Carrie Schechter

Last week's cover boys the Men released their latest album, New Moon, on Tuesday. Tonight, the dudes take the stage of the Bowery Ballroom to a sold-out crowd. And even though we spilled thousands of words in ink about these guys, there's a bit that didn't make the story. Here now, lotsa lotsa handy tidbits about the Men.

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The Men Get Out of the Gutter
See outtakes from our cover shoot

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Better Than: Known Mortal Orchestra and Oxygen.

Last night Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Foxygen played to a sold out Bowery Ballroom. Though UMO was given top billing, it really could have been a shared bill -- both are Jagjaguwar artists touring behind well received second albums that followed well received first albums, equally ascendent, equally heaped with expectation.

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Kip Moore
Bowery Ballroom
Friday, August 3

Better than: Having to take the train to Long Island or bus to New Jersey.

Nearly halfway through his set, after opening with Up All Night favorites "Crazy One More Time" and "Beer Money" and throwing in a Ryan Bingham cover for good measure, Kip Moore did something Manhattan country audiences might not be used to: He sang a song about New York City. On stage with only his acoustic guitar, Moore explained that he's been here five times in the last year, and that he wrote this tune while looking out his hotel room window on one of those trips. By the time he got to the first chorus, I could spot at least two group hugs; when the occasional camera flash illuminated the main floor of the Bowery Ballroom, I saw maybe a half dozen makeouts.

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Will you be watching?

Tonight, at 10 P.M., you can see the Dirty Projectors live. They're playing here in town, in support of their just-released new album, Swing Lo Magellan, at Music Hall of Williamsburg. If you didn't get a ticket, or just don't feel like leaving your apartment, you can cruise over to the YouTube home of local internet conglomerate the Bowery Presents (owners of The Bowery Ballroom, the forthcoming Rough Trade Booklyn, and The Music Hall of Williamsburg) and watch the whole thing as it happens, online, broadcast in pretty stunning HD. You'll catch every bit of banter, every wrong note, every silly cover they might throw in near the end, and you'll be seeing it as it happens. It will be just like being there. Right?

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This show is crazy: To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life -- an exhaustive history of '80s-indie giants from Sonic Youth to Fugazi to Black Flag -- the Bowery Ballroom is hosting a one-night-only parade of modern alt. superstars covering the bands profiled in the book: Ted Leo playing Minor Threat, Tune-Yards playing Sonic Youth, and someone named Delicate Steve handling the Minutemen. It's all happening May 22; per Brooklyn Vegan, the lineup so far:

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iPhone magic by me

Les Savy Fav frontman Tim Harrington, crowd-surfing on a pedestal, lips on a flask, same as it ever was.

Better than: Monotonix's indefinite hiatus.

Les Savy Fav have not evolved, you will be happy to learn. They are still the same four laser-focused musicians and one giant hairy bald art-punk jester who tongue-kisses strangers and strips down to his underpants. And so a night committed to letting these guys--most noticeably prop comic/expert crowd conductor Tim Harrington--be your primary source of entertainment is always a good decision. At the very best, Les Savy Fav live are the most fun you've had standing upright all month; at the very least, Les Savy Fav are a damn fine primer to Odd Future's Jimmy Fallon debut, even if this strain of performance-art punk comes from "the old people in the back," the side of the bell curve Hodgy Beats finds so reprehensible. Both Tyler and Tim wear kneesocks, so.

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He's a shy guy, he's a cool guy, he's a nice guy. Pics by David.

Wild Nothing/Abe Vigoda/MINKS
Bowery Ballroom
Sunday, February 13

Better than: Watching Netflix streaming with your girlfriend/boyfriend and falling asleep after 15 minutes with the laptop on your chest and rolling over in the middle of the night and breaking the laptop's screen.

Right now I'm sitting inside one of those two sort of enclosed booths upstairs at the Bowery Ballroom, waiting for Wild Nothing to start playing. A lot of people walk past this booth and look into it longingly because of the comfy seating in here but then they keep walking because the way the booth is enclosed makes you think it's like private/VIP/reserved, but it's not. Anyone can walk in, just so you know, for next time you're at the Bowery Ballroom and your legs are tired. Sorry if you already knew that, I just personally have walked past this booth a bunch of times thinking it was VIP and I wish someone had told me earlier that I could just walk in and sit down.

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Dance-rock that actually makes people dance. Pics by Rob.

Friendly Fires/The Hundred in the Hands
Bowery Ballroom
Monday, February 7

Better Than: Sitting around depressed that you didn't get to see Robyn at Radio City.

"Oh! I want to feel true love!" moans Ed Macfarlane, perched precariously at the foot of the Bowery Ballroom stage, gyrating with alarming aplomb, his hips swiveling impressively while, at his feet, the front row's ladies and gentlemen alike try to decide whether they find this spectacle more amusing or arousing. A little of both, in all likelihood.

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It's OK if your eyes well up a little. Pics by Mike Benigno, more below.

Sharon Van Etten/Sebastian Blanck/The War on Drugs
Bowery Ballroom
Saturday, January 8

Better Than: Another night of "Love More" on repeat

Around 7 o'clock Saturday night, shortly before I had to catch a D train and head to Bowery Ballroom, I admit that I didn't want to go. I'd been excited for this show before that, but right then, as I lay in bed, preparing myself with another spin through Brooklyn folkie Sharon Van Etten's second album, Epic, my mood began to align with the record's, and the idea of stepping outside my apartment -- or even out of my bed -- started to seem like a drag. I managed to do it, though, and I'm glad I did.

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This is the rant, but don't skip ahead.

Kanye West
Bowery Ballroom
Tuesday, November 23

Late Monday night word trickled out, via Teyana Taylor's Twitter feed, that a Kanye West performance was in the offing, to celebrate the release of his acclaimed new album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The next day. At 550-capacity Bowery Ballroom. By the time everyone woke up yesterday morning, a sort of mad dash ensued, first to email publicists and venue operators and significant others to inform them tonight's plans might be changing. Then, when news arrived that some tickets would be offered at noon via Ticketmaster, workplace efficiency across New York dipped between 12:00 and 12:04, until most were thwarted by recaptchas and hacked mainframes and goddamn interns. Most failed to score tickets. Much hand-wringing ensued. Kanye West saved, then ruined Thanksgiving, in the same week.

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