Grammy Recap

Oy vey. That was quite the Grammy Super-Jammy Sunday night. In case you missed it, or spent the rest of the evening hovering over your toilet bowl after Ashanti‘s vomit-causing “heal the children” number, here are the highlights: Simon shrugging off Garfunkel‘s attempt at a hug after they reunited for “Sound of Silence”; Erykah Badu presenting in a ripped Dead Prez T-shirt, so obviously two tokes over the line; Fred Durst making up the neat new word “agreeance” for his mumbly anti-war speech; Springsteen nearly popping a neck cord on what was actually a pretty good Clash tribute with Elvis Costello, Steve Van Zandt, and Dave Grohl; Coldplay’s Chris Martin having an apparent seizure and humping the piano all Tori-like during “Politik”; Wayne Coyne sporting a Nelly face Band-Aid; Eminem acing “Lose Yourself,” backed by the Roots; poor Avril Lavigne getting five nominations and no win (insert evil chortle here). Since the actual awards part got really freakin’ boring (Norah Jones won everything but Best Long-Form Male Polka), we focused instead on the one thing you can always count on at award shows: the outfits. A few of our favorites: Aretha Franklin looking like she just ate Glinda the Good Witch, all wrapped up in 400 yards of sparkly white blanket; Avril‘s straight outta-after-school-detention old-man button-down and baggy tux; the ever-popular faux-hawk bouffant on Pink, Gwen Stefani, and the Dixie Chicks’ Natalie; Sheryl Crow‘s J.Lo hairdo partly covering the “No” on her sparkly “No War” guitar strap so it just said “O War“; Badu’s afro (on her head and under her arms); Missy Elliot‘s pink track suit tricked out with real sparkly lights; and Cyndi Lauper looking awesomer than just about any other lady in the house. . . . By the way, we can’t be the only ones who

thought Nelly‘s crazy pyro effects during “Hot in Herre” were a little insensitive considering the death tollnow at 97in last week’s Great White tragedy in Rhode Island. . . . While we’re on the sensitivity tip, here’s a show report on last Tuesday’s emotion-addled bill at Graceland, from Mr. Andrew Bonazelli: “Long after the men-are-from-Venus-women-are-from-Venus stylings of Ranier Maria and Mates of State, ineffectual things came in threes. The chronology: (1) Death Cab cutie Ben Gibbard boarded the bus to summon all to the Summit Avenue Tavern, (2) MoS drummer Jason Hammel brushed me off said watering hole’s Galaga table and was promptly eviscerated by RM guitarist Kyle Fischer (who now holds the top score; initials: ACE), and (3) recently deboyfriended RM frontlady Caithlin DeMarrais emceed a barwide strip-down to determine who had the most emo not-dog and I WON! Almost half of that might have happened.” . . . Instrumental monoliths Kinski, meanwhile, played to a capacity- and-then-some crowd at the Crocodile Saturday night, and only panicky Great White thoughts kept us from shoving our way toward the front for the sonic assault that was the show. Though the band’s newly anointed Sub Pop release Airs Above Your Station was certainly the focus of the night, glowing words were also spoken of openers Comets on Fire‘s psych-y space rock. . . . Oh, the collecting fun to be had with the White Stripes‘ upcoming Elephant. The record will be released with not one but six different covers, “one for vinyl, and one for compact disc in each of the three sections of the globe,” says junior geographer Jack White, all designed by himself with input from Thee Headcoats drummer Bruce Brand. The release date has now been moved up two weeks due to rampant Internet track leakage, and Mr. Jack is none too pleased, as he wrote on the band’s Web

site: “I’m very sad at some of you for peeking at your Christmas presents before Christmas morning, can’t you wait? . . . The devil is at work here, and you will pay for your impatience. This world of have-it-now, millisecond attention span and gross neglect for quality is getting old. I’m getting old, too, watch me slowly die.” The rest of his rambly post, complete with phrases like “boomdagle rumblefuss charpenhurper,” makes us believe Badu has been passing the pipe. . . . Check out Dirtnap Records‘ new compilation, Dirtnap Across the Northwest, featuring the Epoxies, the Cripples, the Gloryholes, the Dark Places, Cookie, the Popular Shapes, the Briefs, Midnight Thunder Express, and so very much more. It’s available at www.dirtnaprecs.com and several of your more independent-minded local record stores. . . . Yo La Tengo will also be hitting the record bins three years after the release of And Then Nothing Turned Itself Out with Summer Sun, due out in April. . . . Looks like Beck has a new girlfriend, andsurprise!she’s a Scientologist, too. It’s Marissa Ribisi, twin of actor Giovanni and probably best known as the cutie-patootie redhead with the afro from Dazed & Confused. . . . You can find the late great Dee Dee Ramone still kicking out the jams on old-timey N.Y.C.-via-L.A. punk trio Youth Gone Mad‘s album, released last week. The creatively titled Youth Gone Mad Featuring Dee Dee Ramone, for which Ramone wrote and recorded some of the songs and also designed the cover art, includes tracks “Sheena Is a Surf Punk” and the unsettling “Dee Dee Deceased.” . . .Finally, a fond farewell to Johnny “Take This Job and Shove It” Paycheck, who died in his sleep Tuesday at the age of 64.