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The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Nirvana on Saturday Night Live. Warren Zevon on David Letterman. Sometimes, late-night TV musical performances live on forever. Most don’t. But we still want to talk about them.
Each week on “Tonight’s Musical Guest, Today”, long-time friends Alex Beaton and Jon Hillman dive in on the music and cultural memory of a band through the arc of their late-night TV performances. Watch along with Alex and Jon as they examine and react to these musical history moments preserved in the amber of time alongside two celebrity guests and a talk show host.
From Conan to Colbert, Letterman to Leno, or SNL to MadTV, there is no shortage of iconic late-night musical moments. And no end to the ones you don’t remember.
46 Episodes
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In the early 90s, two guys pretending to be brothers from New Hope, PA somehow snuck into the major label system making aggressively hard to listen to 4-track jams. And then went on to be one of the greatest cult acts of all time. It's WEEN week! We begin the show with a quick but illuminating 1991 clip from Dutch television. Pauly Shore is the only person that enjoys Push th' Little Daisies at MTV Spring Break. Gene and Dean give a stunning performance of Freedom of '76 on the cool as hell d...
Dubbed the World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band, they invaded America, its TV screens, and changed it all. It's an episode that would maybe even make Ed Sullivan proud. It's THE ROLLING STONES week! Joining the show is iconic drummer and the King of rock and roll weirdness, Jon Wurster (Shannon/Narducy & Friends, The Mountain Goats, ex-Superchunk)! Jon and the guys watch a pod-record 8 performances from 1964 to 1978, tracking the ever-changing styles and looks of this quite popular band! T...
CHILL! This rap-rock-metal-funk-reggae outfit was dominating the modern rock charts before the term nu-metal was coined. Armed with positivity, a turntable, and marijuana enthusiasm, they carried a mid 90s nation mourning the end of grunge. It's 311 week! We come clean up top about our varying levels of adoration for the band 311 before talking about them for 2 hours. The loveable lads from Omaha make their TV debut with "Down" on Conan, and then proceed to play it again and again for the nex...
His live TV debut on SNL has gone down as maybe the most famous moment in late night music history. But the decades that followed were just as surprising, rebellious, and at times baffling. It's ELVIS COSTELLO week! Joining the show is comedian, actor, and Elvis Costello historian Connor Ratliff (Dead Eyes, Tiny Dinos, The George Lucas Talk Show)! Connor does his best to walk the guys through the overwhelming twists and turns of Elvis' 50 year career. We of course begin with Elvis and the At...
We're following up Christmas day with the second most famous resurrection story of all time. Except this California band rose not just once, but twice from the ashes. It's RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS week! The clips this week surprisingly begin all the way back in 1984, with the first iteration of the band performing with the energy of 8th graders on Thicke of the Night. Clips on Arsenio and Letterman show the transformation from Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons to John Frusciante and Chad Smith. John...
Pounding robotic trance desert stoner rock. Is that enough adjectives to describe what is maybe the last great mainstream hard rock band of the 21st century? We find more to use. It's QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE week! For a band often described as "The Josh Homme Project", we find ways to discuss the careers of way too many musicians on the show this week. Early clips on Conan and Kilborn capture the short-lived magical chemistry of Homme and bassist Nick Olivieri. Our biggest cheat clip ever on...
Remembered as schmaltzy elevator music, this sister-brother duo dominated the charts for much of the 1970s. Driven by the one-of-a-kind voice of Karen Carpenter and the orchestration of brother Dick, they epitomize the former power of television monoculture and the murky arc of cultural memory. It's THE CARPENTERS week! Almost unlike any other group covered on the show, the clips this week are bountiful, explanatory, and filled with medleys. A recent viral clip of Karen ripping it up on drum...
Garage Rock. Indie Sleaze. Electronic Dance Pop. This Brooklyn trio has done it all across a surprisingly long career, out lasting almost all of their early 2000s NYC contemporaries. It's YEAH YEAH YEAHS week! Joining the show this week is Boston-based musician Matt Ozelius! As drummers for him in recent years, Matt weighs in on the great debate over who is better behind the kit-Jon or Alex-before diving into the theatrical TV appearances of Karen O and co! The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are on Letterm...
Inarguably the biggest and most successful band of the grunge era, they persisted while others could not. They fought the man at every turn, did it their way, and are an undeniable live juggernaut. It's PEARL JAM week! Joining the show as our second-ever returning guest is show promoter and pod-favorite Ryan Agate aka Ryan the Terrible! Back to back performances on SNL capture the big early moments of Pearl Jam, including a super rare 3-song stint a week after the death of Kurt Cobain. David...
They're quietly one of the most successful bands of the 90s, selling over 50 million records over the course of their career. Dominating the softer side of alt-rock radio, they took over America out of nowhere as the biggest Irish band since U2. It's THE CRANBERRIES week! We begin this week with two very different performances of "Dreams" and "Linger" on the Irish late night show Kenny Live, with the two clips 9 months apart across 1993. The album No Need to Argue is a massive hit and the gr...
They were cool looking boys from the large apple. Leaders of a NYC and retro guitar rock revival, they wrote two of the catchiest and most memorable records of the early 2000s. Was that it? It's THE STROKES week! The Strokes make their network TV debut on Conan with a perfect sounding rendition of "The Modern Age". An early performance on SNL with a dreamy Julian Casablancas propels the band up the charts. We have our first ever Late Night TV show residency, with The Strokes performing Room ...
They came from the heartland to destroy us all. More brutal death metal than nu, maggots from every corner of America rejoiced at their one-of-a-kind stage show, technical precision, and devil-fueled aggression. It's SLIPKNOT week! The guys explore the incredible backstory, lore, and turmoil of one of the most visually arresting bands the show has ever discussed. Slipknot make their UK television debut on TFI Friday, destroying cameras in the process. A 2001 Conan performance of "The Heretic...
They exploded onto the 90s Britpop scene with fresh faces and clean teeth. Steven Spielberg wanted to turn them into the next Monkees. Instead, this UK phenomenon eschewed America and just did it their way. It's SUPERGRASS week! Joining the show is a long-time musical hero of Alex and Jon: lead singer and guitarist of the legendary Boston-based band Piebald, Travis Shettel! The guys and Travis talk through the past and present of Piebald before breaking down the unique and winding career pat...
She holds eye-popping album sale records, ushered a whole new style of pop music into the mainstream, and did it all as a socially conscious black woman in conservative white America. But one TV performance clouded all of it. It's JANET JACKSON week! Joining the show this week to help uncloud that cultural memory is music journalist Robby Seabrook III! Robby and the guys discuss Janet's early Jackson family life and mall pop career, including an American Bandstand clip featuring a creepy Dic...
Ill-conceived. Unnecessary. Over the top. No, not this podcast, but rather the topic at hand for our third-ever Grab Bag episode: SUPERGROUPS! Mr. Big brings together middling hair metal pros to create the "cordless-electric-hand-drill genre of rock guitar". The Backbeat Band featuring Greg Dulli, Mike Mills, and Dave Grohl performs one time and one time only. We talk Oysterhead again because why not. Velvet Revolver combines the washed-up power of Slash with the shirtless prowess of Scott W...
One-hit wonder? Yes. Decade-spanning mythology rooted in the ethos of societal and human genome collapse? Also yes. Fortune-tellers, DIY punk legends, new wave heroes? Yes, yes, and yes. It's DEVO week! Joining the show as the first entrant into the two-timers guest club is TMGT theme song creator and best friend of the pod Kenny! The spuds from Ohio get their big break on SNL in 1978 and do not disappoint with a wild national TV debut. Whip It takes over America two years later, captured by...
In just 4 year's time, he created the modern version of American rock music and reinvented the guitar. And broke the brains of whoever saw him do it. It's JIMI HENDRIX week! Jimi breaks through on the southern Chitlin' circuit with his first ever TV appearance backing up Buddy & Stacey on Nashville's Night Train in 1965. The Jimi Hendrix Experience immediately explodes in the UK and Europe with performances on Germany's Beat! Beat! Beat! and Sweden's Popside. Jimi gets banned from the BB...
They went from snotty, Brit teen punk phenomenons to Olympic game-playing elder statesmen in six year's time. From angular pop punk to R&B blues rock to crooning ballads about casinos on the moon, it's a career arc equal parts successful and baffling. It's ARCTIC MONKEYS week! Alex Turner and co. make their American TV debut on SNL in 2006 featuring a yawning audience member. The band performs twice on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, including a performance of "Fluorescent Adolesc...
Drunk troubador. Carnival barker. Scum bum extraordinaire. Character actor. He's lived as many lives as he sung about. It's TOM WAITS week! Joining the show as a renowned scum bum expert in his own right is Ben Hosley (Blank Check with Griffin and David)! Ben and the guys explore the wild persona and musical shifts of Tom over 38 years and 7 clips. 70s Tom is on full display with performances on Fernwood 2 Night and a remote piece that takes us inside the infamous Tropicana Motel. We watch T...
We're talking one of the most successful and volatile bands of the 1990s: hair journeys, lineup changes, #1 albums, and too many Billy Corgan quotes. It's SMASHING PUMPKINS week! Joining the show to talk about one of her favorite bands of all time is the great Marissa Paternoster (ex-Screaming Females, Noun)! Marissa lays out the ways her Pumpkins fandom helped her become of the most renowned and unique guitarists of the past 20 years. The guys and her discuss the frustrating and talented en...
All the stars are here. It's late-night TV's biggest evening. We even made Kenny make a crooner awards show version of the theme. We're celebrating the best and worst of over 100 performances discussed. It's our One-year Anniversary Awards Show! What was the best interview we saw? Which band's fashion shined? Who gave the vocal performance of the year? Which vest upset Alex the most? And who did we pick for best and worst overall performances? It's a clip show, now more than ever! Want to w...
The podcast bad boys from Boston are talking about THE Bad Boys from Boston. It's AEROSMITH week! Joining the show with discussion questions in hand is the lead singer and guitarist of another great Boston band Beeef, Perry Eaton! Perry and the guys break down the many eras of Aerosmith and try to make sense of their complicated and epic legacy. The band's first TV performance in 1974 on The Midnight Special is all leather pants and rock god vibes. 13 years later, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry ...
They're pop-punk emo heroes turned anthemic arena radio rock mainstays. Some turned to heavy drug use, while others became tabloid fodder. And hats. Lots of hats. It's FALL OUT BOY week! The career arc is there folks, captured in some ridiculous late night performances. Fall Out Boy explodes into the mainstream with From Under the Cork Tree with a shaky spot on SNL. The anti-vowel movement comes to a head with a pretty great performance of Thnks Fr Th Mmrs on the Tonight Show featuring strin...
In a year that saw Nirvana, R.E.M, and Pearl Jam put out generation-defining albums, Spin Magazine named this band's 1991 album Record of the Year. 33 years later, this cult power-pop outfit remains a weird outlier sandwiched between the eras of grunge and Britpop. It's TEENAGE FANCLUB week! Joining the show is animator, music video director, and self-proclaimed Fannie Mark Neeley (Aquarium Drunkard)! Mark and the guys explore the origins of TFC's rapid ascent from the Scottish indie-rock sc...
The craziest bass playing you've ever seen. Atonal metal breakdowns. Songs about meth heads burying bodies. And multiple top-ten records. How? It's PRIMUS week! It's a guestless, Alex-pick episode: buckle up. Primus breaks on to the national TV scene on the Dennis Miller Show. "My Name is Mud" is a hit somehow, and Primus performs it on MTV's Haunted House Party with White Zombie and Penn & Teller. Les, Ler, and Herb dress up in penguin suits to perform their biggest hit to the dismay of...
He's gone from causing a national panic to winning Grammys and selling high-end perfumes, all while putting on some of the most innovative stage performances of the 21st century. It's TYLER, THE CREATOR week! Joining the show to school us elder millennials on our most modern artist to date is music and culture journalist J'na Jefferson (Rolling Stone, Uproxx)! The guys and J'na make sense of Tyler's wild early career, including a 2011 Fallon performance for the ages featuring an exorcism. A ...
Her voice: timeless. Her TV performances: iconic. We're headed across the pond and googling gobby. It's AMY WINEHOUSE week! Clips on Later...with Jools Holland and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross show Amy at her jazziest. Jools Holland's 2006 Annual Hootenanny gives her the big band treatment with Paul Weller from The Jam. Amy breaks out in her American television debut on David Letterman. And award show performances at The Mercury Prize and The Grammys perfectly capture both the zenith and ...
So what-cha want? An episode on the prolific decades-spanning run of Ad Rock, Mike D, and MCA? No problem. It's BEASTIE BOYS week! Joining the show to break down the iconic rhymes, beats, and general coolness of the B-Boys is Texas Monthly writer and former AV Club Editor in Chief Sean O'Neal! The guys discuss the group's teenage punk roots and watch it in action on a 1984 public access clip. A ridiculous 1987 clip from the Late Show with Joan Rivers featuring a pole dancer captures their Li...
It's a night of celebration and watching musicians and celebrities awkwardly count down numbers together. We're ringing in 2024 with our second-ever GRAB BAG episode on New Year's Eve performances! The guys watch Tina Turner preview her huge comeback moment on Johnny Carson. Vanilla Ice gratuitously humps the floor of the Ritz Carlton and counts down to 1991 with Pauly Shore and Martha Quinn. Papa Roach butchers a cover of Lithium by Nirvana. Good Charlotte and the Foo Fighters with Jack Bla...
From Gilman to the Grammys, they are arguably the biggest American punk band of all time. It's GREEN DAY week! Joining the show is long-time and legendary (as proclaimed by us) Boston music venue booker Ryan Agate AKA Ryan the Terrible! The guys and Ryan talk about their shared music scene experience and a practice space pigeon before going deep on the twists and turns of Green Day's career arc. The show discusses three 1994 clips before watching a special performance of "86" on Letterman a ...
Maybe you love to hate 'em. Maybe they're a guilty pleasure. Or maybe like most humans on earth you casually enjoy 'em. Either way, It's COLDPLAY week! Joining the show is music critic and writer of the Chicago-based culture blog No Expectations Josh Terry! The guys and Josh take a cue from Chris Martin and lean into sincerity as they discuss why Coldplay became arguably the most popular band of the 21st century. Early clips from Letterman and Kimmel show the band in their rawest and most pa...
They sparked a national obsession with ska horns and new wave keyboard while being led by one of the most famous frontwomen of the 1990s. It's NO DOUBT week! The clip journey this week takes the show from local SoCal cable access in 1990 to Super Bowl 37 in 2003. In between, the guys discuss the formative and massive impact of Tragic Kingdom, with 1996 performances on Conan and SNL. A performance on Conan four years later finds the band trying a little too hard to replicate that mega success...
T-M-G-T-P-O-D! Find out what it means this week! We're going way back into the era of bright light variety specials to talk the Queen of Soul. It's 1960s ARETHA FRANKLIN week! The guys discuss Aretha’s intense upbringing amid the civil rights movement and on the black gospel circuit before watching a 1964 Steve Allen clip that captures her jazzy Columbia Record's era. Aretha crushes with Respect and Chain of Fools on a crazy time-capsule variety special called Woody Allen Looks at 1967. Plus...
We got hella mohawks and ska hats at the ready for this one. It's RANCID week! Joining the show to break down all things bay area punk is the lead singer and guitarist of Boston-area band Bad Idea USA Courtney Denison! Courtney describes her own scene journey in Portsmouth, NH before diving into the long-time career and various side projects of Rancid. We discuss a killer national TV debut performance on SNL in 1995, some exciting left turn albums, and a Skinhead Rob-filled clip on Conan in ...
We're talking about a band important enough that we use them in our show description. It's NIRVANA week! One of the pod's musical heroes is here to talk about his own musical hero. Musician and producer Rory Phillips (The Impossibles, The Stereo) joins the show to talk about his own Nirvana superfandom and what it was like growing up as a budding musician in the era of Nevermind. Alex and Jon try to not make Rory feel too weird about their own love for The Impossibles before jumping into Ni...
We're grabbing a bag, shaking it up, and pulling out some clips this week. It's our first ever GRAB BAG episode on famous one-hit wonders! Alex and Jon walk 500 miles with the Proclaimers on Letterman before watching a wild performance by Sir-Mix-a-Lot on Arsenio featuring a giant on-stage ass. The Toadies play their seminal grunge 2.0 hit on The Jon Stewart Show and the guys discuss the anarcho-punk background of Chumbawumba. Harvey Danger comes and goes like a shooting star in the night. N...
They stormed the early 2000s like their name was El Niño. But what happened once the storm died down? It's SUM 41 week! Alex and Jon go solo to talk about the startling meteoric rise and winding transformation of this somewhat pop-punk Canadian outfit. Tommy Lee and Rob Halford join the band for a rock medley to open up MTV's 20th anniversary special before Seann William Scott and Sum 41 attempt to mend a broken nation on SNL. And the guys try to make sense of the band's long and intent...
Stipe. Buck. Mills. Berry. Beaton. Hillman. One of the most important and significant American bands of all time gets the TMGT treatment. It's R.E.M. week! Joining the show to talk 32 years, 15 albums, and a pod-record seven late night clips is former AVclub editor and current "The Reveal" film critic Keith Phipps! They span the late-night TV globe from America to the UK to Europe to break down the band's prolific and varied longtime career. The guys discuss R.E.M.'s incredible indie run on ...
What's the worst way to understand a legendary pop punk band famous for shaky live sets and funny stage banter? How about watching their late night tv show performances? This week on Tonight's Musical Guest, Today, it's BLINK 182! Joining the show is cbsboston.com sports writer, NBC Sports Boston on-air contributor, and Blink 182 superfan Michael Hurley! Mike and the guys bond over lost dreams of playing drums for a living before going deep on the varied eras of Blink. They discuss somewhat ...
A voice unlike any other. Or maybe voices? We'll talk about it. This week, we're getting out the detective whiteboard and partying all the same. It's ANDREW W.K. week! The guys couldn't do this one alone, so they enlisted the studious help of TMGT theme-song creator Kenny to join as their first in-studio guest! Kenny lays out the elaborate scene exploits of Andrew growing up in Michigan before watching two very different performances of his debut hit Party Hard on SNL and SPACE in New Zealan...
9 Grammy Wins. 32 Nominations. Over 50 million records sold. And now a TMGT episode? Yep. This week on Tonight's Musical Guest, Today, we're talking about the great SHERYL CROW. The guys explore their own cultural memory of Crow and realize they had it very wrong back in the day. We walk through the extreme drama of her seminal debut record, including a career-defining interview on David Letterman. Sheryl performs on Jay Leno a lot, with varying degrees of creepiness from Jay. Jon discovers ...
Nobody asked for it. We're doing it anyways. Turn your red hats backwards and stick those cookies up your yeahs. It's time for the LIMP BIZKIT episode on Tonight's Musical Guest, Today. Alex owns up to the fact that he saw Limp Bizkit live with Kid Rock and Staind in 1999. The guys wade deep into late 90's MTV culture with New Year's Eve 1998 and the groundbreaking “Blow the Boat BBQ” TRL episode. Also have you heard of the show "FarmClub.com" before? Us neither. And Jon watches an entire Li...
They were the voices of a movement and moment for rap in the 1990s. And it all played out on late night TV. This week on Tonight's Musical Guest, Today, we're talking A TRIBE CALLED QUEST! And speaking of guests, the show is bringing on its first! Author, journalist, and hip-hop historian Dart Adams join the guys this week to dig deep on the music, collaborators, and performances of Tribe. Dart walks us through his own scene experience in Boston in the late 80s before examining the tragic Sh...
How did one of the best live bands of the 1990s come off on late night TV? Turns out, quite well! For the second episode ever of Tonight's Musical Guest, Today, we're digging in on the incomparable RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE! Jon talks about how he almost died (yes, really) seeing Rage at their reunion show in 2007 before swimming across the pond for the first clip of the week. Then the guys try to figure out why Steve Forbes hosted the one and only episode of SNL that Rage will ever be on whi...
It's the very first episode of Tonight's Musical Guest, Today! Hooray. This is the podcast where we discuss the cultural memory and career arc of bands and artists through their late night tv show performances. Alex and Jon take some time to explain who the hell they are and why they started this show before jumping into their very first band: Weezer! The guys discuss the group's iconic performances of Undone on Conan and Say It Ain't So on Letterman before dealing with the ups and (mostly)...
The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Nirvana on Saturday Night Live. Warren Zevon on David Letterman. Sometimes, late-night TV musical performances live on forever. Most don’t. But we still want to talk about them. Each week on “Tonight’s Musical Guest, Today”, long-time friends Alex Beaton and Jon Hillman dive in on the music and cultural memory of a band through the arc of their late-night TV performances. Watch along with Alex and Jon as they examine and react to these musical history moments pre...
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