SPOILER ALERT

​The best thing about the annual Grammy nominations and awards shows is the clamor of anger that rises up when the mere mention of the event even comes up. Immediately people begin calling it a travesty, trotting out all the people who have been snubbed -- Jethro Tull beats Metallica -- plus everyone from Neil Young to Chuck Berry.

As USA Today noted today, before 1979, there were no "rock" categories at the awards, as the industry was still trying to come to grips with long hairs and loud guitars, even nearly 25 years since it went worldwide. So from say 1956 to 1979, they missed out on Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin The Beatles, The Who, Janis Joplin, the list goes on.

Though I can argue at length that these folks were making pop records with precious melodies and feeling that were begging for recognition. A lot of these bands would end up with lifetime achievement awards to pacify fans. Plus, it's not as if winning a Grammy has any bearing on an artist's influence or historical significance.

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ANOTHER UPDATE: Read about two eyewitness accounts of the incident, as told to Rocks Off's Shea Serrano Wednesday.

UPDATE: Activist Quannell X is organizing a protest in front of Roosevelt at 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon, Fox's Isiah Carey reports.

​Two apparently unrelated incidents at Roosevelt Lounge over the weekend have the Washington Avenue nightclub Roosevelt Lounge back in hot water for allegedly discriminating against minorities.

Almost a year ago - a year ago from tomorrow, in fact - the Houston Press ran the cover story "Getting Past the Bouncer," in which local party planner Imani Rose told us about getting turned away from the tony club at 5219 Washington, once with an all-female party, and another time with a group of mixed gender.

After the African-American Rose and her friends were denied entry, she said they watched the doormen let Caucasian after Caucasian into the Roosevelt. "It was awful and blatant discrimination," she said.

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Photo via Idolator

​Monday morning, the Internet was awash in consternation and jpegs after M.I.A. flashed her middle finger during Madonna's Super Bowl halftime performance Sunday, meaning Janet Jackson is finally off the hook after all these years. To be honest, Rocks Off watched the entire halftime show and must have been reaching for some more dip, because we did not notice the Sri Lankan-born rapper's uncaged bird at all. Neither did the dozen or so other people at the Super Bowl party where we were.

We can't speak for NBC or the NFL's attorneys (or M.I.A.'s record sales), but Rocks Off takes this to mean we - as a culture, and a person - have become so desensitized to the once-crude hand gesture, which supposedly dates back to the days of ancient Greece, that it barely registers anymore. Maybe it would if we were still driving.

Leave it to others to speculate what the organizers were thinking in booking someone whose reputation as a loose cannon is well-known enough to inspire a recent SNL skit. It didn't take long to call up a whole host of pop stars showing off their middle metacarpals, including Pink, Lady Gaga and Avril Lavigne.

But it wasn't so long ago that the sight of someone raising one finger to the sky while pointing its neighbors at the ground really did make someone besides blogs and NFL PR flacks hyperventilate. Remember?

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​The movies couldn't be any more different. One is about an obese, kindly high school guy with a heart of gold. The other is about an crime-fighting millionaire orphan inside a cartoonish world full of super-villains, cringe-worthy puns, and Jim Carrey at his muggiest. Obvious Angus is a better film, but you know Batman Forever had Drew Barrymore dressed like this.

But 1995's Angus and Batman Forever both had great soundtracks, that myself and freelancer Cory Garcia were willing to defend. I say that the Batman disc was better than the Angus one, which puts up a valiant fight. Each of them were gateway drugs for many young, budding music fans, with Angus' soundtrack full of future name-check worthy acts like Tilt, Ash, Pansy Division, and Pinkerton-era Weezer.

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"I'm forever, sugar tits!"

​The other day, looking around on YouTube for Pantera stuff -- did you know that this month Vulgar Display Of Power turns 20? -- I found a relatively recent clip of lead singer Phil Anselmo VH1 Classic's That Metal Show from late 2010. The current Down crooner and mouth from the south was guesting on the metal chat show, looking as young as the day that "Walk" premiered on Headbanger's Ball, and rapping about his boutique metal label, Pantera, and everything else thrown at him.

True this is probably old news, but I even noticed this last year at Down's Warehouse Live. With his head shaved he looks incredibly youthful, which is a great feat considering his harried past. He doesn't look 43 years old. He looks my age, just 28, which gives me hope that you cannot imagine.

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That old special feeling...

​This weekend, the grand dame of American pop music, Madonna, will grace the halftime stage at Super Bowl XLVI. This is a major improvement from last year's more-inhuman-than-human Black Eyed Peas performance, which tested the resolve our country, and even the world. But we all survived. Who won the game anyway?

Madonna comes into this performance with a new single, the Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. assisted "Gimme All Your Luvin," a song they collaborated for Madge's upcoming MDNA album, set for release on March 26. Nothing could go wrong with those two, right? A foul-mouthed Barbie and a politically-charged female rapper on live worldwide television? Everything should be cool.

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UPDATE -- a note from the author: We spoke to Mr. Ames again this afternoon. He informed us that he thought the conversation would not be used in our article and that it was only for background information. He also stated that he does not recall some of the statements attributed to him. Neither Mr. Ames nor the author is implying that Ms. Chorney or her radio promoter engaged in any unethical practices regarding airplay. The comments regarding such practices were general statements only, not specific to Ms. Chorney. We regret any confusion. Mr. Ames informed us that he will be interviewing Ms. Chorney on his show on Monday, January 30, at 8:20 a.m. We recommend that concerned readers tune in to hear Ms. Chorney in her own words at this link.

Gordon "Big G" Ames

​The Linda Chorney Grammy thing just won't go away. It seems now Chorney is barraging radio stations with her latest album, hoping to gain a smidgen of credibility before going to the Grammys with zero album sales, which we presume is going to be an historic first.

Former Houstonian Gordon "Big G" Ames, the program director at KOOK-FM, "Real Deal Radio," received a copy of Chorney's CD earlier this week. He was not amused. In fact, he is so not amused his Thursday show is going to be themed "Making An Example."

"I've been around a long time and I know how things work," says Ames from his home outside Kerrville. "You and I both know that if you put a thousand dollars in a few hands you can get your album on someone's quote unquote chart. You know it, I know it. And that makes me mad. It's sad and pathetic what the Americana syndicate chooses to accept payment for."

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​After several weeks of semi-classical, jazz, and folk music, Leon's Lounge takes a major swerve tonight with spiky haired Hans Frank. The front man of cow-thrash punkers Glambilly, Frank looks like he just stepped out of a bad Roxy Music video, and it's just possible that Bryan Ferry may be a major influence on the Appalachian born wild man.

One doesn't have to dig too deeply into Frank's musical career to see the connection with some of the original glambillys, the Hickoids and San Antonio musical mover-and-shaker Jeff Smith. When we asked Smith what's the deal with Hans Frank, he let fly with his usual lack of reserve.

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​I have now watched Steven Tyler's rendition of the National Anthem, that he performed before yesterday's big New England Patriots and Baltimore Ravens championship game, about five times straight. I enjoyed it, because it's Steven Tyler and Steven Tyler is crazy as shit. Just read his recent autobiography. It gives Keith Richards' Life a run for it's money, if only in the drug department.

My only issue with it, and a small issue at that, is that it wasn't insane enough. I wanted Joe Perry to come out and wail on his guitar with his lead singer next time, bare-chested. Maybe somehow lifted that sweet-ass solo from the "Livin' On The Edge" video, when he's standing on the train tracks. After all, America is livin' on the edge.

I wanted Tyler to make a creepy aside about "gettin' up on" Lady Liberty. and maybe do more scat-singing. I wanted him to throw a silk scarf on top of one of those military honor guardsmen, who would have no choice but to soak in Tyler's sweaty musk on national television, soiling their uniforms in the process.

A lot of people on Facebook and Twitter complained that it was awful, misguided, and bland. Agreed. He should have stretched the anthem out, to at least three minutes maybe, with a raunchy harmonica solo, and somehow mentioned some sort of slang term for vagina. And it should have been available on iTunes immediately for download.

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Huh-huh-huh-huh

​Today the makers of The Sims 3: Showtime announced that Katy Perry will be a playable character on this expansion pack off of The Sims 3, coming in March for whatever it is you play The Sims on. We haven't played the game in years, becuase all we did was build houses for avatars that looked like our exes and burn said houses down with them inside, and it got boring.

Showtime allows you to plan all-star tours for pop stars that you create. You build stages, sets, and build personae. Perry is one character that you can throw on tour. That means you can make the recently-single Perry do whatever you wish. Tour on a stage made of pure fire. Sixteen drummers at once on stage.

Maybe you want her to go onstage and wear nothing but a blue wig, or maybe you just want her to stay home and make dinner clad in only that blue jean bikini she wore in that Rolling Stone photo-shoot. Not sure about all that, but I can dream.

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