Click through for more on MtyMx, the Black Lips at Bowery, and LCD Soundsystem news. more ›

Sure, you've been hearing a lot about it recently, but this weekend's festival is actually a pretty big deal. Historically, local giant fests don't go so well when set up near New York, but this one seems to have the backing and support to actually get done right. First off, it certainly helps to have a band like Radiohead headline two nights. You can count on one hand the bands who have the combination of mass appeal and credibility to truly give a new festival the bump it needs to establish itself. Second, the association with Coachella, which has become the high-water mark for the ever-growing number of American festivals, gives it a pedigree to live up to. The fact that the festival is actually going forward already puts it in rare company, considering the fates of Vineland and Field Day. Whether it will be able to become an annual tradition, rather than an Across the Narrows-esque one and done flop, is still to be seen. more ›

Those who missed out on getting tickets to the electrospazzy one-two punch of Dan Deacon and Girl Talk at Webster Hall last Saturday night fell into a bit of luck as the weekend approached. A last minute, late night show was announced for Bowery Ballroom that same night, and the formerly out of luck were now sitting pretty, seeing the two perform in a smaller room at a better hour and for less money. Great deal, right? Well, not so fast. By the time Dan Deacon came on around 12:45, the place was a total disaster. Puke in every sink, girls crying on the sofas and drunk kids getting hauled out of there so frequently by security it started looking like a WTO protest. While this didn't directly affect the music, Girl Talk in particular, who then followed Deacon's hypnotizing set, relies so much on the behavior and interactivity of the crowd that it really became quite a chore to enjoy. Far be it from us to tell the majority of the crowd at a concert they were behaving poorly, but surely we weren't the only ones who were distracted and annoyed my the amateur antics on display. Then again, maybe we've just outgrown the shtick. (pic via JKART's flickr) more ›

THEATER: The fall theater season gets curiouser and curiouser with the start of The Alice in Wonderland Puppet Festival at HERE. (The festival, which is not recommended for children under twelve, will feature a tea party after every show.) Tonight curiouser & curiouser fuses text from Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll’s diary entries and his muse Alice Liddell’s memoirs to try to decipher what destroyed their unique friendship. - John Del Signore more ›

We've survived the sirens for many years, and if this truly was the last Siren Fest ever, it certainly went out with a bang. Coney Island was packed full of thrifty music fans for the 7th annual Siren Festival this weekend. Despite the current trend of awful weather for every worthwhile free outdoor concert this summer so far, nobody could complain about the perfect day at the beach this past Saturday. more ›

Yesterday the annual Siren Festival at Coney Island took place. We'll have a full report tomorrow, for now check out some photos of the day (taken by contributer John Del Signore). The first five are most definitely not PETA-approved. more ›

One of the nice things about being a music fan in New York City is that you rarely have to wait very long to see a band you're recently missed. The Black Lips famously played about 6,000 shows at SXSW this year, yet despite our interest in checking them out, we managed to catch them exactly zero times (with our final chance being cut short by that whole collapsing balcony thing.) So we were stoked to discover they were going to play last Monday back home at Bowery Ballroom. The show lived up to our ever inflated expectations and managed to bring the house down with their drunken-fried punk. While their "wild boyz" antics may seem a bit forced at this stage in their careers, the music more than holds up on its own. It's not easy to play such sloppy rock and roll so precisely. (Pic via Sandwich!) more ›

On Presidents' Day, we are going to exercise our executive power to tell you what shows to go see. Here's our vision of the state of the rock 'n' roll union this week: more ›