The group had several hits, like “Surfin’ USA,” “I Get Around” and “Wouldn’t It Be Nice.” Besides serving up some sunny pop tunes, the band is also known for creating the first-ever concept album: 1966′s Pet Sounds. This record showed a departure from the simplistic beach hits of the group’s early days and pioneered new instrumentation and musical stylings. Though the band had every intention of continuing on after Pet Sounds, frontman Brian Wilson began to fall victim to mental instability and substance abuse. After Carl and Dennis both passed away, the band made sporadic appearances under the Beach Boys name, but they were still very clearly distanced from the close relationship they once had.

NOW: Rumors of a Beach Boys reunion have circulated for a few years, but it wasn’t until December of 2011 that the surviving members of the band confirmed the plans. If you tuned in to the 2012 GRAMMY Awards, then you may have caught the group’s first performance with Brian Wilson in over twenty years, which featured appearances from Maroon 5 and Foster the People. It may seem strange to call these seventy-year-olds “boys,” but it’s clear that everyone was feeling nostalgic during their performance of “Good Vibrations.” The Boys used the GRAMMYs as a chance to announce their Fiftieth Anniversary Tour, which includes a set at the New Orleans Jazz Festival. Visit their official site for a complete list of tour dates and information on their upcoming album!

Take a trip down memory lane with this live television performance of “I Get Around”:

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With Whitney Houston’s tragic, untimely death and Adele’s big sweep grabbing our near-undivided attention, the 2012 GRAMMY Awards were, in some ways, a two-woman show.

But if any guy came close to upstaging them, it was Chris Brown. And not necessarily in a good way. Brown, who performed two songs on the telecast, did not emerge unscathed from what was foolishly touted as his GRAMMY “comeback”—as if he is a supernova among stars, and three years is such an eternity. Some viewers were outraged that he was invited to perform at the ceremony at all, after what he did to his ex, Rihanna, during GRAMMY season three years ago.

The unfortunate irony of Houston’s passing on GRAMMY weekend is that, like Rihanna, she had been the victim of domestic abuse by another Brown, her ex-husband Bobby. And the honor of paying tribute to her went to Jennifer Hudson, whose mother, brother and nephew were murdered, allegedly by the estranged husband of Hudson’s sister, just a few years ago. If anyone knows that people often hurt the ones they claim to love, she does.

But that one display of good taste doesn’t let the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences off the hook. Brown’s inclusion in the ceremony almost felt like an unintentional f**k you to Houston, to Rihanna, to any woman who has suffered because of domestic abuse.

The big question, though, is this: Has Brown suffered enough? It has, after all, been three years since he pummeled Rihanna in a car. Is it time for us to move on as Brown and NARAS, apparently, both have.

For Brown’s many GRAMMY-night detractors (which included singers Miranda Lambert and Michelle Branch as well as actors Wil Wheaton and Eric Stonestreet), it might be hard to move on when Brown has never acknowledged the gravity of the situation in any meaningful way that didn’t seem like a public-relations pose. Whether he’s onstage, in videos, plugging his music on the morning talk-show circuit, or ranting on Twitter, he never seems sorry enough.

Continue reading ‘Sound and Vision: Is Chris Brown’s Comeback and GRAMMY Honors Another Slap in the Face to Women?’

When Jason Aldean released his fourth studio album, My Kinda Party, in 2010, little did he know it would launch a wave of awards, kudos and popularity.

Not that Aldean wasn’t already lauded by the country music community. Aldean’s self-titled 2005 debut and 2009 album Wide Open had both gone platinum and his 2007 album Relentless was gold when My Kinda Party was released.  ”Why,” “She’s Country” “Big Green Tractor” and “The Truth” were among the hits that made Aldean a hot country star.

Yet My Kinda Party not only brought with it more hits, including two that reached No. 1— “Don’t You Wanna Stay” (a duet with Kelly Clarkson) and “Dirt Road Anthem,” but an Album of the Year award from the Country Music Association (CMA), and three GRAMMY nominations for Best Country Solo Performance for “Dirt Road Anthem,” Best Album for My Kinda Party and Best Performance by a Duo or Group for “Don’t You Wanna Stay.”

Aldean recently took time out to talk to OurStage about the past year and just why 2012 might be even hotter.

OS: What a year you’ve had! Let’s start with the GRAMMY nominations. How did you celebrate those?

JA: We performed on the GRAMMY nominations show (on December 7) and then I found out after that show. They came in my dressing room and handed me an envelope and told me I was nominated for three GRAMMYs. That night me and my band, we got on the plane and went back to Nashville and we stopped by the liquor store on the way to the plane. It was a four-hour flight so we had four hours to kind of celebrate. It was a good time. The GRAMMYs are huge for any artist and these were my first nominations for a GRAMMY and so it was pretty exciting.

OS: So what’s your celebratory drink of choice?

JA: I prefer any kind of beer. Crown & 7 Up is pretty good, too.

OS: You’ve said publicly that this is the best twelve months ever. If you could only choose one, what would you say was the main high point?

JA: I think winning CMA Album of the Year [For My Kinda Party]. What that album has meant to my career and done for me over the past year and half or so is amazing. To actually win that award at CMA, my first CMA award, too, being Album of the Year, was a really fitting thing for me. It was a pretty proud moment especially with what this record has done for my career. That [win] just tied it all in to complete the year. It was a pretty special night.

OS: So I watched the show on television and you looked like grace under pressure as they were reading the nominations and then when you accepted the award. What were you thinking and how did you stay so calm?

JA: Well, I haven’t been on the receiving end of too many of those announcements! I do sit there and am pretty calm. For whatever reason, [on November 9, 2011] I won the award and it was exciting. My producer [Michael Knox] got to come up there with me and he’s the guy who is responsible for finding me in a club and bringing me to Nashville. So it was a really cool moment to be able to share that with him. It was kind of a shocker but it was a really cool thing and probably one thing this year that really stood out for me.

Continue reading ‘National Q and A: Jason Aldean Talks Grammys, New Album and Staying Stylish’