Blogging Advisory

You may have noticed an uncomfortable silence coming from the site. Unfortunately, Radio V2.0 is written by a pretty busy guy. I've got a couple of ideas to revitalize this space going into 2008 and hopefully they will turn into a reality.

In the meantime, look for new posts on the top 20 singles of 2007, a Grammy Awards preview and some props for new artists and records coming soon...I sorta promise, but I sorta have my fingers crossed too.

Radio V Classic - Bran Van 3000 "Montreal"

The music business can be a rather cold, fickle world, so it's always heartening to see one of our favorite bands (who hasn't sold a bucketload of records) returning to active duty.

It's been more than a hot minute--in fact six years plus--since the last time Montreal's greatest export since the lap dance threw it down on wax. In honor of Bran Van 3000's third album, "Rosé" getting released on Tuesday, we honor a Radio V Classic from their prior album, Discosis, "Montreal."

Discosis saw the Bran Clan returning with a sophomore album that went miles beyond the almost in-crowd feel of their debut record, Glee. Discosis was Bran Van leader Jamie DiSalvio using the social capital of his UK No. 1 single "Drinking In LA" to turn his heroes into comrades. The album featured the last vocal of Curtis Mayfield's life; a rap from long dormant 80s rapper Big Daddy Kane and legendary reggae artist Eek-A-Mouse.

In a strange twist, the newly deepened pockets and bigger little black book didn't destroy the music. In fact (since we in all honesty joined the party late) Discosis was the best pop album we heard in 2002.

Three tracks deep lies the album's masterpiece, "Montreal." Though never plucked as a single, perhaps due to the eventual closure of their label (the Beastie Boys' Grand Royal imprint), the track had all the earmarks of a massive summer hit. "Montreal" is a sun-saturated, electro-kissed, slice of hip-pop that blasts out of the speakers and hooks itself right into the brain. Kermit The Frog even gets a shout out! The slick, somewhat propulsive groove is the constant that guides you from DiSalvio's relaxed flow to his interplay with the sugary female vocals, to the Youssou N'Dour led tribal singalong that closes the proceedings. As Jamie sings later on the record "Ain't no party like a Bran Van party, cuz a Bran Van party don't stop." The beauty of this band is that you really never know exactly where you're going, but it's always a helluva ride.

Discosis takes a little work to find, but it is more than worth the effort. Rosé gets a Canadian release October 30.

Justice on Kimmel

I'm not generally a poster of clips for clips sake, but first off, I love this track and also this performance, in all its lip-synced glory, definitely brought a smile to my face:

Kissing Another Frog

Radiohead leaving copies of their latest album In Rainbows alongside a virtual tip jar may lead to the press dubbing the record business dead, but frankly, it’s hard to eulogize the Big Four who have essentially slit their own wrists to remain relevant.

Kanye West and 50 Cent sold over 1.5 million albums combined in one September week this year to land numbers one and two on the Billboard charts. People will still pay for music, and the labels are right to an extent, increasingly, people want their music digitally; but at the end of the day people want one thing more than anything else, freedom.

Sorry, we never intend to evoke George W., but people want and expect SOME degree of freedom.

People still love music. That will not change. Yes, the iPod Touch is sexy tech, but it’s also, at its core, a screaming validation that people are voracious consumers of music and want to carry as much music as their solid-state chips and mini hard drives will allow. The problem is DRM and closed ecosystems. This is why SpiralFrog will fail.

The ad-supported download service had princely ambitions, but leaves you—as per usual—shackled like an unfortunate peasant in the gallows. Not only does it keep me from listening to my music wherever, whenever thanks it to its DRM; but it’s yet another in a looooooong line of tests by the music industry. The suits need to get a clue, the patient is coding and instead of going for the defibrillators, they’re sending blood samples to their lab a few towns over…by bike messenger.

SpiralFrog’s available catalog boasts 750,000 songs, but it’s, numbers aside, a joke. Searches for the following artists, led to no results or at best unauthorized biography discs: T-Pain, Foo Fighters, Madonna, Rolling Stones, Linkin Park, Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, and so on and so on. As we browsed the site, house ads continued to pop up promoting the availability of Kanye’s new album, SpiralFrog has only six tracks available.

iTunes has no problem with the music, it’s got pretty much everything out there, not to mention, its own exclusives. iTunes problem is the software, its proprietary DRM’d AAC leaves you with only two hardware choices...iPod or iPod. Obviously, by the number of white earbuds we’ve all seen over the last few years, we know many people have made that choice with a smile, with many others have searched for someone…ANYONE to give them an alternative that allows them to be forever tied to their favorite songs, instead of Cupertino.

This is why SpiralFrog is disappointing. New ad-supported model or not, they are still tying the music to the same old DRM. Coating your tracks in an inaudible set of terms and conditions is the same reason we can’t take any of the legal download services seriously. Until they get a clue, we’ll continue to get the same DRM-free music that comprises 90% of sales…from CDs.

Meet Radio V2.0

In case you were unaware, Radio V2.0 has a MySpace page. www.myspace.com/radiov2 We're still figuring out how (if) exactly we're going to use it to reach out, but join anyway, all the cool kids are.

Darren Hayes - Who Would Have Thought

In the late 90s, there were few voices more ubiquitious on the radio than that of Darren Hayes. In the span of just two albums. his band--Savage Garden--managed to sell 10 million records in the US alone (double that globally) and record the two-longest running hit singles in Billboard chart history. Then, the band broke up, Darren's first solo record, a largely pop-by-numbers exercise called Spin failed to generate much interest and Hayes was yesterday's news.

In the ensuing years Hayes issued a f*ing brilliant, but criminally under-heard electro-pop opus The Tension And The Spark, a contract closing Savage Garden greatest hits record for Sony and now, a new indie released double-album This Delicate Thing We've Made following the musical path laid down on Tension.

In short, "Who Would Have Thought" is no "Truly Madly Deeply."

In fact, the track harkens most back to a maturing of the artist who recorded "To The Moon And Back," arguably the Garden's best single, whose sound was abandonned in the hunt for soft rock platinum. Hayes' latest work is an ethereal, propulsive, moody five minutes of electro-pop that reaches lyrical and sonic depths far more profound than anything typically embraced by drivetime radio.

Material like this doesn't sit comfortably next to a booty shaker like "Umbrella" and that's OK. "Who Would Have Thought" is definitely a headphones record. Pensive and yet thoroughly accessible, this is the kind of record Coldplay, Justin Timberlake or George Michael could sign their name to and change the course of the pop genre. But frankly, it's Darren Hayes who may be operating, thoroughly under the radar, as the most interesting male voice in pop.

FYI, even without the machinations of the big label machine, this guy remains a serious live performer and with material like this, we urge you to stop, look and listen.

You'll speak when you're spoken to

Another night, another brilliant British rock band. Editors performing "Munich" at Webster Hall on 9/7/07.

NOTE: Any copyright owners, please e-mail Radio V if you would like a video post removed.

90 Seconds with the Best Live Band In The World...

according to Q Magazine and the Brit Awards a few times over, as they played a downright kick-ass set at the Garden last month.

Continuing Clairvoyance

The hallmark of the old Radio V was discovering hits and the artists yet to break for the masses. In fact, our previous incarnation on college radio led to some of the first American exposure for Coldplay, Kylie Minogue, and Dido among others. This, frankly, pissed off a lot of college radio purists, but set us apart in a landscape that celebrated its uniqueness by being rather samey.

Thus, we were happy (though not at all surprised) when we notched an early mention of a recent UK No. 1, Robyn's "With Every Heartbeat." That track made our 2006 Year-End singles chart at No. 10 and is a stark reminder of the talent of the Swede whose sterling "Do You Know (What It Takes)" opened the floodgates for the *NSync/Britney/Christina teen pop explosion.

Those potentially dubious credentials aside, much like Timberlake, Robyn has followed her muse beyond the sticky choruses and keyboard stabs that defined the 90s Stockholm sound. Opting here to trade her often R&B rooted soundscape for a squirming, electro-pop bassline and moody strings, she makes the third landmark single of her career, (the second being 2002's Radio V Classic "Keep This Fire Burning")

Mark it down, this is the best pop song you'll hear for weeks.

No US release is set, but take note, Robyn is back and so is Radio V 2.0.

My blog demands an R&B song for forgiveness

Baby please, baby please/don't look at me like that
I know I ain't posted in quite a while/and that's no way to act
(falsetto) And I heard, I heard, you been hearing bout music somewhere else in town
But you know, you know, that's not the way it's 'sposed to go down

See I been workin' hard/trying to keep the broadband plugged in
You been out there struttin your stuff/baby, baby it's a sin
I heard you been sangin' Fergie songs/bout the Glamorous life
but baby, baby...Alanis baby/Radio V2's back tonight

In other words kids, get ready for some postin'

Stereophonics - Maybe Tomorrow

When V2 Records shuttered as a new music outpost, among the bands left homeless was Welsh rock trio Stereophonics. Despite only pocketing one UK number 1 single ("Dakota"), they've released a steady stream of top-shelf singles and even have two albums among the UK's Top 100 all-time best sellers...but alas, so do the Spice Girls.

Stereophonics' biggest moment stateside, aside from opening a cache of dates on U2's Vertigo tour was this track, "Maybe Tomorrow," playing over the credits of Oscar-winner Crash. It's however, criminal, that this sparkling single (and frankly, this band) didn't have more than that one shining moment.

As with every Stereophonics track, so much of the heft is carried by singer Kelly Jones' bourbon-soaked vocals. His gravelly tone is so pivotal to carrying off the record, it's truly an instrument in itself. Kelly's voice paints a battered, world-weary contrast to the faint sunshine through the stained glass optimism of the gospel-inflected instrumentation and backing vocals. The entire 4½ minutes works so cohesively from the lyrics to the music to the backing vocals to Kelly's yearning lead vocal that you have to wonder if, for all their output, this wasn't the song Stereophonics existed to record.

Not only their finest work, but perhaps one of the finest recordings of this entire decade.

Justin Timberlake - What Goes Around... (Junkie XL Remix)

Let's be honest, "Dick In A Box" was better than half the music that hit pop radio last year, and that has made it really tough to hate Justin Timberlake. Not only can this guy shake up the radio status quo, or jump from hairy-period Britney, to Charlie's Angels era Cameron, to Scarlett, but he can also laugh at himself, and what made him, cloying pop records. Yeah, you remember "God Must Have Spent (A Little More Time On You)," no hypnotist in the world could make you forget that mess.

Well, this is not that, in fact, it's as far away from it as you can get. "What Goes Around..." started its life as a proto-Justin, sleek, midtempo R&B/pop record. In a genre where only a few singles tend to stand out over the also-rans, Justin has managed to turn the trick three times in a row and in its original form, it's a great pop record, period. If you hate pop though, or the neighbors have threatened your life for having the original on perpetual loop, read on.

It seems Junkie XL (best known for helping Elvis spin in his grave thanks to his "A Little Less Conversation" remix) has remixed the R&B original into a first class, Bloc Party-etched dance/rock workout. Yeah, you read that right and we're almost as shocked as you are. The Dutch DJ/remixer slips JT's re-rubbed vocals into a bed of squirming synths and keyboard stabs that would make New Order proud. In short, the Junkie XL version is all but an entirely different song, and still a hot one.

Before FutureSex/LoveSounds was released, JT said he was thinking of recording a rock record. If mainstream pop's heaviest hitter goes that route and it sounds like this one, I doubt anyone's going to find much fault, except the haters, for giving them one more reason they'd need to move on.

Check out the JT What Goes Small Room Mix on Junkie XL's MySpace

Snowfight In The City Centre - No Light Left

Sometimes, on rare, quasi-magical occasions, a new band will slip, almost unnoticed, through your earbuds and over the course of four sparkling minutes convert you from curious listener to furious evangelist. Such was my first encounter with Snowfight In The City Centre.

It's obviously a tall order being a musician from Manchester. Between Oasis, New Order, Morrissey, Jamiroquai and the Bee Gees, the ghosts obviously loom large for any lads with guitars. Armed with a sound that could well carry them to the top of the charts on both sides of the pond, Snowfight In The City Centre, however, is ready to take on those demons, full force.

Without a hint of pretense, posing or pomposity their single "No Light Left," shapes up as a worldbeater of a rock song. Think the Arctic Monkeys on enough E to keep all of 10th Avenue loved up. All hummable melodies, shimmering guitars and a gently insistent vocal from frontman Adam Jennings, this track has the words "huge friggin' hit" practically etched into the plastic the CD was pressed on.

Signed to a UK indie, Something In Construction, these guys aren't on the global radar yet, but this time next year, remember where you heard it first.

Download "No Light Left" on their MySpace

Bob Sinclar f. Farrell Lennon - Tennessee

While the French may often be on the wrong end of the conquest stick, Frenchmen have planted the Tricouleur atop the DJ booths of clubland for much of the last decade. When a dancefloor isn't packed with movement-phobic hip-hop heads nodding in unison, Frenchmen are often manning the tables, or at least the creators of the wax that's on them. Think: Dmitri From Paris, Air, David Guetta, Daft Punk. Also, think Christophe Le Friant, nom de disque, Bob Sinclar.

Bob Sinclar's latest album, 2006's Western Dream has quietly (as much as a booming house record played at 110 decibels can in any way be considered quiet) dominated dancefloors for most of the last year. It was more than the clubs though, frankly it's pretty much only stateside where his singles "Love Generation" and "World, Hold On" didn't own the airwaves, the clubs and every set of Blaupunkts in earshot for months on end.

Sinclar (presumably) closes the campaign behind Western Dream with fourth single, and yet another excellent slab of house dubbed "Tennessee." The track is classic Sinclar, a larger than life, hands-in-the-air, disco-etched, electro-houser with his trademark...an actual SONG slipped in between the beats. Punctuated by a steel-guitar loop which may have inspired the track's name, "Tennessee" is the perfect palette cleanser for anyone who was disappointed, disgusted or otherwise dismayed that his last single was a uninspired empty re-working of C+C Music Factory's seminal "Everybody Dance Now."

Far more than that though, it's the kind of dance track that it kills me that American radio will never touch. It kills me not because American radio doesn't play dance records often, but when they do it's usually the kind of warmed over Euro-NRG that sounds like it was made in 1995 by labotomized chipmunks, yeah Cascada, we're talking smack! This is not world-changing stuff by ANY means either, but this is what REAL mainstream dance music sounds like. Judged by those standards, this is a fine exemplor.

Plan B vs. Radiohead - Missing Links (Bootleg Mix)

Visceral, graphic and gritty, Plan B is re-writing the book on British rappers one gut-checking rhyme at a time. Don't let the accent fool you, Plan B's debut Who Needs Actions, When You've Got Words tells the story of the underclasses with an honesty and barely sublimated rage that will ring as true in Bed-Stuy as they do in Brixton.

While the rapper/singer/guitarist will likely make his first US inroads via his (sick) acoustic version of "Kidz," he doesn't have to strip it that bare to make his lyrics pop. From Plan B's mashup mixtape "Paint It Blacker," comes this downtempo, yet electric bootleg mix of "Missing Links." Riding a haunting sample of Radiohead's "Pyramid Song," the appropriated backing track mirrors Plan B's gray-sky rhymes perfectly--actually improving on the already top-shelf album version. The story of a neighborhood's drug-fueled descent and the people who've become "missing links" in its wake. The bruising honesty of "Missing Links" stands in stark contrast to the showy veneer of Cristal-popping, Gucci-drenched bling obsessives.

Don't sleep on his debut album due on these shores come April.

Grammy: Judgment Day

Well, the Grammys are over and as usual, my predictions didn't hold up terribly well, just 3 for 7. Even having skipped math my senior year of high school and all through college, I know that's not a passing score. So what went so terribly wrong?

Apparently, the music industry has decided they're ashamed of country radio. After the genre's gatekeepers effectively banned and physically burned Dixie Chicks records following Natalie Maines' comments on President Bush, the Grammys decided to champion the First Amendment in a big, big way; as well as one of their all-time favorite artists. I thought Grammy would honor Dixie Chicks in the genre categories and split the biggest awards between Mary J. Blige and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, they did the opposite. James Blunt apparently won nothing, same for Corinne Bailey Rae.

Of the performers, Chris Brown turned in what appeared to be about an 85% Memorex performance as his energetic stepping left him out of breath before it was his turn to sing. The worst part being that he immediately followed a stripped-down vocal and piano take from the still-potent Lionel Richie and immediately preceded a typically Earth-moving vocal from Christina Aguilera. The Police whetted appetites for their expected forthcoming tour, even if Sting decided not to attempt all the high notes. For my money, Corinne Bailey Rae, John Mayer, John Legend, Justin Timberlake and particularly Gnarls Barkley were impressive. With Gnarls taking my top performance of the night, for a version of "Crazy" that gave me goosebumps.

Shakira, for the sake of our love, or at least that "obsession," as your legal team and the authorities like to call it, could you retire "Hips Don't Lie," and stop hanging out with Wyclef? I'd send another snail mail letter, but I had a b*tch of a time trying to stop the bleeding that time before. I won't discuss the quality of the Carrie Underwood/Rascal Flatts performance. Country, overall is not my favorite genre, but I felt like by the time they exited the stage I could've watched the entire Lord Of the Rings-trilogy...the director's cuts.

Either way, the Grammys are over, and now Radio V can get on with the business of looking forward to the rest of this year's best new music. not that our strike record will improve that much, but the ride will be fun, I promise ya.

Grammy Countdown - The Last Stand

THE FINAL day in a series where Radio V tries (in vain) to predict who will win on Music's Most Overhyped Night®.

Album Of The Year

Dixie Chicks - Taking The Long Way
London has rarely been kind to country acts, but it also rarely scuttles careers. Internet downloading or no, Taking The Long Way has sold a third of the copies of its predecessor "Home." Fact is, though, this was no country album. Rooted in the songwriting and musical traditions of Nashville, yes, but built on the back of collaborations with Rick Rubin, Sheryl Crow and Semisonic's Dan Wilson. This is as much the sound of a band growing beyond its provincial roots, as it is a statement album for the Chicks and for Grammy voters. Instead of a meek act of contrition, the Chicks produced a defiant middle finger to middle America. Will Grammy reward their pluck, and more important their record? Despite their frontrunner status keep in mind Eminem and Green Day both were in similar positions in recent years and didn't take home the trophy.

Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
Radio V would be hard pressed to think of an album with more pre-release buzz than this Danger Mouse/Cee-Lo collabo generated. Largely off the heat of the stratospheric "Crazy," Gnarls shifted into high gear and were seemingly everywhere with an album no one could attempt to classify. Too ambitious for some, not quite eclectic enough for others, St. Elsewhere was the first true album of the shuffle generation with elements of every genre showing up for better of for worse. While "Crazy" was universally loved, its parent album was a hit-or-miss affair. The Grammys have recurring themes, rewarding ambition is not often one of them.

John Mayer - Continuum
Once you've done a blues record, it's usually not far to Diane Warren power ballads and comeback tours. John Mayer has proven himself both a far more accomplished musician than most would initially have believed, as well as one with an almost unholy understanding of the pop idiom. Continuum proved that his artistic indulgences were merely that, and now he was back to the business of being (as much as he'd probably hate to admit it) a pop star. The record is taut, focused and grown-up without trying too hard to sound it. Considering Mayer's been lauded by Grammy for lesser works, the biggest prize could well be in his grasp.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium
They released their debut album in 1983, they've sold 60 million albums worldwide, won MTV's de facto lifetime achievement award, the Video Vanguard and have pretty much owned rock radio since the early 90s. Does that sound like the résumé of a band with only ONE Grammy to their name? The Grammys often use today's ceremony to make up for earlier oversights. Long story short, hang around long enough and Grammy will give you your due. Stadium Arcadium, like most double albums, has its highs and tracks that should have been B-sides at best. That may mean little next to the fact that this is a band, a Hall Of Fame caliber band, that has yet to get its due.

Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
JT has had more second acts than anyone his age should ever have had. More than anyone since Madonna, JT's continued success blurs the line between artist and star. He has an unquestionable knack for being able to capture the zeitgeist of the moment, the attention of the public and lightning in a bottle. There are rock snobs who will never laud a pop record. That's their prerogative, but Timberlake's second solo album is a triumph of sleek, hyper-produced pop that at once sounds like the best pop songs you've ever heard and a crystal-ball view of a space age pop future that everyone will be aping this time next year. It is what it is though, and it is unabashed pop. Pop has a Grammy category, but rarely takes Grammy's biggest trophies home.

Should Win: Dixie Chicks - Taking The Long Way

Will Win: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium

There will be one more Grammy post after the show ends. Then back to new music, Radio V classics and the like.

Grammy Countdown - 2 Days Til Armageddeon

Another day in a series where Radio V tries (in vain) to predict who will win on Music's Most Overhyped Night®.

Tonight, we take a look at the Rock Genre Categories:

Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal





Coldplay - Talk
The Fray - How To Save A Life
The Raconteurs - Steady As She Goes
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dani California
U2 + Green Day - The Saints Are Coming

The Nominees: The Best Rock Duo Or Group With Vocal category is almost completely stocked with guys who've been around the block a few times. The lone exception being The Fray. What troubles me most is how did the band decide that "How To Save A Life" should be submitted as rock while "Over My Head (Cable Car)" fell under pop. They're virtually carbon copies of each other sonically. Of the vets, Coldplay is up for by far the finest moment of their spotty X&Y opus. The Raconteurs, led by White Stripes frontman Jack White find their way to the table with the standout single from the first Jack White album where the words "drum solo" isn't a punchline. Red Hot Chili Peppers should be considered hot favorites as they're the sole nominees here who also appear in the big four categories. That and this record sounds like Californication Deux. U2 and Green Day, on the other hand, account for 25 Grammy wins and 3 of this decade's Record Of The Year winners.

The Breakdown: Count out The Fray, no one who knows rock considers The Fray to be rock, except maybe The Fraymates. Everyone knows the U2 and Green Day song wasn't either's shining moment, but it's friggin U2 and Green Day! Coldplay's a Grammy favorite, but the single and the album from which it came have largely been forgotten. The Raconteurs definitely pumped a shot of adrenaline into the rock world earlier this year and this single was huge. Since then, their record label all but shut down. The Peppers meanwhile have followed the Church Of Latter Day-U2 template perfectly, releasing a single that apes one of their greatest moments with such meticulous reverence that people almost don't realize how self-referential it is.

Should Win: The Raconteurs - "Steady As She Goes"

Will Win: U2 + Green Day "The Saints Are Coming


Best Alternative Album

Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics

Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones

Thom Yorke - The Eraser

The Nominees: A quick hand to Karen O., lead singer of Yeah Yeah Yeahs for managing to be the ONLY woman nominated in the rock and alternative fields. Unfortunately, one single deep, the world seemed to lose interest. There was nothing but interest in Arctic Monkeys, strangely enough they delivered the tunes to follow-up on the hype with one of the most talked-and-blogged about (and actually good) debut records in recent memory. The Flaming Lips may be the most revered band to go ignored by the mainstream since The Pixies. That doesn't generally translate into Grammys, just dorm room evangelism. Gnarls Barkley unleashed the most beloved single of the year, while the ensuing album was equally exalted and eviscerated. Thom Yorke, with Beck, Coldplay and The Beasties absent from the category, stands as The Godfather of Alternative and his hotly anticipated "The Eraser," did little more than cement his status with or without Kids B, C, D or E.

The Breakdown: "Girl Power!" notwithstanding, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs don't stand out among the competition here as likely winners. The Arctic Monkeys delivered a great album, but US interest was minimal, can an album that didn't make a mark outside of alternative circles take the prize? The Flaming Lips have been critical darlings for ages. In the absence of a world-beating competitor could they sneak in for a win? Gnarls Barkley have the sales, they have the hit song and they have the big nominations as well for the Album and Record Of The Year prizes as well. This award could be part of a big night for them, or more likely, a consolation prize. Thom Yorke is the form horse, having won this category with Radiohead a couple times, why not again.

Should Win: Arctic Monkeys "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not"

Will Win: Gnarls Barkley "St. Elsewhere"

Grammy Countdown - 3 Days Til Armageddeon

Another day in a series where Radio V tries (in vain) to predict who will win on Music's Most Overhyped Night®.

Tonight, we take a look at the Pop Genre Categories

Best Pop Female Vocal Performance

Christina Aguilera "Ain't No Other Man"

Natasha Bedingfield "Unwritten"

Pink "Stupid Girls"

KT Tunstall "Black Horse And The Cherry Tree"

Sheryl Crow "You Can Close Your Eyes"

The Nominees: The Pop Female Vocal categories pits a couple of newcomer Brits up against three veteran American singers. Christina Aguilera is thrice a Grammy winner and has taken home this trophy in the past for "Beautiful." Natasha Bedingfield is a British pop singer who's got enough goods to be in the running and whose "Unwritten" was a massive AC hit this year. The odd woman out is the formidable singer Pink whose tepid single "Stupid Girls" continued her US losing streak and may well be marked as the death rattle for a once-promising talent. KT Tunstall's a singer-songwriter whose husky vocal style vaguely recalls Janis Joplin and one who's had a massive breakthrough this year stateside. While Grammy's favorite daughter, 9-time winner Sheryl Crow won the Best Rock Female Vocal trophy so many times they retired the award. Seriously, it no longer exists.

The Breakdown: Bedingfield and Pink are longshots at best, while Tunstall could prove a potent challenger. You'd have to have a bettor's soul not to put your chips behind Crow or Aguilera though. The tipping point, Aguilera's song was a hit single from an overlooked album. Crow's an album track from a record no one heard.

Should Win: Christina Aguilera "Ain't No Other Man"

Will Win: Christina Aguilera "Ain't No Other Man"

Best Pop Male Vocal Performance

James Blunt - "You're Beautiful"
John Mayer - "Waiting On The World To Change"
Paul McCartney - "Jenny Wren"
Daniel Powter - "Bad Day"
John Legend - "Save Room"

The Nominees: A couple of Legends, a couple newbies and a two-time champion of this particular category tussle here. Even James Blunt's biggest detractor has to realize how big of a record this was and that gives him a good shot to win here. Just because it was overplayed doesn't mean it wasn't great. John Mayer, girlfriend of questionable intellect notwithstanding, is the heavyweight here. Also in the running for the Album Of The Year trophy, Mayer's a triple-Grammy winner and would have to be considered a prohibitive favorite. Paul McCartney is simply Paul McCartney. He's hard to ever count out, even if no one outside of the nominating committee has ever heard "Jenny Wren." Daniel Powter's song was played ad nauseum thanks to AC radio and the American Idol juggernaut. While John Legend's edgy loungey "Save Room" never caught-a-fire, he's the kind of artist Grammy lurrrrrves to the point that they virtually stone him with statuettes.

The Breakdown: The fact that Powter got nominated could all but cancel out the superior Blunt who appeals to a similar audience. John Legend's popular among voters, but this track is a bit obscure which could and should cost him. McCartney's likely got a bloc of vote locked up, but won't be able to expand past that base, yup, the Fogies. While Mayer's chances, for perhaps his best single no less, are diminished because votes that otherwise probably would've gone his way will be split among the other four nominees.

Should Win: James Blunt "You're Beautiful"

Will Win: Paul McCartney "Jenny Wren"

If You Can't Walk And Listen At The Same Time...

You ever say, or in this case, write something that you feel like is begging karma to kick you in the ass? Well, for me this is the post. Tomorrow, if the M20 rolls over a lifeless carcass it'll probably be me.

New Yorkers...hear me now and believe me later...drug laws or not, the people up the Hudson in Albany apparently are smoking all the good shit. Apparently, the "crackheads" upstate have decided that crossing a street while listening to an iPod is SO hazardous that it's worthy of a $100 fine.

State Senator Carl Kruger, in an interview with CBS referred to this condition as "iPod oblivion" and proposed legislation to ban people listening to iPods while crossing the street.

"We are talking about people walking around 'tuned in' and, in the process of being tuned in, being 'tuned out' to the world around them," Senator Kruger told TV station WCBS.

"They are walking into speeding cars. They are walking into buses. They are walking into one another and it is creating a number of fatalities that have been documented right here in New York City," Kruger told WCBS TV.

I have a job where ridiculous ideas are as commonplace as baby-stealing husbands are on the Lifetime Network, but this may be among the STUPIDEST ideas I have ever heard. Because frankly, if you can't cross the street while listening to Shakira at defeaning volumes, that bus might be doing the gene pool a favor.

More so than that, this idiotic attempt at "public safety" legislation is nothing more than a publicity stunt wasting the time and money of our taxpayers while heightening the profile of an otherwise nominally important,- lesser government official representing one of the "outer boroughs" that we keep on as part of New York City.

"How can I make a name for myself, make some noise in this town," I imagine him thinking. "Hmmm, people are ignoring my attempts at campaign-clinching handshakes because they're listening to those blasted iPods...I KNOW! I'll take away their iPods, then they'll love me best," I imagine him cackling with Grinch-like smarm.--
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The only thing that could rile me up more than the writing of this legislation would be its being passed. Our police should be concerned with murderers and rapists; terrorists and subway turnstile jumpers, not music loving menaces to themselves.

When they took cigarettes away, I said nothing
When they took the trans fats out of my fries, I stayed silent
When they try to keep me from listening to music as I walk the streets of Manhattan, I actually consider MOVING to this guy's district in Brooklyn so I can vote him out of office!

* Writer's note: There is no conclusive evidence that anyone mentioned in this blog, directly or indirectly is actually a user of "crack," or any other illegal substances.

Blogging Advisory

Well, we lost a day of the Grammy update, because frankly, I came home and was exhausted. That said, I plan to make it up to you by getting some more stuff up ASAP.

Grammy Countdown - 5 Days Til Armageddeon

Day three in a series where Radio V tries (in vain) to predict who will win on Music's Most Overhyped Night®.

We've been talking individual categories and for the record we have every intention of covering Album Of The Year before this thing is through, but the Grammys are about far more than the BIG FOUR categories.

There are, in fact, 108 total categories in this year's Grammys, about 99 of which will not be televised. It's much more important to watch David Spade purr at the Pussycat Dolls to "entice" people to watch his new (read: soon to be cancelled) show. Thanks, CBS! Regardless, 108 categories with 5 nominees means there are 540 nominees up for this year's batch of awards. Anyone who ever took a stats class or pregnancy tests bought from a 24 hour drugstore knows the odds of all 540 being right are 0.00000000000000000000147% or for you laymen out there, slim to none.

Consider today's edition of the Grammy countdown a new category: Worst Nomination For a Grammy. And the nominees are:



Janet - 20 Y.O. (Best Contemporary R&B Album) - If this record was one of six albums eligible for this award and one of them was of Vanilla Ice remixes, Rob Van Winkle would be my shoo-in for the fifth slot. It's hard for me to imagine anyone thinking this was one of the Best R&B albums of the year just because I can't see how anyone actually listened to the whole bloody mess. Beats from the half-off bin, and a mumbled coo drone on for about 40 minutes or until you click the "delete" button. Circa Rhythm Nation you couldn't help feeling Janet was the new Michael Jackson. Almost twenty years later, it's a less optimistic déjà vu.



Pussycat Dolls - Stickwitu (Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal) - I'd like to congratulate NARAS for this category's title. The corresponding solo awards are Best Pop Male/Female Vocal Performance meaning that this award in theory has something to do with...what's the word? Oh yes, singing. Having studied copious amounts of Pussycat Dolls tape, (What? I'm dedicated to my craft like Peyton Manning) I don't think I've ever seen so many members of a vocal group who serve no purpose whatsoever. The Pussycat Dolls are great at what they do, I'm just not sure singing should be an important part of the description.



The Black Eyed Peas - My Humps (Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal) - What was this? No, seriously, what the heck was this? I'll never accuse Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson of not being unable to sing, it's just that this single is a perfect example of what's happened to the Black Eyed Peas. At their worst, as here, they are crying-baby-on-a-14-hour-flight-annoying. For everyone who hates pop music, this song is your anthem. A perfect portrait of the genre at it's most mediocre. Nonsensical pop gibberish that could make everyone who's listened to it a fraction of an IQ point dumber.

Grammy Countdown - 6 Days Til Armageddeon

Day two in a series where Radio V tries (in vain) to predict who will win on Music's Most Overhyped Night®.

The Best New Artist winners vacillate wildly between two extremes: The new artist with the best chance of establishing a prolonged career (see: Carey, Mariah; The Beatles; Crow, Sheryl), and alternately, the best future laughingstock/trivia question (see: Cross, Christopher; Arrested Development; Hootie, Assorted Blowfish).

The only apparent guiding principal, at least since handing the award to Milli Vanilli in 1990, is to go for the authentic article. Big-voiced divas, Six-string slinging singer-songwriters and self-contained bands have split the trophies over most of the last two decades.

Here's how we break down the nominees.

Chris Brown has a great chance at winning...a Kids' Choice Award. Last time I checked Grammy voters weren't 12. There's always the theory that competing contingencies can split the vote allowing for a Marisa Tomei-like "fifth option" to slip through, that won't happen here. Even his distributing company, BMG, has another candidate to split the in-house vote. With his nasal vocals, paint-by-numbers R&B tracks and Michael Jackson-via-Usher-via Darren's Dance Grooves moves, Brown has done well to get this far. If he wins, I would...scratch that, no need to have people vote for him just to make me fulfill some silly bet, but let me put it this way. If you're at a bookie, have $5 and are looking to buy a house the next day, put money down on Chris Brown to win. The odds have to be somewhere around those of Paris Hilton getting hit in the exposed cooch by an errant asteroid.

The least likely winner of the four "serious" candidates is Imogen Heap. That has zero to do with her musical credentials, mind you. Heap records for an independent label (though her album's distributed stateside by BMG), makes electronic music and was last a "new artist" 9 years ago when her first solo album was released. She's got a great backstory, having recorded her entire album alone to not be accused of being any producer's puppet singer, but she's gathered little of the momentum commercially or critically to propel her to the award.



James Blunt, everyone's favorite obsessive-compulsive, stripping Brit has a legitimate shot at winning this, but he reminds Radio V, and probably voters, too much of Marc Cohn. For those not up on their one-hit wonder trivia, Cohn and Blunt are both AC singer-songwriters with one relatively big hit to his name and who have yet to deliver again. In Cohn's case that's been fifteen long years. I covered this territory in my last post, but long story short, Blunt needs a second hit, stat. Even if it happens today, tomorrow, next year, it's too late.



The Delicious diva of Half-Frappes herself, Corinne Bailey Rae is a legitimate threat to take this category. With a vocal style often compared to Billie Holiday and looking young while singing old sounding soul songs, Rae could be compared (easily) to 2003 winner Norah Jones. She's got an album that's a step shy of the stratosphere a la Toni Braxton when she won the title back in 1994. Most importantly, there's a feeling that she can sustain the career she has built without the machinations of the big record industry machine. In an business where profits are getting slashed like the Wal-Mart's smiley's on a rampage, that's a very sexy proposition.

That leaves American Idol Carrie Underwood. Carrie's walked a fine line since winning Idol, and done so admirably. Her "Some Hearts" is the biggest selling album of 2006 AND by any Idol regular since Paula Abdul's "Forever Your Girl." She's managed to win the hearts of Country and Christian radio, and should carry much of the support of the Nashville community on Grammy night. We all know she can really sing, even Cowell thinks so, so there's no risk there. The only question is, will the rank-and-file take her (an Idol) seriously as an artist? Well, last year they rewarded Kelly Clarkson with two trips to stage, and then Taylor Hicks...forget I mentioned him. Aaaaaanyway, she's got the goods, can she get the Grammy?

Should Win: Corinne Bailey Rae
Will Win: Carrie Underwood