The Journal of Joe The Peacock. Yay.: The Grammys are big big bullshit

2.10.2008:

The Grammys are big big bullshit

10:27 PM

The fact that Amy Winehouse is anywhere near a list that contains past names such as Stevie Wonder and The Beatles and Etta James just proves that the whole Grammy experience is nothing more than a bought-and-paid-for hype machine, no different than JD Powers and Associates awards for "Car Manufacturer of the Year Who Could Afford To Buy Our Marketing... Er... Award".

Pathetic.

The state of music has been declining over the past 25 years in a huge way, but now, it's patently offensive. The industry is flaunting this marketing hype machine in everyone's faces, practically daring you to point out to them that they're the ones buying their artists' own records to propel their shrinkwrapped shit to the top of a bought-and-paid-for Billboard list, so that play on the radio increases to the point that it starts making these top 40 lists that convince you to think everyone's asking to hear this crap when in actuality, it's just "the best of what has been approved for play on our station".

Turn off the radio.

Go grab these albums (and just to prove I don't go hiding in the underground to claim some sort of "music cred", this list is chock full of stuff that charted. See, I DO listen to mainstream stuff, Jeremy):

The Melvins - Houdini
Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
The Beatles - Revolver
Dave Brubeck - Time Out
Thelonious Monk - Brilliant Corners
Battles - Mirrored
Kings of Leon - Because of the Times
De La Soul - Three Feet High And Rising
Helmet - Meantime
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
Black Sabbath - any of the first 6 records
Led Zeppelin - holy shit, anything
The Who - Who's Next
Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street
Jeff Buckley - Grace
Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend
Van Halen - any of the first for records
Radiohead - The Bends and OK Computer (ignore anything after OK, it's just masturbatory nonsense that art rock snob kids like to lord over everyone like they know something about music)
Silversun Pickups - Carnavas
At The Drive-In - In Casino Out and Relationship of Command
Bob Dylan - everything until 1979
R.E.M. - Murmur and Reckoning (and Automatic for the People, but I hesitate to suggest that one because everyone tends to cling to it, and it's not their best... But it's good)
U2 - Achtung Baby, October, Boy and The Passengers - Original Soundtracks Volume 1 (and of course, the Joshua Tree - one of the highlights of the Grammys actually getting something right)
The Low End Theory - A Tribe Called Quest
Parlament / Funkadelic - One Nation Under A Groove (and anything else, ever)
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Everything up to Blood Sugar Sex Majik (and you shoudl SPECIFICALLY avoid everything after, because it's all shit)

This is just off the top of my head.

Feel free to email me if you want more suggestions of stuff that doesn't blow. Or, you know... Keep watching award shows full of what the corporations want you to buy tomorrow. Because God knows, someone's gotta give Fall Out Boy something to do with their lives.

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9 Comments:

Robert said...: Hey now, Kid A was an amazing album, save for the last track. I'm not wild about In Rainbows, but it's growing on me. But yes, you're 100% correct about Amy Crackhouse winning any award. That makes me sick to my stomach. Anyways, otherwise a good list.; 2/10/2008 11:31 PM
Teratohmy said...: I don't like any of the stuff you posted, but that's ok, I like my own stuff :D Here's a small list with utube links!

O.lamm - Monolith
http://youtube.com/watch?v=keLpXbVInNE

Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
http://youtube.com/watch?v=W6KPDWNAPBU

Einsturzende Neubauten - Alles Wieder Offen
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_TssuSYrxVI

Matmos - The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of a Beast
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OZQN4KR5j2s

Sarah Slean - Baroness (comes out in March so who knows if it's good :p)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fUggqdqEpBM; 2/10/2008 11:45 PM
phunkysai said...: Joe, i love ya, but why do you think that your opinion of music is the only one that exists in the world. Just because you like something doesn't mean everyone else in the world is going to, or should. We all have our own tastes in music, because we are individuals, and not some hive mind that all like the same things.

Let us like our own music. Granted, I like some of the bands you mentioned, but others I don't. And that's the way it should be.; 2/11/2008 9:14 AM
JtP said...: Whelp, I've got about 20 answers to this comment... But I'll just hit the high points.

1) Obviously, my musical taste isn't the only one in the world. Amy Winehouse just won Grammys. If my musical taste were the only one in the world, Amy Winehouse would have won a folding chair upside her head. Such is life.

2) I can't come there and take away your "like", can I? I can't force you to like what I like, right? My list here is simply me asserting my opinion on the subject of music. That's the beautiful thing about opinions... Not only do we all have one, we all get to ignore everyone else's to our own means. Especially on our own blogs :)

I totally respect where you're going with your post; that we all have our own way of doing our own thing and that fact should be respected - and it is, I assure you. But I can't - or rather, I won't - apologize for asserting my position on this subject.

Nor should you for posting yours in the comments section that I've enabled. It's all connected, like a Rubik's Cube.; 2/11/2008 10:23 AM
JtP said...: Just to be clear, at the end there, I was saying you shouldn't apologize for asserting your opinion. I don't know if it was clear or not, so... There. Clear. I think.

I've not had any coffee and I've been up since 4. Lord help me, I can't even believe I'm actually typing right now.; 2/11/2008 10:29 AM
spacechicken said...: Joe, Can I suggest you look at an Australian outfit by the name of "The Cat Empire" (http://www.thecatempire.com/).

They really are in it just for the music.

Cheers from Down Under

Jeffery; 2/11/2008 12:46 PM
Mike said...: No Clapton?! I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked!; 2/11/2008 5:38 PM
opiumfireworksandlead said...: Come on. Everything Radiohead's ever released is mind-blowing, save their very first record. And no, 'm not a snot-nosed hipster...I just really like them.

Don't forget these on the Almighty List:

Patti Smith - Horses

Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme, Blue Train, Giant Steps

My Bloody Valentine - Loveless

Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy

The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

Wilco - A Ghost Is Born

Pixies - Doolittle

G. Love & Special Sauce - [self-titled], Philadelphonic

The Stooges - Fun House

Neil Young - Live at Massey Hall 1971, Harvest

Nirvana - In Utero

Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers

White Stripes - Everything (except Get Behind Me Satan)

Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation, Goo, Rather Ripped, EVOL

The Strokes - Is This It?

Wire - Pink Flag

Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II

The Vaselines - The Way of the Vaselines

Mad Season - Above

X-Ray Spex - Germfree Adolescents; 2/11/2008 5:56 PM
NTrav said...: Metallica-Master of Puppets
Redefined American metal as well as the last studio recording by the late, great Cliff Burton.; 2/12/2008 4:45 PM

The Journal of Joe The Peacock. Yay.

2.10.2008:

The Grammys are big big bullshit

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