It was a day of redemption today. I am not going to stay up any later than 1am. I am not going to fall asleep during gigs. I’m not going to be that insane bottle of a person who lies in the corner writing tour diaries in the press centre corner for two hours fixing grammar rather than enjoying music.
So, here I am in Starbucks doing one of those things at least, and it isn’t falling asleep or watching music in the wee hours. This is the epitome of my writing career right here – sitting next to students and other hungover heads drinking sub-standard coffee as a pick me up. IF only I could pick up this café and teleport it to Melbourne.
But we’re not here to explain coffee standards of New York. Day three of CMJ happened last night, and what a nice little day it was. Once again our starting point was the NYU Kimmel Center to listen to a bunch of panels about careers within the music and radio industries. There was critical analysis of resumes and interviews by Lisa Hresko, editor-in-chief at CMJ and Rev. Moose, general manager of music marketing and consulting agency The Syndicate stories of travelling across the States only to get fired six months later and other tips to get known for the music fan.
That was the final panel session for the whole conference, and what an insightful educational session that was. Let’s all celebrate with more music! It was onward to Pianos to redeem myself and watch Ginger & The Ghost perform properly with me being very awake this time. They put on a spellbinding set of tunes that soared with self-made harmonics and other loopy electronic devices. It was a very lush sound.
After missing out to see The Preatures because the room was so packed downstairs at the same venue (seriously the venue us a fire trap. I really would not want to have something horrible happening in that downstairs room because there will be an almighty squeeze to get out. Onwards to the more safer room of Sullivan Hall then, to see a couple of bands who were put on my radar other at the festival: NGHBRS and Sol Cat.
These two bands had been a time travelling machine, harking back to much loved eras in their songs. NGHBRS hit the stage with tracks that sounded straight out of 90s Seattle. There was a wonderful usage of a megaphone and some real howling vocals from the lead singer, but I just couldn’t help making the comparison. I hating doing that kind of thing when watching bands, and I wish I could give some points to originality here. They looked to be enjoying themselves playing songs from their album Twenty One Rooms nevertheless, and that was probably what mattered to them.
Sol Cat was a little more discreet in terms to whom they sounded like for me, but after one or two songs, ‘Kings of Leon’ just popped into my brain. This was due to the lead singer’s voice more than anything, because there were some unique sounds churning out of the keyboards and some really energetic guitar solos that screamed a howling sort of psychedelica. Their songs from the self-titled release served some nice melodies, sure, it just was that one crucial thing of the vocals creeping in in that low-toned kind of way. Once again, I hated myself for making musical comparisons after I walked out the venue.
Back to the Lower East Side again and back to the Cake Shop, which is probably another one of my favourite venues with its decorations of lights on their roof and other nick-nacks around the venue. Arriving in the middle of Scottish band Holy Esque’s set, I heard a clash of noises and dark melodies bringing a sense of doom to the room. Unfortunately it brought a sense of doom to their set too, with sound problems plaguing their set.
Sweden’s Like Swimming didn’t have the same problem in their collection of tunes. The three piece performed a short set of pop songs that were set to be recorded as soon as they got home from this gig, which was actually to be straight after this gig. The outfit had a extraordinary sense of party about them and looked very positively pleased about what they achieved on this tour. When they played their only single “Go Buffalo”, a lot of the room jumped and swayed as one. This band genuinely looked liked they enjoyed themselves at this gig, and seemed very enthused to come on back considering the banter on stage.
Back at Pianos, the schedule was running behind, so I got to see two bands instead of the last one I was planning to see. The whole of Brooklyn’s Total Slacker was buzzing like someone had taken too much sugar in the band’s entire rider. The rhythm guitarist especially looked as if he had a kilogram of the stuff, with his body thrashing around while howling noises from his guitar. The title of their album – Thrasher – is an appropriate name.
The band whom I had intended to see, Teen, set up their copious amount of instruments on the tightly packed stage in record time and blasted more planetary sounds via the Korgs and Moogs planted on stage. The songs weren’t all washy movements though, and contained a nice little boppy element that I was not expecting. It was a nice little perfect set played to a crowd who had a nice set of alcohol in them, but somehow still sober enough to appreciate what was being played instead of hollering and howling to each other across the room. It’s nice to see a band take hold of an audience like that.
After all that, it was straight to bed to recharge. Out of this Starbucks onwards to indulge in Aussie BBQ-ness.
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