Photos taken at Terminal 5 by Sarah Hajjar

Photos taken at Webster Hall by Victoria Stevens

Last Sunday, post-modern comic book author and novelist Neil Gaiman met with designer Chip Kidd to discuss Gaiman's pioneering comic series, The Sandman, in front of a packed auditorium at 92Y. Gaiman proved an affable and charming speaker, regaling his audience with disarming anecdotes and witty impressions that, unlike the protagonist of his 20-year-old cult classic, didn't put anyone to sleep.

Borough: Bushwick, Brooklyn
Fun Fact: Lead singer Ryan Reesey recently starred in a commercial for Guitar Hero.
Why They're Worth Watching: Me You Us Them meld an intense blend of distorted, off-kilter guitar riffs with searing vocal melodies, rendering them one of the most memorable shoe-gaze groups in recent memory.
For Fans Of: Sonic Youth, Jimmy Eat World, The Jesus & Mary Chain

Tucked away in a booth at a Williamsburg watering hole, a few feet away from one of Brooklyn's more rowdy election night Obama victory parties, the members of Me You Us Them consider how the current state of politics have influenced their musical approach. "It's certainly affected us," guitarist/vocalist Ryan Reesey says. "You actually have to get off your ass and do something."

As one of the first bands to join the garage rock revival of the late nineties, French Kicks have made a name for themselves through their low-fi alternative pop and lush harmonizing vocals. With 2008's Swimming, the group softened their dynamic approach with subdued melodies and acoustic ballads before releasing a collection of homages on their digitally-released Covers EP. Vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Nick Stumpf recently chatted with Paste:Local NYC about the band's musical evolution, the current musician immigration into Brooklyn and growing past genre labels.

This Sunday, Nov. 9th, at 92Y, seminal designer Chip Kidd will chat up best-selling author and comic book icon Neil Gaiman on The Sandman, the author's benchmark comic book series, which is currently celebrating its 20th anniversary. 

A live opus, twenty-five years in the making

The 1970s saw the heyday of the rock opera, with musical opuses by Genesis, Queen and Meat Loaf all vying to out-bombast The Who’s seminal Tommy and Quadrophenia and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar. Lou Reed's contribution to the genre came in 1973 with Berlin, his psychodrama about a drug-addicted couple that mixed the titular German capital’s art-born-of-political-strife with an LES aesthetic—and nearly relegated Reed's post-Velvet Underground solo career to one-hit-wonder status.

Photos taken at Bowery Ballroom by Sarah Hajjar