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Here's where you can find some of our favorite people this week:

Asheville, NC - They Might Be Giants at The Orange Peel on Sept. 28th;

Atlanta, GA - Adam Corolla at the Tabernacle on Sept. 30th;

Baton Rouge, LA - Brian Posehn at the Manship Theater on Sept. 26th and 27th;

Bloomington, IL - The Comedy Attic will feature Jackie Kashian and Maria Bamford on Sept. 22nd, 23rd and 24th and Doug Benson (taping an episode of Doug Loves Movies) on Sept. 26th;

Boston, MA - The Wilbur Theater will host Bill Burr on Sept. 23rd and 24th and Louis CK on Oct. 1st; Das Racist will be at the Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub on the 28th;

Canton, MA - The Hold Steady will appear at the Life Is Good Festival on Sept. 24th;

Chicago, IL - They Might Be Giants with Jonathan Coulton at The Vic Theater on Sept. 23rd;

Colorado Springs, CO - Doug Benson at The Black Sheep on Sept. 21st;

Des Moines, IA - Demitri Martin will appear at Hoyt Sherman Place on Sept. 23rd;

Detroit, MI - Chris Tucker will perform at the Fox Theater Detroit on October 1st;

Indianapolis, IN - They Might Be Giants and Jonathan Coulton at The Vogue on the 22nd; Doug Benson at Crackers on Sept. 25th; Chris Tucker at the Murat Theater at Old National Center on Sept. 30th;

Louisville, KY - The Improv will host Marc Maron on Sept. 22nd, 23rd, 24th and 25th and Doug Benson on October 1st; Bob Edwards will be appearing to promote his new book, "A Voice in the Box: My Life in Radio", at the Filson Historical Society on the 22nd;

Madison, WI - Dave Atell will at the Comedy Club on State on Sept. 23rd and 24th;

Miami Beach, FL - Chris Tucker will be at the Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theater on Sept. 24th;

Nashville, TN - They Might Be Giants and Jonathan Coulton at the Cannery Ballroom on Sept. 27th;

New Haven, CT - Das Racist will play at Toad's Place on Sept. 29th;

New Orleans, LA - Chris Tucker at the UNO Lakefront Arena on Sept. 23rd;

New York, NY: Colson Whitehead will be doing a book signing at McNally Jackson Books as part of the New Yorker Festival on October 2nd; He'll also be participating in a panel discussion about Alternative Realities at SVA Theatre on Sept. 30th;

Omaha, NE - Demitri Marin will be at the Omaha Music Hall on Sept. 24th;

Ottawa, ON - Greg Proops will be performing "Whose Live Anyway?" at the Centrepointe Theater in Ottawa, ON on Sept. 23rd;

Philadelphia, PA - The Hold Steady at the Popped Music Festival on Sept. 23rd; They Might Be Giants and Jonathan Coulton at the Theater of the Living Arts on Sept. 30th.

Portland, OR - Scott Thompson and Kevin McDonald perform "Two Kids, One Hall" at Helium on Sept. 22nd, 23rd and 24th; Tig Notaro at Mississippi Studios on Sept. 28th;

Providence, RI - Das Racist at The Met on Sept. 30th;

Raleigh, NC - Kevin McDonald and Scott Thompson performing "Two Kids, One Hall" at Goodnights on Sept. 29th, 30th, Oct. 1st and 2nd;

Richmond, VA - They Might Be Giants and Jonathan Coulton at the The National on Sept. 29th;

Salt Lake City, UT - Jimmy Pardo at Wiseguys Comedy Club on Sept. 30th and Oct. 1st;

Sayreville, NJ - Brian Posehn at the Starland Ballroom on Sept. 30th;

Seattle, WA - Demitri Martin at The Neptune Theater on Sept. 30th and Oct. 1st;

St. Louis, MO - They Might Be Giants and Jonathan Coulton at The Pagaent on Sept. 24th

Tulsa, OK - They Might Be Giants and Jonathan Coulton at Cains Ballroom on Sept. 25th;

Ventura, CA - Doug Benson at the Ventura Harbor Comedy Club on Sept. 28th;

Washington, DC - Das Racist at the 9:30 Club on October 1st.

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• Chicago sketch comedy group Schadenfreude has just wrapped up a terrific web series, "The New Bleacher Bums", featuring Kate James and Sandy Marshall as two confused and seemingly entitled Cubs fans named Colleen Henneman and Todd Voorhies. Here's the first episode wherein the show's host, WBEZ's Justin Kaufmann, tries (unsuccessfully) to introduce the series in the style of Ira Glass.
• Matt Braunger will be taping his new stand-up album for Comedy Central Records at Portland's Alberta Rose Theatre on Friday, October 14. If you're in the area, you can buy tickets here.
• According to a recent interview in the LA Weekly, Blu & Exile have a record in post-production that is currently called Memoirs. The duo recorded it in '09 and are considering putting it out before the end of the year.
• Dinosaur Jr. and Henry Rollins are teaming up for a west coast tour in December. The band will be performing Bug in its entirety and Rollins will be interviewing them each night. They'll be hitting Costa Mesa, Solana Beach, LA, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. I'll post ticket info in "This Week Live" when it becomes available.
• Das Racist has launched a new and difficult-to-categorize web series called Chillin Island (which is also the name of their show on East Village Radio).
• Rolling Stone just posted a new video of the song "Cloisonne" from They Might Be Giants' latest album "Join Us". And here it is!
  
  

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They Might Be Giants launch their tour this week with Jonathan Coulton opening. They have by far the most appearances of any performer on this week's list including:

• Tour launch on Sept. 8th at Toads in New Haven;
• Sept. 9th at the Mahaiwae Theater in Great Barringon, MA;
• Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord, NH on Sept. 10th;
• Upper Valley Events Center in Norwich, VT on Sept. 11th;
• State Theater in Ithaca, NY on Sept. 13th;
• Byham Theater in Pittburgh, PA on Sept. 14th; and
• Harro East Ballroom in Rochester, NY on Sept. 15th.

And here's what all of our other MaxFun favorites will be up to this week:

Andy Kindler will be in San Francisco at the Punch Line on Sept. 13th and 14th;

Ben Folds will be in Minneapolis, MN at the Orchestra Hall on Sept. 17th and in Milwaukee, WI at Veterans Park on Sept. 18th;

Bill Burr will be at the Funny Bone in Columbus, OH on Sept. 10th and 11th;

Blitzen Trapper will be playing the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, OR on Sept. 9th; Music Millenium in Portland, OR on Sept. 12th; and Easy Street Records in Seattle on Sept. 13th;

Brian Posehn will be at Ottos Nightclub in Dekalb, IL on Sept. 9th and at the Cubby Bear in Chicago, IL on Sept. 10th;

Chris Tucker at Sheas Performing Arts Center in Buffalo, NY on Sept. 9th, at Citi Performing Arts Theater in Boston, MA on Sept. 10th, and Chicago Theater in Chicago, IL on Sept. 16th;

Das Racist will perform at Bowery Ballroom in Brooklyn on Sept. 12th;

Dave Atell will be performing at Helium in Portland, OR on Sept. 15th through the 17th;

Demitri Martin will be performing Sept. 16th at the Orpheum in Phoenix, AZ and Sept. 17th in San Francisco at the Palace of Fine Arts;

Devo will be at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, OR on Sept. 16th and Redhook Brewery in Woodinville, WA on Sept. 17th;

Doug Benson will be at the Orpheum Theater in Sioux Falls, SD on Sept. 9th and at the Rialto Theater in Tucson, AZ on Sept. 10th;

Gary Hustwit will be premiering his latest film, Urbanized, at the Tortonto International Film Festival on Sept. 9th, 11th and 16th;

Hannibel Burress will perform September 8th-10th at the Arlington Drafthouse,in Arlington, VA and September 14th - 17th at Comedy Off Broadway in Lexington, KY;

The Hold Steady will perform Sept. 23rd in Philadelphia, PA at the Popped! Music Festival;

Jackie Kashian will be at Kirkland Laughs in Kirkland, WA Sept. 15th - 17th;

John Oliver will be at the Pantages Theater in Minneapolis, MN on Sept. 24th;

Kyle Kinane will perform at the Comedy Club on State in Madison, WI on Sept. 8th, 9th and 10th;

Marc Maron will spend Sept. 8th - 10th at Zanies in Nashville, TN;

Ray Romano will be at the Mirage in Las Vegas Sept. 16th and 17th;

Steven Wright will perform on Sept. 10th at Fox Theatre at Foxwoods Casino in Mashantucket, CT and September 17th at the Meadowbrook Music Festival in Rochester Hills, MI;

Ted Leo will spend Sept. 10th in Portland, OR at the Backspace Cafe;

Todd Barry will make a rare west coast appearance on Sept. 16 and 17 at the Improv in Los Angeles, CA, and he will be joined by Tig Notaro on the 16th;

Two Kids One Hall (Kevin McDonald and Scott Thompson) will perform at Cobbs in San Francisco Sept. 15th - 18th.

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Here's where you can catch some of your favorite MaxFun performers this week:

• The Hold Steady will be in Atlanta, GA at the Variety Playhouse on August 30th; at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC on August 31st; at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC on Sept. 1st; and at the Jefferson Theater in Charlottesville, VA on Sept. 2nd.
• Mavis Staples will appear at Seattle's Bumbershoot festival on Sept. 3rd and Das Racist will also appear at the festival on Sept. 4th.
• There will be a great lineup of comedians at Bumbershoot from Sept. 3rd to Sept. 5th, including Doug Benson (who will be recording an episode of "Doug Loves Movies"), Kyle Kinane, Scott Aukerman (who will be recording "Comedy Bang! Bang!"), Paul F. Tompkins and Eugene Mirman.
• Benson will also be appearing earlier in the week on August 29th at Hyena's in Ft. Worth, TX and on Sept. 1st at Helium in Philadelphia, PA.
• The Rock the Bells festival (which includes performances by Mobb Deep, Childish Gambino and Blu & Exile) will be coming to Governor's Island in New York on Sept. 3rd.
• Dr. Dog will perform on August 29th at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel in Providence, RI; on Sept. 1st at the Chance Theater in Poughkeepsie, NY; and on Sept. 3rd at the WHYY Connections Festival on Penns Landing in Philadelphia, PA.
• Tig Notaro, as usual, is keeping very busy. On August 31st, she will be at the Opolis in Norman, OK; on Sept. 1st she'll be at Press Bar in Kansas City, MO; and on Sept. 3rd at Firebirds in St. Louis, MO.
• Jonathan Coulton will be performing Sept. 2nd with Paul and Storm at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta, GA. Looks like this will be his last show before launching his extensive fall tour with They Might Be Giants.
• Greg Proops will be recording his Smartest Man in the World podcast at the Out of Bounds Comedy Festival in Austin on September 4th.

Das Racist is a Brooklyn-based hip hop trio known for tracks like "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" and "hahahaha jk?" They've referred to their particular approach to hip hop as "deconstructualist," combining humor, nonsequiturs, and culture theory. Their newest album, Relax, is due later this year. Victor Vazquez (aka Kool A.D.) and hype man Ashok Kondabolu (aka Dap) joined us in the studio.

JESSE THORN: It's The Sound of Young America, I'm Jesse Thorn. My guests, members of the hip hop group Das Racist, are a lot of different things. Heems, Kool AD and Dap are, in part, the heir to the playful smart identity politics of “Daisy Age”-era De La Soul. They're the men behind one of the most successful hip hop novelty records of the last couple of years, “Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.” They were the only rappers in last year's Sundance Film Festival, at least that I'm aware of. They're MCs who drop social theorists' names casually into their lyrics, like no one in hip hop since Diggable Planets' second album, Blowout Comb. They're also three guys from Williamsburg, who apparently like to drink and smoke weed. Let's hear a little bit of “hahahaha jk?” from their most recent mix tape, Sit Down, Man.

Two of the three members of Das Racist, Kool AD and Dap join me on the show. Welcome, guys.

VICTOR VAZQUEZ AKA "KOOL A.D.": Hello.

ASHOK KONDABOLU AKA “DAP”: Hi.

Click here for a full transcript of this interview.