# Grammy's - Bruno Mars



## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

Well I just became a huge Bruno Mars fan. Damn that was great. How have I missed these guys, talk about a tight band.


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

I thought that was pretty good as well. It had the pace and there was a lot of energy even visually - a minor thing was that, to me, Janelle Monae rather kicked the door open to this blend of modern with retro style a while back. That's ok though, there's room. Also, funny that when they mwere doing the red carpet before the show, I thought that Bruno was Janelle...HAHA!! She tends to dress in suits and such so a glimpse had me thinking it was Janelle.
Here's a big Janelle Monae song (I won't do the embed thing to distract from the Bruno topic but the link is there to check it out):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwnefUaKCbc


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## snacker (Jun 26, 2008)

His recording make him easy to overlook - very poppy and watered down - but he's the real deal - a serious talent! - I wish he'd release albums that were as good as he is live


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## rollingdam (May 11, 2006)

The only impression I has was a James Brown rethread


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

and how is that bad considering a lot of the crap out there these days ?? (yes I'm grinning while I type this)



rollingdam said:


> The only impression I has was a James Brown rethread


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## rollingdam (May 11, 2006)

Retreads are never as good as the original and do not last long.


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## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

The show has been fantastic so far, with some great surprises.


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## bluzfish (Mar 12, 2011)

The best music of the night was written over 40 years ago...


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Best Grammys show *I've seen* in years (admitting I've missed a few in recent years). Bruno surprised me too - wife is a big fan, but I know next to nothing about his work or life (apparently, troubled with drug problems). Great fun to watch performance. Rhianna looked VERY coked out all night, I hope she's not heading with Chris down the 'Bobby Whitney road'...yes, she and Chris Brown are rumoured to be seeing each other outside of the spotlight.

This post has been brought to you by the letters T, M and Z.

Agreed, most of the best music was old, but I thought some of the newer stuff was interesting - Dead Mouse, Nicky Minaj (sp?), though I won't be running out and buying them, held my interest, which is saying something given my curmudgeonly ways. Chris Brown sucked. Twice. Katy Perry, I always enjoy the show she puts on even if I don't appreciate the music. Dave Grohl looked tired. Paul Mac's new song was horrid but he totally made up for it with the finale.

I couldn't tell if Adele was lypsynching or not, I kept saying 'yes' and my family kept saying 'no'...it was pretty perfect for live, I thought. Good on her for cleaning house, my kids and their friends all adore her.

Speaking of Whitney, the Jennifer Hudson performance was nice as a tribute and she obviously felt it, but was yet another reason to realize just how good WH was as it paled beside ANYTHING I ever heard from WH.


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

I missed a lot of it, but the end was great. 

I agree Dave grohl looked tired. He has worked far to hard this year. He looked very out of place at the end with the old schoolers. Kudos to the foo for picking up a crapload of Grammies


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## Roryfan (Apr 19, 2010)

Sounds like it was a good thing I went to Massey Hall for the Deep Purple concert instead. The Two Ians kicked ass, all the more remarkable since Gillan is 66.5 yrs young. Morse did a great job too, nailed the spirit of Blackmore's tone & licks w/o being overly derivative. Dave T would've been very happy ogling all those EBMM guitars too.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

blam said:


> I missed a lot of it, but the end was great.
> 
> I agree Dave grohl looked tired. He has worked far to hard this year. He looked very out of place at the end with the old schoolers. Kudos to the foo for picking up a crapload of Grammies


Hahaha ya, Dave trying to throw licks/solos with Joe Walsh, Paul Mac himself, Macca's 2 touring guitarists and Springsteen was pretty funny. He nailed the last one with some oblique bends, but before that was just hammering on some double stops or whatever random 'oshitit'smyturn' happened to come off his fingers. Funny stuff, but he hung in there like a pro. Tastiest licks might have been Macca's!


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

I'm pretty sure at least a couple of the guitars on stage are older than Dave. Such a young guy compared to the others. Very different styles too. looks like he had a good time up there though.


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

keto said:


> I couldn't tell if Adele was lypsynching or not, I kept saying 'yes' and my family kept saying 'no'...it was pretty perfect for live, I thought. Good on her for cleaning house, my kids and their friends all adore her.


I didn't stay up to watch because I had to work early this morning (and there is a transit strike so 'early' is earlier) but if this is the performance it wasn't a lip synch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGdfnTREo3g&feature=g-logo&context=G231e76aFOAAAAAAACAA

There are a few proximity things there and so on that told me that it was live.


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## marcos (Jan 13, 2009)

My wife and I became instant fans of Bruno Mars, I had never herd of him and really enjoyed his style. refreshing to hear .Full band rocks !!!!!


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

marcos said:


> My wife and I became instant fans of Bruno Mars, I had never herd of him and really enjoyed his style. refreshing to hear .Full band rocks !!!!!


i saw the bruno performance just before i headed for bed and I was very impressed. he did a spectacular job. I've heard a lot about him but never took the time to listen to any of this stuff


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## snacker (Jun 26, 2008)

keto said:


> Hahaha ya, Dave trying to throw licks/solos with Joe Walsh, Paul Mac himself, Macca's 2 touring guitarists and Springsteen was pretty funny. He nailed the last one with some oblique bends, but before that was just hammering on some double stops or whatever random 'oshitit'smyturn' happened to come off his fingers. Funny stuff, but he hung in there like a pro. Tastiest licks might have been Macca's!



i found the trading 2s section to be embarrassing - there wasn't anything tasteful in the whole noodlefest


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

blam said:


> I missed a lot of it, but the end was great.
> 
> I agree Dave grohl looked tired. He has worked far to hard this year. He looked very out of place at the end with the old schoolers. Kudos to the foo for picking up a crapload of Grammies


You mean "The End" (from _Abbey Road_) was great. In their hearts and minds, I think every person who ever made "guitar faces" to that tune while sitting on the edge of their bed listening to it was up on that stage. 

The Foos are a terrific band, and capable of cranking out anthemic tunes the equal of the best the Replacements ever did. I was happy for them.

Caught Bruno Mars at the Grammies last year (or maybe it was the year before) when he did a Jackie Wilson tribute that was on the money. Yes, the legwork was vintage James Brown, but _somebody_ has to keep that tradition alive, so why NOT Mars? Kudos to him for accepting that sacred responsibility. He has a commendable attitude, and if the hair products he uses don't give him cancer first, I'm sure he'll have a a pleasing career.

One of the things you have to say about Whitney Houston that was made quite clear by Jennifer Hudson's brief tribute was that people loved Houston for her singing. At her best, yes she was an attractive woman with a lovely smile, but she never wore a net over her face (cough cough), needed fireworks or conical chest ornaments, or had highly overproduced videos that went for shock value. She sang. It was not always the best material but she sang it well, and people responded to that, the same way they obviously respond to Adele.


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## marcos (Jan 13, 2009)

mhammer said:


> You mean "The End" (from _Abbey Road_) was great. In their hearts and minds, I think every person who ever made "guitar faces" to that tune while sitting on the edge of their bed listening to it was up on that stage.
> 
> The Foos are a terrific band, and capable of cranking out anthemic tunes the equal of the best the Replacements ever did. I was happy for them.
> 
> ...


I also agree with you Mark. We need to get back to basic signing and playing and not dancing and fireworks.


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## Starbuck (Jun 15, 2007)

marcos said:


> I also agree with you Mark. We need to get back to basic signing and playing and not dancing and fireworks.


I would agree with that too, but unfortunately the music industry doesn't. It's all about the look. Especially these days with autotune (Katy Perry, etc). It's really nice to see someone like Adele doing great and the Foo's still making awesome albums.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

davetcan said:


> Well I just became a huge Bruno Mars fan. Damn that was great. How have I missed these guys, talk about a tight band.





snacker said:


> His recording make him easy to overlook - very poppy and watered down - but he's the real deal - a serious talent! - I wish he'd release albums that were as good as he is live


Ditto. My knowledge of him is pretty non-existent, but a friend of mine also said his records are kinda crap, but he's awesome live. That was a fantastic performance.

I also liked Taylor Swift, Civil Wars, the Foos. Katy Perry's fake mic-failure was cute, and kudos to her for actually singing the rest of it. Boo to everyone who lip-synched. Dave Grohl's acceptance speech was a pretty good poke at all these so-called musicians who are raking in the dough with watered-down music and faked performances.

Coldplay was terrible.

I watched until Macca played his new song. I tuned out immediately, so I missed the finale, which was Beatles stuff anyway, so no biggie (to me).

Otherwise, a pretty decent show for an awards show! And LL Cool J was much better than I expected.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Yeah, I forgot to mention that - you are dead right about LL Cool J, he was a great host, if just a touch on the bland side but kept things moving without losing focus.

Bruno Mars wiki is actually a very interesting read - he's been involved in the writing and/or production of many of the biggest hits of the past 3-4 years. Seems a multi talented guy with a great ear. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruno_Mars


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

No one's mentioned it yet, but I found myself instantly drawn to the tone of Mars' guitar player. Don't know who he is but he had just a terrific growl to his sound that made me very curious about his gear. Not often I am prompted to ask "What pedal is THAT?", but this was one of those rare occasions.


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

mhammer said:


> No one's mentioned it yet, but I found myself instantly drawn to the tone of Mars' guitar player. Don't know who he is but he had just a terrific growl to his sound that made me very curious about his gear. Not often I am prompted to ask "What pedal is THAT?", but this was one of those rare occasions.


I was surprised to see he was Asian. Don't see many of us slant eyes in north american bands.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

mhammer said:


> No one's mentioned it yet, but I found myself instantly drawn to the tone of Mars' guitar player. Don't know who he is but he had just a terrific growl to his sound that made me very curious about his gear. Not often I am prompted to ask "What pedal is THAT?", but this was one of those rare occasions.


it sounded ok, but was too loud in the mix in some spots. I thought it sounded like a Tele and some sort of fuzz-box.


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## Starbuck (Jun 15, 2007)

blam said:


> I was surprised to see he was Asian. Don't see many of us slant eyes in north american bands.


Uh Oh! Procede directly to Politicaly correct thread in the political forum!! LOL!!! kkjuw


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

Starbuck said:


> Uh Oh! Procede directly to Politicaly correct thread in the political forum!! LOL!!! kkjuw


lol. I myself am a *********, FYI.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Bruno = Peter Gene Hernandez, born and raised in Hawaii according to the wiki. I was guessing Filipino. (My wife and ergo kids are Asian, so we always speculate about this kinda stuff. No ill intent. Implied or intended.)


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

His wikipedia entry is quite interesting. This guy has his fingers in a lot of intriguing stuff.

Endearing is the fact that the moniker/nickname "Bruno" apparently comes from his childhood physical similarity to legendary pro wrestler Bruno Sammartino. Just how exactly he resembled Sammartino, I don't know, but I'm assuming it had nothing to do with a hairy chest.


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## Starbuck (Jun 15, 2007)

blam said:


> lol. I myself am a *********, FYI.


I know! That's what made it so funny!


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Actually, my favourite part of the Grammies was when the Beach Boys tribute was up. My kid knows Foster the People, and has only passing awareness of the Beach Boys. But I got to say I rather blasé fashion, "Oh yeah, I played Frisbee with those guys once." (true) And when the camera zoomed in during "Good Vibrations", I got to say "And I traded a few e-mails with the guy who made that" (also true). I love having instant street cred with my kids.

My cousin and I snuck in to a Beach Boys sound check at the Ottawa Civic Centre in either 1969 or 1970. They were tossing around a frisbee while the crew were setting things up, and it got tossed to us so we tossed back. I think I tossed it to Dennis Wilson, but am not sure. I walked over to the stage and saw the Tannerin they use for the tune. It didn't have a keyboard layout to guide use at the time, merely stripes made with whiteout to show where to move the contact on the controller to. Either way it was more suitable for touring and concert use than a theremin. Sometime in 1997, I think, I was explaining to someone on the former Ampage how the device probably worked. Lo and behold, an e-mail shows up in my inbox from none other than Tom Polk, the guy who designed and built it for the Beach Boys confirming that my hunch was correct. I love it when that happens. Not as impressive as Lois Griffin revealing that she "did" all the guys in Kiss, but still pretty good.


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

blam said:


> I was surprised to see he was Asian. Don't see many of us slant eyes in north american bands.


When I saw David Lee Roth years ago, (2003-2004?) he had an Asian guitar player withn the band (2 guitars).



mhammer said:


> Actually, my favourite part of the Grammies was when the Beach Boys tribute was up. My kid knows Foster the People, and has only passing awareness of the Beach Boys.


I quite enjoyed the Beach Boys thing too...but the dude behind the keyboard - wow...he looked way out!!


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## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

I'm a big Foo fan, but was there something ironic about Grohls pontificating about the importance of soul and musical ability in modern music during his award acceptance speech and then later performing with a guy in a mouse hat spinning samples of various pitches of light saber sounds?That put me off far more than him jamming with the geezers at the end.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

smorgdonkey said:


> I quite enjoyed the Beach Boys thing too...but the dude behind the keyboard - wow...he looked way out!!


I gather that was Brian Wilson, you were referring to. 
A co-worker reminded me this morning that Glen Campbell was actually a session musician with the Beach Boys. His Wiki entry shows he played on the Pet Sounds album. My co-worker thought it might have been nice for Glen to participate in the Beach Boys tribute, in addition to his own tribute, but quite frankly it may have been a bit too much for him. I'm surprised he was willing to take on any live performance in front of all those folks.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

mhammer said:


> I gather that was Brian Wilson, you were referring to.
> A co-worker reminded me this morning that Glen Campbell was actually a session musician with the Beach Boys. His Wiki entry shows he played on the Pet Sounds album. My co-worker thought it might have been nice for Glen to participate in the Beach Boys tribute, in addition to his own tribute, but quite frankly it may have been a bit too much for him. I'm surprised he was willing to take on any live performance in front of all those folks.


I sorta got the impression that Glen would happily stay on stage as long as he wanted to, until he no longer wanted to, unless or until his handlers told him otherwise. It looked like he was escorted to the stage then didn't really know where his 'mark' was, and wandered around a tiny bit lost for a few seconds, but it all came together *click* when the band rolled. He mighta fumbled a first verse lyric or 2, or that mighta been my ears. Then it was his show again (naughty old boy went for a double dip hug with the cute blonde at the end, did you catch that?) even when the song was over, he was (my word) rambling on and ready for, well, something else to happen - maybe a speech? But the lights went down and the sound was cut.

My opinion and speculation, in no way could he have participated meaningfully in the Beach Boys' thing. Probably couldn't have hurt anything if he had a guitar slung on and played, I suppose. I do think he's a little further 'gone' than his people would have us believe though. A tour? With verrrry careful handling and guidance, I suppose.

Cool moment: Paul Macca singing along to Rhinestone Cowboy. You know you've made it when..........


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## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

keto said:


> I sorta got the impression that Glen would happily stay on stage as long as he wanted to, until he no longer wanted to, unless or until his handlers told him otherwise. It looked like he was escorted to the stage then didn't really know where his 'mark' was, and wandered around a tiny bit lost for a few seconds, but it all came together *click* when the band rolled. He mighta fumbled a first verse lyric or 2, or that mighta been my ears. Then it was his show again (naughty old boy went for a double dip hug with the cute blonde at the end, did you catch that?) even when the song was over, he was (my word) rambling on and ready for, well, something else to happen - maybe a speech? But the lights went down and the sound was cut.
> 
> My opinion and speculation, in no way could he have participated meaningfully in the Beach Boys' thing. Probably couldn't have hurt anything if he had a guitar slung on and played, I suppose. I do think he's a little further 'gone' than his people would have us believe though. A tour? With verrrry careful handling and guidance, I suppose.
> 
> Cool moment: Paul Macca singing along to Rhinestone Cowboy. You know you've made it when..........


If you guys didnt say anything here, I never would have known Glen had alzheimers...He looked good to me...It was a couple of the beach Boys who looked like zombies IMO.


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## marcos (Jan 13, 2009)

For us "Old Geezers" its nice to see the artists that made it possible for a lot of us to take up playing. A lot of the performers are not well physically or mentally but, they still have a twinkle in there eye when performing.
I felt kind of sad after the show cause I know how good they were back then. Put a lot of so called musician to shame nowadays.On a brighter note, really enjoyed Taylor Swift.


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