Seth Meyers’ 8G Band Is Being Laid Off
The 8G Band has been a part of Late Night With Seth Meyers for 11 seasons. Led by Fred Armisen on drums, the group features Les Savy Fav’s Seth Jabour and Syd Butler as well as Eli Janney of Girls Against Boys. Marnie Stern played guitar for the band until 2022, and countless rock musicians — including St. Vincent, J Mascis, Eleanor Friedberger, and Turnstile’s Daniel Fang — have sat in over the years. Today, Vulture revealed that the house band is being laid off.
For Season 12, which premieres in September, the show will endure a “revamp” for budgetary reasons, according to Janney, who is also the associate musical director. It was confirmed by a second source. The publication also notes that 50 to 100 employees were laid off at NBC in January.
In the interview, Janney clarified, “We’re still going to make music for them, but we just won’t be playing it live.” When asked about how the show is going to change, he explained:
I’m not part of that discussion. I know that we’ll have Fred drumming with us for the last week, and there’ll be a little bit of a celebration, I’m sure. There’s been a bunch of ideas floated, but nothing has been written in stone yet. It’s also just a sad day for Late Night, because it’s been going for over 40 years now. But, sadly, it’s the reality of broadcast and a shrinking market — streaming eating into this, and YouTube eating into that. Streaming is not making money, either. So budgets everywhere have been cut and cut and cut. I liken it to a Spotify moment in music, where suddenly it’s like, Nobody wants to pay for music. Music gets devalued.
Jabour and Butler will be busy with Les Savy Fav, since the band recently released their first album in 14 years. Last year, Marnie Stern released her first new album in 10 years, The Comeback Kid. Next week on Late Night Gojira drummer Mario Duplantier will be sitting in with the 8G Band.