There’s this fresh, new, happening band out there that I hadn’t heard of before yesterday’s Grammies! It’s called Fountains of Wayne.
Now, considering this is Fountains of Wayne, if I were artistic I’d borrow Ilsa’s Fountain of Rolleyes :rolleyes::rolleyes:. What the fuck is up with that? Now, this rant is not some bitter indie-head casting sour grapes because his toy band made it big with the hoi polloi*.
No this is a music lover agape at the forehead-smacking, jaw-dropping stupidity of their nomination. Fountains of Wayne is an established band with plenty of fans, who even achieved widespread airplay with “Leave the Biker.” Now, if, say, a near-unknown such as Schascle, or even a sub-popular band such as Promise Ring (R.I.P.) made it big, I could understand being nominated. But what went through the music industry’s fat-addled, thrombosis-veined helium-heads? FUCK!
*I COULD make it sour grapes by mentioning that “Stacey’s Mom” is the second worst song on the album, yet that was the one they chose to release. But I won’t mention that
I was dumbfounded when I saw that they were nominated as best new artist. Then again, the Grammy’s have always been a joke to me, so I didn’t give it too many brain cells.
And incidentally, FoW had a far bigger hit in Radiation Vibe than with Leave the Biker.
Sink to the Bottom from their second album got a fair bit of airplay as well.
Hopefully, at least a few new listeners are noticing that they’ve been around a while and are checking out their old stuff.
Nit-pick: “Sink to the Bottom” was also from their first album.
Let’s face it, though. The Grammies are a celebration by and for the major labels. If you don’t release your stuff on a major label, you might as well not exist to the Grammies. I guess the RIAA just didn’t consider Atlantic Records (also RIP, I believe), which FoW released their first two albums on, to be “major label” material.
I was dumbfounded by their Best New Artist nom as well, but then, I hardly look to the Grammys for logic. FOW are excellent- I play their 3 cds and sing my fool head off constantly, and if it brings them some new fans, all the better.
I love FoW. Great band. The ‘Best New Artist’ award is a bit perplexing, but less so if you actually read the requirement for it. The Grammy people say it’s an award for artists who, in the past year, “break through into widespread recognition”, or something like that. That gives them a lot of leeway in choosing bands for this award.
Since it’s their award, and they can set the criterion anyway they want, who cares? Why not just be happy that the band finally gets some well-deserved recognition?
And “Stacy’s Mom” is NOT the second-worst song on the album. It’s not my favorite (“Hackensack”, “Valley Winter Song”, “Hey Julie”, and “Mexican Wine” are better, IMO), but it’s a fine song. On any other album it’d be the standout, which just tells you how truly excellent “Welcome Interstate Managers” is.
If you really want to rant about the Grammys, how about ranting that this spectacular album wasn’t even nominated for album of the year. Or even worse, that the fantastic “Rainy Day Music” by the Jayhawks never got a single nomination.
But the truly damning fact about the Grammy awards is that until this year Warren Zevon had never even been nominated. He should have had an entire wall of the damned things by now.
