Tonight's Musical Guest, Today

We're grabbing a bag, shaking it up, and pulling out some clips this week. It's our first ever GRAB BAG episode on famous one-hit wonders! Alex and Jon walk 500 miles with the Proclaimers on Letterman before watching a wild performance by Sir-Mix-a-Lot on Arsenio featuring a giant on-stage ass. The Toadies play their seminal grunge 2.0 hit on The Jon Stewart Show and the guys discuss the...

They stormed the early 2000s like their name was El Niño. But what happened once the storm died down? It's SUM 41 week! Alex and Jon go solo to talk about the startling meteoric rise and winding transformation of this somewhat pop-punk Canadian outfit. Tommy Lee and Rob Halford join the band for a rock medley to open up MTV's 20th anniversary special before Seann William Scott and Sum 41...

Stipe. Buck. Mills. Berry. Beaton. Hillman. One of the most important and significant American bands of all time gets the TMGT treatment. It's R.E.M. week! Joining the show to talk 32 years, 15 albums, and a pod-record seven late night clips is former AVclub editor and current "The Reveal" film critic Keith Phipps! They span the late-night TV globe from America to the UK to Europe t...

What's the worst way to understand a legendary pop punk band famous for shaky live sets and funny stage banter? How about watching their late night tv show performances? This week on Tonight's Musical Guest, Today, it's BLINK 182! Joining the show is cbsboston.com sports writer, NBC Sports Boston on-air contributor, and Blink 182 superfan Michael Hurley! Mike and the guys bond over...

A voice unlike any other. Or maybe voices? We'll talk about it. This week, we're getting out the detective whiteboard and partying all the same. It's ANDREW W.K. week! The guys couldn't do this one alone, so they enlisted the studious help of TMGT theme-song creator Kenny to join as their first in-studio guest! Kenny lays out the elaborate scene exploits of Andrew growing up in...

9 Grammy Wins. 32 Nominations. Over 50 million records sold. And now a TMGT episode? Yep. This week on Tonight's Musical Guest, Today, we're talking about the great SHERYL CROW. The guys explore their own cultural memory of Crow and realize they had it very wrong back in the day. We walk through the extreme drama of her seminal debut record, including a career-defining interview on David...

Nobody asked for it. We're doing it anyways. Turn your red hats backwards and stick those cookies up your yeahs. It's time for the LIMP BIZKIT episode on Tonight's Musical Guest, Today. Alex owns up to the fact that he saw Limp Bizkit live with Kid Rock and Staind in 1999. The guys wade deep into late 90's MTV culture with New Year's Eve 1998 and the groundbreaking “Blow t...

They were the voices of a movement and moment for rap in the 1990s. And it all played out on late night TV. This week on Tonight's Musical Guest, Today, we're talking A TRIBE CALLED QUEST! And speaking of guests, the show is bringing on its first! Author, journalist, and hip-hop historian Dart Adams join the guys this week to dig deep on the music, collaborators, and performances of Trib...

How did one of the best live bands of the 1990s come off on late night TV? Turns out, quite well! For the second episode ever of Tonight's Musical Guest, Today, we're digging in on the incomparable RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE! Jon talks about how he almost died (yes, really) seeing Rage at their reunion show in 2007 before swimming across the pond for the first clip of the week. Then the gu...

It's the very first episode of Tonight's Musical Guest, Today! Hooray. This is the podcast where we discuss the cultural memory and career arc of bands and artists through their late night tv show performances. Alex and Jon take some time to explain who the hell they are and why they started this show before jumping into their very first band: Weezer! The guys discuss the group's ic...

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 performance...