By Rya Backer

I'd long resisted the idea of attending the Village Voice celebration of all things indie music, the Siren Festival, because of an adage many of my fellow New Yorkers are familiar with: location, location, location. This year, however, I finally took on the hour-long subway trek to Coney Island for a(n extremely hot) day of great music, great people and Nathan's Famous hot dogs.

The men and women who came to Coney Island expressly for Siren sported an almost uniform look of ironic (read: regrettable?) tattoos, multicolored Wayfarer knockoffs, Keds, rompers (for the ladies) and long, tight pants (not for the faint of heart). But the event was for everyone; the music from either stage could be heard from the boardwalk, and both concertgoers and curious weekenders were able to see such acts as Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Broken Social Scene, Islands, the Helio Sequence, Ra Ra Riot, and the Dodos gratis.

(Check out live footage of BSS after the jump.)
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· Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Broken Social Scene, and Times New Viking are set to headline this summer’s Siren Festival in NY.

· Vampire Weekend, Kid Sister, and Santogold are among the acts playing for free at Central Park SummerStage in NY this summer.

· Perry Farrell’s Kidzapalooza, the kid-friendly companion fest to Chicago’s Lollapalooza, will debut at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles this summer. Farrell and others will perform.

· When not inspiring mediocre covers of classic songs on “American Idol,” Neil Diamond has apparently been planning a "secret" show of his latest tunes for his MySpace “friends” at NY’s The Bitter End. It’s tonight.