Thanks to the diligent PGage for doing the research that I didn't have time to do. Real bands, si! AI, no! And kudos to the bookers at "The Late Show." There are plenty of renowned and respected musical guests on Dave's stage. As for the new bands...What's the saying? If it's too loud, you're too old.
On Feb 11, 10:11 pm, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 2:57 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > I think the Letterman bookers do a great job at finding bands that > > fill two criteria: they're loud and they're new. 99% of them are not > > to my musical tastes, so I'm not the typical audience, but given the > > reaction over on AFL to most of them (not to mention the reactions of > > the live audience on those occasions I've seen the show taped), I'd > > have to say that most of them will stay blissfully unknown. I don't > > see Conan enough to say definitely, but it seems like he does a better > > job of finding bands that will last and offering a variety of acts. > > With Dave, if we get anything that doesn't "blow the roof off the > > dump," it's rare. > > This struck me as something of an exaggeration. We all know Dave likes > his Rock and Roll, but I did not think it was true that it was rare to > get anything but roof blowing off hard rock groups on his show. > > Needing to avoid a little work this evening, I went to the first site > I found from google that lists Late Show episodes - TV.COM > (http://www.tv.com/late-show-with-david-letterman/show/3015/episode_gu...). > I then worked backwards from the most recent episode and wrote down > the name of all musical guests that were listed until I got roughly > the same number as I sampled from SNL in the current season. Some > episodes did not have a musical guest listed - I am not sure if that > is because there was no musical guest, or tv.com just missed it. I > also skipped one episode in which the CBS Orchestra was listed as the > musical guest. > > I then listened to each guest on itunes, and looked up their entry on > wikipedia (every guest had a wiki page except one (MENEW). I wrote > down the description of each group's musical style - not that the > wikis are authoritative, but just better than my own subjective and > random judgment from the itunes clip (feel free to disagree with my > categorization). I am not exactly sure what Dave Sikula had in mine > with his "blow the roof off the dump" category, but I think I have a > sense of what Dave Letterman means when he says that on the show. > Assuming that someone like John Hiatt or Todd Rundgren do not fit into > this category, by my count, of the last 17 musical guests, only 5 > (marked below with as asterisk) are roof blowing rockers (and that > includes The Airborne Toxic Event, which might be generous given that > they are described as having a viola in their band). I did not know > what to do with Ben Kweller, who is described as indie and folk rock > and punk rock - perhaps if someone remembers the song he sung on the > show and thinks it was more of a roof blower I will re-categorize it). > > It seems to me that the majority of these groups are "Indie" folk/soft > rock and pop groups. I had only ever heard of 4 of them before, all > the obvious ones (Hiatt, Nash, Rundgren and Leona Lewis - and that > last only barely). I don't know if any of the other 13 are knocking on > the door of fame and fortune, or even destined for long careers. But I > like that this is the kind of music we are likely to hear on Dave, > with relatively few pop-star acts of the month. > > 1. *Von Bondies: American alternative rock band. > 2. Beirut: combines elements of Eastern European and folk with Western > pop music. > 3. Gary Louris: alternative country and pop music > 4. John Hiatt: a variety of musical styles on his albums, including > New Wave, blues and country. > 5. *The Gaslight Anthem: "Bruce Springsteen singing for a Cure cover > band, with a tinge more aggression > 6. Graham Nash: folk-rock > 7. *MENEW: (no Wikipedia page, but sound like a loud rock band) > 8. Andrew Bird: Indie rock, folk rock, baroque pop > 9. Ben Kweller: Rock, folk, country, punk rock > 10. *The Airborne Toxic Event: Indie rock group incorporates string > instruments and keyboards, along with a standard rock lineup > 11. Randy Rogers Ban: country music > 12. Okkervil River: an indie folk band > 13. Erin McCarley: alternative music singer-songwriter compared to > Sara Bareilles, Regina Spektor, Sheryl Crow, and Vanessa Carlton > 14. *Glasvegas: are a Scottish rock band > 15. Todd Rundgren: Progressive rock, Soft rock, Power pop, Pop rock, > Hard rock, Blue-eyed soul > 16. Leona Lewis: Pop, R&B > 17. of Montreal: indie pop --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ TV or Not TV .... Smart (TV) People on Ice! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
