Monday
Jan272020
Tool Wins Grammy Award
Monday, January 27, 2020 at 07:34AM
Tool just won a Grammy in the category of Best Metal Performance for "7empest." The song is from the album Fear Inoculum.
I wanted to share the video of the Aerosmith/Run D.M.C. performance last night but every clip on YouTube has been removed for copyright reasons. Aerosmith did "Livin' On the Edge" before "Walk This Way" and it was just chaotic fun.
Watch TOOL Accept 'Best Metal Performance' GRAMMY For '7empest'https://t.co/qo0qPIYocb pic.twitter.com/N8cC8w5iL6
— BLABBERMOUTH.NET (@BLABBERMOUTHNET) January 26, 2020
Reader Comments (13)
All the great Metal albums that came out this year and this is the crap they award?
I don’t know who cooks up the list every year but they sure as h*ll don’t know Metal!
It’s ridiculous!
Tool is a metal band. Prog metal, but they still deserve a seat at the table; and good on them for selling a boatload of very expensive CDs in this climate (I mean seriously, have you checked out the packaging for that thing?)
At least the award wasn't given to Tenacious D, Steel Panther, Jethro Tull, a cover song, or some reissue of a 30 year old album.
On the Aerosmith subject... Run DMC collab was my first exposure to Aerosmith way back in the day, and I even bought the Raising Hell album I liked it so much. Got to see Run DMC years ago when they were all still alive. I'm not a rap fan by any stretch but have a soft spot for that group and album.
All of that being said, last night's Aerosmith performance still wasn't enough to make me want to sit through the 3 hour drivel that is the Grammy's, especially since they can't even respect our genre enough to broadcast the metal award.
That Aerosmith performance was not good. I think there were sound issues, so that didn't help them but still ... there was just zero chemistry with RUN DMC. Almost like they were each doing their own thing. Steven oversang all of it, and at the end he grabbed two unsuspecting ladies from the audience who were clueless about how to do the dance from the video.. Joe seemed super annoyed to be there the whole time, and luckily for Tom, the fake drummer and Santa Claus in the back who were trying to hold it all together, they were basically never on screen. It felt so unrehearsed that Joey must have been laughing at a bar somewhere counting his blessings he wasn't a part of it.
OK, enough said, great band with a poor performance, it happens. It was just very unfortunate that the only bona fide rock act was not on top of their game. The genre didn't gain fans last night, but then again, nobody who likes rock/metal watches anyway (except me I guess).
I did watch the whole thing. I thought it started on the right tone with the tribute to Kobe. Alicia Keys is a very likeable and capable host and has the musical chops to be respected by the audience. The only genres that get any performance slots anymore are hip-hop and top 40 pop. Lil Nas X performance was kinda cool. Demi Lovato has an amazing voice, wow. Billie Eilish took home most of the awards for an album she and her brother basically made in their bedrooms, go figure. Country and rock are woefully underrepresented vs. their share of fans.
Next year book Rammstein to blow the whole thing up!
I, too, watched the whole thing and do EVERY year.
Unfortunately, this was a step backwards from last year which was much better, mainly because of Brandi Carlisle’s showstopping performance back then.
Say what you will about Eilish but she’s the only artist out there with an edge and more originality than most of the acts honored and nominated. Her shout out to Ariana Grande was ironic because Grande’s stuff is so formulaic compared to Eilish’s.
And nothing during the entire broadcast even came close to Eilish’s Gucci monogrammed fingernails!
There is a lot to enjoy in rap, particularly (for me) older versions thereof. Public Enemy? Amazing. Naughty by Nature even, as Treach could rhyme his way out of a parking ticket! While most of the music spoke to an audience of which I was not a part, there were points of cross-over and collaboration. But, stand alone, rap is a genre of music that holds up.
They had DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince supporting, as well as an opener (whose name I can't recall). This was before Will Smith had really broken through, so their set was very, very short . . . "A Nightmare on My Street" and "Parents Just Don't Understand" being the main songs.
To start the show they burst through a false brick wall, which then transitioned to a wall of lights that constantly flashed "Run DMC." Mizell was in this UFO-style booth that hovered above the main stage. I still remember loving "Mary, Mary" and "Run's House" played live. And the line "I roam in the zone of the microphone" still sits in my brain to this day (from "Beats to the Rhyme").
By no means their best album. But still a great slice of classic rap, with all of them performing an incredible set. And I also remember that the audience was eating it up, an interesting mixture of people all getting along and enjoying the performance.
Public Enemy? Around that time (late 80s)? Man, I would have loved to see them (even if I find Prof. Griff to be a stain on their career).
Thanks for asking, Bkallday! Loved the trip down memory lane. And, like Slayer, another band we both love!