Five Songs: Conan O’Brien
In the US, talk shot host Conan O’Brien is leaving NBC after a row over late night show scheduling that involved Jay Leno, Jeff Zucker, and many social networking groups in honour of the quiffed one. This isn’t major news in the UK but for someone like me who watches O’Brien I am genuinely quite gutted that he’s been practically forced out. Either way, in memoriam of his time at NBC, I’ve decided to throw together a Five Songs feature based on noteworthy musical guests who have appeared on his show, and this covers both his Tonight Show and Late Night shows. In a break from tradition, there are no links to the songs because I would have preferred to have shown the actual performances instead of the studio songs, but I can’t because NBC hate the internet. Sorry about that.
1. The White Stripes – We’re Going To Be Friends – The White Stripes are one of Conan’s favourite bands and they have made countless appearances on his shows, including a week-long residency at the time of Elephant. For his final Late Night show, he asked the duo, who hadn’t performed together since Meg White suffered from her anxiety illness, to be his final musical guest. They obliged and played a different version of We’re Going To Be Friends. Incidentally, it caused quite a debate on the internet as to whether or not it was any good.
2. Radiohead – House Of Cards – Radiohead were the very first musical guests on Conan’s first ever Late Night show as they performed a little known song called Creep in 1993. Fast forward thirteen years later, when both host and band have grown in popularity, the Oxford band performed House Of Cards from their own studio as part of NBC’s ‘Green Week’.
3. Explosions In The Sky – Welcome, Ghosts – One of the great things about Conan O’Brien is how much good and varied taste he and his time of musical bookers, often picking bands well known in the indie circles. A great example of this was when they gave Explosions In The Sky their network TV debut in 2007 to perform a slightly abbreviated version of Welcome, Ghosts. It’s very rare to find post-rock on talk shows so this was quite a unique booking.
4. Pearl Jam – Get Some – Pearl Jam were the first musical guest on Conan’s short-lived Tonight Show slot. They were also a far different band to the one that was leading the grunge scene in 1993. Back then they were still basking in the glory of breakthrough debut Ten. In 2009, they released an album more direct and pop-sounding than any of their previous material, Backspacer. Get Some is a good example of the new direction.
5. The Dead Weather – Hang You From The Heavens – Yup, it’s another Jack White band in the list, which is not a surprise at all. The Dead Weather made their major US TV debut on Conan’s Tonight show with a performance that showed off the natural talent and energy that Alison Mosshart has as a frontwoman. You can debate the value of their material but you can’t deny that Mosshart is a highly watchable presence.
Like this? Try these!
Posted on January 26th, 2010 by Max
Filed under: Five Songs, Tracks
Add to favorites
Leave a Reply