Albert Brooks cracks a timely joke. --- We don't watch the Grammys but we're hoping for a certain winner. --- It's an NBC Universal night on the TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan and we explain why. --- #SOA soundtrack is beating "Glee" on Amazon! --- Eddie Pepitone album release party at Improv Lab tonight! more ›

Nominees for the 54th Annual Grammy Awards were unveiled during the Grammy Nominations Concert Live!! Wednesday night at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live. Kanye West, Adele, Bruno Mars and Foo Fighters are owning this year's nominations. more ›

Musicians including Paul Simon, Carlos Santana, and Herbie Hancock have signed a petition in protest of the recent Grammy category cuts, arguing that ethnic music will be unfairly and adversely affected. more ›

The 54th Annual Grammys will present awards in 78 categories in 2012, after the Recording Academy announced an overhaul to the voting process, a consolidation of categories and introduced new voting rules today. more ›

The producers of this coming Sunday's broadcast of the Academy Awards have claimed they are removing several montage sequences from the show as part of an effort to trim the broadcast while at the same time introducing more performance segments. --- Will Banksy show up to the Oscars? --- Also, tonight's TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan and the listings. more ›

The Grammys has worked things out so we can watch the awards live -- yes, even the pre-awards awards show -- online. The programming starts today with a livestream of the Social Media Rock Stars event at Conga Room and continues through Sunday night at youtube.com/thegrammys. Shira Lazar is co-hosting The Grammys on YouTube along with former MTV News cat John Norris. We caught up with Shira earlier this week to find out what we can look forward to. more ›

The 53rd Annual Grammy Awards take place Sunday but before you start placing bets on whether Britney Spears will show up or who Kanye might diss, the Recording Academy has a week full of affiliated red carpet events, many open to the public, and some that may turn out to be too good for network TV. more ›

Sunday's Super Bowl looms in the minds of many who are already planning how many beer and snack runs they will have to make between now and gametime to be adequately provisioned. Also looming is the broadcast of the "Focus on the Family" anti-abortion ad during the game, featuring Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother. Huffington Post reveals that, while Focus on the Family had to lay off almost 300 people, they somehow managed to come up with the $2.5+ million to run the anti-abortion ad (not including production costs). On the flip side, CBS won't take any amount of money to run progressive pro-choice ads or gay-rights advocacy. more ›

A highlight of the interminable 52nd Annual Grammys was Stephen Colbert's award, his first Grammy, for the soundtrack to his hilarious holiday special, "A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All." His monologue was the most intelligent banter of the night - it was all downhill from there. From the out of tune singing, to an inability to self-censor for a broadcast audience, a confusing 3D experience, and, the very weak "mosh pit" stage design (3 or 4 "Jersey Shore"-style fist-pumpers?), Tinseltown scored an #epicfail with those and countless other "why?" moments. more ›

As with last year, while you are waiting for the tape-delayed West Coast television feed of the 52nd annual Grammy Awards, LAist will be covering the awards show as it unfolds live at LA Live! This year a slew of LAist favorites, including Brooklyn-based indie pop duo MGMT (LAist Review, #2, #3, #4, #5), Parisian indie rock outfit Phoenix (LAist Review), local indie rockers Silversun Pickups (LAist Review, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6) and English indie pop duo the Ting Tings (LAist Review, #2, #3), have been nominated in various categories. They may be relatively diminutive in comparison to recording industry giants like Taylor Swift, the Black Eyed Peas, Kings of Leon and Lady Gaga, but we are rooting for the underdogs. Stay tuned for frequent updates! more ›

In light of Michael Jackson's death, a small and recently closed exhibit featuring some of the pop star's wardrobe selections made a return yesterday at the Grammy Museum in downtown LA. Fans, the media and even one impersonator flocked the museum Friday, increasing the usual attendance and drawing more interest for the weekend when even larger crowds are expected. Michael Jackson: HIStyle features the suit worn on the Thriller album cover, two gloves and more. In the same rotunda, an original Grammy documentary repeats throughout the day. more ›

This summer marks the 40th anniversary of Woodstock and across the nation, museums will be opening exhibits about the famous event. The Grammy Museum downtown is taking a new twist and when their exhibit opens this August, it will be through the eyes of festival goers--the people's history of Woodstock, in a sense. more ›

The impending birth of her first baby didn't keep British-Sri Lankan rapper diva M.I.A. from hitting the stage at this year's Grammy's, and just a couple of days later she delivered her son. Although plans to roll the new mom onstage at this year's Academy Awards show didn't pan out (thank goodness?), she has just been added to the line up for next month's Coachella, ostensibly replacing fellow Brit Amy Winehouse, whose legal troubles are making crossing the pond a bit difficult. more ›

An over three hour slow speed chase that began in North Hollywood and made its way through the LA area and ended after the suspect shot himself following a 90-minute standoff one block away from where it all started. Rumors were flying around that this could be Chris Brown because the suspect was said to have assaulted his girlfriend this evening, is driving a white Bentley with Illinois license plates and its the night after Chris Brown's alleged incident with Rihanna last night. However, LAPD's North Hollywood Division told KNBC that the suspect is not a high profile celebrity. more ›

How did this messy mashup happen? Who paired the Jonas Brothers and Stevie Wonder at tonight's Grammy Awards? We've never seen the Jonas Brothers perform before, but boy did they blow. Nevermind that one of them flubbed his line, but didn't it seem a little smug of them to yell, "C'mon, Stevie!" Like he needs any encouragement to perform? Next time, brothers, it's Mr. Wonder to you. more ›

While you are waiting for the tape-delayed West Coast television feed of the Grammys, LAist will be covering the awards show as it unfolds live at LA Live! We're adding YouTube video of the performances as they come in (and as long as they're up) below. So far the biggest bombshell is that Radiohead will be doing a surprise performance of "15 Step" about halfway through the show. They will be introduced by Gwyneth Paltrow and accompanied by the USC marching band. [Skip to the bottom of the article for the complete schedule of performers, in order.] more ›

Chris Brown was sought on suspicion of domestic violence assault after an early morning incident in Hancock Park, according to LAPD. He later turned himself in. Both Brown and Rihanna canceled their Grammy appearances and performances hours before the awards show began. more ›

Coldplay will be in town this weekend and are scheduled to perform live at the Grammys, Sunday night at Staples Center. But the Brit band might get hit with something besides a round of applause. Guitarist Joe Satriani, who believes the band lifted the melody of their mega-hit (aka overplayed snoozefest) "Viva la Vida" from his nowhere-near-a-hit "If I Could Fly," is prepped to serve them with legal papers, and has a team willing to trail the boys in the band around all weekend because "the Grammys are the easiest forum at which to strike while the iron is hot," reports Fox News. Apparently Coldplay has dodged the servers, so Satriani's legal eagles want to pounce--ideally when the cameras are rolling, giving viewers one reason to tune in to another televised entertainment industry circle jerk. [h/t: Daily Swarm] more ›

In a time when the city of Los Angeles is in the red by $433 million, the Grammy Awards yesterday got $124,163 in special event fees waived (you know, permits, officers, street closures and the like). With city services being cut and fees to residents being raised (like parking meter rates, etc), some folks are not happy. After all, with all the advertising, the glamour and lawsuits against college students, the music industry can't afford this drop-in-the-bucket (to them) fee? more ›

Now that the writers' strike is over and it's full-steam ahead with the Oscars, you can bet that just about every TV channel is going to dogpile on the gala event. Yeah, the Grammys went ahead without interference but the Grammys are nothing compared to the Oscars. E! and CNN already have several shows lined up (look for Oscar host, Jon Stewart, on Larry King this Wednesday night) ready to tackle the exciting topics of: what will be in the gift bags? Who is Prince going to have perform at his Oscar bash? Where do the stars detox before and after the Oscars? etc. more ›

Sunday's Grammy Awards weren't just about honoring the best in music, they were also about supporting environmental awareness and conservancy. And the The Recording Academy® hoped to set the precedent with getting the Grammys to go green. more ›

Last night, LAist had a spot on the red carpet of the Key Club in West Hollywood, host of The Roots Jam Session sponsored by Rock the Vote, Okayplayer and Keldof. more ›

• As was reported today on LAist, the writer's strike, which cost the city about $1 billion, is nearly over. We all know how involved Mayor V has been nudging the two sides back together. Oh, wait. But at least he weighed in today: "This agreement is a blockbuster for the Los Angeles economy. It will put thousands of writers, set designers, caterers, and behind-the-scenes workers back on the job this week." Blockbuster! HA!
• Election central: Barack Obama added a Grammy to his momentous weekend and Hillary Clinton sacked her campaign manager today. Obama won the award for his oratorically smooth stylins, reading Audacity of Hope and Clinton announced today that she replaced her campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle with longtime aide Maggie Williams in what has had to be a long weekend for beset by four resounding primary and caucus wins by Obama in Washington, Maine, Louisiana and Nebraska.
• The rest of the Grammy winners can be found here and you'll be happy to know that Jimmy Sturr And His Orchestra took the prize for best polka album.
• Is Scientology a cult? Blogging.la found a few Anonymous people who might think so at a demonstration outside the L. Ron Hubbard center on Sunset today.
• A week after a plane crashed into the mountains near Banning Pass, rescuers reported Sunday that they have found the plane more than 11 miles from the site where it was originally reported missing. The fate of all four people on the plane is still unknown.
• Six kids and three adults from southern California fell ill today in D.C., where the group of students from West Covina and their chaperone's were visiting the White House. Insert [Bush Makes Me Sick, Too] joke here.
• From the turnabout is fair play department: A former Internal Revenue Service officer working as a tax preparer in Inglewood has been arrested in connection with an alleged scheme to defraud the government by filing false tax returns. How big of an economic stimulus check do you think he's getting?

">Irish foreign movie Once has been nominated for two categories: "Best Compilation Soundtrack Album For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media" and "Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media" for the song "Falling Slowly" (heard above). The song's validity as an Oscar nomination was challenged, but the committee found everything to be fine, so Once stays. It was not nominated for a Golden Globe.
more ›

Back in 1996, Mary J. Blige provided vocals to the hook of "Can't Knock the Hustle," the second single off of Jay-Z's debut album, Reasonable Doubt. 12 years, 12 Grammys and 70 million records sold later, Jigga Man and MJB are back at it again, co-headlining 25 shows across North America. more ›

The WGA Board voted unanimously last night to not picket the 50th Grammy Awards, February 10th at Staples Center. more ›

more ›

Hey check it, yours truly was invited to contribute some commentary to this ABCNEWS.com article (I'm on page 2). Thanks for your support! more ›