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Siren Music Festival 2009

Cover Story «

Michael Jackson: The Man in Our Mirror

Black America's eulogies for the King of Pop also let us resurrect his...

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  • Vespa
    Enter to Win a New Piaggio Fly 50!   $1,995 from Potamkin Vespa, NYC’s largest Piaggio and Vespa dealership.   www.vespac...
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  • Matisyahu and Umphrey's McGee
    Win tickets to see Matisyahu and Umphrey's McGee at  Central Park Summer Stage on Thursday, July 9th!  Combining the sounds of B...
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  • Official Siren After Party
     Enter to win tickets to the Official Siren After Party featuring Francis and the Lights and Gordon Voidwell plus special guests on Saturday, ...
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  • Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition
    Win a family 4-pack of tickets to Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, now open at Discovery Times Square Exposition!  Explore incredible re...
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  • Friday the 13th
    Win Friday the 13th on DVD!   Directed by Marcus Nispel  Starring: Jared Padalecki, Derek Mears, Amanda Righetti, Arlen Escarpe...
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  • Inkheart
    Win Inkheart on DVD!   Brendan Fraser (The Mummy films, Journey to the Center of the Earth) leads a splendid cast (including Academy...
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  • The Education of Charlie Banks
    Win The Education of Charlie Banks on DVD!   Coming to DVD – THE EDUCATION OF CHARLIE BANKS is a critically-acclaimed, coming-...
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Best punk-comedy cabaret act

Puttin' on the Ritz
For anyone who's torn between thrashing and crooning, rejoice: Puttin' on the Ritz thoughtfully lets you have it both ways. Started in a drunken haze at a friend's party in '04, the band is the creation of drummer Kevin Shea and singer B.J. Rubin, punk fans who happen to love the standards (Shea even studied jazz at one point). Though Rubin hilariously howls through ballads like "The Rainbow Connection," "My Funny Valentine," and "The Girl from Ipanema," he insists that POTR are sincere: "While most bands who do these songs sound dead, we try to explore it more and be off-the-cuff." They rehearse only once or twice a year (Shea plays in several local experimental bands the rest of the time), but they've managed to get a gig opening for hotshot guitarist Marnie Stern and have landed several U.K. shows for the fall. (They've also performed in waist-deep water at Coney Island and at a few other gigs where they were threatened by non-fans.) They're even amenable to recording duets with fellow crooners like Tony Bennett, assuming he'd like to split studio time with them.

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