"Hey, Morris" Prince and I said in unison
February 10, 2013 8:07 PM Subscribe
Stories About Prince When Prince presented a Grammy to Gotye and Kimbra tonight, he put them in a tizzy. But if you live in Minneapolis, Prince is just somebody you know.
As you can imagine, those would be totally separate blogs. Also, Paul Westerberg lives in Edina, so I don't run into that guy and I'm sure the guy who runs this blog doesn't either.
posted by padraigin at 8:18 PM on February 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by padraigin at 8:18 PM on February 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
"The stories on this site are works of fiction featuring a satirical characterization of Prince Rogers Nelson, whom I have never actually met in any capacity, and should not be read as attempts to discredit his reputation."
That said, I did look up the supposed OKCupid profile of the Purple One. Because, well, Prince.
posted by grabbingsand at 8:20 PM on February 10, 2013 [3 favorites]
That said, I did look up the supposed OKCupid profile of the Purple One. Because, well, Prince.
posted by grabbingsand at 8:20 PM on February 10, 2013 [3 favorites]
I think this was funnier when Dave Chappell did it because they were real.
posted by bleep at 8:27 PM on February 10, 2013 [6 favorites]
posted by bleep at 8:27 PM on February 10, 2013 [6 favorites]
I think this may be my favorite photo of Prince in the world. I just imagine him here finishing up an epic set at the State Fair, hopping on his Rascal and zipping off to get some deep fried cheese curds on a stick before heading down Snelling to Summit to Cleveland to meet up with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis for a malt at Snuffy's and guitar shopping at Willies.
posted by This_Will_Be_Good at 8:41 PM on February 10, 2013 [7 favorites]
posted by This_Will_Be_Good at 8:41 PM on February 10, 2013 [7 favorites]
What a shitshow the Grammys were... wow. What? Who? Who were any of them? Whatever.
posted by ReeMonster at 8:56 PM on February 10, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by ReeMonster at 8:56 PM on February 10, 2013 [2 favorites]
But if you live in Minneapolis, Prince is just somebody you know.
What if you used to live in Minneapolis?
posted by danb at 8:58 PM on February 10, 2013 [8 favorites]
What if you used to live in Minneapolis?
posted by danb at 8:58 PM on February 10, 2013 [8 favorites]
I know Alabama Shakes lost, and everybody I know has one of those stories about Gotye so they're all puffed up with national pride. Case in point, a friend just posted 'I got kissed by a Grammy winner' on Facebook. Its going to be so insufferable.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 9:01 PM on February 10, 2013
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 9:01 PM on February 10, 2013
I'm going to pretend that these are davesecretary's TIME FOR SOME STORIES, and that Prince is Kyle.
posted by not_on_display at 9:03 PM on February 10, 2013
posted by not_on_display at 9:03 PM on February 10, 2013
I think this may be my favorite photo of Prince in the world
He's getting ready for a sequel to Purple Rain.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:15 PM on February 10, 2013 [3 favorites]
He's getting ready for a sequel to Purple Rain.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:15 PM on February 10, 2013 [3 favorites]
So Gotye's song is about Prince? I'm so confused.
posted by alex_skazat at 9:21 PM on February 10, 2013
posted by alex_skazat at 9:21 PM on February 10, 2013
I don't know Prince, but I went to high school with Michael Bland (longtime Prince drummer). We were in an art class together where, coincidentally enough, we were assigned to create album covers. He and I sat at the same table.
posted by jiawen at 9:34 PM on February 10, 2013
posted by jiawen at 9:34 PM on February 10, 2013
What a shitshow the Grammys were... wow. What? Who? Who were any of them? Whatever.
Argh! I was going to be all like "sorry, but if you don't know who any of those people were, you're getting too old for popular music" but I noticed that you're the exact same age as I am, and also like me you're a professional musician, so I just felt kind of sad for both of us for different reasons :(
Two vaguely Grammy-related things:
1) I didn't know who Alabama Shakes were until I had my own album in first place on the Bandcamp charts for a day or two; I'm sitting there watching the realtime sales rankings excitedly, and out of nowhere their album appears at the bottom (#20). Then 9th place. Then 1st place. My mind was blown, so I bought their album, and they are really really good. It's hard enough to build a small fanbase, let alone one that will make you a bestseller in a matter of minutes. Hard to even fathom, but it makes me want to work that much harder.
2) I was disappointed that Austin Wintory (composer for Journey) didn't win either, but just having been nominated is a landmark achievement in the game music world, it's something we've all been dreaming of for 20+ years. Christopher Tin already won two Grammys for the Civilization 4 theme, but the "entire soundtrack" category is still up for grabs. It's just a matter of time! (and I hope it is a dedicated game composer, not Hans F.* Zimmer)
* middle initial stands for "Fucking"
posted by jake at 10:01 PM on February 10, 2013 [2 favorites]
Argh! I was going to be all like "sorry, but if you don't know who any of those people were, you're getting too old for popular music" but I noticed that you're the exact same age as I am, and also like me you're a professional musician, so I just felt kind of sad for both of us for different reasons :(
Two vaguely Grammy-related things:
1) I didn't know who Alabama Shakes were until I had my own album in first place on the Bandcamp charts for a day or two; I'm sitting there watching the realtime sales rankings excitedly, and out of nowhere their album appears at the bottom (#20). Then 9th place. Then 1st place. My mind was blown, so I bought their album, and they are really really good. It's hard enough to build a small fanbase, let alone one that will make you a bestseller in a matter of minutes. Hard to even fathom, but it makes me want to work that much harder.
2) I was disappointed that Austin Wintory (composer for Journey) didn't win either, but just having been nominated is a landmark achievement in the game music world, it's something we've all been dreaming of for 20+ years. Christopher Tin already won two Grammys for the Civilization 4 theme, but the "entire soundtrack" category is still up for grabs. It's just a matter of time! (and I hope it is a dedicated game composer, not Hans F.* Zimmer)
* middle initial stands for "Fucking"
posted by jake at 10:01 PM on February 10, 2013 [2 favorites]
everybody I know has one of those stories about Gotye so they're all puffed up with national pride. Case in point, a friend just posted 'I got kissed by a Grammy winner' on Facebook. Its going to be so insufferable.
Well, I'm glad to see that you're above dropping names and letting us know you're above it. ;)
posted by smoke at 10:37 PM on February 10, 2013 [2 favorites]
Well, I'm glad to see that you're above dropping names and letting us know you're above it. ;)
posted by smoke at 10:37 PM on February 10, 2013 [2 favorites]
Perez Hilton may require a special trigger alert for those of us who have been trying to kick our Perez habits for the last several years.
posted by scunning at 10:39 PM on February 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by scunning at 10:39 PM on February 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
Oh hey, just got up to this bit on the west coast. That is a very cool mermaid outfit.
posted by Artw at 10:43 PM on February 10, 2013
posted by Artw at 10:43 PM on February 10, 2013
OK, watching the dead people bit, and Reflecting on the largely awful performances, nominated music and winners it's hard not to conclude that music, at least of the kind that gets on the Grmys, has died.
posted by Artw at 10:59 PM on February 10, 2013
posted by Artw at 10:59 PM on February 10, 2013
Wow, they ran ads over the only bit worth watching.
posted by Artw at 11:29 PM on February 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Artw at 11:29 PM on February 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
So did grimes won anything or...?
posted by Doleful Creature at 12:03 AM on February 11, 2013
posted by Doleful Creature at 12:03 AM on February 11, 2013
Oit was basically an Aliens vs Predator type situation: we all lost.
posted by Artw at 12:07 AM on February 11, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by Artw at 12:07 AM on February 11, 2013 [3 favorites]
You know I hate your ass for getting that damn song stuck in my head again. Last time, it was weeks.
Also, not nearly enough Prince.
posted by Space Kitty at 12:16 AM on February 11, 2013
Also, not nearly enough Prince.
posted by Space Kitty at 12:16 AM on February 11, 2013
OK, watching the dead people bit, and Reflecting on the largely awful performances, nominated music and winners it's hard not to conclude that music, at least of the kind that gets on the Grmys, has died.
The only thing that has died is your interest in its evolution, which I guess happens for almost everyone at some point. I am pretty sure someone will lament the death of music every day for the next thousand years, as they have for the past thousand, and it will continue to be just as subjective (and ultimately wrong).
Oit was basically an Aliens vs Predator type situation: we all lost.
No, YOU lost. I found about 10 new artists I want to listen to.
posted by jake at 12:20 AM on February 11, 2013 [1 favorite]
The only thing that has died is your interest in its evolution, which I guess happens for almost everyone at some point. I am pretty sure someone will lament the death of music every day for the next thousand years, as they have for the past thousand, and it will continue to be just as subjective (and ultimately wrong).
Oit was basically an Aliens vs Predator type situation: we all lost.
No, YOU lost. I found about 10 new artists I want to listen to.
posted by jake at 12:20 AM on February 11, 2013 [1 favorite]
(And I want to stress that I like you a lot and respect your opinions, but if all the crazy new stuff that is happening in the music world just makes you upset, maybe you should move on and listen to prior stuff that makes you happy, instead of being disparaging and putting people down)
posted by jake at 12:26 AM on February 11, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by jake at 12:26 AM on February 11, 2013 [2 favorites]
Stories About Prince
Hard to believe there could be a better story about Prince than the one Kevin Smith tells, starting here.
posted by LeLiLo at 12:39 AM on February 11, 2013 [1 favorite]
Hard to believe there could be a better story about Prince than the one Kevin Smith tells, starting here.
posted by LeLiLo at 12:39 AM on February 11, 2013 [1 favorite]
nonetheless I think it will be a grand day when I see somebody mourning that today's rap is not as good as the tumblr pioneers.
posted by solarion at 12:41 AM on February 11, 2013
posted by solarion at 12:41 AM on February 11, 2013
One of my husband's chef friends cooked for Prince at a restaurant. Apparently he booked the whole place out and would only eat white food (spaghetti Alfredo) and drink red wine through a straw.
posted by jonathanstrange at 3:37 AM on February 11, 2013
posted by jonathanstrange at 3:37 AM on February 11, 2013
I was kind of disappointed that the two artists I wanted to see win the Latin Alternative Grammy didn't take home a trophy, but Quetzal are brilliant. Seeing Lila Downs win was also great, as Pecados Y Milagros is a really good album.
posted by pxe2000 at 3:46 AM on February 11, 2013
posted by pxe2000 at 3:46 AM on February 11, 2013
My experience with Prince is that Prince fans are fanatical about Prince.
If you tell one Prince fan that you don't care for "When Doves Cry," he'll tell you that you need to listen to the whole album, not just the singles. Then another fan will counter that the studio doesn't capture Prince and you need to hear his live stuff. Somebody else will add that the live shows are an experience, and to really understand it you need to be at the concert. That's when superfans will show up and explain that actually, Prince performs totally different material at his concerts than at his after-parties, where he performs the stuff he actually likes. They will then argue about whether Prince plays better at the after-party or the after-after-party.
This is not an exaggeration. I have literally heard this conversation.
I found about 10 new artists I want to listen to.
Do they feature new artists at the Grammies? I didn't watch, but I thought it was usually just major-label performers who have had recent hits on FM radio.
posted by cribcage at 6:29 AM on February 11, 2013
If you tell one Prince fan that you don't care for "When Doves Cry," he'll tell you that you need to listen to the whole album, not just the singles. Then another fan will counter that the studio doesn't capture Prince and you need to hear his live stuff. Somebody else will add that the live shows are an experience, and to really understand it you need to be at the concert. That's when superfans will show up and explain that actually, Prince performs totally different material at his concerts than at his after-parties, where he performs the stuff he actually likes. They will then argue about whether Prince plays better at the after-party or the after-after-party.
This is not an exaggeration. I have literally heard this conversation.
I found about 10 new artists I want to listen to.
Do they feature new artists at the Grammies? I didn't watch, but I thought it was usually just major-label performers who have had recent hits on FM radio.
posted by cribcage at 6:29 AM on February 11, 2013
one time I was at an after-after party for Prince, and he looks over at me and says, "Check this out..." and we went into a coat closet and he pulls out this indescribably tiny zither and starts to sing these little rhymes about his favorite fabric blends.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 6:43 AM on February 11, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 6:43 AM on February 11, 2013 [1 favorite]
Having a 12 year kid means that I know who a lot of these people are because no way would I be listening to those music stations otherwise. And a lot of them are actually pretty okay.
Having said that, was there a problem with the sound engineering last night? Lots of performers seemed unable to hear themselves, plus it seems the mixing for the television audience was not balanced very well with vocals buried behind instruments a lot.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 8:10 AM on February 11, 2013
Having said that, was there a problem with the sound engineering last night? Lots of performers seemed unable to hear themselves, plus it seems the mixing for the television audience was not balanced very well with vocals buried behind instruments a lot.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 8:10 AM on February 11, 2013
The funny thing is, I know a lot of people who have met Prince in various social situations. An ex's dad ran into him out shopping one time, they got to chatting and hung out a couple of times, but my ex's dad had some problems with alcohol around then and just couldn't hold together much of a social life. A friend of a friend was picked up by Prince (or so she said, and I have no reason to disbelieve her - she was a lovely girl and got around a lot) at his nightclub in the late eighties under rather strange circumstances and the whole thing wasn't nearly as fun as one would hope...I mean, up through the nineties you didn't need to move in especially fancy circles for Prince to actually be just some guy that you might meet around town. Some guy with a bodyguard, true.
posted by Frowner at 8:25 AM on February 11, 2013
posted by Frowner at 8:25 AM on February 11, 2013
I mean, I have no opinion one way or the other about Prince's music; I'm just glad that he seems to have stayed merely local and eccentric rather than leaving and messing up his whole life the way Courtney Love did. (Now there was a girl - or at least, I know people who knew her back in the day - there was a girl who should have stayed here, been in some big-small local bands and been locally famous for her crazy antics and drunken hijinks, ended up working as a hairstylist at one of the hipper places off Lake and doing roller derby.)
posted by Frowner at 8:27 AM on February 11, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by Frowner at 8:27 AM on February 11, 2013 [2 favorites]
Reflecting on the largely awful performances, nominated music and winners
I didn't watch the broadcast, but looking at the list, I see a few performers I like a lot, maybe a half dozen I'm fond enough of, and another dozen or so I might like if listened to them (which I won't, probably, given the ratio of time to music). Album of the year to that horrible thumping Babel over Channel Orange and best alternative music album to Gotye over Apple's The Idler Wheel are the only awards that really grind my shorts.
But, tbh, I didn't know that The Chemical Brothers were still around.
posted by octobersurprise at 8:51 AM on February 11, 2013
I didn't watch the broadcast, but looking at the list, I see a few performers I like a lot, maybe a half dozen I'm fond enough of, and another dozen or so I might like if listened to them (which I won't, probably, given the ratio of time to music). Album of the year to that horrible thumping Babel over Channel Orange and best alternative music album to Gotye over Apple's The Idler Wheel are the only awards that really grind my shorts.
But, tbh, I didn't know that The Chemical Brothers were still around.
posted by octobersurprise at 8:51 AM on February 11, 2013
So did grimes won anything
Ok, the fact that Grimes wasn't even nominated for an award in any category is the third thing that grinds my shorts. Also, no Burial.
posted by octobersurprise at 8:58 AM on February 11, 2013 [1 favorite]
Ok, the fact that Grimes wasn't even nominated for an award in any category is the third thing that grinds my shorts. Also, no Burial.
posted by octobersurprise at 8:58 AM on February 11, 2013 [1 favorite]
back when prince changed his name back to prince from that bisexual symbol, i was at the office and all of a sudden this woman i worked with started screaming as if she were being stabbed to death and threw herself onto the ground having a goddamn fit. it took seriously like a half-hour for us to figure out that a local radio station commenting upon it said something to the effect that 'the artist formerly known as prince is dead, and he's now prince again', and all she heard was 'the artist etc. is dead' and then proceeded to freak out. we were all, 'is prince some kind of family to you? have you heard the soft-jazz shit he's put out all these years?' and pretty much did all we could to highlight her absolute ridiculousness. she spent a couple hours calling the radio station repeatedly and screaming at them for saying prince was dead. by the time she started insisting on being compensated for emotional distress, we sent her ass home.
posted by fallacy of the beard at 9:33 AM on February 11, 2013
posted by fallacy of the beard at 9:33 AM on February 11, 2013
I love me some Bonnie Rait, but I was disappointed that my choice, John Fullbright's From the Ground Up didn't win in the Americana category. Then again, I didn't know she had a new album out, so yay, new Bonnie Rait to listen to. Actually, that category was full of good things (although I had been tipped to the Lumineers previously) so I got some good music just looking to see who Fullbright's competition was. Plus, now I've got the Alabama Shakes to start listening to, more Jack White, and got to learn that the Black Keys were the name of the band that did those songs.
Despite all this, Mumford and Sons kind of eludes me. And I've heard a lot of good stuff about Frank Ocean, but his performance didn't really sell me at all. Actually, it was...pitchy.
So, you know, for an awards show I very rarely watch and that wasn't actually all that interesting, I walked away with a lot of music to check out.
posted by PussKillian at 10:02 AM on February 11, 2013
Despite all this, Mumford and Sons kind of eludes me. And I've heard a lot of good stuff about Frank Ocean, but his performance didn't really sell me at all. Actually, it was...pitchy.
So, you know, for an awards show I very rarely watch and that wasn't actually all that interesting, I walked away with a lot of music to check out.
posted by PussKillian at 10:02 AM on February 11, 2013
Mumford and Sons is this generation's Journey/Chicago.
posted by Doleful Creature at 8:11 AM on February 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Doleful Creature at 8:11 AM on February 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
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posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 8:15 PM on February 10, 2013