Grammy Awards

Imagine Dragons

Imagine Dragons

I'm In A Video With Janeane Garofalo and Martha Wash!

It's a long-form video for the group Xelle in which I play a bumblebee. True story. You can laugh all you want to, but the last time I was in a long-form video (for the band TV on the Radio), it was nominated for a Grammy!

The Lumineers

Satirizing Presidential Politics Is Nothing New

It existed way before The Daily Show and even before Saturday Night Live! In fact, a 1962 comedy album starring comedian/impersonator Vaughn Meader was a cultural phenomenon and ended up winning the Grammy for Album of the Year. And 50 years later, it's back and bigger than ever. Bob Booker, who ... More >>

Help Protect The Glammy Awards From A Legal Threat!

For 14 years, the Glammy Awards have been Cherry Jubilee's fabulous annual tribute to the best in LGBT nightlife, including drag queens, bartenders, gogo dancers, hosts, and bars. Well, Cherry tells me that this local, enjoyable, non-toxic event is riling up the Grammy Awards to the point of legal ... More >>

The Del McCoury Band+Cahalen Morrison and Eli West+Spirit Family Reunion

The Allman Brothers Band

In Defense Of Dave Grohl

Dave Grohl had a good time at the Grammys on Sunday. The Foo Fighters won pretty much every rock-oriented award possible, he reminded everyone that he's got the power-ballad game on lock, and he even got to show off his sweet Slayer T-shirt. Once again, everything came up Grohl. The most likable man ... More >>

Lady Gaga's Next Career Move! Urgent!

​I'm quite certain of what it is.

Oddsmaker: Do Beyoncé And André 3000 Have Enough Swagu To Beat Kanye And His Dozens Of Friends At The Grammys?

​The Grammys created the awkwardly named Best Rap/Sung Collaboration category ten years ago, around the time Ja Rule's various "thug love" duets were dominating the airwaves. The award recognized a growing sector of popular music that didn't quite fit into the preexisting rap, R&B or pop song ... More >>

Oddsmaking: Is The Best Dance Recording Grammy Basically Skrillex's To Lose?

If you think the opinions of critics and passionate fans of rock and rap and pop and country mean nothing to the Grammy Awards, being a dance-music fan widens the gap that much more. Essentially, if you're allergic to bottle service and/or newbs with glow sticks, you're better off crying into your p ... More >>

Oddsmaking: Will Thom Yorke Dance Away With The Short-Form Music Video Grammy?

​Unlike MTV's Video Music Awards, which usually reward some combination of pop excellence, symbolic audacity, and likelihood of being controversial, the Grammys' short-form music video category is a lot like the Oscars. They don't always pick the best videos—this year's list omits such h ... More >>

Oddsmaking: Will Louis C.K. Or Lonely Island Overtake "Weird Al" And Win Best Comedy Album?

​Throughout the award's history, Grammy voters have tended to bestow Best Comedy Album upon trusted favorites: Bill Cosby closed out the 1960s with six straight victories; Richard Pryor took home three trophies in the '70s and two more in the '80s; and Peter Schickele opened the '90s with four ... More >>

Oddsmaking: Will Mumford & Sons Upset "Rolling In The Deep" In The Grammys' Record Of The Year Race?

Every year, when I get involved in Grammy debates with my cooler friends, I tell them the problem with the awards isn't that they reward mass-appeal schlock. If the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences is doing its job right, it should be rewarding popular, undeniable, and somewhat unhip ... More >>

Don't Cry For Amy Winehouse!

Yes, her death was way premature and truly awful, but the time she spent on earth wasn't all tragic. So says the venerable Tony Bennett, who is Grammy-nominated for "Body and Soul," the duet he did with the big-haired, -lunged, and -nerved chanteuse.

Oddsmaking: Should The Grammys Just Give The Album Of The Year Award To Adele Now?

For the last twenty years, the award for Album of the Year, the biggest Grammy honor of them all, has tended to go to two types of people: young women and old men. Female solo artists under 30 (Lauryn Hill, Taylor Swift) and male veterans over 40 (Tony Bennett, U2) have dominated the category for tw ... More >>

So Beautiful? So What: Why The Grammys Shoved Paul Simon Aside And Embraced Skrillex

A good while back, I was envisioning a Grammy-night dogfight between what, at that point, were my two favorite albums of 2011: Lady Gaga's Born This Way and Paul Simon's So Beautiful or So What. (Both ended up on my Pazz & Jop ballot.)I mentioned this to Maura and she said, "No. Adele." Up went my v ... More >>

Oddsmaking: Will Adele Go "Rolling" Over Her Song Of The Year Competition?

The Grammys have a determinedly behind-the-times history, and Song of the Year is one of the ceremony's most reliably old-fashioned categories. It's given to the songwriter—even though what constitutes a "song" today is a lot different than when the Grammys began in 1959, back when sheet music ... More >>

20 Questions Brought Up By The Grammy Nominations

Last night's Grammy nominations show was full of pomp, eyeliner, and people on Twitter becoming very confused. Here's the complete list of nominees; below, 20 questions that we're still wrestling with some 14 hours after the broadcast signed off. 1. "Super Bass": Robbed or totally robbed? 2. Now t ... More >>

Latin Jazz Heavyweights Protest Grammy Snub

​The scene outside the New York Institute of Technology Auditorium Monday night suggested a Latin jazz celebration; pianist Eddie Palmieri, pianist/bandleader Larry Harlow, drummer Bobby Sanabria, trombonist Chris Washburne, and trumpeter Brian Lynch milled about. But this wasn't a concert, no ... More >>

The Great Grammy Cull: RIP, Best Hawaiian Music Album

​This morning NARAS--the outfit responsible for putting on the Grammy Awards every year--announced that next year, the awards show would have a leaner, tougher look, bringing the total number of categories down to 78 (from 109) and forcing each category to justify its existence by having 40 po ... More >>

k.d. lang & the Siss Boom Bang

TROPIC THUNDER

Blues alchemist comes to BK Bowl

'Jeff Beck's Rock & Roll Party with Imelda May & Her Band'

Natalie Cole Duets With Real Housewife

​I hear Grammy winning Natalie Cole sang a duet with one of the Real Housewives for the cameras--and I don't think it's the same duet Natalie did with her father's beloved ghost. Anyway, producers will now be screaming "Foul! You're leaking!" but the reality is:

Week in Review: Arcade Fire Won A Grammy And All We Got Was This BMX Bicycle Helmet-Cam

Santiago Felipe​And so it came to pass that a sleepy 2011 all of a sudden woke up and went crazy, as Arcade Fire won a Grammy, spawning a thousand think pieces (or two, anyway). Then Odd Future played Santos Party House! And Fallon! Many people said the word "swag." But just as the internet t ... More >>

The Fame Cookie: 2011 Grammy Awards Live Blog

It's the return of the most talked-about Grammy Awards live blog--a collection of quips, blips, and arguably insightful observations that dares to match the actual Grammy telecast in terms of pure spectacle and Justin Bieber mentions. Please join our hosts Tom Breihan and Ryan Dombal below, and keep ... More >>

We Did It: A 46-Word Think Piece On Arcade Fire's Shocking Grammy Victory

Via you-know-who​So. Arcade Fire won the Grammy for Album of the Year. Maybe you heard about it. And maybe you are aware that this is a momentous occasion, an unprecedented generational coup, a Barbra Streisand-delivered clarion call that launched a thousand think pieces on the Death/Triumph o ... More >>

"Don't Be A Drag, Just Be a Queen"

​That's Lady Gaga's motto in her yay-gay anthem, "Born This Way," as heard all weekend, including on last night's Grammy awards. You've had ample time to listen to the motto, digest it, and recite it to friends in the nightclub bathroom. Does its wisdom resonate for you? I like it. It's ce ... More >>

The Great 2011 Grammy Postmortem: Even If Arcade Fire Made It, "We" Probably Didn't (Right?)

This picture is from Arcade Fire's Tumblr, where it's captioned "Win jumping up and down, thanking the world." Because why wouldn't it be?​Radiohead may have already surpassed last night's Grammys as the au currant news of an indie-rock world that is all of a sudden drowning in good tidings, b ... More >>

Fantasia

Five Takeaways From The 2010 Grammy Nominations

Behold, the future of music.​The Grammy Awards are a bit of a punchline in music nerd circles, a place where, say, MGMT battles Hall & Oates for a trophy that will inevitably be won, and then dropped on the ground, by the more telegenic and industry-saving Taylor Swift. The Grammy voters hate ... More >>

Blind Boys of Alabama

JAZZ FOR THE SEASON

Thanksgiving equals Maria Scheider

So Are Sleigh Bells Doing Production on the New M.I.A. Record? [Update: Yes]

With the caveat that humans must take Diplo's Twitter updates with a grain (several grains, probably) of salt--although his version of what happened the night of the Grammys was probably way better than anything that actually did happen--everyone else in the above Tweet is definitely on the real p ... More >>

The Grammys Work: Lady Antebellum's Need You Now Is #1; Lady Gaga Is Back at #3

​All bands should be so lucky as to play the Grammys the week their record hits shelves. For instance: charmingly trite, light country trio Lady Antebellum, who just sold 481,000 fucking copies of their sophomore record, Need You Now. Those are Susan Boyle numbers. Extra bonus scorched earth p ... More >>

Here Is An Uncensored Version of Drake, Lil Wayne, and Eminem's "Drop the World/Forever" From the Grammys Last Night

Those who watched the Grammys last night know that the evening's closing performance was censored by CBS with the avidity of Tipper Gore attempting to set a 2 Live Crew record on fire. Whoever was working the silence button worked it long and hard. Luckily, a renegade broadcast caught the uncensor ... More >>

Grammy Strays, A/K/A Beyonce in 3-D

​Given that our favorite moment of last night's Grammy ceremony was this stray reaction shot of Beyonce, mid-"Earth Song," we are thrilled that someone produced the inevitable animated GIF. Speaking of Beyonce, have you heard Diplo/Major Lazer/Elephant Man's "Halo" remix? Pretty good! Like, wa ... More >>

Grammy Strays #2: Taylor Swift Feigns Shock When She Wins Grammys, Is Actually Shocked When She Drops Them

Admit it: This could've been way worse. Here we have photos of America's Sweetheart doing the "armful of Grammys" pose and then, well, oops! I myself am shocked this doesn't happen more often. This does, however, speak to what I suspect is fueling a large part of whatever Taylor-based backlash i ... More >>

Come to Think of It, The-Dream's Love vs. Money Really Should Have At Least Been Nominated for a Grammy

​The man's got a point, given all he's done--*cough,* "Umbrella," *ahem* "Single Ladies"--for the crass and success-driven Grammy pageant over the last few years. That new Dave Matthews Band record is really supposed to be better than Love vs. Money? (Full disclosure: In our opinion, nothing i ... More >>

News Roundup: Beastie Boys, Pearl Jam, Islands, They Might Be Giants

Islands--Islands have released the bubbly new track "No You Don't," from their upcoming third album Vapours, the one frontman Nick Thorburn once famously left on the C Train. The song features him switching between a falsetto and more conversational style, with lyrics like "Don't buy dope from the m ... More >>

Week in Review: Stop Trying to Establish Visual Rapport with A Blind Man, and Stop Yelling at Him, Too

photo of Bodega zaniness by Rebecca Smeyne In the week the Jonas Brothers attempted to bring light to the blind, we watched the Grammys set race relations back 20 years. Chris Brown and Rihanna missed the ceremony, but you already knew that, didn't you? We talked to actor Elliott Gould, TV host a ... More >>

Some Burning Questions About Last Night's Grammys

There were precious few awards presented on last night's Grammys, but there was a helluva lot of entertainment, and though some of it was downright bizarre (Stevie Wonder and the Jonas Brothers?), there was plenty to enjoy and gossip about. Still, some questions continue to nag:

TABLOIDED: The Grammys

The Grammy Awards: A Running Diary

This Year's Grammy Nominations: Fucking Insane

Def in a Jam

On the endlessly inventive and increasingly mishandled career of Mos Def

Forever Old

NARAS Sifts Through an Arty Bunch in a Don't-Miss Year

Chick Dance