Oklahoma Rock Newsblog

Many Oklahomans were nominated, but only three came away winners at The 51st Grammy Awards tonight.

Kings of Leon, which includes Oklahoma-born members Matthew and Nathan Followill, won their first Grammy Award:

Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals - “Sex On Fire”

The band was also nominated for Best Rock Album for Only By The Night and Best Rock Song for “Sex On Fire”.

Carrie Underwood won her fourth Grammy Award:

Best Female Country Vocal Performance - “Before He Cheats”

Vince Gill won his twentieth Grammy Award:

Best Country Instrumental Performance - Cluster Pluck (with Brad Paisley, James Burton, John Jorgenson, Albert Lee, Brent Mason, Redd Volkaert & Steve Wariner)

Gene Autry and Tom Paxton were honored with lifetime achievement awards during the show. The Blind Boys of Alabama, Hank Jones, Brenda Lee and Dean Martin were honored with the same award.

It was an honor just to be nominated for the following Oklahomans:

Oklahoma transplant Trisha Yearwood
Best Country Album - Heaven, Heartache And The Power Of Love, Best Female Country Vocal Performance - “This Is Me You’re Talking To” & Best Country Collaboration With Vocals - “Let The Wind Chase You” (with Keith Urban)

Brooks & Dunn (Tulsa’s Ronnie Dunn)
Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals - “God Must Be Busy”

Rascal Flatts (Picher’s Joe Don Rooney)
Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals - “Every Day”

MercyMe (with Steven Curtis Chapman)
Best Gospel Song - “You Reign”

Elvin Bishop
Best Traditional Blues Album - The Blues Rolls On

Tom Paxton
Best Traditional Folk Album - Comedians & Angels

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Here’s a collection of Oklahoma-infused Christmas music from Admiral Twin, Beau Jennings, Big Love Hospital, Evangelicals, The Flaming Lips, Gene Autry, Kay Starr, The Neighborhood, Radial Angel, The Red Alert, Rockwell Social and Van Risseghem.

Enjoy!

DOWNLOADS:
Admiral Twin - “Carol of the Bells”
Beau Jennings - “Beau Jennings’ Christmas Vision”
Big Love Hospital - “All My Friends Are Snowmen”
Big Love Hospital - “Sad Christmas”
Evangelicals - “The Last Christmas on Earth”
The Flaming Lips - “A Change at Christmas”
The Flaming Lips - “Christmas at the Zoo”
The Flaming Lips - “White Christmas”
Gene Autry - “Here Comes Santa Claus”
Gene Autry - “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”
Kay Starr - “(Everybody’s Waitin’ For) The Man With The Bag”
Kay Starr - “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm (Stuhr Remix)”
The Neighborhood - “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”
Radial Angel - “Do You Hear What I Hear”
Radial Angel - “O Holy Night”
The Red Alert - “Santa Baby”
Rockwell Social - “Last Christmas”
Van Risseghem - “O Holy Night”

Here’s a collection of Oklahoma-infused Christmas music from Admiral Twin, Big Love Hospital, Evangelicals, The Flaming Lips, Gene Autry, Kay Starr, The Neighborhood, Radial Angel, The Red Alert, Rockwell Social and Van Risseghem.

Enjoy!

DOWNLOADS:
Admiral Twin - “Carol of the Bells”
Big Love Hospital - “All My Friends Are Snowmen”
Big Love Hospital - “Sad Christmas”
Evangelicals - “The Last Christmas on Earth”
The Flaming Lips - “A Change at Christmas”
The Flaming Lips - “Christmas at the Zoo”
The Flaming Lips - “White Christmas”
Gene Autry - “Here Comes Santa Claus”
Gene Autry - “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”
Kay Starr - “(Everybody’s Waitin’ For) The Man With The Bag”
Kay Starr - “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm (Stuhr Remix)”
The Neighborhood - “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”
Radial Angel - “Do You Hear What I Hear”
Radial Angel - “O Holy Night”
The Red Alert - “Santa Baby”
Rockwell Social - “Last Christmas”
Van Risseghem - “O Holy Night”

To help celebrate Oklahoma’s Centennial, we will be counting down the Top 100 Oklahoma Musicians over the next four weeks, leading up to Oklahoma’s Statehood Day on November 16. Every weekday, we’ll unveil another five Oklahoma musicians or bands that helped shape the way Oklahoma music is viewed from the outside world.

5. The Flaming Lips (formed in Oklahoma City)

Known for their melodic sounds and wild larger-than-life live shows, The Flaming Lips are the musical equivalent of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

The band formed in Oklahoma City in 1983 and performed some legendary loud and raucous shows in the Oklahoma City area. One of a few bands in Oklahoma City to own a PA system, the Lips were able to open for such bands as Husker Du, Black Flag and the Minutemen.

After the original singer Mark Coyne left the band, Wayne Coyne became the primary singer and songwriter, while the Lips released Hear It Is in 1986 and Oh My Gawd!!!…The Flaming Lips in 1987. The band signed with Warner Bros. in 1991 and released the major-label debut Hit to Death in the Future Head in 1992.

With the addition of guitarist Ronald Jones and drummer Steven Drozd, they recorded Transmissions from the Satellite Heart in 1993 and toured with Lollapalooza. It would be almost a year before the album would begun to be noticed commercially, placing the song “She Don’t Use Jelly” on the Top 40 charts. The band went on to play MTV’s Spring Break, tour with Candlebox and Red Hot Chili Peppers and play themselves on an episode of Beverly Hills 90210.

1995’s cult favorite Clouds Taste Metallic produced “Bad Days”, which landed on the Batman Forever soundtrack, as well as “This Here Giraffe”, “Brainville”, “Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus with Needles”, “Christmas at the Zoo” and “Guy Who Got a Headache and Accidentally Saves the World”.

The wildly experimental Zaireeka was released in 1997. This four CD album was intended to be hearing by playing all four CDs in separate CD players at the same time. In preparation for the album, the band staged “parking lot experiments”, using 40 car stereos to play tapes simultaneously. The band also performed “boombox experiments”, using 40 boomboxes playing cassettes of different volumes and speeds.

None of their albums would be as critically acclaimed as 1999’s The Soft Bulletin. The orchestrated sounds and harmonies caused many to compare it to The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. The album included “Race for the Prize” and “Waitin’ for a Superman” and later went gold.

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots was released in 2002 to much critical acclaim and featured the songs “Do You Realize??”, “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt.1″, “Fight Test” and “Are You a Hypnotist??”. It also earned them an appearance on the television show Charmed. Their 2006 album At War with the Mystics featured a stronger political bent and featured the songs “The W.A.N.D. (The Will Always Negates Defeat)” and “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song (With All Your Power)”.

The Flaming Lips have won three Grammys and have been nominated for two others. A documentary about The Flaming Lips, The Fearless Freaks, was released in 2005.

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Tulsa World Scene Writer Jennifer Chancellor had a great story over the weekend about KVOO’s abrupt cancellation of ‘Red Dirt Radio Hour’.

KVOO pulls the plug on all locally produced programming
By JENNIFER CHANCELLOR World Scene Writer

Since the 1930s, radio station KVOO has been the voice of Oklahoma. In fact, its call letters stand for just that.

In those early days, it was known as a “clear channel” station. Many nights, the station could literally be heard from coast to coast, broadcasting the most popular and influential music of the time.

Over the decades, the call letters have become synonymous with all things Okie — classic country, western swing, red dirt music and more.

Until recently, original programming highlights still included Sunday evening’s “Red Dirt Radio Hour” and “Billy Parker’s Country Junction” shows, highlighting classic — and modern — music that has made Oklahoma legendary.

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George Lang had a good article on the history of Oklahoma music in The Oklahoman yesterday. Some notable bands and musicians were left out, but he covered most of his bases.

Oklahoma’s music roots run deep
By George Lang
Assistant Entertainment Editor

Almost as soon as Thomas Edison invented a way to record sound, Oklahomans were stepping up to the microphone. These days, Carrie Underwood, All-American Rejects, Toby Keith, Hinder, Rascal Flatts and The Flaming Lips are putting Oklahoma on radio playlists. But look back on every decade for the past 80 years, and native Oklahomans were burning up the national airwaves.

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Although I’ve been extremely disappointed with the country-heaviness of the ‘Oklahoma Rising’ CD, it’s great to see that all the money is going to great charities in local Habitat for Humanity chapters.

From The Oklahoman:

‘Rising’ CD nets $99,125 for Habitat for Humanity
Central Oklahoma chapter plans to use the money to build ‘centennial home’ for a family in September.

A music CD sold by the Oklahoma Centennial Commission has raised $99,125 to build homes for low-income people in the state.

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To celebrate Oklahoma’s centennial, a compilation CD, Oklahoma Rising, is in stores now. It showcases some of Oklahoma’s artists and that’s great. However, I can’t get over the obvious fact that an overwhelming majority of the disc are country artists. Now, I understand that a lot of country artists originate from Oklahoma, but c’mon. They threw a couple bones to the non-country crowd in The Flaming Lips, Hanson and The All-American Rejects, but very little outside of that. And they even have some big missed on the country side - Norma Jean? Cross Canadian Ragweed? Jason Boland? Bob Childers?

I expected the ‘Unique History’ disc to be 90% country (No Gap Band? No Chainsaw Kittens? No Nixons? No JJ Cale? No Flash Terry? Caroline’s Spine?), but not the second disc. The second disc has three freaking songs by Vince Gill. Three! And two by Reba McEntire! Meanwhile they left out The Starlight Mints, Ester Drang, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Wayman Tisdale, Watermelon Slim and a handful of others that should have been considered.

From OK.gov:

OKLAHOMA CENTENNIAL RELEASES CD CELEBRATING OKLAHOMA’S MUSICAL HERITAGE

It’s a compact disc that comes along only once every 100 years. Today, the Oklahoma Centennial Commission released Oklahoma Rising, a limited edition two-disc set celebrating the state’s rich musical heritage. The once-in-a-lifetime CD collection includes 46 songs by 43 Oklahoma recording artists and groups, including Vince Gill, Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks, Carrie Underwood, Toby Keith and Jimmy Webb.

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