Another week, another free summer concert series announced. One of the most enjoyable ways to spend a summer Sunday in the city in the last couple years has been out at McCarren Pool, with the competitive dodgeball, slip and slides and sweet, sweet music. The lineups for these shows have never disappointed, but this year seems to be bigger than ever. There has been some growing speculation that this might be the last year for the Pool Parties, and recently released plans for the pool added to those concerns. Regardless of the future, they're all go for 2008. Enjoy it while you can. Among many, many more, The Breeders, MGMT, The Hold Steady, Liars, Black Lips and Deerhunter are all confirmed. Dates and complete lineups to come. more ›

There’s usually not much mystery to a Be Your Own Pet show. You get about a half-hour of nonstop, rapid-fire post-adolescent punk, with lots of shouting and shimmying from Jemina Pearl. There are far worse ways to spend an early evening in February. This Wednesday, however, things went down a bit different. About halfway through the set, some older creep started talking back to the charismatic young front woman between songs. It seemed all in good fun, with the tiny singer (jokingly?) bragging about how she’s been kicked out of bars in Nashville for fisticuffs. The dude then gets up on stage, makes some sort of kissy move towards her, and promptly gets smacked across the face HARD as the rest of the band jumped in to take him down. So yea, it Got Awkward real fast. The band brushed themselves off, shook hands with the pervy perp to call a truce with the intruder, and continued on with the rest of their set. Interesting night, to say the least. (pic via Ryan Dombal's flickr) more ›

Sure, with the All Points West Fest announced, Coachella may not have the same appeal for east coasters this year, but the lineup announcement is still an exciting annual event. Over the last few years, it has established itself as the granddaddy and standard bearer of the American festival circuit. Unfortunately, most people are finding this year's lineup is a bit of a dud. Coachella's been operating at such a high level since 2003 that it was really only a matter or time before the lineups would stop exciting everyone, and while last year had it's plusses and minuses, this year seems to have really fallen off. Many of the smaller acts played the fest recently, something they used to try and avoid, and the headliners seem to be all over the place. Sure, a Portishead reunion is a treat, but how many Roger Waters fans are into Jack Johnson? Is a Love and Rockets reunion and Death Cab for Cutie really above the fold top draws? Doesn't seem like it. While we can't speak for their bottom line, which surely is doing okay, it might serve them well to try and scale back a bit in the future if this year has a bit of a drop off. Two days in the desert is more than enough for most, and to pack those days full with bands everyone can get excited about is a much more appealing scenario. more ›

Wayne Hsu, Singer/Songwriter more ›

Darrell Shines, Producer of Anything more ›