SECTIONS

ALTERNATIVE PRESS

Features

20 artists you may not have known were nominated for (and won) Grammy Awards

February 06 2015, 10:53 AM EST By Lee McKinstry


This year’s Grammy nominees boast a few scene favorites like Paramore and Slipknot, but music’s biggest night sometimes feels like it doesn’t reflect this scene’s music. Yet, for every Top 40 titan, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has recognized an act not dipped in commercial glitz. You know Green Day, Nirvana, and Nine Inch Nails all netted gramophones—but did you know My Chemical Romance were nominees? Or that both the Mars Volta and Deftones have been stamped Grammy-Award-winners? Here are some surprising artists who once vied for that sparkling Victrola.

This year's Grammy Awards will air on CBS this Sunday, February 8.

UNDERØATH

Nominations: 2007 Best Music Video: “Writing On the Walls”
2010 Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package: Lost in the Sound of Separation [Deluxe Edition]
Beaten By: OK Go, “Here It Goes Again” music video
Neil Young, Neil Young: The Archives Vol. 1 1963-1972

 

MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE

Nominations: 2008 Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package: The Black Parade
Beaten By: What It Is!: Funky Soul and Rare Grooves (1967-1977)

 

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE

Nominations: 2005 Best Metal Performance: “The End of Heartache”
2014 Best Metal Performance, "In Due Time"
Beaten By: Motörhead, “Whiplash”
Black Sabbath, "God Is Dead?"

 

HOLE

Nominations:  1999 Best Rock Album: Celebrity Skin
1999 Best Rock Song: Billy Corgan, Eric Erlandson, Courtney Love “Celebrity Skin”
1999 Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group: “Celebrity Skin”
2000 Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group: “Malibu”
Beaten By:  Sheryl Crow, The Globe Sessions
Alanis Morissette, “Uninvited”
Aerosmith, “Pink”
Everlast and Santana, “Put Your Lights On”

 

THE KILLERS

Nominations: 2005 Best Rock Album: Hot Fuss
2005 Best Rock Song: “Somebody Told Me”
2005 Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal: “Somebody Told Me”
2006 Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal: “Mr. Brightside”
2006 Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal: “All These Things That I’ve Done”
2007 Best Rock Song: “When You Were Young”
2007 Best Short Form Music Video: “When You Were Young”
Beaten By: Green Day, American Idiot
U2, “Vertigo”
U2, “Vertigo” (yeah, they won both)
Maroon 5, “ This Love (Live)”
U2, “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own”
Red Hot Chilli Peppers, “Dani California”
OK Go, “Here It Goes Again” music video

 

YEAH YEAH YEAHS

Nominations: 2004 Best Alternative Music Album, Fever To Tell
2007 Best Alternative Music Album, Show Your Bones
2010 Best Alternative Music Album, It’s Blitz!
Beaten By: The White Stripes, Elephant
Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere
Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus PhoeniX

 

FALL OUT BOY

Nominations: 2006 Best New Artist
Beaten By: John Legend


 

MODEST MOUSE

Nominations: 2005 Best Alternative Music Album, Good News for People Who Love Bad News
2005 Best Rock Song, “Float On”
Beaten By: Wilco, A Ghost Is Born
U2, “Vertigo”

 

MARILYN MANSON

Nominations: 1999 Best Hard Rock Performance, “The Dope Show”
2001 Best Metal Performance, “Astonishing Panorama of the Endtimes”
2004 Best Metal Performance, “mOBSCENE”
2013 Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance, “No Reflection”
Beaten By: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, “Most High”
Deftones, “Elite”
Metallica, “St. Anger”
Halestorm, “Love Bites (So Do I)

 

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE

Nomainations:  2006 Best Alternative Music Album, Plans
2007 Best Video, Long Form, Directions
2007 Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group, “I Will Follow You Into the Dark”
2009 Best Alternative Music Album, Narrow Stairs
2009 Best Rock Song, “I Will Possess Your Heart”
2010 Best Alternative Music Album, The Open Door
2012 Best Alternative Music Album, Codes and Keys
Beaten By:  The White Stripes, Get Behind Me Satan
Bruce Springsteen, Wings For Wheels: The Making of Born to Run
The Black Eyed Peas, “My Humps”
Radiohead, In Rainbows
Bruce Springsteen, “Girls in Their Summer Clothes”
Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Bon Iver, Bon Iver

 

FAITH NO MORE

Nominations:  1990 Best Metal Performance, The Real Thing
1991 Best Hard Rock Performance, “Epic”
1993 Best Hard Rock Performance, “Angel Dust”
Beaten By:
Metallica, “One”
Living Colour, Time’s Up
Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Give It Away”

 

THE CURE

Nominations: 1993 Best Alternative Music Performance, Wish
2001 Best Alternative Music Performance, Bloodflowers
Beaten By: Tom Waits, Bone Machine
Radiohead, Kid A

 

JANE’S ADDICTION

 Nominations: 1989 Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance, Vocal or Instrumental, Nothing’s Shocking
1991 Best Hard Rock Performance, Ritual de lo Habitual
1992 Best Rock Song, “Been Caught Stealing”
1992 Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group, “Been Caught Stealing”
2004 Best Hard Rock Performance, “Just Because”
Beaten By: Jethro Tull, Crest of a Knave
Living Colour, Time’s Up
Sting, “The Soul Cages”
Bonnie Raitt and Delbert McClinton, “Good Man, Good Woman”
Evanescence & Paul McCoy, “Bring Me To Life”

 

DISTURBED

Nominations: 2009 Best Hard Rock Performance, “Inside the Fire”
Beaten By: The Mars Volta, “Wax Simulacra”
 


WINNERS

TOOL

Wins: 1998 Best Metal Performance, “Ænema”
2002 Best Metal Performance, “Schism”
2007 Best Recording Package, 10,000 Days 

 

WEEZER 

Win: 2008 Best Short Form Music Video, “Pork And Beans” 

 

KORN

Win: 2000 Best Short Form Music Video, “Freak On A Leash”
2003 Best Metal Performance, “Here To Stay”

 

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE

Win: 1997 Best Metal Performance, “Tire Me”
2001 Best Hard Rock Performance, “Guerilla Radio”

 

LINKIN PARK

Win: 2002 Best Hard Rock Performance, “Crawling”
2006 Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, “Numb/Encore” with Jay-Z

 

SYSTEM OF A DOWN

Win: 2006 Best Hard Rock Performance, “B.Y.O.B.”

COMMENTS