blog post Live on CBC Radio 3: Canadian Artists and the Grammys

Don't much care, but then again I'm not completely indifferent ot them. Just mostly, which makes sense considering indie music and what's called "folk" are my main musical interests.

As to whether Canadian musicians care -- I can't state whether they should or not --, obviously they would care if a nomination came up, as it could make their careers for at least a while, give them more money than they've ever seen and change the course of their lives for at least a few years, in certains cases.

No.

but I really couldn't care about them. Those who do cheapen musical discourse IMHO anyways. Just yesterday I was reading an article in the entertainment section that was lamenting the fact that Ne-Yo and Lil Wayne lost out last year to Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. On no!

If I get to hear K'naan, Hey Rosetta! and Dan Mangan though I am very happy!

If I remember, I'll probably tune in.

Not that I really care about who wins/ doesn't win, there's a lot of star power there.  It's usually entertaining. 

Take last year for example.... where else can you find jay Z, lil wayne, kanye, TI, and MIA doing a song together and then follow THAT by Paul McCartney and Dave Grohl.

Pretty much if I watch, I want Kanye to act out in some way, shape, or form. 

haha... um.... I was pretty upset that Wayne lost.  That record is fantastic.

if there is any value other than what matt just mentioned.

PS - thanks for the linkage yesterday Matt.

@Alex - did you go to the Zola's last night?

not trying to denigrate wayne or ne-yo, i don't know their work. more I was just upset with the article, whose thesis was "The Grammies need to be younger, hipper and cooler"...

how could the grammys  not be interesting? its the best musical artists in the world right now and you probably don't own anything buy any one of them. its the perfect opportunity to discover new music.

I've never really cared for the Grammys at all, but will be tuning in to Grant's broadcast tonight with Dan Mangan, Hey Rosetta! and K'Naan. Also I'm kinda glad that Hey Rosetta! did recieve their luggage and instruments for tonight.

No.....

and they're not even letting adam lambert perform.  shitty night

It's that time of year again where amazing Canadian indie artists come to play mere minutes from my home and I don't get to go.  Like I told Silvorgold earlier it would be one thing if they had acts that play in LA all the time, but Dan Mangan coming off his big Bucky win?  And Hey Rosetta, stars of the Saint John High School food drive axis was telling us all about mere months ago?  Okay K'Naan does play here regularly but I haven't been able to go so far.  But I guess I can't complain too much 'cause Canada does give me this awesome radio station and great indie music and more amazing blog-pals than I could've ever imagined.  If only the Grammys would give awards to Dan Mangan and Hey Rosetta and K'Naan!  

Was 1982.  I was Head Over Heels (pun intended) for The Go-Go's, and they were up for Best New Artist.  They lost, the award went to Sheena Easton, and I've not paid attention since.

I still think The Go-Go's were far more impresive in what they did, being the first all female band to both play and write all of their own material and take an album to No. 1 on the Billboard charts.  Still don't know why Easton got it.

Lee Hower - Sacramento

Say what you want about the artists.... the fact that they are that popular has to mean something.  I dunno, maybe I just love pop culture too much.  I have noticed that the last few years pop music has dramatically gotten much better. Laugh if you want, but it's true.

I'm not defending Nickleback for one millisecond for all the horrible crappy music they make... but for a bunch of beardy Canadians to be selling MILLIONS of CDs down south, in a rock band of all things, is still mind blowing for me. 

for the record, how do they pick a winner?  or even the nominees? Is it 100% based on sales?  but that doesn't really touch on what is a "sale" these days anyways....

yeah, not much diversity in there. I don't think I've heard Taylor Swift's stuff before. The others aren't terrible, I enjoy some of Beyonce's past stuff to dance to, same goes for BEP, I just don't think they deserve awards. But that's just me.

I think it was Lana's show the other day where I heard her use the phrase 'Indier-than-thou'. I really liked that, but also want to not be that guy..

@Matt - I never listened to earlier Kings of Leon stuff, but haven't minded what I hear of theirs on the Peak. I think I read you saying you were disappointed with them, or something to that effect. Pour qua?

From what I've seen the people who vote on the Grammys take their multiple choice voting form to a party and everyone gets smashed and then we pass around the form with whoever wants to filling in the vote for whatever artist in whatever category.  Not the most scientific way to do things for sure.  I'm not sure that's how everyone votes but I've seen it happen more than once.

I can't be the only R3'er who enjoys DMB...Just listening to this song is like attending a safety meeting for me it wraps so lusciously around my brain grapes...

@cam: there are two distinct Kings of Leon.  the Southern Ladyhawk-esque Kings of Leon from about 2003-2006, then 2006-current we have this U2-esque wanna be pretty boy band.

...you can take your pick as to which one I enjoy more.  Hell, I bought their first cd TWICE in high school because I lost it and couldn't find any songs on napster.  Very unimpressed with any of their new stuff.  It's been a slow ride downhill every since the kick-ass "youth and youngmanhood LP"

@tim: strangely, I'm not surprised.  How do you go to those parties? I'd like to get an invite *wink wink*

I always voted for Jimmy Sturr.  He doesn't have enough little statues yet, haha.

And hey, Canadian filmmakers get a bump from winning an Oscar, why wouldn't a Grammy be an equivalent shot in the arm for a band? (I still think the Polaris or the Bucky is cooler, though).

thank you thank you !!!! for playing it that is!

I'll buy that pop culture has gotten better in recent years...

Wait.  So anything released in September is never eligible?  Weird.

holy cow! I was working away and thought you were playing Leon Russell maaaan did he ever sound like Leon Russell for a second. Fantastic

Live performances. And the odd time that a lesser known artist wins and it bumps them up a tax bracket or two is a good thing. And funny 'controversies' in entertainment 'news' that follow (ie "Beyonce had one of the greatest albums of all time!" fiasco's)

will this be rebroadcast? who is playing at 5?

Beyonce had the best video of ALL TIME!

...which means that his rant about losing Best Video a few years ago for "Touch the Sky" sort of a moot point now.

Anyways, you just reminded me of a lyric from the Lil Wayne song I can't stop listening to this week (he samples jay z's D.O.A. (death of autotune) on a mixtape from last year):

"And I say what I want like an award show"

Ummm. The lines before and after are too vulgar for the blog.  But the whole thing is pretty hilarious.  I'd say he's definitely one of the best writers these days.

yeah, I'd go with the tubes being a big part of that. Efficient aggregation equals refinement.

I remember hearing about 'controversial' lady gaga before i heard any of her music...i dont get what is so controversial, but she;s ok for pop fodder

You got it Tariq... the lyric is "On Every Man's Arm"

LOVE The Zolas... hope to hear more of them...

Kings of leon and taylor swift wrote the song they are nominated for. and lady gaga had one co-writer for her song. beyonce had some help, but other than that its pretty respectable.

yesterday on my commute home I started reading Huck Finn again, and I had to laugh when I came to the part where Huck sneaks back into town dressed as a girl. He gets quizzed, "If 15 cows is browsing on a hillside, how many of them eats with their heads pointed the same direction?"

"The whole fifteen, mum."

So we knew somewhat what was going on at some point...

I'm not sure, myself, exactly what makes her so great.  I know a lot of people are crazy about her, but I dunno, she's not my type of pop music.  When i saw her on SNL, she blew me away with her piano and voice skills, though. She's definitely talented. If it's true that Paris/Perez Hilton are the reason she's famous, that totally sucks.

In fact, the only two songs that pop up on my itunes when I search her name are both samples of "poker face".

These are aptly named "Poke Her Face" and "Make Her Say" by Lil Wayne and Kid Cudi, respectively.  I like them a lot, but you can't really compare them to the original.

I don't have any albums by him! Ack! I'll have to try out Carney. or what do you think?

I also vaguely remember Frank Black from the Pixies either ranting about how awesome Leon is, or if he was his inspiration for one of his solo albums.  either way, that's a hell of an endorsement.  (not that Leo needed it though)

RE: Old bands lookin out for the youngsters

Would it be possible to have Neil or Leonard or Blue Rodeo or the Hip or ya know, any of the "established" artists that continue to make new music and promote young bands, to come on the show and just talk about the state of Canadian music? 

ps Can we hear something by the Band tomorrow? If we're going to continue pumpin out all the blasts from the past?!

Had no idea the grammys were this week but anyways. I don't really care for them because all the god music action is right here! Why go any where else to hear awesome new stuff?  Plus the Juno's kick butt!

Lovin' the music!

It's nice to see K'naan finally getting the respect he deserves. That Dusty Footed Philospher has been in my playlist for a long while now and I am excited others are finally getting turned on to him.

  have recently procured Frank Blacks whole discography of solo work.(yeaahhhhh!!!!) I do believe Leon was an inspiration for one of his albums that he put out..not sure which one? Carney is a good one to start off with..most of his 70's work and colabs from the 70's are fantastic. We have a leon and Willie Nelson colab. record..the pictures are really funny..they make me giggle a little. I would start with carney though. Great album! Back on the pixies, have you seen the doc. where they go one tour again..can't remember when it came out?? But! It is amazing and worth checking out. At one point he (frank) is talking to the cameraman back stage saying something like: "You know I wasn't really sure about getting back together for a tour again, because well..I didn't think people liked us that much". WhaaaaT? I know! The Pixies are amazing..it's just funny that someone sooo talented like that really thinks that no one would want to catch them for a reunion tour?

creating a digital song file is far from zero cost.

I have seen that! It's amazing. I love how REAL it is.  from Joey struggling to find a career after the Pixies, and dabbling in music scores for movies. to Kim and her alcoholism.  then finally, watching the drummer unravel. You've seen it, you know what I mean.

You're getting me pretty damn stoked to check out more of Leon's stuff.  From the few songs that I have heard, he seems to be criminally underrated. 

Would it be a stretch to call him the Townes Van Zandt of rock n roll?

I'll need to read that later.  I don't object to paying for digital content.  I know the marginal cost is near zero, but I generally either don't care that much or want to support the artist.  And although piracy doesn't decrease sales, I think legit downwloads do decrease physical media sales, so the artist does need to make money somewhere.

But the cost for a digital copy should be much, much lower than it is.  Maybe 25¢?  I'd be really happy to pay 25¢ for a song in a common format (ie mp3) with no DRM.  I would probably buy four times as much music.  In fact, I buy a lot of music through eMusic, where I get mp3s for less than 50¢ each.

But not everyone wants a subscription, and doing this without a subscription would require a workable system for micropayments online.  Which there isn't, yet.

I totally agree that things should be priced much better.

But if things cost 1/4 of the price and you buy 4 times as much, the record label doesn't benefit as it still equals the same amount of money you were originally putting in.

Of course there's tangible benefits to having more fans for all of your artists but that's another story. 

Actually, wait maybe it isn't.  I can't see a reason why having MORE fans would ever be a bad thing? If music fans are goign to spend the same amount of $ regardless, why not open up more of your catalogue for them to enjoy?

I really lament not having an iPhone when I need to go out for a walk during lunch..see ya in Lana's thread..