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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
Soundgarden
Founders of Seattle grunge, this sludgy hard rock outfit combined crazy technical prowess with hair-raising vocals. Led by a one-of-kind lead singer, they defined a movement that persists to this day. It's SOUNDGARDEN week!
Jon and Alex deal with the fallout of being cancelled by the anti-Dave Grohl internet movement before tracking the twists of a band that mostly avoided TV appearances! Clip 1 finds the band on a short-lived awards show put on by the College Media Journal and the USA Network. Steve Issacs returns to the show right as grunge is taking over, with Soundgarden blasting through Outshined and Slaves & Bulldozers on Hangin' with MTV. Superunknown is a huge hit and the band is hardly on TV for it, except for a 40-minute Japanese grunge special. And we discuss the band's 2010s reunion with clips on Conan and Jools Holland before Chris Cornell's tragic ending.
Want to watch along with us? Check out the links below for the performances discussed this week!
Ugly Truth/Big Dumb Sex reprise, 10/26/1989 on the CMJ New Music Awards
Outshined/Slaves & Bulldozers, 12/11/1991 on Hangin' with MTV
Fell on Black Days/Spoonman, 2/8/1994 on Sony Music TV Japan
Pretty Noose/Burden in My Hand, 5/18/1996 on Saturday Night Live
Black Rain/Hunted Down, 11/9/2010 on Conan
Been Away too Long/Taree/Rusty Cage, 11/6/2012 on Later...with Jools Holland
