MUSIC: If you aren't at your local hometown bar this Thanksgiving-eve, drinking with old high school buddies -- we suggest a sonic alternative. Tonight The Hold Steady and Art Brut do their best at making Terminal 5 feel a little bit cozier this holiday season. Buy tickets here. 7:30pm // Terminal 5 [610 W 56th St] // $30 MUSIC MOVIES: If you're sick and tired of the bands playing around town, go check out two......

The Observer revisits The Hotel Chelsea in a piece about a long-time resident who runs a salon out of the building. April Barton cuts hair out of Suite 303 in a salon that fits right in at the legendary building, and the cachet of running her business there isn't something she necessarily wants to give up. Recently, however, new management told her that she may be facing a massive rent hike. An otherwise “gracious” representative......

Senator Hillary Clinton is asking the public for some advice on what may very well be the most important part of her campaign: The Song. The choices: "City of Blinding Lights" - U2, "Beautiful Day" - U2, "I'm a Believer" - Smash Mouth's cover of the Monkees' song, "Get Ready" - The Temptations, "Right Here, Right Now" - Jesus Jones, "Suddenly I See" - KT Tunstall, "Ready to Run" - Dixie Chicks, "Rock This Country!"......

The Sanitation Chronicles, a new play by and about New York’s Strongest, premiered on Wednesday. Actor/playwright Paul Brno, who’s been moonlighting for the Department of Sanitation for the past 17 years, says “every day is still a great day to be on a garbage truck.” The “slice of life” play explores the daily prejudices, anger and violence faced by “Sanmen”, all of which is exacerbated when one of the guys shows up for work dressed......

As we mentioned yesterday, MTV is sending in their reality crew troops to Brooklyn Tech for a new series. While it's unclear as to how many of the BTHS students actually reside in Brooklyn, with all those kids, who knows who MTV will be documenting "the early years" of. BTHS has some accomplished alum, including Leonard Riggio (Founder of Barnes & Noble), Richard Fariña (writer, folksinger, part of the Dylan crew), Richard LaMotta (Founder......

I first came across Spoon in 2002 when I found a copy of Kill the Moonlight at my library. Being ignorant of music at the time, I didn't know that it was one of the best-reviewed albums of the year. I did know, though, that I liked it. And, since then, Spoon has remained one of my favorite bands, so I jumped on the chance to speak with Britt Daniel to promote Spoon's December 30th......

We trust you've all seen the video of Ethan Chandler singing a Bank of America-fied version of U2's "One". If not, please watch now. It's straight out of The Office. Stereogum reports (via Angry Citizen) that this weekend David Cross and Johnny Marr opened the Modest Mouse show at Bowery Ballroom...with Ethan's version of "One". Cross is even all decked out in the appropriate attire. Luckily this was caught on tape (watch above), this......

Bryan Bruchman, of New York band Man in Gray, and his girlfriend Mary, have started a site to pay homage to all of those ruined songs in life. You know how often a song will stick itself to a situation, an event, a memory...making music a sonic earmark, and the first few notes of a song leading you on an unwanted trip down memory lane. So this site, Ruined Music, not only focuses on those......

Brooklyn Vegan (via Reuters) reports that New York's Hit Factory studio will be turned into condos. The building, which is on West 54th Street between Ninth and 10th, closed in 2005. Prior to that musicians like John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, Madonna and U2 recorded there. This place should be a museum, not someone's $1 million bachelor pad. The seven recording studios and five mastering suites, one space seen above, will now be replaced with kitchens,......

In order to make sure everyone knows how wacky New York is, the press descended upon Improv Everywhere's No Pants 2k6 ride yesterday afternoon. The NY Post, Daily News and Newsday - as well as the AP - all filed reports about pranksters trying to make people crack a smile on a subway during an otherwise routine Sunday afternoon. The press was probably disappointed there wasn't another transit strike, so this was a good......

Wow, Apple puts U2 on an iPod and all of a sudden, U.S. politicans want a piece of the Irishmen! The New York Times says that the globally conscious band is "distancing" itself from campaign fundraising, as Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Rick Santorum are both planning fundraising events tied to U2 concerts. According to the article, in response to a report from NewsMax about Bono "teaming up" with Santorum, Bono's Debt AIDS Trade Africa......

Antony and the Johnsons will play their first NYC show since winning the UK's Mercury Music Prize last month. The past year has seen Antony rise from a relatively unknown eccentric NYC club performer to an international superstar. His headlining show at Carnegie Hall on Thursday, and his upcoming appearance on Letterman, are two signs of his well deserved success. Those attending the Carnegie show will also be treated to a rare opening set......

One of Gothamist's favorite passtimes is trolling Wikipedia for new information about New York, and today we really hit paydirt: Someone is building a complete list of songs that reference our fair city. Take just the first ten-- you know you're living in the right city when you've got both Simon & Garfunkel and 2 Live Crew writing about it:# "53rd and 3rd" by The Ramones # "Angel of Harlem" by U2 # "Arthur's Theme"......

We don't know where to begin with show recommendations this week. Emily Haines is in town with her band Metric for shows at Bowery Ballroom and Southpaw. Today Pitchfork declared the new Broken Social Scene album, on which she appears, "best new music." Broken Social Scene's new label-mates, The Most Serene Republic, are opening both shows. Then there's the Decemberists. Back in town once again, they're also playing two shows - Webster Hall tonight......

Charlie Todd, Prankster...

In the spirit of excellent passenger-cab driver connection, which might be in support for friendlier taxi cab partitions, Gothamist suggests you check out the latest from Improv Everywhere: Mission: Romantic Comedy Cab. We don't want to give anything away, but it has the makings of a great romantic comedy meets Comedy Central show. It's less interactive then, say, IE's staging of a fake U2 concert, but it's still extremely satisfying. Improv Everywhere was behind the......

We couldn't help but notice the abundance of talented white male rockers invading NYC this week. New and old and originating from various corners of the Earth, the white boys of rock n' roll are invading. Let us be your guide. Last time they were here, they rocked NYC under the Brooklyn Bridge. The Irish international living rock n' roll legends, U2, are coming to a stadium near you. Tuesday and Wednesday at Continental Airlines......

Andrew Rasiej, Candidate for Public Advocate...

This is where Gothamist tells you what tickets to buy...because not every band gives it away for free on a flatbed truck (yes, we've somehow managed to make the free U2 show sound dirty.) So, before the tickets sell out and you are left bargaining on Craigslist, we are here to tell you what to buy... -* First and foremost, they just put up extra tickets to the Guided By Voices shows this weekend. BUY......

It was a short week, what with heaping portions of turkey at the ready. Here's some of what we learned this week: - The Matzoh t-shirt war - What's the deal with charges of racism at Columbia - Where to get Belgian ales in the city - Who is the new ADA on Law & Order? - Laugh Whore with Mario Cantone reviewed - And U2 played, sang, and rode through Manhattan on a......

Gothamist spends every weekday in DUMBO, a generally laid-back, if not sleepy, neighborhood occasionally graced by the presence of a big-name actor filming a movie, or a rapper making a music video. But when we heard the rumor news U2 were going to be around the corner from the office playing a free show, we were glad to know our employer would insist we attend. For those of you unable to escape the confines......

Gothamist will have a more extensive wrap-up of U2's "so secret, it's a record label's wet dream with all the buzz" Brooklyn concert from Janelle, but we loved this photo by Steven Tom of The Edge in front of a Holland Tunnel sign [U2 spent a good part of the day on a flat bed truck, filming their upcoming video]. And reader Jill sent us this Bono photo from midtown. Thousands flocked from office......

According to Steven Tom, U2 will be at the Brooklyn Bridge at around 4:30PM. Our readers chase U2 through Manhattan. Surprisngly, only one photo of the band's NYC shenanigans has appeared on Flickr and Stereogum has photos of the band in Times Square.......

There have been rumors of a free U2 concert in New York for the past week or so, and now there's confirmation: Today, U2 will be performing at Empire Fulton Ferry State Park in Brooklyn, which is between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges at Plymouth and Washington Streets. MTV is filming the performance to coincide with publicity for U2's new album. For tickets, click here for 1iota.com's MTV surprise performance; arrival time is 2:30PM, the......

Bob McKee, Local Music Now...

The American Museum of Natural History brings back the planetarium lightshow with its new program in the Hayden Planetarium called SonicVision that is mixed by Moby. The music Moby chose comes from Radiohead, U2, Coldplay, Queens of the Stone Age, David Bowie, The Flaming Lips, Stereolab, Fischerspooner, Boards of Canada, and himself, naturally. The Times takes a look at the new technology used in the lightshow, which does not include lasers, and the challenges of......

In today's Metro Section, Clyde Haberman, closet Gothamist, applauds the Belmont Stakes for changing their official song from "Sidewalks of New York" (which you might know from Ken Burns' documentary on the City, if no where else) to the slightly more up to date "New York, New York". Haberman feels however, that our fair Gotham is poorly represented by the whinings of a "self-involved parvenu who wants to be 'king of the hill, top of......

Robert Hillburn of the L.A. Times finds the phenomenon of people latching onto songs as anthems (when the songs were never meant to be that in the first place) fascinating, the current example being Outkast's Bombs Over Baghdad. "OutKast's Big Boi was more than a little surprised when tennis pro Jennifer Capriati requested recently that "Bombs" be played as a sign of support for the troops in Iraq as she took the court for a......

Oscar Commentary
Oscar is celebrating its 75th anniversary, I'm celebrating my 25th anniversary of watching Oscar....