Picking up from where I left off in Part I... This will be a relatively pictureless post. Also, no mp3 samples this time! I am without my computer and music collection. Okay, maybe some...
Friday (The Delancey)
Here's an equation that's not hard to figure out. twosyllable records + Underwater Peoples + Chocolate Bobka = F YEA GOOD TIMES. We made it to the Delancey just in time for Made A Blog favorite Holiday Shores, who I also saw on Tuesday. Oops, that was left out of Part I. Anyway, I can always rely on Holiday Shores to put on a great show. They consistently sound good, and I appreciate that in a band. Standing Room has one of their sets from an older show.
After Holiday Shores was Frat Dad, a band from Underwater Peoples. Like Fluffy Lumbers (and Ducktails and Julian Lynch), Frat Dad is from Ridgewood, NJ. Ridgewood is the new indie mecca, y'all. Sawyer sent me a release for Frat Dad and said that "Frat Dad is like going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, then landing in a Middle School Cafeteria... on Mexican Pizza Day." I have no idea what that means, but Frat Dad are in-your-face loud rockers. I only wish I could have turned down the volume a little so that could delineate the songs.
NewVillager was a Made A Blog favorite when they put out Rich Doors earlier this year. I've only heard two songs from them, both on that 7", so I was a bit taken back by their live show. I was expecting something more along the lines of experimental electro, but NewVillager's music was more straight pop with R&B vocals.
Saturday (The Delancey, 92YTribeca, Music Hall of Williamsburg)
About 14 hours later, I found myself back at the Delancey for We Are Country Mice. For a day show, the venue was surprisingly packed. I wrote a little blurb about WACM on the blog for Standing Room, and I like the band now more than ever. They use just enough artful noise to keep things interesting without muddling the rest of the melodies. Their energy and ability to grab crowd participation never fails to impress me (and put a smile on my face). By the end of "Sign of the Times," everyone in the front was singing/yelling along. Definitely head on over to Standing Room to hear more.
Taking a break from CMJ, I headed over to the 92YTribeca for a screening of Sufjan Stevens' The BQE, MC'd by DJ Sufjan Stevens. Opening for the night was DM Stith, also a favorite of Made A Blog, and his spooky songs came alive onstage with the help of backing strings, bass, and drums. I still think that Heavy Ghost is an underrated album, and it's a perfect Halloween soundtrack. The Osso Quartet also performed stunning arrangements from Run Rabbit Run, and special guest Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) lent her vocals for "If I Were Queen." If you haven't given Run Rabbit Run a chance, I highly suggest that you give it the time and attention that it needs. Personally, I am a fan of impressionist music and find that the careful listening is usually rewarding.
Capping off the night was a screening of The BQE, which did not have any live accompaniment as I had presumed. This sounds corny, but I was really moved while watching the film. I'm not sure how non-New Yorkers will react to The BQE, but I felt overwhelmed with feelings of love-hate for my current residence of Brooklyn. It almost became a game of identifying the places that the film featured. I enjoyed it immensely, but I wonder how others will feel about it. Regardless, I would recommend picking up the album. The vinyl version comes with a comic book and 32-pg booklet which both add to the understanding and interpretation of the film.
The night was young, and we headed over the Kemado Records/Mexican Summer showcase at Music Hall of Williamsburg. We arrived just as Smith Westerns were hitting the stage. Man, they are young and some of the coolest-looking kids out of my homestate of Illinois. They even wear Chicago Cubs and Bears gear. Their songs have a certain naïveté, honest and playful, and they don't pretend to be any wiser than the teenagers who wrote them. Apparently, they got kicked out of the venue for underage drinking. Yep, sounds about right.
Real Estate is another Made A Blog favorite, and I'm always excited to see them perform. The boys are consistently good, and their live show has gotten tighter over the last few months. Real Estate delivers excellent songwriting backed with excellent live performances, and I couldn't ask for more. While it's not full of new material, Real Estate's forthcoming full-length is killer. Expect to see that on my list of 2009's top albums.
Beach Comber - Real Estate
Last to hit the stage was The Amazing, which was billed as having members of Dungen. From the tracks I had heard before the show, I thought that The Amazing would play pure pop tunes. But, as I found out, they really turn on the psych for some of their songs. Reine Fisk (Dungen) is an amazing guitarist, and it's hard not to become completely absorbed in his playing.
Dragon - The Amazing
The End
I didn't even go crazy during CMJ week, and it still took a lot of energy out of me. Until next year!
October 30, 2009
CMJ Recap: Part II
Picking up from where I left off in Part I... This will be a relatively pictureless post. Also, no mp3 samples this time! I am without my computer and music collection. Okay, maybe some...
October 21, 2009
Surfer Blood - Cake Shop 10.20.09 (and Pianos 10.21.09)
If CMJ only helps a handful of bands, one will be Surfer Blood. In my mind, Surfer Blood will always the band whose buzz was almost quantifiable on Twitter around the time of their Bruar Falls show this past August. I first heard about Surfer Blood from Pop Jew, but I never made it out to that show (even though I wrote a little report on them for someone earlier that day). The next day, Sound Bites wrote this favorable review, Ryan Schreiber tweeted his regrets of not going, and Surfer Blood was Forkcasted later that day. And, they were signed onto Kanine the night before at Bruar Falls. Less than 24 hours.
October 8, 2009
Kurt Vile - Mercury Lounge 10.07.09
Oh, Kurt Vile. If you read Look at me, I made a blog, follow me on Twitter, or have interacted with me in real life, then it's no surprise to you that I went to his show at Mercury Lounge. Even he knows I'm a big fan. I'd only seen Kurt play with the Violators at showcases like the Northside Festival and Woodsist Festival, so this was the first time I'd seen him as a headliner.
The Silent Barn: Kurt Vile // Peeping Tom from Ray Concepcioñ on Vimeo.
October 5, 2009
Sufjan Stevens - Bowery Ballroom 10.04.09
Although I felt like a teenybopper by arriving at the venue an hour before doors were scheduled to open, I suspected that I wouldn't be the only one who didn't mind camping out a little for Sufjan Stevens. Sure enough, the line already snaked around the corner at 6:30 PM, but doors opened early around 7:10 PM. I'd never been to a Sufjan show before and, as gruesome as this may sound, he's been on my list of musicians to see before I die. Radiohead was once on this list.
I think it'd be accurate to say that I've been waiting several years to see Sufjan Stevens. Perhaps I've encountered a select sampling, but I've found that most Sufjan fans pinpoint Greetings from Michigan as the album that hooked them in for life. I was late in the game, so my "first" Sufjan album was Seven Swans, for no particular reason other than I was uninterested in so-called indie music until late high school. Sufjan Stevens may be pioneering christian indie as a genre and the biblical allusions in Seven Swans are undeniable, but I never really considered Sufjan's music to be intentionally religious in subject matter. It never held that meaning for me, especially since I'd been raised in an Eastern faith, but Seven Swans moved me in such ways that I became a Sufjan fan for life. Besides, he put together two albums about my home state! I even had "Come on feel the Illinoise" engraved onto an iPod. I do not joke.
