Leonard Cohen @ Red Rocks 2009 (more by Lori Baily)

Talib Kweli w/ Idle Warship @ Culture Shock 2012 (more by Kellyanne Petry)

today in NYC
* T.I. @ Best Buy Theatre
* Metz @ Generation Records
* Ben Holmes Quartet @ Barbes
* Eric Hutchinson @ Joe's Pub
* Leonard Cohen @ Madison Square Garden
* Solange Knowles, Sinkane @ Bowery Ballroom
* The Everymen, Cold Fur @ The Mercury Lounge
* Churchill, Spirit Animal @ The Mercury Lounge
* Haybaby, The Human Fly, Milk Dick @ Cake Shop
* Yoon Sun Choi's The E-String Band @ The Stone
* SoftSpot, Companion, Fan-Tan, Gem Trails @ Pianos
* ZZZ's, Dead Till Tuesday, Neg Fi @ Death By Audio
* Endless Boogie, Mike Wexler, Steve Gunn @ Union Pool
* Bad Girlfriend, Reputante, Country Mice, Wojcik @ Glasslands
* Meredith Meyer, Sewing Machines, The Sparrow @ The Delancey
* Christina Courtin, Christopher Hoffman, Frank LoCrasto, Ryan Scott @ Cameo Gallery
* Talib Kweli, Pharoahe Monch, Sean Price, Buckshot, Smif n Wessun, Flatbush Zombies, Skyzoo, DyMe-A-DuZiN @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

BrooklynVegan is proud to be one of the sponsors of tonight's Duck Down & Javotti Media's holiday party at Music Hall of Williamsburg with a full roster of awesome hip hop, headlined by the great Talib Kweli and featuring Pharoahe Monch, Flatbush Zombies and lots more. Tickets are still available.

Jeff Tweedy, Glen Hansard, Steve Albini, Fred Armisen and many more will be streaming live from Chicago tonight.

Follow @BrooklynVegan on Twitter.
Follow @bvChicago for just Chicago stuff.
Also follow @bvAustin for just Austin stuff.

Be our friend on Facebook too, and BV Austin's friend on Facebook and BV Chicago's friend on Facebook.

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Check out a Louis CK-ized Charlie Brown, below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Tuesday?"

Lower Dens @ Chicago's the Riv, 10/1/2012 (more by Grant McAllister)

Baltimore's Lower Dens went into new, motorik directions on their second album, Nootropics so it makes sense that tracks from the record might work well in the remix world. Hence, the Nootropics Remixed EP which takes three cuts off the album and puts them into the hands of Trentemøller, Cex, and Steve Moore. You can stream Trentemøller's excellent recrafting of Nootropics standout cut "Brains" below. You can buy it directly from Ribbon Music, and if you buy any Lower Dens title, you'll get Nootropics Remixed for free.

Meanwhile, Lower Dens shared with us their picks for Best of 2012. All four current members contributed lists and none of them were straight LP lists, mixing media with inclusions for live shows, books, food, film and ephemera. Check them out below, along with that "Brains" remix.

Continue reading "Lower Dens released 'Nootropics Remixed' EP, list their favorite things of 2012"

Chris Rock, who recently made surprise appearances at UCB, and with Louis CK (who he definitely thinks is great), and who has been known to show up at Hannibal Buress's weekly Sunday night show at Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, just talked to Judd Apatow for Vanity Fair. Judd asked him if he thinks comedians are better now? Chris said:

Do I think comedians are better now? Hell fuckin' no. Show me one guy or woman as funny as Rodney Dangerfield or as good as George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, or Joan Rivers. There are a lot of good comics out there, no doubt, but as far as the quality of the comics goes, I think what you have is a bunch of situational comics. What we have now is black comics that work only black crowds, gay comics that do only gay crowds, and southern comics that only work down South, and so on with Asian, Latino, Indian, midgets, etc. The previous generation's comics were better because they had to make everybody laugh. Richard Pryor could do The Ed Sullivan Show and play the Apollo. Seinfeld can work any crowd. Ellen can work any crowd. Lopez can work any crowd. And a few more, but the rest of them are just situational comics.

Watch Chris, Louis, Seinfeld, and Ricky Gervais talk about what is funny, below...

Continue reading "Chris Rock tells Judd Apatow what he thinks of comedians"

As mentioned, Animal Collective are playing two nights at Terminal 5 (12/4-5) to make up for their cancelled Williamsburg Park show. The first night (12/4) is with Traxman, and no opener has been announced yet for the second night. Tickets for both shows are still available and a portion of the proceeds will go to The American Red Cross to help Hurricane Sandy relief.

Like Amanda Palmer, Animal Collective just spoke to us about their top 10 things of 2012, some of which were albums, like the one by their tourmates Micachu & The Shapes and the new Madlib-produced Georgia Anne Muldrow album, whereas other things on the list were restaurants they had memorable dinners at and British sketch comedy shows. You can check out the whole thing below.

Continue reading "Animal Collective's collective 2012 year-end list"

by Klaus Kinski

Aziz Ansari & Chris Rock @ Whiplash @ UCB last week

UCB Theater Chelsea's Monday night staple comedy jam session Whiplash still happens every Monday night at 11:00pm. Sadly, for old man Kinski, 11pm is just a tooouuucccchhhhh too late to be out and about galavanting with some of comedy's greatest talents these days. Which is sad, because you never know who will show up to perform, and those who do show up will usually blow your mind. For example, the Monday November 19th installment featured Chris Rock, Aziz Ansari, Simon Amstell and Anthony Jeselnik. Holy.

Chris Rock (pictured above with Aziz at Whiplash), good pals with Louis CK, also recently made a surprise appearance for Louis at his Staten Island Sandy Benefit Shows on November 17th.

But before the next Whiplash, the UCB Theater in Chelsea will be playing host to an awesome Sandy Benefit show on Sunday November 25th at 9:30pm. The line-up is festooned with so many Klaus favorites. $15 not only gets you piece of mind knowing you are helping out people whose lives were turned upside-down by hurricane Sandy, but you get performances by Arden Myrin, W. Kamau Bell (Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell on FX), Seth Herzog, Dave Hill, Jamie Kilstein, Janine Brito, Kevin Avery, Sara Benincasa, C.F. Lederer, and Chris Gethard (who by the way has a small part in the very last episode of Bored to Death) (I just watched it the other day and was reminded of that important fact). The show will be hosted by Nato Green.

Dave Hill & Tig Notaro

And speaking of Dave Hill and the UCB Theater in Chelsea, prepare yourselves for another fantastic installment of The Dave Hill Explosion which will take place on Thursday November 29th at 9:30pm. Dave's special guest will be Tig Notaro (who recently released a CD via Louis CK) and more. We all know Dave Hill is one of NYC's best comedians, guitar players, and show reviewers, but the Explosion is always a truly epic experience where Dave REALLY shines. The Dave Hill Explosion is a long-running live talk show hosted by Dave Hill. He doesn't do it that often but when he does it's awesome. One of the greatest shows I've ever seen was the Explosion that featured Rufus Wainwright and Dick Cavett. Holy.

Meanwhile you can find Dave Hill TONIGHT (11/24) at UCB East as part of "If You Build It", and check out Dave Hill's latest podcast featuring Chris Elliott. And don't forget that you can catch Chris Elliott at the Bell House on December 7th as part of Ted Leo and Tom Scharpling's epic and now totally sold out Sandy Benefit. You can also see him at the Pit with his daughters Abby and Bridey Elliott on Thursday December 6th at Running Late with Scott Rogowsky.

Hoity-Toity gastro-comedy joint The Stand will be hosting a rather impressive Sandy benefit called MTV Presents Stand up for Sandy on Tuesday November 27th. The line-up features Jim Gaffigan, Wyatt Cenac, Nikki Glaser, Sara Schaefer and Sean Patton. The tickets are a super reasonably priced $20 and are currently on sale. And for those keeping score, Sean Patton and Sarah Schaefer are two of my favorite and definitely underrated comedians in the biz. This might be THE show that gets your man Klaus out of his comfort zone and into The Stand.

Jim Gaffigan also has other bigger area shows coming up.

Wyatt Cenac (who also performs in the sold out Sandy Benefit show at the Bell House this Sunday November 25th) continues his new Monday night residency at Littlefield on Monday November 26th and every Monday. As a matter of fact, Har Mar Superstar is musical guest this Monday November 26th.

And speaking of Littlefield, celebrate Christmas Eve there with Wyatt Cenac because it looks like it will be a special night with guests Janeane Garofalo, Michael Che (who also plays the sold out show at Bell House this Sunday), and more already announced. But before that, on Sunday December 9th Littlefield will be hosting Concert & Comedy For Sandy Animals: Benefit for the Sean Casey Animal Rescue with comedy by Michael Showalter and Jena Friedman, and music by Supercute, Casey Shea and more.

For more upcoming shows check out Eugene Mirman's schedule, Pete Holmes & Doug Benson's tour dates, Nick Kroll's tour dates, Greg Proops, and a big list of upcoming shows at the Bell House (and HERE).

Louis CK on SNL last weekend

Louis CK , who had to cancel his final NYC show last week due to Hurricane Sandy, is putting on two Hurricane Sandy relief benefits at the St. George Theatre in Staten Island on Saturday, November 17. Tickets are $65 for either the early or late show and are on sale now. All the money from the shows is going to the Staten Island Hurricane Relief Fund.

As anyone could have guessed, comedic genius Louis CK's appearance on Saturday Night Live on Saturday night (11/3) was a success. If you missed it, make sure and check out some clips from the show below.

As you may have heard, Louis CK recently released a live set by Tig Notaro, and we're happy to report that you can catch Tig live in Brooklyn soon. Catch a live taping of her weekly podcast Professor Blastoff on November 17th at the Bell House in Brooklyn. The rare live taping promises "special guests" in addition to Notaro's co-hosts/regulars Kyle Dunnigan and David Huntsberger, and tickets are still available (though reportedly selling fast). The agoraphobic can catch up with previous episodes via the interweb.

Swing below for some great SNL videos..

Continue reading "Louis CK killed it on SNL; Tig Notaro hosting a live version of Professor Blastoff in Brooklyn"

UPDATE: This post was mostly about Sunday. Monday's cancellations HERE.

We'll keep you posted, but at the moment, Swans @ Bowery, Sic Alps @ Knitting Factory, and the show at Cake Shop are still listed as happening. Most other Sunday night shows (and a bunch of Monday shows) we would have listed are cancelled or postponed due to Frankenstorm (Hurricane Sandy). Subways and buses stop running at 7pm which is also when people living in "Zone A" are supposed to be evacuated by.

UPDATE: The Juan Maclean's DJ set at Le Bain is also still on (as of this post) CANCELLED too.

UPDATE: The Men are playing Don Pedro.

Union Pool doesn't have a show tonight, but is open.

ASPCA reminds you: All pets are accepted on the subway, taxi and trains during evacuation.

Fontana's says, "Hey everyone - we're going to be open this evening till we can. At least 2am. All Manhattanites workin the shifts - come keep us company."

Pianos is closed.

The Living Room is closed.

Cake Shop's show is now cancelled, but they "might still be open upstairs for fun and the bored-at-home-with-only-comic-books-you-haven't-read-yet-from-the-early-2000's. Stay tuned."

Spectre Folk, who were set to open for Sic Alps, at Knitting Factory tonight "have cancelled due to weather related travel issues. The show will go on with Sic Alps and PC Worship but will end early (10pm)." Tickets are still available.

Hannibal Buress is stuck in Houston. Not sure if his Knitting Factory show is going on without him.

UCB: "Due to MTA shutdown, both ASSSSCAT 3000 shows are cancelled tonight. Refunds will be issued to ticket holders."

All shows past 5:30pm at UCB East are also cancelled.

Pretty Good Friends is cancelled at Union Hall which will also be closed Monday.

The Bell House postponed an event tonight, and sadly cancelled Monday's Pat Kiernan Halloween trivia night.

Grimes, who has been in NYC the past few nights for her sold out four-night run, was set to play her last of those shows at Music Hall of Williamsburg tonight with Elite Gymnastics and Majical Cloudz, but due to the incoming Frankenstorm, tonight's show has been cancelled. Refunds are available at the point of purchase.

Mercury Lounge is also cancelled/closed.

Brooklyn Bowl is closing at 6pm.

The Molly Nilsson show at Glasslands tonight has been cancelled.

The xx were scheduled to play their second of two shows at the Paradise Theater tonight. They write...

Due to safety concerns related to Hurricane Sandy and the MTA shutdown in New York, we have been forced to postpone our remaining shows in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, including tonight's show at the Paradise in the Bronx. We are working with our partners to reschedule as soon as possible, so please hang on to your tickets and we'll advise as soon as we can. We'll have another announcement coming later in the week, including information on these shows and a new run of US dates in early 2013. In the meantime, please be safe. We'll be back to see you all soon.

Villains is cancelled at Saint Vitus who write "We are closed this evening due to mandatory evacuation of "zone A". Obviously Mayor Bloomberg is not a Metal Head. We will reopen as soon as we can. In the meantime, enjoy this!"

Child Abuse at The Paper Box is cancelled.

Cat Power's Philly show at the Electric Factory has been postponed to January 2.

Brandie Carlile and Blitzen Trapper were set to play their first of two Beacon Theater shows tonight, but both tonight's show and Monday's show have been postponed.

Drom has cancelled multiple Sunday & Monday shows.

Sunday & Monday shows at Joe's Pub are cancelled.

"Due to impending hurricane, S.O.B's will be closed Monday and Tuesday. Shows will be rescheduled at a later date."

The Trey Anastasio Band show at Capitol Theater has been postponed to Monday, November 5. All tickets for tonight's show will be honored.

Louis CK was set to wrap up his run at the New York City Center tonight but has postponed the shows until March 2. Read his letter about postponing HERE.

"Pace Presents at The Schimmel Center for the Arts is disappointed to announce that, due to the effects of Hurricane Sandy on the city, our 2012 Banjo Summit with BELA FLECK tonight, Sunday October 28, has been CANCELLED. We are currently in discussions with the artists regarding rescheduling this show. More information will be released as we have it. Again, our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause. Stay safe and dry in the storm!"

Irving Plaza says, "Tonight's Xavier Rudd show is postponed. We're working on a rescheduled date, will send out info asap. Refunds avail at point of purchase."

The Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def) show at Apollo Theater, which was initially postponed to tonight from June 14, has now been cancelled.

"BAM Rose Cinemas will close today following the 4:40 screening of Argo. The cinemas will remain closed tomorrow and possibly Tuesday."

Blue Oyster Cult at Best Buy Theater is postponed.

Maxwell's says, "tonight's show with Ours has been postponed to Sunday, December 2nd. all tickets will be honored and refunds are available as well."

Carnegie Hall's Sunday & Monday shows are cancelled or postponed.

City Winery says, "Due to the inclimate weather in the New York area and the suspension of all major travel services tonight's (10/28/12) Shawn Colvin concert has been cancelled. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. The show has been rescheduled for February 3, 2013. In addition the Eric Hutchinson show scheduled for Monday, 10/29/12 has also been cancelled and will be rescheduled for a later date."

If you had been planning on celebrating Halloween with Rusko at Pacha tonight, you'll have to settle for spending New Year's with him. Tonight's show has been postponed until December 30.

UPDATE: This post was mostly about Sunday. Monday's cancellations HERE.

Louis CK was set to wrap up his run at the New York City Center tonight but has postponed until March 2. Here's a letter he wrote about it:

Dear New York ticket holding folks....

Okay. I thought about this very carefully and I really started to worry about making 4300 people come into midtown manhattan on Sunday night, which is just when the stormatron 5000 is supposed to crush our empire. Things i worry about include that Mass transit might shut down in all of New york, at 7pm tomorrow, stranding everyone who comes to the shows and that the second show ends at midnight, sending people back home just as it's starting to pick up.

I know that a lot of people are excited to come and they are fine with taking the chance but I really don't want a pole to smash your face in because you saw some comedy.
So i asked the City Center (where the shows are supposed to happen) if we could find another date for tomorrow's shows and they gave me March 2nd. The City Center, being really cool, has agreed to let us do the shows on that night and your tickets that you now hold will be honored on that night. the same seat, same everything. If you can't come on that night, we will either do another show soon after that, or find another show for you in the area in the future. Or you still have the option to get a full refund for your ticket. If you already asked for a refund, we can reinstate your ticket if you want to go to one of those shows.

Listen. I know that probably tomorrow it's going to be a starry clear night and the trains are going to be just gliding up and down the traks and a baby zebra is going to whinny as he trots by the City Center on a night that is going to break records for being placid and perfect for a night of comedy. And I'm going to feel like an asshole. And I know that some people had their plans set and are going to be pissed off at me. I know. but I also know that some of you are struggling with whether to come in or miss the show and this is the closest I can get to a solution. You don't have to take a chance and you don't have to miss the show. Just come see me in a few months.

If it's any consolation, I'm eating a pretty staggering fee for cancelling the show. But I can take it. What I can't take is the thought that there's a CHANCE 4300 people will be in danger trying to get home from my stupid show.

Please email molly@etix.com and tell us what you want to do, and ask any question you have.

So that's that. Cancelled. Rescheduled. Please forgive me. Please be safe.

Your dumb friend

Louis CK

by Bill Pearis

Louis CK starts his run of NYC shows at the New York City Center tonight (10/22) that goes through Sunday (10/28). He's then got a week off from his massive, self-ticketed tour which he'll spend preparing for his first-ever SNL hosting gig on November 3 with musical guest fun.

This should be interesting. Given the ammount of control the Emmy-winning comedian demands of everything he's involved in these days, it doesn't seem likely CK (who wrote for Robert Smigel's "TV Funhouse" bits) will just be thrown into another "What's Up with That?" sketch. But we shall see.

This past weekend's SNL with Bruno Mars was pretty forgettable but did include a nice short film, "Sad Mouse," which you can watch below.

Continue reading "Louis CK hosting 'SNL'; his weeklong NYC run starts tonight"

Die Antwoord @ ACL 2012 (by Glen Brown)

We've completed our coverage of this past weekend's Austin City Limits festival with a set of pictures from Sunday, Die Antwoord (like the above) included.

Die Antwoord have a new and controversial video for "Fatty Boom Boom" which you can watch below.

Still no word on the identity of the body found near Austin Music Hall.

Maybe you heard it's CMJ week here in NYC and we're already tired and we haven't even seen any shows yet. But we are pumped to be throwing two day parties on at Public Assembly. Saturday's line-up hasn't been announced yet, but you can check out Friday's (10/19, including METZ, Savages and The Intelligence) here.

We also are sad to report that, despite what the flyer says, Sharon Van Etten is NOT playing that Thursday day party at Ace Hotel.

A "Million Muppet March" is being planned in Washington DC on November 3 (three days before the election) to protest Mitt Romney's pledge to cut funding to PBS if elected president. The second of three Presedential Debates happens tonight at 9 PM EDT... UPDATE:

Speaking of, Menomena just toured through NYC and played Music Hall of Williamsburg and Bowery Ballroom.

The Lollipop King is suing South Park.

Watch Godspeed You! Black Emperor on Windy City kids show Chic-A-Go-Go.

More stuff below...

Continue reading "ALSO: Beyonce playing Super Bowl; Million Muppet March, Die Antwoord, Godspeed!, Julie Dorion, Lollipop King, ACL & more"

Today is John Lennon's birthday, and so Yoko Ono is giving Lady Gaga an award, in Iceland. John would've been 72. Check out a gallery of the former Beatle's drawings (like the one above) over at the Huffington Post. Yahoo Canada takes a look at some of his letters.

Joe's Pub is celebrating John's birthday tomorrow. Symphony Space honors the man in November. Glasslands gets down in December.

Speaking of Lennons, Martha Wainwright's new album Come Home to Mama, which is also streaming at NPR, was recorded "mostly at" Sean Lennon's home studio in New York City. We're giving away tickets to see Martha at Le Poisson Rouge on Thursday (10/11) via our Facebook.

We are also giving away tickets to The Walkmen's 10/18 show at Terminal 5 with Dum Dum Girls; and Doveman: The Burgundy Stain Sessions featuring Owen Pallett, Dawn Landes, and Steve Salett at Le Poisson Rouge on 10/12.

Speaking of Doveman shows and Wainwrights, help support marriage equality later this month at the Beacon.

In other milestones, Rage Against the Machine's self-titled debut turns 20 this year. To commemorate, the band are reissuing it as a box set, with "never-before seen early concert footage and full 2010 Finsbury Park Victory Concert along with remastered debut album, original demos and treasure trove of videos and music." Yours for only $136.

Likewise, Rancid are celebrating their 20th anniversary by releasing their entire discography as a huge box of 7"s. Pre-orders began today.

To quote Merge Records, "You're Living All Over Me by Dinosaur Jr., the groundbreaking album from the masters of alt-guitar rock, turns 25 this fall. To celebrate, Merge Records is releasing Chocomel Daze, a rare live show (featuring the classic, original line-up of J, Lou, and Murph) recorded in 1987 at Dorrnroosje, Nijmegen, Netherlands. Limited edition on 150-gram vinyl for the first time, this release follows their recent I Bet on Sky." Listen to one of the tracks at the bottom of this post.

Other new Merge releases include the Mountain Goats, Mark Eitzel, Mount Moriah and The Music Tapes.

Mark Eitzel is going on tour later this year.

Rick Ross dropped a new mixtape called The Black Bar Mitzvah. Give it a listen over at bvChicago.

The downside of Louis CK's massive, self-ticked tour: his Emmy-winning FX show Louie won't be back until 2014.

Bummer All Tomorrow's Parties news: ATP Japan has gone from postponed to canceled.

AND more stuff below...

Continue reading "ALSO: John Lennon's Birthday, Rancid & RATM box sets, ATP Japan, Trail of Dead, Kylesa, Luyas, Black Keys & more"

How was your Columbus Day? We didn't take off, and posted a whole bunch on BV, BV Chicago, and BV Austin, and here's even more...

As you can see above, Emceez Ansari is really good at photoshopping Aziz Ansari's face into album covers.

Speaking of funny, get the new Tig Notaro from Louis CK.

Film School Rejects is reporting that Woody Allen has cast Louis CK and Andrew Dice Clay in a new movie (must. see.).

Blur, who just confirmed that they are not done and are playing Belgium's Rock Werchter 2013, are now also confirmed for Primavera Sound 2013 in Barcelona (5/24/13) and Portugal (5/31/13).

Philip Glass Rework is streaming at NPR where you'll also find streams of the new Jason Lytle and Martha Wainwright.

As you may have noticed via an ad on this site, Django Django are running a sale for their new Mercury Prize-nominated album via iTunes. We recently caught them live at Knitting Factory, Bowery Ballroom, and in Chicago too.

--
Purity Ring at Le Poisson Rouge (more by Amanda Hatfield)

If you've seen Purity Ring live this year, you may be wondering what, exactly, is the deal with those interactive light cocoons they use on stage. The Creators Project gets the scoop.

"Red Bull Music Academy" is presenting four upcoming shows in NYC:

1 - BRAINFEEDER SESSION NYC at Villain (October 10)
2 - SBTKRT LIVE at Terminal 5 (October 11)
3 - FOUR TET B2B JAMIE xx at Autumn Bowl (October 26)
4 - GRACE JONES at Roseland (October 27)

Kilo Kish, who has some CMJ shows coming up too, opens the SBTRKT show.

We're also giving away tickets to see tomorrow's Perfume Genius show at Le Poisson Rouge and Calexico and The Dodos at Webster Hall on 10/13 on our Facebook. (Perfume Genius meanwhile plays Music Hall tonight).

Check out an interview with Zammuto who is opening for Ultraista.

Listen to new Trent Reznor.
Stream the new Godspeed! You Emperor album.
Watch a marching band do Zelda , Mario & Pokemon.

Speaking of, PETA released a new Pokemon game.

AND, more stuff below...

Continue reading "ALSO: more Blur dates, John Cusack & Peter Gabriel, Emceez Ansari, Clueless reunion, Purity Ring, Pig Destroyer & more"

by Klaus Kinski

Tig Notaro @ BV-SXSW 2010 (more by Tim Griffin)

Tig with her good friend Dave Hill

There's that well-worn saying that "bad things happen to good people" and I've always hated that saying because good things happen to good people too... and good things happen to bad people... and bad things happen to bad people. Basically, shit happens! To anyone! Anywhere! But sometimes the news of something bad happening to someone I adore and respect is so profoundly terrible that the cliche "bad things happen to good people" slams through the doorway of my brain, opens its trenchcoat and says "Ta da!"

A while back the blogosphere, or blognation, or blogtation, or blogtinent, or whatever you call it exploded with the story that during an August 3rd performance at Largo in LA, Tig Notaro made a public announcement that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer in both breasts just one day prior to said performance. What followed was a performance that had the audience (which included folks like Louis CK and Ed Helms) riveted. But the tragic news of cancer wasn't the only thing that had befallen Tig in the 4 months leading up to that performance; her mother passed away unexpectedly, she ended a long-term relationship with her partner, she battled pneumonia, and while beginning work filming the feature In a World, she contracted a deadly bacterial infection in her digestive tract, causing her to lose 20 pounds and be hospitalized for a week. How anyone could muster the strength to endure such an array of tragedy in such a short time is beyond me. But Tig... she not only had the strength, but she shows no signs of being defeated by it.

As I mentioned, the great Louis CK was in attendance at the show and he had the foresight to ask Largo owner Mark Flanagan if he happened to record her set. Luckily, it was recorded and on Friday October 5th 2012, Louis released Tig's performance in its entirety as her sophomore album, entitled LIVE (as in, continue to live) exclusively from his website. This audio recording is only $5; from each purchase, Louis gets $1 and Tig gets $4. Tig is donating some of the proceeds to cancer research to boot. If you have never heard Tig, you've been missing out. She is the greatest. At her CD release show at the Knitting Factory on August 20th 2011 I literally did a spit-take which was very unfortunate for the people sitting around me (that is one of only two spit-takes I've ever done; the other occurred the other day while watching the Inbetweeners discussing Sleeping Beauty). Read Louis CK's entire message regarding this recording below.

In other Tig news, she is continuing to dominate the shit out of life. On September 20, 2012 she appeared on Conan (watch that interview below), and has been profiled in The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Fast Company, and the Huffington Post with other profiles being scheduled as we speak with Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Dr. Oz, and more. Tig also just closed a book deal with a top publishing house, Ecco, an imprint of Harper Collins, after a competitive 6-way bidding war. She had some fall tour dates scheduled, but they all appear to be canceled.

From what I've heard, the cancer treatments she has undergone appear to be working and her prognosis is looking positive. All of us at BV wish Tig the very best.

Continue reading "Louis CK releases live Tig Notaro performance, the one where she revealed she has cancer (buy it now!)"

As you may have just read on @BVComedy, Louis CK, who not long ago played three last minute shows at the Bell House, is playing Caroline's tonight (9/19). "TICKETS FOR THIS EVENT MUST BE PURCHASED IN PERSON FROM OUR BOX OFFICE LOCATED AT 1626 BROADWAY (AT 49TH ST)"

Louis CK was also supposed to play ATP this weekend, but he isn't. Louis does however play a whole bunch more NYC shows as part of a bigger tour next month.

Louis CK did not perform as part of this year's Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival, but a lot of other comedians. Check out our photos from all four days.

Louis CK fans hanging out in Inwood Hill Park over the weekend got a surprise when they noticed the genius comedian was the not-so-genius who got his boat stuck in the mud...

Comedian Louis "C.K." Szekely, known for his comedy routines and TV shows "Lucky Louie" and "Louie," had his Labor Day weekend joy ride on a yacht cut short when the boat got stuck in the mud off the Harlem River in Inwood Hill Park., according to law enforcement sources.

The funny man was reportedly riding around the island with his two daughters when the boat got stuck in the muck at around 2:30 p.m. Sunday. The boat sat stranded for hours until high tide when it was able to motor away.

Szekely, who lives on the Upper West Side, could be seen standing cross-armed on the deck of the boat with his daughters while waiting for the tide to turn, locals reported." [DNAInfo (via)]

Louis CK recently played three shows at the Bell House, and isn't playing ATP, but is playing lots of other upcoming shows.

If you were thinking of still heading over to The Bell House to try and get tickets to one of tonight's three surprise Louis CK shows, bad news from the venue's Twitter feed: "WE ARE 100% SOLD OUT FOR ALL 3 SHOWS. Thank you and we're really really sorry to those of you who didn't get in :("

Still, tickets lasted 2 1/2 hours. Did you get a pair?

Whoa! Louis CK is playing THREE shows at The Bell House TONIGHT (8/27), working on material for his upcoming self-ticketed tour. Tickets for the 7PM, 9PM and 11PM sets are ON SALE NOW for $10 cash (2x tix limit) only at The Bell House box office.

The Bell House's Twitter feed is updating the availability of tickets.

UPDATE (2:30PM): "WE ARE 100% SOLD OUT FOR ALL 3 SHOWS. Thank you and we're really really sorry to those of you who didn't get in :(" -- Bell House Twitter

Unfortunately, it's true. "Louis CK who was originally scheduled for the Asbury Park event will not be performing at ATP in Manhattan due to scheduling conflicts. Check louisck.com for info about his tour schedule."

UPDATE: This rumor is confirmed true.

"Thanks for your patience in waiting for our statement on the changes within the company- they'll be ready to announce in the next few days." - ATP

Not that you were rushing to at the moment, but maybe hold off on buying tickets for ATP I'll Be Your Mirror in Asbury Park for a bit (and definitely don't book a hotel room just yet). Stay tuned for more info.

UPDATE: This rumor is confirmed true.

(Also weird that Louis CK doesn't list ATP in his tour dates. No word yet if we should take that seriously. And, UPDATE: Louis also doesn't list 2 Atlantic City shows on his tour dates page, so that's a good sign.). UPDATE: Sorry to say, but Louis CK is NOT playing ATP anymore.

Previously
* Sharon Van Etten drops off ATP NJ
* ATP files for liquidation, current shows unaffected

A still from 'Louie'

As you may have heard, tickets to Louis CK's upcoming tour -- including the October 24th - 28th dates at the New York City Center -- are being sold exclusively through his website, sidestepping big ticketing agencies to keep prices lower and stamp out scalping. The intial string of NYC shows are sold out but he recently added two more on October 23 and you can still get tickets (early show / late show) to those.

He's been making the rounds on the talk show circuit talking about it, but as to the scalping part of his plan, he wrote in to comedy blog LaughSpin to detail things a little more:

I'm doing 67 shows on this tour and we've sold 135,600 tickets to those shows after one week on sale. In addition to the tour, I'm doing two shows in one city that are on sale through traditional ticketing.*
So as a comparison...

There are 1100 tickets available on stubhub alone for those two traditionally ticketed shows out of 4,400 available (Almost exactly 25%). ** and these shows aren't sold out yet.

There are less than 500 tickets available on all scalper sites (including stubhub) out of the entire 135,600 tickets that have already been sold, from the tour sold exclusively on my site, louisck.com (substantially less than 1%)

So it's working. So far.

Also, we are learning that, of these few tickets being scalped for my tour, some are the same tickets across a bunch of different sites. They are sharing tickets.

Our goal is to get even these 500 or less tickets back into the hands of fans at their original price. How we are doing that is our business that I won't share right now. But so far our plan is working and we have learned a lot. The main message I'd like to convey to ticket-buyers out there is that buying a scalper ticket to one of my shows is a tremendous risk (well, a risk equal to how much you paid for it) [LaughSpin]

AVC: Were excessive service charges on tickets something that had bothered you for a long time?

LCK: Well, obviously the problem of my fans paying too much to see me wasn't a problem when I was struggling. It's a new thing. I don't know. I don't like when I'm prevented from doing things the way I think they should be done. I do something called "recession tipping." I make more than some other people in the world, so if I'm in a restaurant, I tip over 20 percent--I tip more. Because I know that other people can't. Tipping is a thing where you can actually steal money from a waiter; you can just not give them any. A lot of people, when they go out to eat during a recession, they just don't tip, and I'm aware of that. It's just my quiet thing that I do. I'll tip over 20 percent because I can afford it. It's just my own voluntary Buffett Rule. That's all it is. When I negotiate with somebody who I'm working with on a crew, like if I hire a first A.D. or something, the way I work it in my head is, I tell them my economic realities--this is a low-budget show--and then I ask them to tell me how much they want. Say the guy says, "I want $500 an hour." That's not realistic; I'm just making it up. Then I'll say, "Okay, I'll give you $550." You know what I mean? I ask him to think about what he really needs; when he tells me, I give him a little more. It buys me goodwill with this person; I feel good about what I'm paying them. I like to give people a little more than they want, and I like to ask people for a little less than they're willing to give. So when I found that through selling tickets I wasn't able to do this, it was frustrating to me, that I literally couldn't do that the way that I believe it should be done, but just by me. Not by other people. I don't judge anybody else. And I think these ticket services are very well run, they're really smart, they got it all set up. And if I was them I'd do it the same way. Or no I wouldn't. [Laughs.]

AVC: You wouldn't because you're doing it your way. It's different than the way Ticketmaster does things.

LCK: Right. I'm just staying away from criticizing anybody else. The point of it, to me, isn't to stick it to somebody else or out of anger toward something else...

AVC: You're not about sticking it to The Man?

LCK: No. It's really providing an alternative. And there are many theaters that we went to with this ticketing service and my show who said, "We don't want to do it because of our economics." And then we would politely say, "Thanks anyway," and keep looking in every city until we could find a place that could accommodate us. That it didn't hurt them, that they didn't have a conflicting affiliation, and that it could make them a profit. So that's why we're playing this place in Chicago. Last year I was at the Chicago Theatre, and I love the Chicago Theatre. And I'm grateful for the shows I did there with the promoters and ticketing services that they use.

Continue reading "Louis CK adds more NYC shows to fall tour, further explains his fight against scalpers"

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)"

They say:

ATP are very pleased to confirm our return to Asbury Park, New Jersey USA with a new I'll Be Your Mirror event, the Saturday night of which will be headlined by The Afghan Whigs (who have reunited after a 13 year hiatus) and curated by their frontman Greg Dulli. Formed in 1986, the bands career from then until 2001 saw them release six critically acclaimed albums during their career. Fusing classic rock with grunge-era distortion and a heavy soul influence, The Afghan Whigs were one of the most renowned live bands of their time and ATP is excited to be a part of this long awaited reformation.

We are also very excited to present Grammy Award winner LOUIS C.K. (handpicked by Greg Dulli) who will be making a rare festival appearance, the fantastic THE ROOTS, JOSE GONZALEZ, a show from the reformed THE MAKE-UP and many others, see below for full line-up confirmed so far.

After previous years in upstate New York, ATP moved to the iconic Asbury Park waterfront in 2011 for a hugely successful I'll Be Your Mirror event co-curated and headlined by Portishead, and we are very happy to return to this very special location in September. The Convention Hall has seen the likes of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, The Doors and Rolling Stones grace its stage and the Paramount Theatre has welcomed stars such as Tony Bennett who often insists on playing a song with all the electrics turned off to demonstrate the amazing acoustics of the room. Once again the ATP experience will be taking over the boardwalk, with the main shows taking place at the Convention Hall and Paramount Theatre, and other events happening at the Berkeley hotel (former home of Johnny Cash).

As well as the live music line-up of 35+ acts across the weekend, Friday will feature a Comedy stage, and we're very pleased to announce that our friends at The Criterion Collection will return to run the Cinema across the weekend. All three days feature DJs and other activities to be confirmed in the months ahead. Performances take place indoors with great soundsystems, so you have no need to worry about the weather, and Asbury Park is easily accessible via public transport from nearby cities.

Continue reading "ATP I'll Be Your Mirror NJ -- initial 2012 lineup (Louis CK, Make-Up, Mark Lanegan, Dirty Three, Hot Snakes, Antlers, Roots, more!)"

Mastodon fans (more by Greg Cristman)

Bon Iver was nominated for four high profile Grammys (though not "Album of the Year" which is what Arcade Fire won). Adele & Katy Perry nominated for a zillion, and other nominees include The Black Keys, Foster the Peepee, Cee Lo, Duck Sauce, Robyn, Cut Copy, Skrillex, Deadmau5, Coldplay, Radiohead, Mumford & Son, Mastodon, Wilco, Death Cab For Cutie, My Morning Jacket, Jay-Z, Kanye West, The Civil Wars, Emmylou Harris, Levon Helm, Fleet Foxes, Gillian Welch, Steve Earle, Patton Oswalt, Louis CK, Weird Al, Danger Mouse, Memory Tapes, TV On the Radio, A Tribe Called Quest, etc...

photos by David Andrako, words by Klaus Kinski

And the winner of the Klaus Kinski Are You Out of Your Fucking Mind? Award goes to Anonymous October 1, 2011 2:53 PM. Congrats! Please enjoy the dramatic eye-roll and annoyed sigh care of yours truly. The reason I am being such a jerk, 2:53PM, is because I am the KING of thinking things are a waste of time. I am a wretch, I am difficult to please, I am fussy, my personal comfort is paramount, and I don't go a single day without saying "This is such a waste of time" at least 10 times by lunchtime. If I am not out of the house and doing something by 8:00pm on a Friday night, the chances of me having the strength to leave my house at 10:30pm to haul my half-asleep ass in the pouring rain to Gowanus for an 11:30pm show where there is no chance my lazy ass will get a seat is about as close to 0% as you can get. Did it suck standing in the rain at the back of a line that wrapped around and up 2nd Ave? Yes. Did it suck to be that far back before someone from the Bell House bothered to announce that we needed to get a hand-stamp inside the venue and then get back in line? Yes. Did it suck that after I got my stamp about 35 more people had gotten in line, pushing me even further back? Yes. Did it suck making my way through the packed front room while drunken revelers shook their booties to an 80s cover band tearing it up on stage? Yes. All that shit totally sucked. And it almost broke me. But, man, the second I had a Red Stripe in my guts and Louis took the stage and the room erupted, I knew all of that prior bullshit wasn't actually such a big deal.

I was able to catch Louis CK's 11:30pm show, the third of three shows performed on Friday September 30th, 2011 at The Bell House. Louis has three shows coming up at the Beacon Theater in NYC on November 10th (two shows) and November 12th. The Beacon Theater shows are part of the New York Comedy Festival and are being taped for a Comedy Central special. The purpose of these three Bell House shows was two fold; to workshop new material and to give Brooklyn three cheap Louis CK shows. He did warn everyone that he'd have his notebook out which he admits is completely rude and inappropriate to do to an audience (sorry Janeane Garofalo). He also started off by explaining that the weird onsale arrangements were an effort to circumvent a whole shitload of scalper nonsense. He also elaborated on the confusing and frustrating economics regarding scalping and how they relate to him. He tries to make all of his huge shows (ie, the Beacon Theater) cheaper than someone like Kathy Griffin or Jim Gaffigan. That way his fans get sort of a break. Unfortunately that means scalpers buy up a ton of tickets because they're a bit inexpensive from the get-go. But then nobody will pay what the scalpers are asking, but the scalpers don't care because they didn't take much of a hit in the first place and the tickets completely go to waste. He says that a sold out Louis CK show is actually a room full of empty seats. It's a very sad scenario.

The room was packed to the gills, but still comfortable to stand and watch in. Louis fan-base has gotten very bro-y, so there were many moments of macho-dude-shouts coming from the audience. Some guy actually agreed with Louis aloud so many times that he had to call the dude out and tell him to shut up. Since this show was comprised of new material drawn straight out of his notebook, it'd be stupid to discuss the specifics of the material. However, he did broach a subject that I always hoped he would; his childhood. A lot of CK's material is drawn from his experiences as a father, a husband, and an ex-husband. For him to come out with 25 solid minutes of his early life that went from the US, to Mexico, and back to the US was a profound look into where this mofo is coming from. It's incredible. Also since he didn't have a show to do after this one, he went on for quite awhile. Since I was double fisting beer (yeah bro!) all night, it was hard to look at my watch but I think the show went well past 1:00am. This is easily one of the funniest comedy shows I have seen in a while, which shouldn't be a stretch considering the guy is a pro, but still. Tickets for upcoming Beacon Theater shows are pretty scarce, but based on what I saw on Friday his new material is some of the best I've seen of his in years. Go. To. It.

More pictures from the late, late show, below...

Continue reading "Louis CK played 3 shows @ The Bell House (pics & review from the late, late show)"