Same here. When I read the title of the thread I was a little shocked to see it was still going.
120 Minutes was always a mixed bag. As Carey mentioned, there were weeks where it would be excellent and then the next week it would be a horrible wankfest of corporate altern-crap.
― Nicole (Nicole), Monday, 7 April 2003 16:57 (twenty-one years ago) link
Jake hosted 12 Angry Viewers for a bit (I met him when I was on) and now does stand-up and improv comedy around NYC (I met him again recently when my band played Automatic Vaudeville - a weekly performance at Ars Nova he puts together). He's a nice guy.
― roger adultery (roger adultery), Monday, 7 April 2003 17:44 (twenty-one years ago) link
The reality was always driven by the big labels and balanced by the programmers best they could (remember most if not all of the cool stuff they did play in the 80s were on the bigs). Ie: the labels would sorta trade favors with MTV, play this and we'll give you that. Frankly, 120 Minutes started out as a dumping ground (not so much as an alternative rock show) where MTV could play videos that didn't fit anywhere else, or more often, that they didn't want to play during the day, to accomodate the labels persistence. It is true that the programmers actually had decent taste (which changed a bit in the later years I guess) and constantly had to balance that with the demands of the market/bottom line which is why you had some horrific shows. This current MTV2 version is the same in name but not really in any other regard. MTV2 has a lot more flexibility in what is programmed (which is great) so the show isn't burdened so much as far is programming is concerned.
120 Minutes was the longest running show on MTV, so that's saying something. I love 120 Minutes and always will since it has a unique history and did actually change minds in the early days. I mean - seeing the Teenage Riot video early on probably changed my life in more ways than I'd care to admit.
― scott m (mcd), Monday, 7 April 2003 17:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Pete Scholtes, Monday, 7 April 2003 18:36 (twenty-one years ago) link
― scott m (mcd), Monday, 7 April 2003 18:43 (twenty-one years ago) link
yeah.. the Lollapalooza Twins ('95) twins... classic!
― minutes to glory, Monday, 7 April 2003 18:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 7 April 2003 20:19 (twenty-one years ago) link
I still have it on tape somewhere.
*sigh*
― teeny (teeny), Monday, 7 April 2003 23:08 (twenty-one years ago) link
Easy target, since that that video was in heavy rotation forever - but duty requires me to smite:
> POW! <
OK done.
― Chris Barrus (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 8 April 2003 00:54 (twenty-one years ago) link
Also, the Catherine Wheel did a great, probably 10-12 minute, version of "Black Metallic" that I wish I had taped.
― nickn (nickn), Tuesday, 8 April 2003 04:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
second best MTV day since the day they played nothing but "True Blue" videos for that contest. My sister and I watched the whole day's worth.
― Aaron A., Tuesday, 8 April 2003 04:02 (twenty-one years ago) link
http://youtube.com/watch?v=nD13JLVP0Zk
― rajeev (rajeev), Sunday, 2 April 2006 17:09 (eighteen years ago) link
Hey, I thought he destroyed a phone! I distinctly remember Beck destroying a toy phone during this interview!
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 2 April 2006 17:29 (eighteen years ago) link
Beck, I mean. Of course.
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 2 April 2006 17:30 (eighteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 2 April 2006 17:32 (eighteen years ago) link
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 2 April 2006 17:38 (eighteen years ago) link
― Porcupine Kiss, Novacaine Lips (Bimble...), Sunday, 2 April 2006 17:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 2 April 2006 17:49 (eighteen years ago) link
actually yeah, i think you're right! i hadn't seen it since it originally aired, so my sharpest memory was of beck throwing his shoe.
― rajeev (rajeev), Sunday, 2 April 2006 18:12 (eighteen years ago) link
I still kind of like the speed-up-slow-down tape recorder bit though, and I chuckled when Mike D said Oprah Winfrey was on his tour.
― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Sunday, 2 April 2006 18:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― ramon fernandez (ramon fernandez), Sunday, 2 April 2006 19:00 (eighteen years ago) link
Jeezus, they aired that a lot didn't they? I can barely make it through the whole song without turning it off 17 years later.
― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Sunday, 2 April 2006 19:29 (eighteen years ago) link
― keyth (keyth), Sunday, 2 April 2006 22:22 (eighteen years ago) link
hahaha. Yeah it does seem like they played that a lot. Then about ten years ago I had some friends that played that song countless times. So yeah, I've really had it with that thing.
― Porcupine Kiss, Novacaine Lips (Bimble...), Monday, 3 April 2006 04:24 (eighteen years ago) link
-- nickalicious (nza2342...), April 7th, 2003.
yeah, that performance...fucking.. insane.http://youtube.com/watch?v=jMCbvNrh8x8&search=jeff%20buckley
― mox twelve (Mox twleve), Monday, 3 April 2006 05:49 (eighteen years ago) link
Thanks for that!
― Stew (stew s), Monday, 3 April 2006 17:40 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 3 April 2006 18:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― mcd (mcd), Monday, 3 April 2006 18:13 (eighteen years ago) link
― eedd, Monday, 3 April 2006 18:53 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eppy (Eppy), Monday, 3 April 2006 19:21 (eighteen years ago) link
http://120minutes.tumblr.com
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 24 July 2007 23:48 (seventeen years ago) link
(not my site)
The best videos were usually on at 1:50 am. You'd have to sit through the whole show to get to the new GBV video or whatever. Ah, for TIVO back then.
― mike a, Wednesday, 25 July 2007 14:10 (seventeen years ago) link
i used to programma vcr. ff'd through 114 of those mintues.
― sexyDancer, Wednesday, 25 July 2007 15:20 (seventeen years ago) link
i think 120mns episodes are the most oft dropped off tapes in plastic shopping bags at my shoppe
― danbunny, Wednesday, 25 July 2007 15:35 (seventeen years ago) link
just clicked the jeff buckley link:
This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Jeff Buckley (Mary I. Guibert, Executrix for the Estate of Jeffrey Scott Buckley)
dunno quite how i feel about this, but i suspect jeff would be pissed to know none of his performances, which aren't available anywhere else, are available anymore :-(
― CharlieNo4, Wednesday, 25 July 2007 15:45 (seventeen years ago) link
Isn't his executrix also his mom, and hasn't she been involved in getting lots of his previously unavailable performances issued since his death? I guess I'd cut her a lot of slack, after she lost both her husband and her son so young. If she thinks the best way to take care of his estate is to ask people not to use his work unlicensed, who am I to judge that decision?
― dad a, Wednesday, 25 July 2007 15:58 (seventeen years ago) link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbUMrq2LrzA - wow, hadn't seen this Juliana Hatfield video before.
I got all excited when I saw that VH1 Classic had "120 Minutes" on the schedule until I discovered that it was just "Alternative" renamed rather than reruns of old 120 Minutes episodes w/ guests.
― milo z, Wednesday, 25 July 2007 16:04 (seventeen years ago) link
Rollins takes down Thruston over use of skateboarding in roadie death trib vid: just 1 of 120 minutes tonight onna VH1 VHS ... SLP (for max sound wiggle)
― sexyDancer, Wednesday, 25 July 2007 16:09 (seventeen years ago) link
jeff3209 (2 months ago) Marked as spam Juliana Hatfield is so underated- I saw her her at reading 95 and she was awesome. So ballsy (Reply) (Spam) 40lbColon (2 months ago) Marked as spam Not to mention she is cute as!!! The 90's produced the best music of any decade. It is sad to see how the music scene has fallen so...
― latebloomer, Wednesday, 25 July 2007 16:14 (seventeen years ago) link
there is that site that allows to make a playlist of google/youtube etc videos and play them continuously. I made an account where I selected some newish fun videos http://aerialescapism.feedbeat.net/ I made it so hopefully people who are following the production of fun new music video more closely than I do would like to add titles to that playlist , or like make a playlist of your own and share the link here plz etc
― Sébastien, Wednesday, 25 July 2007 16:21 (seventeen years ago) link
i've got a few surviving vhs tapes of episodes. the era commercials are pretty terrible yet evocative.
lots and lots of hair club for men with dudes swimming and water skiing and such and their gross permanent wet look pube hair staying on their heads and whatnot. and of course the "...i'm also a member" sy sterling bit.
the come back to at&t spots. back when phone companies were competing for your biz.
spike lee levis spots. dudes throwing fish around in their levis.
clearasil. teen holds up slice of pepperoni: "remind you of anyone's face?!"
some brand of body spray with a racy, naked chick spraying herself down. designer imposters maybe?
basically these on repeat for hours and hours and on through the night when they played "enter sandman" and "life is a highway" endlessly from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m.
― andrew m., Wednesday, 25 July 2007 16:49 (seventeen years ago) link
"i can do my hair in more of a 90s fashion"
― andrew m., Wednesday, 25 July 2007 16:50 (seventeen years ago) link
That site is just reminding me how little I actually liked most 90s college rock and how I just watched 120 mins for the general atmosphere of cool.
― Hurting 2, Wednesday, 25 July 2007 16:51 (seventeen years ago) link
This was my favorite thing in the world when Kevin Seal was hosting.
― Spencer Chow, Wednesday, 25 July 2007 17:17 (seventeen years ago) link
coming up on one hundred and twenty minutes we've got brand new videos from wire train, chicago's material issue, and peter murphy. but first here's lush with superblahst.
dk all the way.
― andrew m., Wednesday, 25 July 2007 18:33 (seventeen years ago) link
Agreed! Maybe its just that that was during my musical coming-of-age, but the content seemed better/more varied then. I still have a few on tape too, including the christmas 1989 one (with Joey Ramone coming on to do a top 10 list and the Ordinaires doing xmas tunes in the bkground), and one i can never throw away where they first showed Galaxie 500's "When Will You Come Home." 16 year old me went to mall first thing the next morning to get that tape!
Also, re: the ads: tons of art/design school ads i remember. Don't remember which school... Atlanta School of Art or something?
― city worker, Wednesday, 25 July 2007 18:54 (seventeen years ago) link
haha yeah. art institute of somewhere or other. there was one where the students were making this sci-fi movie and building sets and costumes and things with a spaceship on a wire and shit. start your career in the art and design world today! so so bad.
― andrew m., Wednesday, 25 July 2007 19:20 (seventeen years ago) link
Wire Train! I had forgotten that name -- were they the ones with the "Chamber of Hellos" single?
― nabisco, Wednesday, 25 July 2007 19:24 (seventeen years ago) link
My opionion re. the original question: 120 min. was cool in the late eighties beacause, back then indie was still indie. Maybe I was too young back then but I was so impressed by the "120 minutes into the future" slogan. I thought it was genuine, at least in intention; an attempt to be on the cutting edge. And, in a way, most of that stuff was the future of music. In a bad way, sadly.
― daavid, Wednesday, 25 July 2007 20:08 (seventeen years ago) link
http://www.altmusictv.com/
― humansuit, Tuesday, 31 July 2007 20:58 (seventeen years ago) link
I was just about to link to http://tylerc.com/120minutes/, but I see the link in the previous post redirects there. Awesome site.
― jam master (jaymc), Saturday, 20 March 2010 15:14 (fourteen years ago) link
July 30th a monthly A.D.D.-version of 120 Minutes premieres on MTV2.
― billstevejim, Friday, 15 July 2011 23:42 (thirteen years ago) link
It's 120 Minutes on MTV I'm yr host Doive Kendall & that was "Accidentally 4th Street" by Figures on a Beach. Next up, it's a new one from Poi Dog Pondering!
http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhinbgzFhl1qdsgblo1_500.png
― steady yachting (Pillbox), Saturday, 16 July 2011 02:19 (thirteen years ago) link
<3 Dave
― Johnny Fever, Saturday, 16 July 2011 02:20 (thirteen years ago) link
Dave kendall loved the shit out of swervedriver
― van ingalls wilder (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 16 July 2011 05:28 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.davekendall.com/newsite/index.html
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 16 July 2011 05:32 (thirteen years ago) link
And Swervedriver rules... They should bring him back for the new show.
― billstevejim, Saturday, 16 July 2011 05:34 (thirteen years ago) link
Is that his online resume?
― billstevejim, Saturday, 16 July 2011 05:38 (thirteen years ago) link
Oh Dave Kendall - such a lack of personality
― | (Latham Green), Monday, 18 October 2021 13:12 (two years ago) link
He was the one John Lydon called out on-air for wearing a wig, I believe.
― Chris L, Monday, 18 October 2021 13:55 (two years ago) link
T/S: Dave Kendall vs. Matt PinfieldI found an ancient VHS rip online a while back and realized for the first time that 120 Minutes was actually briefly hosted by Kevin Seal of all people.
― Gimme some skin! Because I don't have any skin. (Old Lunch), Monday, 18 October 2021 13:56 (two years ago) link
i had no idea that show was still going in 2003
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 18 October 2021 14:05 (two years ago) link
yeah I used to watch the Kevin Seal 120 Minutes. Dave Kendall would show up to a record report segment (before taking over as host)
― St. Twel'mo, or the Cuneiform Cyclopedist of Chattanooga (President Keyes), Monday, 18 October 2021 14:08 (two years ago) link
I'm pretty sure I was watching during the Kevin Seal days. There are entire branches of my music taste that are based entirely on specific episodes during that time.
― Mr. Cacciatore (Moodles), Monday, 18 October 2021 14:12 (two years ago) link
Dave Kendall with his accent saying "Videos coming up from Inspiral Carpets . . . The Charlatans UK . . ." is imprinted on my brain forever.
― Hannibal Lecture (PBKR), Monday, 18 October 2021 14:15 (two years ago) link
Joke we had back in the 90s about 120 Minutes was that Dave Kendall in an office re-org had to go to work for "Speed Week" and then one of my roommates would do in Kendall's accent 'This week on Speed Week we got interviews with Cale Yarborough and the new car for Bill Elliot'.
― earlnash, Monday, 18 October 2021 14:20 (two years ago) link
Alan Hunter hosted a lot of the first year's episodes. Adam Curry and Downtown Julie Brown hosted a few as well.
― St. Twel'mo, or the Cuneiform Cyclopedist of Chattanooga (President Keyes), Monday, 18 October 2021 14:21 (two years ago) link
― Typo? Negative! (Boring, Maryland), Monday, 18 October 2021 20:32 (two years ago) link
Kendall came out to introduce the bands at a show I went to in 1991 or 1992. I can't remember if it was a Front Line Assembly show or a Laibach show. Probably the former.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Monday, 18 October 2021 20:37 (two years ago) link
I do not remember bald Dave Kendall.
Matt Pinfield, on the other hand...
― pplains, Monday, 18 October 2021 22:16 (two years ago) link
I always think of Dave Kendall introducing Nitzer Ebb. Whenever I see their name I read it back in my head in his voice.
― akm, Tuesday, 19 October 2021 14:55 (two years ago) link
It's the same for me with Killing Joke
― St. Twel'mo, or the Cuneiform Cyclopedist of Chattanooga (President Keyes), Tuesday, 19 October 2021 15:14 (two years ago) link
I don't know how I'd forgotten completely about Lewis Largent (his name just spontaneously generated in my brain), especially since he was the host for the entire stretch when I watched the most fanatically.
― Gimme some skin! Because I don't have any skin. (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 19 October 2021 17:24 (two years ago) link
R.I.P. Lewis Largent. His career had an interesting start:
A native of Southern California, Largent was an enthusiastic golfer as a teen, and he met the general manager of the Los Angeles alternative-radio powerhouse KROQ while working at a country club. Impressed with Largent’s knowledge of music, the GM offered him an internship at the station that led to a full-time role in 1985. He rose quickly through the ranks and was named music director in 1989.In 1992, Largent left the station to take a VP of music programming post at MTV, where he soon began hosting “120 Minutes.”
― reluctant antonoff appreciator (morrisp), Saturday, 11 March 2023 19:38 (one year ago) link
Re Dave Kendall — for me it’s him saying Naked Raygun lol!! Sorry about Lewis Largent :(
― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Saturday, 11 March 2023 19:40 (one year ago) link
https://archive.org/search?query=%22120+minutes%22+MTV
― obsidian crocogolem (sleeve), Saturday, 11 March 2023 20:31 (one year ago) link