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
Tyler, the Creator with J'na Jefferson
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 2017 Colbert performance pays homage to Soul Train and captures the hard left-turn of Flower Boy's direction and production. Tyler wins a Grammy in 2020 and performs on the show with Charlie Wilson and Boyz II Men amid a burning suburbia landscape. And a windstorm set piece on the 2021 BET Awards blows (pun intended) everyone away.
Want to watch along with us? Check out the links below for the performances discussed this week!
Sandwitches with Hodgy Beats, 2/16/2011 on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
Rusty with Domo Genesis and Earl Sweatshirt, 4/4/2013 on The Late Show with David Letterman
Cherry Bomb/Smuckers, 7/29/2015 on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
911, 7/24/2017 on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Earfquake/New Magic Wand with Charlie Wilson and Boyz II Men, 1/26/2020 on The Grammy Awards
Lumberjack, 6/27/2021 on The BET Awards
Massa, 11/21/2021 on The American Music Awards