This weeks music headlines have been dominated by the news of the Grammys and the Brit Awards. I don't personally buy into these awards ceremonys and only really pay attention to the Mercury Music Prize later in the year as an award of any creditable merit. Best described by the words of the mighty Pearl Jam frontman, Eddie Veddor:
"I don't know what this means. I don't think it means anything"
and the words of Tool and Pefect Circle's Maynard James Keenan:
"I think this is nothing more than some gigantic promotional machine for the music industry, catering to a low intellect and feeding the masses. They don't honor the arts or the artist for what he created but the music business celebrating itself, basically".
Illustrating my point better than I could myself...however, despite this they cannot be ignored and here is my pick of the highlights from both events - reviewed in the familiar SOSNSBSB format. Something Old...
Probably the biggest winners both sides of the Atlantic and in my eyes, deservedly so were Canadian 7 piece, Arcade Fire. Fronted by the uba talented Win Butler and Regine Chasagne they scooped the awards for Best International Group and Best International Album at the Brits, whilst also claiming Album of the Year at the Grammys for their third album, 2010's 'Suburbs'. With tracks such as 'City with no Children', 'Month of May', 'We Used to Wait' and this track 'Ready to Start' its deservidly up there other two albums 'Funeral' and 'Neon Bible' as fantastic pieces of music, expect to see a bearmusic Arcade Fire feature shortly, in the mean time, enjoy...
Something New...
By no means a new artist, but the shock of the Brit Awards came from the awesomely talented 21 year old, Laura Marling, ranking up there with the time Belle&Sebastian beat Steps. Beating off competition from the very talented and sucessful Ellie Goulding and the media whore herself, Cheryl Cole to join the likes of Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen and KT Tunstall claiming Best Female Solo Artist in the UK Pop hall of fame.
Having been part of the origional line up of Noah & the Whale til her emotional split with Charlie Fink, who produced her 1st solo album 'Alas, i cannot swim' in 2008 she has spent last year touring with Elbow and her hero Neil Young aswell as a stand out performance at Glasto. She is finnally gainining the recognition she deserves and her music is being enjoyed by a wider audience on the back of 'Nu Folk', which is apparently 'cool' lead by her on/off boyfriend Marcus and his band of private school w*nkers Mumford & Sons who pretend to be an Irish folk band...I mean WTF? just listen to ACTUAL IRISH FOLK its much better than their b*llshit!
She has now seen sense and is dating Mat Horne off of 'Gavin & Stacey', a noticable leap in respect levels from myself. From her second album 'I speak because I can' this track 'rambling man' is haunting and will evoke emotions and send a shiver down your spine, lovely stuff...
Something Borrowed...
The Ultimate Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin was hailed at last weeks Grammys as last November Doctors ordered her to performing and making public appearances. The 68 year old legend is currently having surgery for an 'undisclosed ailment' rumoured, but denied, to be pancreatic cancer. Its not just Soul she is recognised for, she can also be credited with a huge influence on Jazz, Blues and Gospel and widely recognised as THE greatest voice of all time.
The opening ceremony of this years the 53rd Grammy Awards saw Christina Aguilera perform some attention seeking vocal gymnastists then fall over, two women Yolanda thingy and Christina sumin warble for a bit. Then the UK's best vocal export of modern times, ginger lungs herself - Florence Welch off of '...and the Machine' cover my favourite Aretha Song 'Think (Freedom)'. This was followed by the much troubled 'Dreamgirls' star Jenifer Hudson whos Mother and Brother were found murdered in 2008 none the less looked fantastic and gave one of the best Soul vocals I've heard since Paige Richardson of off X-Factor doing 'Mans world'...enjoy my 4 minute outtake avoiding the other nonesense from Aguilera...
Something Blue....
Other notable Grammy winners were the Black Keys for Best Alternative Album and Best Rock Performance whilst Jeff Beck was also a double winner. Both Muse and La Roux have now officially broken America winning Best Rock Album and Best Dance Album, respectively.
However, the ultimate Supergroup of all time Them Crooked Vultures recieved the plaudits they deserve for the 1st, self titled, album of the the project winning Best Hard Rock Album. Its easy to see why aswell with the talent of the awesome Kyuss and QOSTA frontman Josh Homme on guitar on vocals, Led Zepplins genius bassist John Paul Jones on the four strong and the legendry Nirvana and Foo Fighters - Dave Grohl back were he belongs on the drums, its as close to perfection as is mortally possible! To celebrate here is the 1st track from the album, which sets the tone for one the most brilliantly awesome+faltless 60minutes of music to ever grace your ears - if you dont already own the album are you stupid or just a little slow? With awesome tracks such as 'Dead End Friends', 'New Fang', 'Scumbag Blues', 'Mind Eraser (No Chaser)' + this track 'Nobody Loves me...' GO AND BUY IT NOW!
No comments:
Post a Comment