Yesterday was an appropriately blistering day for this year's eighth annual Village Voice Siren Music Festival at Coney Island, which, with the right frame of mind, can be a total blast. Yesterday had everything we've come to expect from the annual indie rock extravaganza: massive crowds of dehydrating hipsters, fresh clams on the mobbed boardwalk, and a bulging, unmanageable lineup of 14 bands on two stages. Those who stuck through until the evening were rewarded......

Rock Band 2 Setlist Announced It certainly says something about the state of the music industry that perhaps the biggest music story of the week is the placement of some tunes in a video game. But what tunes! At the E3 conference out in LA, Harmonix announced the 80+ songs that will appear in the upcoming sequel to the plastic instrument rock sim. While the list overall is excellent, hitting many genres from the last......

Kevin Drew (myspace) is one of the founding members by the wildly successful Canadian art-rock collective Broken Social Scene. The daring, inventive band boasts a fluctuating roster of artists who shift in and out of the line-up depending on their various other musical pursuits; another BSS member, Leslie Feist, is currently absorbed with her suddenly massive solo career, which exploded into mainstream America after her song “1 2 3 4” became an iPod commercial. As......

Well well well, when we reported in August that Lido Bar in Red Hook would be closing we were met with many emails and comments stating this was 100% untrue. Bar manager Molly Franklin even held strong that Lido Bar would remain open and that this was nothing more than "bar gossip." Earlier this week we received an email from one of the "insiders" stating "Lido actually *is* closing in the next couple weeks (next......

Battles vs. Deerhunter by the Sea A fine way for the Seaport Music Festival to send off the summer, with two of the year's biggest breakout bands on a lovely evening. We were taking in both Battles and Dearhunter for the first time last Friday and were massively impressed by both bands. Deerhunter, down a man and with their usual shtick toned down, sounded like a young Sonic Youth or stripped down Broken Social Scene.......

Bookeaters Return! What started off as an excellent concert lineup just got better and better as the date approached. The additions of Spoon's Britt Daniel and Kevin Drew were a bonus treat. Music, reading and charity aside, perhaps the biggest wow moment was show headliner Jim James' new closely cropped haircut. The My Morning Jacket front man sheared his trademark Muppet locks since the last time we've seen him about. Not that it affected the......

Last night Feist took the Letterman stage with a few of her friends. Nicole Atkins, A.C. Newman, Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew and members of Brooklyn bands The National and Grizzly Bear were her backup singers, taking a page from the Bright Eyes guide to stage wear and donning all white. Watch it below... Later most of the crew made it over to Pianos for rock n' roll trivia (some helping to host) -- not......

Who doesn't love the ice cream man? Not many people. Which is why Matt Allen is pretty popular, since he is, after all, THE Ice Cream Man. Allen drives around the country handing out free frozen treats - so far his travels have taken him (and his '69 Chevy ice cream truck affectionately named Bessie) from St. Jude Children's Hospital to Bonnaroo to McCarren Park Pool (where he'll be this Sunday). Recently, we asked him......

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't officially start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to... Over at Sampaist, spring has more than sprung: it's sweltering! But, as everyone knows, museums are an ideal......

In September, The Wordless Music Series had their inaugural event. It featured Nels Cline from Wilco, pianist Jenny Lin and composer/multi-instrumentalist Elliott Sharp. At first we were a bit apprehensive of a concert without any vocals whatsoever, but we're warming up to the idea (the above video helped). Pairing classical and instrumental indie-rockers in a chamber music setting is actually pretty brilliant. Tonight we'll definitely be heading over to the second show of the......

On Tuesday, the American -ists will be celebrating democracy and hitting the polls, letting politicians know what they really think. It just made us wonder: if it were up to the -ist-a-verse, what would we be voting for? Londonist votes for better skincare, alternative spaces for art, cute little birds and the men who keep them, and concrete. Lots of concrete. Shanghaiist votes for one of the Bee Gees and Air Supply (it's a......

READING: KGB Bar's Non-Fiction Night is playing host to the Subway Chronicles - Boris Fishman, Elise Jurka, and Amy Holman are all reading their stories from that anthology, edited by Jaqueline Cangro. - Krissa Corbett Cavouras 7pm // KGB Bar [85 E 4th St] // Free THEATER: Sam Shepard’s The Tooth of Crime originally premiered in 1972, but in 1983 La MaMa brought it to the next level with a now-legendary rock and roll production.......

READINGS: An afternoon event for those of you who don't need to be sweltering in a thankless office - Erica Jong has a conversation with writer Ariel Levy and reads from her new autobiography, Seducing the Demon: Writing for my Life in the sunny Bryant Park Reading Room as part of the Word for Word Series. In the book, Jong tells spicy tales of New York and Hollywood, and describes life after best-selling novel Fear......

MOVIES: DUMBO's weekly evening film event, Movies with a View, begins tonight with The Wizard of Oz. Bring your iPod and play "Dark Side of the Moon" while the movie plays, it'll, like, totally synch up if you press play during the 3rd lion roar. Halcyon DJs provide music before the film and there is free valet bike parking. And there will be snacks, there will. 6pm, Film at sundown // Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park,......

Last night we made our way to Red Hook for the Tag Team anniversary party. Can't really beat a night at The Hook, free food AND ice cream, full open bar and live music. Especially when the live music is provided by Broken Social Scene. The band played an amazing (and long!) set to a fairly unpacked (but incredibley enthused) room. Amy Millan provided the female vocals, and later played a song or two of......

A few times a week, Gothamist publishes music reviews by our contributor Jeff Baum. The opinions below belong entirely to the author. I treated myself to four and a half hours of Broken Social Scene this weekend. Was lucky enough to catch two of their three sold-out Webster Hall sets. Playing their first headline shows in the city in over a year, they managed to round up as many of the troops as they could......

We were really knocked out by Mazarin at Pianos last week. Very fun band. One can only hope that this week holds such surprise awesomeness. Some potential candidates: Party-pop masters Ok Go (at left) made a hilarious choreographed dance video in their backyard that captures the energy and fun of their live show. Plus, ladies may just fall in love with frontman Damian Kulash's gigantic Mick Jagger lips. With dance punks Controller.Controller and spirited psychedelic......

Metric...

We don't know where to begin with show recommendations this week. Emily Haines is in town with her band Metric for shows at Bowery Ballroom and Southpaw. Today Pitchfork declared the new Broken Social Scene album, on which she appears, "best new music." Broken Social Scene's new label-mates, The Most Serene Republic, are opening both shows. Then there's the Decemberists. Back in town once again, they're also playing two shows - Webster Hall tonight......

It's been over a week since Gothamist has been to a show we felt was worthy of review. Last night, we attended two. First we headed over to Joe's Pub for American Analog Set. This was the first concert we had been to in a very long time where we were completely unfamiliar with the bands music. We went in with a clean slate and an open mind, having heard only excellent word of mouth......

Raising the Fawn...

Movable Hype 4.0 is about a week and a half away! And we're here to remind you about it, because that's what we do. We're really excited about the lineup this time around, but hey - we're always excited about our lineups. Check it out: Bravo Silva Raising the Fawn Langhorne Slim Doveman with special backup band comprised of Oren Bloedow (leader of Elysian Fields) + Shannon Fields (leader of Stars Like Fleas) Show starts......

We still have one act that we'll announce at a later date, but since tickets go on sale today we wanted to announce the details for the next Movable Hype (4.0, for those keeping track). Movable Hype 4.0 @ the Knitting Factory (main space) Monday August 22nd, doors @ 7:30pm Lineup: Langhorne Slim (8:15pm) Bravo Silva (9:15pm) Raising the Fawn (10:15pm) [the last act will be announced at a later date] Tickets are $10, buy......

What a disaster yesterday was. After prominently featuring the Cloud Cult show at Knitting Factory last week, it ends up the show was never actually happening. If you bought tickets, contact Knitting Factory and/or Ticketweb and get your money back. The good news: we wouldn't have been able to talk about Cloud Cult on Gothamist otherwise, so hopefully you discovered a great new band (still haven't listened?). It's Siren time again. Every year the Village......

Enough about the Pixies already. No need to mention them in this column. They're awesome, they're in town, they played on Letterman last night. Enough said. There are a few Rebecca Gates fans out there, no? Any Spinanes fans? She's at the Mercury tonight with Cub Country (featuring ex-Jets to Brazil bassist Jeremy Chatelain), the Rosebergs and Johnny Hi-Fi. It's sold out, but if you can score a ticket, go see Broken Social Scene at......

Yeah, I'm pretty sure there are some shows coming up. Lemme collect myself... You want to see a different--but good--live show? Hit the Bowery Ballroom tonight to see The Unicorns (pictured). Ashlee Simpson-like they ain't. And they're Canadian, so maybe you can marry one of them and get that free healthcare after all! A really cool show would have been Beans and Jimmy Edgar (all you IDM fans, you've gotta check out his upcoming EP).......