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February 2011, picture the scene:
Post holiday melt down and miffness.
The weather is still cooking.
We are all craving something exciting.
Well, music lovers, there’s a treat install for all of us!
N.E.R.D live in Jozi on the 12th February 2011
As far as I know, Hansa is sponsoring the event. See the link for more information.
U2 live in SA: 360° Degree Concert Tour: Jozi on the 13th February, Cape Town 18th February 2011
Hotttt off the press:
Kings of Leon are confirmed!
The Kings Of Leon South African tour dates have been confirmed by 5FM, and here they are:
Johannesburg on 27 March 2011 at the FNB Stadium
Cape Town on 24 March at the Cape Town Stadium.
PRICING:
Golden Circle = R590. General Field Standing = R390. Seated from R215
For more info: see slxs.co.za
Okay, so awards season has officially kicked off.
After the disappointing American Music Awards (AMA’s), it’s no surprise who’s leading the pack at the up and coming 53rd Annual Grammy Awards.
From: People magazine
“This year, the Grammy Awards are spreading the wealth.
Fronting a diverse array of nominees, rapper Eminem led the pack with a total 10 Grammy nominations, including nods in major categories like Album of the Year and Record of the Year, it was announced Wednesday night.
Not far behind: Bruno Mars, who nabbed seven nominations, including several as a songwriter, while Lady Gaga and country trio Lady Antebellum each earned six nominations, including an Album of the Year nod for their stirring single “Need You Now.”
“Album of the Year nominations were awarded to Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs, Eminem’s Recovery, Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now, Lady Gaga’s The Fame Monster and Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream. ”
I’m really glad that Arcade Fire got the well deserved nod! However, I think it’s a long shot.
Especially considering the competition.
From The Envelope:
“The beleaguered record industry couldn’t have been happier about the return to the spotlight in 2010 of rapper Eminem, the biggest-selling artist of the new millennium, and heaped upon him a field-leading 10 Grammy Award nominations for his “Recovery” album, including nods in all three top categories of album, record and song of the year.
Although it was widely expected that Eminem would do well in this year’s Grammy competition, Hawaiian-born producer-singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Bruno Mars caught many by surprise as runner-up to Eminem with seven nominations, announced Wednesday in conjunction with a televised Grammy nomination concert from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.
Mars is competing with himself in the record of the year category for his production and vocals on rapper B.o.B’s “Nothin’ on You,” and as one of the producers of R&B-soul singer Cee-Lo Green’s broadcast-confounding hit single “… You.”
“Given that each record of the year nominee is traditionally performed live on the awards telecast, which will be held Feb. 13 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, Grammy ceremony producers will have a challenge in how to present a song on national television in which the profanity is not simply a casual toss-off that’s easily excised, but central to the song’s message from a guy to the girl who has dumped him. Expectations are that Green will perform the PG-rated “Forget You” version that allowed many radio stations to play it during the year.
Wednesday’s telecast skirted the issue by listing only the names of the artists who recorded the nominated songs, not the titles. When presenters Dave Grohl and Selena Gomez announced the titles, Gomez referred to it as “the song otherwise known as ‘Forget You.’”
The other three nominees for record of the year, which honors performance, production and engineering, are “Love the Way You Lie” from Eminem and Rihanna; Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ love letter to the Big Apple, “Empire State of Mind”; and country trio Lady Antebellum’s romantically desperate closing-time phone call, “Need You Now,” which also earned the country trio an album of the year nomination.
Eminem and Lady A are vying in the album category with Lady Gaga’s “The Fame Monster,” Katy Perry’s frothy “Teenage Dream” and the latest critically acclaimed effort from Canadian indie rock group Arcade Fire, “The Suburbs.” Eminem also got nominations for pop vocal collaboration, short-form music video and every rap category in which he was eligible: rap solo performance, rap-sung collaboration, rap album and twice for rap song.
Green’s profanity-laced send-off also is up for song of the year, which is strictly a songwriter’s award, along with the Lady Antebellum hit written by Dave Haywood, Josy Kear, Charles Kelley and Hillary Scott; Alexander Grant, Holly Hafferman and Marshall Mathers’ “Love The Way You Lie”; Ray LaMontagne’s “Beg Steal or Borrow”; and Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin’s “The House That Built Me,” a hit for Texas firebrand Miranda Lambert, who landed three nominations of her own in country categories.
Lambert got humorously political in choosing “Only Prettier” for her performance segment, in which she sang, “Let’s shake hands and reach across those party lines.… We might think differently, but we got a lot in common you will see/We’re just like you, only prettier.”
Teen idol Justin Bieber shares space in the new artist category with Canadian rapper Drake, Portland, Ore.-born jazz-pop musican Esperanza Spalding and a pair of English groups, Florence & the Machine and rock quartet Mumford & Sons.”
Back to my 2 cents worth:
Fact:
Grammys are awarded for recordings released during the eligibility period between Sept. 1, 2009, and Sept. 30, 2010, and are decided on by about 12,000 voting members of the Recording Academy.
So if you are wondering why Kanye’s new masterpiece isn’t up there… You gonna have to wait for next year.
There are always surprises when it comes to these awards.
Check out this article that the LA Times has posted.
For a full comprehensive view of all the nominees, check out:
grammy.com
Give me a few days and I’ll update on my predictions.
Okay, so it’s that time of year again when AWARDS season strucks us hard.
The countdown now begins.
Tonight 22h00 est, thats ± 08h00am here tomorrow, the nominees will be announced.
From The LA Times:
“When Grammy Award nominations are unveiled on Wednesday, expect to see these four tunes in the race for best record of the year.
“Love the Way You Lie,” Eminem featuring Rihanna
“Empire State of Mind,” Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys
“Need You Now,” Lady Antebellum
“Bad Romance,” Lady Gaga
So … what will be nominated in that fifth slot?
Grammy nominations for the top four awards — best record, album, song and new artist of the year — are chosen by a secret committee of music experts who usually like to include representative contenders from major music genres. Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie” will represent rap in the race for best record, but I also believe that Jay-Z’s “Empire” could be included too, considering its huge pop success in 2010. Regardless of who represents rap in this top race, the big cliffhanger looming is: Can it win? A rap tune has never claimed the award for best record of the year. Rap is way overdue.
Lady Antebellum will probably edge out Miranda Lambert to represent country in this contest. Lady Gaga can’t be ignored — she will not tolerate it — so that means “Bad Romance” will make the list too even though it seems like it’s 5 years old by now. Months ago “Bad Romance” swept the MTV Music Video Awards and now seems destined for prominence, if not victory, at the Grammys.
Many tunes vie for that fifth slot: “Hey, Soul Sister” (Train), “Airplanes” (B.o.B. featuring Hayley Williams), “Dog Days Are Over” (Florence + the Machine), “California Gurls” (Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg) and “Soldier of Love” (Sade).”
I totally agree with the above statement.
It’s funny, whenever one (especially me) hears popular tunes like the ones listed above, it takes an awards ceremony like the Grammys to help us remember why these songs are so great.
Personally, Florence and the machine are a favorite for me!
However, there is one song that everyone is forgetting about for the ‘song of the year’, for me, that’s Shakira’s: WAKA WAKA.
Watch this space 
Best new artist, for me, 100% goes to B.O.B.
From The Envelope:
“1. The underdogs. The popular choice for a surprise is the soulful orchestral pop of Florence + the Machine. Yet after the act wowed audiences at the MTV Video Music Awards, a best new artist nod should be a given rather than something unexpected. Though it shouldn’t have taken a full year, Florence + the Machine no doubt woke stodgy Recording Academy voters to her talents. A bigger surprise, however, would be the Arcade Fire earning an album of the year nod for “The Suburbs.” Sooner or later, Recording Academy voters are going to have to recognize that the industry has changed and independent acts regularly appear on the charts. A general decline in sales has created a level playing field of sorts. Fans are venturing beyond superstars, and it’s time Recording Academy voters did the same.
2. Because it’s Miranda’s time. You can count on at least one country artist scoring an album of the year nod. The safe bet is Lady Antebellum, whose adult contemporary pop has a country twinge and crossover appeal. Yet don’t be surprised if Lambert edges out Lady Antebellum as the Nashville representative. Though she has reality-show roots, having been discovered on “Nashville Star,” Lambert has managed to assume the role of mainstream country’s rock rebel. With a voice that can break hearts as easily as it can rattle spines. Lambert has the support of the Nashville community, having won best album at the recent Country Music Assn. Awards, and is a more likely vote for a rock-heavy voting bloc.
3. Big things should be in store for hip-hop. Eligible rap albums include monster efforts from Eminem and Jay-Z, and a sharp album from the Roots, who are long overdue for some recognition in the album of the year field. Eminem’s “Recovery” should be considered a lock, as it showed off a more serious side of the artist than did his prior effort “Relapse.” Jay-Z, however, has never scored an album of the year nod, and his “The Blueprint 3″ was a commercial success that spawned the forever-to-be-unavoidable “Empire State of Mind.” The Roots? The most deserving, but the biggest longshots.
4. Because one of the year’s best singles can’t even have its name printed in a newspaper. The radio-safe version of the song is known as “Forget You,” and though Cee Lo Green’s hit likely can’t win record or song of the year, the cut took bitterness and turned it into something rather charming. For that alone, Cee Lo deserves a nom.
5. Admit it, ranting about clueless Grammy voters is a time-honored tradition. Think of all the fun angry tweets that will be inspired by something like Train’s “Save Me San Francisco” scoring an album of the year nod. Actually, don’t. “
Legend. Maverick. Pot lover! Country bumkin rock n rolla Willie Nelson, proves yet again how unstoppable he is.
From: Rollingstone:
“Willie Nelson was arrested yesterday at a border patrol checkpoint in Sierra Blanca, Texas after agents reportedly found 6 ounces of marijuana on his tour bus. Mickey Raphael, Nelson’s longtime harmonica player, tells Rolling Stone that the singer, who posted a $2,500 bond was freed by 1:30 p.m. yesterday, is in good spirits. “He said he feels great — he lost six ounces.”
Raphael says Nelson, 77, was traveling without his band from California, where he spent the Thanksgiving holiday, to Austin, TX, where he owns a ranch. The El Paso Times reports that agents at a checkpoint searched his bus, called the Honeysuckle Rose III, at 9 a.m. Nelson admitted the pot was his and was taken to the local Hudspeth County jail.
“It’s kind of surprising, but I mean we treat him like anybody else,” Hudspeth County Sherriff Arvin West told the newspaper. “He could get 180 days in county jail,” the sheriff added. “If he does, I’m going to make him cook and clean.”
Nelson’s publicist had no comment.
“The singer has long advocated for the legalization of marijuana. “It’s a matter of time, a matter of education, a matter of people finding out what cannabis, marijuana is for, why it grows out of the ground and why it’s prescribed as one of the greatest stress medicines on the planet,” he said in 2008.”
In January, six of Nelson’s band members were issued citations in North Carolina for reportedly possessing moonshine and marijuana. In 2006, Nelson and four others on his bus were issued citations at a traffic stop in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana after authorities seized nearly 1.5 pounds of marijuana and 3 ounces of hallucinogenic mushrooms. Nelson and tour manager David Anderson both paid a $1,024 fine and served six months of probation. “Both bus drivers were over fifty years old,” Nelson said at the time. “The other guys were 60 years old. My sister is 75, I’m 73, so it’s like they busted an old folks home.”
P.s. If you are Harold and Kumar fans, I’m sure you would’ve appreciated the cameo that Nelson makes at the end of Harold and Kumar escape from Guantanamo Bay.
Imagine chilling out and smoking a fatty with this champ
This is way too good not to share.
ROLLINGSTONE MAGAZINE: 50 artists on music they love: Pick their Top 10 favorites
The 1 article that stood to me was Chris Robinson (front man for the Black Crows):
“As a kid, the Black Crowes frontman wasn’t a Stones fan — but he adored the Byrds: “I came into [the Stones] because of the Gram Parsons association. They were dirty and funky and smart, and there was a ‘we just don’t give a fuck’ attitude I loved.”
“Midnight Rambler” 1969
A woman told me years ago that she saw the Stones in ’72 and masturbated when they played “Midnight Rambler.” I was like, “It’s a song about a guy breaking into a house and raping somebody!” How dark and weird, and yet it’s an incredibly powerful piece of music.
The above was taken from a concert in ’72. I don’t know if it’s the exact one that the lady above was referring to, nevertheless, lets use our imagination
See what:
Bono what has to say about David Bowie, what Jack Johnson thinks of Bob Marley, what Annie Lennox schemes about Ladies with soul… the list goes on.
See: Rolling stone.com
From RollingStone.com
Quincy Jones talks about his new tribute album and what he thought about working with esteemed artists like:
Amy Winehouse, Mary J Blige, T-Pain featuring Robin Thicke, Lady Gaga and more.
From this interview, it seems like he doesn’t respect Mr West to much.
“Us: Kanye West is similar to you in that he’s the producer everybody wants to work with in the last decade….
QJ: How man? No way. Did he write for a symphony orchestra? Does he write for a jazz orchestra? Come on, man. He’s just a rapper. There’s no comparison. I’m not putting him down or making a judgement or anything, but we come from two different sides of the planet. I spent 28 years learning my first skill. I don’t rap. It’s not the same thing. A producer has to have some sort of skills that enable him to be a producer. It’s totally different to know what to do with 16 woodwinds you know from piccolos down to bass clarinet. It’s a whole different mindset. No comparison. None.
Us: What do you think of him?
QJ: I don’t think about him much. He’s a great rapper, but there are a lot of good rappers. I just did The View with Ludacris, who’s one of my favorites. He’s a beautiful human being and college educated. I joke with him and say, ‘How did ‘Move Bitch Get Out The Way’ come out of you?’ But I was raised around the Mafia when I was a kid in Chicago in the 30s. Chicago’s rough. I’m from the streets, I know what’s up!”.
To see the full article, click this link.
Meantime, Kanye’s latest album: ‘My dark twisted fantasy’ is receiving rave reviews!
P.s. the original album cover has been banned.
It is a distorted visual of a black man having sex with an over weight white lady.
Check out this amazing video for: Runaway.
There’s also a 34 minute short film available on youtube.
Enjoy!
