(le) poisson rouge

Renowned singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding, hailed by Rolling Stone as, “a literate and ironic neo-folkie with enough bile to win over a younger, hipper audience not attuned to folk music,” recently released his latest album, Who Was Changed And Who Was Dead , via Popover Corps/Rebel Group. In support of the record Harding will be reviving his three-show residency at Le Poisson Rouge on March 25, April 15, and May 20. Part variety show and part concert, the Cabinet of Wonders will draw together collaborators from the worlds of music, literature, comedy and even ventriloquism all hand-picked by Harding himself. “I wanted to bring together my novel writing friends (who mostly envy my musician friends) and my musician friends (who mostly envy my novel writing friends) under one flag,” says Harding. “The fact is: I like everyone who’s performing.”

You can read about their 11/18/09 show at LPR here.

Actress and Comedian Janeane Garofalo has been an American institution since she burst on the scene in 1992.

In addition to acting in film and television, Janeane is an outspoken activist, spoken word performer and stand-up comedy entertainer known and respected around the country, and the world. As well, she was instrumental in the successful launching of the first liberal radio network, Air America Radio, where she hosted her own talk show, "The Majority Report." A lightning rod for controversy, Janeane's well informed opinions and unflinching honesty have inspired laughs, as well as striking a chord with the left, right and everyone in between. She is a noted peace activist.

Janeane has had many memorable and critically acclaimed roles in films such as "The Truth About Cats and Dogs," "Steal This Movie," "Copland," "Reality Bites," and "Duane Hopwood," as well as for her specific brand of sharp wit and comedy shown in her roles in "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion," "Bye Bye Love," "Mystery Men," "Clay Pigeons," "The Minus Man" and "The Cable Guy," directed by her friend Ben Stiller. Ben and Janeane also co-authored the best seller "Feel This Book," (Ballantine May 1999). Janeane was also a cast member of the Emmy Award-winning Ben Stiller Show.

aneane played the role of Paula, the acerbic talent booker, on "The Larry Sanders Show," for which she received an Emmy nomination in 1997 and two Cable Ace nominations. During the fall of '94 she joined the cast of "Saturday Night Live." Some of Janeane's other television work includes two specials for HBO, the series finale of "Mad About You" and the critically lauded, final season of NBC's "The West Wing," where she played Democratic campaign strategist Louise Thornton.

In 2007, Janeane's voice was featured in the Disney/Pixar animated comedy Ratatouille, and can be seen in Stella writer/director David Wain's ensemble comedy, "The Ten." Janeane can also be seen in her latest projects, the Lifetime movie "Girl's Best Friend" and as a recurring character on the 2009 season of "24."

Janeane lives in New York and Los Angeles.

Robbie Fulks was one of the more heralded talents in the alternative country movement, displaying an offbeat, sometimes dark sense of humor in many of his best moments. As time passed, he moved away from the country twang of his early work and into a crunchier roots-rock hybrid.

Born in York, Pa., on March 25, 1963, Fulks divided his childhood between Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina and received his schooling at Columbia University. With failing grades and a child on the way, he moved to Chicago in 1983 and first served as vocalist and guitarist in bluegrass band the Special Consensus, appearing on their Grammy-nominated 1989 album A Hole in My Heart. He later performed in the musical revue Woody Guthrie's American Song and formed his own rock band, the Trailer Trash Revue.

Fulks got his first significant exposure via Bloodshot Records' 1994 compilation Insurgent Country, Vol. 1: For a Life of Sin, which included his track "Cigarette State." The 1995 follow-up, Insurgent Country, Vol. 2: Hell Bent, featured Fulks' "She Took a Lot of Pills (And Died)." Both cuts were produced by Steve Albini, who also helmed Fulks' Bloodshot debut, Country Love Songs, in 1996. The album received highly positive reviews and featured musical backing from roots-rockers the Skeletons, as well as former Buck Owens steel guitarist Tom Brumley. The follow-up, 1997's South Mouth, took a similarly retro-minded approach, drawing from classic honky-tonk and Bakersfield country. The project contains "F--- This Town," written in frustration after a fruitless publishing deal in Nashville.

With a growing cult reputation, Fulks earned a major label shot with Geffen, but many critics felt that his 1998 label debut, Let's Kill Saturday Night, undermined the organic strengths of his previous work with overly slick roots rock production. A merger between Universal and PolyGram shortly after the album's release led to a gutting of the Geffen artist roster, and Fulks found himself without a label. He opted to start his own label, Boondoggle Records, distributed by Bloodshot, and launched it with The Best of Robbie Fulks, a facetiously titled collection of demos and unreleased recordings.

In 2001, Fulks followed with 13 Hillbilly Giants, in which he covered a baker's dozen songs of the '50s and '60s. Later that year, he issued his most ambitious set to date, Couples in Trouble, a bleak but compelling collection of original songs about a variety of failing relationships. He produced Touch My Heart: A Tribute to Johnny Paycheck in 2004. (He also recorded a tribute to Michael Jackson but did not release it.) He dug back into his country roots in 2005 with Georgia Hard, his first album for Yep Roc Records.

Paul Muldoon’s main collections of poetry are New Weather (1973), Mules (1977), Why Brownlee Left (1980), Quoof (1983), Meeting The British (1987), Madoc: A Mystery (1990), The Annals of Chile (1994), Hay (1998), Poems 1968-1998 (2001), Moy Sand and Gravel (2002), Horse Latitudes (2006) and Maggot (2010).

He writes lyrics for the Princeton-based music collective Wayside Shrines.

I started using comedy as a defence mechanism in junior high and high school and then turned it into a career, once it became clear that I make a terrible temp. I moved to Brooklyn eight years ago from Somerville, MA. Sometimes, I am on television (which makes me professional!). I’m a regular on HBO’s Flight of The Concords, and on Adult Swim’s Delocated. Sometimes you can catch my half hour special on Comedy Central. I voiced the nun on Lucy, Daughter of the Devil. My first book, The Will to Whatevs , is now out from Harper Perennial.

More: Interview at Pitchfork.com

Buffalo Tom is an alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in the 1980s. Its principal members are guitarist Bill Janovitz, bassist Chris Colbourn, and drummer Tom Maginnis. The band's name is derived from the band Buffalo Springfield and the first name of the drummer, who is the shyest of the three. Combining the two is something of a joke among the members.

Dinosaur Jr. guitarist/frontman J Mascis assisted with the production on the band's first two albums. J Mascis also played lead guitar on the song "Impossible" from Buffalo Tom's self-titled debut. Based on Mascis' input, early on the band was sometimes called Dinosaur Jr., Jr.

Buffalo Tom's albums received increasing popular and critical acclaim in the early-mid 1990s. See critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine's biography of Buffalo Tom on Allmusic for a typical example of the excellent reception "Let Me Come Over" (1992) received. Buffalo Tom became one of the more popular alternative rock bands by the mid-1990s: "Big Red Letter Day" (1993) peaked at #8 and "Sleepy Eyed" (1995) peaked at #4 on the Heatseekers chart.

The band contributed the track "For All To See" to the 1993 benefit album No Alternative, and the track "Lolly Lolly Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here" to the CD School House Rock! Rocks. Buffalo Tom's song "Sodajerk" was featured on the soundtrack to the 1994 television series My So-Called Life. They appeared in a club scene on My So-Called Life, episode 12, titled "Self-Esteem", playing "Late at Night". The episode originally aired on 17 November, 1994. They were recently mentioned on the CW show Gossip Girl. Buffalo Tom also wrote the theme song to the extremely short-lived 1999 sitcom The Mike O'Malley Show. In 1999 the song "Taillights Fade" was used in the Breckin Meyer/Elizabeth Berkley independent film Taillights Fade. They also recorded The Jam's "Going Underground" for the 2000 tribute album Fire and Skill: The Songs of the Jam.

They were the final musical guest on Jon Stewart's The Jon Stewart Show wherein he showered the band with moderate enthusiasm for their sound and their musical integrity.

Buffalo Tom is a perennial performer at the Hot Stove Cool Music concerts that benefit Theo Epstein's Charity, Foundation To Be Named Later.

During 2007, Buffalo Tom performed at the South by Southwest Music Festival and went on a mini Summer tour with shows in Boston, New York City, San Francisco, and a few other cities. A new album, Three Easy Pieces, was released on July 10, 2007 through the New West label. The band has played shows in D.C. Chicago, and Minneapolis. A tour of Australia was booked as well as dates in Europe and in their home state of Massachusetts.

Kristin Hersh is a songwriter and guitarist. She founded the band Throwing Muses at age fourteen. In addition to Throwing Muses, Kristin performs with her other band 50FOOTWAVE and as a solo artist.