SubscribeCMJ
CMJ Show Report: Eleanor Friedberger And Wild Flag Ignite The Bowery Ballroom
Last night, I embarked on the first day of what will likely be a very tiring (but hopefully worthwhile!) journey through this year’s CMJ Music Marathon. More »
CMJ Show Report: Dean and Britta’s 13 Most Beautiful Songs For Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests
A few years back, the Andy Warhol Museum commissioned indie rock supercouple Dean and Britta to compose an album’s worth of recordings to play under Warhol’s famous screen tests. The 50th performance of the show coincided with CMJ, and for me it was the highlight of the festival.
If you haven’t seen Warhol’s screen tests, they’re a series of black and white videos that the pop artist shot obsessively for three years, capturing just about every “interesting” person who came through his studio doors. He’d stick his subject in front of a camera and leave him to fidget, stare or do whatever else one does when alone with a recording device (become the next Justin Bieber?). They videos are normally silent, so Dean and Britta’s accompaniment was less an intrusion than a way to hone in on and enhance each character’s mood. More »
CMJ Show Report: Care Bears On Fire
Care Bears on Fire have two full length albums and two EPs. They’ve been profiled in Spin and New York Magazine, have played Letterman, been featured in commercials, and have guest-starred on TV. And they aren’t even old enough to drive.
Care Bears are a teen girl trio — Sophie sings and plays guitar, Jena tackles the bass, and Izzy’s the drummer. I saw them on the last night of CMJ at New York’s Bowery Poetry Club, where they played their girl-positive pop punk songs for half an hour. Izzy played barefoot. Her toes were painted and she wore a pair of sequined shorts and a shirt that read “NOT FOR SALE.” She has braces. Sophie sported a cropped haircut a la Selma Blair and wore skinny black jeans. Jena paired a striped long-sleeved tee with tights and black boots. They all looked cute as heck. More »
Crush This: Emma Stone on SNL This Weekend
Crush This is your weekly guide to what’s new in movies, music and TV. We’re still in the midst of CMJ, so stay tuned for band interviews and more show recaps this week. For those of you outside of the city, we’ve got a list of exciting things coming up this week, most especially we’ve got our fingers crossed that Emma Stone does well Saturday night… More »
CMJ Interview: Eternal Summers
Eternal Summers is a Roanoke, Virginia-based duo made up of vocalist/guitarist Nicole Yun and dummer Daniel Cundiff. The pair’s stellar debut album, Silver, has been attracting quite a bit of attention for its low-fi, jangly pop-punk sound. We spoke with Nicole and Daniel yesterday as they made their way to New York for the annual CMJ Music Marathon.
Crushable: How did Eternal Summers get together?
Nicole Yun: Four years ago, when my old band Social Studies (with Rob Garcia of Reading Rainbow)… More »
CMJ Artist: Lily & the Parlour Tricks
Last night I developed a massive crush (real, not boredom induced) on the lead singer of Lily & the Parlour Tricks. I went out for what I thought would just be a quick drink with my roommates to Williamsburg’s charming whiskey bar, the Lovin’ Cup Cafe. Lucky for us, a quick drink turned into a few drinks so we got to witness a miracle. Lily & the Parlour Tricks were playing that night for CMJ Week!! Usually at the Lovin’ Cup, everyone focuses most if not all of their attention on the people with whom their sharing a table. But when Lily & the Parlours took the stage, the bar went from cliques to Tricks. Everyone in the room was captivated by the lead singer – whose name is, oddly enough, Lily Claire. She was the kind of artist who had everyone in the room convinced that she was singing directly to them. More »
7 Possible Band Names From CMJ’s “Curmudgeons Of Rock” Panel
What do you get when you put 5 music critics together in one room? A pretty lively discussion about rock writing and some totally killer band names. We just came from CMJ’s “Curmudgeons of Rock” panel, where the topics ranged form the role of the critic as a curator to the value of negative reviews (they “build trust,” according to SPIN writer Charles Aaron). The panelists spouted some pretty great quotables, several of which we feel would make excellent band names:
More »
CMJ Interview: Miniboone
It’s not easy to get reccomended by The Village Voice, but the New York punkpop group Miniboone may be the exception. Called “an enchanting mesh of old-school energy and new-school melody” by the Voice and “joyous power-pop” by NPR the 5-piece guy group gets their shows regularly listed in music blogs and local papers alike. Gearing up to release some new songs after the success of their first EP, Big Changes, Miniboone is taking the stage for several nights at CMJ. We spoke with Craig Barnes and Doug Schrashun (both guitar, keyboard, and vocals along with a third member, James Keary. Taylor Gabriels plays drums and Sam Rich is on bass) about their namesake, free haircuts, and weird groupies. More »
Rachael Ray and Husband Rock Out at CMJ
If you happened to be at NYC rock club The Village Underground last night to see the beginning of the CMJ music festival, you may have caught a glimpse of perky food host Rachael Ray. She was hanging out in the front row while her husband, John Cusimano, played guitar and sang with his band The Cringe. He went on to dedicate a song to his lovely lady. Aw! More »
Crush This: The Upcoming Week, In Review
• What we’re dying to watch: The Walking Dead on AMC isn’t premiering until Halloween, but ScyFy is holding us over with their 31 Days of Halloween marathon. Sweeney Todd is on at midnight on Wednesday, but today is the real nightmare-maker with In the Mouth of Madness, Silent Hill, and Children of the Corn.
• What we’re Geeking out for: The Seekers, which teams Stan Lee up with MTV in order to find the next great comic book artist, who… More »
Pitchfork Party at Market Hotel
If you aren’t thoroughly CMJ’ed out by tomorrow (Saturday), here is one more great party/concert going on at the Market Hotel in Brooklyn. It’s being thrown by Pitchfork and Showpaper and here’s the lineup:
:: PITCHFORK SHOWPAPER BENEFIT FESTIVAL
:: curated by Ryan Schreiber
:: http://pitchfork.com
:: http://myspace.com/showpaper
0100pm : BANDS ALL DAY & EVENING
0000oo :
1100pm : special guests to be announced…
1000pm :: Cymbals Eat Guitars
0900pm ::: special guests to be announced…
0800pm :::: Delorean
0700pm ::::: Real Estate
0600pm :::::: the Smith Westerns
0500pm ::::::: Javelin
0400pm :::::::: Small… More »
Interview with Phil & the Osophers
Image: via Sonicbids
Phil & the Osophers are a 3-piece band from Brooklyn. Their sixth full length album, Parellelo, came out this summer. They have played with the likes of Art Brut, Passion Pit, Les Savy Fav, and the Dodos and they played SXSW and the Northside Festival earlier this year. Now they’re playing a CMJ show (gotten through thir sonicbids account), on Saturday at Bruar Falls at 245 Grand Street in Brooklyn at the La Société Expéditionnaire showcase, along… More »
Interview with Kittens Ablaze
In honor of CMJ week, Big Apple Music Scene got the chance to interview some of the participating bands. Kittens Ablaze are from Brooklyn so they didn’t have to travel far to get here, but they made into CMJ via their Sonicbids account. Their music is invigorating and happy and their album The Monstrous Vanguard came out early this year. They may win the award for playing the most CMJ shows, with shows scheduled tomorrow (Thursday) at Bruar Falls and… More »
CMJ Update: More Recommended Shows
In addition to these CMJ shows that I recommended last week, and these in-store performances, here are a few more CMJ shows worth checking out if you’ve got the time:
Wednesday, October 21
This is not part of CMJ, but Talib Kweli will be talking to HOt97 DJ Peter Rosenberg at 92YTribeca. Tickets here.
Mean Red Shangai’d Fool’s Gold Showcase: Vega (Live), Donnis (Live), Treasure Fingers, The Suzan (Live), Kingdom, Trackademicks (Live), Sammy Bananas, Hosted by A-Trak + Nick Catchdubs at 88 Palace… More »
Music Store CMJ Shows
In addition to all the CMJ shows going on at clubs around town, record stores Sound Fix and Other Music and the Apple store in Soho also have quite a few musicians playing free shows there. Here is the schedule:
Sound Fix
Wed, 10/21, 6pm, the Antlers
Thu, 10/22, 6pm, Cymbals Eat Guitars
Other Music
Tue, 10/20, 8pm, El Perro Del Mar
Thu, 10/22, Noon, The Very Best CANCELED
Apple Store Soho
Thu, 10/22 7pm, The xx
Fri, 10/23 7pm, Portugal. The Man… More »
CMJ Update: The Very Best Cancels
Unfortunately, The Very Best, a collaboration between Malawi’s Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit, and also one of my favorite performers at Pitchfork Music Festival this summer, has had to cancel their CMJ appearances due to “travel circumstances.” They were scheduled to play at their label’s (Green Owl) showcase tonight (Wednesday) at (le) Poisson Rouge. However, other performers Theophilus London, Violens, Grandchildren, Ninjasonik and Nat Geo Music, will still perform. A few other artists had to cancel due to travel issues, among… More »
CMJ Shows and Parties
CMJ, the awesome New York City festival a la Austin’s South by Southwest, is coming up next week, from Tuesday, October 20 to Saturday, October 24! Hundreds of bands are playing at hundreds of venues around the city. You can buy a badge that should get you in to most shows, or you can buy individual tickets to shows, or for some shows you can buy tickets at the door. I’ve posted lots of tickets for CMJ shows when they… More »
Lots of CMJ shows and More On Sale Now
Tickets on sale now:
Echo & the Bunnymen at the the tiny MERCURY Lounge on October 17. Tickets
The Gaslight Anthem, Murder by Death, Jesse Malin, and Broadway Calls at Brooklyn Bowl on October 16. Tickets
CMJ show: Rain Machine (with Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio), Sharon Van Etten, Violens, and Imaad Wasif at Bowery Ballroom on October 24. Tickets
CMJ show: The Bongos and The Fleshtones at Hiro Ballroom on October 23. Tickets
CMJ show: Jukebox the Ghost, Stand, and The Black… More »
Ben Gibbard and Jay Farrar, Fiery Furnaces, Snoop Dogg, and More On Sale
These ticket are on sale now:
Gov’t Mule listening party and performance at Brooklyn Bowl on September 30. FREE
Warren G (yes, that Warren G) at Music Hall of Williamsburg on November 6 and Bowery Ballroom on November 10. Tickets
Bob Weir, Rob Wasserman and Jay Lane are Scaring the Children at Brooklyn Bowl on October 9. Tickets
Them Crooked Vultures at Roseland Ballroom on October 15. Tickets
Brooklynvegan CMJ showcase with Fanfarlo, The Antlers, Laura Marling, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Wheel, and Walter Schreifels… More »
Ribbons Interview
Image: via Liz Lawson, Deus Ex Machina
Brooklyn duo Ribbons is coming on strong this year. Having formed in 2007, they are bursting on the scene now with a new 7″ and lots of local shows, including a Seaport show this summer with Pains of Being Pure at Heart and a recently recorded Daytrotter session (not on the site yet). Comprised of singer/guitarist Jenny Logan and drummer Sam Roudman, their sound is pretty stripped down and did I mention pretty great? … More »