This Lower East Side live music venue is one of the hottest indie spaces in NYC. There's a great bar in front, and the music is in the rear. Get there early and grab a seat because this jammed joint is for music lovers, not rug-cutters.

The nightlife masterminds behind Manhattan’s Delancey venue and Miami’s Studio A have transformed this one-time Polish nightclub in Brooklyn into one of the most significant large music venues in the City today. With live and deejay events curated by New York’s one and only Justine D., this spot is completely for the up-to-date and trend-setters crowd.

This nightclub/cabaret is a fashionable downtown venue with live musical entertainment: deejays, salsa bands, international music, and jazz. Don’t let the crowds and velvet ropes scare you—Joe’s Pub is crowded nearly every night of the week. And while you can’t pick a bad night, it’s best to take note of the specific party or performer, as the lineup is diverse.

Popular NYC concert venue Irving Plaza boasts an outstanding mid-sized sound stage for big-name bands. The venue is open to all ages and hosts local and touring theatre, dance, and music performers. This is a great place to check out established artists in an intimate space or up-and-coming bands before they hit the bigger venues.

The Knitting Factory has become synonymous with all that is experimental in downtown music circles. The club's celebrated history in the avant garde goes back to 1987 when Michael Dorf opened the original Knit on Houston Street. The Knit relocated to its current TriBeCa digs in 1994. Sprawling over four floors and outfitted with just as many bars, the space offers a variety of goings-on.

Established 100 years ago, the Hammerstein Ballroom was originally built by Oscar Hammerstein in 1906 as the Manhattan Opera. The Manhattan Center boasts a rich history of entertainment and corporate and cultural events. The Hammerstein Ballroom serves the metro New York area with two unique event spaces—the Hammerstein and The Grand Ballrooms. The flexibility of these rooms, along with their connection to in-house recording studios and television studios, allows clients to transform the rooms to suit any style of event, ranging from corporate events to rock concerts, trade shows to television shoots, fashion shows to product launches.

Rebel has one of the widest selections of rock music with an impressive stock of Brit-rock, including vinyl copies of Bowie's catalogue, the Verve's A Northern Soul and new Scottish post-rock. The boxes and boxes of used discs are a goldmine, and a treasure trove of new vinyl (from Daft Punk to Mercury Rev) lines the left side of the store.

This little gem is open Friday through Sunday. Though small, this is the only used record store with a New Wave section that is separate from the ‘80s Rock section. Diverse selection, friendly staff, and fair prices.

Other Music describes itself as “a unifying aesthetic for a cornucopia of seemingly disparate musical genres—an attempt to classify the unclassifiable by delineating the common threads among these genres.” This works for us, as the iconic downtown Manhattan record store specializes in a wide selection of underground and experimental CDs, LPs, imports, and rare vintage.

This is a one-stop shop for deejays. Owned and staffed by working deejays, Turntable Lab stocks turntables, needles, records, mixers, production gear, headphones, magazines, and more.

Founded in the East Village in 1985, Kim's Video has two stores in downtown Manhattan stocking CD and LP titles ranging from smash hits to underground gems. Kim's also offers one of the best selections of independent, foreign, rare, and avant-garde films for rental and purchase, a comprehensive collection of books (focusing on titles related to media and popular culture), and import and domestic electronics.

Etherea is a small goldmine in the East Village that is well stocked with indie-rock and electronic soul. They have a substantial CD selection of electronica, and the rock selection is tight as well, boasting heavy on the Mogwai and Dead Can Dance. Check out the vinyl section for surprisingly good hip-hop.