Blog Posts by Daniel Kreps

Lester Cohen/WireImage.comThis week was supposed to be mark Van Halen's triumphant return: The group, with David Lee Roth back up front, recently signed a shiny new record contract with Interscope, Eddie Van Halen made the Top 10 on Rolling Stone's Greatest Guitarists list, and the band was scheduled to finally confirm their first studio album together in decades at last night's Grammy nominations concert. Only they didn't, even though the Grammys promised the reunion in the least subtle tweet of all time. Between the time Lady Gaga opened the show with "Marry The Night" and closed it with Sugarland, there was no sign of Diamond Dave, Eddie, Alex, or Wolfgang, despite the Grammys promise that we would all "jump" and "dance the night away." So, what happened?

R.I.P.The relationship between music and the Internet is in a constant state of evolution as the record labels struggle to survive in the face of free streaming, decreased albums sales, and illegal downloading. Just a day after Spotify -- potentially the record industry's greatest digital bridge for reconnecting its product with the consumer -- announced a handful of new apps to help solidify the social experience of listening to music, today it was revealed that Napster, the program that first threatened to completely destroy the music industry when it burst on the scene in 1999, will cease to exist.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' film will hit theaters on December 21, which means we're also just three weeks away from the follow-up of Trent Reznor's Oscar-winning 'The Social Network' score. The Nine Inch Nails frontman previously promised to unveil all the soundtrack information tomorrow, but a few key details have emerged. Like, Reznor's score is roughly three hours long, which is longer than the film itself (two hours and 40 minutes runtime, says Rotten Tomatoes) and more than the two hours he already had recorded in January 2010. In fact, Trent and his collaborator Atticus Ross created so much music for the film, they needed six records for the score's upcoming vinyl release. You could probably read Stieg Larsson's entire "Millennium" trilogy in less time than it will take to listen to Reznor's 'Dragon Tattoo' score.

This year's oldest Grammy nomineeAs expected, Adele, Kanye West, Bruno Mars, Radiohead, and Bon Iver all scored multiple nods at last night's Grammy Nominations concert, but as with all Grammy Awards, there were a bunch of nominees that no one could have predicted. Last year, it was Woody Allen, Cyndi Lauper, and a 40-year-old Beatles song that were the Grammy's biggest oddities, and this year is even stranger. Like two nods for the creator of 'Family Guy', a folk nomination for a grunge icon, and a Spoken Word category packed with stars that you wouldn't associate with "Music's Biggest Night." You've seen who's up for the awards, you've heard all about who was snubbed, and you were shocked that the Grammy voters actually take Skrillex seriously. Now, check out The Amp's list of the 10 Grammy's strangest nominations:

1) Seth MacFarlane: The 'Family Guy' creator was nominated in not one but TWO categories: Best Song Written For Visual Media for the cartoon's "Christmastime Is Killing Us" and, more surprisingly, Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for his album 'Music is Better Than Words'. In the latter category, the man of a million voices will compete against legit singers like Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand, and Susan Boyle. That's even more unbelievable than a talking, boozing dog and a murderous baby with a British accent.

Jakubaszek/Getty ImagesGoing into tonight's Grammy Nominations show, no one could have predicted that Lady Gaga, the biggest artist on the planet and the singer who both opened and closed the nomination concert, would receive fewer nominations than Bon Iver, a bearded pack of folk rockers from rural Wisconsin. Entering this evening, the biggest honor ever bestowed on the band was when Milwaukee named July 22, 2011 "Bon Iver Day."

However, a look at the final scoreboard reveals that the Fame Monster only scored three nominations, while Bon Iver nabbed four: Song of the Year and Record of the Year for "Holocene," Best Alternative Music Album for 'Bon Iver' (called it!), and Best New Artist, even though 'Bon Iver' is the group's second album. So here's the question every rock fan's mother will be asking them tomorrow: Who are Bon Iver?

Vinny's smart decisionWhen the worlds of reality TV and pop music collide, the results are never good. For example, when Kim Kardashian collaborated with The-Dream, or every Real Housewife that thinks they can sing. Earlier today, Vinny from 'Jersey Shore' tried his hand at hip-hop by posting a song called "Rack City Mix." (Was he jealous of DJ Pauly D's career?) Maybe it was the influx of disparaging comments, or maybe it was because Vinny pressed play and was embarrassed by what he sounds like rapping, but he immediately took down his debut track, but not before TMZ was able to transcribe some of the lyrics...

Future Grammy nominee?Tonight marks the prologue to "Music's Biggest Night," the Grammy Nominations special, with artists like Adele, Kanye West, and Taylor Swift just hours away from receiving trophy nods aplenty. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences is so predictable, they might as well just call the February 12, 2012 Grammy ceremony "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy About Yoü & I Rolling in the Deep," but there are always a few surprises and snubs along the way. For a breakdown of the favorites in each major category, check out Paul Grein's Grammy Crystal Ball.

Here at The Amp, we're interested in those off-the-radar artists, albums, and songs that stand absolutely no shot of winning, let alone earning a nomination, even though they might deserve some Grammy consideration. These are five of our dark horse, in-a-perfect-world nominees:

'Christmas'Who's Number One? 'Christmas' won an incredibly tight Black Friday sales race as Michael Bublé's seasonal disc barely edged the week's biggest debut, Nickelback's 'Here and Now'. In the days leading up to the Black Friday surge, the Canadian rockers were the favorites to take the top spot ahead of Rihanna's 'Talk That Talk', thanks in part to their Thanksgiving performance at the Detroit Lions game. However, when midnight struck on Friday, the holiday shoppers instead went stampeding toward Bublé and 'Christmas', which finally grabbed Number One after finishing second last week. But it wasn't easy for Bublé…