Music fans second-guess the Grammys

By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

Pat Monahan, lead singer of Train, performed at the Olympics. Associated Press Grammy Awards 7 tonight, CBS

For Leopold Ho, the song doesn't register a ripple of recognition.

"Never heard it," he says.

Jamie Kuba has heard it plenty of times — and that's why she's rooting against it.

"It might have been O.K. for, like, the first million times I heard it," she says. "But (local radio stations) play it way more than that. It's like that Santana song from last time. Like, go away already."

Kuba scans the list of nominees looking for an alternative.

"Who's India.Arie?" she asks, referring to the dark-horse artist who, for the sake of clarity, is not a Web site.

She eliminates "Walk On" by U2 ("They're only on here because they're U2") and "Fallin" by Alicia Keys ("Her concert here was way late and it lasted, like, 45 minutes").

That leaves "Ms. Jackson" by the rap duo Outkast.

"Whatever," Kuba says. "The one guy has nice abs."

So it goes within the cluster of music stores on Makaloa Street — Smiley's Music & Video Exchange, Cheapo Island Music, and Tower Records — where anticipation over who wins what at the Grammys is ...

"Minimal," says Brian Uchida. "I think they're kind of bogus. Look who gets nominated."

He may have a point. As in years past, an argument could be made that voters made at least a few of their selections based on name recognition. How else to explain REM's nomination for best pop performance by a duo or group vocal ("Imitation of Life), or Lionel Richie's for best dance recording ("Angel")?

Cheapo employee "Jay" listens to Hawaiian and metal. He's disappointed to see no Iz in the world music category and amused at who wound up in the running for best metal performance.

"Black Sabbath?" he says, quizzically. "Well, I'm happy for them."

Quick, casual fans, name one Sabbath song recorded in the past 20 years — not including any of those 3,000 live versions of "War Pigs."

Smiley's owner Barbara Hillsman draws blanks on best new artist nominees Arie and David Gray, but thinks Keys and Nelly Furtado are deserving. Wolff, a visitor from San Francisco, says he's interested to see how the acclaimed soundtrack to "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" fares.

Wolff's buddy, Ruben Carillo, says the Grammys aren't necessarily representative of the best music out there.

"I think they're more representative of what is going on with mainstream listening," he says.

So will he watch?

"I'm sure I'll catch some of it," he says, "because my wife always watches."