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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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I always go through withdrawal when The Daily Show is on hiatus. Last week, however, the show's correspondent team (John Oliver, Jason Jones, Samantha Bee, Wyatt Cenac and Aasif Mandvi) provided a soothing relief for my deprivation in the form of a web series that purports to explain the core philosophies underlying various political parties and movements, including the Democrats, Republicans, Socialists and Tea Partiers. It really hit the spot.

The Daily Show returns to its regular schedule this evening.

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According to British comedian and author Andy Zaltzman, when the British tabloid The News of the World was accused of wrongdoing in the now infamous phone-hacking scandal, the paper "did not just cross the line . . . it drove through the line in a high-speed tank, reversed back over the line, picked it up, taped the line back together, headbutted it, released the line into the woods, ran after it, kidnapped it, chained it to a radiator in its dungeon, fed it half a slice of stale bread and a glass of water every day, and whacked the line round the kneecaps with a baseball bat before releasing it and saying, 'Right, line, I never want to see you anywhere near one of my articles again, comprende?'"

That's a quote from the July 10th 2011 edition of the topical British comedy podcast The Bugle. The Bugle is hosted weekly by Zaltzman and Daily Show correspondent John Oliver. As a popular new satire program, it wouldn't ordinarily be surprising to hear the hosts make scathing jokes about the almost-too-shocking-to-be-real hacking scandal and subsequent shuttering of The News of the World. But it was certainly a bold move for a podcast that is presented by a paper that is actually part of the News Corp. empire. "In full disclosure," says Oliver during the show, "this podcast is presented by The Times of London - a sister paper of The News of the World. But more of an older, more mature, less slutty sister than its tear-away, shameful, dirty younger sibling who has repeatedly brought disgrace upon the whole, admittedly flawed, family."

While many Murdoch-owned publications downplayed news of the scandal's most appalling allegations, the Bugle refused to hold back. For example, at one point during the show Zaltzman jokes that his grandmother-in-law got a telegram from the queen for her 100th birthday and that he hacked into it as per "company policy." Later, Oliver tells Zaltzman to "[d]elete your emails, Andy -- quick!"

To learn more about The Bugle, check out this summary of the show from our own Podthoughts column. You can also find the show on itunes.

And if you've been hiding in a cave all summer and missed out on hearing the details of the hacking scandal, you can catch up quickly by watching this clip wherein John Oliver (at his other job) provides an impressively concise and scathing summary of the key allegations to date.