Celebrate Ben Franklin's 300th birthday with the Bikini Bandits and Phillyist! (NSFW). Speaking of Mr. Franklin, send in a picture of Ben (or Ed Rendell) with a red tongue and win a free t-shirt. And they might have the next YearlyKos in Philly. more ›

THEATER: The Impact Festival and fall at the Culture Project get started in a big way with the world premiere of The Treatment, which starts previews tonight. Add together playwright Eve Ensler (of Vagina Monologues fame), stars Dylan McDermott and Portia, director Leigh Silverman, and a sharply topical play about a traumatized soldier who saw and took part in too much for his psyche to handle when he was a military interrogator, and you've got all the makings of a must-see. - Mallory Jensen more ›

Damn, it's cold out there! Gothamist recently had a friend check weather.com before deciding whether to venture out of her home. News flash, folks: It's January! It's cold, finally! Put a coat on and let's rock: more ›

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?). more ›

The city is no longer awash in saffron, but we promise there is still a lot to do this weekend... more ›

Too bad Snow Patrol isn't playing this week to provide us with some poetic justice. more ›

, is (technically) his debut DIY solo effort. Confessional "me" ballads delivered by the quintisential singer/songwriter armed with a guitar. Barlow is ever the prolific wordsmith with a punk rock heart, spinning us tales of troubled times and silver linings. This man soundtracked much of our lives from high school onward, so we'll be soaking in nostalgia and newness tomorrow night as he performs at the Mercury Lounge, more info on that and his new album after the interview. more ›

We'll have a full list of April and May shows coming up soon, there are A LOT to cover. We find it somehow comforting that we're already buying tickets for shows in the springtime ... we're ready to thaw! Moving on, so as not to repeat ourselves here is last month's sell outs list which has tickets that are still on sale for upcoming shows. And as for the below list we have starred the shows that have a high risk factor of Hilary Duff being in attendance, consider this a public service. more ›

great, but want to check them out for ourselves, since we do like this video. Also check out the last sell outs post for more info on future shows we're not relisting here. more ›

Sam Champion is New York's musical anachronism. While most rock bands either bow down to Max's Kansas City circa 1975 or the UK in the post-punk wave of the early '80s, the finest band ever named after a local weatherman is all too happy to take its cues from the '90s. The slack trappings of Pavement are channeled through the ghost of Credence Clearwater Revival and the loping, folksy rumbles of Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Remember when lyrics were clever, the shirts were untucked, the hair a post-collegiate mess and emo hadn't brought feelings and vulnerability to indie rock? (Except for Lou Barlow, of course.) Ah, what an era. more ›

Last night Gothamist headed over to Irving to catch the Head Set...but missed them. After watching a few songs by Gang Gang Dance (a band which Gothamist did not care for, at all, in fact it motivated us to depart Irving all together) we headed to Mercury Lounge to see if we could catch the much buzzed about band the Arcade Fire. more ›

CMJ is here. For New Yorkers, you've probably already seen many of these bands. Everybody plays here. But the number of shows and the number of people crammed into the clubs for these shows is greater than normal. Be careful out there. more ›

A memorial concert in the memory of Elliott Smith is set for November 3 at the Henry Fonda Theater in L.A. Performers include Beck, Beth Orton, Rilo Kiley, Future Pigeon, Alaska, Lou Barlow, Grandaddy, Radar Bros and other special guests. Unsurprisingly, tickets are already sold out. The concert will be preceded by “Strange Parallel," a documentary about Smith by Steve Hanft. Proceeds will benefit the Elliott Smith Foundation for Abused Children. more ›

Laurel Canyon, with Lou Barlow and Folk Implosion making up the band behind Alessandro Nivola's lead singer character. more ›