Tampa Calling

A weekly bulletin on musical guests playing late night TV; set your TIVOs or DVRs if you’ve got an early bedtime.

The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Monday, July 27: Dave Matthews Band
Tuesday, July 28: Silversun Pickups
Wednesday, July 29: Elbow (The British alt rockers are currently on tour with Coldplay.)
Thursday, July 30: Cage the Elephant (They don’t have a new album out since their 2008 self-titled debut, but they did play a much-talked-about set at Bonnaroo.)
Friday, July 31: Dave Matthews Band (Two nights of DMB on Letterman. Woo fucking hoo!)

The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, NBC
Monday, July 27: the Fray
Thursday, July 30: Regina Spektor (Check out my review of her new album and two of her new videos here.)
Friday, July 31: Ben Harper & Relentless7 Read the rest of this entry »

A weekly bulletin on musical guests playing late night TV; set your TIVOs or DVRs if you’ve got an early bedtime.

The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Monday, July 20: Spinnerette (the alt rock foursome featuring Brody Dalle and Tony Bevilacqua, both formerly of The Distillers; the band just released their self-titled debut in June)
Tuesday, July 21: the Flatlanders
Wednesday, July 22: Diane Birch
Thursday, July 23: Ginuwine (pictured) with Missy Elliott (They’ll likely perform “Get Involved,” the second single from Ginuwine’s latest album, A Man’s Thoughts. The song also features Timbaland — he produced it — but he’s not scheduled to appear.)
Friday, July 24: Judy Collins Read the rest of this entry »

A weekly bulletin on musical guests playing late night TV; set your TIVOs or DVRs if you’ve got an early bedtime.

The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Monday, July 6: Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band (pictured)
Tuesday, July 7: Rob Thomas
Thursday, July 9: Levon Helm
Friday, June 10: Maxwell

The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, NBC
Monday, July 6: Death Cab for Cutie
Tuesday, July 7: Andrew Bird
Thursday, July 9: Playing For Change
Friday, June 10: Ray LaMontagne Read the rest of this entry »

A weekly bulletin on musical guests playing late night TV; set your TIVOs or DVRs if you’ve got an early bedtime.

The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Tuesday, June 16: Ian McLagan & the Bump Band
Thursday, June 18: Phoenix
Friday, June 19: the Sounds

The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, NBC
Monday, June 15: Spinal Tap (to coincide with the release of Back from the Dead, a two-disc 25th anniversary release with all new material that comes out June 16)
Tuesday, June 16: Gavin Rossdale
Wednesday, June 17: Incubus
Thursday, June 18: The Dead Weather (pictured, an alt rock supergroup that features bassist Jack Lawrence of The Raconteurs and The Greenhornes, the White Stripes‘ Jack White, guitarist Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age and vocalist Alison Mosshart of The Kills; the foursome will release their debut, Horehound, on July 13, and they’ll likely perform that album’s first single, “Hang You from the Heavens”)
Friday, June 19: Holly Williams Read the rest of this entry »

A weekly bulletin on musical guests playing late night TV; set your TIVOs or DVRs if you’ve got an early bedtime.

The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Monday, May 11: The Killers
Tuesday, May 12: Chrisette Michele (Def Jam’s latest neo-soul pop singer, pictured)
Wednesday, May 13: Wynton Marsalis
Thursday, May 14: Rick Ross with Magazeen (Do I not get “Yacht Club” or is it really like a serious version of, “I’m on a Boat,” and, awful? I mean, really awful, maybe because it’s not tongue-in-cheek?)
Friday, May 15: Mastodon

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NBC
Monday, May 11: Ciara
Tuesday, May 12: 8-year-old pianist Ethan Bortnick, Kelly Clarkson
Wednesday, May 13: Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens)
Thursday, May 14: The Decemberists
Friday, May 15: Kings of Leon

VIDEO OF ANIMAL COLLECTIVE ON LETTERMAN AFTER THE JUMP… Read the rest of this entry »

A weekly bulletin on musical guests playing late night TV; set your TIVOs or DVRs.

The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Monday, April 27: The All-American Rejects
Tuesday, April 28: Dolly Parton
Wednesday, April 29: Manchester Orchestra
Friday, May 1: Bat for Lashes (pictured)

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NBC
Monday, April 27: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Tuesday, April 28: Country Bones
Wednesday, April 29: Zac Brown Band
Thursday, April 30: Starsailor
Friday, May 1: Ziggy Marley

Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, CBS
Wednesday, April 29: Antony and the Johnsons Read the rest of this entry »

It’s 420. Another chance for a songlist. This one I think should be kinda special, since there’s been 420 songlists since the dawn of mankind. Or since people started making lists and smoking pot and using “420″ as code for pot-smoking. Ironic that by the time I get this thing up, it will actually be right around 4:20 p.m.

For those who are curious, the origins of the number 420 are smoke-shrouded in urban legend. I found a few things today in honor of the unofficial holiday, but my fave is the thoughtful piece by the Huffington Post on the meaning of 420. Not so surprising that the Grateful Dead were at least partially responsible for 420’s propagation into pot culture. Here’s an excerpt:

It was Christmas week in Oakland, 1990. Steven Bloom was wandering through The Lot – that timeless gathering of hippies that springs up in the parking lot before every Grateful Dead concert – when a Deadhead handed him a yellow flyer.

“We are going to meet at 4:20 on 4/20 for 420-ing in Marin County at the Bolinas Ridge sunset spot on Mt. Tamalpais,” reads the message, which Bloom dug up and forwarded to the Huffington Post. Bloom, then a reporter for High Times magazine and now the publisher of CelebStoner.com and co-author of Pot Culture, had never heard of “420-ing” before.

The flyer came complete with a 420 back story: “420 started somewhere in San Rafael, California in the late ’70s. It started as the police code for Marijuana Smoking in Progress. After local heads heard of the police call, they started using the expression 420 when referring to herb – Let’s Go 420, dude!”

Bloom reported his find in the May 1991 issue of High Times, which the magazine found in its archives and provided to the Huffington Post. The story, though, was only partially right.

It had nothing to do with a police code — though the San Rafael part was dead on. Indeed, a group of five San Rafael High School friends known as the Waldos – by virtue of their chosen hang-out spot, a wall outside the school – coined the term in 1971. The Huffington Post spoke with Waldo Steve, Waldo Dave and Dave’s older brother, Patrick, and confirmed their full names and identities, which they asked to keep secret for professional reasons. (Pot is still, after all, illegal.)

Check out the rest of that here.

Now, onto the real reason for this post — music about smoking pot. Read the rest of this entry »

A weekly bulletin on musical guests playing late night TV; set your TIVOs or DVRs,

The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS
Monday, April 13: A.C. Newman (pictured) with Nicole Atkins
Tuesday, April 14: Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Wednesday, April 15: Neko Case
Thursday, April 16: Rascal Flatts

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NBC
Monday, April 13: Billy Ray Cyrus
Tuesday, April 14: the Airborne Toxic Event
Wednesday, April 15: Chris Botti featuring John Mayer
Thursday, April 16: Jonny Lang

Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, CBS
Monday, April 13: Dwight Yoakam
Tuesday, April 14: Brett Dennen
Friday, April 17: Martina McBride Read the rest of this entry »