"Below is a video we made to celebrate and get pumped up!" says Jelly NYC. Ok.

Hey, internet people who think confronting nature in Williamsburg means getting drunk outside. Another series of free outdoor shows were just announced five minutes before they're about to start. The organizers are Jelly NYC, the famous people behind the Pool Parties at the Williamsburg Waterfront, and these Saturday-afternoon shows will take place at a new venue called the Rock Yard. The first one is this weekend, but since you'll be at Siren's 10th anniversary Festival, let's just pretend that the first one is July 31 with Priestbird. Other notable names are Bun B (!), Frankie and the Outs, Motel Motel, and ZAZA. There is also "A VERY SPECIAL GUEST" on September 11, curated by Bikes in the Kitchen. Obvious guesses: Japanther, Spank Rock, pr Matt & Kim, which could actually be feasible since their fall tour doesn't start until September 15, but you didn't hear it from us. Full schedule and flyer after the jump.

More >>

​Anyone seeking a four-day crash course in Brooklyn Rock (both from BK and of it, I guess) is hereby advised to delved deep into the Northside Festival, which packs hundreds of bands into multiple venues across the sweetest of boroughs, starting tonight with a raft of shows, led perhaps by the triumphant (?) return of Wavves at the Knitting Factory. Plenty of rad stuff to mess with -- those day/night shows Saturday and Sunday at Newton Barge Park (including Titus Andronicus, Liars, Elvis Perkins, and Les Savy Fav) look particularly splendid. I asked L big-shot Mike Conklin for dark horses: He suggests North Highlands, Gabriel Birnbaum, and Shark? That's Shark + question mark. We'll see you there -- try and act like you knew about all these bands already.

PIc by Rebecca Smeyne; fun had by apparently everyone

​The mind reels at what wacky, egalitarian antics everyone's favorite spazz-pop good-times provocateur has in store for us tonight in Red Hook Park, part of the borough-traipsing SummerStage 2010 expansion program. Hopefully tacos will be involved in some capacity. The show begins at 7 p.m., so you'd better leave... now. Given the calamity (transportation-based and otherwise) free summer shows tend to cause around here, we look forward to lots of online whining. Stay tuned.

Seems that the long awaited and slaved over Stephin Merritt documentary now has both a name and a trailer. Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields is set to debut at the San Francisco Film Society, February 28th, and will hopefully then eventually make its way to New York, where some of the footage was clearly shot. Why they needed Peter Gabriel and Sarah Silverman in this film, who knows, but the part where Merritt has to explain to a cab driver why there are cameras following him around is pretty immortal. Official world premiere details (San Fran is supposed to be just a "preview") will be announced Thursday. We are way more excited about this than we were two weeks ago! [Strange Powers via Monitor Mix]

Listen, I don't want to pressure you as to how to spend your July 4th weekend, but if you're not fleeing the city in terror entirely you're pretty much a knucklehead if you don't go check out erstwhile Brooklyn duo Das Racist, they of "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell," live and in person, twice. Ten years from now devout fans -- Dasheads -- will trade homemade bootlegs of Das Racist performances and have four-hour conversations about the structural differences between the versions of "Fake Patois" (enjoy here) performed Friday night at the Annex and Sunday afternoon at Webster Hall. Bring a seven-layer burrito and get in free.*

*Not true.

Bored to Death, a new HBO half-hour comedy series about an alcoholic writer (Jason Schwartzman) pretending to be a private investigator, a la Philip Marlowe, and which also features Zach Galifianakis as his comic book-writing best buddy, has a trailer up at HBO. The show was created by Jonathan Ames, and looks like something that could not have existed in the days before Wes Anderson. But also kind of funny? Parker Posey cameos. [HBO/Bored to Death]

Pretty sure I've got this right: Dopplereffekt are a mysterious 15-year-old Detroit electronic-music crew veiled in secrecy and German pseudonyms -- an even more deadpan and reserved Kraftwerk, let's say. Pepper them with prying questions Saturday night at Le Poisson Rouge, in a rousing-late night affair partially helmed by friend-of-SOTC Piotr Orlov, last seen in these pages wincing through a Junior Boys debacle this show will be much much better than, promise. Kieran Hebden and Santiago Salazar will drop by to DJ as well.

Verily, the new Wilco record, i.e. Wilco: The Album, though not out officially until late June, is currently streaming at wilcoworld.com. Leadoff track is "Wilco: The Song." Its resemblance to "Werewolves of London" is not at all unpleasant. Midway through an initial listen, "One Wing" appears to be the jam, though "You and I" is a lovely Feist duet. (Key sentiment: "I don't wanna know everything about you.") Have at it.