One doesn't really appreciate the potential of Bruno Mars until you see him perform in a casual setting -- like Bardot in Hollywood on Friday night, with friends, family and the famous surrounding him in the intimate room. It's here where Mars, 25, shines. Though still young, he has been a music fanatic and performer for more than two decades -- he impersonated Elvis Presley at age 4 -- and it shows from his song selection and his easy interaction with his audience. Over the course of the final 15 minutes of performance, Mars, wearing his trademark fedora, ripped through Prince's "Kiss," Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally," slipped in the occasional Bob Marley quote, before landing at Otis Redding's "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay." (This reporter arrived late -- Cee Lo Green and Big Boi were performing at Club Nokia across town, and difficult decisions had to be made -- and therefore missed the Far East Movement's performance with Mars.)

"People have been talking this week about the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan," said Ward Emling, director of the Mississippi Development Authority's Office of Film and Culture, from the stage of the Clive Davis Theater in the Grammy Museum on Thursday night. "This also would have been the 100th birthday of Robert Johnson."

Directing the audience's thoughts toward the legacy of the great Delta bluesman, Emling defined the mission of the second annual Mississippi Night, part of the museum's festivities for Grammy week. As one of several officials in the room repping for the state that calls itself the birthplace of American music, Emling had an agenda: convince the VIPs in attendance that a trip to the Deep South can still unlock the deepest meanings of America's greatest art form.

Mississippi Night, which Grammy Museum Executive Director Robert Santelli confirmed will be an ongoing annual event, brings bright young talent from the Magnolia State to Los Angeles to promote tourism and music-industry investment in the region. This year, much talk was of the Misssissippi Blues Trail, a statewide path of interactive markers tracing the development of one of contemporary music's fundamental styles. A film offered testimony from Mississippi native B.B. King as well as stars such as Robert Plant and Bonnie Raitt about the continued relevance of the Delta region.

The loudest case was made, however, by the trio of musical acts who provided the night's entertainment. Touching on deep blues, atmospheric folk-pop, and gritty, wide-reaching rock, these artists were anything but mired in the past.

The Homemade Jamz Blues Band is a remarkably young sibling trio that has been taking the international blues festival circuit by storm. Fronted by 18-year-old Ryan Perry, a gritty shouter with flashy guitar skills, the group demonstrated a hopped-up approach to classic blues. Perry's younger brother Kyle was a fleet-fingered secret weapon on bass, while sister Taya, only 12, thumped the drums like a little Meg White. Dad Renaud Perry provided support on harmonica as Ryan strutted through the crowd, his trademark muffler guitar lighting up as he leaned in toward the ladies and showed his prowess.

Shannon McNally was as laid-back and pensive as the Homemade Jamz Band was hot. The singer-songwriter, a New York native, relocated to northern Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina drove her from her chosen home of New Orleans, and she spoke with amusement about the process of assimilation, noting that the skinny street cats she'd adopted from the 9th Ward soon grew fat from eating the big bugs and other critters in the fields near her home in Holly Springs. McNally sang material from the albums she recorded with the late hill country great Jim Dickinson, as well as "Thunderhead," a vivid song about childbirth from her new album, Western Ballad. Her heartfelt rendition of "Miss the Mississippi and You," first made popular by the state's favorite country son Jimmie Rodgers, showed her soul-deep affinity for her new environment.

For Jimbo Mathus, that connection is a given -- raised in Clarksdale and still hugging the border between the north end of his home state and Tennessee, the Squirrel Nut Zippers founder turned solo raconteur has spent his whole life becoming, as he put it, "fluent in this strange tone."

Mathus, who is a ripping guitar player, regaled the crowd with tall tales and his fractured country blues, first solo and then with help from a local band that included Zippers drummer Chris Phillips. The rollicking, too-short set offered strong support for Mathus' pitch to this music-biz crowd -- which succinctly said what the Mississippi officials had taken much longer to communicate. "Put us to work in Mississippi and in Memphis, Tenn.," he said. "We're the best, and we work cheap!"

-- Ann Powers

“It was 40-below when we left Montreal to come here,” Win Butler said during a break in Friday night’s Arcade Fire show at the Ukrainian Cultural Center, simultaneously L.A.’s best- and worst-kept musical secret of the weekend. “So L.A., let me tell you that we are really, really happy to be here.”

Weather aside, it’s weird to think of Arcade Fire needing a reprieve, 48 hours before the most high-profile set they’ve ever played, performing in a prime slot on the 2011 Grammy Awards. But while the band has always aimed huge -- dozen-strong harmonies, choruses that feel like hymns, headlining major festivals the world over –- its heart is loyal to the small things -- the tiny terrors of suburban blight and tunnels carved in snowfalls. So on the eve of the most scripted, self-laudatory night in popular music, Arcade Fire got out of Dodge and threw a punk show.

The firewall blocking information leading up to the show could have repelled Julian Assange, so the genial non-chaos of the show’s logistics came as a welcome surprise. Lines moved quickly, sodas and cotton candy were free, the all-ages vibe befitting Arcade Fire’s “us kids know” youth-noir, and credit goes to promoters Goldenvoice and FYF’s Sean Carlson for not overselling the show. If someone hasn’t reclaimed the Ukrainian Cultural Center as a full-time concert venue (hmm?), they need to do so soon.

In the days leading up to Sunday's Grammy Awards, which Pop & Hiss will be covering live, this blog will tackle various Grammy artists, personalities, categories and just plain oddities. For even more Grammy info, check Awards Tracker and The Envelope.

There’s plenty of suspense sealed up in the envelopes at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards, but the true winners and losers on Sunday night will be determined during the performances — the show’s global stage can create a pivot point in the life of an artist.

“To perform at the Grammys is a relief because you know you’ve finally made it to the summit after running so hard, so fast and so long,” said will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas as he watched rehearsals on Thursday at Staples Center. “But then there’s a whole new set of anxieties: ‘I hope my performance goes off well, this is going to define me as an artist and a performer.’”

The Peas aren’t on this year’s show — the six-time Grammy winners had their world-is-watching moment last weekend at the Super Bowl halftime show — so they can sit back and watch other acts look for the risk and reward of plugging into the amplifier of pop culture during the CBS broadcast. There are plenty of storylines to keep track of this year, here’s a look at some burning questions that follow some key performers into the glare of this year’s Grammy spotlight.

Will Rihanna call in sick? The singer has been fighting a nasty flu bug and there’s been considerable anxiety that she might not be ready for her microphone moment — which would only qualify as the second-worst Grammy weekend of her life considering her horrific 2009 night when she was assaulted by then-boyfriend Chris Brown on the eve of the show. On Friday, though, she soldiered through her (literally) fiery performance of “What's My Name” with Drake and looked determined beneath an especially impressive explosion of red curls.

It's not often that we get reader submitted photos over here on Pop & Hiss, but we couldn't pass this up. A reader taking a run on Runyon Canyon came across this gigantic Lady Gaga painting on top of the hill overlooking the city and the Hollywood sign.

The painting -- which appears to be a large digital replica on some form of cloth -- depicts Lady Gaga with a crown of thorns on her head and blood on her shoulders. Lady Gaga, who often flirts with religious imagery, recently spoke to Vogue magazine, and said she considers herself to "have one of the greatest voices in the industry" and one of the greatest songwriters.

The odd discovery (potential publicity stunt?) comes on the morning on which her highly anticipated single, "Born This Way" -- the title track from her upcoming March disc, the follow-up to the massively successful "The Fame Monster" -- debuted. Read Times pop critic Ann Powers' snap judgment of the single here.

The song was serviced worldwide to radio at 6 a.m. EST Friday, before being available for purchase online at 9 a.m. EST the same day -- which came after the singer Tweeted her impatience for waiting on the release of the track.

Tell us what you think of the portrait and special thanks to our sister blog L.A. Now for sending this over to us.

See another close-up of the artwork after the jump:

 
The weeklong roll-out for the Arcade Fire's secret show in L.A.finally has some answers about when and where the Grammy-nominated and Coachella-headlining act will play tonight. They're playing the Ukranian Cultural Center at 4315 Melrose Ave. at 9 p.m. Doors open at 7:30 and the street art gadfly Shepard Fairey will be DJ'ing at 8 p.m. Buy the staffs of Origami Vinyl and Fingerprints and the El Rey door folks a drink afterward; they'll need one after handling the ticket sales today.

-August Brown

Photo credit: Cory Schwartz/Getty Images

Everyone loves a good mystery. The members of Arcade Fire have long been practitioners of secrecy, and this week was no different. News has gradually trickled out via numerous Twitter accounts -- the band, the band's manager and promoter FYF Fest -- that the band would be playing an intimate venue Friday night.

As champions of the independents, the Arcade Fire promised to "avoid people sleeping outside" by staggering the info, performing at an all-ages venue and keeping tickets cheap. All fine and dandy, except ticket locations were revealed last night via some far from cryptic images that ensured, essentially, that people would have to sleep outside to have a shot at getting in to this exclusive concert. Here's hoping the band's younger fans were able to ditch school to hang all night and buy tickets at noon. 

To be sure, measures to keep scalpers away were inspired. Those buying tickets would have to give the name of their guest at the point of purchase, and then names would be checked at the door (in a super fast moving line, no doubt).

Yet whether it worked remains to be seen. Throughout the night, silent auctions have been popping up via Craigslist, as those in line at Fingerprints, the El Rey or Origami have been asking fans to e-mail their best offer to get their names on the list for their second ticket. Thankfully, the Craigslist community has been adamant in flagging the posts. 

Yet was unleashing the ticket info early Thursday night via Twitter the most fan-friendly approach? Or should the band have done something a bit more open, "given back" in a manner similar to Vampire Weekend who performed in a Boyle Heights park? Or maybe, perhaps, everyone should follow FYF Fest's lead and turn all promotion into something of a scavenger hunt? 

To wit, Pop & Hiss presents how Sunday's Grammy Awards, airing on CBS at 8 p.m., would have looked if FYF Fest handled the promos:

In pop, liberation is often the linchpin in a marketing plan. Whether or not personal conviction compels an artist to tell stories that inspire listeners to strive toward greater compassion toward themselves and others, pop stars and their producers know that fan loyalty is most predictably earned by generating good times: A sad song usually gets its hooks into listeners one at a time, but with a party song, you can acquire the jumbo pack. The savviest crowd pleasers perfectly balance danceable music that sheds inhibitions like so many jackets thrown off on a dance floor with bearably pious lyrics that make getting down feel like a form of moral uplift.

Ladies and queens, Gaga gives you "Born This Way."

Notable not only because it's the first single from her upcoming album of the same title, but also as a statement of purpose for the monster-diva at this phase in her career, "Born This Way" is a freak anthem (one of the basic formations in Gaga's double playbook of dance music and classic rock) that directly connects to the most powerful trend in current liberation movements -- which doesn't necessarily point toward the joyful subversion of norms that Gaga seems to otherwise champion.

"This belief in a predetermined sexual orientation is most visible in the emerging conservatism in the gay rights movement," the communications professor Robert Alan Brookey has written, noting that "assimilationists attempt to show that homosexuals can embrace the same values they are supposed to threaten." Instead of embracing pacifism, gays and lesbians fight to participate in the military; the dream of building new, polymorphous versions of sex and family gives way to the fight to have a matching-tux or white-gown wedding.

Gaga's new song serves as the perfect expression of this bold mainstreaming of cultural outlaws. "Don't be a drag, just be a queen!" she chants in her fierce voice, pointing her fans away from the incendiary trickery of the flamboyant transvestite and toward a more feel-good form of individual celebration.

In predictably creative fashion, Arcade Fire has been teasing Angelenos for the last few days about the details of Friday night's "secret" show. Via Twitter feeds and strategically timed posts, the group and its marketing/publicity team have been slowly unveiling relevant facts. On Thursday night the band's Twitter released the following tidbit:

But chances are if you're an Arcade Fire obsessive, you know this. If you're not, you may be too late. The band also released three images shortly after tweeting, hints as to the whereabouts of the three secret ticket locations. Each was an image with a ZIP code on it.  

In the days leading up to Sunday's Grammy Awards, which Pop & Hiss will be covering live, this blog will tackle various Grammy artists, personalities, categories and just plain oddities. For even more Grammy info, check Awards Tracker and The Envelope.

A rundown of the races to watch during Sunday’s 53rd Grammy Awards. The ceremony from Staples Center will be broadcast on CBS at 8 p.m.

Album of the year

It's not unusual for hip-hop artists to earn a nomination for album of the year. Actually winning, however, is still a rarity. The favorite for this year's top prize is Eminem, whose "Recovery" was 2010's top-selling album. Once a magnet for controversy, Eminem on "Recovery" is more thoughtful and serious, with a darker, less hook-filled tone. This is, however, Eminem's third album of the year nod, having been bested before by Steely Dan and Norah Jones.

Such has been the fate for many a hip-hop artist, because Kanye West couldn't garner the votes to top Herbie Hancock, and Lil Wayne never had a shot against Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Yet Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" is too frivolous, even by Grammy standards, and Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" is pleasant but not the crossover force that was Taylor Swift's "Fearless." Forget Arcade Fire, whose adventurous concept album "The Suburbs" is significantly outgunned by the star power here. Lady Gaga's "The Fame Monster" spawned hit after hit, yet at only eight tracks was billed as an EP. That should clear the way for Eminem, who, seven albums into his career, is something of a seasoned old-timer, which is a trait Grammy voters love.

Record of the year (artist and producer)

Jay-Z has never won in one of the top Grammy categories; his pairing with Alicia Keys for "Empire State of Mind" is likely his best shot yet. The I-heart-N.Y. anthem has already been granted iconic status. Still, this award typically goes to something voters consider more serious, which likely spells doom for Cee Lo Green's "[Forget] You" and B.o.B.'s "Nothin' on You." Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" is the type of slow-moving pop song right in the Grammy voters' wheelhouse, and Eminem and Rihanna's "Love the Way You Lie" found a way to turn themes of domestic abuse into a No. 1 single.

 
Awards season typically brings lots of glad-handing and self-congratulation, but producer T Bone Burnett showed little interest in engaging in the usual pleasantries Wednesday night at the Grammy Week Gala put on by the Recording Academy’s Producers & Engineers Wing.

The academy elected Burnett to receive this year’s President’s Merit Award after an extraordinarily productive year, even by Burnett’s busy standard. He applied his signature touch to Elton John and Leon Russell’s “The Union,” Elvis Costello’s “National Ransom,"  Jakob Dylan’s “Women + Country,” Willie Nelson’s “Country Music,” Robert Randolph and the Family Band’s “We Walk This Road,” John Mellencamp’s “No Better Than This” and Gregg Allman’s just released “Low Country Blues.”

He even found time amid all that to pick up a best original song Academy Award for “The Weary Kind,” which he cowrote with Ryan Bingham,” for the  surprise hit film “Crazy Heart,” for which he also served as executive producer.

In the days leading up to Sunday's Grammy Awards, which Pop & Hiss will be covering live, this blog will tackle various Grammy artists, personalities, categories and just plain oddities. For even more Grammy info, check Awards Tracker and The Envelope.

The producers of the Grammys want a show for the ages, but they also want a show for all ages — which is why Bob Dylan will be bringing his acoustic guitar to perform this weekend on the same stage as Justin Bieber, Drake and Katy Perry.

The official announcement is expected Thursday that the great bard of rock will sing at the 53rd Grammy Awards — which air Sunday on CBS — marking just his fifth performance on the show despite a recording career that dates back to the Kennedy administration. He’ll perform alongside two rising folk-rock bands whose work draws from the same well: Mumford & Sons and the Avett Brothers.

Dylan is just three months shy of his 70th birthday, but he may bump into some generational peers backstage — Barbra Streisand is scheduled to sing one of her signature 1970s hits, while Mick Jagger’s participation in a tribute to the late Solomon Burke will result in a bit of history, since the Rolling Stones frontman has never before performed on the Grammy stage.

Dylan’s first performance on the Grammys didn’t come until 1980, when he and his band were greeted with a standing ovation as they played the opening notes of “Gotta Serve Somebody.” That show was also the first Grammy broadcast produced by Ken Ehrlich, who has done every one since; Ehrlich and Neil Portnow, president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, have been working to secure Dylan’s booking for months.

“When you see that name and think about what it represents, those are the things that we want to be part of the show — those are things that have to be part of the show,” Ehrlich said.

This year’s show also features performances by Eminem (who leads this year’s field with 10 nominations), Arcade Fire, Lady Gaga, Miranda Lambert, Muse and Raphael Saadiq (who will partner with Jagger on the Burke sequence). The team of Yolanda Adams, Christina Aguilera, Jennifer Hudson, Martina McBride and Florence Welch, meanwhile, will salute the career of Aretha Franklin, who underwent serious surgery last year, reportedly related to a cancer diagnosis.