News and Notes (that aren’t quite Nashville): December edition

Earlier today I wrote a post with news and notes of recent buzz about Nashville.  Now, I want to finish cleaning off this desktop, and file away the rest of what I’ve been reading about recently.  Take a look below.

Grammy Nominations

The Grammy nominations happened the other night, and here’s what happened.  I’m gonna hold my tongue about how I really feel about the Grammy’s, but, my real question is, when did Bon Iver become a “new” artist?  He (Justin Vernor) has been around in his current band for a solid 5 years now.  Is he “new” because the old fellars who are picking these nominees didn’t know about him?  Check out this blog post from MTV’s website with the title “Who The Hell Is Bon Iver?”  C’mon man!

Sleigh Bells teaser

Sleigh Bells is coming back with a new record.  Here’s the teaser for it.

[vimeo 32696531]

?uestlove regrets welcoming Michelle Bachmann

Did everyone hear about ?uestlove (of Roots fame and currently musical host of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon) welcoming Michelle Bachmann onto Fallon with the instrumental version of Fishbone’s “Lyin’ Ass Bitch”.  Obviously, it has created quite a stink.  Serious backlash later, and he said “Was It Worth It?  Absolutely not!”  Do you think this is good or bad publicity for the release of The Roots upcoming record Undun due out 12/6 on Def Jam?  Remember, that is the one that has links to Sufjan Steven’s Michigan character “Redford”.  Politics aside, click over to NPR to listen to Undun a week before the release.

The Boss of SXSW

Bruce Springsteen is continuing to promote his upcoming record and tour with the announcement that The Boss will be the keynote speaker for this year’s SXSW festival in Austin, TX.  As if you needed another reason to want to go down there for the madness!

This should be interesting

Metal monsters, Mastodon, and popster, Feist, will be covering each other in a split single that is going to release next year during Record Store Day.  This should be really interesting.

Mikal Cronin

San Francisco rocker Mikal Cronin is releasing a new 7″ via Goner “Tide” b/w “You Gotta Have Someone New”.  You might remember Cronin from his gig w/ Ty Segall back in September at Exit/In.  You can check out (and download) the jangly B-side of that single over at Pitchfork.

The best of the rest

If you are a fan of Okkerville River, you can download an EP of covers here.  Fugazi is set to release hundreds of live shows, and you can get download them here.  Jose Gonzalez wants to rent your place to record his next record, and below is the video that made me like Gonzalez (and really miss San Francisco).  Watch this in HD.  It’s worth it.

[youtube_sc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8bb3fv91gY&w=560&h=315]

In the meantime…. weeeeee – BBAAAAAHHHHMMMM (that’s my best description of the sound that my computer makes when it gets rebooted).  Yee haw!  Happy Friday, folks.