V

-In addition to January's Big Day Out and a couple less big-scale music events,Melbourne's now officially home to Richard Branson's V Fest (official site) along with newbie Perth to an existing list of venues-Sydney and the Gold Coast.It's a pretty huge deal so I was curiously awaiting the line-up announcement,plus Melbourne rarely receives the big-ass international megastars aside from the usual 90s has-beens like The Police and Guns & Roses but the situation's definitely improving very very quickly.Anyhu,Modest Mouse was recently added to the line-up,complimenting an already mind-blowing set that combines the good kind of old (Smashing Pumpkins+Air+J&M) and a couple more recent bands (Hot Hot Heat+CSS)-for good measure,they've thrown in Roisin Murphy and Cut Copy and The Presets to cater St Kilda cigar-smoking hipsters who dig that kind of so-far-out-it's-in stuff.I mean,did anyone even listen to Roisin Murphy's last album?-it was dog puke personified as futuristic techno,and even that qualifies as a compliment of some sort.So you can see how everyone-or at least a a very varied group of listeners-will want to attend the goddamn thing,and take into account basic supply-demand economics you could almost see the logic behind charging $131.70 for a single ticket.Almost.At this point,I'm indifferent-seeing the above mentioned bands esp Billy Corgan & Co. and Modest Mouse live might be worth eating instant noodles for a few days weeks,but the exorbitant cost's still a considerable turn-off.

-Last night Grammy Awards was a snoozer-Aretha's performance started off ok but turned into a full-blown church gospel (it was fun watching her hyperventilate and threating to pass out,though),John Mayer was underused by a spotlight-grabbing Alicia Keys who was seriously overdoing it,and Amy Winehouse looked completely sober but could've done better.Still,it's nice to see Back to Black scoring 4 out of 5 noms-it's fair that they decided to give the one she lost out to some guy who's album I've never heard mentioned anywhere.Seeing Feist walk out empty-handed from 4 noms was sad,then again noone takes the Grammy's that seriously.Case in point,I love Foo Fighters but seeing their latest album-probably their most disappointing to date-win a Grammy (similarly,Maroon 5's winning sophomore album's nowhere nearly as good as the first),it just shows how eager these award-givers are to please some folks.