We checked in with some folks recently for a little end of '07 "exit interview" before we enter a new year. It's safe to say that our first subject in this series had a pretty big year with his band Ghostland Observatory (let's just say they've certainly outgrown our Movable Hype shows). With a new album coming out in March, they're poised for world domination in the 2008. How will you celebrate New Year's Eve?......

FAIR: The International vintage poster fair has arrived. It's time to take that ironic velvet Elvis off the wall and class up your joint. The fair will include "over 25 international dealers with more than 10,000 original vintage posters." More info here. Friday 5 - 9 pm , Saturday 10 am - 7 pm, Sunday 11 am - 6 pm // Metropolitan Pavilion [123 W 18th St 5th floor] // $15 MUSIC: We'll be at......

Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston's firefighters bent over backwards all week long - first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else - like Tom......

THEATER: With his zany imagination and distinctive bass-baritone voice, Joseph Keckler (myspace) has been generating buzz throughout the gooey honeycomb of the downtown performance art cabaret scene. Tonight he sprinkles his particular blend of whimsical catnip at Dixon Place with Cat Lady, in which a man re-enacts an ordinary day with his mother, who runs a community theater with cat actors out of her home. “Past lives are recalled, songs are sung, and finally a......

Thousands of people line McCarren Pool on Sundays, standing in place of where water used to be. This summer JellyNYC's Sunday Pool Parties are continuing, in what has become an instant summer tradition. We headed over there for the first time this season on Sunday to see Man Man, Illinois, Dengue Fever and enjoy some ice cream. We chatted with some of the folks involved, too. Check it out. And be sure to check......

White Stripes Shred Irving It seems that every time The White Stripes fade away for a year or two, people seem to forget exactly how amazing they can be live. Perhaps it takes a show like the one at Irving Plaza last Tuesday...filled with hardcore, line-waiting fans and eager and excited members of the media to really drive home just how good a show Jack White puts on, and exactly how impressive Meg is to......

Spankrock, Ghostface WTF the Highline We've never handed our tickets to the door guy at a show before and been asked if we wanted to get a table and buy a bottle. But this, I suppose, is what you get when you go see a show on 16th street and 10th ave. Our experience at the new High Line Ballroom felt as if we were living the opening scene of a Law and Order episode,......

Here's a heads up on sunny summertime shows. Sure, after the first week we'll be complaining about the heat, the smell of the city as it melts, and the lack of shade...but it's always nice to have some music to look forward to. So stock up on the SPF for the following shows: Celebrate Brooklyn picks (full schedule here, always the most diverse lineup) • June 16th Joan Osborne, The Jazz Passengers: The Supremes Project......

EVENT: Charles Ray, who is thirty years deep in the art world, will be at the New School tonight for a Public Art Fund talk. The leader of the "conceptual realism" movement with a "lively, self-deprecating sense of humor" will discuss his "virtuoso craftsmanship" and his depiction of "familiar elements of everyday life and modern art in disarmingly altered ways." 6:30pm // The New School, John Tishman Auditorium [66 W 12th St] // $5 SCIENCE:......

It was inevitable that indie rock and Playboy merge, we suppose. Next week at SXSW, the two will come together for one big party, and we want to get you in on the action. Playmates? Check: Jennifer Walcott (Miss August 2001) Pilar Lastra (Miss August 2004) Courtney Culkin (Miss April 2005) Qiana Chase (Miss July 2005) Bands? Check: Ghostland Observatory Monsters are Waiting Illinois Stars Align The party is next Thursday at 11pm. So if......

It's freezing, it's Monday...and today is the most depressing day of the year. Happy Blue Monday, everyone! Today was designated the most depressing of the year by psychologist Cliff Arnall, who used mathematical equations to reach this outcome, working out that people are most likely to be down n' out in the final full week of January (the last few years it has been January 24th). Not depressed enough? The Belfast Telegraph will give you......

The other night we went to check out Apes and Androids again, because not since Ghostland Observatory have our pants danced so hard. They played "Thriller", as a nice sonic prequel to Halloween, and even had the long video projected (in 3-D!) in the background AND zombie dancers. Gothamist cinephile Cinecultist was also in the house, and reports from the front lines. The above clip is from a recent show at Sin-e, if anyone......

READING: The New School's wonderful public lectures and reading series are back in swing as the school year revs up, and tonight, the ethereal Mary Gaitskill will discuss her book Veronica (a National Book Award finalist) with moderator Jeffrey Renard Allen. - Krissa Corbett Cavouras 6:30pm // The New School [66 W 12th St, room 510] // $5 THEATER: The Soho Think Tank is legendary for nurturing some of the freshest new work in town.......

We first heard of Apes and Androids when we saw the video for their song "Radio". The tune was catchy and we felt the same sort of dance in our pants feeling we felt when we first saw Ghostland Observatory. We then made them our Band of the Week, so clearly their mechanical rockbot had climbed into our subconscious. Tonight they play at Sin-e, and we hear it's going to be insane. Good insane.......

We headed over to the temporary NYC KEXP studios, set up at Gigantic Music, today. We went to check out Ghostland Observatory (who are playing tonight at the Delancey, by the way). The studios are usually set up at the Museum of Television and Radio, but this year they got switched over to Gigantic. This is really nice for the bands, the studio is beautiful - in addition to being Philip Glass' old studio.......

With KEXP in town there's a lot more music than usual. Check out their in studio shows online while you're at work this week. Off the airwaves there's a lot to see, hear and enjoy as well. Tonight and tomorrow night, Angels and Airwaves and I Am The Avalanche play Bowery Ballroom. If you walk by the venue to see a cluster of pierced tweens waiting to get in, it may help to know that......

One of our favorite stations to listen to all day is KEXP, run out of Seattle, and through the magic of online streaming - heard worldwide. This week they're in New York broadcasting (as they are twice a year), putting on some shows and having many in-studio guests. They're in Philip Glass' old studio which is now Gigantic Music, where their musical guests include: The Mugs, Bill Janovitz, Favourite Sons, Ghostland Observatory, Goldfrapp, French Kicks,......

Another week begins and it's time to start penciling in some shows. Tonight, The Concretes are back! The Scandinavian 8+ person band will be playing Bowery Ballroom. While over at Sin-e King of France, Less and Dawn Landes play a more intimate gig. Tuesday night Guillemots, Levy, The Marina play Bowery. The name Guillemots has been overwhelming our inbox lately, but we've yet to give it a good listen. From what we can tell they're......

We announced the lineup for the next Movable Hype show on Friday, and we have one more addition to make that we're really excited about! The Slack Republic has joined the bill, and they'll be closing out the night, so be sure to stick around for them. This will be their New York debut (they're coming up from Atlanta, though the singer is originally from Brooklyn). Back at Movable Hype 3.0 we had Clap Your......

We'd been gearing up for SXSW this year for months, with shows to plan and afterparties to help out with - it took up a lot of our time, even when we weren't there yet. Now that it's over, we're not quite sure what to do with ourselves, or how to recap it all. We also haven't been near a computer in a week, so bear with our slow typing. THE PRECAP: Last year we......

Yesterday we announced details about the afterparty, and now we're gonna tell you about the "beforeparty" thrown by Austinist and Gothamist, subtitled: "Gonna Gonna Get, Get Down!". This free day party we're throwing is on Wednesday March 15th, from Noon-11pm at Austin's newest indie/hipster joint, Red 7. We'll have DJ sets indoors (until 5pm) and between bands outside (all day), by northKorean, Car Stereo (Wars!), DJ Escapeest, Preston Craig and some special others to be......

Not that you were asking, but we know you wanted it. The obligatory Best of '05 List. We chose to list off the Best NYC Shows in 2005. We compiled this list after closely surveying and consulting...ourselves. Here are our Top 11 NYC Shows of 2005. That's right, we said ELEVEN. In chronological order...(insert drumroll here): 1/24/05 Colin Meloy @ the Fez [photos here] - of note: Colin told us these shows were also amongst......

- Forbes overestimates what it costs to live well in NYC - Did you know that last week was Lightning Awareness Week? Gothamist Weather did! - The kinds of frozen treats the mayoral hopefuls like - Yankees may have gotten 23 hits in a game, but then - A recipe for Spike Market's Cilantro Lime Steak from Gothamist's Eating In - Metrocard swiping has a high rate of failure - or are we all "Metrotards"?......

CRAFTY CONSUMERISM: The Renegade Craft Fair is a DIY extravaganza which has only since taken place in Chicago. This weekend it sets up shop in Brooklyn with 150 vendors who will showcase and sell their one-of-a-kind handmade wares, including reconstructed clothing, comics, zines, jewelry, silkscreened gigposters, iPod cozies and more. On June 25th and 26th in McCarren Park (Bedford Ave. & N. 12th St.) from 10:30am-5pm. MUSIC: If you missed Ghostland Observatory this week, we're......

Last night's Movable Hype was a great time, thanks to everyone who came out and to Nick Catchdubs for deejaying. And a special thanks to all of the bands. Really amazing night! Oh, and David Bowie even showed up(!) He sat upstairs in the balcony with a baseball hat on and clapped for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stay tuned for the next Hype which will hopefully be taking place in August/September. In the meantime,......

We're really excited about tonight's show and hope to see you all there. Here are the details and set times: Doors are at 7pm with DJ Nick Catchdubs spinning before, between and after the sets. The lineup is: Man in Gray 8pm Clap Your Hands Say Yeah 9pm Ghostland Observatory 10pm The Fame 11pm Oh, and there will be some free drinks (while they last). That's important right? Yeah, we know our audience.......

Call it shameless self promotion if you want, but the place to be tonight (Monday) is Knitting Factory for Gothamist's own Movable Hype 3.0 show featuring some of the hottest bands from NYC and Austin. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah just self-released their debut self-titled album and its quickly become one of our favorite listens of the year (read the Gothamist interview). Fans of Talking Heads and the Arcade Fire should take note (MP3s......

Ghostland Observatory...

Gothamist wanted to give you a heads for the next Movable Hype event. It's coming up fast, on JUNE 20th, and we'll be back at the Knitting Factory (main space) this time around. Movable Hype 3.0 featuring: The Fame [NY Press coverband this week. Listen: Lost In You.mp3] Ghostland Observatory [check out their interview at Austinist. Listen: Candy Rider.mp3] Man in Gray [read more about them at the Deli. Listen: Brakelights.mp3] Man in Gray starts......

The Fischerspooner Salon has been a breeding ground of ideas for Warren Fischer and Casey Spooner's new works in music and art. Some of you may have been to the "Excellent Workshop", their project which aimed to explore ideas of "art in community and the development of creative partnerships across all artistic media." The workshop will now conclude, and the duo have finally unleashed their latest endevour upon the world. Their album Odyssey is described......