It’s 6:40 on a damp evening in New York when Mark Foster, Mark Pontius, and Cubbie Fink arrive at LexBar, a posh lounge in the St. Giles – The Court hotel frequented by a certain gaggle of raven haired sisters whose names all start with K. The three young men are known collectively as Foster the People, an LA-based indie rock band that rose to prominence last summer with “Pumped Up Kicks,” an addictive party anthem about a guy looking to blast away at some fancily-shod kids with his dad’s six-shooter.

Lady Gaga is coming to town, but before you participate in that HBO-documented debauchery, catch Ween and the Walkmen, new indie darling Darwin Deez, Interpol, and Crystal Stilts make their way to a music hall near you. Les Savy Fav, Lou Reed, and the Church round out this week's Gig Guide.

For some, this week marks the start of Fashion Week, a time when "front row" means sitting stiffly next to editors and celebrities as a barrage of waifs cascade down a lit runway. For music lovers, "front row" this week will mean getting sweated on by The National, Huey Lewis and the News, and Theophilus London. Here's the best of the week's musical acts.

Lia Ices makes an entrance, Rhett Miller and Prince return (again?), while the Hundred in the Hands, Woods, and The Suzan round out the week's cant-miss shows.

The Decemberists play a couple of gigs to show off their shiny new album, White Lies performs at Highline Ballroom, Peter Bjorn and John throw a late-night throw-down at The Rock Shop, and Real Estate sidles up to Andy Rourke of The Smiths at Union Hall -- my list this week's not-to-be missed indie shows.

New York’s new supergroup, The Rassle, made up of ex- members of The Young Lords, The Virgins, and the Takeover UK, are certifiably blowing up. They released their debut four-song EP only a few months ago (available as a free download on their website), instantly earning a following on the Lower East Side music scene - and beyond. From collaborating with J.Crew on a stylish video to playing three shows during this year’s CMJ festival, The Rassle are attracting a wide and growing audience with their super-catchy, feel-good pop. Brothers Blair and Reed Van Nort, exhausted and stressed, found time during their busy CMJ schedule to sit down and talk with us to talk about their band, their brand, and their television addiction.

Canadian troubadour Patrick Watson is a world-weary traveler. The title of last year's excellent album, Wooden Arms, was even inspired by a forest he visited in Eastern Europe while on tour with the band Cinematic Orchestra (Wooden Arms is also the name of his backing band, but as for why the naming happened after four years of being eponymous, Watson explains as: "We're not very good at naming things.") So with all this traveling it's a bit of a mystery why the Polaris prize-winning artist isn't more known Stateside. Well, maybe it's because you don't know what the Polaris prize is (a prestigious music prize in Canada that comes with $20,000 cash money). Or maybe because his layered, cinematic pop isn't easily categorized into a genre that gets radio airplay, unless you count NPR. Or maybe because after playing in bands since high school, this month's 11 dates will be the longest he's headlined in the U.S. We spoke to Watson about his experiences touring, using crazy instruments on stage, and unintentionally making people cry at his shows.

If I haven’t said it before here (I know I’ve said it pretty much everywhere else), Mercury Lounge is the best place in NYC to see live music. It’s stupid to prejudice music according to a venue (it’s the chef who matters, not the kitchen), but all but a few of the best shows I’ve seen since in New York have taken place there. It could also just say something about my taste in music—Arcade Fire, The Virgins, The Rural Alberta Advantage are among the aforementioned “best”—but there’s something about the intimacy and informality of that room that turns a show into an experience.

So! Maybe you heard the announcement that the most chronically underrated and underbuzzed band of the last ten years, Spoon, will be playing the smallest of all the Bowery Presents venues (Mercury Lounge) tomorrow night, Thursday, January 21st. Mark your calendars, because this kind of thing (a huge band, playing one of the smallest venues in town, two months before they rock Radio City Music Hall, one of the largest venues in town) doesn't happen often, and when it does, it doesn't happen often enough. But as quintessential New York music blog Brooklyn Vegan put it: the show "sold out faster than you can say Twitter." See above for further details. That said, you can still get into this show, if you try hard enough. Here's how to do it:

Here at BlackBook, we pay a lot of attention to where cool customers go out -- bars, clubs, restaurants, shops, hotels, you name it. So why not flip the frame and let you see where we go out? Here's a periodically updated, exhaustive list of hotspots currently favored by everyone at BlackBook, from the mighty bosses down to the humble interns, from the charming local lounges around the corner to the jet-setting temples of luxe living. ● Creative Director - Jason Daniels, The Odeon (NYC) -American Psychos down salmon and steak frites, but the real scene's on the sidewalk. ● Vice President, Content - Chris Mohney, Agua Dulce (NYC) - Festive outpost feels like Miami, F-L-A.