Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Wilco Debut New Song “Tell Your Friends” on Colbert: Watch
Wilco fans were treated to a brand new song during Wednesday night’s edition of the Late Show with Stephn Colbert. Each of the band’s members appeared virtually from their respective homes and were joined by their families for the premiere of “Tell Your Friends”. “We miss each other. So we wrote a song about it to sing with each other, to sing to each other,” Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy said in a statement. Proceeds from the song’s digital download, available now on Bandcamp, will benefit the World Central Kitchen, a not-for-profit and non-governmental organization providing meals to underprivileged communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Along with “Tell Your Friends”, Tweedy also delivered a solo acoustic rendition of Wilco’s classic track “Jesus Etc”. Replay both performances below. Wilco rel...
Fantastic Negrito Announces New Album, Rips Through “Chocolate Samurai” on Colbert: Watch
Fantastic Negrito has announced his new album Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? The follow-up to the Grammy-winning Please Don’t Be Dead arrives August 14th, and to promote it, the blues rocker ripped through a fiery performance of the lead single “Chocolate Samurai” on Colbert. Xavier Dphrepaulezz began his Late Show set alone, holding two kinds of tape — measuring and duct — and marking out six feet of distance for his band. For the concert, he wore a fuzzy bucket hat and what looked like a military uniform made out of the Bible’s coat of many colors. Fantastic Negrito has a powerful voice with an inimitable grind; he approaches the notes with the unstoppable force of a locomotive barreling down the tracks. Throughout “Chocolate Samurai” he strutted and danced, refus...
Ben Gibbard Performs “Life Under Quarantine” on Colbert: Watch
If you put aside the disparities that always exist between societal strata and the political nonsense surrounding the health crisis, there’s something equalizing about the pandemic. Late night TV has provided somewhat a reflection of this, as the increasing delirium of hosts like Stephen Colbert mirrors our own stir-craziness, and guests have been reduced to the same Zoom calls in which everyone else is partaking. Take, for example, Ben Gibbard’s performance of “Life Under Quarantine” on A Late Show Wednesday night. The Death Cab for Cutie frontman debuted the new song back in March during a livestream for Seattle news outlet The Stranger’s “A Message to the City” series. Back then, he delivered the sad, strumming musing on our current trying situation while sitting squarely in f...
Tame Impala Gives a Trippy Performance of “Is It True” on Colbert: Stream
On Monday evening, Tame Impala played a special quarantine rendition of “Is It True” for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The performance of The Slow Rush cut was suitably psychedelic, but it also revealed some troubling tendencies in the band. The singer was almost late, the guitarist kept walking off-stage, and did they really need to hide the bass player all the way at the back? Of course, that’s Kevin Parker in all three roles, using the magic of video editing to express his status as a one-man band. While other artists have relied on pre-taped bathroom recordings to give the illusion of a live performance, Parker acknowledged the artifice, utilizing it to create a simple but thrilling spectacle. Check out “Is It True” below. Earlier this month, Tame Impala participated i...
Laura Marling Performs Quarantine Version of “Held Down” on Colbert: Watch
Updated for the pandemic era, The A Late Show with Stephen Colbert now sees musical guests perform from their respective self-isolation spaces. Such remote, stripped-down settings may require some acts to make major adjustments to their arrangements, but for Laura Marling, whose intimate folk translates seamlessly. Broadcasting from her cozy London living room Friday night, Marling delicately offered up “Held Down”, a quiet yet still powerful single from her recently released Song for Our Daughter. The new album came out last month during the peak of the coronavirus, so its tracks feel especially tied to this time; watching the UK songwriter sing, “‘Cause we all want to be here now/ And we all want to be held down” in front of her fireplace certainly has a different meaning in co...
Christine and the Queens Sings “People, I’ve been sad” on Colbert: Watch
Christine and the Queens has spent the global lockdown perfecting the art of the intimate at-home performance. Last night, she showcased all she’s learned by singing “People, I’ve been sad” on Colbert. Perched on a windowsill in her Paris abode, Chris sang the track off the La Vita Nuova EP while golden-hour light cracked through the clouds on the other side of the glass. Even sitting still, her foot propped up against the frame, she proved to be one of the most emotive and graceful artists working in pop. Watch the replay below. If Christine and the Queens seems particularly comfortable with these sort of isolated performances, it’s likely because she’s been regularly delivering livestream performances for fans. Included in the streams have been covers of The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights”, T...
Sheryl Crow Covers George Harrison’s “Beware of Darkness” on Colbert: Watch
Sheryl Crow appeared remotely on Tuesday night’s episode of Late Show With Stephen Colbert to perform a cover of George Harrison’s “Beware of Darkness”. In introducing the song, Crow called Harrison “one of my favorite artists of all time”. Watch her brilliant piano performance below. “Beware of Darkness” originally appeared on Harrison’s 1970 album, All Things Must Pass, and Crow recently released a recorded version of the song as part of her latest album, 2019’s Threads. She spoke about Threads, collaborations with Johnny Cash, Bonnie Raitt, Mavis Staples, and more during a past appearance on Kyle Meredith With…, which you can also revisit below. [embedded content] [embedded content]
