Grammy countdown: The best new artist front-runners (Part 1)

Always one of the more controversial categories, best new artist remains, perhaps, the most difficult Grammy field to get just right. The vaguely defined category is open to interpretation.

Reads the Grammy rules: "A new artist is defined as any performing artist who releases, during the eligibility year, the recording that first establishes the public identity of that artist as a performer." The "recording" in question doesn't have to be a full album, either. Witness alterna-rockers MGMT, which are on the ballot for the upcoming Grammy Awards, but released their "Oracular Spectacular" during last year's eligibility period.

It's also the field, perhaps, most easy to criticize. For the 2009 awards, the Jonas Brothers managed to nab a best new artist nod, but the young Disney rockers had scored high-charting albums in prior eligibility periods. On the flip side, however, it's one of the few Grammy categories where there are bound to be genuine surprises. R&B newcomer Jazmine Sullivan was an artist who rode some late-year success straight to a nomination for the 2009 awards. 

Looking at the ballots for the 2010 Grammys, nominations for which will be announced next Wednesday, here's a look at the front-runners for best new artist. Pop & Hiss encourages comments, and please note this is only Part 1 of the best new artist run-down. Come back later this holiday week for Part 2.

The Muppets do Queen better than Adam Lambert

Here's a little unexpected holiday gift from the Muppets Studio, and it's arriving at just the right moment.

With all the talk the last few days of whether or not Adam Lambert went too far or not on the American Music Awards, here's  a handy reminder of how theatrical rock is done right, as the Muppets tackle one of Lambert's favorite songs, Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." No over-the-top sexual posturing, no singer-on-the-verge-of-tears and no clumsy falls -- just a fake bear, singing chickens and a vocal solo from one Dr. Bunsen Honeydew. 

That's not to say this is all silly. There's some old-fashioned pyro, and things threaten to get violent with a cleaver-wielding Swedish Chef. As Lambert would say, "All hail freedom of expression and artistic integrity." 

-- Todd Martens

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Jay Leno & Lady Gaga: Someone give the host a copy of the Grammy rulebook

This will be the final post in which Pop & Hiss mentions Lady Gaga not being in the running for a best new artist Grammy nod. Lady Gaga went on "The Jay Leno Show" on Monday night, with the host proclaiming in an interview with the artist that she is "kinda getting screwed here," as Recording Academy rules stipulate that an artist who has been previously nominated for a Grammy cannot be considered a best new artist.

As noted Monday, Lady Gaga will not be in the running for a best new artist award at the 2010 ceremony, despite being the year's most obvious breakout star. Yet let's be clear -- nobody is getting screwed here. If anything, the Recording Academy is getting unfairly beaten up over this complete non-issue.

2009 American Music Awards: Grading the performances

Grading the performances at the 2009 American Music Awards, typos and all.

Janet Jackson. So, supposedly the American Music Awards were going to open with a performance from Janet, and that's technically what happened. Except Janet's performance was largely a commercial for her  "Number Ones," in which the singer, in a tan outfit that looked like it was ripped straight from the racks at REI, performed a medley of her hits. Imagine going to Amazon.com and clicking on a bunch of song samples from her two-disc set. That's largely what this performance was -- it's "Miss You Much"! and now it's "What Have You Done for Me Lately"! -- and if you were a Janet fan, you surely enjoyed this swift little medley. It was a safe and solid opening, and it gets a slight bonus for focusing entirely on Janet and not becoming another Michael tribute, so B-.

Daughtry. Boom! Nothing ignites the excitement of a three-hour award show like a mid-tempo rock ballad from heartland rockers Daughtry. "No, there's no life after you," leader Chris Daughtry sings through gritted teeth, trying to muster some importance out of these tepid lyrics and lightly strummed electric guitars. This type of song is typically saved for the moments during an arena show when a band says, "This one is for the ladies," and everyone goes and buys a hot dog. D

American Music Awards: Three reasons to watch, three reasons to avoid

It's hard to imagine that this is finally happening. A music awards show without Kanye West and/or Taylor Swift will go down on Sunday night, and right here in our hometown.

The American Music Awards are set for a live Sunday night broadcast -- tape-delayed for the West Coast. Set to air at 8 p.m. on ABC, expect at least 20 music performances, and the occasional fan-voted award to be handed out at the gala at downtown's Nokia Theatre. 

In a tradition started last year by Pop & Hiss, here's three reasons to tune in, and three reasons one may be better off catching up on those episodes of "The Mentalist" you have on your DVR.

Reasons to watch:

1. Rihanna. Her "Russian Roulette" stands as one of the starkest, bravest, toughest singles to be released in 2009. The fact that it came from one of the world's biggest pop stars, and sounded more fit for a horror soundtrack than a dance floor, only added to its mystique. Even if it's not the song she'll be performing Sunday, it instantly catapulted Rihanna from a singles artist to a serious force to be reckoned with. 

2. Lady Gaga. In terms of unpredictable pop stars, no one, perhaps, can top one Mr. West. But the man who should have been Gaga's touring partner is a bit MIA at the moment, and likely won't grace an awards  show again until the Grammys, if they'll have him. But in the absence of Kanye, Gaga can be counted on for some sort of spectacle, even if her award-show speeches won't be quite as off the cuff. Her recent video for "Bad Romance" was a sci-fi-inspired explosion of arresting images, and her last major TV appearance -- a performance on "Saturday Night Live" -- featured the artist completely breaking down her hits.

3. Because the Bears are on. This doesn't really apply to those of us on the West Coast, where the American Music Awards will air later than the rest of the country, but there won't be anything broadcast on the gala that comes close to the train wreck that is the 2009 Chicago Bears. Heck, you can slap Adam Lambert, Carrie Underwood and 50 Cent together for a medley of Broadway hits of the '40s, and the three of them doing the foxtrot would make for more captivating television than the Chicago branch of the National Football League. 

Reasons to skip are after the jump.

Maxwell gets post-Grammy nomination concert

R&B singer Maxwell will perform a concert at downtown's Club Nokia on Dec. 2 after the venue plays host to the unveiling of the nominations for the 52nd annual Grammy Awards. The Maxwell appearance will be open to the public, and proceeds will benefit the next-door Grammy Museum, which will celebrate its first anniversary Dec. 6.

Maxwell will earlier appear on the live CBS broadcast to announce the 2010 Grammy slate, "The Grammy Nominations Concert Live!! -- Countdown to Music’s Biggest Night.” The latter, which will be tape-delayed for SoCal viewers but air live on the East Coast at 9 p.m., will also feature live performances from Nick Jonas and the Administration, the Black Eyed Peas and Sugarland.

In a switch from last year, however, when the contenders were announced at the larger Nokia Theatre, the Grammy nomination prime-time special will not be open to the public.

Green Day to give '21 Guns' a theatrical makeover

Liked Green Day's "21 Guns" but thought it lacked a certain -- how shall we say? -- pizazz?

Then you are in luck, as Green Day will re-release the cut later this month with the cast of Berkeley Rep's "American Idiot." The musical, based on the 2004 Green Day album of the same name, made its debut in the Bay Area earlier this fall, where Times theater critic Charles McNulty found it more positive than negative, writing, " 'American Idiot' translates Green Day's generational angst into a moody theatrical fantasia. If it doesn't spin an entirely satisfying yarn, its roar is still irresistible."

An official release date wasn't given for the newly recorded single, but it will be made available for purchase at all major digital outlets. Green Day will perform this Sunday on the American Music Awards on ABC, and "American Idiot" just finished its run in Berkeley.

The next stop for the musical? Likely Broadway. 

Music download site BlueBeat hit with a preliminary injunction; site's founder responds

A federal judge in Los Angeles granted Capitol Records’ request for a preliminary injunction today against a San Jose-based website that had put the Beatles catalog online for digital downloading at 25 cents a track, without permission from the band or its record label.

U.S. Central District Court Judge John F. Walter said the defendant in the case, BlueBeat.com and its owner, Hank Risan, had failed to demonstrate that it had not violated Capitol’s copyright because it claimed to be selling “psychoacoustic simulations” of the Beatles catalog, not the actual protected recordings.

“Mr. Risan fails to provide any details or evidence about the ‘technological process’ that defendants contend was used to create the ‘new’ recordings or adequately explain how the ‘new’ recordings differ in any meaningful way from plaintiffs' recordings,” Walter wrote in approving the preliminary injunction.

Walter also got to play music critic for a day, noting that “after listening to the CD attached as Exhibit 1….the court, albeit to its musically untrained ear, was unable to detect or discern any meaningful difference between plaintiffs’ recordings and defendants’ recordings.”

Reached Wednesday, Risan claimed he had received the label’s permission to work with the recordings (The full interview with Risan is at the bottom of this post).

“Had we been able to appear in court,  we can show that we obtained that content lawfully,” Risan said. “If you obtain something lawfully, we have the right do things with it, like perform it, display it. We were paying the statutory royalties on it….We’re not pirates.”

A spokeswoman for EMI, Capitol’s parent firm, said Wednesday that the company declined to comment,  “as it is a matter of litigation.”

-- Randy Lewis and Todd Martens

After the jump, a Q&A of Pop & Hiss' brief chat with BlueBeat's Risan:

Swell Season survives heartbreak to play on this week at the Wiltern

 

Plenty watched Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova fall in love. On its way to a worldwide box-office gross of more than $20 million, the 2007 film “Once” reflected and fictionalized their lives.

“To this day, people get confused as to where the lines are,” Irglova said. “The lines do blur. I meet people all the time who are like, ‘How’s your daughter?’ And I don’t have a daughter.”

But they do have a very real musical partnership as Swell Season, even if the two are no longer linked romantically.

Swell Sweason recently released "Strict Joy" on Silver Lake-based independent Anti-, a label that had a prior relationship with Hansard through his work in Irish rockers the Frames. If "Once" captured an idealized version of Hansard and Irglova coming together, "Strict Joy" presents a more sobering version of a relationship disintegrating

Grammys embracing Nick Jonas' solo project

Without a hit or even an album, Nick Jonas is getting a prime-time, Grammy-endorsed unveiling for his new band, Nick Jonas and the Administration. Though it won't be nominated for an award at the 2010 edition of the gala, the solo outing from Nick has been added to the Recording Academy's Dec. 2  CBS special, "The Grammy Nominations Concert Live!! -- Countdown to Music's Biggest Night," in which the 2010 Grammy noms will be revealed.

The teenager will join previously announced performers the Black Eyed Peas, Maxwell and Sugarland at the taping. The event will be held at downtown's Club Nokia, and will air live (tape-delayed for SoCal viewers) at 9 p.m. EST. Rapper LL Cool J will host the televised press-conference-turned-concert for the second year running.

Nick may be going it alone, but Kevin and Joe won't be completely left out of the taping. The latter two will introduce Nick Jonas and the Administration.