The 66th Annual Grammy Awards Reactions

[00:00:00] Hey everybody, Chris Fafalius here. If you enjoy One Hit Thunder, which I'm assuming you do considering you're listening to it right now, I want to tell you about another great music podcast on the Evergreen Podcast Network. It's called Riffs on Riffs. On this season of Riffs on Riffs,

[00:00:15] hosts Toby Braswell and Joe Watson are breaking down one iconic pop song each week. Everything from Taylor Swift's Cruel Summer to Journey's Don't Stop Believin' to Naughty by Nature's OPP. Each week, they crack open the song, trace its history, decode those cryptic lyrics,

[00:00:31] and unearth the hidden gems in its musical DNA. Not only do they dive into the song's history, lyrics, and impact, they also go down some fun and oftentimes hilarious rabbit holes. So yeah, if you're a fan of One Hit Thunder, I think you'll also enjoy Riffs on Riffs.

[00:00:47] So go hit that subscribe button on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your pods. Du auch? So Chris, the Grammys were last night. That's right. Matt, you made me watch the entire Grammys. I don't know if I've ever watched

[00:01:54] the entire Grammys before. I don't think I ever have either. Now, like the MTV Music Awards in like the 90s and early 2000s, like absolutely would watch those from start to finish. And they would like rerun it for like a week or two on MTV after it aired.

[00:02:11] So like those I had always seen. Grammys were always a thing I forgot was happening until the next day in the paper when there'd be like a printed list of the winners or whatever. Yeah.

[00:02:20] I don't know if this is the norm or not. I was not aware that the Grammys are basically a three hour concert with a 30 minute award show attached to it. Hey, I actually, if I was going to put something in the positive

[00:02:38] column, that's kind of a positive of it, right? You get to watch a lot of live performances. I don't really want to see people go up and accept awards and give speeches and thank people I don't

[00:02:47] know who they are. No, I think that that's fair. So I did something a little different. So when I was a kid, I used to love reading like Entertainment Weekly and all of those like entertainment magazines. Entertainment Weekly was the one I had a subscription for

[00:03:05] at one point in my life, but they would do things that were like the hot or not or whatever. So I did a running list of what I called the wins and losses of the Grammys. And I'm going

[00:03:17] to kind of work my way through these because the wins and the losses almost complement each other throughout the list. I think we're going to agree on a lot of stuff. I think so too. Can we do it chronologically?

[00:03:30] That's what I have in it. So I was going to say, you keep an eye on your notes as well. So first big win, Dua Lipa's opening performance. Awesome. Yeah, it was pretty good. She was on like a metal jungle gym thing that was getting

[00:03:46] sort of turned and she would move where she was on this metal cube thing. You know, this like scaffolding. I thought it was pretty good. The song is that Catch Me Or I Go Houdini song, which I think is just okay.

[00:04:02] Yeah. It's not the best song, but just the visuals, I was like, oh wow, this is like actually a pretty high production opening performance. But then an immediate loss, Trevor Noah's opening monologue, which had almost no jokes. It was just a series of weird

[00:04:18] name drops as celebrities were showing up in real time behind him, which was insane to me. Yeah. It felt super cheesy. It felt really low effort. Although I would say that he was nice

[00:04:36] to everyone. Like he was very complimentary in his, I guess you would call jokes, in his barely jokes. Here's what I'll say about Trevor Noah. Seems like a really nice guy. I agree with, I feel like I'm on the same wavelength with him about the world and politics

[00:04:53] and stuff. My mom read his book, I think. And I guess his story is real impressive and everything. I just don't find him funny. I felt like he was a bad daily show host.

[00:05:06] I think, so this is a, I have no evidence of this. Maybe by the time this episode drops later on today, there will be more information on it. Have you ever been in Los Angeles when it's

[00:05:16] raining? I don't think I, I don't know. I don't remember. I don't think so. Okay. So when I, I only lived in LA for like six months and I experienced one day of rain.

[00:05:27] And I would say that the rain that I experienced that one day would be the equivalency of a light drizzle from what we're used to. But the way that the streets clogged up immediately by people not

[00:05:43] knowing what to do because they're not used to driving in rain, and they kept stressing how it was raining in LA that day. I almost wonder if they basically told Trevor Noah like,

[00:05:55] hey, a lot of the big names are running late. We need you to stretch this out as long as you possibly can so that everyone gets here. Because it did feel like he, you know, there were a lot

[00:06:08] of moments where I'm like, I don't think he's reading a teleprompter right now. I think he is literally just trying to come up with something on the fly in the moment during that monologue. I didn't realize that. And if you're right about that, then I'll give

[00:06:21] Trevor Noah credit because to me, it just seemed like bad jokes that not most people that host these things are bad at it. Yes, very much so. So if he was coming up with stuff off the top of his

[00:06:33] head, you know, you did notice like Taylor Swift walked in to the thing while he was doing his thing. It seemed kind of awkward. So yeah. Okay. All right. Maybe we give him somewhere in the

[00:06:45] middle then. It doesn't have to be a loss. We'll give it a mixed feelings. We'll give it a mixed feelings more than loss. So then I wrote down when despite the fact that I think the song is mid,

[00:06:55] Miley Cyrus's genuine shock at winning the best pop solo performance, but then the loss being whatever the hell that butterfly story was she told in her acceptance speech. I, one of the few things I liked about Miley Cyrus at the Grammys was her butterfly story.

[00:07:12] It was, it was weird and awkward. And it was like, it felt like, Oh, she's going a little long with this story. What is this story? But it was just like, when you stop chasing something, that's when the success finally comes to you. But Miley Cyrus is,

[00:07:28] if her success is just what winning a Grammy, she's already a super rich, successful person. So I don't really know what, what that, what that's all about. I didn't mind the story. We're going to get into more Miley Cyrus, of course. I agree with you that that song

[00:07:46] is just okay. Like, yeah, it's not the most incredible song of the year to me. It's not even the most incredible song from Miley Cyrus. Pretty forgettable song, I find that it's not like it's bad. We're talking about flowers here,

[00:08:01] by the way. It's not bad, but it's not nothing about that song is very special. I told you early, I think I texted you like she tried to write, I will survive for the modern times.

[00:08:14] And it's nowhere near, not even in the same continent of good as I will survive. Right? Yeah. No, I agree with that. All right. So this one, I'm going to reverse it. I'm starting with

[00:08:26] a loss and then going into a win. So I said, loss, this weird AI CGI, Luke Combs, Fescar story promo segment, when Luke Combs using the popularity of the song to get Tracy Chapman to finally perform

[00:08:42] at the Grammy's. That to me might be the peak of the whole show for me is seeing Tracy Chapman on stage after, I think it's been like 15 years of retirement singing Fescar in front of people

[00:08:55] who love her. That was a heavy thing to watch for me. That was really cool. And I've gone back and forth a lot about how I feel about Luke Combs, some country dude covering this, but the more

[00:09:07] interviews I saw with him talking about it, where he's just like, yeah, my dad listened to this album in the car a lot. And I loved it. And I learned to play it when I was young

[00:09:16] and I just love playing it. The reason I recorded it was because I love playing it. And we weren't even thinking it was going to be a single or a hit or anything. And then it was,

[00:09:25] I like, that's really good reasoning. It doesn't feel like there was like strategic planning of like, we're going to go out and this song is going to be a hit for you. You're going to steal

[00:09:36] Tracy Chapman's thunder. It was just like, he just loves the song and he performs it pretty well. I'm not a country guy of course, but as far as country guys go, he seems like a pretty stand

[00:09:46] up dude. He even got like, he's usually like a dude in like a camo hat and a beard. And he even got like a nice haircut and dressed up to perform the song. Like I even respected that. So yeah,

[00:09:58] I kind of feel like he's won me over a little bit. Yeah. Okay. So here's my next weird winner loss. So my win was actually having an international artist award be presented on television. Because usually that happens during commercial breaks followed immediately by the loss of realizing

[00:10:17] that 86 of the 94 awards had already been given out before the show even started. Yeah. I don't really care. Honestly, I don't care. Like we said earlier in the thing, I like seeing the performances and then criticizing them or loving them or hating

[00:10:36] them or thinking they're whatever. But as far as going up there, seeing people accept the awards once again, and thank a bunch of names that I don't know who they are. It's not interesting to me.

[00:10:47] Well, so then I have a double win into a loss. So my double win is when Billie Eilish's nice stripped down simple performance, another win boy genius paramour and killer Mike all winning Grammys loss killer Mike getting arrested immediately upon leaving the Grammy.

[00:11:05] Yeah. He won like three Grammys and got what do we know what he got arrested for? These all I've read was suspect in a violent altercation that day. Okay. Weird. Okay, great. So we got to talk a little bit about SZA's performance. Yes, we do.

[00:11:26] It was the Kill Bill themed, of course, her song Kill Bill, which I don't think is even the best song on the album. She performed snooze, which I love that song. And dude, when it comes

[00:11:38] to SZA, I realize she's like this huge artist, but I just have this playlist that I have songs on and I listen to regularly and it could be bands that no one's ever heard of or artists no one's ever

[00:11:50] heard of or the biggest artists in the world. They all get mixed together. And sometimes I don't have a real concept of how big or not big an artist is. I knew SZA was big. I didn't know that performing

[00:12:03] snooze on the Grammys big, I guess I realized that she was this big or whatever. That song's like an everyday listen for me. So I was like, oh, nice. I didn't know this song was big. Yeah. I'll have more about SZA shortly. Okay.

[00:12:20] For sure. My next win, loss, and then I'll just double up on this quick loss that I'm sure you have no opinion of, but I'm going to throw it out there. Actually, I'll start with that loss,

[00:12:31] the loss that you don't care about. Loss, which is Taylor Childers not winning any of the country awards because his album's awesome. But win, I wrote Miley Cyrus' performance being very loose and fun. Loss, Miley's performance also not being particularly good.

[00:12:47] So look, I love that Miley just doesn't care. Like I think that that's charming to me. I love that, but does that mean that I have to love anything else about her? Can I still think,

[00:13:05] can I love that sort of punk rock attitude, but at the same time, not like her song, not like her performance, not really like anything? That's okay, right? I think that's all right. I think it's hard to say.

[00:13:18] I mean, she came out, dude, she started the song and she goes, why are you acting like you don't know this song? Miley, maybe everybody knows the song, but just thinks it's not that great of a song because that's what I was thinking. Yeah,

[00:13:30] I know it. I know it. I thought to myself, who is this song for? If somebody's heart is broken, is this the song they're going to? Do people really relate to Miley Cyrus in some way?

[00:13:45] So here's my theory. Here's my theory with this song. And it might be because when I think of the song, I literally only think of the first line of the chorus, right? Where she says the name of the song. And that makes me think like,

[00:14:00] is this one of those songs that was almost written for the inevitable TikToks that people would use the beginning of that chorus for some TikTok video to their ex on or something like that?

[00:14:13] I don't know. I can't help but not think in a post TikTok world, stuff like that. But let's talk about SZA because I put when. SZA running late to the stage to accept her award

[00:14:27] because she was still getting cleaned up from her performance. But then I put a slight loss. SZA praising Lizzo so much, followed by a question of whatever happened with that giant lawsuit against Lizzo anyway. Oh, why? Because she was like treating her

[00:14:42] dancers poorly or something? Yeah. She's just like, Lizzo's so great. And I was like, I don't know. I feel like a lot of people got real upset with Lizzo this year.

[00:14:50] Yeah. A lot of people got upset with Lizzo. But to be fair, I don't know her side of it. And- That's true. You know, the body stuff aside, whatever, maybe it was her dancers' jobs to be super good at

[00:15:07] dancing and super fit and whatever. And if they weren't doing that, maybe she was like, yo, you're fired or whatever. I don't know. I never heard her side of it. The only other thing I remember about that whole thing was while that was coming out,

[00:15:22] the person who made the documentary Love Lizzo that I think is on Max was like, I'm glad someone finally called her out for the monster that she was when I was trying to make

[00:15:32] that documentary too. So it was like, oh, okay. So there's more than just these dancers that said that she sucks. That makes me a little bit nervous. All right. Not cool. Hey, you skipped over something pretty fast that- Oh, let's do it.

[00:15:43] ... that I want to talk about. The Billie Eilish performance. Yes. And I came in with a negative attitude about the song. I'm like, ah, it's the freaking song from Barbie, whatever. I felt like real blah, whatever about the song. And I will say this, she won me over.

[00:16:02] She sang that song so great and it was such a personal performance that after three minutes of the song, I was like, you know what? I think I like this song now and whatever. I mean, I like

[00:16:18] plenty of songs by her and she's cool. I hate throwing around the word mid, like I'm in my teens, but I still think it's a pretty mid song. Yeah. I agree. And I feel like I only feel that way because it's being so praised as amazing. And maybe

[00:16:36] I'm just a little hurt because our boy Dan Wilson didn't get the song of the year award to that one. Not that I even knew that song. I was like, I don't know what this song is, but Dan Wilson's in contention. So let's do it.

[00:16:46] We're going to talk about him at some point, but why is John Batiste nominated for all this stuff? Is he a guy that gets like, all I know him as is Colbert's band leader. Why is he nominated for,

[00:16:57] I realize he's amazing or whatever, but does he get played on the radio and stuff? Who knows his music? You also have to factor in, let's not forget that the Grammys, one of the most infamous

[00:17:12] Grammy sweeps of all time was Nora Jones taking all of the awards. And I love Nora Jones, but that jazzy album was not exactly being played everywhere. But hold on a second. The hit song from it was- Don't know why, that's true. Yeah.

[00:17:28] But there's been times where the album of the year went to some obscure jazz instrumental album. So I think it's just whatever works. I mean, look, we're friends with people who had albums in the

[00:17:41] shortlist contention. You know what I mean? There's been at least two people on this podcast who had potential children's album nominees and stuff like that. So I think it's just a matter of

[00:17:51] submitting it. I'm going to do a quick loss that we can talk about for a little bit, and then I want to have a double-headed Olivia Rodrigo thing here. But the loss, I'm going to say, and we were

[00:18:06] texting a lot about this, U2 performing at the Sphere. So U2 is performing at the Las Vegas Sphere, Chris. And I don't know if you know this, but I was looking into it because I was curious.

[00:18:17] And what they're performing is the Ak-Tong Baby anniversary. So the fact that they're there representing this album and they play this shitty new song called Atomic City. And then I looked at

[00:18:29] what the rest of the set list is that they play, and we could have gotten them playing Mysterious Ways or Where the Streets Have No Name or Beautiful Day. Any of those songs I would have

[00:18:39] taken over this fucking Atomic City garbage. They have not had a good song since the album with Beautiful Day and Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out of. That was the last good U2 song that

[00:18:50] I can think of. Why on earth? Once again, I feel like I'm going to say this several times. Who was that for? Who wanted to hear a new U2 song performed at the Sphere? Chris, let's be sincere

[00:19:04] for a minute. Outside of Taylor Swift fans who will follow her anywhere, I feel like the average Grammy watcher is older than us. I think of the people who tune in for the Grammys are boomers.

[00:19:20] Oh, boomers love U2. Okay, sure. Hey, I feel like more often than not, I kind of stick up for U2 because they have so many great songs in the 80s that I... And even in early 90s, but yeah,

[00:19:32] they fell hard. Once the 2000s hit, they were tapped out. Matt, even if they're playing for boomers, why wouldn't they play one of their 10 great songs? That was the lowest point of...

[00:19:48] I mean, there's another really low point. I was going to say, hold on a second. Pause your thoughts on that, Chris. We'll argue about which was worse. I know what we're going to talk about. Welcome to us talking about our podcast for a minute.

[00:20:51] What's the name of that podcast? That's Axe to Grind. And right now, you're going to be getting a little taste of it right down to the shaking microphone and all. And my name is Bob. And my name is Patrick. And usually we're joined by Tom.

[00:21:06] Tom's the best. Tom has a real grown up job that requires him to be at work. But we talk about decidedly not so grown up things like... Hardcore music and things that people that like hardcore music tend to like.

[00:21:20] So that could be the latest shows, revisiting classic material, talking about the new classics. All the little dorm room nonsense that you imagine from a niche music podcast that you either love, want to love or hate.

[00:21:39] Yeah, imagine all the emotions that you have towards a genre that has impacted your life and then condense them down to an hour to two hours a week. So triangulate your speakers.

[00:21:53] Think about jumping off the bed, singing along, dancing like an idiot and listen to Axe to Grind podcast. Are you a fan of young adult novels? Have you ever wondered the stories behind the people who wrote your favorite young adult novels? Then join author Eric J. Brown

[00:22:19] and Alyssa Lube of Netflix's The Circle every other Tuesday on YAOK. Available on all podcasting apps. Woo! So I'm going to have a win and a loss here. Win, Olivia Rodrigo performing the hell out of the song Vampire, which is probably my least favorite song on that album.

[00:22:40] Really? But man, does she perform it well. But then I wrote loss for Midnight's beating Guts for the pop vocal album. And we're going to talk about Midnight's a little bit more later on.

[00:22:51] I'll just say I genuinely think that Guts was the better pop album of those two pop stars in 2026. Uh, 2026. Jesus. In 2023, personally. That's my personal opinion. I don't... I listened to the whole Olivia Rodrigo album a few times.

[00:23:09] I don't know if I ever listened to the whole Taylor Swift album. Obviously, Taylor Swift's the more popular. Is there... Like, there were rumors that Vampire was about Taylor Swift. Did you hear that? There's been... I've heard that rumor because Taylor Swift was like her idol.

[00:23:26] And she co-wrote a song with Jack that sounded similar to a Taylor Swift song. So the story that I understand, the reason why people think Vampire is about Taylor Swift is because Olivia Rodrigo was very upfront with how much of a big fan she was of Taylor Swift.

[00:23:45] And most of the album Sour is about Olivia Rodrigo's boyfriend, Josh Bennett, dumping her to date Sabrina Carpenter. And then Taylor Swift took Sabrina Carpenter out as her opening act on her tour. And I think people assume...

[00:24:06] I don't know one way or the other, but I think the assumption is, man, this girl's been so public about how big of an inspiration Taylor Swift is. And then Taylor Swift doesn't ask her to be the opening act on her tour, but takes literally

[00:24:18] the person she wrote 11 angry songs about to be her opener instead. And kind of like that Don't Meet Your Heroes type song. I don't think that that's true. I think that that's just tween pop star fans getting really into the weeds about stuff.

[00:24:34] If you look through all the lyrics of that song, it doesn't feel like it's about another... It feels like a relationship song. I got a question for you. Or about a record label.

[00:24:44] I could see it being about a record label, but if it was that next slightly metaphorical, it sounds like it's a bad relationship song, but the relationships with someone in a position of power and not necessarily a boyfriend. But yeah, I don't think it's about Taylor Swift either.

[00:24:58] All right. I got a question for you. Why can you say damn, but not goddamn? I have no goddamn clue, Chris. And that's why I think this is also the episode we announce the cussies. Yeah, the cussies. Yeah.

[00:25:14] Which is going to be our yearly award show on the one day of the podcast, Don't Hold Us To This Idea, where we award the best cusses in film, television, music... Yeah, I love it. I love it. And pop culture.

[00:25:28] It would take a lot of work on our part to figure out what the best cusses were, but I think it'd be worth it. No, it's not, Chris. All we're going to do is just post one of those polls where people can add options into it and

[00:25:39] say, hey, on the Facebook, hey, we're looking for nominees for the best cuss in a movie in 2024. And let people send their things and then we'll... I like it. ...look into the options and make our... So, we got to do... I think we have...

[00:25:54] Chris, I was thinking about this all night last night. Okay. We bring in some of our fan favorites as presenters. We don't even present the awards. We're the hosts of this 20-minute podcast award ceremony. And Tony Hart is the presenter, say, for the best cuss in a movie.

[00:26:11] We got to do movie, TV show... Song. ...song, and maybe the best cuss on One Hit Thunder. Ooh, that's a good one. Okay, we'll see. That'd be a pretty good one. Hey, also during the Olivia Rodrigo performance, I thought they were going to do...

[00:26:29] I thought this would have been badass. I thought her performance was pretty good. Obviously, she sings well. I thought they were going to do the Carrie Pigsblood thing. And I was like, if she does it, if she does that, that is so badass. And she didn't do it.

[00:26:44] She didn't do it. Did you watch her performances on SNL? Both of her performances on SNL were really cool and interesting. Yeah. I liked that. Yeah, she's good. All right, so I've got two wins and a loss... Okay.

[00:26:57] ...for the entire In Memoriam segment, which was like 16 minutes long. It was a long piece. So I wrote loss. As much as I love the song for once in my life, this weird Tony Bennett, Stevie Wonder

[00:27:13] collab as a tribute to the musicians who passed away didn't do it for me. And the best is yet to come seems like a weird song choice for this segment. But then my wins were Annie Lennox featuring Wendy and Lisa covering Nothing Compares to You

[00:27:29] and Melanie being featured amongst the dead musicians in the In Memoriam segment. I loved Annie Lennox performing Nothing Compares to You with two members of The Revolution as the backup band. I was like, that's fucking awesome. Well, look, I never want to say anything bad about Stevie Wonder.

[00:27:49] He's one of my all-time favorites. Oh, same. I would have so much rather he just played the song the way it's supposed to be played. That was really weird. It felt, I don't know. It felt so weird.

[00:28:01] I saw Stevie Wonder, I guess it's been, geez, probably pushing 10 years ago now, but he was so amazing. And yeah, that wasn't Stevie Wonder at his full powers or whatever. The Annie Lennox thing was cool, of course.

[00:28:15] I felt like obviously nowhere, Nothing Compares to Sinead's version of it. But she did pretty well. Then John Batiste did the third part of it. I thought that was the weirdest part because it was some uplifting gospel thing, but it felt really all over the place.

[00:28:36] He put this thing together and it was just people singing all over the... Just the arrangement of it felt like madness. It didn't feel appropriate for what was going on, being the in memoriam.

[00:28:52] I made a note of some noteworthy in memoriam people, Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers, Jimmy Buffett, of course, Sinead, Shane McGowan, Wayne Kramer, Andy Rourke from the Smiths, Randy Meisner, Bert Bacharach, Seymour Stein, Melanie, of course, Rodriguez, Gordon Lightfoot, and of course, Tina Turner.

[00:29:13] And then Fantasia came out and did Tina Turner. How did you feel about that, Matt? I didn't mind that at all. So I looked at John Batiste did Ain't No Sunshine and Lean On Me. Ain't No Sunshine, fine. That kind of makes sense.

[00:29:26] Lean On Me is a little bit more difficult of a sell for me as a in memoriam song. But yeah, I thought that Fantasia did... You know, it's funny, Fantasia was like... There's only maybe one or two seasons that I really watched American Idol.

[00:29:42] Hers was one of those seasons. Yeah, me too, for some reason. Why? And I didn't like her that much when she was a contestant. But over the last five or six years, I keep hearing more songs by her and now I get it.

[00:29:55] Because I think when she was on American Idol, it was just very much like, oh, this is just Walmart brand Macy Gray. It was another raspy voice soul singer kind of on there. But she actually has some great songs. And she can sing.

[00:30:11] Shocker, an American Idol contestant can sing. Yeah. I thought she did pretty well. I thought her performance was pretty good. All right, so here might be the biggest win of the entire night. We were texting about this jokingly, but then it happened.

[00:30:26] Jay-Z's entire speech where he's just dunking on the Grammys throughout his speech. But specifically, the hardest I laughed the whole night was him telling the story of Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff boycotting the Grammys because the best rap album award wasn't being televised.

[00:30:49] He's like, and then we went into a hotel room and watched it anyway, so it was not much of a boycott. And then he did the same thing when he boycotted the Grammys. He was pretty funny. I thought he was pretty good. Yeah.

[00:31:01] What was the one line that people have been saying all over was, sometimes the wrong person's going to win. Sometimes you're going to feel like you got robbed. And sometimes you're not even in the category you should be. And I was like, yep, that's the truth.

[00:31:17] There are times where I look at the Grammy nominees and I'm like, how is that in the rock album category? Or how is that... Sure. Whatever. Another big win, not a favorite artist of mine at all, but seeing Joni Mitchell get up there

[00:31:31] and just perform at 80-something years old was just a cool moment. There's things that are just like, that's cool. That's what this should be about, is celebrating the people who built the music industry on their backs.

[00:31:46] Yeah, it was a bunch of amazing musicians with her who were all psyched and were influenced by her. It was cool. Obviously, she's up there now and can't really sing that well and has had lots of health problems and everything else.

[00:31:59] So I thought that was what the Grammys are all about. I thought that was good. 100%. You skipped Billie Eilish winning Song of the Year. Yes, well, because I kind of already mentioned it. I wrote the hate seeing her win and beat Dan Wilson was my loss there.

[00:32:15] But yeah, she gave a great speech too. Yeah, she said balls. Yeah, she said balls. That was the closest to a cuss Chris thought he was going to get until the worst performance of the night. I have never, ever understood the appeal of Travis Scott really.

[00:32:30] And this did nothing to make me change my opinion that he is not for me. Dude, what kind of music is Travis Scott? It's not rap. It's not hip hop, is it? I think they can... Is this...

[00:32:43] So here's where I'm going to sound like I am a thousand years old to any young listener. I think it's what categorizes as the trap style of hip hop, but I don't really know what that is. Dude, there's so many amazing...

[00:32:57] I mean, just go on TikTok and you'll see so many amazing rappers and hip hop artists out there. Why is this guy so popular? That was such a terrible performance. And let's put this out there, right? We were talking about Killer Mike earlier, right?

[00:33:15] Dude won three different Grammys for rap for a song that he does with Andre 3000. You know how much I'd rather watch Killer Mike and Andre 3000 be given this spot that Travis Scott got? It would have been so much better, like a thousand times better.

[00:33:33] Those are two legitimate-ass performers. And also, let's be fair, Travis Scott intentionally or unintentionally killed a lot of people at a concert recently. I just don't... Musically, it's rare there's an artist where there's not at least a song where I'm like, you know what? I get it.

[00:33:53] Not for me, but I get it. I mean, Sicko Mode isn't terrible, but that's the closest I've ever come to being like, all right. Even Juice WRLD. I didn't love Juice WRLD, but I came around to really like Juice WRLD. I get Juice WRLD. I eventually got there.

[00:34:08] I have never gotten there with Travis Scott, ever. Oh, it's so bad. So bad. At that point, Matt, when I was watching that performance, I was so mad that we had to watch this to do this episode.

[00:34:19] And I was also thinking to myself, oh my God, the premiere episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm is now out. And I'd so much rather watching Curb right now than watching this. Well, that's one of my losses was this going past 11 PM.

[00:34:33] Because I really thought, man, there's only eight awards that they have to give out and a couple performances. This might be done by 1030. Boy, was I wrong. And then I wrote... This is the one I'm going to have to stress a little bit here. I wrote Mixed Feelings.

[00:34:46] And my mixed feeling was Taylor Swift having the most album of the year wins of all time. While I find this interesting, I don't think Midnight's should be the album that is associated with that history-making moment, especially compared to when the other album of the year

[00:35:03] wins for her were Fearless, 1989, and Folklore that I think are all undeniable great albums. And I think Midnight's is just middle of the fucking road. I actually was hanging out this weekend with a frequent guest and one of the world's biggest Taylor Swift fans, Matt DiStefano.

[00:35:25] And we were talking about this album and he's like, I think it's one of her worst releases, honestly. And then he texted me as she won and said, should have gone to Boy Genius. Yeah. It's a bad win. It's a bad win.

[00:35:40] She would have gotten that history-making moment in a year or two, I'm sure with this new album that she announced. But this was not a good enough album to beat out all of the other albums that were in that category.

[00:35:52] You know, this past year was a year where I don't have a real clear album I was really rooting for. Yes, I like the Boy Genius album, you know, to a certain extent. I like it. I like the SZA album. Not the whole thing all the way through.

[00:36:09] I like selected songs. But there wasn't like a real clear cut one. I'm gonna, I've always felt when it comes to Taylor Swift that I'm pretty indifferent leaning on the side of she's fine. I don't understand the hate and I also don't understand the obsessive love.

[00:36:29] I think you could, she's pretty good. And I'm just holding my tongue because I was one of those people at first where I'm a football fan and I'm like, oh God, I'm sick of seeing Taylor Swift.

[00:36:40] But I take that back because as we get further into 2024, I feel like Taylor Swift could help sway the future of America with a few words and encouraging her fans to go vote. I'm gonna hold back any criticism and say, God bless her.

[00:37:03] I, you know, the more, put her on the pedestal because she really could save us. She really could. She could. Yeah. All right. And then my final win of the night, closing out the night with Billy Joel performing You May Be Right.

[00:37:17] I just, I am the biggest Billy Joel stan. I fucking love Billy Joel. Don't know how I feel about this new song, but I'm glad that after 30 years he's put out another song that's pretty cool. But I love You May Be Right.

[00:37:29] That's a good-ass Billy Joel 80s song. Not one of my favorite Billy Joel songs. Wasn't crazy about the new song. A couple people had told me like, oh, this new Billy Joel song is really good. And then I hadn't heard it yet, but I watched him perform it.

[00:37:41] Maybe I need to hear the recording version. I was like, uh, I don't know about this song. I don't think he's ever going to write a song that's as good as say like a Vienna or like a New York state of mind ever again.

[00:37:52] I don't, I don't think he's got it. Think he's gonna write an Allentown? No, I don't think he's going to write an Allentown. I don't even think he's going to write a pressure or, or a for the longest time. Oh boy.

[00:38:02] If he wrote, if he would just do another one of those albums, I'd be all about it. But I don't know. It's cool. It's cool to honor the legacy artists and have them play. I thought that was cool. Hey, you skipped this.

[00:38:14] I kind of like the Burner Boy. I didn't know who Burner Boy was, but I thought his performance was pretty cool. Oh yeah. No, that was cool. That was very cool. And 21 Savage and Brandy were there. Yeah, that was dope. Yeah.

[00:38:25] And then record of the year went to Miley Cyrus for flowers where, yeah, I mean, it was the goofiest speech I was waiting. I seriously, she was so goofy and she said something about her last thing she said is like, I'm not wearing underwear.

[00:38:38] I was seriously ready for her to turn around and let out a little fart as she walked off the stage. That would have been like par for the course for Miley Cyrus. Once again, I respect the, I don't, I don't care at all attitude.

[00:38:53] That doesn't mean I have to like, I don't have to like anything else about her. And then I waited the whole time you're waiting for album of the year and it's like, oh, it's Taylor Swift. Okay.

[00:39:03] The only other thing we didn't, I didn't write down, but is worth mentioning is I did appreciate Victoria Monet winning best new artist and not even giving the slightest fuck about the playoff music. Like the playoff music started playing and she's like, oh, they're trying to get rid

[00:39:17] of me anyway. Here's another like 30 people I want to thank real quick. I guess maybe I have to, she was the one artist of the night. I don't really know much about her and Burber Boy. I don't either. Yeah.

[00:39:28] I know that I've heard, I think our boy Todd in the shadows ranked her single as one of his top 10 pop singles of the year. Okay. But yes, that is our, uh, our Grammy things.

[00:39:43] But before we sign off, Chris, in about a month, there's a, there's some shows you're playing. And I think there's tickets still available. You want to really quickly let listeners know if they want to go check out Punchline where they can do it. Yeah.

[00:39:56] This has nothing to do with the Grammys. Oh, I hope one day it does. Yeah. Maybe one day it will. Maybe one day it will. But yes, Punchline is going on tour with Have Mercy and Don't Panic. We're playing shows in New York, in Maryland, in...

[00:40:11] It was Jersey. Oh, New Jersey. I forgot. How can I forget New Jersey? Yeah. New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and outside of Pittsburgh. So if you want to come on out, it's going to be real good.

[00:40:22] We're a five piece now and I feel like I've been watching videos and listening back to our multi-track shows and I'm like, damn, we sound pretty good. I don't mean to sound surprised about that. I'm supposed to be confident about that. No, but you know what?

[00:40:33] As long as we've been doing this podcast, which is, you know, we're at three or four years. Anytime Punchline came up, you would say to me, my dream lineup is a five piece.

[00:40:45] You've said that multiple times and being able to see you guys perform in Philly just a week or so ago, I get why, man. It sounds fuller. It sounds better that way.

[00:40:57] And Steve, I think is looser because he can do some front man shit during some of the songs. He doesn't always have to be tethered to the guitar the whole time. So I was like, this is top tier Punchline performance right now. I love it.

[00:41:11] I love that Philly show that you were at, Matt. I really loved that show. Had a blast. There's going to be a ton more Punchline shows that I'm sure we'll be promoting in future bonus episodes.

[00:41:22] So definitely make sure you never skip these bonus episodes when they drop on the feed. That's a good way to find out where you can meet Chris and I'll be at, I think two of those shows that you're playing.

[00:41:32] So you can meet the guys who do One Hit Thunder. Can you even imagine meeting the guys who do One Hit Thunder? You're listening to the Geekscape Network. I don't think it overstates things to say that the Beatles were the greatest gift to

[00:42:01] entertainment and culture of our time. A secular religion, if you will, with their universal appeal and demonstrable impact on people's lives. I'm Robert Rodriguez, host of Something About The Beatles. With every episode, I speak with historians, musicians, artists, and Beatle witnesses,

[00:42:19] all in the service of fresh insights into the most joyous cultural entity the world has ever known. I hope you'll join me and listen to Something About The Beatles now on Evergreen and wherever you get your podcasts.