Words and photos by Dan Goldin.
...And so it begins. Another
CMJ Music Marathon is now in full swing, kicking off last night, Tuesday, October 16th in the city that never sleeps (and hardly notices the massive music festival). CMJ, the publication and the festival, has always been primarily focused on new music and up-and-coming bands, and this year's festival is no different.
The eclectic 1300 band line-up contains everything from shiny new pop acts to the utmost avant-garde and everything in between. Legions of young and hopeful buzz bands (some deserving the hype, others not so much) ascend on Manhattan and Brooklyn to join forces with some of the hardest working/touring bands currently making music. Our week is highlighted by recent stand-outs, perennial underground favorites, and the next wave of your favorite bands including
METZ, Merchandise, Talk Normal, King Tuff, Weekend, The Intelligence, Turbo Fruits, Local H, The Life and Times, Guards, Bleeding Rainbow, She Keeps Bees, Speedy Ortiz, Sleepies, Roomrunner, Unstoppable Death Machines, Heliotropes, Total Slacker, Pile, Bad Cop, The Shrine, Butter The Children, Life Size Maps, Absolutely Free, Squarehead, and so many others.
One of my personal favorite aspects of CMJ (and SXSW for that matter) is the opportunity to see great international bands that rarely make an appearance here in the United States, so it was only fitting I began this year's festival at the New Zealand Music showcase at Le Poisson Rouge.
I arrived just in time for Auckland's
Popstrangers, a band I first discovered last year during CMJ thanks to their support slot with
Royal Baths and
Crocodiles. A big fan of the grungy shoegaze dissonance of their 2010 debut EP,
Happy Accidents, Popstrangers have been working on the follow up ever since.
Antipodes, their full length debut is set for release in February via Carpark Records, and the band used their all too brief CMJ set to play new material. The trio have drastically shifted their sound from their more aggressive roots to a more subtle indie sound that swirls with psychedelic guitar work more reminiscent of
Tame Impala than anything
Nirvana ever wrote. Awash with reverb and sinewy guitar lines, Popstrangers have focused their melodies into crisp catchy songs with simplistic hooks that float in and out as they perform.
Ghost Wave were next and twenty minutes later they were done. Moving on... Dunedin's
Die! Die! Die! took the stage and immediately exploded from the first brash blasts of noise and there was no looking back. The band were bursting with energy and vocalist/guitarist
Andrew Wilson spent more time in the audience than on stage as their agitated post-punk grooved and ripped from the speakers. While the band's rhythmically complex and rowdy music sounded top notch, I couldn't help but feel the overwhelmingly calm audience left something to desire (not to worry, the band are playing Death By Audio tonight with METZ, Roomrunner, and Beasty). Their set seethed and churned as danceable rhythms collided with angular guitars, feedback, and yelped melodic vocals triggering somewhere between
Death From Above 1979,
Fugazi, and
Q and Not U. The guys closed with
Form favorite "Wasted Lands," Wilson playing amid the growing audience while drummer
Michael Prain and bassist
Michael Logie shifted time signatures from the stage above. Die! Die! Die! were fantastic live and I only hope I can catch them again sometime soon.
Next up was Oh My Rockness' official showcase at Brooklyn's Cameo Gallery. I arrived just before Moon King's set, who unfortunately are not my new favorite band. After a few songs came time for Baltimore's
Roomrunner, who simply destroyed. Before their set began, guitarist/singer Denny Bowen (former Double Dagger drummer) let the sound guy know he could turn the music back up as they needed a few more moments. As the sound guy began playing
Hum's "Green to Me," Bowen excitedly responded with, "Hey, like turn this shit
WAY up". Things were off to a good start before they played a note.
This wasn't my first time seeing the quartet live, but damn if they haven't gotten significantly better since. With the volume pushed to an almost offensive level (if you're the type to get offended by such things), the guitars rang out with thick slabs of power chords and wiry leads over pounding rhythms that a certain
Mr. Novoselic and
Mr. Grohl would appreciate. Roomrunner's sound expands on mere grunge influences however as the band mix
Arcwelder-esque noise pop and early 90's space rock riffs via
Failure and co. into their finely crafted songs. Bowen prefers his vocals nearly inaudible in the mix, asking the sound guy to turn him down and remove all vocal effects. There were certainly times where you could see him screaming into the mic, that went just about unheard through the blaring racket the band had whirled up. It hardly mattered however, as they battered eardrums with a slew of promising new songs as well as cuts from their most recent EP
Super Vague. Perhaps standing in the front directly next to the speakers with no earplugs wasn't the best idea... but then again, perhaps it was. A jaw dropping set of power and sheer volume, Roomrunner were the definitive highlight of Tuesday night. Be sure to catch them on Saturday at the Exploding In Sound/Gimme Tinnitus showcase [
RSVP HERE].
Closing out our evening was Toronto's noise rock heroes
METZ. You may have heard of them... you can't go far on these here internets without reading about the band or their self-titled
Sub Pop debut. Thankfully, the buzz surrounding their noise punk fury is well warranted, and they made sure to prove that for any skeptics in the audience. Their live shows are always spectacular displays of noise, aggression, and mayhem and last night was no different. The band ripped through songs from the abrasive record as well as their previously released singles, pounding out dense bricks of rhythmic carnage over angular guitar blasts and howling shouts. METZ are like
The Jesus Lizard's slightly less demented cousins or
Unsane's more cheerful Canadian pals, and the band are ready and able to carry that torch to a new (and all of a sudden) willing audience. The low end is looooow, the bite is mean, and their performance is absolutely solid. Singer/guitarist
Alex Edkins moves and shakes like a man possessed, exorcising his demons through vibrant shouting and unbridled energy. These guys are playing a TON of shows this week, be sure to catch them.
POPSTRANGERS:
DIE! DIE! DIE!:
ROOMRUNNER:
METZ:
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