(le) poisson rouge

Radio Happy Hour is a live variety show featuring an old-time radio comedy/drama and guest stars from the worlds of film, music, and letters. Hosted by Sam Osterhout, the show engages its guests in a wildly right-angled conversation that careens between interviews, stand-up comedy, musical performances, and trivia. At the center of it all is a short, old time radio comedy in which the guest stars as him or herself and is forced to help the Radio Happy Hour crew solve the crime. Audiences will see all of this--the interviews, the corny jokes, the guest performances, and the behind-the-scenes making of a radio drama--live every month, and podcasted online as well. Trust us, it will make more sense when you see it.

Drinking in the afternoon. Radio Drama. It’s like the depression, but funnier.

Past guests include Norah Jones, Andrew WK, Cursive, David Bazan, Tapes 'n Tapes, The Hold Steady, Jolie Holland, Jesse Eisenberg, Michael Showalter, Eugene Mirman, and many others.

You can download past episodes of Radio Happy for free at iTunes or at RadioHappyHour.com.

After listening to any of the four tracks on Brooklyn quartet Suckers debut self-titled EP you won't be at all surprised to learn that Yeasayer's Anand Wilder produced it, along with Chris Moore (TV On The Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs). Think "2080" minus the kids. The group, which includes BTW Quinn Walker, constructs songs around uplifting group chants and harmonies and an at times dub-like, always joyful synth-and-percussion based instrumentation (with some bass providing the low-end, tons of shakers). Walker's joined by drummer/keyboardist Brian Aiken and fellow multi-instrumental chanters Austin Fisher and Pan. Speaking of "Pan": Scene-wise, you wouldn't be off placing them square in the colorful, fertile circle of MGMT, Chairlift, and Amazing Baby.

Late last fall Tim Kasher went north for the winter after nearly a year of touring in support of Cursive’s 2009 release Mama, I’m Swollen. Leaving sunny Los Angeles, it was in the frosty valley of Whitefish, MT – nestled next to Big Mountain and Glacier National Park – that he set about writing and recording his debut solo album, The Game Of Monogamy.

The album’s classical opening and its closing begin with an uneasy refrain of plucked notes on a harp, setting the tone for The Game Of Monogamy. The theatrical arrangements and lush instrumentation of the album’s moody orchestral pop evoke a 1950s, pre-sexual revolution atmosphere, and set the stage for a dilemma that remains thoroughly modern. The protagonist’s arc in The Game of Monogamy spans the wide range of distinctly human emotions tangled up around relationships in a starched shirt society. Call it the score for our collective sexual plight: expression routinely becomes repression in the name of romance. Kasher’s vision is as keen as ever, unapologetically honest, unflinching, and self-reflective.

My name is Arden Van Amringe Myrin. The Myrin's are proud unemployed Viking Stock. I come from a long line of gentleman farmers and draft dodgers. I am from Little Compton, Rhode Island. It is has tiny gangs and men in pink pants. I live in Los Angeles now - I like the bougainvillea, but I hate the sun. And the sun hates me.

Sometimes I live in New York, which I like the most. I enjoy delis. I have night terrors and often fight with the ghost boat over my bed.

It is my arch nemesis, but I refuse to take it down. It’s not the boss of me. Peanut butter is. I act in movies and TV and stage, and I do improv at UCB in NY and IO West in LA. I also write.

I wrote little dark one-act plays growing up that I would direct and star in. When I was a teenager I moved to Chicago and started studying and performing long-form improv at ImpovOlympic. I was lucky enough to study with Del Close. Then I was an intern at "Late Night with Conan O’Brian" - I made copies and stole lots of Snapple from NBC. Going back as a guest on Conan was one of the most exciting things that has ever happened to me.

I have been a series regular on "Mad TV", "Working", "On the Spot", and "The Royale" and appeared on Friends, Reno 911, Just Shoot Me, Gilmore Girls, Kitchen Confidential, and more. My film credits include Kinsey, The Lucky Ones, What Women Want, Bubble Boy, Christmas With the Kranks, Deconstructing Harry, The Imposters, Autofocus, Highway and upcoming Matt Damon, Steven Soderberg movie The Informant. I have appeared on Late Night with Conan O Brian, Howard Stern, Chelsea Lately, Red Eye, Mike and Juliet, Good Day LA, Loveline and Good Day NY among others. Theatrically I appeared in David Mamet's Boston Marriagem at the Public Theater in New York with Kate Burton and Martha Plimpton.

I also did Noel Coward's Hay Fever at Paul Newman's theater, the Westport County Playhouse in Westport Connecticut.

I am a founding member of the long-form improv team "God Squad" IOWest at IOWest in Los Angeles where I have been performing since 2001, and have studied at UCB and the Groundlings. When I am in NY I perform with the fabulous team "Let's Have a Ball" at UCB.

I wrote and performed a one woman show "Arden Myrin is Straight Outta Lil' Compton" at the HBO Workspace in Los Angeles, and wrote and performed in a two person show with Rob Reinis called "The Rob and Arden Show" that we did at the Comedy Central Stage in Los Angeles, ImprovOlympic Chicago and UCB Theater New York.

Joe Mande has appeared on Comedy Central's Live at Gotham and VH1's Best Week Ever. He's also the author of the Look at This Fucking Hipster blog, now a book.