For fans of Late Night and Portlandia, the latest hire from Seth Meyers will be welcome news. He’s organized for Fred Armisen to act as the “curator” and bandleader of the late-night band, according to RollingStone. Seth Meyer tweeted the announcement Monday. “Fred will curate and lead the band, and continue to run it even when he’s off shooting Portlandia,” joking that, “Fred has promised that if he does quit, Sting will take his place.” Portlandia sent its own Twitter shout out, saying “Hey @LateNightSeth, heard you got a new band leader,” Monday.
The rest of the band will be made up of a guitarist Seth Jabour, bassist Syd Butler, keyboardist Eli Janney, and drummer Kim Thompson, from Les Savy Fav, Girls Against Boys, and Beyoncé’s touring band respectively, according to RollingStone. Armisen will play guitar and sing. His role in comedy is established at this point from both his time on SNL, and co-starring and writing Portlandia with Carrie Brownstein.
As Entertainment Weekly points out, Armisen’s position in the band comes after a long history with music. He was a member of Trenchmouth, a post-hardcore band in the 1990s, dropping out of the New York City’s School of Visual Arts to join. He then drummed for the Blue Man Group for a time, performed at South by Southwest music festival, and even put his musical talent to use in his sketch comedy. He created a sketch character on SNL, a punk musician from the UK named “Ian Rubbish,” which he managed to use to get an interview with The Clash, as well as performing alongside them. You can visit his website as well, for IanRubbish & the Bizzaros with songs like “Maggie Thatcher,” “Hey Policeman,” and “Living in the Gutter” conveniently download-able for fans.
Seth Meyers, also a staple on SNL recieved his new place on Late Night after Jay Leno organized his final departure from The Tonight Show, opening the door for Jimmy Fallon to take over, leaving Late Night with a vacancy. “I don’t want to make any broad pronouncements about how the show is going to be, whether it’s going to be the same or different. But I have to draw on my background in improvisational comedy and sketch comedy and stand-up comedy and try to find some mix of that,” said Meyers to the New York Times of his plans for the new show — which premieres February 24.
For those who remember SNL’s “Weekend Update” fondly, Meyers has some good news. “I do think we want to have some ‘Update’ elements. I’ve always been drawn to topical humor. We want that to be a big element of the show. You can always count on a little fake news,” said Meyers, according to the Vulture. For those who remember Stefon — played by Bill Hader — Meyers made comments that could promise similar comedy material. “I really enjoy playing a straight man to people who are funny. So we’ll try to get some of those people around,” said Meyers.