I managed to avoid the VMA’s all week while on vacation in NYC, but last night, while unpacking, I caved. I also learned something about Cee-Lo…

Everyone’s talking about how terrible Britney’s VMA performance was—she looked stoned/dying/dead, but is that really shocking? Of course not, given her recent romps to rehab and all. She’s a mess.

What is surprising, though, is the fact that the Foo Fighters/Cee-Lo collaboration for Prince’s “Darling Nikki” wasn’t better (and by better I mean to say “less of a complete train wreck.”)

You’d think that after decades of doing it they’d finally master the art of mixing for live television, but 80% of the time MTV’s rock performances manage to sound muddy, hollow, or completely off balance.

This Cee-Lo/Foo performance and Mastadon’s sonic clusterfuck obviously suffered by the lack of a good mix, but I also think that Cee-Lo shouldn’t sing rock songs, no matter how sexy he tries to make them sound. I like it when he does the soulful stuff, the hiphop and/or R&B stuff… and he handled the first part of the song fine. The first part of the song is pretty hot and Cee-Lo has a hot voice.

Then the song climaxes, the guitars get loud and distorted, and he starts to “rock out.” That’s when he loses me, that’s when I wonder what the fuck he’s doing. Cee-Lo can sing, but Cee-Lo can’t rock.

Dave Grohl, though, that guy has a voice for rock.