What does CMJ stand for? In literal terms, it once stood for ‘College Music Journal’, but has since evolved to just the initials, a-la ‘Kentucky Fried Chicken’ into just ‘KFC’ or ‘British Petroleum’ into just ‘BP’ (and don’t think CMJ doesn’t love those associations…). But where does alternative/indie music stand these days, where file-sharing, iTunes, iPods and the rest are all yesterday’s news? QRO might not have figured it over the five-day CMJ Music Marathon at venues across New York City, Tuesday-Saturday, October 19th-23rd, but had fun trying:
NYCTaper Party @ Cake Shop
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Entering as they played "The Close Western" reminded me immediately of two things: I like this still-young Hamilton, Ontario collective, and I still like their earlier material better. Of course, their early days were my early days at QRO, with 2007’s Atlantis, Oh Our Savoir (QRO review). Like when they played nearby Pianos (QRO venue review) in June of last year (QRO live review), the band was squeezed for time & space – and while they were able to negotiate one more song from the soundman, The Rest were still tightly packed on the small Cake Shop (QRO venue review) stage. The singer had grown his hair out since last year, though.
More classical than most of your Canadian collectives (including cello, but no violin – a rarity, as if a strings-player is added, it’s usually the easier-to-transport violin), it is good to see that they’re still at it.
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The Musebox Party @ Bowery Electric
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Had never been to Bowery Electric (which is actually just north of Houston, despite its name), and have to say – not a bad place. Unlike the low-ceilinged basement venues of the actual Bowery area like Cake Shop or Fontana’s (QRO venue review), or the ex-venue north of Houston, Rehab (QRO venue review), you go downstairs at Bowery Electric, but the ceiling is still well out of reach. It’s also not a tight corridor, but a relatively open main area, with a corridor-bar above/behind it. Since the demise of Annex (QRO venue review) to the south, Bowery Electric’s been picking up some of the slack, including secret shows – hopefully there’s more to come.
What there wasn’t any more of was the free pizza that had been promised (just empty boxes), but there were chips & salsa – lots of chips & salsa. In fact, five different kinds of local salsa, with one for each borough – the best was Manhattan, naturally. Forced one to get water from the bored bartender – if you’re going to give free chips & salsa at a daytime show, have some sponsored beverages of some kind, if you can.
The stage isn’t too removed from the floor, and the stage floor wasn’t too packed, leaving a lot of space between Mon Khmer and who was there to watch them. Harder than I’d remembered from the last time I saw them, and not necessarily for the better, but one can chalk that up to this being a daytime CMJ show – i.e., not going to be at their best.
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Last time I saw White Belt Yellow Tag, at Pianos in June (QRO photos) at a showcase by their label, Distiller, admittedly went mainly for the free drinks (turned out to be free drink – i.e., one…) and nachos. There were no free drinks, and was full on chips (that showcase did have a nice food spread, including using Doritos as nachos – Stephen Colbert would approve…), so only stuck around a bit for the somewhat more experimental act (might just be saying that because one guitarist used a drum stick as a moveable capo) – but at least they didn’t have the tech problems that cut short their Pianos show.
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SPIN Party @ Firehouse
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The previous night (QRO CMJ Day Two recap) and the relatively weak line-up of Day Three lead me home to take a nap – as I knew I was going to at least one thing on Thursday night, the SPIN party at The Firehouse. An actual, if no longer used for that purpose, firehouse, located right across the street from Santos Party House (QRO venue review), there was a bit of an odd set up: small lobby leading to very tight steps up to stage floor, with a bar/floor behind the wall behind the band, and on the other side of stage floor from the band. It made the stage floor a tight fit, but the outer bar areas much more comfortable – even if you couldn’t see the bands, you could certainly hear them.
A relatively late-starting show, with only two bands, but two strong ones, starting with New Jersey’s own Titus Andronicus. Now, they’ll never be ‘the greatest band in the world’ (or at least aren’t now), but are always strong – and rather ‘uncool’, but in a good way, with the energy & fury of bearded frontman Patrick Stickles (this was a night for frontman facial hair) and energy & cheer of newest Andronica, Amy Klein.
Click here for photos of Local Natives at SXSW 2010 in Austin, TX in the QRO Concert Photo Gallery
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In between acts, made my way to the bathroom upstairs, to be told that the line was shorter in the VIP bathroom another flight up – and the VIP line was in double-digits! One lady in the line actually asked her husband/boyfriend (he seemed too much older than her to be her husband, and too old in general to be called ‘boy’ anything, and had never heard of SPIN Magazine…) to save her spot while she checked the line downstairs – and came back reporting the VIP line (or ‘Very Important Pisser’ or ‘Very Important Pooper’ as the old guy joked) was way better. Finally made it through, only to find the VIP toilet not flushing…
Maybe the lines at the bathrooms were so long because SPIN provided such great drinks. There was some sort of hard punch/lemonade thing that either didn’t have alcohol, or hid it very well amid its nice flavor – a dangerous concoction if the latter. There was also Arizona Iced Tea in their ‘tall boy’ cans, and Arizona ‘Rescue Water’ – money goes to some charity (not water that’s been rescued from the state of Arizona, or provided to illegal migrants trying to making into/out of Arizona…), and nicely flavored.
Oh, yeah, there was also a band – Local Natives. You know how sometimes there are things, especially artists/artistic works, which everybody keeps telling you that you "have" to see/hear/etc.? And it gets to the point that you’re just annoyed at it & its fans? "Yeah, I know that everyone has been raving about The Wire/Inception/Mad Men/Lost – please shut up about it…" Yet the thing is, they’re usually right – and you know it, you just feel bad for never getting yourself to go see/hear it, and now it seems to late? Well, Local Natives were one of those bands for me – everyone at QRO raves about them, but I had yet to see/hear them.
Well, they were right. There are a lot of these alt-folk collectives out there these days (Fanfarlo, Freelance Whales, etc.), but Local Natives aren’t too touchy or twee like the others can get (maybe because the band has no ladies…). They keep the energy up with the complexity, not letting either sag in favor of the other, kind of like The Talking Heads – whom Local Natives covered ("Warning Sign"). The ladies in particular really liked their Natives – maybe it was frontman’s Taylor Rice’s killer ‘stache, one of the best handlebars in alternative music since Greg Norton of Hüsker Dü (QRO spotlight on).
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Natalia Blas at QRO caught Boom Boom Satellites twice during CMJ Day Three:
CMJ Showcase @ Bowery Poetry Club
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Gibson Party @ Gibson Guitar Showroom
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Unfortunately missed:
-ArpLine (QRO album review) @ Cake Shop, 6:00 PM – 6:30 PM. Saw them bringing their stuff in as I was leaving.
-First Aid Kit (QRO photos) & Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson (QRO spotlight on) @ The Delancey, 9:30 PM – 11:00 PM. Wasn’t heading downstairs at The Delancey for anyone…
-Gringo Star (QRO spotlight on) @ Fontana’s, 9:45 PM – 10:30 PM. Another no-go venue, and they’re playing so much, sure to see them at some point.
-Matt Pond PA (QRO live review), Everest, Infantree, Extra Lens, John Vanderslice & Dan Mangan (QRO album review) @ Mercury Lounge (QRO venue review), 7:00 PM – 1:30 AM. Mercury had one of those line-ups you could stay all night at, with singer/songwriters like Matt Pond, Dan Mangan, and The Mountain Goats’ (QRO live review) John Darnielle’s new project, Extra Lens – but would probably have to, as this had ‘fill up early’/‘all exits final’ written all over it.
-Motel Motel (QRO spotlight on) & The Yes Way, 10:30 PM – 12:00 AM @ Spike Hill (QRO venue review). Only CMJ showcase by the band that had QRO’s ‘Album of the Week’ (QRO archive) for most of CMJ, The Big Island (QRO review).
Other notes:
-Heard that the young drummer of Blood Red Shoes (QRO photos) had a hissy fit and threw a temper tantrum at (le) Poisson Rouge (QRO venue review) the night before, thanks to problems with the new sound system or something. No excuse for that kind of behavior, but have had some bad experiences there (though the place has been getting better – or at least had…).