I'm not a big football fan (baseball's more my thing), and up until this past weekend, I wasn't even sure who Tim Tebow was. But I do love a funny satire and this is one of the better ones I've seen of late. Ladies and gents, I give you Jimmy Fallon doing a mashup of David Bowie and Tim Tebow to Bowie's "Major Tom."
Labels:
david bowie,
jimmy fallon,
major tom,
mashup,
tim tebow
Members of DC's The Dismemberment Plan are probably the most beloved people amongst this city's music dorks this weekend. D-Plan's reunion shows for the Black Cat tonight and 930 Club tomorrow and Sunday sold out instantly when they went onsale months ago, these being their first live shows since 2007 (the Cal Robbins benefit).
Last night, the Plan kicked off this "reunion tour" in NYC with a few songs on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
"The City"
Labels:
dismemberment plan,
emergency and I,
jimmy fallon,
tour,
tour dates
I raced home from shooting Nick Cave at the 930 Club last night to be sure I caught all of Bruce Springsteen on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon." Springsteen was to be the only guest/performer on the show and given what a fan Fallon is, and that the new box set The Promise: The Darkness On The Edge Of Town Story, came out yesterday, it was bound to be an incredibly wonderful reason to stay up late.
Indeed it was. We heard good stories about the making of Darkness, like that Springsteen's guitarist, Steve Van Zandt, wanted to call it "A Bunch of Lost Arguments," and that Springsteen wrote the song "Fire" for Elvis Presley. There was also a spot-on recreation of Bruce's look from back in the mid-70s...back when the E Street Band was a band who wore hats.
Later, Bruce, Steven, and "Professor" Roy Bittan played "Because the Night" and "Save My Love" with Quest Love and The Roots. "Save My Love" is one of the best songs on the box set and when Quest hit the drums at the start of it, I almost jumped out of my chair....So brilliant. How on earth that song hadn't seen the light of day before now, especially live, is completely beyond me. Here's hoping it gets tossed into a set list somewhere on an upcoming tour...
"Now there's something coming through the air, that softly reminds me..." sang Springsteen. Late night tv can sometimes feel canned but this wasn't one of those times. This was a soft reminder of how great a performer Springsteen is, as well how well the man has long been able to turn a phrase. Watch the whole episode...it's definitely worth it.
My photo/text review of Saturday's Vaselines/Teenage Fanclub show at the 930 Club is up over at the Washington City Paper if you like to check it out.
They played Jimmy Fallon last Thursday too, doing the ever-lovely "Jesus Don't Want Me for a Sunbeam," probably the least sexual song of their entire catalogue.
Superchunk rawked the tv on Jimmy Fallon last night for the first time in 16 years. The dude pogoing around to Mac's left like a maniac during the first video ("Digging for Something") is John Darnielle, lead singer of The Mountain Goats. Second video is a web-only performance of "Precision Auto."
Jimmy Fallon, I give you mad props for this. Even the guitar looks like Bruce's! I don't even watch the show "Glee" but skip ahead to 2:30 for the start, effing brilliant way to start the Emmys!
Labels:
emmys,
glee,
jimmy fallon,
Springsteen
The Black Keys is a band I go back and forth on. Some of their tracks, I have to be in a particular mood to listen to...I can't do it constant. But others, I flat out loooove whenever and wherever ("I'll be Your Man" and "10 AM Automatic" are two of these). That dirty, gritty, naughty little sound of theirs is so compelling...
"10 Cent Pistol" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night. The Keys' newest release,Brothers, came out last week.
Labels:
10 cent pistol,
black keys,
Brothers,
jimmy fallon
I'm not a huge fan of The Rolling Stones necessarily, but I've long had a special place for their 1972 classic, Exile on Main Street. It's a record that seems to have everything emotionally: danger, redemption, celebration, sadness...If you know the history of the recording sessions, it seems to make the story that the songs portray look like a Greek tragedy.
The record is being reissued on 5/18 with 10 additional tracks that are from that period but never before released. Leading up to that, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is devoting all of next week's shows to the record and the Stones, and is having musical guests perform selected songs from the record each night. Green Day will start the week off on Monday, Tuesday will have Keith Urban, Wednesday will be Sheryl Crow, and Thursday, Phish. Throughout the week, artists will sit in with the Fallon house, band, The Roots. Taj Mahal is slated for Monday, Pearl Jam's Mike McCready on Tuesday, the Rolling Stones' keyboardist Chuck Leavell on Wednesday, and Dr. John on Thursday.
This is the best part though...Rounding out the week, Fallon will be showing Stones in Exile, a documentary about "Exile on Main Street" (out 6/22) with limited commercial interruptions. The film was developed to complement the release of the reissue, and it features rare, never-before-seen archival film from the time during the recording in France, photos and interviews as well as new conversations with the band and artists they have influenced. Frankly, that's the part I'm most interested in...the atmosphere during the recording of the record was said to have made a huge impact on the record itself and if you know the history, you'll definitely see the record in a new light. Forbes magazine had a great quote on this:
The Beatles had Abbey Road Studios; Elton John had his Honky Château, but no studio had the mystery or the aloof cachet of the Villa Nellcôte, where the Rolling Stones recorded what some consider to be their finest album, 'Exile On Main St'.... captures that moment in time - the steamy summer of 1971 - when high society, showbiz, youth culture and the underworld all became one fabulous decadent mélange. At least, that's how it looked from the outside. Judging from the photos in Exile, it's pretty much how it felt on the inside, too."
Call it a late April Fool's prank I guess (or maybe just to get folks to stay up late and watch)...We were told yesterday that The Whigs were covering an old Meat Loaf song on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night, but what they played was "Hundred Million Miles" from the new record In the Dark....weird. Maybe the same hacker who unleased all those new releases last week from PlayMPE was at it again? Maybe the band was drunk emailing in some NYC bar yesterday? Doesn't matter though, live, The Whigs can rock (or RAAWK if you're Whigs lead singer Parker Gispert) whatever they play with gusto.
Three skinny guys from Athens, GA....Fans of making a ginormous sound onstage. Has a drummer who plays so hard that he should not play next to a snowy mountain because he might inspire an avalanche.
Big man from Dallas, TX. Equated with one of the biggest selling records of all time and annoying people who like to air guitar and act out lyrics in bars. His name was, at one point, "Robert Paulson."
What do they have in common?
I dunno either but we can find out this evening. Apparently, The Whigs will be shaking things up on late night television this evening by performing, "I Would Do Anything For Love (...but I won't do that)" by Meat Loaf on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
No fooling...And The Whigs make everything good. But how odd a choice is that??
Labels:
jimmy fallon,
meat loaf,
The Whigs
You probably wouldn't think Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer) from "30 Rock" and the Drive By Truckers have anything in common other than southernality, but surprise, they do! It seems DBTs keyboardist Jay Gonzalez is Kenneth's brother-in-law. "30 Rock" has special guests all the time, could a special appearance by DBTs be far behind??
Kenneth introduced the band last night on Jimmy Fallon's show where they played "Birthday Boy" from their latest, The Big To-Do.
Admittedly, I wasn't crazy about the Silversun Pickups song "The Royal We" when I first heard it on their latest, Swoon. But live, live the song is an effin' force of nature. The energy that exudes from lead singer/guitarist Brian Aubert alone could blow a house down; add the power of drummer Chris Guanlao, and it's a full-on hurricane. That sort of band is a blast to photograph.
This is the Pickups playing "The Royal We" on Jimmy Fallon last night. It was sedate compared to a normal show, honest. If you ever get the opportunity, be sure you see this band live just once.
Labels:
jimmy fallon,
royal we,
seen your video,
silversun pickups,
swoon
I know, it's super crazy to believe but yup, Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas did seriously rock a goofy Christmas carol, "I Wish It Was Christmas," to its knees last night on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon." Sure, he had a little help from show's house band (The Roots) and the song's originators, Horatio Sanz and Jimmy Fallon who did the song in a "Saturday Night Live" skit). But it was his melodious liquid baritone that embodies a Velvet Underground-era Lou Reed that let Casablancas take a goofy holiday song and make it as gritty and interesting as Alphabet City circa 1981. Super smart to have it available for download via iTunes.
Labels:
jimmy fallon,
julian casablancas,
late night,
seen your video
Wowza...This was the first Jawbox performance in 13 years and their sound was tighter than many bands who play all the time. As we said a few days ago, the Fallon show will be the only reunion performance for the reissue of the classic, For Your Own Special Sweetheart. Tracks played were "Savory," as shown on the program, and "FF=66" and "68," which were done only in rehearsal.
If you're curious about the shirt that J. Robbins' is wearing, SMA is Spinal Muscular Distrophy, something his young son, Callum, suffers from. Other famed DC-locals The Dismemberment Plan reunited a few years back specifically for a benefit to raise money for Callum's care. (Robbins was a co-producer on D-Plan's Emergency & I and Change.)
Word came today that DC's own Jawbox will perform on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon tomorrow, December 8th (NBC). It will be the band's one and only performance in celebration of the reissue of their 1994 release, For Your Own Special Sweetheart. Dischord Records says that the "the CD and Digital Album (MP3) feature 3 extra tracks from the Savory EP and the LP features a free MP3 Album Download (which also includes the 3 Savory EP tracks)."
Our local City Paper spoke to lead singer-guitarist J. Robbins about the reissue and reunion last month.
