Damien DeRose, aka Peasant, tip-toed into our playlist last year just before playing Gothamist House at CMJ. Hailing from Doylestown, PA, his small town sound has been calmly floating around this city with more and more frequency -- enchanting everyone within earshot. This Thursday he's back to play the Brooklyn Vegan show at Pianos (tix). Exposure.mp3 - Peasant How did you come up with "Peasant" as your performing name? I just knew I didn't want......

Carrie and Keith Do MSG Two of the world's largest crossover Country stars joined forces this winter for a massive arena tour that came through NYC this week. Former American Idol and legitimate breakout star Carrie Underwood opened the show for Keith Urban at a sold out MSG, both dazzling the crowd with song and spectacle. While Carrie's set was slightly less ambitious – a mere 4 costume changes and a fairly pedestrian light show......

LECTURE SERIES: The Nation forges on with their series of Tuesday evening lectures tonight. Nation columnist and Columbia Law professor Patricia J. Williams will be on hand to discuss her montly "Diary of a Mad Law Professor" column. Expect to examine the law in whole new light. 6pm // Library of the General Society [20 W 44th St] // $15 MUSIC: Peasant, who played our Gothamist House during CMJ, is back in New York and......

Gothamist is turning 5 years old next month, and to celebrate, we're throwing a little party at Union Hall! We wanted to give you plenty of time to think of creative cakes you can bake us (pictured is one a reader whipped up for us on our 3rd birthday). Here are the details: Movable Hype 12.0 and Gothamist Turns 5! Friday, February 15th, 9pm Union Hall (702 Union Street, Park Slope) Featuring: The Forms, Pattern......

READING: Dave Eggers has delivered two (out of three) great novels, and tonight he reads from last one (which is just out on paperback), What is the What. He'll be at the Strand discussing the book and he'll also give a slideshow presentation from a recent trip he took to Sudan. More info here. Friday // 7pm // Strand Bookstore [828 Broadway] // Free EVENT: We love a good pillow fight, and tonight there's a......

As noted earlier today, a number of consumer activists, sweatshop protesters and anti-capitalist agitators have for years been working to turn Black Friday into Buy Nothing Day. Spearheaded by the anti-advertising gadflies at Adbusters, the event calls on individuals to suspend purchases for 24 hours and engage in creative activism to highlight the unsustainable patterns of mass consumer culture. Naturally, New York’s anti-corporate performance icon Reverend Billy is all over this. We spoke with......

EVENT: In the book Love & Sex With Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships David Levy goes where no man has gone before. Hopefully. From the book's description: "Love, marriage, and sex with robots? Not in a million years? Maybe a whole lot sooner.From a leading expert in artificial intelligence comes an eye-opening, superbly argued book that explores a new level of human intimacy and relationships—with robots." We're not even ready to see Lars and......

FAIR: Attention vinyl junkies! WFMU is hosting their Record Fair starting this eve and running throughout the weekend. "Hundreds of dealers specializing in the out sounds that WFMU is adored for delivering year round will gather for three days of merciless hawking o' the wax, and thousands of area music geeks are already trembling with nervous anticipation!" There will also be live performances this year, check out more details here. Friday, 7pm to 10pm and......

READING: We originally thought this was going down yesterday, but you still have a chance to see it! Not in a million years would we have thought we'd be listing a reading by former Guns n' Roses guitarist, Slash. But it turns out old rockers love to dish on their sordid lives, and this mysterious musician is no different. Tonight he'll read from his book, called Slash, which apparently "redefines sex, drugs, and rock 'n'......

FILM: Ease in to Halloween with classic horror flick The Innocents, based on Henry James' novella The Turn Of The Screw. Evil and innocence, the strange and the everday, will mingle as you...enjoy complimentary vodka an tapas! 6pm // Mantra Lounge [986 2nd Ave] // Free, RSVP here EVENT: Neurologist Oliver Sacks explores "the complexities of human response to music and its powerful ability to move us physically and emotionally" tonight as he shares experiences......

Most Overrated Live Band: Justice There is no denying the greatness of Justice's album, "Cross," and there is no argument from us that it isn't the type of music that is perfectly suited to be blasted in a massive dance club. But those two things alone do not automatically lead to a good live show. These two are sloppy, to put it simply. Too many changes were missed, beats were a half step off, and......

Later on we'll be posting our CMJ Awards (we're thinking of giving Kanye one, since he never wins anything)...but for now we wanted to take a look back at the four long days of shows we held at Gothamist House. First of all, thanks to everyone who dropped by, WOXY, and of course the bands (there were a lot of them!) for putting on some great shows. Some of our personal highlights were The Muggabears......

MOVIE: MoMA's Modern Mondays series explores innovation on the big screen, and tonight they dedicate an evening to Kevin Jerome Everson. "His films look for the art in everyday life, revealing people's relationship to their crafts and focusing on the conditions, tasks, gestures, and materials in communities. Much of Everson's recent work is inspired by found footage. He manipulates news and sports footage, old films, still photographs, and image files in various ways, subtly repositioning......

Tuesday: Brand New is Just Good People Brand New didn't have to be at CMJ this year. The band doesn't have a new album coming out, they headline shows at Hammerstein Ballroom and have sold millions of records. So why did Jesse and Vin stay behind to play an acoustic set at Mercury Lounge? They wanted to support their good friends in local indie band Aeroplane Pageant, who were playing a showcase after them Tuesday......

FAIR: The International vintage poster fair has arrived. It's time to take that ironic velvet Elvis off the wall and class up your joint. The fair will include "over 25 international dealers with more than 10,000 original vintage posters." More info here. Friday 5 - 9 pm , Saturday 10 am - 7 pm, Sunday 11 am - 6 pm // Metropolitan Pavilion [123 W 18th St 5th floor] // $15 MUSIC: We'll be at......

ART: Secrets of Coney Island Creek opens at the Brooklyn Public Library tonight. The exhibit of photographs by photog/author/Coney Island native Charles Denson goes back to the 1960s "when the waterway was at a low point, surrounded by industry and suffering from neglect and pollution. Since then, portions of the creek have been reclaimed, drawing both wildlife and residents to its shores. The photographs in Secrets of Coney Island Creek document those early decades and......

MUSIC: It's CMJ, check out one of the zillions of bands playing. Since trying to pick just one show is tough, we'll suggest one for you. Head over to Brooklyn tonight for Dirty on Purpose, A Place to Bury Strangers, Sisters, Coin Under Tongue and Indian Scout. They'll be taking the stage at Death by Audio. Listen: Mind Blindness.mp3 - Dirty on Purpose 8pm // Death by Audio [49 South 2nd St, Williamsburg] And come......

Yesterday CMJ began to take over the city. Reports of long lines at the badge pickup station came in quickly, but if this week is about anything it's about long lines. Oh, and music. If you're off for the day, come and knock on our door at Gothamist House. It's free, and here's a preview of what you'll hear: • Cut Off Your Hands: You and I.mp3 • Peasant: Those Days.mp3 • Sparrow House: You......

MUSIC: If you see a lot of guitar-toting ladies and gents around the Puck Building right now, that's because CMJ has officially begun. This means there is a ton of music happening (including at our own Gothamist House starting tomorrow). Tonight we suggest hitting up Brooklyn Vegan's show at Bowery Ballroom: Voxtrot, The Rosebuds, Dean & Britta...and so many more. 6pm // Bowery Ballroom [6 Delancey St] // $16, or free with badge THEATER: A.R.......

It's time to start polishing up your leaving-work-early excuses, because CMJ is just around the corner. This means day shows, night shows, after parties and nearly every space downtown turning into a venue for the week. One of those spaces will be our very own Gothamist House, which is located at White Rabbit at 145 Houston Street (between Forsyth & Eldridge) October 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th from 2pm to 8pm each day. There will......

Jonathan Lethem Selects BAM Cinématek Starting next Monday and running through the middle of November, Brooklyn author and Friends of BAM chairperson Jonathan Lethem will be programming the cinématek with some of his favorite movies. Fans of his writing know that Lethem loves pop culture but this series doesn't really have more of an over arching theme than that it features some of the author's most beloved films and plain ol' good movies. There are......

Lucinda Williams Does Her Discography The welcome trend of artists playing their entire albums through live in concert has spread to the country world. Lucinda Williams was in town this week for five (relatively) intimate shows at Irving Plaza and Town Hall, each featuring one of her five albums. Lucinda didn't stop at just recreating her past work -- after a short intermission set by up and coming singer/songwriter Fionn Regan, she'd come back up......

With just over a week to go before the CMJ music marathon takes over the venues and random spaces in this city...we're finally ready to announce the Gothamist House lineups for this year. One day at a time. As a reminder, this year WOXY will be broadcasting from the space -- so if you find yourself at work you'll still be able to listen in! At the end of the week stay tuned for......

Björk @ MSG You might better picture Björk in some sort of magical Garden rather than the Garden, but nonetheless the avant-queen took the big stage earlier this week and brought her elaborate, over the top live show with her. She's been a busy gal all summer, headlining many of the major American music festivals, and with this being her second time through NYC. The last time she was in town she played increasingly large......

CMJ is coming up next month, and as we've mentioned we'll be opening the doors to Gothamist House again this year. We've got a big announcement to share, along with some little details of interest if you plan to attend any of the shows: Our favorite radio station has come on board! WOXY will be broadcasting live from Gothamist House all week. The show will be streaming on their website, and later the "best of"......

Bookeaters Return! What started off as an excellent concert lineup just got better and better as the date approached. The additions of Spoon's Britt Daniel and Kevin Drew were a bonus treat. Music, reading and charity aside, perhaps the biggest wow moment was show headliner Jim James' new closely cropped haircut. The My Morning Jacket front man sheared his trademark Muppet locks since the last time we've seen him about. Not that it affected the......

Disco Biscuts Bring Something Different to the Pool Sick of all that boring "indie" music polluting your fresh Greenpoint air this summer, Mr. cynical anonymous Gothamist commenter? Well maybe you prefer the jam-trance mania of the Disco Biscuits instead! No? Well a whole crowd of people did, comfortably filling McCarren Pool earlier this week with people who (no joke) bought their tickets on 4/20 @ 4:20 in the afternoon. Those in attendance seemed to have......

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Back before the turn of the century, and concurrent with the spread of air conditioning in Off-Off Broadway theaters, theater buffs John Clancy and Elena K. Holy seized a golden opportunity to exploit the only brief lull in New York’s raging theater scene – when conventional wisdom held that no slob stuck in town during mid-August would want to get stickier in a stuffy theater up two flights of stairs. And so The New York......

The Police Raid MSG The Police have always had a close association with New York City, what with the CBGB breakthrough show and whatnot, so it was a bit surprising that it took them so long to get here on the reunion path. Nonetheless, halfway through their big comeback tour, the classic trio has finally stepped foot on our local soil. As Bumpershine described, it may not have been the most amazing performance ever, but......