Lorde "Royals"

The Grammys are this weekend.

One of the many, many (many!) little things I do at MVY, is to copy the whole nomination list, and then go over it with a fine tooth comb, highlighting all of the MVY artists who got nominated.  I print it out and leave it in the studio for the DJs.

Though this year's document is 20 pages long, the list---for MVY listeners---is pretty weak.

No MVY acts for Album Of The Year, Record Of The Year, Song Of The Year or Best New Artist.

Oh, some of our favorites show up in places you'd expect, like Americana or Alternative.

But this list this year is decidedly Pop heavy.

That's not entirely a bad thing.

Even though they aren't likely to be played on our station, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Bruno Mars, and Daft Punk are all credible artists who made great songs in the genre where they live.

I'd even venture that though this was not a tune we'd play on MVY, Lorde's "Royals" IS one of the best songs of the year, without a doubt.

I'll post about some other interesting Grammy nods throughout the week . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis "Thrift Shop"

If you are my age or older, and if you are an MVY listener, you're not hearing to much rap music in your life.

So from time to time, I do like to point you to songs that are pretty f*****g awesome.

And to prove my point about just how unhip this blog post is, let me point out that this song is months old.  And the way I heard about it is from my wife.  Who is a teacher and learned about it from her 4th graders.

But I do get a kick out of this track because a) it's hilarious, b) it references the sounds (of rap music) that were touchstones for me (late 80s, early 90s), and c) lyrically, it is the exact opposite of what is so uninteresting about current popular rap music, which seems obsessed with success, wealth and image.


Hear the unedited, NSFW version on Youtube.


Hear the unedited, NSFW version with lyrics on the screen on Youtube.


And the clean version, if you happen to be at work, on Youtube.