Other festivals might rise and fall, but year-in, year-out, CMJ comes to New York City every October. It doesn’t have the intensity of an outdoor festival such as Coachella or Bonnaroo, and isn’t the must-be-at industry event that is South-by-Southwest, but has the ease of being in the greatest city in the world, running from noon until bars close, with free drinks galore – and 24/7 subway service to taken your drunken ass home every night. The line-up of acts and parties may not have been the most impressive in 2013, but that just gave more time to catch the unknowns, long before they get huge (or break up), Tuesday to Saturday, October 15th to 19th:
Big Picture Media showcase @ Tammany Hall
One showcase that was very well promoted at CMJ was the one by Big Picture Media – they also handled press for CMJ Music Marathon itself, and had a long list of acts at Tammany Hall, with The Lawsuits, Ashley Allen, Chevonne & The Fuzz, Lily & The Parlour Tricks, Viv & The Revival, Jodi Good, and Love Crushed Velvet:
Love Crushed Velvet
Click image for full gallery – Derek Klevitz
Jodi Good
Click image for full gallery – Derek Klevitz
Viv & The Revival
Click image for full gallery – Derek Klevitz
Lily & The Parlour Tricks
Click image for full gallery – Derek Klevitz
Chevonne & The Fuzz
Click image for full gallery – Derek Klevitz
Ashley Allen
Click image for full gallery – Derek Klevitz
The Lawsuits
Click image for full gallery – Derek Klevitz
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Crack In the Road/Disco Naiveté showcase @ Piano’s
Junior Prom
Click image for full gallery – Danielle Sheridan
Click image for full gallery – Derek Klevitz
Some new acts had ‘you should see’ heat going into CMJ, and one of those was Junior Prom, who had multiple people from QRO there to catch them at the small Piano’s (QRO venue review), before Baby Alpaca.
Baby Alpaca
Click image for full gallery – Derek Klevitz
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Tune In Tel Aviv showcase @ Fat Baby
Dorine Levy
Click image for full gallery – Derek Klevitz
International music has always been a mainstay of CMJ, as cultural bureaus from the rest of the world try to get into the American music market (U.S.A. might be #1, but other countries do give state support to their musicians). One example is Israel, who brought Dorine Levy…
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British Music Council showcase @ The Box
Morning Parade
Click image for full gallery – Danielle Sheridan
…and another is Great Britain itself, who brought U.K. hit Morning Parade to America (though British music is hardly foreign to the U.S. of A…).
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CAA showcase @ Bowery Ballroom
Night Terrors of 1927
Click image for full gallery – Danielle Sheridan
Creative Artists Agency probably advised signee Night Terrors that there was already another act called that, so they added 1927 (a-la Death From Above becoming Death From Above 1979 – QRO photos – so as not to conflict with James Murphy’s DFA Records…).
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Aquarium Drunkard showcase @ Mercury Lounge
Jonathan Rado
Click image for full gallery – Bashira Webb
Aquarium Drunkard have some interesting names at Mercury Lounge (QRO venue review), like Jonathan Rado of Foxygen (QRO photos at Mercury for CMJ ’12), Calvin Love, and Austin’s psychedelic White Denim.
Calvin Love
Click image for full gallery – Bashira Webb
White Denim
Click image for full gallery – Derek Klevitz
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French Music Bureau showcase @ Highline Ballroom
Lou Doillon
Click image for full gallery – Ted Chase
If you’re gonna go international, why not some je ne sais quoi? The French Music Bureau took over Highline Ballroom (QRO venue review). Lou Doillon might have sounded English, but that was just her English, as she’s almost your classic French model/actress/singer (hell, her father’s a French director, and her mother’s a singer/activist – and her half-sister is singer Charlotte Gainsbourg – QRO album review). All of those different activities gave her a healthy crowd, and Doillon wasn’t nose-in-the-air, as she had a funny story about how proud one gets when making a drunken statement, even as you know you’ll pay for it tomorrow…
However, not French was Au Revoir Simone – despite their name and looks (any of the three lovely ladies could be model/actress/singers…), the trio are from just across the East River in Williamsburg. But whatever the nationality, this was one of those ‘only playing one real show at CMJ, so need to catch it’ situations, as the band had just returned from touring Europe & playing Canada, and were just about to head out on an American tour, all behind their new album, Move In Spectrums (QRO review). Indeed, they even remarked that this was the closest they’d come to getting a New York record release party.
The new Move songs were disco-dancier live – and the girls danced too, maybe more than other acts, actually. One would think that having keyboards would tie them down, but they don’t have to carry anything while performing (or sit down), and those one-handed keys moments especially let the women sway their hips. The trio aren’t completely keyboard-only – Annie Hart (QRO interview) played bass on Move’s “Crazy” (after running off stage to find a pic) and again on their cover of Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You”, which also saw Erika Forster go into the crowd early on (she explained that her part didn’t come in until halfway through, giving Forster the chance to dance with fans). Yes, the trio are incredibly cute live, like during one song, when Hart’s mike chord was below her hand on her keyboard, so Heather D’Angelo took it and timed the moment when Hart’s hand left the keys for a split-second, so D’Angelo could move the chord – or when they asked for the most psychedelic lighting possible for final number “Tell Me”, “But we don’t like bossing people around…”
Au Revoir Simone
Click image for full gallery – Ted Chase
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Other notes:
-Highline Ballroom seems to have added more couches, or maybe that was just for French Music Bureau showcase. More importantly, every third Foursquare check-in there gets on a free drink…
Unfortunately missed:
-Still Life Still (QRO live review) @ Cake Shop (QRO venue review). Canadians brings their new Mourning Trance (QRO review) to CMJ.
-Savages (QRO album review) @ Terminal 5 (QRO venue review). Very highly hyped new British band, already playing the big Terminal 5.
-Half Moon Run (QRO album review) @ The Bowery Hotel.
-The Sounds (QRO spotlight on) @ Brooklyn Bowl (QRO venue review). Sure to be wild for these Swedes, debuting their new Weekend.
-Filter (QRO live review) @ Gramercy Theatre (QRO venue review).
