This year’s Juno Awards take place in Ottawa on 4/1, and today the nominees for their annual prizes were revealed. A lot of familiar names — Drake, Feist, Avril Lavigne — headline the nominees. Something tells me the Black Keys won’t be happy with a selection or two. Two Christmas albums made the “Best Album” list, so either it was a bad year for Canadian albums or the best year for Christmas albums ever! Shatner hosts, obviously. Scan the nominees below.

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You might remember that Black Keys’ drummer Patrick Carney said some stuff about Nickelback. So Nickelback furiously fires back with … nah, they just kind of shrugged it off. See:

Somewhere in an East Village loft, filled with cigarette smoke and copies of The Hunger Games, a pair of drummer’s eyes roll. If Carney gets a second, he should definitely take some time out to LOOK AT THIS PHOTOGRAPH.

As you can see up top, Black Keys will cover the January 19th issue of Rolling Stone on the strength of their new LP, El Camino, and its critically positive reception. Given that shine, Keys drummer Patrick Carney doesn’t disappoint. An excerpt:

Rock & roll is dying because people became OK with Nickelback being the biggest band in the world,” he says, blowing cigarette smoke out the window of his rented East Village loft a few days ­before the band heads to L.A. “So they became OK with the idea that the biggest rock band in the world is always going to be shit – therefore you should never try to be the biggest rock band in the world. Fuck that! Rock & roll is the music I feel the most passionately about, and I don’t like to see it fucking ruined and spoon-fed down our throats in this watered-down, post-grunge crap, horrendous shit. When people start lumping us into that kind of shit, it’s like, ‘Fuck you,’ honestly.

(via Rolling Stone)

First Spotify, now Nickelback? Is nothing sacred? But, seriously, an interesting point: 2011 was a pretty dire time for rock as many will point out. I appreciate the sentiment, at the very least, even if I feel some of that’s a touch misdirected (like, who is lumping in the Black Keys with Nickelback?). The candor is admirable. Sidenote: I am reading the absolute shit out of that story about Snoop from The Wire.

Kings Of Leon released a new single and video this week and dozens (dozens!) of you lurkers stepped up to discuss it. KoL has become an increasingly hot button act on this site as we’ve witnessed the Followills become a parody of themselves (see: the hipster clothing line, drunken interviews, “Sex On Fire”). But while we scoffed at the band’s royal status in the UK, the lackluster Only By The Night quietly went platinum in the States on the back of the Grammy winning “Use Somebody,” a pretty decent sounding pop/rock single the first three to four hundred times I heard it. Late last summer Hayley Williams performed an inspired, stripped-down version that we never posted because you can go to other sites for Haley Williams news. But boy did she open some miserable floodgates. Herewith, for no other reason than page views lists are fun, are fifteen covers of “Use Somebody” by a surprisingly diverse array of professional recording artists (I’m including American Idol finalists in that definition). Et tu, Matisyahu?

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Constantly pushing the line towards joke-band, these guys. Except for when they’re ruining that rep by releasing actually good singles. But knowing that Keith and Chris like to laugh helps file this cover under “ironic.” (Actually who are we kidding, this is Nickelback. Reviled by all except those who actually still pay for music, apparently.) The guys hit BBC Radio 1′s Live Lounge and covered “Rockstar,” which is as parody ready as they come. Grab it at What’s The Word.

Saturday night in Vegas, the VH1 Rock Honors paid tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, Heart, ZZ Top, and of course our beloved Genesis. The night was notable for its choice of host (Bam Margera? Keeping it classy), but even more significant for its playing host to the first Phil Collins-led Genesis set in a decade and a half. Robin Williams was up to his manic antics in introducing the band, and later Keane took the stage in cover homage. Here’s our fave pic from the night, courtesy of Getty. We’ll take HAS BEENS for $100, Alex. (J/k we love you Zakk Wylde.)

Phil Collins needs more hair to be in that photo! And who knew Zakk was a Justice fan! What was the night’s setlist like?

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… just kidding. Probably. Genesis, ZZ Top, Heart, and Ozzy Osbourne are the artists that will be celebrated at this year’s VH1 Rock Honors, to be held at Vegas’s Mandalay Bay. Gretchen Wilson, Keane, and Nickelback are the bands named so far for cover-salute duty. We’re guessing Keane will pay tribute to our favorite prog-poppers (we suggest “In Too Deep”), Gretchen will go Heart (but why not Blitzen Trapper?), Nickelback will butcher Ozzy, and an artist yet to be named will don beards, shades, and custom-made jagged-edged guitars in hopeless pursuit of a cheap ZZ Top joke. The show, which airs May 24th, is hosted by Bam Margera — which is just as absurd as this post’s title.

The AP examines the phenomenon of “critic-proof” bands: those that are drawn and quartered by music writers and “cool kids” alike (hitting close to home?), yet go on to sell millions of records and play to sold out arenas. Call it “The Nickelback Effect.”

Yet these acts have sold millions upon millions of albums. So are the critics wrong? Do music buyers have bad taste? Is this karmic payback to all the haters?

“There are some bands that, let’s face it, are critic-proof,” said Nathan Brackett, a senior editor at Rolling Stone. “Just like there are some movies that are critic-proof. Nobody is really reading the reviews for `Norbit,’ you know? And nobody’s reading Nickelback reviews either.”

That might be a good thing. Nickelback’s “All the Right Reasons,” which debuted at No. 1 on the charts in the fall of 2005 and was still number 16 this week, was called “hard-rock ridiculousness” by The New York Times and “unspeakably awful” by Allmusic.com. Even the late Nirvana frontman and grunge icon Kurt Cobain would disapprove, suggested Rolling Stone, which called the disc “so depressing, you’re almost glad Kurt’s not around to hear it.”

So who’s buying? Ladies, a Blender editor says it’s all your fault.

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