Pick Your Poison: Monday 2-10-14

The late night talk show shakeup at NBC has produced a number of interesting things, and certainly having Jimmy Fallon and The Roots in the “Tonight Show” slot is one of them. Conan O’Brien was in the post-“Tonight” slot for 16 years before being promoted up to the big leagues and taking over for Leno. It’s only taken Fallon five years to achieve the same thing. That has less to do with overall readiness and more to do with circumstance. NBC gave Conan seven months as “Tonight Show” host before forcing him out to bring Leno back due to plummeting ratings. Will Fallon fare better? Arguably yes, mostly because he’s extremely likeable and friendly with just about everyone, and does a lot less absurd and generally weird stuff than Conan did and still sometimes does. He is, in a word, a moderately safer choice than Conan, though I’m expecting a lot of the older demographics who watched Leno might not be as excited to watch Fallon with his games and technology-centric bits. Will the younger audience that watched him on late night follow him to the earlier time slot? I guess we’ll find out next week. Personally, I’m more interested in seeing how Seth Meyers is going to do as the new late night host. While I loved his work on “SNL,” it’ll be interesting to see how that translates into a talk show. Also, Fallon was a big sketch and music guy, while Meyers is…not, so I’m curious if he’s going to try that, or will leave that to the supporting players. Speaking of supporting players, Fred Armisen was just named the late night band leader, and he’ll be bringing members of Les Savy Fav, Girls Against Boys and Beyonce’s backing band with him. I feel like that’s a truly inspired decision, particularly given Armisen’s versatility. He’s done some great musician characters on “SNL,” including the great Sex Pistols parody Ian Rubbish, and has also played in (and with) a number of bands over the years. The only time I’ve seen Armisen in person was when he performed solo as the opening act for a Wilco show. He later came out and played drums with the band. So he’s got the chops to lead a band, and will probably be a huge help in doing comedy/character bits both for and with Meyers on the show. We’re two weeks away from Meyers’ first show, so here’s hoping it goes well. Now then, let’s get to today’s Pick Your Poison. Great tracks today come from Chalk and Numbers (covering the Misfits), Mike Dillon, Ryan Hobler, Sweet Valley and Trophy Scars. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream songs from Angel Olsen, Beverly (new Frankie Rose project), Iggy Azalea (ft. Charli XCX), Kelis, Klaxons, Walter Martin (ft. Karen O) and Windy & Carl.