The CBGB Festival A cool music club becomes a cool music conference

Do you remember the NYC music club CBGB and how cool it was in the '70 and '80s? Of course you don't because you were conceived in 1991 during the Dee Brown slam dunk contest, but that shouldn't stop you from getting in your covered station wagon and heading to NY to enjoy the brand-new CBGB Festival this July. Aiming to position themselves as sort of a SXSW for the Northeast, the event features music at 20 different venues around Manhattan & Brooklyn, 30 mostly music-based films/documentaries, and a conference for industry insiders & the people that sleep with them.

Get yourself learned on the:

Music: Emerging talent mixes with less-emerging talent, giving you a diverse range of artists from Craig Finn of The Hold Steady, to hardcore punkers Cro-Mags & Sick Of It All, to legendary songwriter Willie Nile, who has been called "a one-man Clash", finally providing some serious competition for John Leguizamo's wardrobe.

Film: The rock-themed screenings include Sid & Nancy, Color Me Obsessed (the first documentary about influential '80s indie rock band The Replacements), a look at former punk rockers turned dads called The Other F Word, and 24 Hour Party People, which tells the story of the Manchester, England music scene in the '70s & '80s, but, sadly, has nothing to do with John Leguizamo and his friends.

Conference: There will be workshops in different genres (ProTools, Drum Clinics, Songwriting, etc.), and though the panels are still TBA, they'll feature various music biz experts discussing how to succeed in an industry where doing so is anything but a slam dunk.