Last month David Byrne and James Murphy (formerly of LCD Soundsystem) sat down at Yale to talk about some stuff. Today WNYC has posted audio of their chat, which includes Murphy's grand plans for NYC's noisy subway turnstiles. Honestly, we must have started tuning out the little beeping noise they make, because we never notice it anymore... but it is rather annoying, as this YouTube will now confirm: more ›

Since the dawn of Williamsburg Gentrification, residents have found something to complain about—and recently every summer, without fail, it's the concert series. This used to be held in McCarren Park Pool, but for the past three years has been holding up on the waterfront. Last year things came to a head after jam band Widespread Panic performed and their nitrous-fueled fans terrorized residents by using their "outdoor voices." The Open Space Alliance, who now runs the series, compromised this year by moving down Kent about three blocks, but the move has residents complaining even more. more ›

Insanely popular southern comfort BBQ restaurant Pies 'N' Thighs is in trouble with the Community Board that oversees Williamsburg. The restaurant is currently up for a liquor license renewal, but the board is threatening to withhold its recommendation for the license, all because of some benches the owners installed on the front exterior of the restaurant. No food or drink is served on the benches, but the Community Board is playing hardball with the restaurant... because we certainly can't have people sitting outside and talking on the Southside of Williamsburg! more ›

Upper East Siders who enjoy "sleeping" and "resisting the urge to collapse into a weeping ball" may get some relief: the MTA's Capital Construction president told CB8 on Thursday that the blasting of the Second Avenue subway should cease by the end of the year. While those who live around 72nd Street may be able to retire their earplugs by New Year's Eve, the Post reports that blasting work at the site of the new station will begin on 86th street in April, and could last through 2013. They're gonna need more Sinatra. more ›

Earlier this month, Williamsburg bar owners were up in arms over a new Community Board restriction that would require all new liquor license applicants seeking CB approval to have a full kitchen if they want an outdoor space. It's a move basically designed to ruin backyard bars and get more "civilized" restaurants in the neighborhood, and bar owners are none too pleased with the rule. more ›

Hell's Kitchen residents say they can't hear what you're saying at all, thanks to the all-encompassing noise from the exhaust vents of a new Mercedes-Benz dealership that's slowly driving them insane (and deaf). more ›

Williamsburg's Community Board 1, which you may recall as the group that wants to ban anything fun (namely, new liquor licenses and waterfront concerts), is at it again, putting the kibosh on rooftop and backyard bars in the neighborhood. more ›

Tolerating the noise that spills out of bars and clubs is part of the city's social compact with its residents. We get to brag about living near fantastic amenities that we scream about to 911 every other week, and the restaurants pledge to "work with communities" by blasting Sean Paul and selling $2 jello shots between 12-2 a.m. But both the UWS and Inwood locations of Papasito Mexican Grill are drawing ire usually reserved for the "UNTZ-UNTZ" establishments. "I've been here 35 years, I've seen a lot of stuff come and go," UWS resident Kevin Krajick tells DNAinfo, "This is one of the worst things that's happened to the neighborhood." more ›

Stop and frisks and cycling citations are at record highs, but the NYPD isn't doing a whole lot about the noise that raises the collective blood pressure of city residents. Incessant honking, which totally makes traffic jams disappear instantly, is a $350 fine in most of the city. And though we've never seen a cabbie not impatiently honk at a car going the speed limit, the TLC is trying to change that behavior by sending them text messages reminding them of the fine. Not surprisingly, the cabbies are not letting go of their horns quietly. more ›

Even before the Upright Citizens Brigade opened up their new outpost in the East Village, the neighbors were complaining. First it was about the name—"Hot Chicks Room"—they gave their bar, then the red velvet curtains that reminded them of a brothel, and now that's it's opened, it's the noise. How generic. EV Grieve spotted this note outside of UCB, which is located at 3rd Street and Avenue A—it reads: more ›

There's trouble in Palm Beach. More specifically, the Palm Beach Home, a nursing home located next to an Asian-fusion restaurant/nightclub in Sheepshead Bay named OPM. Ha ha GET IT?! "Opium!" Like that substance that was responsible for the death and misery of millions of Chinese and the foisting of British colonial might upon an innocent people! The Palm Beach Home's director tells the Post that they can't stand the "oom-sts" emanating out of the bar, and that "you know it's loud when you have 100-year-old people without their hearing aids complaining that the noise keeps them up at night." No problem, just jack up the surround sound and pass the OPM pipe during Matlock. more ›

The Rubin Museum of Art is delivering something that New Yorkers need: silence. The sound installation by Bill Fontana will open June 15th and is described as "an immersive meditation experience in a sound theater set with chairs and cushions." You can get a preview in the video below—it features the sound of five Kyoto temples' bells when they are not being rung. more ›

A while back, we worried that silence was going extinct in this crazy, noise-filled world. But after listening to the way that a temporary, interactive new street-level installation called SoundAffects transforms the sounds of the streets into repetitive, strangely calming melodies, we might be okay with a bit of noise, after all. more ›

Many of us share in the blood-boiling, white-knuckle rage that is summoned when the cacophony of the city rouses us from our precious six hours of sleep, but few of us are able to do anything about it beyond screaming obscenities out the window or drowning it out with uncontrollable sobbing. EV Grieve shares the account of one dad on East 5th street who awoke to a raucous party bus at 4 a.m. whose first reflex wasn't to dial 311, but to "[get] a bat...but didn't want to wake the kids by opening their baseball gear. It was their sleep that I was trying to preserve after all." No bat? That's why the Good Lord invented shoes. more ›

We thought we had it bad in DC, when the president's personal chauffeurs flew over us every 15 minutes, but Brooklyn pols are painting a noisier picture of their borough in a renewed push to ban all tourist helicopters. According to the Brooklyn Paper, Brooklyn Heights senator Daniel Squadron told a crowd on Sunday that "Enough is enough! We need to stop the endless parade of tourist helicopter flights over our neighborhoods." Another Heights resident called the neighborhood a "war zone," with Vietnam vet Duncan McGonagle echoing the sentiment: "I'm having flashbacks because it sounds exactly like being back in Vietnam again." more ›

Fashion Week is nearly here, and PETA is totally prepared to combat any designer that dare bring fur into the tents. Longtime PETA target Donna Karan will allegedly be under an aural assault from the group this Saturday, near her Midtown offices. The Observer reports that "a source within PETA that the group has a permit from the city that allows it to 'blast Karan's offices with the sound of screaming rabbits'... and carry signs that say Donna Karan: Bunny Butcher." PETA says the noise will not exceed 75 decibels at 10 feet away, which is about the same level as a lawnmower. more ›

With Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO residents managing to (sort of) push the loud choppers out of their sky, the Red Hook folk are now suffering the brunt of helicopter traffic—and according to the Brooklyn Paper, they don't like loud noises either! The city has allegedly allowed the air traffic to move over to the coast of Red Hook, in an effort to avoid them flying over Governors Island (you know, which is pretty much vacant). more ›

An elderly member of the Grucci fireworks family shot his grandson yesterday after a heated argument over noise. Joseph Grucci, the cousin of former Republican congressman and fireworks magnate Felix Grucci, got into a fight with his grandson, Christopher Giresi, when Giresi had some friends over around 3 a.m. Thursday night and repeatedly refused to keep the noise down. Grucci told cops his grandson actually attacked him when he told the youngins to shut up; after that, Grucci got his shotgun and fired at the 20-year-old from about 20 feet away in his Bellport, Long Island home. more ›

Some Brooklyn residents want local neighborhood kids to STFU, at least on Sundays. According to the Daily News, the playground at P.S. 139 in Ditmas Park has become a battleground. Homeowners in the area say they used to have "Sundays off," but now kids are flocking there 7 days a week (as a part of Bloomberg's Schoolyards to Playgrounds initiative). They now plan to file a lawsuit arguing that the playground has become a public nuisance, and declare that the Mayor would never allow this near his home on 79th Street. more ›

Even though one LES bar has taken steps to eradicate terrible music from the premises, the fact is that most of the partying going on in then neighborhood has become a nuisance to the residents. So the Lower East Side Business Improvement District is trying to hire "off-duty cops" to walk around in uniform from Houston to Delancey streets on weekend nights. LES BID Executive Director Bob Zuckerman told the Post, "We think having a cop on the beat...would really help nightlife establishments be quieter and safer." more ›

Just as cops block bike lanes every morning and man still refuses to ask for directions, so too will people yakking loudly on cell phones forever annoy us. And so too will obligatory articles about how cell phones annoy us annoy us. It might not stop us from demanding we get reception on the subway, but we always find new ways to study and criticize other people's cell phone etiquette. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg is criticizing the Columbia University study that claims 98% of public spaces in Manhattan have dangerous levels of noise that could cause stress and hearing loss. The NY Post reports that yesterday in Staten Island (the quietest borough), Bloomberg declared: more ›

Noise: it's annoying... but now it's also dangerous! According to a new study, New Yorkers are exposed to dangerous levels of street noise each day, which over time can be damaging. Columbia professor and one of the study's authors, Robyn Gershon, says, “That’s the problem with noise. It sneaks up on you. It’s a hidden hazard and a hidden health outcome.” more ›

In a city of garbage trucks, car alarms, crying babies and neighbors having band practice at 1 a.m. on a Wednesday night, only one noise violation has the honor of being the subject of a Times profile (this week): Loud bars. As the weather cools to being bearable at night, "unregulated" roof and backyard drinking holes are causing a ruckus for neighbors who seem otherwise fine with living in a noisy neighborhood. Michael Jones, the Liquor Authority’s deputy chief boils the argument down to one sentence: "They have a right to run a business, and the community has a right to have quiet and the ability to sleep at night." more ›

Brighton Beach residents want Marty Markowitz and his summer concert series at Asser Levy Park to STFU. The concerts are across the street from two synagogues, even though city law prohibits amplified sound within 500 feet of religious institutions during services. When those synagogues filed suit earlier this year, the city simply passed a new law... which the concerts also couldn't abide by! more ›

Last month, two synagogues filed suit against the city and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz claiming the Seaside Summer Concert Series at Asser Levy Park was violating noise code. That code stated that the "use of electronic sound amplification equipment at any location within 500 feet of houses of worship during hours of worship" is not allowed. The city quickly moved to tweak that law. more ›

Ruth Carmelitano O'Sullivan is the proud owner of two miniature dachshunds—Elizabeth and Emily—and with that, the most animal noise violations the city has issued to one household (at least in the past year). The Upper East Sider leaves her two pups at home when she goes to work, according to the Daily News, and her co-op neighbors are let with a yapping duo. more ›

This year's Movies With A View series kicked off on July 8th with a screening of Annie Hall, and after last Thursday's screening of Monsters vs. Aliens, Brooklyn Heights residents had enough of the ongoing summer event. more ›