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The How, What, and Why of HRC at the GRAMMYs

by hardrockchick [about 6 months, 28 days ago.]

I was sitting in my room at my parent’s house in Texas writing this review at about 2am when an email popped up from someone from the Recording Academy. She said she wanted to speak with me about my site and a program they are putting together for the 52nd Annual GRAMMYs. My thought: they want me to post about press releases or something.

I didn’t get home to SF until Monday, so I decided to call after work. That’s when I learned that somehow my little site had been not only discovered but selected among other rock blogs to be a community blogger for the rock genre for the GRAMMYs. This basically meant that I would write a 400 word piece in reaction to the nominations, then a 2009 recap for the genre, and then reactions to the winners. It’s not paid, but in exchange for doing this, I get a ticket to the GRAMMYs (travel not included). I was really humbled by this, and immediately said that I’d be happy to participate.

Let’s go ahead and get this part out of the way: don’t I realize that the GRAMMYs are out of touch and the awards don’t go to who deserves them, especially in the rock genre? Yes, I realize this. In my real life job, I work on a franchise that has a lot of nostalgic love for it, but currently struggles for relevancy. My job is to be the voice of the consumer, to try to massage the brand into something people will love again. So it was second nature for me to come on board for a program that was built around an effort to make the GRAMMYs more relevant. I was to be the voice of the rock and metal fan on GRAMMY.com, and I couldn’t be happier about that.

However, this essentially meant that I had to put some of my rock ‘cred’ on the line. Not that I have a big following or anything, but as soon as I started mentioning working with the GRAMMYs, I felt a bit of a backlash. ‘Don’t you know the grammies suck’…’ugh nickelback’…..’U2 blah’…etc., etc. I’m a diplomatic person. I can deal with it. On the other hand, people in my life who always ignored what I do took a sudden interest in my site. It was really interesting that once I got ‘recognized’ by the GRAMMYs that suddenly I wasn’t screwing around going to concerts…I was a writer.

Soon after I initially agreed to do this, I was approached about covering the Alternative genre as well. No problem- I’m the girl who blips Behemoth and Depeche Mode within an hour of each other. A little while later, I got an email about the possibility of attending another event before the GRAMMYs, where the honoree for Person of the Year would be Neil Young. The press release had what felt like 100 amazing musicians on the list to attend. Of course I’ll come down early for that! Then there started to be mumblings of other stuff that might happen, one thing being a little bit of camera work for the GRAMMY site since the person working on it ‘liked my look’. I would basically be on the red carpet and might comment about rock related things I see. No problem. I believe it was during this conversation that I was told of the hesitation to have me be the rock blogger because of my ‘edgy’ content…..yes, I say the F word a lot and I have a hankerin’ for the devil’s music.

As I wrote my nominations pieces, and my year in review pieces (Alternative was HARD), my opportunities with this project were growing. I still wasn’t sure if everything was really going to happen, but I figured that it would be an interesting way to potentially grow my readership, a networking opportunity, and a nice bullet point for the resume.

It’s Sunday before the GRAMMYs. I’ve now decided to take two days off work (one full day and two half days to be precise- I worked Thursday morning before leaving and then Monday afternoon when I returned), I would be paying for four nights of hotel, but would be at several different events that I would never be able to get into on my own. I got a note to please call about some more opportunities. This is when that little bit of camera work potentially became a substantial amount as they needed an extra person to help them do interviews on the red carpet before the GRAMMYs. I said I was willing to do it. When someone gives me an opportunity like that, I always think about how I would feel if I didn’t do it first. I couldn’t pass it up. Plus, I love doing interviews.

There was a point last summer when it was suggested to me that I should start doing more video on my site. I looked at Metal Sanaz or Full Metal Jackie as an example. Normally I can’t shoot video at my interviews because I’m a solo operation. This would be my chance to explore that area more.

Well this led to calls from the director, who was definitely vetting me for the role, looking at a youtube interview I’d done and asking me about my comfort level in front of the camera. I’m fine in front of a camera, I have interview experience, I know my rock stuff- I felt good about it. This evolved into them wanting me to fly down earlier (which I couldn’t) and extended my role to 5 hours on the red carpet and then a quick introduction of my ‘character’ on Friday before the afternoon event. My character? OK…

By the time I got to the production meeting on Thursday when I arrived, I started to fully understand what was happening. GRAMMY Live wasn’t just an occasional clip posted on the site, they were streaming live content starting Friday afternoon and pretty much going nonstop until Sunday night. What I had positioned in my mind as an interviewer role was really a co-host role; I would be working with a professional vlogger and a semi-professional vlogger who works for the Recording Academy. So I’m in a control room, being given extra batteries for my phone, which would be dialed into a conference line and I’d have an earbud in my ear telling me when we were live, and then I’d also have a phone videocamera with a mic running down my arm. Somehow roaming phone videocamera work was added to my responsibilities on Friday evening and Saturday.

Suddenly I’m overwhelmed. I think I’ve overpromised myself, misrepresented myself, and the pressure was intense. ‘This is your chance to be a star’. I don’t want to be a star….I just want to write cool stuff and interview cool people. I’m starting to freak out, but I get an email with a list of people I’m scheduled to interview on Sunday- Phoenix, Kings on Leon, Green Day, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Jay-Z????….and then I get another email saying Jared Leto is going to be at the Social Media Rock Star Summit on Friday. On one hand I’m fearing screwing up on camera, letting people down, and generally feeling uneasy; but on the other, I would love to talk to these people and I can tell this is an opportunity of a lifetime! I’m not sure I’ve ever felt so torn. But I rolled with it.

Friday wasn’t exactly a disaster, but I don’t think I have a future in TV. The two hosts with experience took over, and I was just the little third wheel that occasionally chimed in. I forgot that hosts are supposed to repeat things and keep it light….I just like to think in facts and questions. The streaming tech wasn’t working, I couldn’t tell when we were live or not, communication between the control room and my conference line earbud thing was lacking, and it was just pretty chaotic. It ended up that I didn’t get to interview any of the social media people because the professional got to them first.

I didn’t feel too good about it when I left, and it didn’t help when I got an email saying ‘we’ll be in touch’ about my participation the rest of the weekend while covering the Person of the Year event. This led to a martini in the hotel bar and making some unsuspecting stranger my therapist for an hour.

So in the span of 5 days, I went from fly on the wall observer during GRAMMY week, to co-host of GRAMMY live, back to fly on the wall community blogger. It was an interesting rollercoaster ride that ultimately worked out. Plus, I found out on Sunday that my change in participation was due to some other extraneous factors (maybe they were just being nice).

Upon my return, people asked me if I had fun and who I met. I felt like I let people down when I told them I didn’t really meet anyone, and I’m not sure I would describe it as fun. However, I wouldn’t change a single thing about my experience. To me, fun is a great show by a band I love in one of my local venues with my friends. I knew this wouldn’t be like that. This was a learning experience, an opportunity to be at events in conjunction with music’s biggest night that I would never be able to get into on my own.

What effect has this had on HRC? Only time will tell- I’ve seen a little bump in traffic and a good increase of new followers on twitter and fans on facebook. But really that $1000 I spent traveling for GRAMMY week got me an experience that I won’t ever forget. I was part of a social media experiment that may have had some impact on the ratings increase the GRAMMYs saw this year. And the ultimate test of any experience is to ask myself if I would do it again. The answer is yes.

GRAMMY swag:

HRC’s GRAMMY Posts:
Reactions to the Rock Nominations
Reactions to the Alternative Nominations
It Was a Rockin’ 2009
2009 in Alt-Rock
Cue the Music
Social Media Rock Star Summit
Person of the Year
Special Merit Awards
Pre-Tel GRAMMY Awards
The 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards
Reactions to Rock Winners
Reactions to Alternative Winner

Genre(s): GRAMMY rock/metal/alternative community blogger pieces,Musings

3431Comments (0)2010-02-07+00%3A17%3A24hardrockchick

The 2010 Alternative GRAMMY Winner – HRC’s Reactions

by hardrockchick [about 6 months, 29 days ago.]

The Best Alternative Music Album went to Phoenix, who were one happy little bunch of Frenchmen going up to accept their award. I’ve never thought as much about what Alternative music is so much in my life since I took on this gig. Now that I’ve kind of wrapped my head around it…Alternative = Miscellaneous….did Phoenix deserve to win? I think it’s impossible to say without imbuing my own personal preference here; the category is too varied. Phoenix and Death Cab are in similar buckets….they are indie rock. Eno and Byrne are in their own bucket. And Depeche Mode and the YYYs are in another, more electronic based bucket. My preference is for the latter. If we follow the Rock model of GRAMMY voting here, then Depeche Mode should have won, as they are still GRAMMY-less.

Best Alternative Music Album
Vocal or Instrumental.

Winner:
Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Phoenix
[Loyaute/Glassnote Records]

Other nominees:

Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
David Byrne & Brian Eno
[Todomundo/Opal]

The Open Door
Death Cab For Cutie
[Atlantic]

Sounds Of The Universe
Depeche Mode
[Capitol]

It’s Blitz!
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
[DGC Records/Interscope]

Genre(s): GRAMMY rock/metal/alternative community blogger pieces

3428Comments (0)2010-02-05+22%3A13%3A01hardrockchick

The 2010 Rock GRAMMY Winners – HRC’s Reactions

by hardrockchick [about 6 months, 29 days ago.]

It was a pretty good year for Rock at the GRAMMYs.

In brushing up on my GRAMMY knowledge over the course of this experience, I’ve come to one conclusion about how the 700 or so Recording Academy voting members decide on the winners in Rock. To me, it seems that while the winners in the Pop and Rap genres are very of the moment, the Rock winners seem to be based on their whole catalog of work, thus, they go to the established acts. So while AC/DC should have won decades ago for Back in Black, they’re just now winning for work that’s, essentially, not their peak. Does that make them any less deserving? Not really, AC/DC deserves a GRAMMY. It just makes sense. Did ‘War Machine’ deserve a GRAMMY? Probably not. So Rock and the GRAMMYs are in a constant state of catch-up. Perhaps one day, Rock GRAMMYs will go to those artists of the moment, too, and Hard Rock and Metal will see categories for Album of the Year.

Record Of The Year
Award to the Artist and to the Producer(s), Recording Engineer(s) and/or Mixer(s), if other than the artist.

Winner:
Use Somebody
Kings Of Leon
Jacquire King & Angelo Petraglia, producers; Jacquire King, engineer/mixer
[RCA Records]

This was a big win for Rock: KoL took the prize over the Pop, Country, and R&B nominees. While the brothers are relatively young, they’ve been on the scene for a while. Is ‘Use Somebody’ a rock song? Marginally.

Other nominees:

Halo
Beyoncé
Beyoncé Knowles & Ryan Tedder, producers; Jim Caruana, Mark “Spike” Stent & Ryan Tedder, engineers/mixers
Track from: I Am… Sasha Fierce
[Music World Music / Columbia]

I Gotta Feeling
The Black Eyed Peas
David Guetta & Frédéric Riesterer, producers; will.i.am, Dylan “3-D” Dresdow & Padraic “Padlock” Kerin, engineers/mixers
[Interscope]

Poker Face
Lady Gaga
RedOne, producer; Robert Orton, RedOne & Dave Russell, engineers/mixers
Track from: The Fame
[Streamline/Interscope/Konlive/Cherrytree]

You Belong With Me
Taylor Swift
Nathan Chapman & Taylor Swift, producers; Chad Carlson & Justin Niebank, engineers/mixers
[Big Machine Records]

Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance
For a solo vocal performance. Singles or Tracks only.

Winner:
Working On A Dream
Bruce Springsteen
Track from: Working On A Dream
[Columbia]

While I can understand the allure of Springsteen as America’s everyman, to me it is not a real rock track. Dylan or Prince deserved to win here.

Other nominees:

Beyond Here Lies Nothin’
Bob Dylan
Track from: Together Through Life
[Columbia]

Change In The Weather
John Fogerty
Track from: The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again
[Verve Forecast]

Dreamer
Prince
Track from: LotusFlow3r
[NPG Records]

Fork In The Road
Neil Young
Track from: Fork In The Road
[Reprise]

Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals
For duo, group or collaborative performances, with vocals. Singles or Tracks only.

Winner:
Use Somebody
Kings Of Leon
[RCA Records]

It makes sense that KoL would win here if they were going to take the top prize for Record of the Year. Based on the competition, only Green Day competes as being a real Rock song.

Other nominees:

Can’t Find My Way Home
Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood
Track from: Live From Madison Square Garden
[Reprise]

Life In Technicolor II
Coldplay
Track from: Prospekt’s March EP
[Capitol]

21 Guns
Green Day
Track from: 21st Century Breakdown
[Reprise]

I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
U2
Track from: No Line On The Horizon
[Interscope]

Best Hard Rock Performance
For solo, duo, group or collaborative performances, with vocals. Singles or Tracks only.

Winner:
War Machine
AC/DC
Track from: Black Ice
[Columbia]

I am big enough to remove my personal bias as an AiC fangirl here and say I’m ok with AC/DC winning, especially considering the other nominees. I still think ‘Check My Brain’ is a better song.

Other nominees:

Check My Brain
Alice In Chains
[Virgin]

What I’ve Done
Linkin Park
Track from: Road To Revolution: Live At Milton Keynes
[Warner Bros.]

The Unforgiven III
Metallica
Track from: Death Magnetic
[Warner Bros.]

Burn It To The Ground
Nickelback
Track from: Dark Horse
[Roadrunner Records]

Best Metal Performance
For solo, duo, group or collaborative performances, with vocals. Singles or Tracks only.

Winner:
Dissident Aggressor
Judas Priest
Track from: A Touch Of Evil – Live
[Epic]

This is tricky. Does Judas Priest deserve a GRAMMY? Yes. Does Judas Priest deserve a GRAMMY for a song originally recorded in ’77 and only eligible because of it was on a live album? Not really. The same goes for the Ministry track that was nominated. In my opinion, live recordings should be a separate category; it’s just not an apples to apples comparison here.

Other nominees:

Set To Fail
Lamb Of God
Track from: Wrath
[Epic]

Head Crusher
Megadeth
Track from: Endgame
[Roadrunner Records]

Señor Peligro
Ministry
Track from: Adios…
[13th Planet]

Hate Worldwide
Slayer
[American / Columbia]

Best Rock Instrumental Performance
For solo, duo, group or collaborative performances, without vocals. Includes Rock, Hard Rock and Metal. Singles or Tracks only.

Winner:
A Day In The Life
Jeff Beck
Track from: Performing This Week…Live At Ronnie Scott’s
[Eagle Records]

I agree with this one- rock instrumentals are hard to judge, but Beck would be the most ‘rock’ sounding of the bunch.

Other nominees:

Warped Sister
Booker T. Jones
Track from: Potato Hole
[ANTI]

Playing With Fire
Brad Paisley
Track from: Play
[Arista Nashville]

Mr. Surfer Goes Jazzin’
Brian Setzer Orchestra
[Surfdog Records]

Now We Run
Steve Vai
[Favored Nations Entertainment]

Best Rock Song
A Songwriter(s) Award. Includes Rock, Hard Rock & Metal songs. For Song Eligibility Guidelines see the Song Of The Year award. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.

Winner:
Use Somebody
Caleb Followill, Jared Followill, Matthew Followill & Nathan Followill, songwriters (Kings Of Leon)
[RCA Records; Publishers: Martha Street Music/Songs of Combustion Music/Music of Windswept, Followill Music/Songs of Combustion Music/Music of Windswept, McFearless Music/Bug Music, Coffee, Tea or Me Publishing/Bug Music.]

Once again, it makes sense that KoL would win this based on the other wins. ‘Use Somebody’ is officially the poster child of rock songs for the GRAMMYs.

Other nominees:

The Fixer
Matt Cameron, Stone Gossard, Mike McCready & Eddie Vedder, songwriters (Pearl Jam)
[Monkeywrench; Publishers: Innocent Bystander, Jumpin' Cat Music, Theory of Color, Write Treatage Music.]

I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
Bono, Adam Clayton, The Edge & Larry Mullen Jr., songwriters (U2)
Track from: No Line On The Horizon
[Interscope; Publishers: Universal Music Publishing, Upala Music.]

21 Guns
Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt & Tré Cool, songwriters (Green Day)
Track from: 21st Century Breakdown
[Reprise; Publishers: WB Music Corp./Green Daze Music.]

Working On A Dream
Bruce Springsteen, songwriter (Bruce Springsteen)
Track from: Working On A Dream
[Columbia; Publisher: Bruce Springsteen]

Best Rock Album
Vocal or Instrumental. Includes Hard Rock and Metal.

Winner:
21st Century Breakdown
Green Day
[Reprise]

Green Day has the formula down, as American Idiot also took this prize. They are both essentially concept albums, so it makes sense that this would win as an album because it is a true cohesive effort. I would have also been happy with AC/DC. Thank you for not choosing U2…just sayin’.

Other nominees:

Black Ice
AC/DC
[Columbia]
Live From Madison Square Garden

Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood
[Reprise/Duck]

Big Whiskey And The Groogrux King
Dave Matthews Band
[RCA Records / Bama Rags Recordings, LLC.]

No Line On The Horizon
U2
[Interscope]

Genre(s): GRAMMY rock/metal/alternative community blogger pieces

3426Comments (0)2010-02-05+22%3A02%3A19hardrockchick

GRAMMY Week: High on Life- The 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards @ The Staples Center, 1/31/10

by hardrockchick [about 7 months, 0 days ago.]

After leaving the Pre-Tel, I had about a 30 minute window before the climax of the weekend, the real deal live TV awards show, was to begin. Because I find eating highly overrated when I’m busy, I decided to spend it checking out The Red Carpet.

I walked past all of the onlookers trying to celeb spot, and all of the GRAMMY ticket holders trying to get to the red carpet circus, and walked right past security with that handy All Access pass. Oh, little pass, how I heart thee. Can’t I just have one of these for everything? It would make my life so much easier and my writing much more interesting.

I would liken The Red Carpet at The GRAMMYs to a water slide at a park: easy at the beginning, total chaos in the middle, and a relief to get out at the end. I first approached the exit, where I caught the interesting reactions of people as they emerged from the chaotic, piranha press-filled tunnel. I stood there for a bit, where I’m sure a slew of Glee Idols Dancing With The Jersey Shore types passed me, but since I don’t watch network TV, I was oblivious. Oh, I lied- I did see Andy Samberg because I’m an SNL fan. He was nominated alongside T-Pain for Best Rap/Sung (yeah- I thought it was a typo, too) for ‘I’m on a Boat‘. Hilarious. He’s nerd cute, I kinda wanted to reach out and pinch his cheek.

It was at this point I just happened to run into the marketing person who brought me on for this gig, which was highly fortuitous for she had my ticket to get in…no matter how much I hearted my lil’ pass, it does not get you a seat at the show.

I then decided to venture into media chaos ground zero, like a salmon swimming upstream. But not all the way in, just a little actually, so I wouldn’t see Snooki doing piss poor interviews with my people and be tempted to punt her.

You know, The Red Carpet isn’t really as glamorous as you’d expect. It really is just red carpet, with a tent around it. It gets dirty, there’s traffic, and the stress and ego energy in there is kind of ridiculous. However, I found it to be extremely interesting from my outsider perspective, observing the celebs, their entourages, and the press in their natural habitat.

The first thing I encountered was an offshoot of The Red Carpet called the 360 Glam Cam. It was interesting from a conceptual standpoint- the celeb gets on a platform and a camera spins around and gets a 360 view of the retarded expensive ensemble he or she is wearing. Speaking of, I bet I was the only female on the red carpet with a DIY manicure and Walgreen’s make-up. Maybe one day…

The next 10 minutes or so are blurry. There was a commotion and I decided to just perch near this area out of people’s ways. I put my back against the tent wall and look up and saw three familiar faces. It was like in Wall-E, when EVE finds the plant life she’s set up to look for. It was Alice in Chains! Well, three of them at least. They were all kind of huddled together laughing about something (perhaps that Snooki failed to know who they are). William DuVall passed by me first, and looked over, as did Mike Inez, and then Sean Kinney. I was all set to say something….’I'm a big fan’…..’I'm sorry you didn’t win earlier’….’I'm excited for your tour where I will be seeing/stalking you over 3 dates’…..or the old standard, ‘I love you, I’ve always loved you, and I will always love you’….but the presence of wives/girlfriends, other entourage members, the fact that I was looking for Cantrell (my faaaavvvvooorriitttee), my lack of eating, and general surprise of actually seeing the very people that I’d been looking for caused me to freeze and smile. I’m really good at the freeze and smile. It’s all for the best.

I was tweeting about my encounter when I heard a familiar voice, and Ringo Starr walked by with a flock of girls. I was impressed but not as impressed as I should have been. I got a blurry pic. And then a huge commotion and here comes Beyonce- actually- Beyonce floats- surrounded by her people (no Jay-Z) and one huge bodyguard who gave me the evil eye because I reached in my bag for something. She got on the Glam Cam platform (where I snapped the pic below of headless Beyonce). I would later see her in 2 other dresses. As that happened, Kathy Griffin walked up and waited to get on the platform. Then I heard Taylor Swift was coming, so I decided to leave.

The second one is blurry Ringo:

And headless Beyonce!

I knew the blogger seats would be far away, and that’s totally fine….especially for live tweeting a show I think it’s ideal. But readers here know me….I would sit on the stage if I could….and I had become spoiled during rehearsals. We were above the lights and on the side so that you could see behind the curtains for set up. We really got a bird’s eye view of things, and it turned out well for seeing some things others wouldn’t catch. However, there were two small enclosed pits filled with kids in front of the stage…I caught myself wondering if my lil’ pass could have gotten me in there. Now THAT would have been a good review. “Lady Gaga walked past me and I could see up her….”

It’s interesting to be at something that has commercial breaks, to hear the countdown for going ‘live’. Whenever there was a commercial break, the screens showed a past GRAMMY performance, usually relating to an upcoming presenter or performer. One time the countdown voice asked for a moment of silence because a stage hand had passed away the night before.

For all but Beyonce’s performance, a split stage was utilized for quick changeover of sets. This meant that while I could see Green Day stretch, Travis Barker warm up his arms, and Butch Walker, who played banjo in Taylor Swift’s set, jump up and down, I couldn’t see anything of the sets on the far side of the stage. So Lady Gaga and the Michael Jackson tribute are still a bit of a mystery.

We also witnessed what could have been a very catastrophic collision of two bars of lights that were being moved around above Lady Antebellum’s setup.

Since you could see better than I could on the telecast, here are my highlights and some things you may have missed:

-Green Day received an award before the show went live…and I couldn’t hear what it was…..

-Nearly 10 minutes before the show went live, a woman who resembled Lady Gaga came out and layed on the stage in front of one of the pits of kids. I thought this was actually Gaga, but it was one of the dancers, I think. 10 minutes is a long time to lay there.

-Colbert’s iPad instigated as many groans as laughs

-J-Lo introducing Green Day’s set was beyond weird

-Beyonce performs Alanis’ ‘You Oughta Know’…but let’s the audience say the F word

-Pink dripping water all over the celebs and their expensive clothes…..I couldn’t believe it…..this was my highlight

-Seeing the Black Eyed Peas live was just as bad as I would expect. I felt like I was watching a kid’s group

-During Lady Antebellum’s set, Lady Gaga was led to her seat, blinding everyone in the entire arena with her silver sparkly Lisa Frank unicorn outfit. I’m not sure how she sat in it, and I felt sorry for her neighbors.

-Robert Downey, Jr. may have gotten the biggest applause of the evening

-Celebs on the floor start coming up to Gaga to have their pics taken, like Mickey Mouse at Disneyland

-Michael Jackson’s kids’ speeches were heartbreaking…”Daddy was gonna be here this year”

-I couldn’t hear Slash at all, which made me sad

-I must not have been able to hear Taylor Swift, either, because I couldn’t tell she was out of tune here or at the rehearsal.

-Quentin Tarantino filled the entire stadium with his intro to the Barker/Drake/Eminem/Lil’ Wayne set

We had to check our cameras upon entry, and in anticipation of the clusterf*ck to pick them up we left without hearing Swift’s Album of the Year speech. It actually was really organized, but then we were shuttled into a huge traffic jam of people going to the official GRAMMY afterparty. It took a while to get in, so I eavesdropped on conversations like a woman saying she just sent Swift’s dad a congratulations text, and he responded saying that she had to be on a plane in two hours to go to Australia. Even if I didn’t recognize these people around me, they were all obviously well connected.

Red Carpet aftermath:

The party was in the convention center next door; in fact, it was in the very room that the Pre-Tel had been in hours before, but it had been magically transformed into a freaky carnival. It was completely packed with people. Ne-Yo and Jamie Foxx performed first, followed by Sam Moore, inspiration for the Blues Brothers. I stood in line for food behind the guy who wrote some famous rap song. I saw Tia Carrere dancing to BEP, and Nathan Fillion walked by me. I ended my evening actually having a little to drink and eating something, and then dancing a bit to Mr. Moore before calling it a night.

A Waste Management branded area of the party….???

I walked back to my hotel (NO ONE walks in downtown LA at night..) reflecting on the weekend. About half way back it hit me…HOLY SHIT I JUST WENT TO THE GRAMMYS! And it wasn’t as someone’s date, it was on my own accord. More on that soon.

Genre(s): GRAMMY rock/metal/alternative community blogger pieces,My Musical Adventures

3421Comments (0)2010-02-05+03%3A33%3A12hardrockchick

GRAMMY Week: Casual Sunday – Pre-Tel GRAMMY Awards @ LA Convention Center, 1/31/10

by hardrockchick [about 7 months, 1 day ago.]

I didn’t know what dress I was going to wear until the last minute.

I brought options…none expensive, none extravagant, just cute simple dresses with a little rock ‘n’ roll flair. But after 2.5 days of this…I chose the one that was comfortable, because my day was starting at 11am and wouldn’t end until past midnight.

As soon as I got to the hotel lobby it hit me. I saw guys in tuxes, girls in gowns, limos all over the place. I decided to walk (yes, I walk in LA…no one else does) to the Staples Center to see what was going on until the Pre-Tel awards, where most of my genre’s awards would be handed out.

On my way I passed The Standard, where LMFAO, presenters at the Pre-Tel, were in the parking lot taking pictures with their lady friends. It kind of felt like everyone was going to prom or something.

I decided to go see if any rehearsals were going on. I just so happened to walk in when Bon Jovi was rehearsing, which was pretty surreal since the entrance security let me through practically had me walk onto the side of the stage. ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’…I feel like I’ve heard so many people karaoke that song over the years that it felt new with the real guy singing it.

So a friend of a friend is Green Day’s tour manager, and I had tried to meet up with him when GD rehearsed on Friday, but I was working on GRAMMY Live stuff and couldn’t. So I shot him a text to see if today worked. ‘Come down to the dressing rooms’. OK….this is a test of the pass. Just how All Access is my All Access pass? Well, paired with a smile and a text message with instructions, that thing got me everywhere. I finally figured out that I needed to take an elevator down and then descend deep into the depths of the Staples Center. Then I came to The Hallway. On my left, Pinks’ dressing room, on my right, Lil’ Wayne. Whoaaaaa……don’t make eye contact, look like you belong. Where is GD???……luckily it was less than halfway down the busy hallway where all the real magic happens. I stood there waiting to meet the TM, tapping on my phone but getting distracted by all of the commotion- Mary J. Blige walked down the hall completely surrounded by people. Once I start chatting with the TM, the door in front of us opened, and out walked Elton John in a burgundy track suit. Even the TM paused and goes, ‘well, there’s Elton John!’. It was weird. On my way out, I wanted one little pic for proof I had been down there, but there were security EVERYWHERE, so I slyly snapped a shot of one of the oodles of equipment lined up to go onstage: Lady Antebellum’s drums….zzzzzzz BORING!

It was about time for the Pre-Tel awards to start, but I wanted to sneak another peak at rehearsals, because by the people I saw shuffling around in the dressing rooms, it was someone I might wanna see. So in I go again, and there is Travis Barker, Drake, and Eminem…..and I’m pretty sure Lil’ Wayne had a stand in (the person had a hoodie on). I had thought maybe it would be Slash’s set, but this was actually awesome, too. I used to be really into Eminem, and this was like my own private little show as I sat in what would later be Jason Mraz’s seat bobbing my head to Eminem dancing around on stage in front of me….everyone else not paying attention.

I tore myself away to run across the street to the convention center. There had been security around the whole time, but it was starting to get tighter, and it took a while to get in. I passed through the reception area, where a few unidentifiable to me rocker looking types were grabbing drinks. I made my way into the ceremony, which was already underway.

The room was full of regular banquet chairs, and open seating allowed people to sit with the large groups of people they came with. I sat in the back since my genre wasn’t until the end. A group in front of me won Best Broadway album, and another won Best Hawaiian album….perhaps I was a good luck charm. But it was interesting to see the reactions firsthand.

I also learned that it’s kinda sad to sit around people who just lost.

Since this would be my moment to potential see some of ‘my’ artists, I decided to wander back into the reception area. Just as I walked out, Dave Mustaine of Megadeth was walking in, so I nodded at him. I grabbed a water and perched somewhere to watch. I didn’t see anyone, so I went back inside and took a seat when I got a message from MissMusicNerd, who had some seats open up near her in the third row center. So I went all the way up there and grabbed one.

There were a lot of winners not there to receive their awards in person, so I began to think no one really shows up. I was really surprised when Taylor Swift won her first GRAMMY (of many to come) for Best Female Country Vocal Performance, and walked up on stage from a seat BEHIND US. Whoa. Same goes for India.Arie (who had one of the best speeches ever….she brought her mom on stage, who made her dress….and her purse…the night before!) and Maxwell.

There was something really awesome and unpretentious about this part of the awards. Perhaps it was the open seating, the larger groups of friends and family, and the lack of live TV constraints that made everyone seem more relaxed and real.

Tia Carrere was a host. Just like I can never think of Jeff Goldblum as anything but The Fly, she will always be Wayne’s World to me. Also, there’a a band in Austin called Tia Carrere.

There were some performances between the blocks of awards. Charlie Wilson was very entertaining, with scantily clad violinists behind him that transitioned into colorful suits for a dance number.

Beast also had an interesting performance- the were nominated for Best Short Form Video, so the played in front of a backdrop of the video.

Only two artists who won in my genres were present. Phoenix nabbed Best Alternative Album, and had a very excited group on the far right side. They came to the stage with an extra person in tow who seemed to be filming them with a Flip camera. In their heavy French accents, they graciously thanked everyone.

Best Metal Performance went to Judas Priest. I was shaking my head in disbelief when Scott Travis and Rob Halford come running up to the microphone. Then I got excited. MY PEOPLE! He talked about…well, see it for yourself:

And there’s this:

MTV Shows

When he said “….heavy metal fans…this is for you”…I threw some horns high in the air, and yes, the people behind me snickered.

I ducked out as soon as the rock genre was over….and it seemed most of the rock guys were, too. People were grabbing Halford for photos, and I’m pretty sure one of the Lamb of God guys walked over and congratulated him.

I kept looking for Alice in Chains, but they were nowhere to be found.

And off to the real deal I went. To be continued…

I’ll have a post up soon with my reactions to the winners in the Rock and Alternative categories.

Genre(s): GRAMMY rock/metal/alternative community blogger pieces,My Musical Adventures

3417Comments (1)2010-02-04+08%3A14%3A50hardrockchick

GRAMMY Week: Special Merit Awards honoring Leonard Cohen, Michael Jackson, Loretta Lynn, Bobby Darrin, and more @ Wilshire Ebell Theater, 1/30/10

by hardrockchick [about 7 months, 1 day ago.]

As my cab pulled up to the Wilshire Ebell theater again, I saw a long line wrapped around the building, and the sidewalk was actually covered in red carpet. I went to where Thursday night’s media check in was, and there was nothing, so I ventured around the massive line, walking on the street rather than the carpet (still felt weird). On the far side of the building was the media and VIP check in, with another smaller, more ‘special’ red carpet. I checked in and got yet another laminate, and was told I could stand there with the rest of the press. Luckily, I found fellow GRAMMY community blogger MissMusicNerd there. We were both a little like, whoa…I was standing in front of CNN, and next to US Weekly, who’s representative was miffed at the VIPs coming through…’give me La Toya, Janet, Joe….just give me a Jackson and I can go!’. Ew.

This afternoon’s ceremony was the Special Merit Awards, where the people receiving Lifetime Achievement awards get their proper ceremony rather than the quick 30 second mention that takes place during the telecast. Slowly but surely, each honoree, or the representatives accepting the posthumous award, arrived in their black sedans and wobbled out to check in at the very same desk I did. And these were no ordinary people.

As official press, we waited for each one to come and stand for their photo opp, or for me to tweet about it. Across the street were the unofficial press with their cameras- and perhaps one crazed Cohen fan with an album in his hand.

One of the challenges of doing this is being able to recognize people by sight. Luckily with this small of a group, a murmur just went down the line. I knew Leonard Cohen, who wasn’t taking interviews but stopped for pictures and tipped his hat. They don’t make men like this anymore.

David ‘Honeyboy’ Edwards came around and stopped and talked to MissMusicNerd. That man is magical.

Jimmy Jam came and talked to the CNN cameras, and discussed the MJ tribute, and how he had just come from rehearsals. The CNN cameras also interviewed Neil Portnow behind me, and thanks to Umlaut, I have proof!

There were murmurs that The Jacksons would arrive any minute, but then we were shuttled into the theater, and up to the balcony (and then out to the hall, and then back to the balcony…the PR people didn’t know what to do with us).

I stopped to take a quick pic on The Red Carpet, which I actually walked on this time!

We took a front row seat and watched the GRAMMY high school ensemble jazz band play. It set the tone for the intimate, classy affair that was about to ensue.

Each award was preceded by a nice video montage skimming the life of the recipient, often tear-jerking, always awe inspiring. Sometimes I feel like it’s impossible to live the kind of life that gets these awards anymore.

The first awards to be handed out were technical ones: AKG mics and then one posthumous award to Thomas Alva Edison for inventing the phonograph. Let me tell you, it was weird to watch his great great granddaughters and son, and great x 3 nephew go accept his award. They made a comment about liking the lightbulbs in the room, too…GEEK JOKES! Love it. Seriously, 4 generations later and his ancestors are exactly as geeky as you would expect. Think about it.

Next were the Trustees awards. One went posthumously to Florence Greenberg, who’s son and daughter accepted for her. Greenberg was sort of a revolutionary, being the first female to run a record label, founding Scepter Records. And then she turned The Shirelles into the first girl group to have a number one hit single. Girl Power! In the montage, I learned that she recorded the controversial ‘Louie Louie’ by The Kingsmen….it was their best selling record. Her son, who was led on stage by a seeing eye dog, had some cute things to say about her. “We couldn’t call her mother in the office”. Also, regarding mixing, “we would have to remix it again for her because she couldn’t understand the third word”.

Harold Bradley, a Nashville session musician, also received a Trustees award. He is the most recorded guitar player in history! Now that is impressive. His acceptance speech was very spiritual, but also very humble. He said his grankids asked his wife “what does grandpa do?” and her response was “nothing, he just sits around, playing guitar”. He also said his first guitar was purchased at a drug store for $6, and he learned to play by ear. Also, he learned to read music but ‘not enough to mess up his playing’.

The final Trustees Award went to Walter C. Miller, or Wally as he goes by. A self-proclaimed failed fiddle player, he has produced 30 years of awards shows- 29 years at the GRAMMYs, and also the Tonys and CMAs. His speech was hilarious if not a bit indecipherable. He thanked the GRAMMYs for putting up with him, stating that it’s ‘hard to take his humor sometimes’. He paused, and made it known he was going to take some time up there since ‘no one can play me off’. Then he started talking about how what he does has allowed him to get his teeth cleaned at home. “The first real show I directed was Lincoln’s Inauguration”.

Onto the Lifetime Achievement Awards. Conductor, composer, and pianist Andre Previn was unable to attend, but sent in a video acceptance speech that was slightly arrogant but rightfully so. He explained that he won the very first year they gave GRAMMYs. He has so many that he ‘gave some to his kids’. But he’ll hold on to the Lifetime Achievement Award for a while.

David ‘Honeyboy’ Edwards is the last of the original Delta blues guitarists. I am just in awe. His montage was great, showing his recent sold out European tour. It talked about how he recorded with Sam Phillips and Chess in Chicago…crazy! He’s a living artifact. He kept his acceptance speech short and sweet, saying that he’s ‘still knockin’ ‘em dead’ and let everyone know that the award wasn’t going to be a sign of retirement for him. ‘I’m still gonna play the blues’.

Bobby Darin, who penned such songs as ‘Mack the Knife’, ‘Splish Splash’, and ‘Beyond the Sea’, also is credited with discovering Wayne Newton. His son, Dodd and his two daughters, or back up singers as he called them, accepted the award. He was very choked up. He remembered being 6 years old in Vegas with his dad. His mom, Sandra Dee, had to raise him on his own from 12 years on. He described his father as part Elvis, part Sinatra, part Sammy Davis. He talked about how even though the press always portrayed his father as arrogant, he wasn’t. He told a story of how he stuck to his guns about having an African American comedian open for him back when they weren’t allowed to. It was sad to hear him talk about how his dad ‘knew he wouldn’t live long’, and left us with ‘it’s not the duration of the life, it’s what you leave behind to be remembered by’.

Clark Terry is a trumpeter, who was part of the Tonight Show orchestra for many years. He slowly made his way to the stage with the help of his wife, son, and student. ‘Thanks the beautiful people who voted for me’. Quincy Jones was one of his students (he was there, but had to leave). When he had difficulty speaking, his wife jumped in: ‘you’ve made an old man very happy’.

Loretta Lynn, the coal miner’s daughter who saw much success in the early 2000′s with her album with Jack White, Van Lear Rose, was unable to make it at the last minute because the family had been called in since her brother wasn’t doing well. Her granddaughters- Patsy and Peggy Lynn- accepted for her. They basically reiterated a phone conversation from earlier about how she was excited about the award.

And the highlight of the night, really the whole weekend, for me was Leonard Cohen. I was unable to see him on his last tour- crazy expensive sold out shows, so this meant a lot to me. When he got up on stage, he took off his hat and did a little bow. They don’t make men like this anymore. I sat there, wishing he would do one of his songs since I’d never seen him before, and just like that, wish granted. ‘Tower of Song’ stripped down at a podium on that particular night trumps just about anything you’ve ever heard anywhere. It’s like he wrote that with this moment in mind….in fact, at one point I thought maybe he had changed something, but no. I almost broke down right there, shaking, eyes glistening. It was a magical moment.

And they saved the biggest one for last, Michael Jackson’s posthumous Lifetime Achievement award. To think that I would be here, watching this award happen, after having MJ pretty much be the soundtrack to my early childhood, is a total headtrip. As a dancer, his songs infiltrated every performance and recital I ever did in the ’80s. His manager, Frank DeLeo accepted for him. He told everyone that this award was for his children, calling Michael a good friend and a funny guy. He gave an example of how he would do things like randomly call him and ask ‘Are you watching the GRAMMYs? Do you believe what ____ just said??’, and then he’d laugh and hang up. It was obvious that much of the MJ love was being reserved for the tribute on the actual telecast.

Afterward, we went to the Nominees Reception next door, where I drank cranberry juice out of a martini glass (no regular glasses allowed!), was told to cut to the front of a line by some old school comedian looking fella (she’s about to give birth, for christ-sakes, let her in front!), passed by Weird Al in the hall, and learned that they hide the best food at the party way in the back.

Genre(s): GRAMMY rock/metal/alternative community blogger pieces,My Musical Adventures

3413Comments (4)2010-02-04+02%3A35%3A57hardrockchick

GRAMMY Week: Harvest Moon: Neil Young receives MusiCares Person of the Year w/ Jack Black, John Cougar Mellencamp, T Bone Burnett, Ozomatli, Jackson Browne, CSN, Sheryl Crow, Lady Antebellum, Norah Jones, Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Wilco, Josh Groban, Everest, Dierts Bentley, Booker T, Ben Harper, Keith Urban, John Fogerty, Elvis Costello, Jason Mraz, Dave Matthews, Red Hot Chili Peppers, James Taylor, Elton John, and Leon Russell…seriously @ LA Convention Center, 1/29/10

by hardrockchick [about 7 months, 1 day ago.]

After leaving the Social Media Rock Star summit, I stopped by the Staples Center to see what watching rehearsals would be like. I caught about 20 minutes of Taylor Swift rehearsing, and it was really really interesting. Back to the hotel to change into my first dress of the trip, I then caught a cab to the convention center for a night of celebrating Neil Young.

MusiCares is an organization that helps musicians in times of need. While the annual event honors Neil Young, it’s main purpose is a fundraiser for the charity.

The cab pulls up the driveway behind 3 limousines dropping people off at the red carpet. I tell him, no- stop and let me out before the carpet, and he’s like, why not just go to the carpet? Uh, duh, because I’m not famous, dude! So I get out and gingerly walk around the tented carpet like stepping on it will set off an alarm, and get to the front near the entrance. That’s when I hear the papparazzi screaming “Neil! Look HERE! WAIT I didn’t get it…HERE PLLLEEEAAASSSEEE!!!” and realize that Neil and Pegi must have been in one of the limos right in front of me. They stop to do an interview in front of me, so I snap a quick pic.

Then I walked inside and rode up the escalator, and looked up and realized I was behind Tony Bennett! Cue ‘I Left My Heart in San Francisco’. My Meema would have been excited to hear that story.

Everyone was gathered in a room were a massive silent auction was taking place. This was the kind of event where I absolutely had no business being there- my entire outfit cost as much as one dude’s sock, probably. I walked around and admired all of the art for sale- starting to look at the price sheets and realizing it was pointless. My favorite was this series of framed Jimmy Page pics:

As I walked around, I kept getting the soon to be very familiar 5 second glance: second 1- turn, second 2-focus, second 3- register, second 4- reject, second 5- disengage disappointingly. I’m not famous, I don’t belong! Not that I wasn’t doing the same- I didn’t notice anyone famous but Mr. Bennett in the auction, and perhaps a few of the Wilco guys.

An announcement came on letting people know to start going into the banquet room, where dinner would be served and the concert would begin. So, I had a volunteer pass for this show, and knew I wouldn’t have a seat at a table- I believe the dinner was $1500 for the charity. But where was I supposed to go? I wandered around asking random people before finally just wandering into the room and figuring out that the volunteers were allowed to line the back wall of the room. In the meantime I passed Jason Schwartzman, I think, who maybe came up to my hip, and Rick Rosas.

I get settled and observe the dynamic of the formal tables being served food that everyone is picking at, preferring to focus on their drinks and expensive clothes. A live auction soon begins- the first item is to sing backup vocals on one track on Brian Wilson’s album, recorded in the famous Beach Boy studio. Elton John wins, at $20K. I’m not sure who came out ahead on that purchase.

It time for the show to begin, as desserts are being returned uneaten to the kitchen. Jack Black ,the host for the evening, strolls out onstage. I kind of have mixed feelings about the more famous half of Tenacious D in general, but in a setting like this that’s all formal and stuff, he’s great. You can tell he goes off the prompter a lot. After opening with a few words about Neil Young that revolved around the lyrics to ‘Old Man’ (such a great song), the show began.

John Cougar Mellencamp. From a young age, I had an aversion to him, and I can’t even remember what did it. But because I was in the very back of the room and couldn’t see him well, I focused on the song, ‘Down By the River’ (such a great song). He played with T Bone Burnett, who came out several times over the course of the evening. I thought it was quite nice, but I couldn’t tell if it was because I like the song so much or if I just had really low expectation for JCM.

Next, Ozomatli came out and performed ‘Mr Soul‘. While their latin/hip hop/rock fusion seemed like an odd fit, I found it to be really interesting in comparison to the rest of the evening.

Then Jackson Browne performed ‘Don’t Let It Bring You Down‘. This is one of those songs that can’t be separated from Young- the imperfections and off tune character needs to be there- Jackson Browne made it too perfect, and it lost something.

Jack Black launched into a story about when Tenacious D played Bridge School. I’ve been lucky enough to go to 2 Bridge School shows, and they truly are special. Black talked about meeting Young, and he was compelled to say something to make a ‘rainbow connection’….but would advise us to keep it simple and casual with out heroes. He then introduced the next act by poking fun of the CSN&Y name, saying how they could have snatched up Soundgarden, Nickelback, even U2…….or done something like Rocket Nugget Thunder Claw.

Stephen Stills and Sheryl Crow- who was on accordion- did a rendition of ‘Long You May Run‘. It was forgettable…I was in the back of the room and I could tell they were reading the monitors.

Black comes back out and confesses that he snuck on Young’s bus at Bridge School. “I was doing detective work….how do you do it?!” He continues, “he’s a saver- he saves things”. He informed us there was no joke here, he was just trying to get Young to tell him the secret.

‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart‘ was performed by Lady Antebellum, which is one of those weird pop culture phenomenons where two Ladys are famous at the same time.

Norah Jones played guitar to ‘Tell Me Why‘. It was pretty, but I wasn’t crazy over it like Lefsetz. By the way, it was interesting to live tweet a show with him….he’s a fast little devil, and so very negative. The stage was set up quite nicely, with multiple screens. Behind the performs tended to be a scenic series of images- for this performance it was a forest.

Black now talked about how he hosted SNL and Young was a musical guest. He described seeing him sitting cross legged on the floor with ‘childlike wonderment’. “Chicks dig Neil Young”, continuing, “he has the sensitive bad boy vibe”.

Emmylou Harris (with a guitar), Patty Griffin, and Lucinda Williams performed ‘Comes A Time‘ next. I had high expectations for this and they were unfortunately not met. There was something about the balance of the three performers that was off.

And then there was Wilco. Yes, I will agree with Lefsetz, there was something great about their performance of ‘Broken Arrow‘. It was thoughtful- they rehearsed it for 2 days beforehand, and you could tell. The end was a huge psychedelic climax that made me realize why people dig this band.

Josh Groban performed ‘Harvest Moon‘ (great song). Now, I went into this not a fan of Groban, and this definitely did not win me over. It was the wrong song choice for him (this is starting to feel like American Idol). He played piano, which also changed the vibe on the song…it needs guitar. It would have been perfect if Pearl Jam or Foo Fighters did this…it was a full moon that night, everyone is over the moon about Neil Young, and things like this only happen once in a blue moon….

Black talked about how Young is the godfather of grunge, which, while true, was an odd intro into the next performer, Everest. ‘Revolution Blues‘ sounded so spot on I thought Young had gotten up there. Everest, as well as Wilco, have toured with Young.

Dierks Bentley and Booker T did the famous ‘Cinnamon Girl‘. I either zoned out, or it just didn’t wow me, because I have no memory of it.

Black came out with a sign in tow, that Young had put backstage for all the performers. ‘Just do what you want to do, don’t listen to anyone else’. Great advice.

The next performance was another highlight for me- Ben Harper’s soul tingling rendition of the politically charged ‘Ohio‘. He played the slide guitar, and belted out the song with a lot of raw emotion.

‘Rockin’ In the Free World‘ was done by Keith Urban, John Fogerty, and Booker T. Behind them, screens showed a scene of a dark street with lights tracing by, which added to the thrill of the song.

When Black returned to the stage, he decided that he was so moved by the night that he would auction off his shoes- Ben Sherman ones, minus the arch support. They went for $600.

‘The Losing End‘ was performed by Elvis Costello, who is one of those artists I’ve just never been able to get into. The performance didn’t do any further convincing.

It would be my second time to see Jason Mraz in two days, and he performed ‘Lotta Love‘ alongside Shawn Colvin and the Grooveline Horns. I think it was at this point when it all hit me- Young’s work is so varied, yet distinctly him. And wow, the ratio of famous musicians to normal people in this room might actually make me in the minority!

Pleased with the shoe auction, but now realizing that he would have to continue barefoot, Black auctioned off his tie for $100.

Next Dave Matthews and gave an interesting little speech (where he referred to himself as a spineless egomaniac, I think…) before performing ‘Needle & the Damage Done’ (great song!), which I actually thought was quite nice.

Black now realized that the sign that Young made for the performers- telling them to do what they want- would be the best thing to auction. Someone offered $20K for it if Young signed it. Crazy.

Finally, the moment I had been waiting for, since they are the most personally relevant musicians to me of the bunch- Red Hot Chili Peppers. This would be my first time to see them, and it marked the first show with new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer. They played ‘A Man Needs A Maid‘, which made me cringe at first, but then I realized that Kiedis’ tendency to go out of tune matches Young’s. In fact, Kiedis was dressed as a young Neil in a floppy hat, sunglasses, and a green military jacket. Flea used a neon green bass with a neon orange circle in the middle. Josh K. sang some of the higher vocals in the song. His guitar tones sound very similar to Frusciante, at least to my uneducated ears.

Someone filmed this, but there is a lot of talking going on:

James Taylor came out and did ‘Heart of Gold‘ (such a GREAT song). Similar to JCM, I’m allergic to Taylor’s voice, but it ended up not being half bad. Low expectations, perhaps. Apparently he messed up the lyrics, claims Lefsetz. I didn’t notice in the back- it was a very straightforward performance.

Black came out and introduced a clip- long lost archival footage of Young, he says. It’s someone doing a very good impersonation of Young doing the viral American Idol hit, ‘Pants on the Ground’. Turns out it was Jimmy Fallon.

Of course, Black decided to auction off his pants at that point, and spent the rest of the show in red boxers, shoe-less and tie-less.

‘Helpless‘ was performed by none other than Elton John, Leon Russell, Sheryl Crow, and T Bone Burnett. It had always been a dream of mine to see Elton John, but I really wanted him to stay and play Tiny Dancer.

To cap off the performances, Crosby, Stills, and Nash performed ‘Human Highway‘. While it made sense to close with them, the performance could have had a bit more feeling.

It was time for the man himself to speak. Seemingly caught off guard, he walked from what seemed like a ways away to the podium. “No one told me I’d be up here”. He thanked everyone, the music community, which is home for him, and mentioned that this is the largest turnout ever for this event. “I forgot how many songs I’ve written”. He mentioned that he’s working on a new album, and has 4-5 songs ready. “I won’t stop”. He was glad to be in the company of his friends. He said he asks himself “who was that guy?” when he hears those songs. Quoting Dylan, “I don’t know the person who wrote ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’. He pointed at Tony Bennett, saying ‘he rocks’. “I hope to keep on going…see you again soon”.

It was kind of hard to process everything that I just saw. It was probably a good thing I was so far away from the stage, and could pretend it was just on television. I walked out next to Dwight Yoakum.

“But now it’s gettin’ late
And the moon is climbin’ high
I want to celebrate
See it shinin’ in your eye.”

-Harvest Moon, Neil Young

——————————————————————–

UPDATE:

Check out this awesome pic sent to me by the auctioneer at the event, Steve Haworth. He assisted Black in selling the signs- 2 for $20K each!

Genre(s): GRAMMY rock/metal/alternative community blogger pieces,My Musical Adventures

3406Comments (1)2010-02-03+18%3A30%3A33hardrockchick

GRAMMY Week: Social Media Rock Star Summit: Nikhil Chandhok of YouTube, David Karp of Tumblr, Kevin Rose of Digg, Pete Cashmore of Mashable, and Jared Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars @ the GRAMMY Museum, 1/29/10

by hardrockchick [about 7 months, 3 days ago.]

Being the geek that I am, I was actually most excited to attend this event of everything on my agenda for the weekend.

Social media have been key to the success that my site has seen, and this works in a multidirectional manner. I am a passionate fan, a hardcore concert goer, and in some genres, what marketers would call an influencer. The strongest source of promotion for me has been Twitter, and I’m currently growing my relatively new Facebook fan page. So those are the two sources for me to connect with my readers. I use MySpace and Twitter to connect with musicians, whether it be for interviews, guestlists, or just as a general source of news. It’s pretty powerful stuff, and all of it combined has changed my life in some pretty incredible ways. So I have a strong interest in this area, especially in the effect that social media will have on music in the future, innovations and areas of convergence between the different outlets, and I also have some strong opinions focused on usability improvements to the different services (twitter…..my list is growing!!!!).

Due to my involvement in GRAMMY Live at the time, I wouldn’t necessarily be able to sit in on the entire panel, but it seemed like I might get to chat with some of the panelists afterward. I say might because plans were very loose for the webcast. I was excited- I was especially interested in talking with Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, which I admittedly don’t really use, but he’s interviewed Trent Reznor before, and was included in the NIN iPhone app demo video as well. Plus he seems like a really smart dude and the Digg offices are in my neighborhood. I was also *interested* in talking to Jared Leto. Beyond having a decade + old crush on him, he has used twitter to do some interesting things with 30 Seconds to Mars- having fans contribute to the recording process, work on album art, and do treasure hunt type contests. I also know he’s a NIN fan (he was spotted at several of the final shows I was at), so there’s always that topic……yes, I can relate everything back to NIN in some way, especially if it has to do with pushing the music industry forward.

The panelists arrived to the GRAMMY Museum a bit before 2pm, each with their own mini entourage. The event was being streamed on CNN.com as well, so there were a lot of groups of people scurrying around and the museum staff seem slightly uninformed of what was going on. A kiosk with an interactive We’re All Fans display was in front of the panel area, and a few of the social media rock stars were included among Beyonce and Lady Gaga, so they had photo opps with that. We were getting close to start time when Leto descended from heaven, er, the top floor down the stairs in front of us, his tall hair nearly preceding him.

So with my minimal experience, little direction, a lot of technical difficulties, and an earbud in my ear for cues, I helped kick off the webcast with two much more experienced vloggers, Shira Lazar and Drew Hinze from the Recording Academy. A few people I know watched, and politely said I did ok; others, like my mom, said I looked scared and small in comparison to my cohosts, and didn’t get enough time to talk. Moms.

I sat in on the panel for about an hour of the 90 minute discussion. Besides disliking the CNN host’s attitude, I found the discussion to be a rather good intro for what, in my mind, could have been a day long panel. With perhaps the exception of the YouTube representative, Nikhil Chandhok, the rest of the participants were all so young. But it was refreshing to hear people so in touch with the realities of today’s music industry- people who realize that the old models are dead and it’s time to pick up and move on. I did wish that someone from MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook had been there, because those are the big three really…and Spotify, Last.fm, iTunes, and TopSpin would have really been great. A few more rock stars could have helped as well- Leto did really well, but it felt a little off balance between providers and end users.

I had to leave early to get set up for using phones to stream interviews at the reception afterward, which ultimately didn’t happen, so it’s difficult to report on a lot of the ground covered in the panel. Go here to watch several clips from the panel, and to admire Leto’s hair, and there are also some great pics here, from one of my fellow GRAMMY community bloggers.

Genre(s): GRAMMY rock/metal/alternative community blogger pieces,My Musical Adventures

3401Comments (0)2010-02-02+09%3A15%3A09hardrockchick

GRAMMY Week: Music Television: Cue the Music w/ Jason Mraz, Colbie Callait, Melanie Fiona, Solomon Burke, The Fray, Pat Monahan, and Jorge Moreno @ Wilshire Ebell Theater, 1/28/10

by hardrockchick [about 7 months, 3 days ago.]

It would be the beginning of my GRAMMY adventure.

I had jumped off the plane, checked into my hotel, and had a production meeting at the AEG offices in the digital media department, to try to wrap my head around my participation in the huge undertaking that was GRAMMY Live’s 72 hour web stream leading up to the telecast. Slightly overwhelmed, I ran back to the hotel and hopped in a cab for the Wilshire Ebell Theater, which apparently no cabbie in LA has ever heard of.

The smallish venue is essentially in a residential area. I hop out of the cab and go up to will call, where I’m blankly looked at and given that ‘you’re not on the list’ comment, when I realize that this isn’t the media check in. It’s around the corner. So I go around and am handed a laminate and told that I can either go up the stairs to the red carpet, or go in the front since it’s about to begin. This would be the beginning of my, ‘what the hell, they offered’ line of thinking, so I went up to the red carpet.

It was my first red carpet…..hahaha that sounds so WEIRD. I didn’t even walk up to it, I just stood in the corner and was like, ‘so this is what it’s like!’. Basically people with cameras and videocameras were standing along the edge, and one person of note- the host of the evening, Shaun Robinson- was there at this point, and she just walks down and stops and poses and talks to whoever has questions. I stayed along the opposite wall away from the action, where other various crew, VIPs, and talent were hanging out. The whole thing just seemed so artificial- the carpet is just along one side of the room, so it’s like red carpet approved people of note have to walk into the room just like everyone else, but then they are filtered to walk down the carpet…I dunno, it was just weird.

So I open the envelope that came with the laminate, and decide I should find my seat. I walk through the cavernous backstage of the venue to find an usher to help me. I get to my seat on the main floor of the venue, center section, towards the back, just as the show is about to begin. Some lady sits next to me, reeking of perfume and covered in fur, and I thought she was talking on a cell phone but she was really talking to herself. Oh, then she did talk on her phone….as the show started. And everyone around me was talking, getting up, and and coming and going all night. I reminded myself that this isn’t necessarily a show about the music, so all my rules needed to go out the window.

I was supposed to tweet the show, but I got absolutely no service in there. Instead, I tapped away on my notepad.

The night was entitled ‘Cue the Music: A Celebration of Music and Television’. It was an event for the GRAMMY Foundation and the Annual Music Preservation Project. The show began with a collection of clips of TV shows and their theme songs. It was great to begin that way, because we often don’t think about how powerful some of those pieces are, or even consider them the same way we do other music.

After a few introductions, there was another montage of musicians’ performances on television. It always amazes me to look at that clip of Elvis shaking his hips on Ed Sullivan and think about how controversial that was. And then to see the girls go wild for The Beatles in the studio audience. They also showed a great clip of Bowie singing with Bing Crosby. And then there was Sonny and Cher, which led us into the first performance of the evening.

I had previously lumped Jason Mraz into the Jack Johnson bucket- mellow singer songwriters that surf and sit on the beach with guitars in front of bonfires. I don’t know why. But I will have to revise my categorization, for he is much more soulful and interesting than Jack Johnson, who kinda makes me want to tear my ears off. The music to Mraz’s ‘It’s Not Unusual’ (oh- you’ve heard it, somewhere) start, and he enters the stage from the right and Colbie Callait comes from the left. They’re wearing white and are barefoot, and it’s all cute and stuff. I had heard mixed things about Callait- granted this is not my genre, but it seemed like she could sing. I should really stop reading Lefsetz. They transition into ‘I Got You Babe’, which is a cute duet, but Mraz > Sonny and Callait < Cher...so.....

EVERYTHING is on YouTube

One of the cool things about the GRAMMY events is the archival footage show. There was an interesting piece interviewing how Les Paul about how he met his wife. Then, a montage on the music within TV shows: The Partridge Family, The Monkees, The Brady Bunch, The Cosby Show (the priceless Rudy lip syncing scene), Zoo Rock, Hannah Montana, Ally McBeal (the dancing baby…), Fame, and I Love Lucy, which segued into the next musical act. Jorge Moreno came out and performed a spicy version of Ricky Ricardo’s ‘Babalu’, complete with bongo drums and gyrations.

A more fleshed out montage of themes in television came next. The title of the show wasn’t shown until the song played for a bit, so it was like a little guessing game. The clip include Sex and the City, Deadwood, Gilligan’s Island, Charlie’s Angels, The Office, Six Feet Under (which is one of my all time favorite shows, and when I heard the theme, amongst a generally foreign night of music for me, it was like a warm hello), Friends, and The Sopranos.

The curtain pulled back to reveal Solomon Burke perched on a king’s throne, as the heavy bass began and he belted out ‘Woke Up This Morning’, the theme song for The Sopranos. I really enjoyed it. Though he is obviously immobile, it did not stop the power of his voice.

We then moved into a montage of kid’s shows with musical content. Zoom, Electric Company, Sesame Street, The Muppets featuring Alice Cooper….why are kids’ shows so trippy?

Melanie Fiona, a Canadian R&B singer songwriter, then came out and did Rainbow Connection, which Kermit did in the Muppet Movie. Of course her version was better. And she had a beautiful dress on.

Then there were clips of MTV, which both makes me incredibly nostalgic and pissed off at the same time. This led into a somewhat awkward version of Video Killed the Radio Star by Pat Monahan, lead singer of SF’s Train. This was followed by a more awkward comment by the host regarding certain entities killing music….back onto the script.

The final montage covered music reality shows like American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, Glee (which I had to google…yeah), and The Hills, which led into The Fray’s performance, apparently because their music is featured in that show.

The Fray is a pop band that sometimes gets wrongfully classified in the rock genre…just my opinion. They are piano-centric, and remind me of when Coldplay used to be ok to listen to. Yeah, you read that right…don’t try to tell me you didn’t like ‘A Rush of Blood to the Head’ at least a little when in came out (of course, I was falling in love right then, so that always helps). But, to The Fray’s credit, they made the crowd stand up, the girls screamed, and they had some good energy.

I found the event to be really interesting. I have always been more drawn to TV shows with thoughtful music…if I had understood what a music supervisor was before starting down a path in school, I probably would have gone that route. Some shows that I always admired for their integration of music were the first two seasons of Nip/Tuck, for often extremely literal choices, CSI from when I used to watch it years ago, for subtle use of more underground bands, and True Blood for using modern, Southern tinged music to set the mood, and of course, there’s THE best- Twin Peaks!

I skipped the reception to prepare for what would be a long day on Friday. I had to call a cab and give them directions to the theater, while everyone around me scurried off to their SUVs and Mercedes.

Check out a GRAMMY blog of the night, which includes a video clip, here.

Genre(s): GRAMMY rock/metal/alternative community blogger pieces,My Musical Adventures

3394Comments (0)2010-02-02+07%3A04%3A22hardrockchick

What’s the Alternative? 2009 in Alt-Rock

by hardrockchick [about 8 months, 2 days ago.]

It’s challenging to write about what happened to a genre of music in 2009 when it’s as loosely defined as Alternative. What exactly is Alternative music, really? It’s hard to put into words, but our ears can pick it up. And that’s the beauty of music.

Early ’90s alt-rock bands Dinosaur Jr., Meat Puppets, The Jesus Lizard, and Sonic Youth all toured extensively in support of albums and rereleases. This interestingly mimics the way these bands originally set the stage for Grunge, which is set to see a huge revival in 2010 with the newly reunited Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and Stone Temple Pilots.

It has often been said that The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath wrote every riff and melody out there, and today’s music just combines them in new and different ways. One look at the genre classifications of new bands’ MySpace pages will show you how genre hybrids are becoming more and more diverse. Disco elements have found their way into the indie rock of MGMT and the GRAMMY nominated Yeah Yeah Yeah’s album, It’s Blitz. Electronica have merged into the psychedelic rock of A Place to Bury Strangers, who’s second album Exploding Head is one of my favorites of the year. Dirty Projectors have combined indie rock with almost every other genre imaginable in the most dizzying album of the year, Bitte Orca. And Fever Ray claims to be black metal (though I can not go there) combined with folk rock, as seen in their 2009 self-titled release .

Some subgenres from the early ’80s were refreshed in 2009. Chris Corner of IAMX continued to produce innovative music in the darkwave realm with Kingdom of Welcome Addiction. Fischerspooner released their latest installment in the electroclash realm with Entertainment. Post-punk bands heavily influenced by Joy Division and The Jesus and Mary Chain saw success this year, my favorites being The Horrors with their release Primary Colours- another one of my favorite albums of the year, as well as Crocodiles, The Raveonettes, and She Wants Revenge.

Indie rock, which has dominated alternative rock for the past decade, has increasingly taken an electronic slant. This can be seen in the GRAMMY nominated Phoenix’s work Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, as well as other 2009 indie favorites Grizzly Bear, Miike Snow, Glasvegas, Matt & Kim, and Lykke Li.

Perhaps being an established Alternative music act proved to be a curse on the road this year. GRAMMY nominated Depeche Mode set off on a world tour to promote Sounds of the Universe. The tour was plagued with cancellations as David Gahan battled illness and a leg injury (one of which was my show in SF….PLEASE RESCHEDULE..thanks!) Morissey also had to cancel shows as he toured in support of Years of Refusal . And Weezer lead singer Rivers Cuomo was injured in a bus accident that led to cancellations of the remainder of their Raditude tour.

What will happen to Alternative music as we move into the new decade? What genre buried in the past will be reborn in the present? Will we see rock music mixed with elements of Polka or Hyphy? I’m excited to see what new ground will be covered in the future of Alternative music.

Genre(s): GRAMMY rock/metal/alternative community blogger pieces

3312Comments (0)2010-01-03+23%3A28%3A37hardrockchick