Traffic on the main commercial strip of Red Hook – Van Brunt Street – will most definitely change when the blue walls of IKEA open their doors in August. One wonders where all these hungry consumers will flock to eat, but an obvious choice, if they can get a table, is The Good Fork. The Andrew Bird-endorsed restaurant is run by Korean chef-owner Sohui Kim and her husband Ben Schneider, who designed and built......

Photo of Reggie Watts by Noah Kalina. The Under the Radar festival ends this weekend, so do yourself a favor and go check out one or more of the many astonishing productions that are passing through town for what is arguably New York’s most exciting annual theatrical event. Even if you’ve had nothing but horrible experiences as a captive audience at boring theater, you’re sure to be turned around by a show like Disinformation, which......

We interviewed hundreds of people this year, from long-time rockers to the designer of New York’s subway map. Here are a few conversations you may have missed:On the day Radiohead’s In Rainbows was released exclusively online, musician Jonny Greenwood talked about the “experiment.” Doctor for the uninsured Jay Parkinson told us how to save $1,250 on our next MRI. Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz wondered why they can't make a quiet truck. Actor/Director John Turturro......

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......

Not too long ago Ronen Givony started the Wordless Music Series, which is pretty much just what it sounds like it would be. Sonic worlds collide and fuse classical with indie, jazz with electronic and listeners with instrumental-only music. In the next week audiences will enjoy the sounds of Do Make Say Think and Beirut from an intimate setting for just such an experience. How did you come up with the idea for the Wordless......

Crafting has made a big comeback over the past few years, and the Renegade Craft Fair has done a good job of creating a platform for crafters to sell their wares. The Post says "Expect indie artists with an edge - not frumpy, mothball-tinged women in cat sweatshirts peddling macramé plant holders. This craft fair has got cred." From their website: The Renegade Craft Fair is a unique DIY event organized by Sue Blatt......

Last year a new bar/venue/bocce haven opened in Park Slope called Union Hall. As most good things in New York, everyone seemed to find out about this gem in no time, leading to crowded bocce courts and limited seating on weekends. On most nights, however, the sirens still draw us there. Jack McFadden (affectionately called Skippy by those who know him), books the downstairs venue, which has consistently had solid lineups. We recently asked him......

Call us shamelessly grandiose, but when the dust settles on the first disheartening decade of our new century, we're certain that Andrew Bird will be widely acknowledged as one of the artists who best captured (and playfully tweaked) our era's portentous zeitgeist. Indie-rock critics and bloggers have been lauding him for years, and now Bird is finally selling out the big clubs (and touring in a BioDiesel bus). On his albums, his rich, multi-textural sound......

Andrew Bird, whose inspired 2005 album The Mysterious Production of Eggs was an indie hit, brought his sublime genre-defying songs (and socks) to a sold-out Bowery Ballroom last night. He was joined on percussion and keyboards by regular collaborator Martin Dosh and Jeremy Ylvisaker – a new addition to his road show – on bass and guitar. It’s always exciting to watch Bird weave his songs together live; in addition to playing violin, Gibson hollow-body......

In September, The Wordless Music Series had their inaugural event. It featured Nels Cline from Wilco, pianist Jenny Lin and composer/multi-instrumentalist Elliott Sharp. At first we were a bit apprehensive of a concert without any vocals whatsoever, but we're warming up to the idea (the above video helped). Pairing classical and instrumental indie-rockers in a chamber music setting is actually pretty brilliant. Tonight we'll definitely be heading over to the second show of the......

Gothamist headed down to Manchester, Tennessee with over 80,000 other music fans from across genres and across the world to take in Bonnaroo 2006. Three days of some of the best bands around from Jam to Jazz to Rap to Rock. We were up bright and early Friday morning to get the weekend off to the right start. Our first stop was to check out talented multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird at the That tent. Yes, the......

Not that you were asking, but we know you wanted it. The obligatory Best of '05 List. We chose to list off the Best NYC Shows in 2005. We compiled this list after closely surveying and consulting...ourselves. Here are our Top 11 NYC Shows of 2005. That's right, we said ELEVEN. In chronological order...(insert drumroll here): 1/24/05 Colin Meloy @ the Fez [photos here] - of note: Colin told us these shows were also amongst......

Andrew Bird and M. Ward not only released two of our favorite albums this year, they both put on a perfect live show. Keren Ann is another one of our favorite people to see live. Over the past past few months we've paid to see Keren Ann, M. Ward, and Andrew Bird headline shows in NYC. For that reason we couldn't be more excited that Andrew & Keren are teaming up for a double......