Blog Posts by Daniel Kreps

In 1998, when Bob Dylan last performed at the Grammy Awards, rock's poet laureate was shadowed by a "Soy Bomb". This weekend, he'll be accompanied by the far-more-clothed Mumford & Sons and the Avett Brothers. The Grammys expanded their ever-growing list of performers for Sunday's ceremony, announcing "a special tribute to acoustic music." Sounds vague, but Bob Dylan is playing the Grammys! Mumford & Sons must be so stoked. Dylan gives this ceremony some more much-needed rock cred along with Mick Jagger, who as previously announced will perform during the "In Memoriam" portion of the show.

That's not all: As rumored, the Grammys finally confirmed that Dr. Dre will perform alongside Eminem, marking Dre's first television performance in over a decade. With three days until Grammy night, we're looking at a massive slate of performers that include Lady Gaga, Arcade Fire, Muse, Katy Perry, Cee Lo Green with Gwyneth Paltrow and Muppets, Miranda Lambert, Justin Bieber with Usher and Jaden

The age of the music video game, where teenagers would mimic actual guitar playing by clicking on colored buttons and emulate their favorite rockers by singing into a plastic microphone, is slowly dying. Just months after MTV began selling off the "Rock Band" franchise, Activision has announced the company will no longer make "Guitar Hero" games, effectively depriving kids the opportunity to pretend to know how to play instruments. "We simply cannot make these games profitable given the current market," Activision said, adding that this year's "Guitar Hero" iteration that was in production will no longer be in production.

Once upon a time, roughly three years ago, "Guitar Hero" and its compatriot "Rock Band" were viewed as potential saviors for the music industry. Gamers flocked to digital marketplaces to purchase additional downloadable content and artists played along, passing full albums over to in-game stores. It was something the music industry hadn't encountered in years --

It's been five long years since the Strokes released their third album, "First Impressions of Earth," but today the wait for fresh music from the New York rock revivalists and leather jacket enthusiasts ends. They've finally released their new single "Under Cover of Darkness," a cut from their March 22nd LP "Angles," as a free download over at their official site. Starting right now, you have 48 hours to download the track for no cost. The single will go up for sale at iTunes on February 15th.

The half-decade hiatus seems to have had no effect on the Strokes' signature aesthetic, and "Under Cover of Darkness" sounds pretty much like every other significant Strokes hit. It's got "Marquee Moon" guitar interplay and Julian Casablancas' disconnected vocals, but is more bouncy and pop-oriented than their last few albums. The Strokes will likely rock this and many more "Angles" songs -- but hopefully not "Gratisfaction," which we're dismissing on name alone -- when they perform at this

Back in the 1980s, when Michael Jackson was at the height of his pop reign, musicians often spent their fortunes on odd expenditures like pet chimpanzees and the Elephant Man's bones. Nowadays, in a world shaken by recession, artists are finding a far more valuable yet still somewhat odd way to invest their money: professional sports teams.

Jon Bon Jovi, already a co-owner of the arena football team the Philadelphia Soul, is now hoping to buy a slice of a real football team, the Atlanta Falcons. We guess Bon Jovi can't purchase a share of his hometown Jets, Giants or Eagles, so the New Jersey native is looking toward the Dirty South. The team's owner, Arthur Blank, confirmed to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Jon Bon is considering buying a minority 15-percent stake in the team for $150 million. Guess you have that kind of cash laying around when you front the top-touring act of 2010.

"Since helping to establish the Philadelphia Soul Arena Football team -- from its inception

The John Bull locomotive, the American flag that inspired Francis Key Scott's "The Star-Spangled Banner," Kermit the Frog, the Woodrow Wilson $100,000 bill and Eddie Van Halen's "Frank 2" guitar. What do all these artifacts have common? They now all reside at the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History. Van Halen's red/white/black-striped electric guitar, used by Eddie during Van Halen's 2007-2008 North American tour with David Lee Roth, is the latest addition to the Smithsonian collection. (Oddly, the museum opted for "Frank 2" and not its much more famous and influential forefather, "Frankenstrat.")

Van Halen's "Frank 2" isn't the only ax in the Smithsonian's musical instrument collection: Prince's "yellow cloud" guitar and Paul Reed Smith's "Dragon" are also in the archives, as is Irving Berlin's transposing upright piano and Dizzy Gillespie's B-flat trumpet. Unfortunately for Van Halen fans eager to make the pilgrimage to Washington, DC to see Eddie's guitar

Eminem has reached the point where you're more likely to see him in a Super Bowl ad than at a concert. He does routinely hit the stage at awards shows -- including this weekend's Grammy Awards -- but an Eminem concert is a rare event. Last year, in support of "Recovery," he only played a couple of shows, including two stadium gigs with Jay-Z. That could change in 2011, however: Em's manager Paul Rosenberg has revealed that while Eminem's top priority this year is working on his Aftermath Records label, "You'll be able to see [Eminem] at a few places this year."

Lollapalooza might be one of those places. The Chicago Tribune reports that Eminem, Foo Fighters, and Muse will be among the six headliners to play the Windy City festival this August. The Tribune's Greg Kot has a good track record of reporting the Lollapalooza headliners well before the festival announces its lineup, so you can probably bank on Eminem performing. If he does, it would mark Slim Shady's first "major" festival

On February 13th, the music biz will celebrate albums and songs that came out between September 1st, 2009 and September 30th, 2010 at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards. Who will win, you may ask -- and who should win? And why won't Britney Spears perform? You've come to the right place. The Amp is breaking down each of the 10 biggest categories every day until the big event.

Category: Best Pop Vocal Album, a.k.a. "Remember That One Year Amy Winehouse Won All Those Awards?" Award

Nominees:
Justin Bieber - "My World 2.0"
Susan Boyle - "I Dreamed a Dream"
Lady Gaga - "The Fame Monster"
John Mayer - "Battle Studies"
Katy Perry - "Teenage Dream"

Who Will Win: Lady Gaga's "The Fame Monster"

Who Should Win: Lady Gaga's "The Fame Monster"

Why: Somehow, in the 16-year history of this award, no artist has ever won this Grammy twice. Operating under that theory, and just because this album doesn't stand a chance against the competition, we can eliminate "Battle Studies" by John Mayer, since he won for

On paper, Yo La Tengo are everything we look for in a band: diehard New York Mets fans, natives of nearby Hoboken, celebrators of Hanukkah, etc. Yet for some reason, we never really got into the critically acclaimed indie rockers' music. However, over 25 years after the band formed, they've managed to finally indoctrinate us into their cult following using the lure we can't resist: "Seinfeld."

At Yo La Tengo's concert at Chicago's Metro this past Friday, Georgia Hubley, James McNew, and Ira Kaplan engaged in the strangest, most sitcomiest set break in rock history, dedicating nearly 15 minutes to reenacting one of the greatest "Seinfeld" episodes (and bottle episodes), "The Chinese Restaurant."

That's Kaplan up top doing a spot-on Seinfeld impression in the Jerry role, with Hubley as Elaine Benes and McNew playing the legendary George Costanza (Fun fact: "The Chinese Restaurant," while a top five "Seinfeld," is only one of two episodes not to feature Kramer). The shocked audience at