The 2012 Grammy Nominations Are Out, Apparently a Concert Also Happened?

The 55th Grammy Awards are being given out on February 10th, 2013 so that means we have to have some nominees, right? They definitely accomplished that as the Grammy Nominations concert aired last night and featured performances from Fun., Maroon 5, Hunter Hayes, The Who, Ne-Yo and a couple of country artists who escape me. We also got to see Taylor Swift awkwardly host with LL Cool J so that was fun.

Leading the nominees are Fun., Mumford & Sons, Frank Ocean, Jay-Z and Kanye West with six noms each. The Black Keys, Chick Corea and Miguel follow that with five nominations. Notably, Justin Bieber was not hit up for ANY nominations so single tear for that. But that didn’t stop him from making the news as his manager declared the Grammys a travesty because Bieber HAS to be the underdog according to EW.com. Dude, you’re a millionaire teenager that keeps tricking Selena Gomez to go out with you. You’re the opposite of underdog, you’re just a douche at this point if you need a chip on your shoulder. Just be happy you have tickets to the party. Regardless, some highlights have to be Frank Ocean and Fun. just dominated the nominations despite the fact that they were first time nominees. Frank Ocean is great people and you should listen to him.

Also Detroit’s own Jack White gets an Album of the Year nomination for Blunderbuss, which is richly deserved. Alabama Shakes probably cut Carly Rae Jepsen off the Best New Artist and I’m perfectly fine by that.

Mild entertainment at the expense of the Biebs.

There is a cool pattern that Hollywood Reporter noticed and that four out of the five nominees for Album of the Year are rock albums, with Frank Ocean being R&B. No pop nominations in there. Maybe it’s the sign of the times and that everyone is looking for something original out there in the world. No offense to the pop music world, myself being a defender of the pop persuasion despite the shame it brings me, but most of it is the same drivel and more producer based than actual artist based. In fact, pop music is full of entertainers, not musicians so it’s good to see the right people get their due. Speaking of pop music, man did they ever get shut out. Bieber got zero nominations, One Direction got the shaft, and Nicki Minaj got nothing (it’s not rap or hip hop anymore people, she’s gone pure pop). A lot of people are complaining because these artists (or entertainers I guess) sold the most albums out of anyone, they should be nominated right? People, this isn’t the people’s choice awards, or the Billboard Awards for that matter. If the Grammy Awards are trying to set a precedent about actual substance in the music, then bravo. Like I said, these artists/entertainers got nothing because it’s all production work. Yeah, its beautiful escapism but you couldn’t tell me that if they took a random member of One Direction, gave him Bieber’s team and production values, all his marketing and that I would tell the difference between the two? I sincerely doubt it. There were some other snubs like Coldplay, which I buy because as much as I like Mylo Xyloto, this was not as great as Viva La Vida. Lady Gaga was also snubbed as well but I think that also factored in that her last album sort of came off like a fart sound. Also yes, I consider Lady Gaga to be more artist than entertainer just because she does a lot of her own writing and production and has value as a musician, even if some of her songs don’t reflect that.

Anyways, below is a list of the nominees with in some of the major categories and this link will bring you to the full list. Again, the awards are on February 10th, 2013 on CBS so we’ll see if anyone walks away as the new Adele with her gaggle of awards.

http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_cw&ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US&ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Fgrizbomb-20%2F8010%2F0edfd9b5-62d1-4314-91c2-c7fd707ec83b&Operation=GetDisplayTemplate

<a HREF=”http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_cw&ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US&ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Fgrizbomb-20%2F8010%2F0edfd9b5-62d1-4314-91c2-c7fd707ec83b&Operation=NoScript”>Amazon.com Widgets</a>Album of the Year:
Black Keys, El Camino
Fun., Some Nights
Mumford & Sons, Babel
Frank Ocean, Channel Orange
Jack White, Blunderbuss

Song of the Year:
Ed Sheeran, “The A Team”
Carly Rae Jepsen, “Call Me Maybe”
Miguel, “Adorn”
Kelly Clarkson, “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)”
Fun. feat. Janelle Monae, “We Are Young”

Record of the Year:
Black Keys, “Lonely Boy”
Kelly Clarkson, “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)”
Fun. feat. Janelle Monae, “We Are Young”
Gotye feat. Kimbra, “Somebody That I Used to Know”
Frank Ocean, “Thinkin Bout You”
Taylor Swift, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”

Best New Artist:
Alabama Shakes
Fun.
Hunter Hayes
The Lumineers
Frank Ocean

Pop Vocal Album:
Kelly Clarkson, Stronger
Florence + the Machine, Ceremonials
Fun., Some Nights
Maroon 5, Overexposed
P!nk, The Truth About Love

Best Rock Album:
The Black Keys, El Camino
Coldplay, Mylo Xyloto
Muse, The 2nd Law
Bruce Springsteen, Wrecking Ball
Jack White, Blunderbuss

Best Alternative Music Album:
Fiona Apple, The Idler Wheel…
Bjork, Biophilia
Gotye, Making Mirrors
M83, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
Tom Waits, Bad as Me

Best Rap Album:
Drake, Take Care
Lupe Fiasco, Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album, Pt. 1
Nas, Life Is Good
The Roots, Undun
Rick Ross, God Forgives, I Don’t
2 Chainz, Based on a T.R.U. Story

Best Country Album:
Zac Brown Band, Uncaged
Hunter Hayes, Hunter Hayes
Jamey Johnson, Living for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran
Miranda Lambert, For the Record
The Time Jumpers, The Time Jumpers

Best Dance/Electronica Album:
Steve Aoki, Wonderland
The Chemical Brothers, Don’t Think
Deadmau5, > Album Title Goes Here <
Kaskade, Fire & Ice
Skrillex, Bangarang

Country Solo Performance:
Dierks Bentley, “Home”
Eric Church, “Springsteen”
Hunter Hayes, “Wanted”
Ronnie Dunn, “Cost of Livin’”
Blake Shelton, “Over”
Carrie Underwood, “Blown Away

SNL: 38.2 – Joseph Gordon-Levitt/Mumford & Sons

After last week’s strong premiere, I was looking forward to this week’s episode of Saturday Night Live, and thankfully it did not disappoint. This week’s host was a man having a very busy year- Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

The cold open featured Jay Pharoah again, but surprisingly, not as Obama, but rather Michael Strahan, Kelly Ripa’s new cohost. Can’t say it was good. I suppose it wasn’t bad, but it certainly wasn’t good. Bill Hader as a brooding Robert Pattinson was funny, just not funny enough to save the sketch. I will say though, as a fan, it is really fun to see when featured players become full cast members. You would think I had birthed some of them given how proud I get when they make that leap.

When the monologue first started, I’ll admit to getting a little nervous. It was very rushed and the jokes just fell flat.

And then this happened. Oh yes, apparently Mr. Gordon-Levitt’s favorite movie of the summer was none other than Magic Mike. The dance/strip scene came out of nowhere and was appreciated by womenfolk/some menfolk all across the country. Bobby Moynihan and his second vest literally made me laugh out loud.

With the first “commercial”, I began to wonder if we are ever going to see Aidy Bryant for more than a few seconds. The “Undecided Voters” featured both Cecily Strong and Tim Robinson. It wasn’t as funny as it was sad- we all know there are people out there who could fit perfectly in this sketch.

The real question everyone (okay maybe not everyone, but I certainly was) is who is Albert? Some random guy was in the sketch as Albert who wondered where his power cord was. Random guy is random.

Next up was the first of two, “Son of the Most Interesting Man in the World”. I so desperately wanted to like this and it had its moments but overall it just got old. The premise was strong, the execution was a little tired.

Bill Hader as a caricature drawing P.I. was all right, a little odd but then again, this is Bill Hader we are talking about.

Next up was my favorite sketch of the night- “The Hypnotist”. There are many times when I’m watching tv that I’ll look away/do something else and just continue with the show by listening. I am so glad I did not do that with this sketch because I would have completely missed it.  Set up was Joseph Gordon-Levitt was a two-bit hypnotist doing a show in some small hotel. It reminded me of Kevin Kline at the beginning of Soapdish.

The moment that Taran Killam lifted his head to tell the audience that he was not hypnotized, I was sold. And thankfully they found the right length of time to let that one go and it was just gold. Killam in his tighty whitey’s  as a hot lady dinosaur dry humping Keenan Thompson? Yes, please.

Another commercial this time for the GOB tampons featuring Vanessa McBrayer. Predictable, but amusing.

Musical guest this week was Mumford and Sons and thank you sweet jesus they were a thousand times better than Frank Ocean. This could be simply because I am a fan of Mumford and Sons and not Frank Ocean but I didn’t fall asleep this week, so who knows.

Weekend Update was on fire this week. The best friends of the “evil dictator of the week” were on and they are entertaining but featured player, Kate McKinnon stole the show with her Ann Romney impression. I think my new favorite line is “Apple Picking: It’s like Mormon Mardi Gras.”

Who would have thought that Ann Romney was such a big fan of Beyonce?

Mumford and Sons returned, this time as a Beatles cover band called “Hey Dudes”. This was one of those sketches where you fully expected Andy Samberg to jump in at any moment. Outside of a forced Jerry Sandusky joke, it was all right. The real fun of the sketch for me was just watching the actors enjoy it. The “walk out into the audience while singing” was a bit hokey, but I like hokey so I was all over it.

The last three sketches of the night were sadly not very good. Remember last week when I was so excited that the last sketch didn’t suck? The same can not be said of this week. “The Finer Things” was the winner of the bunch- mainly due to Bobby Moynihan as “Teddy Graham” and Jay Pharoah modeling with a Hermes purse. The singing parents sketch was only saved from complete failure by the fact that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a surprisingly good-looking woman. There was no saving “Powers Realty”. Flying wangs drawn on real estate ads is far from new, creative, or funny.

The goodbye’s were cut short, which is annoying, but it’s live tv so what can you do?

Overall? Even though there were some sketches that just did not work for me, I actually enjoyed this episode much more than the premiere. Why? I really like it when the host appears to just be another cast member. Seth MacFarlane was always reading cue cards and was obviously out of his element. Joseph Gordon-Levitt however, fit right into sketches like he does it every week. Perhaps he picked up some tips from the fabulous Jane Curtin while on 3rd Rock from the Sun.

Next week is a rerun of the season 37 finale (with Mick Jagger and Kristin Wiig’s farewell) but will return on October 6th with host Daniel Craig and musical guest Muse.

SNL: 38.1 – “Seth MacFarlane/Frank Ocean” Review

There’s a crisp note in the air (actually here in south Georgia there is no such thing but I like to pretend) which means fall is back and so is Saturday Night Live! Saturday’s premiere was hosted by a man known more for his voice than his face, Seth MacFarlane. I feel the need to be honest here, I actually can not stand Seth MacFarlane. I know, I know… it’s incredibly hard to believe, but it’s true. There is a very good chance my hatred stems from the fact that my husband watches two categories of television: