New Rock (Grammys Edition): Sirvana, “Cut Me Some Slack”

I watched a little bit of the Grammys show tonight, before switching over to the fading Downton Abbey. But fading is way better than faded.

The show opened with Beyonce singing the drunk song about surfing, and it all felt a little like Liza Minelli in Cabaret, except Beyonce is noticeably more curvaceous. And it is only by outrageous analogy that maybe we all become Nazi officers watching her.

Jay Z appeared and it was nice to see them work together and even be a little affectionate, though they live such mediated lives it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s putting on the show. In any case, I suspect if Turbonegro was watching they got no erection. This was pure entertainment.

Speaking of that. Before the show started there was a commercial for a casino that used a Macklemore and Ryan song, that really inspirational one in which you hold your hands higher, to advertise their $50 free play. WTF? These guys are selling their songs for commercials?

And then, 20 minutes later, they were winning Best New Artist and hyping how they made their elpee independently. No label support at all. That sounds good, but not if you’re selling your hits for cheesy commercials for dubious products. Sure, endorse the Neutral Milk Hotel Mangum condoms. That’s hip. Offer a $50 rebate for casino gambling? Eat bad buffet.

The music I saw was all terrible. The best was a Keith Urban-Gary Clark Jr. collaboration on an insipid song that must have been Urban’s. Clark is an excellent rock guitarist and he got gritty on Urban and smoked him a little in their solo part, but it was more dispiriting because the better songwriter was pushed aside for the more popular country dude.

Which led to the Best Rock Song category. The nominees were an embarrassment of old. The Stones were nominated! Ozzy and his crew, too. The winner was this song, written by Sir Paul McCartney and Nirvana’s Dave Grohl, Krist Novacelic and Pat Smear. In this clip Sir Paul isn’t really sure about their names, other than Grohl’s, which is fair. My grandfather used to have the same problem with my girl friends.

So, the live clip lets you see how Sir Paul interacts with his youngers (guys pushing 50, right?). But the sound sucks. They didn’t win for that. They won for this:

Like everything Grohl is involved with, this works just fine as rock. It sounds like a Wings when they were most rockish, mixed with the breast-pounding vocal of How Do You Sleep and other Lennon tirades. And it’s good to see Sir Paul pounding it a bit.

Obviously, the selection of this tune as Best Rock Song of the year has no bearing on what the actual best rock song of the year was, but what was the best rock song of 2013?

6 thoughts on “New Rock (Grammys Edition): Sirvana, “Cut Me Some Slack”

  1. Lots to say here.

    Apparently there was some conglomeration of Queens, Nine Inch Nails, Dave Grohl (are you allowed to make a conglomeration today without inviting Dave Grohl?) and others that closed out the show. I’ll have to find it on youtube.

    If this is the best rock song of 2013, how come I’ve never heard it on the radio? It’s nothing spectacular, but it sure would sound good next to everything else. (And don’t say they don’t play rock on the radio, because they play horseshit Imagine Dragons every five songs. Although you could argue that’s not rock, but horseshit.)

    Pat Smear. What an unlikely character to be shaking hands with Sir Paul. Too bad they didn’t play a Germs tune. I’d love to hear Paul sing “Richie Dagger.”

    And that reminds me, I still haven’t cracked my Amazon Santa Germs CD. Maybe today. Joan Jett’s most important contribution to rock ‘n’ roll has to be getting that somewhat-coherent album out of the mess that was The Germs. Maybe that’s why she’s in the Hall of Fame.

    Best 2013 song? Gotta be this, the Elton John song off the Queens album. Singing guitars and a symphony of noise. I like:

    http://youtu.be/t5GiG7SqcAo

    • Great guitars, noise symphony, Bowiesque vocals, Sir Elton pounding underneath it all. Great choice.

      Imagine Dragons aren’t rock. That they’re even talked about as rock shows how messed up this category is.

  2. Steve might be saying this, but “I HATE the Grammys.”

    So stupid. So out of touch (yeah, Aerosmith and Jethro Tull are heavy metal).

    I just am shocked that the King Family and Up With People were not the finale.

    But, fuckshit, how many Grammy’s did the Beatles win?

    One, for “Let It Be,” as a movie soundtrack.

    Yet the Starland Vocal Band has one, and fucking Macklemore has four.

    That is just fucking crazy, and it is something that really sets me off (too bad you would not be able to tell).

    OTOH, I loved Downton yesterday. The guy who raped Anna is gonna wind up dead at the Abbey by the end of the season, and Bates is going to get charged and we will have a murder mystery on our hands again for next year.

    I also love how they keep bringing in the change in times with telephones, electric mixers, electric sewing machines, and now a fridge, and watch the older characters fumble.

    It reminds me kind of me trying to figure out Windows 8, or something (I tell ya, I am “this close” to needing a cell phone with big numbers).

    But, oddly, Downton also reminds me of a favorite western, “The Wild Bunch,” though the works could not be more disparate. But, each deals with the closing of the manual era, giving way to industrialization.

  3. Nice to see Lawr fired up. Hate and War!!!

    By the way, I know you guys laugh at KISS, but is there anything more stupid than Daft Punk?

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