The City Veins

Well, the nominations have been released for the 50th annual Grammy awards. While no one is under the impression that the Grammys are still relevant, I would like to offer some thoughts about the nominees anyway. Hell, I am just trying to get out one post a day. While there will be a wealth of material about the big awards, so I am going to dig deep into the nominations.

For example, did you know that they give out Grammys for “Best Tejano Album,” “Best Norteño Album,” and “Best Banda Album?” Yeah, well how about “Best Native American Music Album,” “Best Hawaiian Music Album,” or “Best Zydeco Or Cajun Music Album?”

The most important award is the face-off between Barak Obama, Maya Angelou, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and Alan Alda in the “Best Spoken Word Album” category. This award has HUGE Presidential implications. I think that an Obama victory will send a clear signal that he is ready for the White House. He will have beaten the last two Democratic Presidents, and will clearly be their heir apparent. Also, Hillary has already won one; a fact she is certain to use against him. I am surprised that more pundits are not recognizing the importance of this award for 2008. It also shows that the right is dominated by people with horrible speaking voices.

Thank god that Stan Chow is nominated for putting the White Stripes “Icky Thump” on a USB flash drive. Seriously, if this isn’t deserving of a Grammy, then I don’t know what is. I was going to write about how “Best Recording Package, “Best Album Notes,” and “Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package” awards are clearly desperate attempts by the industry to fight the scourge of internet piracy, but they have been giving out “Recording Package” since 1974 and “Album Notes” since 1964. Hell, there use to be a “Best Album Notes - Classical” category.

My ironclad, you can take it to the bank, guarantee is that R. Kelly will win “Best Long Form Music Video” for Trapped in a Closet Chapters 13-22. There is no other artist that can even come close. That said, I do have a slight problem with the nomination. Apparently, the nomination is “For video album packages consisting of more than one song or track.” While “Closet” might sneak on a the track technicality, calling the different chapters separate songs is a dubious prospect at best.

The most awesome category has to be “Best Rock Instrumental Performance” with Metallica, Rush, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and Bruce Springsteen all vying for the prize. Also, look to this category, and its nominees, to understand why the Guitar Center is such a horrible place to visit.

The best category is probably “Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album,” with Steve Earle, Tom Waits, Patty Griffin, Ry Cooder, and Mary Chapin Carpenter all nominated. I would ordinarily root for Mary Chapin Carpenter, because she is local, but Patty Griffin’s “Children Running Through” is one of the best albums of the year. That album only garnering one nomination is the biggest oversight of this year’s nominations. It is easily one of my top 5 albums from the past year.

Rihanna’s “Umbrella” should win every category that it is nominated in, and probably some that it is not nominated in. That said, she will probably lose to Aaron’s favorite Amy Winehouse. If our band breaks up anytime soon, this disagreement will be the genesis of it.

So that is it. Let me leave you with this video of Prince and Beyonce from the 2004 Grammys, because after the Plain White-Ts perform “Hey There Delilah” (nominated for “Song of the Year”), it will only be the second greatest performance in Grammy history.