As huge, longtime fans of The National and Trey Anastasio, this is terrific news. The Phish guitarist is reportedly quietly working on a new solo album, and according to SPIN, he's got some help from members of The National and Mates of State. more ›

Brooklyn duo The Forms, who graced us with their tour diary back in 2007, released Derealization in February. A "remix" EP of sorts, the group tweaked their existing bouncy, occasionally dark pop songs with the help of guest artists Matt Berninger of The National, Nat Baldwin of Dirty Projectors, and Daniel Hart of St. Vincent among others. Now, they've released a video for the album's first track, "Fire To The Ground," which showcases Berninger's vocals over dizzying choreography and striking visual effects. Shot at Minetta Lane in Greenwich Village with the help of choreographer Lily Baldwin, who has worked with David Bryrne, the video is a lush look at a moving tune. more ›

This week the Times sends Sam Sifton to take a look at The National, chef Geoffrey Zakarian's European-style cafe in the Benjamin Hotel, and he comes back with a solid one-star review. "In a city run through with restaurants set in hotels, serving food appropriate to hotels, for people who stay in hotels, in neighborhoods growing crowded with hotels, the prospect of yet another hotel restaurant to visit or avoid may fill some of us with the weary sense that we are in the midst of a historical moment that is deeply uninteresting...But the National makes a case that it is different, decent and worth it." In particular Sifton is charmed by the "appetizing" and inviting decor (from the ever-present David Rockwell) and the "simple but not really" menu executed by Paul Corsentino. more ›

Bryan Devendorf (drummer for The National, and soon-to-be dad) has once again documented a part of his life on the road for us (read his previous entries from 2007 and 2005). This time around, the Brooklyn-based band was back on tour with Arcade Fire—below is Devendorf's first dispatch from The Road, and we'll have more in the coming days. (Click through for photos and video that accompany the text.) more ›

Click on the images for the scoop on the new restaurants and bars around town, which include the Little Cupcake Bakeshop's Soho debut, Geoffrey Zakarian's The National in The Benjamin Hotel, upscale Scottish pub grub Mary Queen of Scots (in the old Allen & Delancey space), and the first New York outpost of popular Vegas Thai fusion restaurant Lotus of Siam. more ›

The last time we saw The National they were rubbing elbows with the likes of Julia Stiles in a fancy bank vault after their epic 20-song set at BAM (filmed by the DA Pennebaker)—but last night they were amongst the trees playing to the masses in Prospect Park. And everything was right in the world once again. more ›

It was a rousing week to be a fan of The National: their newest album, High Violet, was finally released on Tuesday, celebrated by a string of events hosted by the band at the High Violet Annex in lower Manhattan, as well as an appearance on David Letterman. more ›

Click through for more on last night's intimate National show at the Bell House. more ›

Following the release of Red Hot's Dark Was the Night double-disk compilation, word has arrived that a live show will now take place commemorating it. Hosted at Radio City Music Hall on May 3rd, participating musicians will include Dave Sitek, Dirty Projectors, Feist, My Brightest Diamond, The National, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings plus many more. Heads up: tickets go on sale this Friday. Meanwhile, filmmaker Vincent Moon (the man behind the lens of all those gorgeous Take Away Shows), recently stopped by a loft in Williamsburg to film The National, Dirty Projectors and Yeasayer each performing their songs from the compilation. The first one being released is the National, which you can watch below (look for the others later this week on Pitchfork, which the performance was filmed for): more ›

The Life Vicarious scooped New York Magazine on the announcement of their own 40th birthday extravaganza. As the mag goes over the hill, they'll have Brooklynites The National and Grizzly Bear on hand. The concert, at Hammerstein Ballroom on October 10th, will also include some comedy, with hosting duties appointed to Stella (aka Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter and David Wain) – all in all you can expect to throw down $35 a ticket. Could all of these recent bookings (see: NYxNY event series) be the equivalent of the magazine's mid-life crisis Porsche? more ›

Thank you, NY Times, for updating us on the activities of George Elmer Pataki. Although Pataki has been out of politics, he still spent $1.4 million from his political action committee on "Broadway theater tickets, gatherings at the Yale Club and payments to political loyalists and advisers." more ›

Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey, who has spent many months (if not years) hinting about his boss's presidential ambitions, is still stirring the pot of rumors. Last night on NY1's Inside City Hall, Sheekey, "promoted the idea of an Obama-Bloomberg presidential ticket." more ›

Tabloid reaction to Mayor Bloomberg’s announcement that he will not run for president is the usual study in contrasts. The Daily News’s Josh Greenman and editorial board haven’t missed a beat and are already clamoring for Vice President Bloomberg. Grossman says Bloomberg would be the perfect complement to an Obama candidacy by inspiring confidence with his unstoppable financial skills. more ›

Ending months of speculation, Mayor Michael Bloomberg confirmed he will not run for president in the 2008 election. And he did it with an op-ed in the NY Times, titled, "I'm Not Running for President, but..." more ›

William F. Buckley died in his Connecticut home today, at age 82. Some consider him the founder of modern conservatism, as he authored the seminal book in 1951 God and Man at Yale, in response to what he saw was an encroaching secularism at one of the nation's top universities, during what was considered one of the nation's most buttoned-down eras. more ›

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Brooklyn-based quintet The National have spent the last nine years slowly and steadily evolving from bar-band hobby to indie rock royalty, a success built out of old fashioned techniques like laborious songwriting, tireless gigging and the organic cultivation of their own distinct sound: a bruised, moody elegance that swells and crashes under the dreamy baritone of front man Matt Berninger. Their fourth and most recent album, Boxer, was a usual suspect on critical top ten lists for 2007, and the acclaim snowballed into a spot on the bill touring with Modest Mouse and R.E.M. this June. On Friday and Saturday night they play two sold out shows at the Brooklyn Academy of Music opera house. more ›

In announcing their presentation of Moliere’s riff on the Don Juan legend, The National Theater of the United States of America promised “a production so authentic that it rivals in authenticity Moliere’s own 1665 production at the Palais-Royal in Paris.” As we learn in an opening monologue, their tongue-in-cheek press release prompted one critic to sniff, “I see there is no translator mentioned. I assume you will be doing it in the original French.” Ah, touché! But director Jonathan Jacobs’s idea of authenticity is to coax out the farcical spirit of the original with a sort of lavish amateurishness that proves irresistible from the show’s first beat. more ›

Has the Super-real estate market finally encountered economic kryptonite? Manhattan's housing market has seemed utterly impervious to any hint of real estate meltdown, even as other boroughs have suffered mortgage foreclosures at four times the national average. But one can't pass a Chase bank branch or a Duane Reade before coming across yet another building going up or being retro-fitted as luxury condos. The New York Times has an article today indicating that the gilded age of upper-crust real estate may be losing its luster. more ›

New York City faced some stiff competition in the Forbes Top 10 “Misery Measure”, but ultimately moped away with a respectable fourth place, losing only to such perennial dystopias as Detroit (#1, forever); Flint, Michigan (#3) and… Stockton, California, in the #2 slot? Apparently, the Bay Area satellite has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country and a swelling population. more ›

Whoosh! That's the sound of today's weather. The skies may be gloomy this morning but, whoosh, a cold front will bring us abundant sunshine this afternoon. Along with clearing skies will be a much cooler air mass. Look at those crazy temperature drops across the Midwest yesterday. While our temperature drop won't be as extreme as in Chicago, we expect the proverbial mercury to drop into the mid-30s by the time we go home this evening. With that much change there's bound to be wind. The National Weather Service has issued a wind advisory through five o'clock. Winds will pick up to between 20 and 30 miles and hour during the day. Gusts of 45-50 mph are not out of the question. more ›

According to The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the 11233 zip code that encompasses Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights had the highest foreclosure rates for subprime mortgages in the entire nation in October. More than one in four people, or 25.2%, with subprime loans in the zip code lost their homes to foreclosure. That's almost four times the national average of 6.9%. 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 ›

Hold onto your chopsticks; the Times recently commissioned a toxicology report on sushi from 13 local establishments and got back some rather unappetizing results:

More than half of the restaurants and stores surveyed sold sushi with so much mercury that eating just six pieces a week would exceed the amount the EPA says can be safely consumed by an adult of average weight, which the agency defines as 154 pounds, 70 kilograms. People weighing less are advised to consume even less mercury. more ›

The day after giving his State of the City address, Mayor Bloomberg headed out of town and to capital of the Lone Star State. Sure, Bloomberg did have a press conference with Lance Armstrong and former Surgeon General Richard Carmona, but more interesting was his meeting with Ross Perot's former campaign manager! more ›

THEATER: Wolf Lane Productions presents Victims of the Zeitgeist (The Tragedy of Martin Luther King, Jr.), written & directed by Ellwoodson Williams. The production "offers an exciting and telling insight into just who Martin Luther King, Jr., was as leader and simply as a sensitive and intelligent human being who loved life and who had a sense of humor, a deep understanding of the human condition - its strengths and weaknesses - and a profound belief in justice." more ›

In Samuel Beckett’s 1961 play Happy Days, a decidedly upbeat woman named Winnie spends Act One striving valiantly to make the best of her sticky situation: she’s irrevocably buried up to her waist in a “low mound.” True, Winnie has her reticent companion Willie for company, but she cheerily defies the barren void by holding forth for a seemingly nonexistent gathering of spectators. And Act Two finds Winnie still determined to make a go of it, despite a marked deterioration of her condition: she is now buried up to the neck. 47 years after Beckett finished it, the brutally funny and moving Happy Days is now the hot ticket at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. more ›

After the national debate about race turned into the national debate about how race discussed in the Democratic presidential campaign, Senators and Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have declared a truce. The stir was caused by Clinton's remarks about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s efforts ("Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act...It took a president to get it done.") and when Obama criticized Clinton for belittling King's achievements...which then lead to Clinton accusing Obama of making mountains of molehills. more ›

Where, like last year, we recap the biggest stories from the New York music scene of the year. more ›

Oprah Winfrey introduced one of her favorite things people at what the NY Times called "the largest spectacle of the campaign cycle" - the Oprah for Barack Obama rally in Des Moines, Iowa. Winfrey said, "For the very first time in my life, I feel compelled to stand up and to speak out for the man who I believe has a new vision for America," and told the audience of 15,000 said, "I am... more ›