Vinyl Notes

Tonight you can catch the 2008 BET Awards from the Shrine Auditorium, airing live at 8PM ET on BET. While the BET (NYSE:VIA) is calling this awards show “the hottest ticket on television” there has been virtually no buzz until today. This begs the question, has this event been marketed effectively? Or am I just that detached from BET?   

Truth be told, I haven’t tuned in to anything BET related in years, so the answer could be the latter. However, I do make efforts to keep my finger on the pulse of music news (so I can deliver the important bits to you dear readers) and the BET Awards just sort of snuck up on me. Oh well…

The show does sound promising with performances by Rihanna, Marvin Sapp, Kanye West, and Alicia Keys, a lifetime achievement award for Al Green, the Humanitarian Award for Quincy Jones and a litany of stars to present the awards.

Music award categories and nominees after the jump…

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This Saturday independent record stores across the nation celebrated their cultural contributions to their local neighborhoods with National Record Store Day. When I found out about this event, I went straight to the list of participating retailers to see if my local record store, Fingerprints, was taking part and was pleased to see that they were. So I spent Saturday afternoon digging through crates of albums, observed a signing by Metal legend Rob Halford and in the evening caught a performance by Limbeck.

My friends at Listen In reported  Record Store Day from their respective corners of the US. Eric Atienza rose early to go to Other Music - his favorite record store in New York - and couldn't control his urges; leaving with a host of things to add to his vinyl collection. Evan Mix lamented that he was unable to visit his local record store but made a recommendation for a performance in his area. My partner in crime and I wrote about the Long Beach celebration of Record Store Day.

While Fingerprints has expanded over the years, there is absolutely no wasted space. Stacks of CDs 3′ high were liberally strewn about as were boxes of t-shirts. Suffice it to say Fingerprints is your typical neighborhood record store. We would like to offer details of the Silversun Pickups’ set, but the list was full within minutes and we missed out. We did, however, have a chance to check out Limbeck and lead singer Robb MacLean’s gravely alto timbre was perfectly suited to their country tinged indie rock sound.

Fans weren’t discouraged by the late start of the set or the lack of a rhythm section. In fact, there was no room for percussion or the bass, two dudes and two guitars was all the stage could handle for this intimate performance.

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As far as I’m concerned, most award shows are about hype, especially the Grammys. There was nothing truly inspired by this year’s awards. Yes, Amy Winehouse has a phenomenal voice and Back to Black was her breakout album, but her first one was better. True enough The Pretender by Foo Fighters was in constant rotation, but it was by no means the best rock performance of the year. And someone please explain how Alicia Keys won Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for “No One”? C’mon people, seriously!

Since I really have nothing good to say about the Grammys, I invite you to have a good laugh with the Listen In writers at Newsvine and their first annual Blammy Awards:

 

“Roll out the red carpet! The Grammys are a farce, so we at Listen In have decided to host our very own music awards show. We'll laugh… we'll cry… we'll take aim at some of the more vulnerable targets available. We'll even hand out a few awards. We're calling it the Blammys.”

kmmad