CMJ wrapup 11/6

Hey folks,

Just going to give my recap of the 4 days of cmj that I didn't cover already.

Wednesday:
Saw lots of cool panels
Gearheads unite: Learned about some new technology that will be coming out from some of the large musical equipment manufacturers
Digital Domination: Learned some cool stuff about how the online digital music sales market is going
Watched the movie 'FUCK'
How to be a music player in video games: Interesting stuff on how musicians should approach getting their video games in music

Concert of the night: Tall Firs, Fog at Northsix
Managed to get Fog's autograph..they played a good show..lots of energy, but didn't really play any of the songs I really liked.
Hopped over to Manhattan to Piano's to catch a couple songs from Mixel Pixel (who played here at RPI on saturday) and to say hey to them. The use of a scrim and projector was quite interesting

Thursday:
Really really long day. Tons of cool panels today.
Music directors summit: learned about how other stations handle their music department
How to make music videos on a tight budget: This was probably my favorite panel, because i learned the most from it. Most of the knowledge they spoke of didn't apply to me right now because they talked about low budget videos being for about 10k, but a lot of it was interesting nonetheless.
College Radio Awards: watched as promo people and other stations won various prizes for being station of the year, etc etc

Concert of the night:
Sub Pop showcase: Loney dear, oxford collapse, the elected, CSS, The Thermals, The Album leaf (!!), and the The Shins at Bowery Ballroom

Loney Dear (6pm)was decent. Oxford collapse(7pm) had good energy but was very boring. The elected(8pm) had good stage banter, and energy, and it took me the longest time to realize that the lead singer used to be on 'salute your shorts' . CSS (9pm)was probably the most fun people had at the concert, 6 crazy brazilian people dancing around on stage to electronic beats and guitar. The thermals (11pm) was awful..way too loud..and every single song sounded exactly the same.

Finally, at midnight the Album leaf started to setup and play. Luckily I was leaning right on the stage on the side that Jimmy Lavalle was setting up. I got his autograph which is quite amazing because he is one of my favorite musicians of all time, and probably my biggest influence. Their set was awesome, and I was surprised they could pull it off with all of the equipment they had to set up. They played:
Always for You
Shine
2214
Outerbanks
Redeye
One your way
Wherever I go

It ended about 1am, and I made my way out (I didn't stay for the shins..I don't care for them).

Friday:
Caught The Decemberists at the SoHo Apple store at 1pm and it was an alright show. Because it was in the store, it was very quiet and not very energetic but they played a good selection of songs.

I didn't catch amny interesting panels today, I was very tired from the day before.

Concert:
Kevin Devine, Annuals at Bowery Ballroom
Kevin Devine was alright..just kind of standard indie singer songwriter stuff.
Annuals were great, tons of energy and played all of the songs I wanted to hear, and they were very nice when I thanked them afterwards..they're quickly becoming one of my new favorite bands

Saturday:
Almost over...
Saw Forget Cassettes at a Terrorbird showcase at Fontana's and it was a short, but very sweet set..I was surprised she could pull of the vocals as well as she did live.

Went to catch the Album Leaf again at an AAM party at Northsix, and once again they were very good..the set was the same pretty much, except replace 'on your way' with 'see in you'

Almost went to see Margot and the Nuclear So and So's back over in manhattan at 11pm but the strain of the day, and the previous days, and the prospect of driving 3 hours home at 2am with barely any energy made me make the choice to miss the show..which is unfortunate, but probably a wise decision.


Thats it! It was a great time and I'm really looking forward to getting back there next year.