I wasn’t sure til a week or two before CMJ if I was actually going to make it to New York City for the festival/music marathon. CMJ, the College Music Journal Magazine, introduced me to a lot of bands back in the day. Each issue comes with a CD and I remember getting turned on to all kinds of new bands and songs, like Beck’s “It’s All in Your Mind.” The general consensus I got about the event was that it was similar to South By Southwest but strung out all over NYC and a bit smaller.
After dropping off our bags at Greg’s hotel we hopped on the train to Brooklyn to rock the Awesome Inc party at Galapagos with Thunderbirds are Now, Lo Fi Fnk, The Harlem Shakes and a lot of cool DJ’s. After spending a month in Brooklyn this summer, it felt great to be back. We caught the last couple Shakes tracks then grabbed some free Newcastles and posted up for Lo Fi Fnk. It’s always great to see young bands having a good time and although they might have been a bit nervous because it was their first US performance (they’re from Sweden), the packed house was grooving along just fine.
Thunderbirds are Now closed out the night and they did it right. Straight up rock ‘n roll with a lot of heart. What else could you ask for? How bout a glass full of beer dumped on your head? Lead singer, Ryan Allen (hey, that’s my brothers name), understandably got pissed. After heckling the asshole for an apology he finally shrugged it off and told him to myspace him an apology.
We rolled down to Lincoln Center on Thursday and picked up our passes and credentials. As we set in the press room in the back of the building I heard some familiar tunes. After a few seconds I realized it was Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin and also realized it was live. Whoooo hooooo, what luck. They were one of two bands I wanted to see while in town. I threw everything back in the backpack and headed out to the mezzanine to rock the set. They started off with a few tracks off Broom (recently reissued on Polyvinyl) then played a bunch of new tracks as well as a questionable cover of Arrested Developments “Mr. Wendell”. We chatted them up a bit afterwards then skipped out to wander around midtown before heading back to Brooklyn.
That night we ended up next door to Galapagos at North Six for the Windish Agency showcase featuring Lavender Diamond, Earlimart, and Death Vessel. I really wanted to catch a bunch of music I’d never heard or seen before but Lavender Diamond is one of my favorite bands and Death Vessel and Earlimart were two bands I had yet to see. Becky Stark and the Lavender Diamond gang played a few of their songs off their EP then mixed in a bunch of new songs that sounded hauntingly beautiful. Let’s all cheer for peace coming to earth. The solo artist known as Death Vessel was on next and took haunting beauty a step further. He’s probably got the highest pitched voice of any man I know. It sounded great though and the audience was entranced. Los Angeles favorites, Earlimart were on next and brought things back to rock show status. Their new album is due out in early 2007 and they’ve just added one of the new tracks to their myspace page which is worth a spin.
After a late wakeup on Friday morn, I ventured over to Amy’s Breads to get some scrumptious cupcakes and sticky buns. Highly recommended if you’re around Hell’s Kitchen or Greenwich. There was a bunch of great stuff going on that night and we were trying to make our minds up of what to do when we found out we scored Decemberists tickets. Their new album, Crane Wife on Capitol has pushed them into a level where they’re now selling out 3000+ capacity venues like Hammerstein Ballroom. Colin and his gang of literary band mates did a great job of mixing new and old flawlessly. Some of the highlights of the set were “The Island”, “We Both Go Down Together”, and a mock sword fight in the middle of the crowd. We did our best to make it over to Forcefield’s Showcase with Apples in Stereo and Architecture in Helsinki but the line outside of Irving Plaza wasn’t moving and we bit our tongues and headed over to catch Scott Biram, the one man blues wrecking crew from Austin, Texas. Keep an eye open for when he passes through town, definitely worth checking out.
Saturday was my “CMJ” day. Which meant I actually rolled outta bed earlier enough to catch some of the day parties down on the Lower East side. Mollie mentioned some free munchies and good music at the BMI showcase so we watched Bound Stems rock out while eating pineapple, breakfast burritos, donut holes, and drinking coffee. I bought their CD before they took off to drive back to Chicago. They rock both live and on record. We checked out the Fader party spot which had a bunch of great music lined up. The Blow was surprisingly entertaining. I didn’t know that one woman with a mic could rock the house the way Khaela Maricich did. Next up was cramming into The Annex for Tokyo Police Club. The place was packed and TPC rocked it proper. I’ve seen them a couple times and I like them a lot in smaller clubs. With all the buzz they have now, I’m curious to see how it carries over to the inevitable festival spots next summer.
My favorite performance of CMJ was Ladyhawk. Their self titled debut has been kickin’ around the office since Chickin’ Foo turned me onto it a few months back. It’s like stoner rock gone happy. Or just really good rock n roll. Either way, check out this Vancouver quartet when they pass through your town.
For the final night of festivities we headed back to Brooklyn and North Six. This time around it was NY2LON (New York to London)/Plus One‘s showcase for Illinois, Oh No! Oh My!, The Phoenix Foundation, and The Little Ones. Even after three days and nights of live music there were still good bands to check out. Even though the lead singer of Illinois was bitching that no one was paying attention, they still rocked impressively, backed by one of the best drummers I’ve heard in quite a while. Oh No! Oh My! kept things moving before we snuck out to check out the VICE dance party with Justice and Digitalism. By the time we walked to Green Point, we didn’t feel like waiting in line so we hopped in a cab and headed to my favorite bar, Maracuja (AKA The Chair Bar) in Williamsburg. We relaxed and put down a couple Pabsts before calling it a night and an end to CMJ’s Music Marathon.
My only gripe I have is that they sell tickets to the CMJ shows and people with badges (some paying up to $500) are stuck waiting outside. Outside of that, if you’re a lover of NYC and live music, then CMJ will be right up your alley. Just don’t get too drunk every night and miss out on the great day shows that are going on around town.
