Jonny Leather’s Big Long CMJ Wrap-Up

CMJ Week Kicked My Ass

It's been 3 days since CMJ's 5 day reign over NYC ended and I'm still feeling the after effects. I have been deafened to a point where I need medical help (yes, I wear earplugs), and worn down to a point where anything except sleep is a challenge. CMJ is nothing new. I've slayed this beast more than once, always standing strong in the end. So what made this one different? Am I just getting old?

Maybe it was the preceding 9 months of nightly showgoing. Or, looking more closely, maybe it was the week directly before CMJ week, which featured multiple shows, a morning bender with the Morning Benders, and a Sunday afternoon drinkathon.

CMJ is hardly a marathon. The months between each CMJ and SXSW is the marathon. CMJ is just that final sprint that comes when all the energy is exhausted. And when that finish line is crossed, you crash really hard.

Day 1

With almost no sleep preceding this night, I woke up early with hopes for closing the newspaper early and running out to the races. Over the course of the day, I felt burnt out, barely alive, like a brain-craving zombie. The further along the day progressed, the harder it became. My eyes began to sizzle from the constant burn of the computer screen. I was not at all ready to face this demon that has come to the city to exhaust all the nerds of the music world.

Leaving work, the cool air felt refreshing, and after the (un)healthy consumption of a cliff bar and Power C Naked, for the first time in the day I felt awake. This was not my second wind, I had never had a first.

Arriving midway through the Stunt PR showcase, I had made it just in time for Paramount Styles, a great new project from Scott McCloud of Girls Against Boys fame. His distinctive voice resonated perfectly in between the walls of the soon-to-be-relocated Knitting Factory. The occasional violin accompaniment from Paul Cantelon was an added bonus, as was Angela McClusky's vocals on "Come To New York."

It was a fine way to start CMJ, and Cloud Cult's stripped down set which followed further justified my choice to start off my CMJ at Knitting Factory. The Minnesota band which usually performs as 7-piece, was paired down to just Singer/guitarist Craig Minowa and cellist Sarah Young, along with Connie Minowa (who painted from behind them). Having never been all that impressed by their records, I was caught a bit off guard at just how good the band was live. Cloud Cult would fit very well with the Montreal music scene, which has always seemed to incorporate the ore experimental musical and performance ideas that Cloud Cult presented during their performance. Thoughout their set, Connie Minowa painted, what would slowly reveal itself as a hummingbird. As always, the band took bids for the painting, which one lucky fan took home for over $200.

After a couple drinks, I randomly found myself in the van of band The King Left, on my way to The Delancey. Having no idea who'd be performing, it was my first round of CMJ Russian roulette. Luckily, I dodged the bullet, and the first and only band I would catch before heading home was the impressive Brooklyn post-punk rockers Freshkills. The energetic immediacy of " I Know I Know" hit the hardest, holding my attention when my state of exhaustion was reaching its' pinnacle.

With my friend drunkenly disappearing and drifting off into a cab home, I decided it was time to end night before I was no longer able to stand.

Day 2

With a bit more energy than the night before, I once again found myself starting the night at Knitting Factory, where the blogger collective Voltron that is After The Jump had assembled one of the finest lineups of the whole festival. All three floors had good bands playing, which in turn made for a very hard to make decision process. On the main floor, Starfucker started everything off, after having already played multiple sets earlier in the day. The Portland trio made sure to cram in a bunch of sets, to make their trip worth it. At times they would sound a bit like Mew, only to slip back into the conventional keyboard heavy dance sound which has been all too abundant during CMJ.

Following them on the main stage was Chicago 5-piece Unicycle Loves You, playing their only CMJ show before heading back to the windy city. Just as impressive as they were when they hit NYC in June, their set was far too short, being cut prematurely, because during CMJ venues try to cram way too many bands onto a bill. So, in their final minutes on stage, they crafted their finest tune of the evening, "Highway Robbery." Jim Carroll's voice was reminiscent of classic Ric Ocasik, while the song's bouncy rhythm and glistening guitars carried it along, and got our feet tapping and heads bopping.

Rather than stray to one of the 2 other floors, I stuck to the main floor and was rewarded with another strong set, this time by Cincinnati duo Bad Veins. Though it made for a nice prop, I never quite figured out why there was a running projector on the stage, but their Strokes meets Killers sound was another pleasant surprise.
Minutes later, 2 floors below, Motel Motel crafted an incredibly memorable performance, further enhancing my love for the band, and backing up the high praise I've been singing for their unique brand of folk-influenced indie rock. There was no better example of the band's brilliance than when seemingly straight-forward rocker "Mountain" continued to transform into something bigger and more spectacular, only to breakdown into a multi-part vocal sing-a-long, which proved to be impossible to follow.

Day 3

Shortening my office hours considerably, I entered the trenches of CMJ early on Thursday, hitting BrooklynVegan's day show at Pianos. After catching the tail end of Eagle Seagul's set (which sounded good), I was able to catch a full set by San Diego rockers The Muslims. The odds of catching a set by these guys may have been the highest of every band playing CMJ, since they seemed to be playing 4 times a day. And though, they were playing multiple set a day, and in their hometown it was only early morning, The Muslims were full of energy. There was no bullshit. Just straight forward rock and roll which sounded most similar to classic math rock pioneers Hot Snakes, though a bit less tense, and a bit more catchy.

Following The Muslims, I found myself upstairs relaxing to the chill hip hop vibes of Canada's Shadbefore heading out for a much needed meal.

After a pit stop at the crowded Fader tent to sorta see and hear Passion Pit, I headed up to Hiro Ballroom to catch what was probably the best show of CMJ 08. Opening to a less than crowded venue, Dangerbird Records' Eulogies proved to be one of the best kept secrets of the festival. Their no-gimmick, well-crafted rock songs were deserved a bigger audience.

And then The Dears played...
At that point, everything I had seen previously in the day was forgotten. Why has this band fallen off the radar from blogs and music publications? They may be the best band to come out of Canada's highly praised music scene that produced Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Stars and Wolf Parade. While those bands continue to get bigger and sell out larger venues, The Dears fail to get the coverage they once got when their debut "No Cities Left" came out. The band's new record, "Missiles," is one of the year's best, and one of the album's finest tracks turned out to make for the highlight of the set and possibly the best moment of CMJ. Midway through the set, Murray Lightburn and the band broke into the lovely "Lights Out" during which guitarist Jason Kent ripped into a face-melting solo straight out of the '70s.

Later in the night, after CMJ's inability to stay on schedule forced my friend and I to walk in on the final notes of a few sets, we were lucky enough to catch Brooklyn band Asa Ransom play an energetic set at The Delancey. Expect to hear much more about this in the future.

Day 4

While bloggers managed to book larger venues for their showcases, Sub Pop and Suicide Squeeze got stuck at Pianos with a really wonderful lineup, which sold out in advance.

Starting off with the folksy sounds of Cotton Jones and really impressive Death Vessel, the room was totally caught off guard when Spencer Siam and sBach erupted into a furocious set of instrumental video game math rock. The bearded Siam, who also plays guitar for Hella, attacked the drums like a madman who had just sucked down 30 red bulls.

The Dutchess and The Duke, who's percussionist equated watching sBach to going to a drum clinic, followed with a much much more mellow set of '60s style folk.

Sub Pop's local heroes Oxford Collapse followed with a very drunken set, which bordered between sloppy bad and sloppy fun thanks to the over-intoxication of bassist Adam Rizer. While playing his most intricate bass lines, Rizer's friends in the crowd continuously fondled his leg, before he eventually found his way off the stage, falling into the crowd.
Starting a full two hours later than scheduled, New Zealand's Ruby Suns made it worth toughing it out and staying for the whole night. From the moment they plugged in their equipment, the band's odd mix of calypso sounds, freak folk, and tight percussion was fully intoxicating. Even if it was a challenge to remain standing after already getting through 6 hours of music, it was even more of a challenge not to dance along to set highlight "Oh, Mojave."

Day 5

Waking up for the final stretch of CMJ was difficult. Making it in time to a lovely early brunch at Hotel Rivington was even more difficult, but 3 mimosas, french toast and a one delicious smores dessert treat later, I was ready to begin my final day of CMJ.

Well fed, I then headed to the AAM party at Music Hall of Williamsburg with some newly acquired friends for an impressive lineup. After a good, but less than special set from Uglysuit, one of this year's biggest winners of the CMJ battle of bands, Crystal Antlers took the stage. The psychedelic rockers and their bongo-humping percussionist actually lived up to the hype.

Ruby Suns, who I had been wowed by only one night earlier benefited from the great Music Hall sound and were even more impressive than they had been at Pianos.

Ear plugs were then inserted into the ears of nearly everyone in the venue as A Place To Bury Strangers cranked it up and began their sensory overload. After seeing My Bloody Valentine, their set no longer seemed as intense as it one did, but was still pretty powerful.

Having to skip out before Monotonix, I apparently missed a shit-show (never before have I heard a word so much).

I opted instead for Merge Records amazing showcase at Mercury Lounge. The showcase started with a truly magical performance by Julian Koster's post-Neutral Milk Hotel project The Music Tapes. The saw-playing, banjo pluckin' singer stood between a singing television and 7-foot metronome, as he sang bizarre tunes about Aliens and other odd things. On "Death to Parents," Koster even played the snare drum with a dodgeball.

The rest of the night was just as good with excellent sets by Baltimore duo Wye Oak, Broken West, Portastatic, The Rosebuds, and Oakley Hall.

People may complain about the quality of bands that played CMJ this year, but people always complain. Women, Friendly Fires, The Muslims, Crystal Antlers and Passion Pit may be the bands everyone is talking about, but Paramount Styles, Unicycle Loves You, Motel Motel, The Dears, Ruby Suns, sBach, Wye Oak and Music Tapes all deserve to be acknowledged for playing some of the best sets of CMJ. These are the bands that made it worth getting no sleep and temporarily losing my hearing.

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Nov 01, 2008 | Categories: Live Reviews | Tags: a place to bury strangers, asa ransom, bad veins, broken west, cloud cult, cmj, cotton jones, crystal antlers, dears, death dessel, eulogies, motel motel, music tapes, muslims, new york, nypress, oakley hall, oxford collapse, paramount styles, passion pit, portastatic, rosebuds, ruby suns, sbach, shad, starfucker, unicycle loves you, wye oak | Leave A Comment »