What happened to Panic(!) at the Disco? It wasn't very long ago...like last year? Panic! at the Disco was an over-stylized, super-popular circus/emo band who, believe it or not, had some pretty great songs under their young white belts. Not satisfied with their remarkable success, however, they decided to take things in a completely different direction in 2008. The exclamation point and the Moulin Rouge antics have been dropped, and their new record sounds more......

Every year we're drawn to the Coney Island shoreline by the sirens...or at least, The Village Voice Siren Festival. This year they seem a bit more on top of things, announcing their initial lineup today -- a full two months before the show! This year's fest, their 8th, is being held on July 19th and promises some big names (drum roll please):STEPHEN MALKMUS AND THE JICKS, BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE, THE HELIO SEQUENCE, BEACH HOUSE, TIMES......

Elaine Stritch's long and colorful career is packed with so many memorable roles that it's impossible to really say what she's best known for. Her show-stopping rendition of "Ladies Who Lunch" in Sondheim's Company? Or maybe her Tony-nominated performance in Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance? Her movie and television appearances in everything from Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks to 30 Rock? Or her critically-acclaimed solo cabaret show, which she's taken from Broadway to the......

Alexandra Patsavas may be known by some for bringing The Flaming Lips to the Peach Pit After Dark in the 90210 zip code (video). Since then she's been soundtracking shows like The O.C., Grey's Anatomy and Gossip Girl -- but her talents extend beyond the small screen. She also just launched her own label, Chop Shop Records; and this year she brings Breaking the Band back to the Tribeca Film Festival. The concert takes place......

Hooray Brooklyn The summertime free music options keep on rolling out. Not to be outdone by the recent Summerstage announcement or River to River's Wire kick-off, Brooklyn's answer to free in-park music stepped up this week to show what they've got. The Celebrate Brooklyn series runs all summer long at the Prospect Park Band Shell, and will kick off with a free Isaac Hayes show on June 12th. From there, they'll host a number of......

On Tuesday, the Empire State Building was green for Earth Day. On May 5, it'll be yellow for Project Sunshine, a non-profit that offers free social, educational and recreational programs for children with medical challenges. But tomorrow, the Empire State Building will be purple, pink and white in honor of Mariah Carey. According to the ESB's website, it's "Honoring a Great New Yorker: Mariah Carey Breaks Records With E=MC2 Album Release." Yes, Carey's latest album......

All signs, and weathervanes, point towards the upcoming outdoor summer concert season, which is just around the corner. The River to River Festival is kicking things off with a nod to the past, featuring Wire at the Seaport Music Festival stage. Why should you care? Unlike other 70s bands that have been over-saturating the concert circuit, these guys haven't taken a stage in the U.S. in quite some time; their last show was in Spain......

Summerstage Lineup Confirmed Ah, Spring. The weather feels fresh, the trees start to bloom and the free outdoor music events around the city start trickling out. This week saw the release of the Central Park Summerstage lineups, which is one of the best and longest running summer music series in town. Always a treat, this year is one of the most impressive, with a list of shows that seem too good to be free. The......

For anyone accustomed to watching skate kids fall off their boards in Washington Square Park, the above video will serve as entertainment redeeming of the skater community. Equipped with adequate knee pads, gloves, and skill, a group of young men work their way down "Watchtower Hill" in Brooklyn. Staying upright on the board is less a badge of honor than indicative of a lack of creativity. Great soundtrack too. Courtesy of Brooklyn Heights Blog.......

The D.C. trio Jukebox the Ghost has created poptimistic tunes that will wash your worries away. Their piano rock is anything but jaded, and may even make you smile (gasp). Tonight they put another notch on their NYC bedpost when they play Southpaw with Tally Hall. Check them out, they'll make you young again. P.S.: Their album will be released onto the streets April 22nd. Where did your band name originate? A combination of......

The Dodos are Far from Extinct The Dodos are about to enter a very interesting phase of their career. The breakout guitar and drum duo (with a provisional third member) are a simple, intimate band. The two of them sit very close together, quietly strum and bang away, and perform like nobody's watching -- which is part of their appeal. You get the sense you've walked in on something you're not supposed to see. So......

Glenn Mercer was the frontman of a band called The Feelies that burst into the New York music scene in the 1970s. By the '80s their debut album, Crazy Rhythms, was voted one of the top 50 albums of the decade by Rolling Stone magazine. R.E.M., who they later toured with, cited the album as a major influence. By 1991 they disbanded, but Mercer continued making music on his own. Rumors of a reunion this......

So, Moby just happened to Google Alert himself run across this music blog that wrote a (video) post asking him to play their anniversary party since their headliner had canceled (headlining was The Teeth, who broke up...and broke stuff at our CMJ show last year). The video message, which offered $1,000 to play the show, also went out to Win Butler, Kate Nash and Ben Gibbard. Moby responded "yes" (aww). And Hoboken ladies: he's ready......

Photo via perhapsslam's flickr. A few years ago Langhorne Slim played our Movable Hype show, and even got the typical New York still-standing, arms-crossed audience to dance. His charismatic country-rock makes you want to join a jug band, and tomorrow you can be a part of it all for a few fleeting hours.Langhorne Slim is shooting a video for "Rebel Side of Heaven" this Monday, March 31st at The Box (189 Chrystie, between Rivington......

The Sirens Return For One Last Year (again). Rumors of Siren's demise have been greatly exaggerated. The annual Coney Island music festival will be back for at least one more go this summer, despite rumors to the contrary that persisted all winter long. Coney Island is currently undergoing a major facelift, to help revitalize the area, so the old neighborhood may not look the same as you remember, but this, combined with at least one......

Jazz in New York is lingering in a precarious state. It’s certainly not for lack of musicians, or audiences -- but it’s something that has been plaguing New York for decades: there just aren’t enough venues. Last summer, Adam Schatz, a jazz studies student at NYU, and organist in the band The Teenage Prayers, started a rock series in Brooklyn called Zombieville. After a successful first few months, some of his buddies suggested he start......

NYC TV's New York Noise just returned with a slew of new episodes for their 8th season. The show has been on the air for 4 years, having quickly become an institution for music fans and a place for bands (local and otherwise) to showcase their videos. This season promises a mix of new and old, with everyone from Yeasayer to Les Savy Fav popping up throughout in unique sonic-driven segments. We recently got some......

The Mountain Goats Will Never Sell Out As we've mentioned before, once upon a time John Darnielle promised fans at a Knitting Factory show that, even if he was playing Madison Square Garden someday, he would make the time to play a show at the Knit, his favorite club in the city. He may not be quite that big, but it's clear he's moved on from those once noble statements, considering his impressive and always......

Two of the more recognizable New Yorkers down in Austin last week for SXSW were Lou Reed and Moby. During a tribute show for...himself, Reed showed up for a 7-minute encore of "Walk on the Wilde Side," which can be seen below. The two (along with David Byrne) will also be seen together tomorrow night at the Speak Up! concert in DUMBO...but will they still be feeling the love? The crooner kissed Moby not once,......

Likely many a person coming to New York City with a dream, Ashley Alexandra Dupre, also known as Governor Spitzer's February 13 call girl "Kristen," wanted to be famous. But did she want to be infamous enough to be on the cover of the NY Post as a "BAD GIRL"? And how bad can she be, if she has a tattoo of a cross on her right hand? In addition to the photo on......

If you happen to be one of the many New Yorkers in Austin this week for SXSW, head over to our party! Austinist & Gothamist are proud to announce our day party, taking place on Wednesday, March 12 at the Mohawk (912 Red River, Austin). The party kicks off around 11 a.m., and the day ends at 6 p.m., but not before Shout Out Louds, Shearwater, Liam Finn and Phosphorescent perform. This year, we'll be......

Photos via Copyranter Atlanta band The Black Lips better tell their street team the correct date of their upcoming Bowery Ballroom show. The above posters were spotted around the East Village (a clever guerrilla marketing campaign), but some of the dates are wrong! Copyranter calls out the "lazy hipsters" for the inconsistency, but in the end it's a nice way to be a little "green" while promoting shows. P.S. - The Bowery Ballroom show......

One Ring Zero is an unusual Brooklyn band headed up by Michael Hearst and Joshua Camp, with a troupe of musicians and lyricists filling out their ever-morphing sonic tribe. Their lyrics have been written by some familiar names: Jonathan Lethem, Margaret Atwood, Paul Auster and Dave Eggers are amongst them. This year they enter their 10th year of making music, and this Friday they'll be at Joe's Pub celebrating on stage. Join in on the......

Left cover by Gretel sent to subscribers, right runner-up cover by Wieden + Kennedy. New York’s Best of New York lifestyle catalog is out, and among the rightful winners, like Best Old School Lobby: The Chrysler Building and Best Dive Bar: Mars Bar, there are some curious ‘bests’ to ponder. In the New York Classics section, for instance, the sterile, six-month old Music Hall of Williamsburg is hailed for its “unequaled” sound and sightlines. This......

Another Will Ferrell sports flick will inflate this weekend, capping off a nationwide “Funny or Die” promotional tour that brought him to Radio City Music Hall Sunday night. The movie is Semi-Pro, which stars Ferrell as Jackie Moon, owner of the 1976 Flint Michigan Tropics, a team in the maverick ABA basketball league. To keep his career alive against all odds, Moon initiates off a series of increasingly desperate publicity stunts to attract fans –......

THEATER: Hemingway’s play The Fifth Column takes its now-familiar name from the Spanish Civil War, when General Emilio Mola, advancing on Madrid with four columns of troops, boasted of a hidden “fifth column” of fascist sympathizers waiting within the city. Hemingway, of course, was there for the action as a newspaper correspondent and dashed off the play while fascists bombarded his hotel. His rarely produced drama tells the “surprisingly funny story of the private......

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......

Back in 2004 we talked to KEXP deejay John Richards, who was here broadcasting from the (then named) Museum of Television and Radio. KEXP is a Seattle listener-supported station, but while they're based in the Pacific Northwest, they are heard worldwide via their online stream. This month came the announcement of Radio Liberation, a collaboration between KEXP and Radio New York. Launching on March 24th the station "will air KEXP-produced programming Monday through Friday on......

Be Your Own Pet Smacks Around Mercury Lounge There’s usually not much mystery to a Be Your Own Pet show. You get about a half-hour of nonstop, rapid-fire post-adolescent punk, with lots of shouting and shimmying from Jemina Pearl. There are far worse ways to spend an early evening in February. This Wednesday, however, things went down a bit different. About halfway through the set, some older creep started talking back to the charismatic young......

THEATER: Multi-talented and multi-gender performer Justin Bond – the beloved Tony-nominated Kiki from Kiki & Herb – vows to heat up the frigid East Village with Lustre, A Midwinter Trans-Fest. The cabaret show, which opened last night, promises to be a "fast and loose" night of music, dance and monologues for, by, or about transgender people, with a smattering of "neo-pagan revolutionary Appalachian-inspired folk songs." Bond's joined in the festivities by musical director Our......