Rockblog

The 51st Grammy Awards were presented last night. Back in December the Rockblog made predictions for the Field 4 - Rock Grammy Award winners.

Disclaimer: The Rockblog predictions are not who the Rockblog would personally choose to win these awards. They were only our predictions of how the Grammy judges would vote.  (About the only thing we could ever see ourselves picking Coldplay for would be an historically correct reenactment of the Bataan Death March.)

How did the Rockblog fare in our predictions? Let’s find out.

Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance

Rockblog prediction: Paul McCartney - I Saw Her Standing There

Grammy Award Winner: John Mayer - Gravity

Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals

Rockblog prediction: Coldplay - Violet Hill

Grammy Award Winner: Kings of Leon - Sex On Fire

Best Hard Rock Performance

Rockblog prediction: Pick’em (with slight nod to Judas Priest)

Grammy Award Winner: The Mars Volta - Wax Simulacra

Best Metal Performance

Rockblog prediction: Metallica - My Apocalypse

Grammy Award Winner: Metallica - My Apocalypse

Best Rock Instrumental Performance

Rockblog prediction: Zappa Plays Zappa - Peaches En Regalia

Grammy Award Winner: Zappa Plays Zappa - Peaches En Regalia

Best Rock Song

Rockblog prediction: Bruce Springsteen - Girls In Their Summer Clothes

Grammy Award Winner: BROOSE - Girls In Their Summer Clothes

Best Rock Album

Rockblog prediction: Coldplay - Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends

Grammy Award Winner: Coldplay - Viva La Vida Loca

Four correct out of seven. Not bad as far as predictions go, and if you give partial credit for the Pick’em choice that puts us well above .50o.

Congratulations to all the winners, especially Zappa Plays Zappa, Metallica, and Bruce Springsteen.

Keep on rockin’.

Brewster, Massachusetts police officer Joseph Houston is on paid administrative leave after allegedly urinating on a fellow fan at a Metallica concert in Boston and then refusing to leave TD Banknorth Garden when security guards ejected him for disorderly conduct.

The Cape Cod Times reports:

“Although he has been charged only with trespassing, Houston appeared to be drunk, flashed his badge in an attempt to get back into the concert, called a black MBTA officer “Obama,” and had been asked to leave the concert after he allegedly urinated on another patron.”

Some of you might remember the story in November about a Jersey City councilman pissing off of the balcony onto Deadheads at a concert by Grateful Dead tribute band Dark Star Orchestra.

These two stories have the Rockblog wondering what the deal is with people in authority pissing on rock fans at concerts and brings up some important questions about their behaviour.

Do they think they are better than the unwashed masses that attend rock concerts?

Or do they spend all day figuratively swinging their dicks around and feel the need to do it literally after the work day is over?

And most important, do they go around shouting “You will respect my authoritay!” like Cartman on Southpark while pissing on their fellow concert goers?

The Rockblogger lost his day job today. You know, the one that pays the bills.

I can’t say it was a total surprise. The company had barely shipped anything since the beginning of the year and I knew my job as Technical Author was considered “overhead” by many of the head honchos. That still doesn’t make it any easier.

I could tell you what I think the next couple of months are going to be like, but I think George Thorogood and the Destroyers can probablly do a better and more entertaining job of it. I was just listening to the song in the following video, “One Bourbon, One Scotch, and One Beer”, in the car yesterday afternoon.

Change the second line of the song to “I came home one Monday and I had to tell my landlady I done lost my job” and the rest sounds like my story.

I’m back from my Phoenix trip. The Eagles lost, which sucked, but I still had a good time.

The winners of the Entrecard competition are:

Southern Metal Reporter - http://southernmetalreporter.today.com/

and

Life With Mom - http://caregivingdaughter.today.com/

These were the only two who bothered to answer the question, which makes me wonder if the rest of the Entrecard droppers even read any of the blog posts? Other bloggers dropped more than either of these two while I was away, but none of them left a comment and answered the question. Why not?

Anyhow, congrats to both and 150 EntreCard credits have been transferred to your accounts.

This is still the Rockblog and since I’m back, I’ll give you Aerosmith performing “Back in the Saddle”on New Year’s Eve 1984 at the Orpheum in Boston. Joe Perry and Brad Whitford had just re-joined the group at this point. I saw Aerosmith earlier that year with replacements Jimmy Crespo and Rick Duffay still on guitar. Thanks to YouTube user EAGLEVIEW08 for uploading this.

The Rockblog is away from home at the moment, having flown to Phoenix to catch this afternoon’s NFC Championship game between the Arizona Cardinals and Philadelphia Eagles. If their are any EntreCard droppers wanting to do the EntreCard competition, there was your answer.

One of the Phoenix area’s most famous residents is of course one of my all-time favourite rockers, Alice Cooper.

As well as being the number one shock-rocker in the world and an avid golfer, Alice also owns a restaurant and bar in Phoenix called Alice Cooperstown.

Alice Cooperstown is part rock bar and part sports bar and is billed as “Where Rock Meets Jock”. Considering the Rockblog is flying out to Phoenix to watch a football game, the saying seems appropriate.

Besides my brothers and watching the Eagles kick the stuffing out of the Cardinals (fingers crossed), the only other thing I really want to do while in Arizona is visit Alice Cooperstown. Hopefully when I get back next week I’ll have some pictures to show the Rockblog readers.

In the meantime here is an often overlooked Alice Cooper song from the mid-80s. “He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask)”was the theme tune for Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives and the song can also be used to describe Alice’s return to the music industry. Enjoy!

I’m flying back to America for a few days and doubt if I will have time to post while I’m away. I get back on Tuesday afternoon and the Rockblog should be back to normal by Wednesday or Thursday of next week.

While I’m away, I have a little competion for all of the EntreCard droppers who stop by my blogs in which I will be giving away 3 sets of 100 Entrecard Credits.

To be in for a chance of winning 100 EC, leave a comment on this post telling me what city in America I am going to and drop your EntreCard on both this blog and http://metalblog.today.com.

The 3 people who give me the correct answer and drop their card the most times between today and Tuesday will get 100EC transfered into their EntreCard account. In the event of a tie I will chose 3 winners at random from those that gave the correct answer and left the most drops on the 2 blogs.

I have written posts on both this blog and the Metalblog that will publish over the weekend and tell you where I’ve gone.

If you want to get a jump on the competition, you can also find the answer in the comments of the linked posts at the following blogs:

www.sports2000.today.com

www.philly.today.com

Thanks for reading and good luck!

*****

Not forgetting this is the Rockblog, I’ll leave you with a couple of rocking videos. Since I’m flying today I’ll chose the top two songs from our Top Ten Rock Flying Songs list.

The first video is Pink Floyd’s “Learning to Fly” and the second is the Byrds with “Eight Miles High”.

The Rockblog should really be beyond caring about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I’ve already pointed out what a fallacy the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is two months ago, but their exclusion once again of Iggy and the Stooges, who were on the final ballot, makes me think that bitching about them again is called for.

This year the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame decided to induct Metallica, Jeff Beck, Run DMC, Bobby Womack, and Little Anthony and the Imperials - whoever the hell they are.

Metallica I can’t argue with. They’ve sold a ton of records and, even though I know this had NOTHING to do with why the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted them, were one of the pioneers of thrash metal back in the 80s.

Jeff Beck I can’t personally argue with because I love him, but I’m not sure what reasoning was used to get him on the ballot over a lot of other deserving acts. Of the acts on the final ballot I would have put him as my third choice under the Stooges and Metallica.

And of course the other three nominees have fuck all  to do with rock and roll and should go set up their own Hall’s of Fame to get inducted into.

The Sex Pistols were right when they called the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a “piss stain” in their “acceptance” letter in 2006.

Wow. I have no idea what kind of mental re-fried beans I’ve been eating to cause the serious brain farts I had while posting yesterday.

First thing I did in yesterday’s post was wish Elvis Presley a Happy 73rd Birthday. It was later pointed out to me that it was actually Elvis’ 74th birthday . Once I realised we were in 2009, and would likely remain there for the rest of the year, I agreed that it was indeed Elvis’ 74th birthday.

I’ve also just realised that not only did I have the year wrong, but I had the date wrong as well. Elvis’ birthday wasn’t yesterday, but it was the day before (Thursday).

I looked at his birth date yesterday and said to myself “Yep, that’s today.”

Elvis, if you’re reading this I’m terribly sorry and would like to wish you a happy belated birthday. And if you’re in the London area tonight why don’t you come along to your Birthday Bash. I’d love to meet you and buy you a drink just so I can hear you say “Thank you very much” when I hand it to you.

A few days back I wrote a Rockblog post about Post-Christmas Rock Bargains. After a day out in scenic Milton Keyens yesterday, I have a few updates to add to that post.

First and most obvious, if your local Woolworth’s isn’t already closed, it will be by the end of tomorrow. All Woolworth’s stores will be shut by the 5th of January. I doubt if you’ll find any CD bargains left, but you might get a good deal on some shop shelves or a cash register if you have a need.

The next thing to report is HMV. If you haven’t been out to the HMV sale to have a look around, don’t bother. From what I could see it was the same crap that’s been in the 2 for £10 for as long as I can remember. A few other CDs had new “Sale” stickers on them, but the prices didn’t seem like much of a bargain. A complete waste of my time yesterday and I walked out hoping to hell Zavvi doesn’t shut down. If we have to rely on HMV as our only high street CD retailer we’re screwed. HMV is only interested in selling DVDs. Who buys DVDs anyways? I think I own maybe half a dozen DVDs, so the CD to DVD ratio in my house is somewhere around 150 CD’s to every DVD - so don’t blame me for declining music sales.

Had a quick look in Zavvi yesterday. Many of the good bargains have already been snapped up, but they are now also offering a further %10 off of the marked price on everything. If I had more time to look around when I went in there yesterday I’m sure I would have come out with something, but as it happened I walked out of Zavvi with somebody a half hour’s drive away expecting to be picked up in twenty minutes.

So your best bets now for rock CD bargains in the UK is either Zavvi if you want to get out of the house or any of the online retailers.

It’s the start of the new year and time for the Rockblog to announce it’s favorite concert from 2008.

But before we announce the winner of the Best Concert for 2008 we will announce the runners up….

Neil Young - Hammersmith Apollo, London 08/03/08

Not the best Neil Young show I’ve been to, but good enough to get a mention. Two sets from Neil on this tour, one acoustic followed by an electric set. Odd goings on with a guy painting pictures at the side of the stage, but smoking versions of “Down By The River”,”Hey Hey, My My”,”Powderfinger”, and “No Hidden Path” from his latest Chrome Dreams II did enough to send me home satisfied.

Ace Frehley - Astoria, London 11/04/08

Founding KISS guitarist Ace Frehley brought his band to London in April and delivered a show that, for me, was more enjoyable than seeing him perform with his former band. Ace looked in great shape, sounded even better, and performed a setlistthat I have a hard time finding any faults with. With the Astoria closing down soon, this show will be one of the highlights of my memories of the venue.

And now the winner of the Rockblog 2008 Concert of the Year…

The Dictators - Apolo 2, Barcelona 01/10/08

No real contest here. Not only the concert of the year, but the concert of the decade, the century, the millenium - lets just say it was THE best show I’ve ever been to.

The Dictators hadn’t played a show together since the closing of CBGB’s two years ago, so I was a bit nervous spending the money to fly out to Spain to see them as I’ve travelled for concerts before and been let down by poor performances.  Of course there was no need to worry as the Dictators kicked the Barcelona crowd’s ass into submission. No elaborate stage show, no pyro,  just rock and roll played the way it’s meant to be - straight ahead and in your face.

Ross the Boss tore the place up on lead guitar while Andy Shernoff, Scott “Top Ten” Kempner, and J.P. “Thunderbolt” Patterson kept everything moving forward and “Handsome” Dick Manitoba showed that not only is he the handsomest man in rock and roll, but he’s also the best front man in rock and roll.

It’s been three months since this concert and I still get goose pimples thinking about it. If there was a downside to this show it would have to be finding out two days after booking my flights, ticket, and hotel that people I know had just bought a place in Alicante. If I’d known I had a place to crash for free for one night I would have flown out to Alicante to see the show there and then taken the train to Madrid for that concert before flying back from Madrid. Oh well, shit happens and life is too short to worry about what could have been, especially when I at least got a chance to see the Dictators once.

To steal a phrase from Joey the Bartender from the back of the Dictators’ 1975 debut Go Girl Crazy! : “God Bless the Dictators and all that they stand for”.

At the beginning of the following video, I’m the guy at the front taking off his Dictators Go Girl Crazy!  T-shirt to flash at the band (the T-shirt, not myself) as “Handsome” Dick Manitoba introduces “The Next Big Thing”.