My final day of CMJ was spent admiring the music of Australia from afar. Though I was at The Delancey for the entirety of The Aussie BBQ, I once again enjoyed little-to-no music as I undertook a pile of interviews on the roof. You, however, will be enjoying those soon. That said, I did catch a couple of tracks from Guineafowl, who I began my journey to the USA with at Sydney Airport some 3 weeks ago, and as such it felt right to end it with them here today. They were still sounding as great as they were on the first day of performances in LA, but now with a pile of stories to tell.
WIM were another I revisited from early in my travels, and they seemed to be impressing with ease. The Grates and Seekae closed up the day in style and everyone who was leaving the venue were doing so with big smiles on their faces. Another highly successful event for the Stage Mothers / Sounds Australia crew.
While I was saying my goodbyes on the roof, a two piece unexpectedly started performing. They said “today we are Jubilee and tomorrow we are Elephants”, so I’m thinking somewhere in there were their names. What’s most important of all, however, was that the guitar and violin duo were delightful, performing some simple, eclectic and “pretty” music, with occasional loops and plenty of emotion. A nice reminder that in New York, and at CMJ, you never know when you’re going to get an unexpected musical treat.
Keeping with the Aussie vibes of the day, we headed to Brooklyn Bowl to catch up with Gotye. Unfortunately the venue had “reached capacity of badges” and were now charging on the door (though no advertising said “limited badges” so seemed like a money grabbing measure to me), so I went on a bit of an adventure through Brooklyn. And boy am I glad I did.
I made it into Spike Hill (one of the few venues in New York who were kind to the press) for an unexpected performance by French Horn Rebellion (pictured above and below), who I caught up with a couple of months ago in an AU interview, and will be hitting up Australia over New Years. With horns, keyboard solos, dance routines with the crowd, and awesome repertoire between the two of them, this was ridiculous amounts of fun surrounded by some super funky tunes. Not to mention a great light show, a good amount of clapping – and did I mention the dance moves? Only saw four songs but they were probably the highlight of the entire week.
Next I jetted over to the Bruise Cruise / Panache showcase at Public Assembly where I caught Pujol, a three piece featuring a guitarist, drummer and another who jumped between the piano and bass. They put out short, fast and fun garage surf rock. Nothing particularly different from what we know but a perfect execution of the genre and a hell of a lot of fun.
At Cameo, I found Hugo Garnet David Manuel aka Chad Valley, a solo electronic artist from Oxford in the UK wearing a Lionel Richie shirt, hitting a shitload of buttons, singing into two microphones (one with heavy echo, an interesting technique) and making some pretty impressive high energy yet ambient electro. Some samples were thrown in, but it mostly seemed to be original beats. With a slight 80s vibe at times (though the new wave version of it), he reminded me a bit of Cut Copy and Miami Horror and was a truly enjoyable artist.
I ran back to Spike Hill next where I was able to enjoy a Coopers (props!!) to catch Dom (pictured above), who infamously did little to impress at the Sydney Opera House earlier this year. Here in Brooklyn, the Massachusetts based five piece felt much more at home, providing a well oiled, tight and energetic set, with tracks like “Damn” impressing indeed. I’m glad I had the opportunity to catch these guys in a context such as this. I still consider them a rather overrated band, but I can certainly see them for the solid, entertaining artists they have become known.
Back at Cameo, Art vs Science meanwhile had filled up the venue to capacity. Good thing I’d popped in earlier! I caught their last four tracks: “Magic Fountain”, “With Thoughts”, “Parlez Vous Francais” and “Hollywood”. The crowd didn’t seem as into it as they did the other night, but were definitely enjoying it, with “Parlez” and “Hollywood” getting the biggest rise out of them. The three piece battled through sound problems for the majority of the set but spent little time focusing on it, showing themselves to be professional showmen. On ya!
With my plans up in the air, the AvS boys implored me to hang around for Is Tropical (pictured above), a UK buzz trio who emegerged in bandanas, drowning in heaps of drums, bass and synth, with some guitars and digital drums too thrown in for good measure. They, too, had sound and technical problems, but unfortunately here it did get in the way, literally stopping tracks, which forced the band to proclaim “this is the definition of a nightmare”. But they powered through and impressed, with an eclectic set showing themselves off as a band who rarely develop two songs that sound the same. A bit of french electro here… and bit of Crystal Castles there… and good times all round. Well, when the sound was working anyway.
Ended my official CMJ 2011 experience with Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs aka TEED (pictured above), another act who will be appearing in Australia over New Years. Dressed as a dinosaur, this one man show came off a bit samey but he has certainly made his own sound. There is no doubt in my mind that TEED will go off at the Festivals in Oz over the Summer.
So, with CMJ 2011 at an end, what were my thoughts on the festival itself? Well, in spite of the event being incredibly well run, having a badge seemingly meant little for the popular venues, with preference provided to those who paid for the specific gig (or an expectation that you’ll pay to get in anyway). So unless you’re all about the panels etc, you’re best off buying tickets to the individual gigs and then trying your luck with the rest of the free-to-all events, of which you can pay on the door. If you happen to be arriving as press you should preplan every show you want to attend and get management to put you on the guestlist or an equivalent form of line cutting ability. This ain’t no SXSW in that respect.
At gigs like OFWGKTA I got lucky, but ultimately I saw very little I wanted to see. The beauty of a festival like this, however, as proven tonight with French Horn Rebellion, is that you saw more than enough amazing music in it’s place. But you do have to wonder – for the venues who choose not to provide any sort of precedent to press or regular badge holders, you wonder how many artists get missed by the people who matter completely as a result. It’s a pity as I think it often overshadows what is otherwise a very well run event… well, if Twitter comments are any indication anyway.
Thankfully I now know how to best manage it all for next year, and look forward to getting to put that knowledge to good use. Indeed, we will be back! Until then!
Photos by Larry Heath
