Results tagged “stella”

Michael Ian Black, David Wain and Michael Showalter met each other twenty years ago at NYU and have been performing comedy together ever since. Their college sketch group would go on to become the short-lived but widely-loved MTV show, The State. In 1997, the three of them began performing as Stella at Fez in Greenwich Village, a comedy show that would help define alternative comedy in New York throughout the decade to follow. That was also the name of the show the three made for Comedy Central in 2005, an absurdist mix of sitcom and sketch inspired by the shorts the three had been doing for years. But their legacy may end up being Wet Hot American Summer, the send-up of 80s summer camp movies that has taken on a life of its own as a cult classic since it was released in 2001. Tomorrow night Stella will host New York Magazine's 40th Anniversary Event that features performances by The National and Grizzly Bear.

Craig Wedren is the former front man for the sorely missed D.C. band Shudder to Think, a group that seemed to intuitively grasp all the overlooked possibilities of the late-80s/early 90s post-punk landscape and render them into a sound that was at once startling, bizarre and irresistibly catchy. Since the band’s end ten years ago, Wedren has made a career as composer of soundtracks for movies such as Wet Hot American Summer and The Baxter, while still writing his own songs, which appeared on his 2005 solo record Lapland. But an impromptu reunion between Wedren and two other Shudder to Think band mates last September has fans clamoring for more; and those at Bowery Ballroom tonight will likely get it. The sold out "Barack Rock" show will be hosted by the comedy group Stella; the lineup consists of OK Go, Craig Wedren, Nathan Larson, Nina Persson, and Joan As Police Woman. As Wedren told us in the interview, the concert was scheduled tonight for the express purpose of reminding people to vote in the Super Tuesday primaries tomorrow.