The CMJ Music Marathon hits New York City Oct. 19-23, with scheduled performances from Two Door Cinema Club, Surfer Blood, School of Seven Bells and hundreds more. But CMJ festival 2010 aside, NYC is an endless playground of neighborhoods, art, culture, food, drink, kookiness and, best of all, surprises. Here are 10 fun activities and ...

Dan Taylor, guitarist for hip hop-tinged soul band the Heavy, likens touring to a martial art. "It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do," the 35-year-old tells Spinner from a Denver, Colo. tour stop. "It's really a discipline. You have to sort of become immune to everybody around you." Taylor and and his Heavy bandmates might be considered ...

Benjamin Curtis has a secret: He's a sleepwalker. "There's always a chance you'll see me up at 4AM talking to some imaginary friend," the School of Seven Bells guitarist tells Spinner. "Once as a kid, I called 9-1-1 in my sleep." His bandmates, Guatemalan-born twins Alejandra and Claudia Deheza, became privy to his condition when they were ...

Eugene Hütz has what is perhaps the finest moustache this side of the '70s. Charismatic and unapologetically larger than life, the Gogol Bordello frontman has become somewhat of an international gypsy-punk poster boy. He was singled out by Madonna, who directed him in 2008's 'Filth and Wisdom.' Hütz also starred in 2005's 'Everything ...

Brazil does funny things to people, as Eugene Hütz can attest. "It's a lot more at ease with itself," the Ukrainian-born frontman of Gogol Bordello tells Spinner about the country he's called home for two years. "After being a hardcore New Yorker for a decade, inevitably you look for the next chapter. I find a lot of inspiration and beauty and ...

Beck is "quite a character," says Jamie Lidell, who collaborated with the iconic indie visionary on his new album 'Compass' (due out on Warp Records on May 18). Recorded in part at Beck's Hudson Studios in Los Angeles, Beck also produced the LP. Lidell says, with utmost admiration, that his Beckness is a freak -- in a good way. "He's quite an ...

When it came time to make a new record, Montreal's Wolf Parade decided to do it the old-fashioned way. "We wanted to be a band in the room together and just make a record like we did it years ago," drummer Arlen Thompson tells Spinner on the phone from his Mile End apartment, his baby daughter cooing in the background. While Thompson did ...