In 2007 we dusted off some album covers that featured city-centric artwork, in a series we called NYC Album Art... but it looks like we missed a couple! Ephemeral NY has a list of more album art today, including Steely Dan's Pretzel Logic cover, and Simon and Garfunkel's first album. more ›

What a difference a year can make. One year ago Adam Yauch of The Beastie Boys was asking for some cancer-smashing vibes, and now he's cancer-free and ready for the big screen, the stage, and whatever else comes his way. The group has just released the official trailer for a short film called Fight For Your Right-Revisited, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year and was written and directed by Yauch. Check it out below, it looks like it was cast by Judd Apatow himself! more ›

Despite releasing his awesome music video, Jimmy McMillan of the Rent Is Too Damn High party squeaked by with just under 40,000 votes, making the party ineligible for legitimate party backing in the next election. But as far as we're concerned, this is still the year of Jimmy McMillan! After spending years behind the Rent Is Too Damn High party, he got a chance to debate other candidates, was parodied on SNL, and yesterday his highly anticipated album dropped on iTunes, at the not-too-damn-high price of $9.99! Praise is already flooding in. more ›

As a child of Hollywood, Harry Shearer portrayed the original Eddie Haskell on Leave It To Beaver, appeared in Abbott & Costello Go To Mars, and after a stint at Harvard, eventually wound up on Saturday Night Live, where you can spot him in that legendary synchronized swimming sketch with Martin Short. Many know him as the bassist in Spinal Tap; others recognize his voice from The Simpsons, where he portrays characters such as Montgomery Burns, Ned Flanders, Kent Brockman and Otto. Since the '60s, Shearer has also hosted a popular music/comedy program called Le Show on Santa Monica's NPR-affiliated radio station. more ›

Williamsburg art rock quintet TV on the Radio has just released their third full length album, Dear Science. It's an upbeat, danceable departure from their last opus, Return to Cookie Mountain, but listen closely to the lyrics and you'll find them as troubled as ever with life under the Bush occupation. Of course, main lyricists Kyp Malone and Tunde Adebimpe are smart enough to favor the evocative over the polemical, and it continues to work for them: The verdict on Dear Science handed down from Pitchfork and other critics has been favorable indeed. They play a three night stand at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple on October 14th through 16th. We recently spoke with guitarist, singer and songwriter Kyp Malone about the album, the neighborhood and the beard. more ›

Multi-instrumentalist Mike Gordon – revered for his virtuoso bass playing and distinctive singing with the trailblazing jam band Phish – is releasing a new solo album on August 5th, right in the midst of feverish speculation about a Phish reunion; speculation that's been all but confirmed by the band members themselves. As Gordon tells us in this interview, the timing of all this increased Phish chatter is a bit "weird," mainly because he's so excited about touring with his new band in support of the upbeat new record, called The Green Sparrow. more ›

Your newest album is called Nothing is Underrated, which seems to me to be open to a lot of different interpretations. Indeed, it is. more ›

It's been quite some time since our last installment of NYC Album Art, and today we look at a controversial one that never actually saw the light of day. What you see pictured was the planned cover art for The Coup's Party Music album, designed in June 2001. more ›

Where, like last year, we recap the biggest stories from the New York music scene of the year. more ›

In November, Charlie Rose sat down with rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z. The musician is originally from Brooklyn and late in the interview Rose queries about the expected success of the Nets once they move to Kings County. Jay-Z is very enthusiastic about the potential of the team and the virtues of the borough, as he prefaces every statement about Brooklyn with the words "we" and "ours." It is unintentionally comedic then when Rose immediately follows up with the question "And where do you live now?" The answer is a terse "In Manhattan, uh." The exchange begins around 48 minutes and 45 seconds into the interview and a quick transcript is available at the Atlantic Yards Report site here. It reminded us of the first time that we heard that director Spike Lee had moved to the Upper East Side. more ›

In case you haven't noticed, 'tis the season for giving and all that jazz. You've got a friend/relative/other loved one who can't get enough of the epicurean lifestyle, and you're looking for the perfect gift. Never fear -- 'tis also the season of gift guides, which will steer you to gifts that will guarantee a smile. First, our own five gifts for the foodie under $50, all available online, including a beautiful olive wood mortar... more ›

Naked Guy at Ted Leo Concert It's a tad early for year end awards, but this story is making a strong, late push for the greatest live moment of 2007. At the Ted Leo show at The Music Hall of Williamsburg Wednesday night, some dude from Jersey took off his shirt and threw it on the stage. Not satisfied with merely being topless in a crowd on that snowy night, he eventually followed the shirt... more ›

We're sure to take a bunch of flack about this, but bear with us for a sec. Maroon 5? Not so bad. In fact, at least judging by the first two singles off their latest album, they've moved past the tasteless soccer-mom rock into a legitimately perverted cocaine-sex territory (Exhibit 1: Their amazingly over the top video for 'Wake Up Call'). And that's a good thing. Combine that with a clever SNL/Samberg cameo on Iran So Far and an arena debut at MSG this week with Kanye West coming out as a surprise guest, we're officially impressed. Watch out. (pic via Jen DeRosa's Flickr) more ›

American counterculture and literary idol, Kurt Vonnegut, died yesterday at the age of 84. He was in Manhattan, and his death was the result of brain injuries from a fall several weeks ago. more ›

The Dictators 1978 album Bloodbrothers was shot by Chris Colln in a New York City school yard. The front is shown at right, the back can be seen here. more ›

This picture makes it look like Corn Mo should be singing Love Reign O'Er Me. And if you've ever seen Corn Mo, you know that he can hit those notes as well as Roger Daltrey. You also know that Corn Mo is quite the story teller, and you'll get a few tasty Mo-resels in this interview. more ›

(pic via tammylo's flickr) more ›

At the first Latin Grammys held in New York City, Shakira swept the top categories, winning album of the year, best female pop vocal album, song of the year, and record of the year. The Colombian singer dedicated one award to Latin immigrants and said, "I hope soon they will receive they recognition they deserve from the government." more ›

This just in: the New York Dolls are playing the Seaport Music Festival on August 18th. more ›

Brodsky has recalled of the Morrison shoot, "The shot on the inner sleeve of the Greatest Hitsalbum was pretty near the end, I think. By that time, Morrison was so drunk he was stumbling into the lights and we had to stop the session. He wasn't a wild drunk --- actually he was kind of quiet -- but his equilibrium wasn't too terrific. Still, he was great to photograph because he had a very interesting look." more ›

We reminded you last week to vote for the Plug Awards, and now is your chance to check out the actual awards ceremony. The awards are tonight at Webster Hall and will include a sampling of some of our favorite bands: more ›

The Plug Awards are coming up next week (February 2nd @ Webster Hall). "What the hell are those?," you may be asking. Well, they're independent music awards celebrating "artists who live and flourish in the margins." And YOU can vote on everything from Album of the Year to Music Blog of the Year to Internet Radio Station of the Year. So vote now! more ›

"Last year Elton John declared that Rufus Wainwright was the greatest songwriter on the planet. Quite a profound statement from the king of pop himself. This was presumably based on hearing 2004's Want One, followed earlier this year by the groundbreaking opus, Want Two." Elly Roberts goes on to say that Wainwright's recent show at The Lowry was "An epic night, and a high watermark of a musician on top of his game, who has single headedly changed the possibilities of popular music." Our hometown (via Rhinebeck, New York and Canada) hero headlines the Beacon Theater two nights in row this week. We're especially excited about Wednesday's show. Regina Spektor is opening. more ›

Aziz Ansari, Comedian more ›

Since this seems to be hard to grasp for some we just want to reiterate that this post is just to let you know that we've noticed a few tickets that are on sale for shows that we believe may sell out. We won't be repeating any ticket listings we posted last time, so you may want to give that list a once over as well. Also, we put a $ sign next to overpriced shows that are in no way worth the amount being charged. more ›

We'll have a full list of April and May shows coming up soon, there are A LOT to cover. We find it somehow comforting that we're already buying tickets for shows in the springtime ... we're ready to thaw! Moving on, so as not to repeat ourselves here is last month's sell outs list which has tickets that are still on sale for upcoming shows. And as for the below list we have starred the shows that have a high risk factor of Hilary Duff being in attendance, consider this a public service. more ›

You can download the Grey Album at Illegal Art. And our investigative unit in San Francisco found out that the domain name is registered to an Antoine Tinguely in NYC, who works at design company Trollback and won an Emmy for designing the titles of HBO's Hysterical Blindness.
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For New Yorkers, this week's concert calendar should be focused on Saturday's Siren Music Festival down at Coney Island. (Hopefully the weather will hang in there. As of today the forecast is for isolated thunderstorms, which I suppose is better than intense heat and humidity.) This year's line-up is a dream come true for the fan of indie rock. Death Cab For Cutie, Blonde Redhead, TV on the Radio, the Fiery Furnaces, Har Mar Superstar, ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Electric Six, Mission of Burma and lots more. Get there early--the Fiery Furnaces hit the stage at 2pm. more ›