Sunday, February 13, 2011

The Grammy Awards - Neil, Vultures, Maiden, Jeff Beck Win

I did not watch the Grammy Awards tonight. In fact I stopped watching the annual show ages ago. My last good Grammy memory was watching Train perform Drops of Jupiter in 2006 and thinking that they were so fucking good even though that song got way overplayed.

Train won again tonight for a far inferior song but there were some other nice wins. Neil Young won for Best Rock Song with Angry World - his first Grammy win for an actual song (he won for "best art direction on a boxed or special limited edition package" last year - come the hell on), so that injustice has finally been righted.

Them Crooked Vultures took Best Hard Rock Performance for New Fang, beating out Ozzy, Stone Temple Pilots and Soundgarden. They for sure deserved it - that band is super and I look forward to the second album this year.

And Iron Maiden took Best Metal Performance for El Dorado, beating out Megadeath and Slayer - I guess Jethro Tull didn't have an album out this year.

Jeff Beck took best Pop Instrumental Performance and Best Rock Instrumental Performance, and Paul McCartney took Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for Helter Skelter from Good Evening in NYC, so good for him.

Of course the filmmakers who brought us Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage got snubbed for The Doors film, proving that the band can't get into any of these awards or Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame spots even through the back door.

But overall some nice solid rock and hard rock was acknowledged tonight, and for that I am thankful.

But now I can't get that goddamn Train song out of my head again. Here it is so you too can relive the over saturation (right after the youngling's cello solo):

Monday, February 07, 2011

What to Post? What to Post?

Man I have neglected this blog. Truth be told, I got really into Twitter for a while, got super busy at work and didn't really see anything worth writing about that wasn't just rehash. This happens to me from time to time and I always come back to the trusty old blog that I have had since 2006 when my ears rang far, far less than they do today.

Anyway, ahem...

So, scanning the dial so to speak, I see a few things happening. Gary Moore dying by choking on vomit. That sucks and he was a fantastic guitar player. A great loss.

Rush is remastering its album Vapor Trails. That is a very good idea, as the album is widely derived as super muddy sounding. Alex Lifeson told Classic Rock Magazine that "perhaps we should have taken more time over the record." Really? I think 14 months was quite enough. Maybe they should have taken 3 months and banged it out - those always seem to sound much better. Anyway, I love that album so I will be happy to hear a new version.

The Back Eyed Peas boring everyone to death with their bullshit Super Bowl halftime show, and while Christina Aguilera can really sing she trashed the anthem by flubbing some key lines. I guess they are all kind of important...

But you know what I am most excited about? Beavis and Butthead are coming back to MTV! That's the big news this week and I can't wait for them to eviscerate modern shitball artists like the Peas, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and all the rest of it. Bring it on BandB!