People tend to either love The Hold Steady or hate them, but even those in the latter camp don't really despise them in a 30 Seconds to Mars sort of way. Say what you want about frontman Craig Finn's half-spoken/half-sung vocalizations, it's hard to knock a group with such an affable lack of pretension. A couple years after the dissolution of his previous band Lifter Puller, Finn started The Hold Steady in 2002 with no......

EVENT: Into anime? It's your lucky weekend, the New York Anime Festival is in town! There will be previews, screenings and panels galore. Check out their website for more details. All Weekend // Jacob Javits Convention Center [655 W 34th St] // $30 day pass, $55 weekend pass SHOP: FIT and the Design Mavens come together for a 3 day shopstravaganza. Tons of designers we're not cool enough to have ever heard of will be......

MUSIC: If you aren't at your local hometown bar this Thanksgiving-eve, drinking with old high school buddies -- we suggest a sonic alternative. Tonight The Hold Steady and Art Brut do their best at making Terminal 5 feel a little bit cozier this holiday season. Buy tickets here. 7:30pm // Terminal 5 [610 W 56th St] // $30 MUSIC MOVIES: If you're sick and tired of the bands playing around town, go check out two......

Girl Talk Double Dip (in Puke and Booze) 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......

MUSIC: Last week Craig Finn made a solo appearance amongst the books at Barnes & Noble, tonight he's with his rock band, The Hold Steady, playing another free show. Joining them are the Old 97’s, and newer band, Illinois. A triple-threat lineup with a can't-be-beat pricetag. 5:30pm // 7 World Trade Center [250 Greenwich St] // Free READING: Possibly known more for her role on Project Runway than her fashion direction with ELLE magazine, Nina......

FESTIVAL: Conflux 2007 has arrived. Starting tonight and running through Sunday, their "annual New York City festival for contemporary psychogeography" will help re-imagine urban spaces with a series of events, lectures, workshops, installations, parties and so much more. Get all the info and schedules you need, here. 10am to 12am // Various Locations // Free EVENT: The Hold Steady's Craig Finn (pictured) plays some solo tunes tonight in perhaps the most fitting venue for the......

READING: Check out today's interviewee, Peter Yarrow, tonight at Barnes and Noble where he'll be performing and signing the recently published Puff, the Magic Dragon book. C'mon, you know you've always wanted to hear that song live! 6pm // Barnes & Noble [Lincoln Center] // Free MUSIC: Daft Punk will be rocking Keyspan Park tonight, it's sold out but you can still get tickets on Craigslist. Elsewhere in Brooklyn The Hold Steady, The Big Sleep......

Bonnaroo Has Begun While we couldn't make it down this year (a bit festivaled out between SXSW and Coachella and Sasquatch so far this year), Bonnaroo kicked off last night with a couple local favorites warming up the early arrivers. The National, Langhorne Slim and Apollo Sunshine among others took the stage for the Thursday night festivities. Much much more on the way for the rest of the week, including hometowners Sam Champion, El-P and......

Yes, yes...Last week was Volume 18. We had some counting...issues. Apologies. Human Giant's MTV Takeover A Success Not only did the Human Giant crew blow past their goal of one million page views well before the 24 hour mark that they were on the air, but for one day they returned MTV to its irreverent, enjoyable and, well, musical roots. The comedy trio aired videos we didn't think MTV still knew existed (Aphex Twin, Stone......

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......

TRIVIA: Think you know a lot about New York? Come "challenge your knowledge of New York places, faces, dates and facts at the New York Book Club’s first trivia night. Special guests Steve Zeitlin and Marci Reaven, authors of Hidden New York and directors of City Lore, will be on hand to explain and educate." They warn you to bone up on your trivia at www.citylore.org and www.placematters.net beforehand. Tonight's MC is none other than......

THEATER: Lear deBessonet culled material from sources as varied as Henrik Ibsen, Joan of Arc and Times contributor/author Russell Shorto (The Island at the Center of the World), scientific journals, and post-it notes from the desks of corporate secretaries to create the new play transFigures. She was also inspired by the Jerusalem Syndrome, the well-documented psychosis that causes ordinary tourists to channel Biblical figures, create togas out of hotel bed-sheets, and parade through the Holy......

Pazz and Jop, revealed! Just when we thought we were finally done having to think about the music of 2006, we get one last hurrah of ultimate listage. The 34th annual Pazz and Jop poll finally made landfall this week, and unsurprisingly, there were few shockers. Some feigned outrage/interest that Bob Dylan's latest overtook the otherwise consensus disc of the year by TV on the Radio (see image), but a few minor swaps at the......

Letterman is celebrating his 25th anniversary of being on the air as a late night host tonight. Today in 1982 Letterman launched his "Late Night With David Letterman'' show on NBC (which has since moved to CBS). His guests on that show were Bill Murray, Warren Zevon and ongoing character Larry Bud Melman. Paul Shaffer led the band (which at the time was called the World's Most Dangerous Band). There hasn't been much going......

EVENT: Tonight is the "Taxi 07: Transforming and Icon" event, marking the 100th anniversary of the New York taxi. The Design Trust for Public Space have gathered together members of the city’s design community and tonight they discuss ideas for the redesign the yellow cab. The idea of a redesign was announced back in 2005. 6:30pm // Cooper Hewitt Design Museum [2 E 91st St] // $10 THEATER: Cherry Lane Theatre is reviving Amiri Baraka's......

Ah, the end of the year is upon us...and that means one thing: end of the year lists. Information Leafblower is a little ahead of the game and has posted his fourth annual "Top 40 Bands In America (As Voted On By A Bunch Of Effing Music Bloggers That Only Listen To Cooler Than You Guitar Based Indie Rock And Not Much Else)" list. You can get the full list here. New York bands TV......

EVENT: Tonight at the Apple Store, the NYC photobloggers get together again. Come check out: Scott Heiferman, Kara Canal, Rebecca Smeyne, Will Sherman, Kamau Mucoki, Boogie and Martin Fuchs. There's an afterparty (TBA) so be sure too look nice, with all those cameras out and all. Friday // 6:30pm // SoHo Apple Store [103 Prince Street @ Greene] // Free SIDEWALK SALE: Have a bookshelf to stock? Head over to the Strand Bookstore. They're having......

THEATER: Less than a week post-Fringe, another festival is upon us: the Brick's new Clown Theater Festival, which starts tonight with a subway parade and "free-for-all pie-fight." Some of the participating local and international performers wear big red noses but these aren't the sort of clowns that kids get scared of at birthday parties, but rather the promoters of and participants in a vibrant physical format that's re-energizing theater; there are performances like Chiche Capon's......

THEATER: Though some might balk at an outdoor performance in this muggy, thunderstormy weather, The Drilling CompaNY's version of As You Like It, the next installment of Shakespeare in the Park(ing) Lot (directed by Jesse Ontiveros), is bound to exude enough cool to counteract the waves of heat rising from the asphalt. It also helps if you show up with your own chair so you don't have to exert yourself in a scuffle to nab......

There is a band playing Northsix tonight called Duran Duran Duran. We don't know anything about them, but based on their name alone we'll suggest checking them out. If you want to go with the safe bet though, head to the Delancey where Pela starts off their April residencey tonight. Art Brut is all sold out, both Tuesday and Wednesday, so if you didn't get tickets (or if you just don't like them - it's......

Hey, happy Chinese New Year, everyone! Time to drive out the old spirits of the past year and welcome the good spirits of the new year. The Chinese do this with explosions and fireworks; we'll do it rock-style, with extremely loud noises. Such as: The week starts out with a bang on Monday, with the magically delicious, occasionally unsettling experimental rock of Deerhoof (at left) at Bowery. Instead of traditional opening bands, the show will......

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......

It's CMJ week in NYC. Arcade Fire, Devendra Banhart, Lady Sovereign, Feist, Nouvelle Vague, Doves, The Wrens, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Cursive, !!!, Wolf Parade, The Hold Steady, Brian Jonestown Massacare... we can't even begin to list everything going on. Why should we? CMJ's listings reveal everything you need to know. Further inspection of CMJ.OhMyRockness.com lets you in on even more. The CMJ archives at BrooklynVegan will clue you in even further, and......

This week is full of shows by some of our favorite new artists. On the high-profile end of the spectrum, The Hold Steady are back at Bowery Ballroom for a two night run Friday and Saturday. We're especially interested in checking out the openers on Friday. It's the Pitchfork-approved, Coldplay-tour-opening, Village Voice weird album of the week winning band called Black Mountain. On Sunday, M.I.A. plays her biggest and freeest NYC show yet at......

EVENT: The Tank is the latest in New York club casualties. This weekend they're trying to raise money for a new venue, so head over to one of these events or donate online here. Tonight at 7pm / $10 Air America's The Majority Report with Janeane Garofalo and Sam Seder will broadcast live from The Tank, which it also did during the Republican National Convention. This time the broadcast includes a live studio audience and......

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......

Today kicks off the music portion of SXSW. Gothamist heads out before sunrise on Friday morning to the great state of Texas. And we're totally planning on messing with it, even if that t-shirt in Urban Outfitters says not to. We defy you t-shirt! Ahem. Anyway, as we said, we'll be going to Austin to cover the SXSW music conference for you. We use the term "conference" lightly, as we've been told that SXSW......

If anybody missed last week's The Hold Steady show at Mercury, shame on you. You're probably a wuss. In that case, wow, you're in for a big week. Our TONY cover-boy (and new east village renter, swoon) Conor Oberst is playing, like, forty-seven shows this week. Man, when this guy moves in, he really moves in. I'm gonna go a little out of order and get those out of the way ahead of time: Tuesday,......

Hyper-important must-see event of the month, first: Tomorrow (Jan 19), The Hold Steady play Mercury lounge. Ticket available through TicketWeb. This is no joke, everyone. Ten dollars. Such a great band. So much fun. I just wrote those short little sentences and sentence fragments without the expletives that were thrusting through my fingertips. Calmly: See this show. Send thank you notes here. What do they sound like? You know that fun, awesomely written, rock and......

Time to start the new year off right, by seeing live music and not being left out on the cold cold sidewalk listening to your favorite songs echoing down the snow-filled street. This month there are a lot of hyped up bands coming our way. We are mainly talking about the Arcade Fire, if you don't have tickets we don't know what to tell you. If you're good at haikus you could try this contest.......