Well I guess this is growing up

Today, we all are (apparently) Arcade Fire fans.

Please, don't confuse my snark for displeasure. Arcade Fire are a great band and deserve whatever accolades come their way. But somehow this feels less like a victory and more like watching something you love slip away.

For what feels like the past ten years, the Grammys have meant almost nothing to any serious music fan. And even less to casual music fans. Serious music fans are lucky if a handful of artists considered "good" win anything of merit (and it's always off-camera anyway). Mainstream fans already know what they like. A trophy changes no one's mind. I am sure the Academy Awards committee has a good laugh over the music industry's most important night of the year -- the one which manages to celebrate the most safe and mainstream manifestations of it's art form and still screw it up.

Think of all the iconic Grammy moments. Milli Vanilli. Alicia Keys winning a number of trophies far too large for her to carry. Elton John and Eminem. I list these disparate things with less than 100% certainty they didn't happen during MTV's Video Music Awards or some other music award show no one cares about for more than the day after it airs.

But last night one of us -- one of the good guys -- finally broke through, took down the Biebers and the Gagas and the Antebellums and changed the music world forever.

The thing is, Arcade Fire is pretty fucking popular. And I don't mean just with the cool kids. I mean, they won a Grammy, they must be popular. Kidding aside, they cracked your parent's subconscious by attaching "Wake Up" to Where the Wild Things Are (a film which I am sure falls into "the trailer is markedly better than the feature" category). Their songs were used in NFL broadcasts. Honestly, they are just a slower-developing, more critcally accepted Kings of Leon at this point. Now, with a trophy to show for it.

As fans of any degree of something labeled as "indie" (or counterculture or whatever tag you choose) will tell you, the day you watch your favorite things grow up and are co-opted by the masses is a sad, angry one. I bet this is how Watchmen fans felt. Or Nirvana fans. On the one hand, yay! Success for the thing you like! On the other, "these people don't like X like I do." But once things go from writing on the wall, to watching the acceptance speech, well it's tough to go back.

It can be done. I watched M.I.A. go from unheard of, to "Paper Planes" becoming every college girl's anthem, to obscurity again. "So, what do you guys think of MAYA? Oh, you remember M.I.A., right?" I'll stop the hypothetical there. Radiohead half did it, performing at the Grammys while still being awesome. But even they are in the Guitar Band video games, where a new generation can learn how mediocre Pablo Honey is via "Creep."

I don't love these artists any less than I did pre-breakthrough (well, a little). But they lose...something. An edge? A mystique? A feeling of intimacy? They won't mean as much to me as the bands I love who will (hopefully) never breakthrough (sorry, guys).

I've learned nearly all my Facebook friends are Arcade Fire fans today. Who knew? It's the most pretentious thing one can do -- decry something once loved after it becomes popular -- but I feel it happening. Arcade Fire just seems less special now that millions of people are listening to Funeral for the first time. The chances I hear "Ready to Start" or "Month of May" in some bar just went up by 1,000 percent.

I want to wish them well. To wish them all the best on whatever wonderful opportunities await them post-Grammy. But I can't. I won't wish them ill, but indifference. I'll buy (pirate) their next record and probably enjoy it. But I'll scratch them off the list of "bands to see before I die." I don't feel like fighting hundreds of thousands of people through Ticketmaster the day they go on sale, selling out Madison Square Garden.

Welcome to the mainstream.

The week that weren't

What I was into this week plus some random thoughts.

Video games

Call of Duty: World at War: I had never played any of the ubiquitous WWII shooters until some glowing recommendations for this one. In a few words: the multiplayer is great, the campaign (what little I've played) has some great moments - such as Japanese banzai troops popping out of the grass bayoneting your boys - but is very hard and the multiplayer is great. You level up by using different guns or performing certain kills and it's a rush being able to level up in a non-RPG setting. Overall, solid game.

Team Fortress 2: For my money this is the best multiplayer game ever. Better than Halo 2. Neck and neck with Left 4 Dead. From the cartoony graphics, to the ethnic stereotype characters, to the ridiculous balance between the nine classes, it's all great. The Orange Box remains the best deal in gaming ever. Buy it and support the greatness that is Valve.

Music

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - S/T: Despite having one of the worst names ever, the debut from this NY four-piece is the first non-Animal Collective album of 2009 I've picked up that I've enjoyed. They remind me of My Bloody Valentine/Sonic Youth and are just lo-fi enough to appease indie kids while remaining listenable. Listen to "Hey Paul" on iTunes to get a feel for what they're about.

A.C. Newman - Get Guilty: I got this after reading a few solid reviews and to me it'll just be New Pornographers lite - minus Neko Case, who is great. Completely meh.

Randoms

• A-Rod steroids - No name will shock me anymore. Pujols? Whatever. David Ortiz? Yup. Chase Utley? Why not. I agree with pretty much everything Larsen posted yesterday. I don't think anyone should be omitted from the Hall of Fame for possibly using roids. That place is already fucked up beyond recognition anyway. When we look back twenty years and see that Barry, McGwire and Palmeiro aren't in, we will all wonder why. The HOF isn't some holy ground, it's a place for the best baseball players. Until we find out roids turn shitty AAA players into HOFers upon use, put them in.

• The Grammys - They are a joke. The only good moment was Radiohead + USC marching band, that was rad. Everything else was stupid. I didn't watch it all (who did? Three+ hours?), but I saw Lil Wayne's Katrina song (good), the ridiculous Jay-Z, Wayne, M.I.A., that other rapper performance (shitty), Coldplay + Jay-Z (what?!) and Radiohead. Most of the winners were lame except for Adele, who is pretty talented. I have no idea how to fix it (I thought about it) and although they had some relevant nominees, it remains as pointless as ever. It's like if the Oscars only awarded popcorn action movies.

• Sports in general - How the hell has someone not signed Manny? If you're the Nationals or Giants how the hell do you not sack up and give this guy three years? What do you have to lose? Only selling 50% of your capacity instead of 40%? He is a monster and a Hall of Famer, craziness and all. ... The Celtics lost again, this time to the Spurs, who I think are being way overlooked in all this LeBron/Kobe slobberin. Roger Mason Jr. is a cold-blooded killer and all the old dudes still got it. They came into Boston and flexed in the fourth. I'd be afraid if I was the Bynum-less Lakers. ... The Pro Bowl (highlight) is pointless. But this year the AFC ran some fumbleruski (go to about 2:25 in the above video) variant that was totally kickass.

• Trash T.V. -I watched MTV's new Sunday line-up last night and it was as disappointing as I thought. Rob Dyrdek's (of Rob and Big - T.V. greatness - fame) show was probably the best, but also the most decadent. He just has this big warehouse full of skating shit and his business offices. It's just him dicking around, but still funny. College Humor's show was bad, the main plotline of the episode was unfunny and the re-hashed clips from the site were all old to anyone who reads the site. Stick to writing articles and collecting Youtube vids, dudes. Nitro Circus is people doing crazy X-games-like stunts and was entertaining, mainly due to Death's imposing shadow around every corner. Oh, and big wheel flips. How's Your News - a news show featuring the mentally handicapped - just made me sad and guilty for watching. I guess the message behind it is good, but it still feels like exploitation. Although that one no one can understand is awesome.

Your official 51st Grammy Awards predictions!

Who gives a fuck.