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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
Ween
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 daytime Jane Pratt Show. The Chocolate and Cheese era is captured by Gene in a problematic Arabic costume on Conan. An insane public access performance from The Mollusk era has Claude Coleman in a sasquatch costume. But most importantly, does Alex like Ween now???
Want to watch along with us? Check out the links below for the performances discussed this week!
L.M.L.Y.P/Tick, 2/17/1991 on Moord TV
Push th' Little Daisies, 3/14/1993 on Chillin with the Weiz MTV Spring Break
Freedom of '76, 3/31/1993 on The Jane Pratt Show
I Can't Put My Finger on It, 1/18/1995 on Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Buckingham Green/She Wanted to Leave/The Final Alarm, 5/27/1997 on Nothing, Really (PA public access)
Exactly Where I'm At, 7/25/2000 on The Late Show with David Letterman
Happy Colored Marbles, 9/3/2003 on Last Call with Carson Daly
