Mr. Brownstone, Patti Smith, Les Savy Fav, The Virgins, Earl Greyhound, The Dresden Dolls, Dean & Britta, and a few others were all part of my first big 'New Years Eve in NYC' rundown this year. Then came news about Gogol Bordello, Dirty Projectors and Nellie McKay. We even heard about Velvet Revolver (which has since been reduced in price) and Chris Rock (which since had Jill Scott added to the bill). Here are some more NYC choices:

• Studio B New Year's Eve Celebration featuring Slick Rick the Ruler, Moby, Frankie Bones , Kudu, Holy Ghost!, Jacques Renault, The Bangers, Eamon Harkin - only $20.
• "What happens when you cross NYC's top burlesque night with a monster New Years Eve dance party? Burlesque + Discoteque = BURLESQUE - O - TEQUE!" @ Galapagos - tickets are on sale.
• "NYE Official Radiohead Album Release Party with Young Love, 33HZ and VHS or Beta Deejays" - tickets are very expensive and so are drinks @ Hiro Ballroom.
• DJ XXXchange from Spank Rock is playing at the Annex
• The Y2k8 Dance Party @ Silent Barn is all ages and will have free Sparks and is only $5.00 to get in - 6 live acts and/or DJs, presented by Famous Friends & Big Stereo.
• A Place To Bury Strangers is playing the RATED-X & TRASH! New Years Eve Extravaganza at Don Hill's (sort of this year's Motherf*cker party since there isn't Motherf*cker anymore)

Studio B is my first choice of that new bunch, but Galapagos and Silent Barn sound great too - and Don Hill's will probably be good too (if you liked going to Motherf*cker). Hiro Ballroom I can definitely do without.

WIN STUFF: I have one pair of tickets to give away to Mr. Brownstone, and another pair for Nellie McKay, and I still never gave away that pair to the Dirty Projectors, AND I have two DVD copies of The Ten to send out as well. The Ten is related to The State. More details on all of this below.....

Continue reading "New Years Eve in NYC, win tix & The Ten on DVD"

For fans of The State, there is some good news and some bad news floating about. The bad news is that the highly anticipated State DVD has been put on hold by our friends over at MTV. This truly pisses me off. From the official State website:

* * * NOTE (Nov 1, 2007): We are sorry to report The State DVD is now NOT being released this fall. We worked closely with MTV to make a great DVD set with lots of extras for the show, and the DVDs are completed, but they has chosen not to release the set at this time. We don't know why.

The fact that the DVD project is done makes me hopeful that MTV will snap out of it and get this stuff in stores at some point in time. Until then, shame on you MTV.

There's plenty of good news to off-set the bad. First off, The State is reuniting for a new sketch movie. For reals! Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black have been touring (and I don't just mean blogs). They'll be at Irving Plaza on December 1st (tonight). The Michaels also recently released CDs that you should buy because they're really really funny. Also, The Ten DVD is coming out on January 15th. Also, read this. -Klaus

We're playing some catch up, so here is the first half of this week's Comedy Canon....

Craig Wedren, David Wain & friend @ Gramercy Theatre, NYC - Aug 2, 2007 (CRED)

I unfortunately couldn't make it to last night's "Ten" event at the Blender (Gramercy) Theatre, but as you can see from the picture above - the film's co-creator David Wain was also celebrating his birthday. How did it go?

This Fall, Drag City will release the first in a series of DVD's called Fred Armisen Presents. For those of you not in the know, Fred is quite the seasoned drum veteran; he appears on the new Les Savy Fav record, he was in early 90's punk band Trenchmouth, and one of his most beloved characters on SNL was Fericito, a drumming latino variety show host. So it's only fitting that the first Fred Armisen Presents DVD will focus on drum wunderkind Jenns Hannemann whose Complicated Drumming Technique made Fred realize Jenns is a man who could change the world of drum instruction . Billed as an incredible educational opportunity for the musician in us all the disc is set to hit music shops around the globe in October.

But wait; who the hell is Jenns Hannemann? I don't know, but according to Pitchfork, Jenns recently did a show with Will Oldham. He also put on a clinic in Canada last month. This guy's good. Real good.

And speaking of Will Oldham, have you seen the new Kanye West video he's in with Zach Galifianakis? Probably yes, but if not, hurry up!

Neil Hamburger is on tour, and going on tour. He'll be at the Knitting Factory in NYCon September 8, 2007 with Pleaseeasaur. If anyone reading this will be in Chicago on August 4, 2007 - and looks like Neil, why not enter the NEIL HAMBURGER LOOK-A-LIKE CONTEST. The winner gets two tickets to his Lakeshore Theater gig. My condolences to the winner.

All of Neil's tour dates can be found at the end of this post, and much more comedy, below...

Continue reading "Klaus Kinski's Comedy Canon (08/03/07) (part 1)"

The more I read the reviews and the more I rewatch the trailer, the more I'm beginning to think that former Statesmen David Wain and Ken Marino might have created a classic with their upcoming film THE TEN. The film is basically 10 short films about each of the ten commandments. Many film twats are quick to remark that this concept has been done already in Krzysztof Kieslowski's supreme masterpiece Dekalog, but being that this film is from the geniuses that brought you The State and Wet Hot American Summer, I can assure you that the approach in this film will be much different, and much, much, much, MUCH funnier.

The film will have its nationwide release on August 3rd with some festival dates (including a July 21 Hamptons Film Festival screening), but New Yorkers will have a chance to attend a big "An Evening of Comedy & Music Celebrating the Release of The Ten" in New York on August 2nd at the Blender Theater at Gramercy. The shinding will be hosted by director David Wain, and will feature Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter, Craig Wedren (a longtime State collaborator), Mr. Blue, Rashida Jones and Peter Salett (who is also playing The Living Room on July 18). Tickets to the event go on sale TODAY AT NOON.

Which reminds me, Michael Showalter's CD-taping shows at Union Hall are already sold out. More comedy shows that hopefully aren't sold out by the time you read this, BELOW....

Continue reading "Klaus Kinski's Comedy Canon (06/29/07) [The Ten]"