Actor Ron Palillo, who played Arnold Horshack on the 1970s television series "Welcome Back, Kotter," died Tuesday at his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. He was 63.

Jacqueline Stander, an agent for Palillo, told NBC News that the actor had a heart attack and passed away in his sleep.

Palillo starred as Horshack, the goofball of the high school group known as the Sweathogs on the hit series. The show aired from 1975-79 and featured a young John Travolta as Vinny Barbarino. - [NBC]

A couple Horshack-related video clips are below.

Continue reading "R.I.P. Ron Palillo"

Yo Gabba Gabba w/ MGMT at Radio City in 2010 (more by Alexnader Stein)

Nick Jr. show Yo Gabba Gabba which has been known to feature indie/alternative music is going on a tour late this year and into next called Yo Gabba Gabba! Live! Get the Sillies Out!. The sillies, if you were wondering, "are crazy little creatures that live inside of us and need to be shaken out!" Only a few dates have been announced as of this post, and those include a seven show run at The Theater at Madison Square Garden from November 30 to December 2.

Tickets for the NYC shows go on sale to the general public on Wednesday, August 15 at 10 AM. A presale for members of Gabba Mail and YGG's Facebook friends begins Thursday (7/26) at 10 AM (password: "ILOVEYGG") and we at BrooklynVegan are also offering an exclusive presale beginning Thursday (7/26) at 10 AM and running through August 14 at 10 PM (password: "BV2012").

A list of all currently known dates, more details on the Theater at MSG shows, and a video below...

Continue reading "Yo Gabba Gabba touring, playing 7 shows at Theater at MSG (exclusive BV presale!) (dates)"

Griffith died this morning.

Former UNC President Bill Friday says The Andy Griffith Show and Matlock actor died at his home in Dare County, North Carolina around 7 a.m.

Friday, who is a close friend of the actor, confirmed the news to WITN News.

Emergency medical crews responded to Griffith's home this morning, Dare County Sheriff J.D. Doughtie told WAVY.com.

Griffith, who was born in Mt. Airy, N.C., was launched to fame as Sheriff Andy Taylor in The Andy Griffith Show for the CBS from 1960-1968. On the show, Ron Howard played his son, Opie. He starred on other shows and in films, but found his greatest success again with legal drama Matlock, from 1986 to 1995. He played the title character, Ben Matlock.

In 2000, Griffith underwent quadruple heart-bypass surgery and in 2007 had hip surgery after a fall. [USA Today]

Continue reading "Andy Griffith, RIP"

"Calling it the next logical step in an evolution over nearly six decades, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. said Thursday that it will split into two publicly traded companies. As part of the split, one company will operate as a newspaper and book publisher, and the other will be an entertainment company that will include the 20th Century Fox movie studio, the Fox broadcast TV network and the Fox News cable channel." [Wall Street Journal]

"An investor group led by Sony closed its $2.2 billion acquisition of EMI Music Publishing on Friday, creating a giant force in music publishing, the unglamorous but lucrative side of the music business that deals with songwriting rights." [NY Times]

by Klaus Kinski

In today's "Oh yeah, that makes total sense" comedy news, it was just announced that Klaus Kinski All Time Favorite Kurt Braunohler has joined the upcoming Comedy Bang! Bang! tour and will be the master of opening ceremonies in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Boston, Seattle and Portland (Oregon)(not Maine). Bad news though; the previously announced NYC August 7th show at the Highline Ballroom has sold out. GOOD NEWS though: a late show has been added! Tickets for that 10pm doors / 10:30pm show are on sale now but they are flying off the shelves. Git em! All dates are listed below.

As I mentioned earlier, Comedy Bang! Bang! is not only a superior podcast, but it's also a show on IFC that you can see Friday's at 10/9C. Mr. Braunohler is the host of comedy game show Bunk which you can see on IFC Friday nights at 10:30/9:30C. From an "industry" standpoint, you can see why the pairing makes sense. But from a Klaus Kinski standpoint, it makes sense because Aukerman and Braunohler are hilarious, and have been since waaaayyyyyyyy before their IFC shows. This is a great opportunity to see one of NYC's best share a bill with some of LA's best, and you can be damn sure there will be HELLA surprises and special guests. That's a promise to you, the BV reader, because that's who I am and that's who I care about. Full dates below.

And don't forget, you can see Kurt Braunohler all the freaking time in NYC, provided he is in town. As mentioned, his phenomenal show Night of the Living takes place every so often at Littlefield in Brooklyn. The next installment of Night of the Living takes place Friday June 29th and features Judah Friedlander, music by Amanda Palmer, and a screening of his show Bunk. Inexplicably, $10 tickets are still available. Kurt also co-hosts the great Hot Tub with Kurt and Kristen which takes place Mondays at Littlefield. Hot Tub is SO MUCH fun and offer up an always eclectic roster of awesome guests.

Last month Kurt was a guest at Kevin Allison (of the State)'s show Risk! which goes down at the Pit in NYC. Check out the video below. Risk! happens again tonight (6/28), but this time with guests Mara Wilson, Jamie Lee, Lisa Kirchner, AND Tom Shillue (who tells funny stories) AND Simon Amstell (who we've been stalking since he landed in NYC)!

Also tonight in NYC: Yacht Rock Revue @ Canal Room.

Tons of local Kurt Braunohler dates, the video of him at Risk!, and all Comedy Bang! Bang! dates, below...

Continue reading "Kurt Braunohler added to Comedy Bang! Bang! tour, 2nd NYC show added; Simon Amstell takes a Risk!; Yacht Rock too"

by Klaus Kinski

Note: tickets are on sale now. Ok keep reading...

I've been an avid fan of comedian Louis CK for the past 10 years or so. When I started following his work, he was enjoying a very steady and reliable ascent in popularity. Then he blew. the. fuck. up. in what felt like the time it takes the average person to take a dump. Relentless gigging, successful stand-up specials, one of the most compelling comedies on television (new season of Louie starts tomorrow, June 28th, btw)... He was (and is) dominating. Yet what I love about him most is that his success has not changed how he wants to relate with his audience. He is a rare breed of comedian who writes completely new material every single year and never relies on bits from years prior. He also hates seeing tickets for his shows get bought up by scalpers, marked way up, and his fans getting totally ripped off; he also doesn't like playing to rooms with tons of empty seats; seats that scalpers couldn't sell. Back in September 2011, he did three shows at the Bell House in advance of some big ass shows he was doing at the Beacon Theater. These Bell House shows cost $10. The first two shows at the went on sale via ticketweb the morning of the shows; tickets for the third show were only available to people who could show up at the Bell House in person that afternoon to retrieve them. As fan friendly as this sounded, surprise surprise, people found things to piss and moan about. Ticketweb kept crashing and people kept getting shut out. People have jobs and can't get to the Bell House in the middle of the afternoon. Crap like that. I thought it was a SOLID effort on Louis' part to do a cheap, fan friendly, small room show.

On December 10, 2011 he released the full-length video Live at the Beacon Theater for download online in HD, SD, or audio only for a measly $5. And people downloaded the shit out of it. By December 17, 2011 the show had grossed over one million US dollars. Louis paid for the production out of pocket and his main intent was giving something awesome to his fans for cheap. Obviously it worked.

Now, Louis is taking a HUGE step in circumventing big name ticket outlets like Ticketmaster, Ticketweb, and LiveNation by selling tickets to his next massive tour for a flat $45. Louis provided a long and thoughtful treatise on why he is doing it, how he is doing it, and how he hopes to enforce a strict no scalping policy.

hello folks! I'm going on tour this year from October through Feb. I'll be all over the goddamn place. This year, I'm trying something new, building on the fun, success and fan-benifit of selling my content online. We are selling tickets to this tour exclusively here on louisck.com. I only wanted to do this if there was a way, like with LIVE AT THE BEACON, that it could bring the price of tickets down and make them easier and less complicated to buy. We figured out a way.

Making my shows affordable has always been my goal but two things have always worked against that. High ticket charges and ticket re-sellers marking up the prices. Some ticketing services charge more than 40% over the ticket price and, ironically, the lower I've made my ticket prices, the more scalpers have bought them up, so the more fans have paid for a lot of my tickets.

By selling the tickets exclusively on my site, I've cut the ticket charges way down and absorbed them into the ticket price. To buy a ticket, you join NOTHING. Just use your credit card and buy the damn thing. opt in to the email list if you want, and you'll only get emails from me.

Also, you'll see that if you try to sell the ticket anywhere for anything above the original price, we have the right to cancel your ticket (and refund your money). this is something I intend to enforce. There are some other rules you may find annoying but they are meant to prevent someone who has no intention of seeing the show from buying the ticket and just flipping it for twice the price from a thousand miles away.

Some of these rules may be a pain in your ass, but please be patient. My goal here is that people coming to see my shows are able to pay a fair price and that they be paying just for a ticket. Not also paying an exhorbanant fee for the privalege of buying a ticket.

Tickets across the board, everywhere, are 45 dollars. That's what you'll actually pay. In every case, that will be less than anyone has actually paid to see me (after ticket charges) in about two years and in most cases it's about half of what you paid last year.

The benifit for me is that I won't get angry emails from anyone who paid a ton of money to see me due to circumstances out of my control. That makes me VERY happy. The 45 dollars also includes sales tax, which I'm paying for you. So I'm making more or less depending on the state.

Another benifit to me is also one to you. I get your email address (if you opt in) when you opt in. You don't have to join ANYTHING to buy these tickets and if you opt in, youll only hear from me once in an old man's jizz-cycle.

Obviously none of this means anything if the shows aren't good. So that's up to me. As I do every year, I'll be performing a brand new hour (or more) on all of these shows.

Lastly, it was a real challenge to find venues around the country that could work with our exclusive ticketing service under these perameters. It means I'm playing in very new places. I really appreciate all of these theaters that are letting us give this a try.

Setting up this tour has been fascinating and difficult. this ticketing service is a brand new thing and I really fucking hope it works and that there aren't any problems. If anything comes up, please be patient.

Doing things this way means I"m making less than I would have made if I did a standard tour, using the usual very excellent but expensive ticketing service. In some cities I've had to play smaller venues and do more shows. But I like doing more shows and about a year ago I reached a place where I realized I am making enough money doing comedy so the next thing that interested me is bringing your price down. Either way, I still make a whole lot more than my grandfather who taught math and raised chickens in Michigan.

alright, that's it, folks. I'll be sending this message out to folks on the opt-in list and sending a separate email that lays it out much more simply with the proper links. I am doing this because when I emailed you about LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL, (which is still on sale for 5 dollars!) about half of the people who got the email really enjoyed the long, verbose, unedited message. The other half HATED it and would have preffered a price, a link, and me shutting the fuck up.

This way, you can read this if you like, or your can just see the massive shit-ball of text and throw it in the garbage, and focus on the simple email.

I hope to see you all on the road.

regards,
Louis C.K.

As a brief aside, HypeBot has a pretty decent and coherent breakdown of what Louis is doing right and how it could possibly apply to other industries. I mean, I don't know jack squat about the music industry, video industry, distribution industry, or whatever industry gets our entertainment into our eyes and ears... but if what Louis is doing is "new" and appears to be "working" perhaps it's time other related "industries" "evolve" to a "newer model" of "thinking." Because, "clearly," you can make "fans happy" and generate "piles" of "revenue."

Oh, and Littlefield in Brooklyn is hosting an unofficial "Louie" Season Premiere Party Thursday if you're interested. All tour dates, not including ATP I'll Be Your Mirror in NJ, are listed below...

Continue reading "'Louie' Season 3 is here; Louis CK announces huge tour & is selling tickets tickets himself (NOW)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Corporal - Obama (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Corporal - Glory (MP3)

We recently noted that two castmembers of Superbad play in two different bands, that we know of (Mister Heavenly, The Young Rapscallions).

The HBO series Boardwalk Empire has them beat with three castmembers* in bands and of (mostly) notably, in my opinion, higher quality. Michael Pitt fronts Pagoda and Aleksa Palladino (who play's Pitt's wife on the show) is in Exitmusic, who you might have just seen at Brooklyn Bowl during the Northside Festival and who have other shows coming up including one at Mercury Lounge.

The third is Michael Shannon who leads indie rock trio Corporal. The band formed in Louisville, KY in 2002 but now call Brooklyn home and released Glory last year. (Download an MP3 from the album above.) The band just released a new MP3, "Obama," that serves as a band endorsement of our current president's bid for a second term which you can download above. You can go see Corporal next week when the band play a NYC show at Fontana's on June 25 with Less the Band and the Parlour Suite.

UPDATE: So it turns out openers Less the Band contains the non-Shannon 2/3rds of Corporal as well as Paul Sparks who plays the annoying punchable Mickey Doyle on Boardwalk Empire. That makes four! Is that some sort of record? (Thanks commenters, btw).

Shannon, who has a lock on intense, creepy loner dude roles these days, is a funny guy too (he had a memorable cameo during Season 1 of Delocated) and a pretty good songwriter, especially if you dig '90s style indie rock. He recently submitted his iPod to the AV Club's "Random Rules" feature and the interview is chock-a-block with quotes. Here's a few:

Isaac Brock...I hear he's kind of hard to go on tour with. But rock's not for squares, I guess.

-Will Oldham really keeps to himself. He's not a joiner.

-[Mark E. Smith]... talk about a role model. That guy just drinks beer and eats hamburgers and smokes and barely tries. And he still is cooler than pretty much anyone ever. I think he's even cooler than Lou Reed was.

-My girlfriend loves the Mountain Goats. I don't know. I like the guy; it's not like I don't like him. He has a very interesting voice, that's for sure. But I like his lyrics. I don't know if I'd want to go to a Mountain Goats concert, though. I think I would probably drink too much beer and get tired.

-There's a lot of the new bands that I don't really get. I don't know what it is; maybe I'm getting older or something, but there are bands that people are just falling all over themselves about... I don't know. If someone was like, "If you could spend the rest of your life on an island with one band, which band would it be?" For me, it would be Deerhoof.

As you may remember, Tom Waits was to appear on The Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon back in April which ended up being postponed for "a later date TBA." Those appearances, both taped in NYC, have finally been rescheduled. Waits will be chatting up the hosts and playing songs from his 2011 album, Bad As Me, on Letterman on July 9 and Fallon on July 10.

In other Tom Waits television news, his song "Picture in a Frame" was used in a ballet sequence in this week's Bunheads, the new show from Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman Palladino (which is pretty good if you liked Gilmore Girls). You can watch it on YouTube (embed not available, sorry).

The Walkmen at Sasquatch last month (more by Chris Graham)

The Walkmen will head out on a full tour this fall which includes a hometown show at Terminal 5 on October 18, but before that they'll play a far more intimate show at Bowery Ballroom tonight (6/6), which will be streamed online. Last night, they stopped by Fallon for performances of "Heaven" and "The Love You Love." You can watch videos of both performances below.

Tickets for the T5 show go on presale via the band's website and as an AmEx presale today. General sale starts Friday (6/8) at noon.

Videos below...

Continue reading "The Walkmen played Fallon; playing Bowery Ballroom tonight"

by Bill Pearis

The National at Beacon Theater in 2011 (more by Toby Tenenbaum)

The soundtrack to Game of Thones: Season 2 comes out June 16, a week after the S2 finale airs on HBO. It's mostly Ramin Djawadi's thunderous score, but does contain The National doing "The Rains of Castamere."

This probably doesn't mean so much to people who have only watched the series, but those who have read the books know it as one of the biggest hits in Westeros (#1 in Casterly Rock two years straight), sung by any minstrel worth his lute. (Minstrel songs, and lengthy descriptions of food are probably the two biggest omisions the series has made from the books thus far.) The lyrics are by Song of Ice & Fire (of which Game of Thrones is based) author George RR Martin, but the National penned the appropriately sorrowful music. You can stream it via YouTube below.

Maybe for the Season 3 soundtrack they can get Bon Iver to sing "The Bear and the Maiden Fair." This Sunday is the penultimate episode of Season 2 of Game of Thrones, which was scripted by Martin himself.

Continue reading "The National perform "The Rains of Castamere" on soundtrack to Game of Thrones Season 2"