Grammy BOSS:

Accompanying the first performance from Adele since her date with a vocal cord surgeon back in the fall, the Grammy camp has announced 20-time Grammy winner Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band as part of the performing line-up come February 12th in Los Angeles. Additionally, Jason Aldean and Kelly Clarkson, Glen Campbell with The Band Perry and Blake Shelton, Coldplay and Rihanna, the Foo Fighters, Bruno Mars, Paul McCartney, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift will take the stage. With Ringo listed as an award presenter, we have ourselves the full remaining lineup of the Beatles right there, in attendance. Meanwhile, no new words on whether the Rev. Jesse Jackson is going to follow through with his protest.

Detroit Lawsuit City:

Remember that Chrysler commercial starring Eminem and the foreboding “Lose Yourself,” aping off the tenacity of forgotten Detroit Motor City? Some “homeless” dude named Stephen Lee Pieck claims he created it, filing a handwritten lawsuit last week to get his fair share sum of $9 million, reports allhiphop.com. Writes Pieck: “I designed every aspect of the commercial and the commercial was stolen from me. In addition, I did not receive compensation in monetary terms for the work I did.” The lawsuit goes on to claim that while at a Legal Seafood restaurant in White Plans New York dining with Jordon Bratman and Christina Aguilera, Aquilera rang up Enimem, at which point Pieck took the phone and narrated his idea. Why Aguilera and her husband were dining with a “homeless” man, as Pieck lists himself on his lawsuit is perplexing. Also, that’s a damn expensive idea.

‘Unity’:

Amidst “Soul Train” pop-up dances across the streets of major cities last night, celebrity tributes continue to roll in, in reaction to creator and host Don Cornelius’ death yesterday. Speaking to the BBC, Aretha Franklin said the personality fostered “unity and brotherhood.” While Quincy Jones added he was “a visionary pioneer…Before MTV there was ‘Soul Train’, that will be the great legacy of Don Cornelius.” Additionally, ?uestlove had a sage remembrance to share, placing Cornelius as the “most crucial non-political figure to emerge from the civil rights era post ’68.”

 

VU to LULU:

Veritable art-rock god, Lou Reed, is skipping across the pond to exclusively take “From VU to Lulu” on European tour. Lulu, in case you missed the mass criticism of the project in 2011, was the conceptual collaboration between Reed and Metallica based on two more-than-a-century old plays by German playwright Frank Wedekind. Sounds inspiring on paper. But sonically it remained an oil and water state, all power chord sludge and discordant poetry babbling from Reed. Which is like pairing fois gras with spam, in VU-Lulu terms. But maybe that’s the point. Then again “Heroin” chasing “Dragon,” makes sense on paper, too. Metallica will not be accompanying Reed.

Lyricapsule:

Back on on this day in 1887 a newspaper editor from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania decided that their native land’s celebrity groundhog shall be known as Phil, henceforth, following a tradition passed on from German settlers of the area. They say Phil knew a thing or two about predicting the rest of the winter. And here we are today, still looking to Phil on February 2nd. There have been many pieces of art and pop-culture dedicated to this event, but none of them hold a candle to bluesman John Lee Hooker‘s humanizing “Groundhog Blues,” making a prediction of another kind: “Because I’m that walking’ groundhog, man and I walks around in my den/Now if I come out and see my shadow, my woman don’t love me/And I believe I’ll go back in.”