LIL' WAYNE'S NEW ALBUM IS HIS AQUAMINI?

In an interview with MTV.com, Lil' Wayne's producers Cool & Dre say that his next album isn't all "rock," and they compare it to OutKast's Aquamini. That's the one with "Rosa Parks" and "Skew It On The Bar-B." I know it makes me sound old to say it, but: yeah, right. I heard one of Wayne's rock songs and it was funny.

THE GRAMMYS: "NOT A BAD WAY TO SPEND A SUNDAY NIGHT"

It's the easiest thing in the world to complain that the Grammy Awards is a boring show. But I tend to like it, and I think this year's show was really well done. For the most part.

I was glad that Al Green performed, but I wish he got to do something from his new album, which got a bunch of nominations and won him two Grammys tonight. I like Justin Timberlake, but it would have been more appropriate for Al to have been backed by ?uestlove and the guys who played on his album, and maybe performed with Anthony Hamilton and John Legend. That said, I liked his performance. It turns out that it was a last minute addition to the show: two performances were cancelled: Chris Brown and Rihanna both pulled out the show right before it started. You can read about that all over the web at this point.

On a similar note, if Neil Diamond's new album is so great, why didn't he perform a new song instead of "Sweet Caroline." That was cheesy as hell, I don't know if a new song would have been any better though.

I don't listen to Carrie Underwood that much, but I liked her performance, and ditto for Taylor Swift (whose performance would have been better without Miley Cyrus). And how could you not be moved by Jennifer Hudson's performance. The Jonas Brothers looked a bit out of their league with Stevie Wonder. It was sort of cute that he played with them, though. U2 was great as always, that goes without saying. Kid Rock was good, I like that "All Summer Long" song. Am I the only person who never heard that Katy Perry song? I never did; it was pretty good. It sounds like her biggest influences are Gwen Stefani and P!nk.

I loved the Four Tops tribute with Jamie Foxx, Ne-Yo, Smokey Robinson and Top Duke Fakir. The Bo Diddley tribute with B.B. King, Buddy Guy, John Mayer and Keith Urban was a bit messy.

Hip-Hop provided some of the best moments of the night: the "Swagga Like Us" performance with Jay-Z, T.I., Lil' Wayne, Kanye West and a very pregnant M.I.A. (who may have been lip-synching); T.I.'s performance with Justin Timberlake was great, and so was Lil' Wayne's. I didn't like Kanye and Estelle's as much, and Jay-Z joining Coldplay onstage was a bit goofy.

I liked seeing Paul McCartney, but again, "I Saw Her Standing There"? I think he should have done a new song. It was fun to see Dave Grohl playing drums for him though. Radiohead 's performance was interesting, and probably confusing to most of the crowd. Was the whole band there, or was it just Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood and the huge marching band?

My favorite performance was Robert Plant & Alison Krauss' medley of "Rich Woman" and "Gone Gone Gone," and I was glad to see them go five for five, winning all of their nominations, including Record and Album Of The Year. I loved Robert's comment that in the "old days," being at the Grammys would have seemed like "selling out," but "It's not a bad way to spend a Sunday night." I'm sure there's going to be a lot of bitching about "old" artists beating out the likes of Lil Wayne and Coldplay, and that the album wasn't as ubiquitous in the culture. Whatever: it was a mature but totally credible album that didn't pander that was released on an indie label. It deserved all the accolades it won (it also won a Grammy last year) and more. That's my final word!

THE GRAMMYS PRE-BROADCAST

When I used to cover the Grammys for VH1, I was lucky enough to cover the pre-telecast awards. I would be in our special press room, watching on closed circuit TV. I know that sitting through three hours of awards given to non-celebrities for music genres like classical and world music doesn't sound like fun, and it definitely isn't totally thrilling, but some parts are great. I got to interview the Blind Boys Of Alabama, and Lord of the Rings score composter Howard Shore, and Steve Earle, for instance. People who would never really make the telecast. A lot of the people who get their awards during the pre-tel, it really means a lot to them: they aren't just celebs on the award show circuit. These are often people who really have to think if it is worth it to pay for a fairly expensive trip to L.A. to maybe win an award in a non-televised award show where they may get two or three minutes to give a public thank you.

This year I watched the "pre-tel" on the Grammy's finally improving web site, and there were some great moments. George Carlin's daughter accepted his fifth career Grammy for Best Comedy Album for It's Bad For Ya. Dweezeil Zappa had a moving speech to a nearly empty house when his group Zappa Plays Zappa won Best Rock Instrumental for thier version of "Peaches en Regalia," which his father Frank Zappa wrote for him when he was born, 40 years ago. This category was a bone of contention between my wife and I: I wanted Metallica to win for "Suicide & Redemption," and she wanted Nine Inch Nails for "34 Ghosts I-IV." But I was glad that Dweezil won, it meant more to him. Apparently, someone who co-wrote a song for Lil Wayne died, and someone accepted for him and that was sad too.

Other cool awards: The Blind Boys winning thier fifth career Grammy, Weezer winning for their "Pork and Beans" video, Peter Gabriel winning for the Wall-E song "Down To Earth," B.B. King winning his 15th for his great album One Kind Favor, Alicia Keys winning her 12th for "Superwoman," Al Green winning his 10th and 11th for songs from Lay It Down, Duffy won one, Rick Rubin won Producer of the Year, and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss won their first two of hopefully many tonight (they won one last year also). Other than the Blind Boys, none of these people were there though. In fact, the only big names there were Carrie Underwood and Robert Trujilio of Metallica (who won Best Metal Performance for "My Apocolypse").

Other cool awards: Juno took best soundtrack, They Might Be Giants won for a children's record, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers won long-form video for Running Down A Dream, Pete Seeger won in the folk category for At 89.

Some lame upsets: John Mayer's "Gravity" beat Bruce Springsteen's "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" for Best Male Rock Vocal (I don't really think of Mayer as a rock singer), the Kings Of Leon beat AC/DC in a rock category, and country singer Jamey Johnson didn't win anything. But on to the main show! Good luck to everyone... but especially Robert Plant & Alison Krauss.

NARAS DISSES SPRINGSTEEN AGAIN

OK, I'm going to sound like a middle aged New Jerseyite here, but for the second year in a row, the Grammy nominations have dissed Bruce Springsteen big time. There were some really good nominations: Robert Plant & Alison Krauss' Raising Sand did really well, and the nominations will likely expose even more people to a classic album. And all the nominations for R&B singer Jazmine Sullivan will no doubt expose her to new fans, regardless of whether or not she wins anything (I downloaded two of her songs on iTunes tonight and liked them a lot). I am glad to see Adele do so well (I was shocked that she got more nominations than Duffy). I won't even complain about Lil' Wayne getting more nominations than anyone else - he isn't for me (although "Swagga Like Us," featuring Wayne, Kanye West, Jay-Z and T.I. is probably the best hip-hop song of the year, even I can admit that).

But "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" is a classic. I like Sara Barielles' "Love Song," but it is really that good? Is Jason Mraz's song "I'm Yours"? Who decides this stuff? Both were nominated for Song of the Year. "Girls..." is also an incredible production. But apparently not as good as Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love." "Girls..." did get two nominations in the rock category. I also felt that Al Green's Lay It Down should have gotten more nominations than it did, and in the top three categories (all of his were in R&B).

Ah well, Bruce will be fine, so will the Reverend Al. And I'm glad for Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, they have my vote in every category they're nominated in.

KANYE'S "MUPPETS" ON ICE?

Kanye West was working on the "muppet" style show I wrote about with Seinfeld/Borat producer Larry Charles who recently said in an inteview that the show may not happen, because it is a bit too hardcore for HBO. I don't have HBO, but isn't that the channel where they had The Wire and Oz? Damn! Too bad, the clip I saw was funny.

I don't really dig Kanye's new song "Love Lockdown," that autotune thing is annoying. I'll still pick up his album though. I do like a new song featuring Kanye, along with Jay-Z, T.I. and Lil' Wayne called "Swagga Like Us," which samples M.I.A. Yes, you're still reading No Expiration and not "Hipster Hourly," you don't have to adjust your browser. I just like the song, what can I say.