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Tonight's Musical Guest, Today
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.
Tonight's Musical Guest, Today
R.E.M. with Keith Phipps
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 IRS Records in the 1980's before watching superstardom performances on SNL and the MTV Video Music Awards. And Germany's late night show "Wetten, dass..?" makes quite a first impression.
Want to watch along with us? Check out the links below for the performances discussed this week!
Radio Free Europe/So. Central Rain, 10/6/1983 on Late Night with David Letterman
Driver 8/Can't Get There from Here, 10/25/1985 on The Tube UK
Stand/Get Up, 10/17/1989 on The Arsenio Hall Show
Losing My Religion, 4/13/1991 on Saturday Night Live
Everybody Hurts/Drive, 9/2/1993 on the MTV Video Music Awards
The Great Beyond, 12/13/1999 on The Late Show with David Letterman
Supernatural Superserious, 3/29/2008 on Wetten, dass..?
