virtualmusic.TV » Conan O’Brien

What Do These Performers Have In Common?

Ryan Van Etten — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:37:48 +0000

What Do These Performers Have In Common?

They all performed as musical guests or comedy acts on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.

Data via Wikipedia. Image: flickr/virtualmusictv

From the show’s final episode on Jan. 22 2009:

“Despite this sense of loss, I really feel this should be a happy moment. Every comedian dreams of hosting The Tonight Show, and for seven months I got to do it, and I did it my way, with people I love, and I do not regret one second of anything that we’ve done here. You know I encounter people when I walk on the street now who are just…who give me sort of a sad look—I have had more good fortune than anybody I know. If our next gig is in a 7/11 parking lot we will find a way to make it fun. We really will. I have no problems. I don’t want to do it in a 7/11 parking lot, but, whatever. Finally, I have something to say to our fans: This massive outpouring of support and passion from so many people has been overwhelming for me—the rallies, the signs, all this goofy outrageous creativity on the Internet, the fact that people traveled long distances and camped out all night in the pouring rain—it’s pouring, it’s been pouring for days, and they’re camping out to be in our audience. Here’s what all of you have done. You made a sad situation joyous and inspirational. So to all the people watching I can never ever thank you enough for the kindness to me—I’ll think about it the rest of my life—and all I ask is one thing. I’m asking this particularly of young people who watch. Please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism—for the record it’s my least favorite quality—it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get, but if you work really hard, and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. I’m telling you amazing things will happen. I’m telling you it’s just true.” –Conan O’Brien

Dhani Harrison on Conan O’Brien, Rock Band, and thenewno2

Ryan Van Etten — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:01:05 +0000

I saw this interview of Dhani Harrison on Conan O’Brien the night before The Beatles Rock Band’s debut in September, and up until then I had not realized that George’s son, Dhani Harrison, had played such a major role in the development of the game. In the interview Dhani describes how he ended up working on creation of The Beatles Rock Band, which started with his 5-year-long Guitar Hero obsession.

Dhani Harrison is a musician in his own right—his indie-rock band thenewno2 is featured in Rock Band with songs from their debut album, You Are Here. Note—any musician will soon be able to publish their tracks in Rock Band too via the Rock Band Network. In a Billboard.com interview Dhani said, “I did everything I could to not be a musician…I went to university (Brown), I worked as a designer, I competed in Olympic sport (rowing)…and I ended up being a musician. It’s in the DNA, I guess.”

But as Dhani explains to Conan, his paying job is designing videogames, and I suspect the music-gaming community is pretty happy with his efforts so far in making The Beatles Rock Band as genuine and fun as possible. His enthusiasm towards creating the game and his dedication to historical accuracy no doubt played an important role. Outside of the videogame, Dhani is striving to build a unique community for thenewno2 fans with their new website designed to deliver personal interactive video content via subscription and without depending on networks like Facebook or MySpace. In an article on Wired.com Scott Thill summarized, “The plan is comparatively simple: Compress and feed thenewno2’s output on video directly to its fan base, and they will come to support the artists and build a community.” In the same article Dhani told Wired, “Rather than have fans just leave comments on MySpace, they can have a personal connection to the band. When they see my profile live on the site, they can literally click me and ask me a question or two. It’s interactive blogging, but we also wanted to bring that actual visual context.” Now here’s some Rock Band action—Yomp by thenewno2:

This post is a follow-up from yesterday when we posted video footage of The Beatles Rock Band. You can see more articles about Rock Band at here. VirtualMusic.tv is seeking writers interested in music videogames and other topics. Please see our about page.

Paramore | Music Site of The Month

Ryan Van Etten — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 07:56:19 +0000

Music Site of The Month is a new series where we spotlight an awesome music website based on its interactive content, fan engagement, and mobility. This month the spotlight is on Paramore. [rock-pop/alternative rock/pop-punk]

Paramore.net is more than a website—it is a community and social network for Paramore fans. We need to see more music sites like this. Paramore fans can upload their own photos and videos to the site for everyone to view in an easily navigable fashion. Fans can connect with each other (and with the band) through the community, and they can subscribe to the fan club for exclusive content.

This video clip shows Paramore’s tight Monday night live TV performance on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. Paramore’s third studio album Brand New Eyes was officially released this week. Rock.

Music SOTM Series: Do you know a band, DJ, or musician with an ace website? Please let us know: contact RVE and we’ll consider it for Music SOTM. Entries are based on interactive content, fan engagement, and mobility. Visit virtualmusic.tv/msotm/ to see more MSOTM artists.