The Stars Shone on Grammy Night!

[AP image]

If you attended the ma World Conference this year, you probably missed the Grammy Awards (or most of it, anyway). Here's a taste of the night's big winners. For the full list, click here.




Album of the Year: “Raising Sand,” Robert Plant and Alison Krauss; T Bone Burnett, producer; Mike Piersante, engineer/mixer; Gavin Lurssen, mastering engineer (Rounder)
Rap Album: “Tha Carter III,” Lil Wayne (Cash Money/Universal Motown)



Male Pop Vocal Performance: “Say,” John Mayer; track from “Continuum” (Columbia)



Record of the Year: “Please Read The Letter,” Robert Plant and Alison Krauss; T Bone Burnett, producer; Mike Piersante, engineer/mixer; track from “Raising Sand” (Rounder)



New Artist: Adele



Rock Album: “Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends,” Coldplay (Capitol)



Pop Collaboration With Vocals: “Rich Woman,” Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, track from “Raising Sand” (Rounder)



Song of the Year: “Viva La Vida,” Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion and Chris Martin, songwriters (Coldplay), track from “Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends” (Capitol Records; Publishers: Universal Music-MGB Songs)



Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals: “Stay,” Sugarland, track from “Enjoy the Ride” (Mercury)



R&B Album: “Jennifer Hudson,” Jennifer Hudson (Arista)



Producer of the Year, Non-Classical: Rick Rubin



Producer of the Year, Classical: David Frost



Female Pop Vocal Performance: “Chasing Pavements,” Adele, track from “19” (Columbia/XL)





Traditional Pop Vocal Album: “Still Unforgettable,” Natalie Cole (DMI)



Pop Vocal Album: “Rockferry,” Duffy (Mercury)

Beck Hopes to Nab 5th Grammy Award This Year

Musical genius, Beck, established his place in mainstream music as a "Loser". Ironically, he is a multi-time Grammy Award winner who hopes to add another to his collection this time around. His latest release, Modern Guilt is nominated in the "Best Alternative Album" category this year. Check out the video (featuring actress, Chloe Sevigny) for his single, "Gamma Ray"--a cool, bass-heavy production with a light touch of the 60s--a juxtapositon to the heavy subject matter it speaks to. Have a listen.

Beck - Gamma Ray

Grammy-Nominees Talk Raising Sand and an Unlikely, Winning Collaboration

An unlikely combo made for a harmonious musical moment that will surely go down in history. Raising Sand is the name of the collaborative album by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. The album is comprised of an eclectic mix of cover songs, handpicked by producer, T-Bone Burnett. In the following video, Plant and Krauss discuss the album and their unlikely pairing. Raising Sand is nominated for 5 Grammys this year!

A Chat With Grammy- Nominee, Katy Perry

Katy Perry brought on the ruckus this year with her racy single, "I Kissed a Girl". Check out this video where Katy talks tour, the single-- "Hot 'N Cold", and Madonna.

Album Review: Estelle - Shine

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

For anyone who never warmed to Erykah Badu's Egyptology or still mourns Lauryn Hill's disappearance, help has arrived. Estelle offers a gritty alternative to R&B divadom's strutting fembots. On her American debut, this former U.K. record—store clerk boasts an all—star cast: executive producer John Legend, Will.i.am, Swizz Beatz, Kanye West and Cee—Lo, who duets on the Philly—soul "Pretty Please (Love Me)." But those Yanks don't dilute Shine's regional feel — this West London homegirl's perspective is etched in her husky singing, fleet—tongued rapping and wised—up lyrics. ("You ain't spending the night/After we're done here, it's back to the wife," she commands in "Wait a Minute.") The music encompasses rugged modern R&B, dancehall, Sarah Vaughan—style jazz vocalese and, on "No Substitute Love," a reggae—soul—hip—hop torch song. But the mood is always beatific, topped off by "American Boy," a treatise on Anglo—American relations where Estelle plays a cheeky sex—tourist. "Don't like his baggy jeans," she raps, "but I'ma like what's underneath them. (Jody Rosen)
[via Rollingstone.com]

Album Review: Radiohead - In Rainbows

These wily boys may have a secret album-title exchange program with Kelly Clarkson, but everything else about In Rainbows is typically hard-rocking Radiohead. Like every other Radiohead album except Kid A — still their most famous album, but they only made it once — In Rainbows has uptempo guitar songs and moody acoustic ballads, full of headphone-tweaking sound effects. All of it rocks; none of it sounds like any other band on earth; it delivers an emotional punch that proves all other rock stars owe us an apology.

In a brilliant move, Radiohead released In Rainbows via optional-pay download; I paid $5.27, in honor of my mom's birthday. Almost all the songs are already familiar to fans from live versions, but here they become expansive new creations. "Arpeggi" and "Bodysnatchers" ride on white-heat rhythm-guitar overdrive, while "House of Cards" is a fragile lovers-rock ballad closely resembling Dusty Springfield's (and the Byrds') "Going Back." "All I Need" has erotic pleading ("I'm an animal trapped in your hot car"), sad chimes in the "No Surprises" mode, and an ominoso synth-piano rumble.

On 2003's Hail to the Thief, Yorke's vocals were all punk rage, but here his voice has an R&B lilt that suits the songs' romantic directness. The end of "Videotape" is the only time the band dips back into dated glitch-blip electronics. Otherwise, the music is full of vividly collaborative sonic touches, from the Gary Numan synth-nightmare drones of "All I Need" and "House of Cards" to drummer Phil Selway's surprisingly deft way with his brushes and woodblocks. No wasted moments, no weak tracks: just primo Radiohead. Hell, I'm going back and tipping them another quarter just for the finger-cymbal solo on "Reckoner." (Rob Sheffield)

[via Rollingstone.com]

Album Review: Adele - 19

In honor of the upcoming Grammy Awards--and so you can get better acquainted with why the nominees are nominees-- we're posting a few album reviews for your reading pleasure.



Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

Like fellow crooners Amy Winehouse and Kate Nash, Adele Adkins polished her skills at the Brit School in south London — as good a finishing academy as American Idol. Her debut, which topped the British charts earlier this year, lacks the bad-girl brio of those grads, but it shows off a vocal instrument that smokes the competition.

Check out "Cold Shoulder," a lover's blues, produced by Winehouse's secret weapon, Mark Ronson: Over swirling strings and a snare pattern borrowed from James Brown's "Funky Drummer," Adele reads her man the riot act with a mix of Memphis-soul-mama swoops and cockney-street-punk stops. "Melt My Heart to Stone" and "Tired," co-written with veteran U.K. hit-maker Eg White, are retro-modern R&B exercises with similar charm. On more sparsely arranged numbers, though — including a measured cover of Bob Dylan's unlikely pop standard "Make You Feel My Love" — her marvelous technique can become cloying, and the boilerplate verses on her originals don't help. Here's hoping the girl's storytelling will one day be as interesting as her phrasing. (Will Hermes)

[Via Rollingstone.com]

Superstar Lineup For 51st Anuual Grammy Awards Announced

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (Jan. 29, 2009) — U2, Kid Rock, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, and Rihanna are the latest performers announced for the 51st Annual GRAMMY® Awards. They join previously announced performers Kenny Chesney, Coldplay, Jennifer Hudson, Jonas Brothers, Lil Wayne, Paul McCartney (with special guest drummer Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters), Katy Perry, Radiohead, T.I. and Justin Timberlake, Carrie Underwood, and Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, T.I. and Kanye West in a special performance of their hit single "Swagga Like Us." Actor Simon Baker (CBS' "The Mentalist"), actor/musician Jack Black, current three-time GRAMMY nominee Duffy, current nominee Josh Groban, three-time GRAMMY-winning jazz musician and current nominee Charlie Haden, actor Samuel L. Jackson and Academy Award®-winning actress and current GRAMMY nominee Gwyneth Paltrow will appear as presenters.

The music industry's premier event will take place live on Sunday, Feb. 8, at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles and will be broadcast in HDTV and 5.1 Surround Sound on the CBS Television Network from 8 – 11:30 p.m. (ET/PT).

[Via Grammy.com]