CMJ 2007: October 16-20
It’s that time of year, and once again CMJ is upon us. Its a bittersweet return, what with the whole CMJ rejection controversy still hanging in the air, but the ridiculous line up I’m planning to take in from Thursday to Saturday has me excited enough to look past it, even if I am currently working with one of the 670 bands who were so unceremoniously (many of which unfairly) rejected from the festival last month. Last year was my first CMJ experience and saw me taking in Justice and the Knife live for the first time in addition to catching shows from Cold War Kids, 120 Days, Annuals and Tokyo Police Club. That was great and all, but CMJ 2007 promises to own last year’s proceedings in every way possible. The big-ticket events last year were the Knife and Justice, and while that’s damn hard to top, the Friday/Saturday combo of M.I.A. and Justice at NYC’s brand new super-venue Terminal 5 (with its 3,000+ capacity) should give it a pretty good run for its money. Justice’s set last year was considerably underwhelming compared to the more recent sets I’ve seen them play (their secret/contest-winners-only gig in London was particularly phenomenal), but they’d only just begun to take their live act on the road and hadn’t fully established their live persona (see: giant flashing cross) at that point. Everything seems to be in place now though, and their Saturday night date at Terminal 5 with Australian electro-kings Midnight Juggernauts should be considerably epic. The night before sees M.I.A. taking over at Terminal 5 and I’m pretty fucking pumped for it, especially considering Kala’s status as my tentative album of the year (narrowly edging out Les Savy Fav’s Let’s Stay Friends) and the fact that I’ve never actually seen her live to this point. While that’s a pretty solid weekend in itself, that’s only the beginning. Here’s my complete plan for CMJ, though I’ll inevitably be adding and dropping shows on the fly throughout the week.
Tuesday and Wednesday promise plenty of brilliant shows, but the small fact that I have two fucking midterms on Thursday puts a bit of a damper on it. At this point I’m planning on studying my ass off over the next two days and then taking a break to catch the secret Vampire Weekend/Jack Penate gig on Wednesday afternoon and then maybe making it out to catch Foals at Music Hall of Williamsburg and Black Kids at VICE’s late night party, but I’m not totally sure I can pull it off. You better believe I’m gonna try though. Thus, I’m focusing most of my attention on Thursday through Saturday, and only terminal illness could keep me from missing any of the shows on my planner for those nights. Here’s how things are shaping up…
THURSDAY
• Frenchkiss Records Showcase (Juiced Elfers, Cut Off Your Hands) @ Piano’s (7:30-9:30 PM)
• Simian Mobile Disco @ Music Hall of Williamsburg (11:00 PM-12:00 AM)
• Muscles & New Young Pony Club @ Studio B (12:00-2:00 AM)
The FKR showcase is really an all-evening affair, but I’m gonna be ducking out after the first two acts in order to get over to Williamsburg for Simian Mobile Disco at 11. The whole showcase promises to be great, but sadly I’m gonna have to roll out after Juiced Elfers and Cut Off Your Hands do their thing. Juiced Elfers are the new project of my step-bro Syd, Nick Diamonds of the Unicorns/Islands fame and some other dudes from the Candian indie scene. I haven’t actually heard any of their recorded material yet, since Syd seems to have misplaced their recordings on his computer and there’s nothing but live MP3s floating around the internet at this point, but I’ve heard it described as partyfuntime 60’s dance music and am super pumped to hear his new work. Cut Off Your Hands are more familiar territory for me, as I’ve been plugging them since last autumn and have enjoyed watching them develop over the course of their two EP’s. I’ve also seen them live on multiple occasions and I’m well aware of their ability to bring the fucking rock in spades, but I haven’t seen them play since last winter and they’ve since released another EP of corking tracks that I can’t wait to hear live. They’ve just announced a huge full-length deal with 679 Recordings (The Streets, Mystery Jets, Plan B) in the UK after recording a new EP, titled Blue On Blue, with former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler. They’re finally getting some stateside love as well, having just released their debut Shaky Hands EP (out since last year in Australia) on up-and-coming LA-based imprint IAMSOUND. Both EPs are excellent and the band display an impressive evolution of their sound across the two releases, with their debut featuring a more raw, intense, straight-forward punk sound while Blue On Blue is all about a much more polished, post-punk vibe. Below are the standout tracks from each.
MP3s:
“Still Fond” - Cut Off Your Hands ((highly recommended))
“You And I” - Cut Off Your Hands ((highly recommended))
I’ve featured Simian Mobile Disco enough times in this space to render any explanation of why I plan to be in attendance for every fucking second of their Music Hall of Williamsburg set completely pointless, so I’ll just cruise on to discussion of the Modular showcase at Studio B that’s going on at the same time. Muscles and New Young Pony Club are headlining, and if I straight-out sprint from Music Hall to Studio B after SMD’s done I shouldn’t have to miss too much of Muscles set, so that’s exactly what I’m planning to do. Muscles has been getting mad hype all year long, but I’ve somehow managed to let him slip under my radar until “Ice Cream” shat all over my consciousness about two hours ago. Honestly, I really don’t know how I let that happen, considering his whole LP sounds phenomenal and “Ice Cream” and “Sweaty” are just about the two best things I’ve heard all week outside of that new Daft Punk live track. Suffice it to say, I’m gonna do my damnedest to catch as much of his set as possible after SMD. New Young Pony Club round out the night after Muscles and I can’t wait to experience them at Studio B, despite having caught them twice during my stay in London this summer. All in all, should be an extremely ill night. Grab my two favorite tracks off of Muscles’ Modular debut, Guns, Babes & Lemonade, below, and don’t miss that certified-bangin’ MSTRKRFT rework of NYPC’s new single, “Get Lucky”, either.
MP3s:
“Ice Cream” - Muscles ((highly recommended))
“Sweaty” - Muscles
“The Bomb” - New Young Pony Club ((highly recommended))
“Get Lucky” (MSTRKRFT Remix) - New Young Pony Club
FRIDAY
• Brooklynvegan Day Party (Yeasayer, Black Kids) @ R Bar (4:00-5:30 PM)
• M.I.A. @ Terminal 5 (8:00-9:30 PM)
• MSTRKRFT @ Studio B) (2:00 AM - ?)
Friday’s a bit more concentrated, as I’ve only got Yeasayer and Black Kids to thrill me before focusing all my energy on getting super fucking amped to see M.I.A. for the first time at Terminal 5. I just said it up there, but I really think Kala could be my album of the year. I’m sure you already know this, but “$20″ is THE JAM.
MP3: “$20″ - M.I.A. ((highly recommended))
Then it’s just about killing time (which shouldn’t be very hard) between the end of M.I.A.’s upsettingly-early set and MSTRKRFT’s awesomely late stage time at 2 AM. VICE late night doesn’t have shit on Studio B. But yeah, I’ve done a pretty good job of catching all of my favorite electronic acts over the past two years, with one of the only exceptions being MSTRKRFT (I’d also kill a man to see Royksopp, but that’s a whole different story). Thus, I’m way psyched to finally see them live, especially after my friends saw them in Miami last year and declared it the best thing they’d ever seen. The duo dropped a pretty-good debut LP last year (featuring really-good single “Easy Love”) and have followed it up with non-stop hot fire in the remix arena in 2007. Their update to “D.A.N.C.E.” is easily one of the best remixes of the year, and I can’t wait to freak the fuck out when they drop the needle on the track on Friday.
MP3s:
“D.A.N.C.E.” (MSTRKRFT Remix) - Justice ((highly recommended))
“Easy Love” - MSTRKRFT
SATURDAY
• Justice w/ Midnight Juggernauts @ Terminal 5 (8:00-10:30 PM)
• Erol Alkan @ Studio B (11 PM - ?)
Saturday keeps it way simple, with nothing but three brilliant electro acts to get my blood pumping. Justice and Midnight Juggernauts just might reduce Terminal 5 to smoking rubble, but I’d kind of be okay with that… it’d be a pretty sweet way to go. After that’s all said and done, we’ll be hopping in a cab and racing to Studio B for the start of Erol Alkan’s set. I love the man’s remixes and production work, but still haven’t seen him do his thing on the ones and twos. Should be a great way to cap off an absolutely absurd weekend, assuming I’m even able to stand at that point.
MP3: “Engine” (Erol Alkan’s Transonic Re-Edit) - LA Priest
So yeah, that’s how I’m expecting my CMJ experience to go. Obviously I’ll be putting other things on my schedule as the week progresses, but those are the core events that I’ll likely be remembering CMJ 2007 by. Who else is hitting up the festivities? What are you looking forward to? Anyone looking to trade Thursday night M.I.A. tickets for Friday night M.I.A. tickets (I’ve got a friend who will trade two Thurs tix for one Friday ticket, or two for two plus cash)? Anything you think I’m missing? Want to invite me to some super exclusive parties? Let me know in the comments and keep it real in the meantime.