Tonight Show - Two Neil Youngs

I have two things to say about this.

1) Although it felt inevitable, it's still pretty fun.

2) If you're ever in a crowd where "Old Man" is being played, please, please, don't clap along. Please, not on that song. That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works.

Tonight Show - Best Show Ever?

It really probably isn't the best show ever. It's really just a catchy title. I should probably change it. Of course, that would take work.

This is a post that's a bit different from the norm. Yesterday's Tonight Show was significant for the lineup of guests it contained. The three guests were Louis C.K., Jack White and Neil Young. It doesn't get much better than that.

Watch the full episode here. If you don't want to watch the whole show and are looking for the one "must-watch" segment, it's the musical performance where Neil Young performs "Crazy" in a recording booth. Why is Neil Young recording in a booth? They explain that in the show but you just said you didn't have time for that! Good grief.

Jimmy Fallon on Letterman

Last week, Jimmy Fallon was a guest on the "Late Show" with David Letterman. There is no link released by the Late Show that encompasses the entire interview so here is the youtube.

Jimmy and Dave talk about working at NBC, Jimmy's new feud with Bruce Jenner and Jimmy does his Neil Young (the second guest).



When Dave labels Bruce Jenner as a famous athlete, the audience laughs. I can't decide if this is disturbing. Do people not know that anymore?

Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen

For unknown reasons, 80's Bruce Springsteen and 70's Neil Young appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon to cover the song "Sexy and I Know it".

New Press Photo

Sure, we don't want this to become a Radiohead Fan Blog but, uhhhhh....

So anyway a new press photo of the band was released! Desperate for hints and clues as to the new album as we are, this counts as major news (for now).

Here it is:

[Note: The photo contains 3 invisible ponies.]

Now THAT is a sweet photo. Judging by it, I'd say the new album is going to sound like The Band's self-titled album. Yaaaaay! Or perhaps Neil Young's Harvest album. Yaaaayy! Or maybe it'll be like "The Wild Wild West" soundtrack. Oh, BOOOO! Or maybe My Morning Jacket's new album that isn't released yet. Cool? I guess maybe this has become an entire genre of band photo. But still it's good.

Peter Gabriel - Scratch My Back

I've lost track of Peter Gabriel in the period since John Cusack held a boombox aloft in "Say Anything" but he's come up with an interesting concept.

With his new album, entitled "Scratch My Back" Gabriel covers 12 songs by 12 different artists. Then, later, another album will be released of those 12 artists covering Peter Gabriel songs, entitled "I'll Scratch Yours". The main point of interest is the artists involved. Other than Peter Gabriel, you have names like David Bowie, Paul Simon, Talking Heads, Lou Reed, Arcade Fire, Radiohead and Neil Young.

Check out an exclusive preview of the first album here.

I'm a fairly big fan of some of his work with Genesis and his solo album "So" is a masterpiece in my opinion. However, I haven't heard much of his material since then and this is his first release in 8 years so I didn't quite know what to expect. My initial impression is that the style of the moment for him seems to be slow, dire, stark and dour. If you're looking for dark and atmospheric music this is probably the album for you. If you're not, it's not. From what I've heard so far, I'm not sure but I'm liking it. I wouldn't say any one songs stands out at this point but that's to be expected - it's the kind of thing that sneaks up on you slowly. I'll keep listening and see what I find. Anyways, I'm more looking forward to the second album - with all those artists it's bound to be an interesting treasure trove of interesting covers.

The rumormill is abuzz with what song each artist will cover. I've heard that Bowie isn't involved and it actually be Brian Eno who will do the response song (lame). The biggest mystery is exactly how the Talking Heads are involved as they have said things in the past that indicate that they'll never reunite.

The Last Tonight Show

Last night was the last "Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" ever. You can still see it for a limited time here.

From June 1, 2009 to January 22, 2010, the show lasted 7 months, 21 days and aired 146 episodes totaling 150 Hours, 52 Minutes of programming (counting commercials). I watched every single show.

I found the last episode oddly emotional. I mean, Conan isn't retiring, he doesn't have a terminal illness, he's still making tons of money, it only lasted 7 months - there isn't that much loss to really "mourn" over but nevertheless, I did feel very sad and nostalgic throughout the entire hour. The montage of great moments was a particular mix of laughter and melancholy. Seeing Wax Tom Cruise and Wax Fonzie being shot out of a cannon, Conan pool cleaning, Conan and Andy boating, the motorized podium, smashing the pumpkin, and so on, was liking looking through a photo album (yes, even though it's only a show that lasted 7 months).

Tom Hanks was good, Neil Young was good, Steve Carrell was funny. Conan's goodbye speech was especially good even though he did just do one 7 months ago. I can't decide if Will Ferrell playing with Beck, Billy Gibbons, Ben Harper and Conan, himself, was epic or kind of a waste of time. Probably it was a little of both. I love the song, the musicians and the return of "more cowbell" but I couldn't help but wish that there was an amazing singer to match the amazing music. The "comedic" aspect of it just didn't seem worth it.

Given that the show runs past midnight, the last show ended January 23, 2010 - the 5 year anniversary of Johnny Carson's death to the day.

There's no telling where Conan will end up - though it looks to me like FOX - or when he'll start airing shows - though all reports speculate that it will be MONTHS - but I'll be watching.

A final note about NBC: I made a joke before about them running their network like "Kruger Industrial Smoothing" and I have to say that doesn't even feel like an exaggeration. When Johnny Carson was on the air NBC basically had 100% of the audience. The other networks didn't even pretend to think that they could compete. When he retired, NBC took the good fortune of having the agreed upon rightful heir to the throne, David Letterman. Faced with a slam dunk, NBC decided to screw everyone and send Letterman to another network. So now they have %50 (let's say) instead of 100%. That's a bad business model and a huge public blunder but they learned an important lesson and moved on. Oh, no, wait, because 20 years later with a new, young, innovative host, they decide to piss him off too and send him to another network and now they can have, at best, 33% of the audience and a major P.R. nightmare where people generally think they (and their "new" host) are evil. A ratings share cut into three, an old and soon to be retired host, an ageing demographic, increased competition, bad press, it all sounds like good, solid planning.

In a nutshell, NBC's decision was "these ratings aren't good enough, let's cut them in half." Until such point that 2+2=5, there's no way that can make business sense. And yet somehow it happened. The most legendary franchise, the home of Steve Allen, Jack Paar and Johnny Carson is officially dead.

Epilogue: A lot happened in over the past week or so and there won't be any more Conan for a while so I'll probably post past clips from the show periodically.

Neil Young's New Ballad

This one is best if I don't give it away but not funny at all if you don't understand.

Check it out:

If you don't get it, it's a reference to this atrocity currently sweeping the nation. I can't believe the guy had to be eliminated simply on a technicality! Sad.

Neil Young, The Prince

Once a decade Neil Young comes out with another absolute classic. He was on Jimmy Fallon playing a new song and I think this is that classic.