Review: CMJ Music Marathon (Day 1)
Day 1 - Tuesday October 31st
It was about 2 weeks ago when I got the e-mail, "You have been confirmed to receive a press pass to cover the 26th annual CMJ Music Marathon. We're looking forward to seeing you there and looking forward to your coverage." For a guy like me, this is the equivalent of getting the golden ticket in a Wonka bar wrapper.
The first few years I was doing BlowUpRadio.com I tried to get a press pass for the CMJ Music Marathon, and twice I was denied, so I gave up. This year though, I figured with BlowUpRadio.com and Lazlo's Den both gaining a lot of credibility this year (not sure how that happened, but thanks!), maybe I had a shot.
Of course, with only getting two weeks notice of getting a press pass, I unfortunately had other commitments that would keep me from going to as much of the fest as I would have liked, namely my day job, and my monthly Folk You! show at the Goldhawk, which just so happened to fall on the second night of CMJ. Also, with living paycheck to paycheck, there was no way I could afford to stay at a hotel in NYC, so I was beholden to train schedules in and out of New York (which wasn't cheap either).
I was also only able to get one press pass, which meant my wife, who takes most of the pictures on both websites, and usually comes with me to most shows, was not going to be with me. I was flying solo, which is not normally the way I choose to go to shows, but I can get into that later.
Anyway, Tuesday I took a half day at my day job, and darted into NYC on a 11:50am NJ transit train. I forgot how much I hate taking mass transit. It's not the seats or the mindless chit-chat I hear from other people. For me, I like to drive, I like to be in control. I don't like others having the control in the situation. When I am on a train, I am a passenger, I'm being held to their schedule. If they get stuck somewhere along the way, as they did on this trip for 10 minutes, I am stuck there, powerless to do anything but wait. My guess is, part of my problem with this is that I can be impatient, but I suspect the bigger factor is that growing up I felt like my parents and my peers took control away from me, so ever since I've been fighting to keep as much of it as possible (which is also why I run BlowUpRadio.com & Lazlo's Den, largely by myself, with some help from my wife).
To try to forget about my lack of control, I brought my portable CD player with me (no, I haven't bought an MP3 player yet), and closed my eyes and listened to some discs on the way in.
Finally arriving in NYC a little after 1pm, I decided the weather was so nice, why not walk the 30 something blocks up to Lincoln Center, where I was to pick up my pass. 20 minutes later I arrived, surrounded by a large number of college kids (after all the C in CMJ stands for College). Well, so much for fitting in, being 33 felt like 75 next to some of these kids, but I wasn't going to let that daunt my trip.
Getting my press/photo pass, my CMJ swag bag (full of goodies that will be described in my next blog), and my guide to the fest, I saw that a panel was going on in Avery Fisher Hall (the main hall in Lincoln Center) called, "acting up: music activism 2006", featuring Stephen Greene (RockCorps), Suvasini Patel (Witness) , Chuck D (one of the great political rappers of all time, from Public Enemy), Steve Earle (who wrote the unofficial theme song to Lazlo's Den, "F the CC"), and moderating the panel was Janeane Garofalo (who I have been a fan of since the early 90's for her humor and political views, as well as her beauty). So off to that panel I ran, for a spirited discussion on political activism, largely dominated by Chuck D. Of course Janeane was there to put in her 2 cents when she thought someone was spouting misinformation, for instance, when one of the panelists said that Toby Keith would make anti-war music if it was profitable, Janeane pointed out that several artists have made profitable anti-war albums in the last few years.
One of the most interesting moments of the panel though, came when the floor was opened for questions, and an older African-American fellow, who had been part of a peaceful anti-war movement in the 60's, pointed out that you don't need great numbers to make a difference, as the Black Panthers, at their height, only had about 50 members.
I left this panel session reinvigorated that maybe there is hope for us yet, if we try to make change in the world by speaking our minds, maybe we can start to make change. So let me say this, "piss off the president, vote Democrat on Tuesday!" :)
There were quite a few interesting panels that were actually going on during the day the whole week, but sadly I missed most of them. Some others that were of interest to me included: Merchandise Mania (telling you how to get the most out of merchandising opportunities), The Ins & Outs of Music Publishing, Copyrights and Licensing (there were several other interesting law related music panels), Starting a record label 101, CBGB: The Ultimate Reunion, and The genius guide to indie concert promotion.
Of course, there were some silly sounding panels too: You're Hired! Insider tips to get the job, salary or promotion you deserve (sounds like a bad motivational speaker seminar), Posse Patrol: hiring and managing an entourage, Getting in bed with porn: the crossover partnerships between music and adult entertainment, and The metal god diaries: uncensored stories you won't hear on "Behind The Music".
Directly outside of Avery Fisher Hall, in their hallway, was where the Tradeshow was happening with booths from companies like Bodog Music, and 20th Century Fox, to Dropcards, and Music From Ireland (which sadly, having listened to the CD they gave me, were bands from Ireland that sounded American, not Irish). Everyone was giving out free stuff, promo CDs, buttons, soft drinks, postcards, posters, etc. Most of it was junk, but hey, it's free junk woo-hoo!
Also going on in the trade show area was a stage that featured several bands throughout the day. As well as Avery Fisher Hall was built for sound, the hallway area outside of Avery Fisher was not. Every band that played there sounded muddy, with almost indiscernible vocals. So I spent very little time there.
I ended up going back in for another panel session, this one so absurd that it sounded like it might be fun. "Tell me why you're so hot: music execs and unsigned artists face off", was a chance for artists to have one of their songs played off a CD for a panel made up of A&R people from different labels. The A&R people would then give a critique of the song. Not surprisingly so, most of the comments dealt with how to make the songs more commercially marketable. When one aspiring hip-hop group played their song, "I want to fuck your mouth" (which repeats the title about 100 times), the A&R guys asked how the band expected to market it to the radio. Their reply was they had a version with clean lyrics called, "I want to twist your mouth" (I'm guessing the thought of using "suck" would have taken to much intelligence). One A&R guy did bring up the point that the song could have a digital download life as a novelty song. Most of the songs played during this panel weren't horrible, but only 1 or 2 were actually good in my opinion.
It was now around 5pm, and I could hang out up by Lincoln Center until 6:30, and try to catch a screening of the Borat film, that Borat himself was going to be making an appearance at, or I could take a leisurely walk down from Lincoln Center to the Bowery district where I wanted to try to catch an 8pm set by Abra Moore at Blvd. I opted to take the leisurely walk, which judging by the glowing reviews for the Borat movie, may have been the wrong choice, but I figured I can see that film anytime, I'm here for the music.
The walk, which took a little over an hour, nearly killed me the next day, as my feet and legs were killing me on Wednesday. I'm trying to get into better shape, but I may have overdone it with that walk.
When I got down to the Bowery, I passed by an open but nearly fully gutted CBGB. Stopping to look inside for a few minutes, I paid my last respects to a club I never loved, but always respected for it's musical past (even if most of the times I went there I saw mediocre bands). I wanted to take a picture for posterity, but I realized I left my camera home. D'oh!
I arrived at Blvd at 6:45, before their doors opened, to find that Blvd and Crash Mansion , were next door to one another and utilized the same entrance. At 7:15 when they finally let us in, I found that Crash Mansion was directly underneath Blvd, and figured I'd run down there at points to see some acts later in the evening.
Blvd was a nice large living room-type environment, with lots of couches to relax on, and warm inviting color scheme. Sarathan records sponsored the evening, and it began with a set by Shane Bartell, who played largely to the other performers and Sarathan records people. It was a shame that there weren't more people there, as Shane is an incredible singer/songwriter with a relaxed, poppy style.
There were only two problems with his set, and both were out of his control. First off, with Crash Mansion right below, and an open stairwell between the two, the louder rock band playing at Crash Mansion began to bleed through into Blvd. Second, there are several flat screen TVs in Blvd, that were left on during the set showing "Monsters Inc". But Shane, like a true professional, seemed to block all the distractions out and make the best of it.
Following Shane's set was the woman I was looking forward to seeing, Abra Moore. Abra had appeared in one of my favorite movie's of all time, "Slacker", back in 1990, and several years later when I was working at a commercial radio station I got a hold of a single of hers for her song, "four leaf clover". Far from being a hit, the song was nonetheless good, and I was looking forward to seeing her live for the first time.
She took to the stage with a another person playing guitar along with her, and started to play some really mellow songs. Sadly, the audience was mostly talking loudly. This is something I will never ever understand. If you are inside a venue and someone is playing, keep your voice down, or better yet, save whatever you have to say until the set is over. If you're not enjoying the set and want to talk, take it outside of the room the performer is in. It's called being respectful and courteous, not just to the performer, but also to those who may be enjoying the performer's set.
The loud talking, mixed with the bleed through sound from Crash Mansion, and the distraction of the TVs now showing, "The Blair Witch Project", became to much for me. After 2 songs I decided I'd go see what was going on in Crash Mansion since I could hear that better than I could Abra anyway.
Walking down the flight of stairs from Blvd into Crash Mansion was like going from heaven to hell. As nice as Blvd looked, Crash Mansion did not. It was dark, I swear the only lighting came from the stage, and a little over the bar, there were columns and couches and ottomans everywhere, but in the dim light I couldn't see them and was bumping into them (and I hadn't had anything to drink). The ceiling was low and dark too. This place was a shit box. But, the band on stage sounded pretty good so I stuck around long enough to watch the last few songs of their set.
The CMJ guide said the band that should have been playing at that time was Bush Tetras, but then I saw that they had cancelled their show, so I have no idea who this band was because they never mentioned their name. It's a shame, because I really enjoyed this band's offbeat Tom Waits meets Morphine and the Leningrad Cowboys sort of sound. The band consisted of a keyboard, a guitar, drums, a sax, and a vocalist, and were a lot of fun. So if anyone knows who played at Crash Mansion on Tuesday October 31st at around 8:20pm, let me know.
Sick of being in the dank hell hole that Crash Mansion is, I was going to try to dart over to the Hiro Ballroom to catch Suzanne Vega's set. Unfortunately, on my way there I got caught in New York City's Halloween parade, and the streets I needed to go down to get to the ballroom were barricaded off to keep parade goers from going off the parade path. Defeated, and realizing I had to get up early for my day job on Wednesday, I called it a night, and cut and weaved thru the parade to get back to Penn Station and a train back to NJ.
Arriving at the station right as they were announcing my train, I sat down, got comfortable, and started listening to CDs. People were still boarding the train and all of a sudden a horrible burning smell wafted thru the train car, I turned around to see someone running off the train with a smoldering trash bag that contained a comforter. The guy spent the next few minutes putting out the small fire by stamping on the comforter. When one of the train conductors came over to ask what was going on the guy started emphatically apologizing and exclaiming, "I swear I'm not a terrorist!" I know I shouldn't have laughed at that, but it really was funny.
What a way to end night one at CMJ.
Day 1 - Tuesday October 31st
It was about 2 weeks ago when I got the e-mail, "You have been confirmed to receive a press pass to cover the 26th annual CMJ Music Marathon. We're looking forward to seeing you there and looking forward to your coverage." For a guy like me, this is the equivalent of getting the golden ticket in a Wonka bar wrapper.
The first few years I was doing BlowUpRadio.com I tried to get a press pass for the CMJ Music Marathon, and twice I was denied, so I gave up. This year though, I figured with BlowUpRadio.com and Lazlo's Den both gaining a lot of credibility this year (not sure how that happened, but thanks!), maybe I had a shot.
Of course, with only getting two weeks notice of getting a press pass, I unfortunately had other commitments that would keep me from going to as much of the fest as I would have liked, namely my day job, and my monthly Folk You! show at the Goldhawk, which just so happened to fall on the second night of CMJ. Also, with living paycheck to paycheck, there was no way I could afford to stay at a hotel in NYC, so I was beholden to train schedules in and out of New York (which wasn't cheap either).
I was also only able to get one press pass, which meant my wife, who takes most of the pictures on both websites, and usually comes with me to most shows, was not going to be with me. I was flying solo, which is not normally the way I choose to go to shows, but I can get into that later.
Anyway, Tuesday I took a half day at my day job, and darted into NYC on a 11:50am NJ transit train. I forgot how much I hate taking mass transit. It's not the seats or the mindless chit-chat I hear from other people. For me, I like to drive, I like to be in control. I don't like others having the control in the situation. When I am on a train, I am a passenger, I'm being held to their schedule. If they get stuck somewhere along the way, as they did on this trip for 10 minutes, I am stuck there, powerless to do anything but wait. My guess is, part of my problem with this is that I can be impatient, but I suspect the bigger factor is that growing up I felt like my parents and my peers took control away from me, so ever since I've been fighting to keep as much of it as possible (which is also why I run BlowUpRadio.com & Lazlo's Den, largely by myself, with some help from my wife).
To try to forget about my lack of control, I brought my portable CD player with me (no, I haven't bought an MP3 player yet), and closed my eyes and listened to some discs on the way in.
Finally arriving in NYC a little after 1pm, I decided the weather was so nice, why not walk the 30 something blocks up to Lincoln Center, where I was to pick up my pass. 20 minutes later I arrived, surrounded by a large number of college kids (after all the C in CMJ stands for College). Well, so much for fitting in, being 33 felt like 75 next to some of these kids, but I wasn't going to let that daunt my trip.
Getting my press/photo pass, my CMJ swag bag (full of goodies that will be described in my next blog), and my guide to the fest, I saw that a panel was going on in Avery Fisher Hall (the main hall in Lincoln Center) called, "acting up: music activism 2006", featuring Stephen Greene (RockCorps), Suvasini Patel (Witness) , Chuck D (one of the great political rappers of all time, from Public Enemy), Steve Earle (who wrote the unofficial theme song to Lazlo's Den, "F the CC"), and moderating the panel was Janeane Garofalo (who I have been a fan of since the early 90's for her humor and political views, as well as her beauty). So off to that panel I ran, for a spirited discussion on political activism, largely dominated by Chuck D. Of course Janeane was there to put in her 2 cents when she thought someone was spouting misinformation, for instance, when one of the panelists said that Toby Keith would make anti-war music if it was profitable, Janeane pointed out that several artists have made profitable anti-war albums in the last few years.
One of the most interesting moments of the panel though, came when the floor was opened for questions, and an older African-American fellow, who had been part of a peaceful anti-war movement in the 60's, pointed out that you don't need great numbers to make a difference, as the Black Panthers, at their height, only had about 50 members.
I left this panel session reinvigorated that maybe there is hope for us yet, if we try to make change in the world by speaking our minds, maybe we can start to make change. So let me say this, "piss off the president, vote Democrat on Tuesday!" :)
There were quite a few interesting panels that were actually going on during the day the whole week, but sadly I missed most of them. Some others that were of interest to me included: Merchandise Mania (telling you how to get the most out of merchandising opportunities), The Ins & Outs of Music Publishing, Copyrights and Licensing (there were several other interesting law related music panels), Starting a record label 101, CBGB: The Ultimate Reunion, and The genius guide to indie concert promotion.
Of course, there were some silly sounding panels too: You're Hired! Insider tips to get the job, salary or promotion you deserve (sounds like a bad motivational speaker seminar), Posse Patrol: hiring and managing an entourage, Getting in bed with porn: the crossover partnerships between music and adult entertainment, and The metal god diaries: uncensored stories you won't hear on "Behind The Music".
Directly outside of Avery Fisher Hall, in their hallway, was where the Tradeshow was happening with booths from companies like Bodog Music, and 20th Century Fox, to Dropcards, and Music From Ireland (which sadly, having listened to the CD they gave me, were bands from Ireland that sounded American, not Irish). Everyone was giving out free stuff, promo CDs, buttons, soft drinks, postcards, posters, etc. Most of it was junk, but hey, it's free junk woo-hoo!
Also going on in the trade show area was a stage that featured several bands throughout the day. As well as Avery Fisher Hall was built for sound, the hallway area outside of Avery Fisher was not. Every band that played there sounded muddy, with almost indiscernible vocals. So I spent very little time there.
I ended up going back in for another panel session, this one so absurd that it sounded like it might be fun. "Tell me why you're so hot: music execs and unsigned artists face off", was a chance for artists to have one of their songs played off a CD for a panel made up of A&R people from different labels. The A&R people would then give a critique of the song. Not surprisingly so, most of the comments dealt with how to make the songs more commercially marketable. When one aspiring hip-hop group played their song, "I want to fuck your mouth" (which repeats the title about 100 times), the A&R guys asked how the band expected to market it to the radio. Their reply was they had a version with clean lyrics called, "I want to twist your mouth" (I'm guessing the thought of using "suck" would have taken to much intelligence). One A&R guy did bring up the point that the song could have a digital download life as a novelty song. Most of the songs played during this panel weren't horrible, but only 1 or 2 were actually good in my opinion.
It was now around 5pm, and I could hang out up by Lincoln Center until 6:30, and try to catch a screening of the Borat film, that Borat himself was going to be making an appearance at, or I could take a leisurely walk down from Lincoln Center to the Bowery district where I wanted to try to catch an 8pm set by Abra Moore at Blvd. I opted to take the leisurely walk, which judging by the glowing reviews for the Borat movie, may have been the wrong choice, but I figured I can see that film anytime, I'm here for the music.
The walk, which took a little over an hour, nearly killed me the next day, as my feet and legs were killing me on Wednesday. I'm trying to get into better shape, but I may have overdone it with that walk.
When I got down to the Bowery, I passed by an open but nearly fully gutted CBGB. Stopping to look inside for a few minutes, I paid my last respects to a club I never loved, but always respected for it's musical past (even if most of the times I went there I saw mediocre bands). I wanted to take a picture for posterity, but I realized I left my camera home. D'oh!
I arrived at Blvd at 6:45, before their doors opened, to find that Blvd and Crash Mansion , were next door to one another and utilized the same entrance. At 7:15 when they finally let us in, I found that Crash Mansion was directly underneath Blvd, and figured I'd run down there at points to see some acts later in the evening.
Blvd was a nice large living room-type environment, with lots of couches to relax on, and warm inviting color scheme. Sarathan records sponsored the evening, and it began with a set by Shane Bartell, who played largely to the other performers and Sarathan records people. It was a shame that there weren't more people there, as Shane is an incredible singer/songwriter with a relaxed, poppy style.
There were only two problems with his set, and both were out of his control. First off, with Crash Mansion right below, and an open stairwell between the two, the louder rock band playing at Crash Mansion began to bleed through into Blvd. Second, there are several flat screen TVs in Blvd, that were left on during the set showing "Monsters Inc". But Shane, like a true professional, seemed to block all the distractions out and make the best of it.
Following Shane's set was the woman I was looking forward to seeing, Abra Moore. Abra had appeared in one of my favorite movie's of all time, "Slacker", back in 1990, and several years later when I was working at a commercial radio station I got a hold of a single of hers for her song, "four leaf clover". Far from being a hit, the song was nonetheless good, and I was looking forward to seeing her live for the first time.
She took to the stage with a another person playing guitar along with her, and started to play some really mellow songs. Sadly, the audience was mostly talking loudly. This is something I will never ever understand. If you are inside a venue and someone is playing, keep your voice down, or better yet, save whatever you have to say until the set is over. If you're not enjoying the set and want to talk, take it outside of the room the performer is in. It's called being respectful and courteous, not just to the performer, but also to those who may be enjoying the performer's set.
The loud talking, mixed with the bleed through sound from Crash Mansion, and the distraction of the TVs now showing, "The Blair Witch Project", became to much for me. After 2 songs I decided I'd go see what was going on in Crash Mansion since I could hear that better than I could Abra anyway.
Walking down the flight of stairs from Blvd into Crash Mansion was like going from heaven to hell. As nice as Blvd looked, Crash Mansion did not. It was dark, I swear the only lighting came from the stage, and a little over the bar, there were columns and couches and ottomans everywhere, but in the dim light I couldn't see them and was bumping into them (and I hadn't had anything to drink). The ceiling was low and dark too. This place was a shit box. But, the band on stage sounded pretty good so I stuck around long enough to watch the last few songs of their set.
The CMJ guide said the band that should have been playing at that time was Bush Tetras, but then I saw that they had cancelled their show, so I have no idea who this band was because they never mentioned their name. It's a shame, because I really enjoyed this band's offbeat Tom Waits meets Morphine and the Leningrad Cowboys sort of sound. The band consisted of a keyboard, a guitar, drums, a sax, and a vocalist, and were a lot of fun. So if anyone knows who played at Crash Mansion on Tuesday October 31st at around 8:20pm, let me know.
Sick of being in the dank hell hole that Crash Mansion is, I was going to try to dart over to the Hiro Ballroom to catch Suzanne Vega's set. Unfortunately, on my way there I got caught in New York City's Halloween parade, and the streets I needed to go down to get to the ballroom were barricaded off to keep parade goers from going off the parade path. Defeated, and realizing I had to get up early for my day job on Wednesday, I called it a night, and cut and weaved thru the parade to get back to Penn Station and a train back to NJ.
Arriving at the station right as they were announcing my train, I sat down, got comfortable, and started listening to CDs. People were still boarding the train and all of a sudden a horrible burning smell wafted thru the train car, I turned around to see someone running off the train with a smoldering trash bag that contained a comforter. The guy spent the next few minutes putting out the small fire by stamping on the comforter. When one of the train conductors came over to ask what was going on the guy started emphatically apologizing and exclaiming, "I swear I'm not a terrorist!" I know I shouldn't have laughed at that, but it really was funny.
What a way to end night one at CMJ.