Eddie Vedder, Joanna Newsom to Guest Star on 'Portlandia'

Eddie Vedder guest stars with series co-creator Carrie Brownstein on IFC's 'Portlandia'

Rebekah Johnson

Eddie Vedder, Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols, Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock and songwriter Joanna Newsom will be featured guests on the new season of the IFC sketch comedy show Portlandia, set to premiere January 6th. Co-created by SNL's Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein of the band Wild Flag, the series is entering its second season. According to the network, other guests will include Johnny Marr (the Smiths) and Annie Clark (St. Vincent).

Season one of Portlandia featured musical guests including Aimee Mann, Colin Meloy of the Decemberists and James Mercer of the Shins. The show is set in Portland, Oregon. 

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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