Best Video
It wasn't a very good year for the music video. Artist after artist gave us interesting but ultimately uninspiring, and unoriginal works. Everything reaked of "we've seen it before". However, these five videos did, in some way, manage to bring some wit and perspective to their songs while being visually inventive, and one of them, stood head and shoulders above the rest.
Crazy, Gnarls Barkley with Robert Hales (director)
Here It Goes Again, OK Go and Trish Sie (directors)
Let My Shoes Lead Me Forward, Jenny Wilson with Andreas Nilsson & Johannes Nyholm (directors)
Wolf Like Me, TV on the Radio with Jon Watts (director)
Young Folks, Peter Bjorn & John with Graham Samuels (director)
and the winner is: Here it Goes Again, OK Go and Trish Sie
Producer of the Year
Danger Mouse
Pieces of the People We Love, The Rapture (track)
St. Elsewhere, Gnarls Barkley (album)
Olof Dreijer
Silent Shout, The Knife (album)
What Else is There, Röyksopp (track)
Rick Rubin
12 Songs, Neil Diamond (album)
American V: A Hundred Highways, Johnny Cash (album)
Saints Are Coming, U2 and Green Day (track)
Stadium Arcadium, Red Hot Chili Peppers (album)
Taking the Long Way, Dixie Chicks (album)
David Andrew Sitek
Return to Cookie Mountain, TV on the Radio (album)
Show Your Bones, Yeah Yeah Yeahs (additional production/album)
Timbaland
Beg for It, Omarion (track)
FutureSex/LoveSounds, Justin Timberlake (album)
Get Down, Busta Rhymes (track)
Hey! (A Lil Gratitude), Bubba Sparxxx (track)
Ice Box, Omarion (track)
Let Me Luv U, Chingy (track)
Loose, Nelly Furtado (album)
Right Now, Danity Kane (track)
Wait a Minute, Pussycat Dolls (track)
Want It, Danity Kane (track)
The winner here seems obvious to me. No other producer did quite as much as Timbaland did. Sure, plenty of others were as ubiquitous (hell, if that were enough then Will.i.Am could win the whole damn thing) but no one created a marked sound like T. Mosely did. He not only resurrected Nelly Furtado's flagging career but did so for his own, rescuing him from simply being the best thing in 2003. Timbaland looked into his bag of tricks and pulled out the smoothest, funkiest tracks of the year that had you on the dancefloor all year long.
Tomorrow: Rock categories + the Hikka megapost
If Your Life Was A Movie, What Would the Soundtrack Be?
It's time to hit the shuffle button again.
Here's how it goes:
1. Open your music library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc.)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the 'next' button
6. Don't lie
7. Answers either on your own blogs (link) or in the comments
Here's mine:
Opening Credits: Testify, Common
Waking Up: The Next Big Thing, Vince Gill
First Day at School: When the Sun Goes Down and the World Goes Down, The Magnetic Fields
Falling in Love: Can I Live, Jay-Z
Fight Song, Territorial Pissing, Nirvana (LMAO)
Breaking Up: Fallin’, Alicia Keys
Prom: Waiting, Girls Aloud
Life’s OK: Lips Like Sugar, Echo and the Bunnymen
Mental Breakdown: Tumbling Dice, Rolling Stones
Driving: Home, Dixie Chicks
Flashback: Hours, TV on the Radio
Getting Back Together: Smile Like You Mean It, The Killers
Birth of Child: Take Off Your Cool, Outkast featuring Norah Jones
Wedding: Safe From Harm, Massive Attack
Final Battle: Hide and Seek, Imogen Heap
Death Scene: A Day in the Life, Sean Connery (How fucking perfect is that? Brilliant)
Funeral: Baby Watch Your Back, Nellie McKay
End Credits: Atlantic City, Bruce Springsteen
So join in folks...
Here's how it goes:
1. Open your music library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc.)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the 'next' button
6. Don't lie
7. Answers either on your own blogs (link) or in the comments
Here's mine:
Waking Up: The Next Big Thing, Vince Gill
First Day at School: When the Sun Goes Down and the World Goes Down, The Magnetic Fields
Falling in Love: Can I Live, Jay-Z
Fight Song, Territorial Pissing, Nirvana (LMAO)
Breaking Up: Fallin’, Alicia Keys
Prom: Waiting, Girls Aloud
Life’s OK: Lips Like Sugar, Echo and the Bunnymen
Mental Breakdown: Tumbling Dice, Rolling Stones
Driving: Home, Dixie Chicks
Flashback: Hours, TV on the Radio
Getting Back Together: Smile Like You Mean It, The Killers
Birth of Child: Take Off Your Cool, Outkast featuring Norah Jones
Wedding: Safe From Harm, Massive Attack
Final Battle: Hide and Seek, Imogen Heap
Death Scene: A Day in the Life, Sean Connery (How fucking perfect is that? Brilliant)
Funeral: Baby Watch Your Back, Nellie McKay
End Credits: Atlantic City, Bruce Springsteen
So join in folks...
(Finally) Theena's Music Q
1. CD or Vinyl?
Is this really relevant anymore? I can't remember the last time I used the former and I've never had the pleasure of using the latter. Ultimately, I'm not much of a purist so I'll go with CD.
2. An Album You've Been Meaning to Listen To?
Far too many to count. Off the top of my head, Pink by Boris, Get Lonely by The Mountain Goats, Silent Shout by The Knife and Sign O'the Times by Prince
3. Grammys- Important or load of bollocks?
Load of bollocks. The only thing that keeps me coming back to them is that I am an awards addict. Otherwise, I am routinely in awe of just how profoundly bad some of their choices are.
4. Your Favourite Album is?
Tough question. It's probably between Abbey Road by The Beatles, To Bring You My Love by PJ Harvey, Kid A by Radiohead, Nevermind the Bollocks by the Sex Pistols, and Surfer Rosa by the Pixies
scratch that- it's Astral Weeks, Van Morrisson. Perfection.
5. Invite 10 Music People for Dinner. Who are they?
Ok, Lennon, Thom Yorke, PJ Harvey, Prince, Phil Spector, Lou Reed, Bjork, Brian Wilson, Brian Eno, and David Bowie. phew.
6. Appropriate punishment for those who play Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’ while pretending that its still 1998?
I'm gonna go with Asvi and say a patronizing pat on the back, but I would couple it with a stare that told them just how pathetic they are.
7. Choose your favourite instrument and its best player in your point of view.
This is a hard one. I don't play an instrument, see, so I don't feel like I could give an educated answer. I guess its between guitar and the voice. If its guitar it's Jonny Greenwood. If its voice, its either Tom Waits or Bjork.
8. One Piece of Music That Can Move You to Tears?
'Adagio for Strings' by Samuel Barber or 'Atlantic City' by Bruce Springsteen
9. You are an executive at a major label and have the power to green light one album a year. What would you do?
Fuck.
I would sit David Sitek and Thom Yorke down and try to get their heads together. Certainly ban any artist that tarnishes the good name of hip-hop (That's you 50 Cent/Black Eyed Peas/Busta Rhymes/Akon/etc.), get Jay-Z to record an entire album with Just Blaze. Get PJ
Harvey to pull out another awesome record. Slap the fuck out of Liz Phair until she realises that this 'pop exercise' is not working and try to get another Guyville out of her. Get Bjork and Timbaland to hurry the fuck up with that new album. AND FINALLY, get Lauryn Hill out of whatever fucking funk she is in and finally record a follow-up to that masterpiece of a debut.
Also, the Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs, [insert any random rock band that British rock critics have hailed as the 'second coming'], Jamie Foxx and other random boring R&B artists will be banned from making new albums until they can craft anything that is remotely original, doesn't sound like a 1000 other fucking bands and/or fun.
Is this really relevant anymore? I can't remember the last time I used the former and I've never had the pleasure of using the latter. Ultimately, I'm not much of a purist so I'll go with CD.
2. An Album You've Been Meaning to Listen To?
Far too many to count. Off the top of my head, Pink by Boris, Get Lonely by The Mountain Goats, Silent Shout by The Knife and Sign O'the Times by Prince
3. Grammys- Important or load of bollocks?
Load of bollocks. The only thing that keeps me coming back to them is that I am an awards addict. Otherwise, I am routinely in awe of just how profoundly bad some of their choices are.
4. Your Favourite Album is?
Tough question. It's probably between Abbey Road by The Beatles, To Bring You My Love by PJ Harvey, Kid A by Radiohead, Nevermind the Bollocks by the Sex Pistols, and Surfer Rosa by the Pixies
scratch that- it's Astral Weeks, Van Morrisson. Perfection.
5. Invite 10 Music People for Dinner. Who are they?
Ok, Lennon, Thom Yorke, PJ Harvey, Prince, Phil Spector, Lou Reed, Bjork, Brian Wilson, Brian Eno, and David Bowie. phew.
6. Appropriate punishment for those who play Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’ while pretending that its still 1998?
I'm gonna go with Asvi and say a patronizing pat on the back, but I would couple it with a stare that told them just how pathetic they are.
7. Choose your favourite instrument and its best player in your point of view.
This is a hard one. I don't play an instrument, see, so I don't feel like I could give an educated answer. I guess its between guitar and the voice. If its guitar it's Jonny Greenwood. If its voice, its either Tom Waits or Bjork.
8. One Piece of Music That Can Move You to Tears?
'Adagio for Strings' by Samuel Barber or 'Atlantic City' by Bruce Springsteen
9. You are an executive at a major label and have the power to green light one album a year. What would you do?
Fuck.
I would sit David Sitek and Thom Yorke down and try to get their heads together. Certainly ban any artist that tarnishes the good name of hip-hop (That's you 50 Cent/Black Eyed Peas/Busta Rhymes/Akon/etc.), get Jay-Z to record an entire album with Just Blaze. Get PJ
Harvey to pull out another awesome record. Slap the fuck out of Liz Phair until she realises that this 'pop exercise' is not working and try to get another Guyville out of her. Get Bjork and Timbaland to hurry the fuck up with that new album. AND FINALLY, get Lauryn Hill out of whatever fucking funk she is in and finally record a follow-up to that masterpiece of a debut.
Also, the Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs, [insert any random rock band that British rock critics have hailed as the 'second coming'], Jamie Foxx and other random boring R&B artists will be banned from making new albums until they can craft anything that is remotely original, doesn't sound like a 1000 other fucking bands and/or fun.
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