"Rehab is shutting it's gates until it gets a new investor sorted. When & how it will reopen is anyones guess...there are many different scenarios, so for now thanks for the memories and if anything different arises we'll let you know. The DMZ show 3/21 has been moved to Southpaw."

It looks like the last show there was Saturday night (2/28). Antagonista and 18 Wheels Burning were on the bill and that was followed by a Midnight Junior Lion Record Release Reggae Party.

Rehab (25 Avenue B - Between 2nd and 3rd st) lasted less than a year. Before that it was Midway. Before that it was Scenic. Before that it was Guernica and Save The Robots (and did I miss one?).

In other news, Knitting Factory is temporarily re-opening its Tribeca location and Sound Fix closed its lounge.

"There has been an exodus of live music from Downtown Manhattan recently, and the Lower East Side has been one of the hardest hit 'hoods--losing rock clubs such as Tonic, Luna Lounge and the somewhat short-lived Rothko over the past few years. Is the Mercury Lounge the next to go? The building that houses the famed venue has just hit the market through brokerage Massey Knakal with a price tag of $6.5 million. The five-story walk-up at Houston and Essex Streets--sandwiched between a nightclub and the towering new luxury rental building The Ludlow--has eight apartments (six of them currently rent-stabilized) and a billboard in addition to its commercial tenant. Don't panic: the listing indicates the club isn't going anywhere, and according to broker Philip Huang, the Merc's lease runs until 2018. Phew!

Can a new landlord boot the club come 2018? Well, according to the sales flyer on the listing, the Mercury Lounge has an option to renew for five years at fair market value. The club currently pays $20,000/month in rent, with a 3.5% annual increase. Noisy rock-'n'-rollers aside, the new owner's first mission might be to increase the revenue taken in from that east-facing billboard on the building's facade. According to the paperwork, the current deal (expires 12/31/2010) only nets the landlord $850 per month." [CURBED]

The Giraffes play Mercury Lounge tonight (2/6).

Saturday is The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (the latest recipients of Best New Music), Cause Co-Motion, The Depreciation Guild, and ZAZA (sold out).

Sunday is Lucero (sold out).

It was exactly a year ago today that Gothamist wrote....

Andrew W.K. has also been working on his venue at 100 Lafayette, which he's opening with Spencer Sweeney. In 2005 they had a petition going, but we think things are moving forward now. We went to the venue for an art party held by (friends of W.K.) Paper Magazine not too long ago, it was beautiful, spacious and had multi-levels.

When it opens it will certainly be more than just a venue. Seems he made a little announcement to CMJ yesterday about the space, stating, "This is something I always wanted to do, have a space for all types of people to come and be creative, relax, and have their minds blown." While he added that the venue is yet to be named, we think it will be called (or at least at one point was going to be called) Santa's Party House.

Handsome Furs play Santa's Party House on April 5, 2008.

REM in that LES wine store, filming the video

That video they were filming on the Lower East Side, and some behind the scenes.....

Continue reading "R.E.M.- Supernatural Superserious ++ LES video shoot"

It’s not every day that you can call up your friends and say “So I was working at Babeland yesterday when Michael Stipe and the rest of R.E.M. stopped by to sing for us,” but yesterday, that was totally something I could, and did say. Yes it’s true, R.E.M., the band that feels like they may have gone bye-bye just a few years ago, is back, and if the single from last night is any indication of the future of their music, let me just say I’m hooked. It all started yesterday afternoon, when I got a call from a location scout asking if Babeland would be interested in (possibly) being part of a video shoot for R.E.M. Call me easy, but the obvious answer washell, yes!...........Basically, as part of their video shoot, R.E.M. was playing the first single off their soon-to-be released album in a number of different locations on the LES (that’s Lower East Side for you non-NY types), and the first stop was our next door neighbor, the restaurant Inoteca....[Babeland's Blog]

Billboard has more. R.E.M. are playing SXSW and Langerado