Tonight's Musical Guest, Today – Details, episodes & analysis

Inarguably the biggest and most successful band of the grunge era, they persisted while others could not. They fought the man at every turn, did it their way, and are an undeniable live juggernaut. It's PEARL JAM week!

Joining the show as our second-ever returning guest is show promoter and pod-favorite Ryan Agate aka Ryan the Terrible! Back to back performances on SNL capture the big early moments of Pearl Jam, including a super rare 3-song stint a week after the death of Kurt Cobain. David Letterman can't get Black out of his head, has the band on his show multiple times, and ultimately inducts them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Jeff Ament wears lots of hats. And Ryan and the guys somehow watch multiple movies and tv series during the record.

Want to watch along with us? Check out the links below for the performances discussed this week!

Alive/Porch, 4/11/1992 on Saturday Night Live

Not For You/Rearviewmirror/Daughter, 4/16/1994 on Saturday Night Live

Hail Hail, 9/20/1996 on The Late Show with David Letterman

Wishlist, 5/1/1998 on The Late Show with David Letterman

World Wide Suicide/Severed Hand/Alive, 5/6/2006 on Later...with Jools Holland

Alive/Given to Fly/Better Man/Rockin' in the Free World, 4/7/2017 on The Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

They're quietly one of the most successful bands of the 90s, selling over 50 million records over the course of their career. Dominating the softer side of alt-rock radio, they took over America out of nowhere as the biggest Irish band since U2. It's THE CRANBERRIES week!

We begin this week with two very different performances of "Dreams" and "Linger" on the Irish late night show Kenny Live, with the two clips 9 months apart across 1993. The album No Need to Argue is a massive hit and the group shows it off with a dirgy performance of "Zombie" on SNL. The Cranberries burn out hard by 1996, and a clip on the MTV VMA's makes that pretty clear. And we discuss the unique global superstardom of the late great Dolores O'Riordan, exemplified by our first clip ever from the Annual Vatican Christmas Concert in 2001 hosted by da pope!

Want to watch along with us? Check out the links below for the performances discussed this week!

Dreams, 3/6/1993 on Kenny Live

Linger, 12/18/1993 on Kenny Live

Zombie/Ode to My Family, 2/25/1995 on Saturday Night Live

Salvation, 9/4/1996 on the MTV Video Music Awards

Promises (11:15 mark), 4/26/1999 on The Late Show with David Letterman

Analyse/Panis Angelicus/Little Drummer Boy/Silent Night, 12/24/2001 on the 9th Annual Vatican Christmas Concert

Tomorrow, 2/7/2012 on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

Drunk troubador. Carnival barker. Scum bum extraordinaire. Character actor. He's lived as many lives as he sung about. It's TOM WAITS week!

Joining the show as a renowned scum bum expert in his own right is Ben Hosley (Blank Check with Griffin and David)! Ben and the guys explore the wild persona and musical shifts of Tom over 38 years and 7 clips. 70s Tom is on full display with performances on Fernwood 2 Night and a remote piece that takes us inside the infamous Tropicana Motel. We watch Tom on Letterman four times across 32 years, including a final goodbye song written just for Dave. And we make sure to ask Ben about bones, living in squalor, and the shock of him being a normal human being.

Want to watch along with us? Check out the links below for the performances discussed this week!

The Piano has been Drinking, 8/1/1977 on Fernwood 2 Night

Annie's Back in Town/Burma Shave, 4/6/1978 on 90 Minutes Live

Frank's Wild Years/On the Nickel, 12/21/1983 on Late Night with David Letterman

More Than Rain, 10/10/1987 on Late Night with David Letterman

Goin' Out West, 10/9/1992 on The Arsenio Hall Show

Chocolate Jesus, 9/27/1999 on The Late Show with David Letterman

Take One Last Look, 5/14/2015 on The Late Show with David Letterman

We're talking one of the most successful and volatile bands of the 1990s: hair journeys, lineup changes, #1 albums, and too many Billy Corgan quotes. It's SMASHING PUMPKINS week!

Joining the show to talk about one of her favorite bands of all time is the great Marissa Paternoster (ex-Screaming Females, Noun)! Marissa lays out the ways her Pumpkins fandom helped her become of the most renowned and unique guitarists of the past 20 years. The guys and her discuss the frustrating and talented enigma that is Billy Corgan, Darcy Wretzky's discontent, and Jimmy Chamberlain's shoulder-filled technical prowess. Clips from the BBC, SNL, The Grammys, Jools Holland, Leno, and Letterman capture a career arc filled with drama, incredible music, and an iconic Simpsons cameo.

Want to watch along with us? Check out the links below for the performances discussed this week!

Rhinoceros, 1991 on BBC's The Late Show

Cherub Rock (20:44 mark)/Today (54:30 mark), 10/31/1993 on Saturday Night Live

Bullet with Butterfly Wings (27:50 mark)/Zero (1:00:20 mark), 11/11/1995 on Saturday Night Live

1979, 2/26/1996 on The Grammy Awards

Ava Adore/Once Upon a Time/Daphne Descends, 5/15/1998 on Later...with Jools Holland

Cash Car Star, 11/17/2000 on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

Tarantula, 7/9/2007 on The Late Show with David Letterman

All the stars are here. It's late-night TV's biggest evening. We even made Kenny make a crooner awards show version of the theme. We're celebrating the best and worst of over 100 performances discussed. It's our One-year Anniversary Awards Show!

What was the best interview we saw? Which band's fashion shined? Who gave the vocal performance of the year? Which vest upset Alex the most? And who did we pick for best and worst overall performances? It's a clip show, now more than ever!

Want to watch along with us? Figure it out for yourself this time, there are too many to list!

The podcast bad boys from Boston are talking about THE Bad Boys from Boston. It's AEROSMITH week!

Joining the show with discussion questions in hand is the lead singer and guitarist of another great Boston band Beeef, Perry Eaton! Perry and the guys break down the many eras of Aerosmith and try to make sense of their complicated and epic legacy. The band's first TV performance in 1974 on The Midnight Special is all leather pants and rock god vibes. 13 years later, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry do Walk This Way with Run-DMC on the VMAs. Back to back 90s SNL performances capture the apex of Aerosmith, including an iconic Wayne's World sketch. And we return to the Super Bowl, with a halftime show that surrounds Aerosmith with the 2001 zeitgeist.

Want to watch along with us? Check out the links below for the performances discussed this week!

Dream On/Train Kept a Rollin', 8/16/1974 on The Midnight Special

Walk This Way with Run-DMC, 9/11/1987 on the MTV Video Music Awards

Janie's Got a Gun (27:24 mark)/Monkey on my Back (40:04 mark) (row 174), 2/17/1990 on Saturday Night Live

Cryin' (20:10 mark)/Sweet Emotion (51:10 mark) (row 66), 10/9/1993 on Saturday Night Live

I Don't Want to Miss a Thing, 2/24/1999 on The Grammy Awards

Bye Bye Bye/I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing/It's Gonna be Me/Jaded/Walk This Way with N'Sync, featuring Britney Spears, Nelly & Mary J. Blige, 1/28/2001 on the Super Bowl Halftime Show

They're pop-punk emo heroes turned anthemic arena radio rock mainstays. Some turned to heavy drug use, while others became tabloid fodder. And hats. Lots of hats. It's FALL OUT BOY week!

The career arc is there folks, captured in some ridiculous late night performances. Fall Out Boy explodes into the mainstream with From Under the Cork Tree with a shaky spot on SNL. The anti-vowel movement comes to a head with a pretty great performance of Thnks Fr Th Mmrs on the Tonight Show featuring strings and horns. A black-lit performance on Kimmel in skeleton costumes has to be attempted to be seen to be believed. And an exploration of 2010s radio rock music is reluctantly conducted.

Want to watch along with us? Check out the links below for the performances discussed this week!

Dance Dance (36:30 mark)/Sugar We're Goin Down (58:44 mark) (row 18), 3/4/2006 on Saturday Night Live

Thnks Fr Th Mmrs, 5/2/2007 on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

I Don't Care, 12/16/2008 on The Late Show with David Letterman

My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light 'em Up), 2/13/2013 on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Centuries, 1/7/2015 on The People's Choice Awards

We Didn't Start the Fire, 9/12/2023 on The MTV Video Music Awards

In a year that saw Nirvana, R.E.M, and Pearl Jam put out generation-defining albums, Spin Magazine named this band's 1991 album Record of the Year. 33 years later, this cult power-pop outfit remains a weird outlier sandwiched between the eras of grunge and Britpop. It's TEENAGE FANCLUB week!

Joining the show is animator, music video director, and self-proclaimed Fannie Mark Neeley (Aquarium Drunkard)! Mark and the guys explore the origins of TFC's rapid ascent from the Scottish indie-rock scene to performing on Saturday Night Live in just two years' time. The band's follow up to Bandwagonesque falls on deaf ears in America, but performances on BBC's White Room and Top of the Pops captures their persistent popularity in the UK. And the show discovers Oddville MTV, a similarly cult-like entity that grazed the periphery of mainstream America.

Want to watch along with us? Check out the links below for the performances discussed this week!

Everything Flows, 12/21/1990 on Snub TV

The Concept/Satan, 2/15/1992 on Saturday Night Live

What You Do to Me/Pet Rock, 2/15/1992 on Saturday Night Live

Escher, 2/14/1994 on Late Night with Conan O'Brien

Mellow Doubt/I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better (Byrds Cover), 2/17/1996 on BBC White Room

Ain't That Enough, 11/7/1997 on Top of the Pops

Take the Long Way Round, 8/29/1999 on Oddville MTV

The craziest bass playing you've ever seen. Atonal metal breakdowns. Songs about meth heads burying bodies. And multiple top-ten records. How? It's PRIMUS week!

It's a guestless, Alex-pick episode: buckle up. Primus breaks on to the national TV scene on the Dennis Miller Show. "My Name is Mud" is a hit somehow, and Primus performs it on MTV's Haunted House Party with White Zombie and Penn & Teller. Les, Ler, and Herb dress up in penguin suits to perform their biggest hit to the dismay of David Letterman's showrunner. We finally return to Farmclub.com to see Primus awkwardly fitting into the Nu-Metal moment. Plus the debut of South Park Sucks!

Want to watch along with us? Check out the links below for the performances discussed this week!

Jerry was a Race Car Driver/Tommy The Cat, 3/20/1992 on The Dennis Miller Show

My Name is Mud, 10/30/1993 on MTV's Haunted House Party

Wynona's Big Brown Beaver, 6/16/1995 on The Late Show with David Letterman

Shake Hands with Beef, 7/16/1997 on Late Night with Conan O'Brien

Antipop/Greet the Sacred Cow, 3/5/2000 on Farmclub.com

Lee Van Cleef, 10/24/2011 on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

He's gone from causing a national panic to winning Grammys and selling high-end perfumes, all while putting on some of the most innovative stage performances of the 21st century. It's TYLER, THE CREATOR week!

Joining the show to school us elder millennials on our most modern artist to date is music and culture journalist J'na Jefferson (Rolling Stone, Uproxx)! The guys and J'na make sense of Tyler's wild early career, including a 2011 Fallon performance for the ages featuring an exorcism. A 2017 Colbert performance pays homage to Soul Train and captures the hard left-turn of Flower Boy's direction and production. Tyler wins a Grammy in 2020 and performs on the show with Charlie Wilson and Boyz II Men amid a burning suburbia landscape. And a windstorm set piece on the 2021 BET Awards blows (pun intended) everyone away.

Want to watch along with us? Check out the links below for the performances discussed this week!

Sandwitches with Hodgy Beats, 2/16/2011 on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

Rusty with Domo Genesis and Earl Sweatshirt, 4/4/2013 on The Late Show with David Letterman

Cherry Bomb/Smuckers, 7/29/2015 on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

911, 7/24/2017 on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Earfquake/New Magic Wand with Charlie Wilson and Boyz II Men, 1/26/2020 on The Grammy Awards

Lumberjack, 6/27/2021 on The BET Awards

Massa, 11/21/2021 on The American Music Awards