By Ben Sisario – NY Times

It was Wednesday at Downtown 161, and that meant it was Vinylmania day.

Most of the time Downtown 161, a record distributor in Lower Manhattan, is off limits to the public. But once a week it becomes an unusual kind of record store for friends of Vinylmania, a Greenwich Village shop that closed in 2007. Customers run their hands over items in fancy packaging, chat with the seller and brag about their collections — all the typical stuff that grows more endangered every time another store closes. [Read More]

By Fact Magazine

In November 2009 Rizzoli will publish The Velvet Underground: A New York Art, the first ever monograph devoted to a rock band.

Guided and in some ways created by their mentor and collaborator Andy Warhol, The Velvets were artwork as much as artists. They were the first act to explicitly merge pop culture and the fine arts, collapsing the border between “high” and “low” forms of entertainment. It wasn’t just about the music and the lyrics but the way they were presented: the sleeve designs, the performances, the photographs, and everything else besides. A New York Art celebrates the band’s far-reaching, multi-disciplinary creative vision. [Read More]

By Amos Barshad – NewYork Magazine

A Brooklyn label so retro it releases cassettes.

You have not heard the bands distributed by local independent record label Woodsist—home to such acts as Ganglians, Blank Dogs, and Psychedelic Horseshit—in that new iPod commercial. David Bowie and David Byrne have not become backstage fixtures at their shows. Pharrell, to date, has no interest in remixing their music. This is not that kind of Brooklyn-indie-rock success story. [Read More]

By Poe – Freshness Magazine

One point in the not so distant past, Lower East Side was not known for its hipsters’ dive bars nor epicurean’s gathering place.  One point in the not so distant past, Lower East Side was a den of criminals, of social rejects, of those down on their luck.  From its gritty past to the happening present, a photographer was there to documented all – Clinton Patterson, the unofficial historian of this little neighborhood between SoHo and East River. To showcase his extensive portfolio over the past 30 years, ALIFE’s newest venture, ALIFE Presents, along with Kinz + Tillou Fine Art, curated Clayton Patterson: L.E.S. Captured – Photographs, a photo retrospective on the his works and the rapid alterations Lower East Side underwent. [Read More]

By Michael Martin – NY Press

Many Chinese workers who usually depend on the help of a close-knit community are also suffering due to the economy.

Unemployed restaurant deliveryman Jianhua Wang says there’s no help left for him in New York’s Chinatown. Not in this economic climate. “Chinatown is full of compatriots,” he says, “but there are many cheaters.” [Read More]

By Vintage Vinyl News

Devo is back on their original label, Warner Brothers, signing what is being called a worldwide groundbreaking partnership. Warner will handle all parts of the band’s career including recordings, touring, merchandising, web presence, promotion, licensing and endorsements. [Read More]

By Jefferson Siegel – Downtown Express

“This world is but a canvas to our imagination,” wrote Henry David Thoreau. 

An art collective called Lowbrow Society for the Arts put Thoreau’s words into practice when they held an art show aboard rolling mass transit two weeks ago.  
“Move! A Wearable Art Gallery and Celebration on a Subway Train” found more than 100 musicians, artists and other costumed performers packed into the last three cars of a J train to Brooklyn as participants painted, sang, danced and performed acrobatic displays. [Read More]

By Vintage Vinyl News

Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) saluted the best of the year in urban music on Thursday night at Frederick P. Rose Hall in Lincoln Center at its annual Urban Awards.  The big winners were T-Pain and Lil Wayne who shared the Songwriter of the Year and Polow Da Don and Kanye West who both received Producer of the Year.  Song of the Year went to No Air by Erik Griggs, recorded by Jordan Sparks and Chris Brown. [Read More]

Halcyon, a bastion of cultural connoisseurs, based in Dumbo, Brooklyn has spent ten years educating and celebrating their community.  Rooted in DJ culture, halcyon is home to an ever-changing global sampling of street art, urban fashion, alternative literature, transformative technology, unique design and, of course, music, in all it’s forms, from Jazz to Techno.

It’s home to a family of passionate creatives obsessed with the pursuit of quality, open to the insight of collaborators and committed to the advancement of the craft. It’s home to unbridled imagination, uninhibited exploration and unrestrained discovery. Most of all, though, halcyon is simply home to relaxed, unpretentious good times wherein it all comes together… the halcyon experience. [Read More]