All About Carson

The morons at NBC have been spoken of a lot in the past few days with all the talk of The Jay Leno Show being cancelled and their odd devotion to this silver haired sea monster of late night, taking it so far as to push back the late night shows people care about in order to accomodate his seemingly always changing wishes. I'm not an expert on precisely what's going down but I can tell you one thing: my favorite show of them all is Last Call with Carson Daly.

It's not that I don't apperciate the wit of Conan O'Brien (lately I've actually been slightly in love with him) or the goofiness of Jimmy Fallon, it's just that Carson brings that extra oomph in the form of some of my favorite musicians who get little screen time elsewhere. In the past several months he's had guests ranging from Grizzly Bear to Paolo Nutini to Metric to a fantastically candid interview with David Gray. Unlike some other hosts who seem either too forced or too egocentric, Daly really seems to get something special from his interviewees. He seems like more of a friend to these people than a guy getting paid a lot of money to ask them questions that he doesn't care about to begin with. I admire his laid back approach and the new "documentary style" of the show. Actually at first I was a little apprehensive about the latter because way back when he used to have a desk and a normal late night format he also employed a nice guy and very good musician by the name of Joe Firstman who doesn't seem to do much else these days after getting fired I suppose. NBC has been causing trouble and adding to the recession for a lot longer than just the past few weeks.

My personal feelings for Carson Daly have been mixed since the first day I saw him on TRL back in the days when MTV had music programming. You could sense his intense passion for music (maybe even on the level of the great music maven Matt Pinfield) but there was something a little off. Maybe the black nail polish on only one finger per hand? The bright blue overly bulging eyes? Who knows. But even back then he had that natural commraderie with musicians of all genres that few television personalities seem to master. I was about to say "for some reason" I always root for him but the reason is his professionalism. He comes across as the kind of guy that would be out late drinking and blasting music with his buddies and still get to work on time in the morning looking as fresh as an argyle sweater.

I didn't intend on using this post to gush about Carson Daly of all people but the more I think about his show the more I realize how refreshing it is to see someone with no pretenses and no caked-on fakeness on broadcast television. There are subtle things I would really miss about Carson if NBC decided to finally remember about him and swiftly dismiss his little show. Things like immediately thanking viewers for staying up to watch him and sincerely praising each one of his guests be they athlete, comedian, or underground musician. He brings so much attention to up and coming artists of all backgrounds and really doesn't get enough respect for it. He has a great ear for all types of music and seems like he really enjoys sharing his passions with the world. It's the same basis as this blog: bringing the music one loves to as many people as possible. It's about time someone brings some attention to Carson Daly, the underdog of late night that is chewing it up everyday in the best way he can.

Last Call with Carson Daly is on weeknights on NBC at 1:35am. If you're not awake, DVR-it.