Sunday, February 13, 2011

AS SIGOURNEY WEAVER CLIMBS ONE STEP CLOSER TO EGOT: Track tonight's Grammy winners here; this post is open for your commentary as the night progresses.

added, 11:30pm In the summer of 1989, Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance formed Merge Records to release a few cassettes and a 7" single from their new band, Superchunk (then, just "Chunk"), plus other bands with whom they were friendly. They didn't even release a full-length album until 1992 -- the Tossing Seeds compilation of Superchunk singles. Over the next two decades the label expanded -- Spoon, Magnetic Fields, She & Him and more -- continuing with the label's artist-friendly, DIY ethos.

Tonight, they've got the Album of the Year -- Arcade Fire's The Suburbs, and Best New Artist Esperanza Spalding is also a label alum. Wow.

39 comments:

  1. Cee-Lo!  Winning "Urban Alternative!"  (What does that category even mean?)

    Even though Green Day couldn't get a Best Musical nomination from the Tonys, they get the Grammy.

    I didn't see "Crazy Heart," but that win seems insane, given the other nominees ("Treme," "Glee").

    I'm wondering if the Danger Mouse win in Producer of the Year hints we could see some upsets, given that he beat Katy Perry's lead producer, Lady Gaga's lead producer, and Bruno Mars.

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  2. I'm placing my money early on a Lena Horne-Teena Marie exacta for the Necrology.

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  3. J. Bowman8:29 PM

    Lady Gaga was certainly not going for second best, baby...

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  4. Watts8:32 PM

    Is it greedy to have wished for a surprise Annie Lenox cameo during "Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves"?

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  5. Ann Powers was wondering who's left for when Aretha passes -- we've still got Mariah, Whitney and Ms. Lennox.

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  6. Benner8:39 PM

    Per the earlier thread, Tweedy/Mavis Staples wins your best Americana album, and Rush once again goes home empty handed losing in long-form video.  

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  7. Adam C.8:51 PM

    Who had 8:49 pm in the monocle pool?

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  8. Who had "only one award will be presented in the first hour, and Train will win it"?<span> </span>

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  9. Adam C.8:59 PM

    I don't know, but I just nailed "First White Gentile With a Skullcap."

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  10. Usher helps discover Justin Bieber, and now he in turn gives this obscure Jaden Smith kid a break in the industry.

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  11. Ramar9:12 PM

    Was not expecting to see Justin Bieber's ninja army tonight.

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  12. Ramar9:23 PM

    It's certainly a quality Giger alien costume.  Much better than Abed's.

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  13. Ramar9:50 PM

    So who exactly should the estate of Jim Henson sue over this?  

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  14. Melissa R.9:53 PM

    Elton John eat your heart out.  And Lady Gaga may not have been going for 2nd best in the "over the top" category but I say she just got bested.

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  15. Melissa R.9:55 PM

    Elton John eat your heart out.  And Lady Gaga may not have been going for 2nd best in the "over the top" category but I say she just got bested.

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  16. Tony H.9:57 PM

    I think Cee Lo is going to be one of the Angry Birds in the next version.

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  17. Melissa R.10:31 PM

    Is it really that difficult to blank out a curse word and not whole lines of songs??? 

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  18. Adam C.10:40 PM

    Say what you will about Mick and the endless Stones tours, but that was streets ahead of Dylan's performance earlier tonight.

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  19. tortoiseshelly11:11 PM

    I'm still laughing at Kanye West tweeting he didn't know Johnny Depp played guitar (re: John Mayer).

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  20. <span>We caught what sounded like a blatant F-bomb... anyone else?</span>

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  21. I thought Mick delivered a master class in rock showmanship... his was my favorite performance of the night, hands-down.

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  22. I've been saying forever how Bruno Mars is a 50's throwback- it was cool to see that doo-wop version of "Grenade". Also- Janelle Monae? loved her!

    Lastly, I wanted MORE of that Mayer/Jones/Urban "Jolene..." anyone know if that is available anywhere as a full-length recording? They sounded fantastic.

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  23. You caught that too? She already owed quite a debt Madonna.. now, even more.

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  24. Just me, or was that a great show, Katy Perry's "singing" notwithstanding?  A couple of big surprise wins, some good and/or interesting performances.  I was thoroughly entertained.

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  25. i love merge records.  it will be interesting to see what they do with 'wild flag'.  i caught one of their first shows when they were testing out some newly written songs, but nothing has been released yet.   also love labelmate 'telekinesis'.

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  26. Anonymous12:28 AM

    That was a surprisingly good show, with major category wins form the Arcade Fire and Esperanza Spalding (!), plus solid performances: Cee Lo + puppets*, Arcade Fire, Bruno Mars/BOB/Janelle Monae, Mayer/Jones/Urban

    *The Gwyenth Paltrow puppet was surprisingly lifellike looking.

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  27. Joseph Finn12:43 AM

    Jann Wenner strikes again.

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  28. Jennifer12:49 AM

    I can't wait for the video of the "Forget You" duet to hit online. Was Cee-Lo supposed to be a peacock or a blingy turkey? Also, I kept waiting for Gwyneth to trip on something in those shoes. Good duet otherwise, though!

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  29. Roger1:16 AM

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVclCNpkC6k

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  30. Emily W8:30 AM

    Speaking of EGOT -- I was looking through the list of winners this morning, and noticed that Julie Andrews won a spoken word Grammy and I figured "hey, she's got to have an EGOT!".....only to check it out this morning, and she's never won a Tony! (She's got a slew of Grammys and Golden Globes, and an Oscar for Mary Poppins.) I can't be the only one who finds this odd, right?

    She was nominated for My Fair Lady and Camelot, and then declined her nomination for Victor/Victoria.

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  31. Apparently, Esperanza Spalding's win had some unusual effects on her Wikipedia page.  Hell hath no fury like angry Justin Bieber fans.

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  32. Heather K9:49 AM

    According to the Today show, those were Henson studio puppets (probably can't be called muppets because of Disney etc).

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  33. Andrew10:11 AM

    Oops -- I was the anonymous Guest from 12:28 AM.

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  34. She should just be glad that Adam Lambert was not a best new artist nominee.  I'm not sure that there is a person alive that can survive an onslaught of both angry Bieber fans and angry Glamberts.

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  35. lisased11:24 AM

    The Mumford and Sons website crashed after their performance.

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  36. Genevieve12:04 PM

    So the question is, what show should she do on Broadway now?  Even if it's not a singing role, having her on B'way again would be wonderful (though I understand she's doing a little singing, but presumably not 8 shows a week)

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  37. Anonymous12:26 PM

    That should "slew of Grammys and Emmys" since GGs aren't part of EGOT (hadn't had my coffee yet this morning when I posted).

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  38. Emily W12:26 PM

    <span>That should "slew of Grammys and Emmys" since GGs aren't part of EGOT (hadn't had my coffee yet this morning when I posted).</span>

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