The Grammys were this Sunday, and for the first time in a while, it wasn’t totally boring. To be fair, I missed the first hour, but from the moment that Katy Perry landed in a giant shiny banana onwards, it was great. Pitchfork has a great summary of the night, and I pretty much agree with them on all counts. M.I.A.’s absurdly awesome outfits stole the night, as did the rat pack-themed “Swagger Like Us’ with Jay-Z, T.I., Kanye, and Lil’ Wayne. The Grammy powers-that-be scrubbed YouTube clean of clips, but here are some pictures to whet your interest. Musically, it wasn’t the best performance of the night, but it was the most exuberant–everyone on stage seemed like they were having the time of their lives. Also, M.I.A. looked all the more badass totally pregs and swaggerin’ on stage. Ray Bans seem to be crossing over from the hipsters to rap stars, because everyone had a pair that night.
Radiohead’s performance of “15 Step” with the USC marching band was innovative. I thought the brass instruments put an interesting twist on the song, and the arrangement was excellent. Was it just me, or was Thom Yorke singing in some sort of Dylan-esque style?
Other highlights, briefly: Jigga dancing to “Sweet Caroline,” Kanye’s hair (Lionel Ritchie c. 1982??), Adele’s acceptance speech for Best New Artist (over the JoBro and Duffy!), Estelle’s mod dress, the strangest of seeing Robert Plant next to Alison Krauss.
For additional pics, check out NYMag’s diva slideshow.

In other news–speaking of Grammy winners, here’s an interesting breakdown of Joe “Coldplay totally ripped off of me” Satriani’s claim on the descending melody.

And speaking of people who WEREN’T at the Grammys–Chris Brown, what is your damage? I think Perez Hilton says it in the most eloquent way:

indeed.

…and CB better watch his back, because Jigga is the last person you want as an enemy.

Wednesdays can be hard. Let The Daily Monthly take your mind off the world for a few minutes with Hump Day Music, a weekly adventure of new music by Jess Joswick (COL ‘09).

M.I.A. performing at Diesel's XxX party, totally pregs (from pitchfork.com)

Forgive the pun in our first Hump Day Music installment, but it’s hard to talk about anything new coming from M.I.A. without mentioning how she’s knocked up, or, in her words, “creating a baby.” Whatever she said about ‘retiring’ doesn’t doesn’t seem to be true–from a clothing line to playing at Diesel’s XxX party in New York last weekend to singing rapper Rye Rye, she’s not slowing down soon. Oh yeah, she also found time to record a remix of “Boyz” with Jay-Z.
The remixed version highlights the political message of the original song, in case the peppy, stamping beat fooled you the first time. There’s even a shout-out to Obama.
And if you missed it, check out “Swagger Like Us” (feat. Kanye West, Jay-Z and Lil’ Wayne) , off of T.I.’s new album “Paper Trail.” The single uses a distorted, lower-pitched sample of “Paper Planes,” which is probably the best part of the song (when will Kanye lose his vocoder??). I leave you with advice from, of course, Jay-Z: “You can pay for school but you can’t buy class.” Well said.

Look for Hump Day Music every Wednesday.