Random Music Talk XCIV:Great Distances and Ballistic Weaponry

[PhilsFan]

I actually think Conan is overrated as an interviewer. He is very prepared because he so thoroughly pre-interviews his guests, but it's to the point where he already knows how it's going to go and he doesn't do a great job of making it authentic. He already knows the questions and answers and you can tell. His best interviews are always with Norm Macdonald because Norm will change the story up on him for air. It grates on Conan, and you can tell, but it brings out a much livelier and funnier interview.

Craig Ferguson is easily the best interviewer of the late night hosts.

 

[powerhour24]

Lordy people, is it 2002 or 2014? Ragging on Jimmy Fallon is so cutting edge. "He's a disaster behind the desk" "he's a terrible interviewer", blah blah blah. The man is enthusiastic, affable and disarming with his guests, and a great great musical comedian, I don't fucking care if he doesn't cut to the very core of his celebrity guests' existential crises or the minutiae of geopolitics, he's hosting a comedy show not trying to be Charlie Rose. For the record, none of the late night hosts is any sort of strong interviewer. Fallon gets his guests comfortable and willing to let loose and do fun things for the audience, and I find that infinitely more entertaining than watching a celebrity hit their appropriate PR public face/talking points. Yes this discussion with the band was rather chaotic, but there was an awful lot going on tonight and they were clearly pressed for time to get to the acoustic performance.


For the record, judging by Twitter both Jimmy Fallon and U2 scored a lot of points with some doubters tonight.

As for the band, they figured out a nice straightforward rocker arrangement for Invisible, much better than a lot of their initial promo appearance renditions of new songs though I've no doubt they'll be able to make into an even bigger moment in their own element down the line. But I have to say Bono did not sound good save a few moments (fortunately one of them was the kicker of the song, the face like snow into the second chorus moment), if only he hadn't been a smoker we'd probably have many years to come with strong vocals from the man. He did sound better on Ordinary Love though oftentimes he was all over the place in his approach to the song, though you could tell he was really having a great time which may have contributed.

Also, that setup on the Top of the Rock was claustrophobia and (seriously no pun intended) vertigo-inducing. U2 also always looks rather awkward with small crowds.

 

[powerhour24]

I've grown to really like him, as I've said before, and it's because of his genuine enthusiasm, the skits on the show, and the fact that he does seem to get his big name celebrity guests to participate in stuff that they don't do on any other show. Together with his team, he's thinking outside the box on a lot of ideas.

I also started tuning in a lot because he was consistently getting GREAT musical guests. Like, fucking destroying every other late night show in terms of quality musical guests. Hopefully his producers can keep that going for him on the Tonight Show.

Yes.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

Craig Ferguson is easily the best interviewer of the late night hosts.

Agreed.

 

[powerhour24]

Also if Jimmy Fallon's era of SNL was awful I hope you haven't seen any of it in the years since, . At least we got Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudloph out of those years.

 

[powerhour24]

Oh and the marching drumline was actually kind of cool (never thought I'd write that), even though I thought that was a joke when it was mentioned yesterday.

 

[LemonMelon]

Fallon acts like an audience member that got dragged in front of the camera after the real host didn't show up. He seems very enthusiastic and endearing, which is cool. That's why a lot of people like him.

As far as wit and comedic timing goes, I mean, he's got to be one of the worst hosts. And the bar isn't very high to begin with. But that's not really his thing.

 

[cobl04]

You seem to be a bit reactionary of late, ph. It was a pretty civil discussion about night show hosts.

Craig Ferguson and Letterman are the only ones we get. I've only seen Fallon in some jokes and sketches and musical bit and I reckon he's great. Kimmel comes across as a gigantic douche, although his show gives us the mean tweets bit, which I love.

 

[PhilsFan]

Lordy people, is it 2002 or 2014? Ragging on Jimmy Fallon is so cutting edge. "He's a disaster behind the desk" "he's a terrible interviewer", blah blah blah. The man is enthusiastic, affable and disarming with his guests, and a great great musical comedian, I don't fucking care if he doesn't cut to the very core of his celebrity guests' existential crises or the minutiae of geopolitics, he's hosting a comedy show not trying to be Charlie Rose. For the record, none of the late night hosts is any sort of strong interviewer. Fallon gets his guests comfortable and willing to let loose and do fun things for the audience, and I find that infinitely more entertaining than watching a celebrity hit their appropriate PR public face/talking points. Yes this discussion with the band was rather chaotic, but there was an awful lot going on tonight and they were clearly pressed for time to get to the acoustic performance.

What the shit are you talking about?

 

[powerhour24]

Yeah, I guess I'm kind of spring-loaded on this one cobbler as I think he's long since proven himself in this kind of role, and I'm a fan, and even on his big night the same old thing gets trotted out. This is the perfect place for him, the flubbing on SNL and his "movie career" showed he wasn't an actor, but he's found his place.

 

[powerhour24]

I'm saying why do we care about his skill as an interviewer, this isn't a journalistic show it's a late night comedy show where celebrities show up to shill a product/their persona. And again, none of his rivals are strong interviewers either.

 

[PhilsFan]

Well you got all defensive when I essentially said what you said about his enthusiasm, skits, and general fit for the role. Needlessly so.

But interviews are an important part of late night still, even if the monologue isn't. I didn't ask him to be Charlie Rose. I asked him to be Craig Ferguson. Which has got absolutely nothing to do with geopolitics or religion or shilling their movie or album. So don't make a strawman, especially when we're for the most part agreeing on our assessments of the guy.

 

[powerhour24]

I admitted above that I'm just tired of seeing the same thing trotted out, we'll just have to disagree on the importance of the interview in the format. I do apologize for spitting out the rant after skimming the pages and seeing that big mentioned over and over without reading through everyone's posts though.

 

[bono_man2002]

You seem to be a bit reactionary of late, ph. It was a pretty civil discussion about night show hosts.

Craig Ferguson and Letterman are the only ones we get. I've only seen Fallon in some jokes and sketches and musical bit and I reckon he's great. Kimmel comes across as a gigantic douche, although his show gives us the mean tweets bit, which I love.

Not sure if Conan is still on GEM or not...it used to be nightly but it seems
rare these days. Fallon is on Foxtel.

Fallon has his moments, not a great interview, but in saying that it depends on how he approaches the guest. Sometimes he can be great and others he is some over excited kid that had a little too much red cordial with dinner. But I've grown to like him, it was a slow process especially following on from Conan.

Having not really watched SNL at all to be honest...so I don't know much about Seth Meyers.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

Huge fan of the song "Do You Want To Build A Strawman?" from Frozen 2: The Internet Edition.

 

[PhilsFan]

I genuinely don't even know what Frozen is.

 

[PhilsFan]

 

[lazarus]

Bono obviously amped up to finally engage with audiences again, rather shaky vocals-wise but he definitely brought it near the end. They definitely have some ways to go before this is the showstopper it should be. And like, yeah the rooftop was cool but they wound up only playing to 25 people up there. In the studio there would have been more people, more energy.

Disappointed that they played the "edit" version as you'd think they'd have however much time they needed and could do the full version (assuming there is one). If there is a third verse, I sure as hell hope the momentum doesn't drop out as it does on the second.

The less said about Ordinary Love, the better. Bono trying to sell it of course with a nice vocal but it's just too bland of a song. Fallon's lead-in about "wanting to prove to everyone you've got the goods" was ridiculous. Like, the band has played acoustic at every show on the last 5 tours. Idiot.

One last thing: I can't believe someone feels that strongly enough about Fallon to passionately defend him here. Like he's not a bad person but for fuck's sake he's a child who shouldn't be hosting this kind of show. He has neither the class of Carson, the cynical swagger of Letterman, or the offbeat charm of O'Brien. He can compete in the skits department but it's still a format where people sit down next to you for half the show and answer questions.

 

[PhilsFan]

That was a weird line, but nothing was going to surprise me after he made Bono talk about a fucking coffee mug.

 

[Kieran McConville]

[youtube=e6ONvmePDDc]Stagger Lee[/youtube]

I've never been the biggest fan of Murder Ballads, but, this.

 

[Kieran McConville]

fuck it.

fucking fucking fuck it.

 

[cobl04]

GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS holy fucking shit GUYS I just had the most amazing hyper nerd moment ever and you will be the only ones to appreciate it!!!!!

I am watching Louie, and it's the ep where he goes to the dentist. The dentist drugs him, and then he says "THOSE PILLS SHOULD BE KICKIN IN RIGHT ABOUT NOW" and I IMMEDIATELY recognised it, holy fucking shit, it is SAMPLED AT THE VERY START OF DJ KOZE'S 2013 CHILL ELECTRO MASTERPIECE AMYGDALA

DJ Koze ft. Caribou - Track ID Anyone? (Original Mix) - YouTube

I CAN'T FIND THE LOUIE CLIP ON YOUTUBE BUT HOLY MOTHERFUCKING FUCK this is the most excited I've been in fucking ages.

DJ KOZE SAMPLED A PIECE OF DIALOGOUE FROM FUCKING LOUIE!

 

[cobl04]

I know you guys ignore most of meaningless posts but I'd really appreciate it if you got around this one. No one is home and I have no one to convey my excitement to.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Adam Clayton Mistaken for Elderly Aunt

(larry mullen mistaken for strangers)

 

[cobl04]

Hey mikal, which one are you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3WAYqCy7CA

 

[IWasBored]

Hey mikal, which one are you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3WAYqCy7CA

i still don't really understand how this is a thing, and i even watched the thing that was on netflix about it. refuse to watch the actual show.

 

[joyfulgirl]

I haven't seen the whole Fallon show yet but watched U2's performances this morning. I think Bono sounds pretty great. Loved the drummers (not as cool as when Thom & Jonny used the USC marching band but still cool), I like Invisible less than everyone else seems to but it was a good performance, but would have been better in the studio. Ordinary Love is just blah but, again, Bono sounded good and Bono sounding good is essential to my ears.

Agree with the general sentiment that Fallon is a great music comedian (really can have me rolling on the floor sometimes) but is truly terrible as an interviewer, although I'm mystified as to why Charlie Rose is held up as the great standard in late night interviews since I think he's terrible, too (seems drunk half the time). In some ways Rose is worse because he thinks he's so deep; at least Fallon doesn't pretend to be The Great Interviewer. He's charming and brings out a playful side to people but, no, we won't ever get a good conversation with some pretty interesting people, unfortunately.

 

[u2popmofo]

Andrew W.K. Talks about My Little Pony - YouTube

 

[trojanchick99]

I haven't seen the whole Fallon show yet but watched U2's performances this morning. I think Bono sounds pretty great. Loved the drummers (not as cool as when Thom & Jonny used the USC marching band but still cool), I like Invisible less than everyone else seems to but it was a good performance, but would have been better in the studio. Ordinary Love is just blah but, again, Bono sounded good and Bono sounding good is essential to my ears.

Agree with the general sentiment that Fallon is a great music comedian (really can have me rolling on the floor sometimes) but is truly terrible as an interviewer, although I'm mystified as to why Charlie Rose is held up as the great standard in late night interviews since I think he's terrible, too (seems drunk half the time). In some ways Rose is worse because he thinks he's so deep; at least Fallon doesn't pretend to be The Great Interviewer. He's charming and brings out a playful side to people but, no, we won't ever get a good conversation with some pretty interesting people, unfortunately.

Well, that's because no other band is as cool as the Trojan Marching Band. /bandgeekery

 

[lazarus]

Andrew W.K. Talks about My Little Pony - YouTube

WHEN lT'S TlME TO PONY WE WlLL PONY HARD