Lauren Booth

Star Trek Into Darkness Boldly Goes Where Star Trek's Been Before

Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers Are Girls Gone Godard

A thrilling corruption of the Disney-princess set

The Best Metal Concerts in New York This Month

These are the best metal shows in NYC this month. See also: The Ten Best Metal Albums of 2012

Jessie Ware - Bowery Ballroom - 1/17/2013

Better than: Watching the sweetest girl at your high school make it big. Last night at the Bowery Ballroom, British songstress Jessie Ware played an hour long set to an adoring, well-heeled crowd. Though perfectly professional throughout her set, Ms. Ware seemed taken aback by her fans' enthusiasm: ... More >>

UPDATE: Pro-Gun Radio Host Alex Jones Fears Being Offed by NYPD/Mafia Following Epic CNN Interview

Update: Glory to God, Alex Jones uploaded a video after his interview on Piers Morgan Tonight, and dare we say that it might've outdone his original rant, which led to him trending nationally on Twitter. Jones was back in his hotel room after the taping, and he claimed to fear for his life. Befo ... More >>

Our 10 Best Hot Booze Cocktails in New York City

You've survived another holiday season. Have you ever had better reason to settle into a dark bar with a stiff drink? I didn't think so. But, as we battle through the next few long john-wearing months, now feels like a good time to order up a strong, warm drink -- with a whole lotta booze. Here a ... More >>

Ben Scorah of Bill's Food and Drink on Classic Cocktails, Car Bombs, and Hanky Panky

Ben Scorah is the bartender you want to introduce to your parents. The affable Brit (London-born, New York-based) helms the bar at Bill's Food and Drink, the revamped Midtown restaurant that previously held Bill's Gay Nineties. Scorah has such an appreciation for the history of the venue, and he w ... More >>

Nine Poppy Picks From ?uestlove's Non-Rap Productions

?uestlove's stock is at an all-time high. His stint as house band-leader on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon was recently complimented by a profile in The New Yorker; you might even peep his face on subway billboards around the city as he clocks up his Sonos endorsement money. Tonight he'll be spinning ... More >>

Christ, It's Another Red Dawn

North Korea (and audiences) go home unhappy

Lustig for Life: Dipping into Grimy Genre Greats from the Warner Archive

The Ten Best Concerts in New York This Weekend, 10/26/12

Here's a list, in no particular order, of the ten best concerts to check out this weekend. Follow us @SoundoftheCity, like us on Facebook.

Wuthering Heights: Black Like Me

Andrea Arnold's adaptation of Brontë braves lines of color

Madonna And Gaga: What Should They Sing Together?

Madonna recently remarked that she loves Lady Gaga, adding that we'll be seeing the two divas onstage together real soon. I guess they buried the hatchet in Katy Perry. So what should Madonnagaga sing? I have some ideas:

Morrissey Rushes To The Aid Of An Old Lady

At the Strand bookstore, where old-school print thingies (called "books") are on sale for discounted prices, Brit singer Morissey was perusing through the photography section the other day, as our friends at queerty.com relate. While the warbler of odes and regrets was browsing, an elderly lady cus ... More >>

James Franco Vanessa Hudgens Ashley Benson vs. Asia Argento Charlotte Gainsbourg François Cluzet : Threesomes at the Toronto Film Festival

This is a blog post about two movies that were screened for the press within the first 24 hours of the Toronto Film Festival, both of which feature three-way sex scenes. In Spring Breakers, characters played by James Franco, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Benson "do it" in a swimming pool; in Do Not Dis ... More >>

Live: Paul Shaffer And Others Pay Tribute To Gil Evans At Highline Ballroom

Gil Evans Centennial Celebration Highline Ballroom Monday, May 21 Better than: Never witnessing a world-class band in action. I'm actually fortunate enough to have caught the Gil Evans Orchestra in the '80s, before it became a ghost band. Back then, when the slew of clubs lining Seventh Avenue Sou ... More >>

Live: Yann Tiersen Gets Playful At Irving Plaza

Yann Tiersen Irving Plaza Friday, April 27 Better than: Most of the Philip Glass and Stephin Merritt music I've heard. Skyline, Yann Tiersen's seventh studio album, is only the second album of his current deal with Anti- and, like 2010's Dust Lane, it pioneers sonic territory structurally differen ... More >>

Late Bloomers

Drinking With Rich People As The Recession Lifts

Hanging with the upper crust as the recession finally lifts

Detachment

Live: The Secret Policeman's Ball Speaks Freely At Radio City Music Hall

The Secret Policeman's Ball: Coldplay, Mumford & Sons, Russell Brand, Eddie Izzard, and many others Radio City Music Hall Sunday, March 4 Better than: Watching the Lohan Saturday Night Live on DVR. Going to a live show that's actually meant to be broadcast on television can be a deadly propositio ... More >>

Coluck: Strange, Cheap, and Hidden

An odd Hong Kong café lurks down an alleyway

Live: Ed Sheeran Rubs Elbows With The Crowd At Mercury Lounge

Ed Sheeran Mercury Lounge Monday, January 30 Better than: Finding a Sugababes album in the 99-cent bin. British pop stars have had something of a rough go when trying to break America, despite often working with much better material than much of what's on the charts over here. The sacking of poor ... More >>

The Weirdest Portrayals of Asians In Movie History

Hollywood used to have a habit of putting slanty-eye makeup on non-Asian stars and passing them off as from "the Orient." Here are some of the more egregious examples:

Pazz & Jop 2011: Michael Tedder On Fucked Up's Majesty, Danny Brown's Cunning Skills, And The Joy Formidable's Outro Power

To supplement this year's Pazz & Jop launch, Sound of the City asked a few critics to expand on the reasonings behind their voting. Here, Michael Tedder breaks down his entire ballot, and along the way he talks about about the operatic heights of Fucked Up, the shredding ability of Annie Clark and R ... More >>

Underwhelmed And Overstimulated, Part Eight: What Happened When Skrillex Helped America Discover Rave

​Sound of the City's year-end roundtable, with contributions from Tom Ewing, Eric Harvey, Maura Johnston, Nick Murray, and Katherine St. Asaph, continues. Follow along here. Thanks Katherine—though I'm afraid I'm going to kick the "defending Drake" can further down the road, and leave i ... More >>

Animal House: Matt Damon Needs Your Love in We Bought a Zoo

Oh, don't be such a cynic

The Door Opens in New York

Brits Off Broadway imports Tony Earnshaw's Pinterish play

100 & Single: What Billboard's Rule Changes Mean For The Britney, Michael And Gaga Albums You Bought

When you go see a movie at a Saturday half-price matinee, should it count toward that weekend's box office? You paid less than the guy who saw the movie Friday night. Does that mean your viewing shouldn't count? What about if you see an old movie at a revival house: Should that count toward the box ... More >>

London Boulevard

Killing Bono

Piggish Hollywood on Trial in Exhibit A Prince of Swine

Live: Katy B Shows Off Her Moves At The Studio At Webster Hall

via MTV Hive​ Katy B The Studio At Webster Hall Tuesday, September 13 Better than: Doing "Rolling In The Deep" at karaoke. "Everyone has their own little dance," Katy B said near the end of her first proper New York City performance on Tuesday night. "So I wanna see you doing yours." It was ... More >>

Coming to Smorgasburg: Barbecue, Chorizo Sandwiches, and Alan Harding's Rice Balls

A chorizo sandwich, inspired by London's Borough Market and headed for Smorgasburg​ "Smorgasburg," Eric Demby says, "is in this Darwinian phase: We're trying out lots of people. It's a little bit survival of the fittest." The market's evolving list of vendors is producing some new faces this w ... More >>

Piers Morgan And Wife Celia Walden Expecting a Baby

​CNN's newest Brit and Larry King replacement Piers Morgan, 46, is expecting a childwith wife Celia Walden, 34. It's their first child together, although Morgan already has three kids from a previous marriage. The pregnancy is in its fourth month, the Daily Mail reports. Congrats are in order ... More >>

Ten Hip-Hop Covers Of Rap Songs

​Last week, the Detroit-based rapper and one-time J Dilla collaborator Elzhi released Elmatic. It's the second time a rapper has re-written and re-made Nas's hallowed Illmatic, with Fashawn attempting a similar feat last year. As a listening experience, Elmatic is less than convincing, leaving ... More >>

The 10 Best Guesses To The Suddenly Pressing Question, "Who Are The Modern Weepers?"

​Yesterday Brooklyn Vegan posted a query about about British act playing Mercury Lounge on May 27; the act goes by the name the Modern Weepers, and the Merc site claims that the Mancunian act is "well travelled and well known in their native England" and "thrill[s] audiences and critics alike ... More >>

Thor's a Bore

But that brother from another mother sure does steal his thunder.

Big-Name Remixes: The Sound Of Labels' Panic Buttons Ringing?

​Britney Spears' "Till The World Ends," the Ke$ha-penned second single from her album Femme Fatale, hasn't been out for very long. (Six weeks, give or take.) But already there's a splashy remix of the tune featuring both Ke$ha and Brit's future tourmate Nicki Minaj, who seems particularly ener ... More >>

Jerusalem Brings Blood And Guts To Broadway: My Review

​The new Olivier by way of John Belushi, Mark Rylance is willing to go to even darker places than an electrician in a power blackout. Three years ago, he won a Tony for his Buster Keaton-ish deadpan in Boeing Boeing, and more recently he played a scary vulgarian who spoke in verse in the stim ... More >>

Jessie J Sings For Her Life On "Who You Are"

​All the world's a stage, and singer-songwriter Jessie J's corner of it looks something like American Idol (or maybe X Factor, since she's a Brit). The 23-year-old's debut, Who You Are, is not so much an album as it is a pleading, 50-minute audition, the logical byproduct of someone who doesn' ... More >>

The Early Word: Oxley's Carvery

Lauren ShockeyOutside Oxley's​Always on the hunt for a new lunchtime treat, we made the trek today down Mott Street to check out Oxley's Carvery, a recently-opened British butchery shop stuffing hunkering cuts of roasted meat between bread. So what can you scope out at this meat market?

Adele Goes Deep

The queen of British white-girl r&b-dom is crowned at last

Exclusive: Hear Obits' "Shift Operator," A Killer New Jam About A Math Problem

Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent. ​The shaggy garage-punks in Obits have returned for a second round of three-minute yowlers and blues-rawk howlers. Already beloved as a grown-ass version of frontman Rick Froberg's manic indie-punk l ... More >>

Week In Review: Bob Dylan Is Waiting In A Van Outside Your House

Photo via Fred W. McDarrah, there from the start.​Yes, it was Dylan Week here at SOTC, a veritable orgy of Greenwich Village-scouring videos (with installments covering Cafe Wha?, Jones Street, the Gaslight, and Washington Square Hotel, or just enjoy the whole thing in one shot here), along wi ... More >>

Gordon Ramsay Cookware: Xmas Pots & Pans From Hell('s Kitchen)

​Even the box seems a bit grim... Department and specialty stores are brimming this time of year with kitchenware endorsed by celebrity chefs, with Jamie Oliver (11-piece stainless steel cook set), Mario Batali (7.5 quart persimmon colored Dutch oven), and Giada De Laurentiis (5/8 quart butte ... More >>

Broadway Star Makes AIDS and Jesus Funny!

The Limelight's born again, and so am I

Code Unknown

In the shadow of Da Vinci, Cannes '06's first great film: A visionary American comedy about the end of times

G-Spot

A new Village Italian bistro masquerades as a gastropub