"Following last year's 10th anniversary, which crushed previous attendance records and set a new mark for the speed with which tickets sold out, the Sasquatch! Music Festival unveils its 2012 lineup which once again features 4 days of music. The festival, hailed as "a model of well-paced programming...in a four-day schedule as efficient and natural feeling as an expertly built algorithm" by NPR Music while Wired notes, "leave the landscape out of it and Sasquatch! has a lineup to kill for," runs May 25-28 (Memorial Day Weekend) at The Gorge, the internationally acclaimed concert venue carved in the basalt cliffs high above the Columbia River Gorge in Quincy, WA."

The Sasquatch! Music Festival takes place, as usual, at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington over Memorial Day weekend (May 25-28). And this year's lineup is:

Continue reading "Sasquatch! 2012 lineup announced (Bon Iver, Jack White, Beck, Tenacious D, Shins, Portlandia, Spiritualized & more) "

The above is a screenshot of Wikipedia today (except the page where you can learn more about SOPA and PIPA). The below Pete Holmes video explains this post's headline...

Continue reading "it's harder to find out where Tom Petty is from today"

As we reported in February 2010, but I completely forgot until I saw this Wall Street Journal article today...

"Stand-up comedian Pete Holmes had an audience of more than 100 million people last month. As the snarky voice of the stock-trading baby in commercials for the online trading site E*Trade, Mr. Holmes and his two recent Super Bowl spots were part of the most-watched TV event in U.S. history.

Normally, when Mr. Holmes performs, it's for audiences of hundreds--gigs at New York comedy clubs, colleges or the occasional taping of a Comedy Central special. He doesn't do finance.

"I know about as much about investing and banking as an actual baby," he says." [The Funny People Behind the Famous Ads]

We used to see a lot more of Pete Holmes when he lived in NYC, but as his Facebook page points out, he now lives in LA where he performs at the What's Up Tiger Lily? Comedy Show on 2/21 (he moved there in 2010 to be a writer for NBC's Outsourced).

Pete Holmes performed at Comix in NYC on March 11th, 2010 (and other times). Comix went out of business less than one year later.

Pete's friend Mike Birbiglia (I mean they're probably friends) has a new off-Broadway (I think that's considered off-Broadway) show opening at Barrow Street Theatre and tickets are on sale.

If Pete was in NYC tonight (2/18), maybe he would go see Pajama Men at St Ann's Warehouse, or maybe he'd prefer the less high profile comedy show going on at Union Hall (with Seth Herzog, Bridget Fitzgerald, Jon Glaser, Kristen Schaal, and Adira Amram).

A video of Pete performing at Comix in 2009 can be watched below...

Continue reading "(I forgot that) Pete Holmes is the E*Trade Baby"

by Ryan Barkan

Tracy Morgan & Stevie Wonder (picture via Hipster Runoff)

Super Bowl XLIV (44) took place Sunday night in Florida between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints. The Saints semi-upset the Colts to win the big game for the first time in the franchise's history. This post is a special edition of the long lost "Week In Music Licensing" post and as such, that's the last you will hear about the game. Grizzly Bear, Arcade Fire, many videos and more below...

Continue reading "music & commercials of Super Bowl XLIV (Grizzly Bear, Arcade Fire, The Who, Mini Kiss, The Heavy & more) "

by Klaus Kinski

Secret Wars @ All Points West 2009 (more by Tim Griffin)

So we've got the Del Close Marathon happening this weekend (8/14-8/16) and we've got the New York Comedy Festival happening in November. And now it is with unbridled enthusiasm that I can achieve a comedy-festival-posting-hat-trick by announcing the EUGENE MIRMAN COMEDY FESTIVAL which is set to take over Brooklyn venues Union Hall and the Bell House from September 17 - September 20. OK, so we briefly mentioned the festival before, but with line-ups, showtimes, as well as venue and ticket info just released, it's time to spread the word.

Curated by the great Eugene Mirman, this year's festival has a gasp worthy line-up that is truly beyond belief and will feature stand-up, panels, videos, special guests, 'theme' shows, the occasional free drink, after-parties, and much more. The highlight of the festival for me are two Daniel Kitson headlining gigs at Union Hall. Daniel is a British Stand-up comedian who I've only had the opportunity to see once, but that one experience was epic. More monologuist than stand-up comedian, he is one of the smartest, funniest, most energetic and eloquent performers I have ever seen. We are blessed to have two chances to see him headline such an intimate room. Besides that, the festival boasts appearances by Reggie Watts, Todd Barry, John Hodgman, Bobby Tisdale, AD Miles, Kristen Schaal, Michael Showalter, Marc Maron, John Mulaney, Jon Benjamin, and many many more. And, of course, Eugene.

The schedule so far is below. According to the folks in charge, even more excitement will be announced in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!! Tickets for all shows go on sale Sunday August 16 Saturday, August 15 at noon via Ticketweb (Bell House, Union Hall).

Full lineup and more below...

Continue reading "Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival 2009 lineup (Daniel Kitson & more), an 826NYC benefit (tickets), a new Sub Pop album"

Comedian and musician Dave Hill was summoned to Bonnaroo this past weekend to be part of both the comedy and music going-ons at the four-day Tennessee festival. I asked if he'd mind sharing his experiences (and pictures) with BrooklynVegan.com. He agreed. I regretted it. He sent it anyway, so here it is (starting with some MP3's by his rock band Valley Lodge), but warning: this post is not for the squeamish (NSFTS)...

DOWNLOAD: Valley Lodge - All of My Lovin (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Valley Lodge - Hangin On (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Valley Lodge - The Door (MP3)

Dave Hill tests face-melting licks out on some chairs

I've just returned from four magical days and nights at Bonnaroo, where my rock band Valley Lodge was the house band for Triumph the Insult Comic Dog's "Bonnapoo 2009" shows, which featured all sorts of awesomeness from Robert Smigel aka Triumph as well as sets from the great Todd Barry, Amy Schumer, and Kumail Nanjiani.

"Smigel performed four sets as Triumph at Bonnaroo, which annually hosts a comedy tent along with its smorgasbord of music acts, spread out over five main stages on a farm in rural Tennessee.

"My live act is a huge undertaking because Triumph kind of thrives on the immediate, discussing what everybody's thinking about," said Smigel while whisking past festival-goers in a golf cart, puppet on hand." [AP]

The excitement started on Wednesday night when I got on a plane to Nashville with my close personal friend Janeane Garofalo, Pete Holmes, Kumail Nanjiani, and the rest of my rock band Valley Lodge. If you've ever wanted to be on a completely hilarious plane, you could do a lot worse than to have been on this plane. As you can probably imagine, all of us were running back and forth between our seats spraying each other with seltzer bottles and throwing pies in each others' faces. At one point, Pete Holmes came over to my seat to shake my hand and it turned out he had one of those joy buzzers on his finger. Man, was my face red. I got him back though by spraying him in the face with a prank flower I was wearing at the time. We both just laughed and laughed after this happened. He couldn't stay mad at me.

Once we got to Nashville, some unmarked vehicles took us all to Murfreesboro, the popular Tennessee town where we all stayed at the Doubletree Hotel, which is really classy. Because I snore and also like to get up to all sorts of hardcore banging in hotels, I had my own room. When I dropped off my bags, I looked around the room and got all excited about all the snoring and hardcore banging I would be doing in my room over the next few days and nights.

continued below...

Continue reading "What It's like to be a VIP at Bonnaroo 2009 by Dave Hill"

Amadou & Mariam @ All Points West 2008 (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

The contest to guess the lineup of this year's All Point West festival continues. I honestly don't even know the lineup yet - I'll be receiving it right before I post it at 7am Monday morning.

Will Coldplay be on the lineup? A lot of people seem convinced based on the band's current tour schedule (which you can see in its entirety below). If they are playing the fest, well, that will be weird.

UPDATE: yes, Coldplay are in fact playing the festival

Amadou and Mariam played All Points West last year, are touring the US with Coldplay in July, and have some headlining dates scheduled in June (including a show at Webster Hall on June 8th). The Mali duo was also just added to this year's Bonnaroo lineup.

Also recently added to Bonnaroo (music and comedy): Public Enemy, Ani Difranco, the Itals and Wailing Souls, Murs, Shadows Fall, High on Fire, Janelle Monáe, Pretty Lights, Tony Rice, Passion Pit, Hockey, White Rabbits, Jimmy Fallon, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, John Oliver, Rob Riggle, Rory Albanese, Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, Aziz Ansari, Kristen Schaal, Arj Barker, Todd Barry, Nick Thune, Wayne Federman, Nick Kroll, Kurt Braunholer, Amy Schumer, Kumail Nanjiani and Pete Holmes. Full Bonnaroo (June 11 - 14 in Manchester, Tennessee) lineup below...

Continue reading "Coldplay, All Points West, Amadou & Mariam & Bonnaroo"

David Cross (you may know him as the Crane from the movie Kung Fu Panda) is confirmed to appear with Eugene Mirman at the previously mentioned Tearing the Veil of Maya holiday show at Union Hall in Brooklyn on December 7th. Tickets are now on sale. That's one day before David appears at Knitting Factory with Marnie Stern and Fred Armisen.

Eugene Mirman is confirmed to appear at Variety Shac's Farewell to the Knit (at the Knit) on December 17th. Also on the bill: Tigers and Monkeys (a band that is often on the bill of comedy shows), Jon Glaser and Stella's Michael Showalter. Tickets are on sale.

Stella performed two shows at Union Hall this past Saturday and will be appearing at Nokia Theatre December 9th and 10th.

Demetri Martin plays UCB tonight, Monday December 1st.

ALSO TONIGHT (MONDAY): @ Pianos - It Is It (free comedy) w/ Pete Holmes, Hannibal Burress, Roger Hailes, Noah Garfinkle, and others.

More like this, HERE.

Kristen Schaal @ Sub Pop's 20th. (more by Shawn Brackbill)

The New York Comedy Festival runs from November 5-8 in NYC (not counting the November 4th show at Caroline's). There are many big comedians like Louis CK and Sarah Silverman doing shows at big venues like Town Hall and Hammerstein Ballroom, but there are also smaller and just-as-funny alternatives being hosted at the UCB Theatre. They are:

Nov 5 @ 7:30 PM - the Web Video Cram-Off hosted by Pete Holmes
(more info and reservations)

Nov 6 @ 7:30 PM - the Best Sketch in NY Showcase w/ featuring Elephant Larry, Sidecar, Harvard Sailing Team, Derrick, Dirty Jeans & Thunderchief, and hosted by Kurt Braunohler & Kristen Schaal.
(more info, no more reservations)

Nov 7 @ 7:30 PM - Time Out New York Approved comedy w/ Kristen Schaal, Anthony Jeselnik, Reggie Watts, & More!
(more info and reservations)

More info on everything @ the festival's website.

words by Klaus Kinski, photos by Elizabeth Weinberg

We had our first ever Brooklynvegan and Klaus Kinski present Rock n' Rofl at Pianos on Thursday February 28th, 2008. Aside from the noise coming in from the bar everytime someone opened the door and the lack of chairs for the comedy, I thought the show went really well. An ill (literally, as in he had the flu) Peasant started off the show with some surprisingly powerful folk music.

Peasant

Comedians Joe Mande, Dave Hill, Pete Holmes, Kristen Schaal, Leo Allen, and host Bobby Tisdale were really incredible. They brought such a great variety of videos and comedic material to the table. This was my first ever comedy showcase I felt honored to have such amazing talent on the bill, and especially to be playing host to host Bobby Tisdale who had just hosted his very last Invite Them Up at Rififi only one night earlier. It was a bummer Kurt Braunohler couldn't make it last minute (because a wizard turned him into a llama), but Kristen did a great job handling it on her own, and the world premiere showing of the new New Pornographers video that they both star in was an extra special treat.

Bobby Tisdale

Continue reading "the next Rock 'n' ROFL is March 31st @ Pianos - save the date ++++++++++++ the pics from last time finally!"

words by Jon Roren, photos by Marianne Ways

Todd Barry and Ira Kaplan (Yo La Tengo) @ Rififi, Feb 26, 2008

Eugene Mirman

The penultimate Invite Them Up at Rififi Tuesday night (Feb 26, 2008) was perhaps as close to perfection as downtown comedy gets. It was also about as crowded as it gets. There were so many people that they had to open up the back room, put up a projection screen and seat people in there. This of course inspired some visual humor with Eugene Mirman standing in between rooms, watching himself in the back room while waving his arm in front of the camera in the main room a la "Spaceballs."

Continue reading "Invite Them Up, night 2 of 3 final shows (pics & recap) "

by Klaus Kinski

I was giddily reflecting upon the superiority of the comedy we've got scheduled for the premier installment of Rock n' ROFL (happening Thursday 2/28 at Pianos) when I realized that comedian and ROFL participant Pete Holmes has been grossly neglected on BV. My bust completely. Fellow ROFLers Greg Johnson, Leo Allen, Dave Hill, Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler have all had their fair share of coverage. Yet Pete's presence here has been limited to mere show listings. Ew. Injustice.

I just want to take this opportunity to say for the record that Pete Holmes is one of the funniest, most energetic comedians I've seen. His infectious, ultra-hyper riffing has single-handedly resurrected some of the most abysmal comedy showcases. His acts feel very stream of consciousness, and sometimes veer into a scary self-depricating-why-am-I-a-comedian tangents that only urges his completely transfixed audience to sort of cheer him on. And if you've ever seen him hanging around a venue before one of his sets, you'd know he has one of the loudest, most infectious laughs ever. He's a phenomenon. As he will point out, he looks like he might the love child of Val Kilmer and John Ritter. He's been on VH1's best Week Ever. He's a cartoonist for the New Yorker. And he's been neglected by me. If ever there was a comedian on the 2/28 ROFL roster that can whoop the crowd into a frenzy, Pete's the man.

Check out an interview at The Apiary, one at Gothamist, and the video below....

Continue reading "Pete Holmes is funny (and playing Rock 'n' ROFL)"

by Klaus Kinski

For over 5 years, Eugene Mirman and Bobby Tisdale's weekly comedy showcase Invite Them Up has been bringing New Yorkers the best comedy (and sometimes music) on the planet. But as mentioned earlier, Invite Them Up will cease operations on February 27th, 2008. And although this loss will leave a huge hole in the comedic soul of NYC, Eugene and Bobby are saying goodbye by giving us three nights of comedy and music beginning Monday 2/25 (tonight)

Obviously such a renowned comedic institution like Invite Them Up won't die quietly. These final three shows will feature line-ups so insane that I'm not going to bother to mention a single participant. I won't even bother to mention a few of the lesser known names and append that with the vague "Plus Special Guests". These three nights' line-ups are comprised of special guests only. Want an idea of how good the line-ups might be? Take a look at their More Info Page and let your imagination run wild.

As with all other installments of Invite Them Up, each show will conclude with a wonderful afterparty featuring a different guest DJ each night. Comedian Craig Baldo is confirmed to DJ the 2/25 afterparty. To accomodate the legions of comedy fans that will stick around for these afterparties, the bar and the showroom will both stay open after the show.

But that's not all. They're going to make a large time capsule. They'll mostly have comedians put stuff in relating to the show, comedy, or this point in time, but Eugene and Bobby would like to Invite the audience to bring stuff for the time capsule too! Bring something. They'll be collecting the stuff over all three nights.

Despite previous reports, there is now no official closing date for Rififi. Nate Sloan at the NY Press reports....

"Whether or not the liquor license will be revoked is up in the air," explains Antonio. "The owner is making an effort to keep Rififi open, and it seems as though Rififi will remain open for at least another four or five months and could remain open permanently if the license is saved and hopefully will continue to operate as it has been."

This means the departure of Invite Them Up leaves Wednesday nights open for a brand new show. What will the show be? Who will curate it? With a little bit o' luck, I'll have the answer real soon....

Invite Them Up - The Final Shows
February 25, 26, 27 - 8:00pm
$5
Rififi
332 East 11th Street

.Check out some now-classic videos from Invite Them Up below....

Continue reading "Invite Them Up, RIP - 3 more to go, all this week (@ Rififi)"

DOWNLOAD: Peasant - Exposure (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Forms - Knowledge In Hand (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Bear in Heaven - Bag of Bags (MP3)

BV & KK present.....Rock 'n' ROFL -- TH, Feb 28, 2008 @ Pianos, NYC

7:30 - Peasant
8:30 - comedy hosted by Greg Johnson
10:00 - The Forms
11:00 - Bear in Heaven (pictured above)

$10 admission includes a complimentary bottle of Newcastle ale. Tickets are on sale. More info, the flyer (that was designed by Creek Bed Industries), and a video of The Forms covering Nirvana at Union Hall, below....

Continue reading "Peasant & Bear in Heaven playing ROCK 'n' ROFL + free beer"

DOWNLOAD: The Forms - Knowledge in Hand (MP3)

Greg Johnson @ Knitting Factory, NYC - Jan 29, 2008 (Anya Garrett)

It is with an unprecedented amount of glee that I annouce a new monthly party brought to you by BrooklynVegan and I (Klaus Kinski) called BrooklynVegan and Klaus Kinski present Rock n' ROFL (or just "Rock n' ROFL" for short).

Taking place at Pianos in NYC (158 Ludlow Street at Stanton), the purpose of the show is to bring you a night of great comedy and music in an intimate setting. Our premiere installment will take place on Thursday February 28th, 2008, and will be hosted by ECNY Award winner Greg Johnson. There will also be comedy by Pete Holmes, Dave Hill, Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler, Leo Allen, and maybe more TBA. Maybe. After the comedy comes two bands (approximately something like 8-10pm comedy, 10-12 bands). The first band is one of my favorites The Forms, and the second band will be announced soon. Your sides will hurt from laughing, your ears will hurt from the loud music, and your liver will hurt from all the booze you're going to drink. It's gonna be great! (ticket info TBA soon)

---

No members of Human Giant are performing at the premiere show - at least partially because they'll be out on tour.

Fred Armisen definitely won't be joining us either - at least partially because we uknowingly scheduled this show the same night as his own at Knitting Factory.

Can't make our show, but still want to see the Forms? Or you want to see them twice? Or you love Gothamist? Catch The Forms and Pattern is Movement at Union Hall on February 15th (13 days before our show).