CMJ Friday Wrap-Up

CMJ combines the fun of a scavenger hunt with the best part of any show- namely, the first 45 minutes, before your feet start to get tired.

The High Dials were supposed to play at Arlene's Grocery at 7:30 (or 7:45, or 8:00, depending on where you look), but there was a record release party for The Morning After Girls, which kicked off with a photographer from NME photographing the band holding French bulldogs wearing sunglasses. This wasn't part of a CMJ showcase, but Castanets weren't scheduled to perform until 8. The three of four songs I heard showed promise. Coming off like a heavy metal Stellastarr*, TMAG incorporated the screechier aspects of In Utero into a their sound. Not technically part of the CMJ festival, though.

CASTANETS @ Sin-é. Live, Castanets played their songs with very spare arrangements, marking a real departure from the sound of their albums. They sounded a lot like (smog). The closest they got to "rocking out" was on the second-to-last song, "Cathedral 4 (The Unbreaking Branch)" off last year's Cathedral, but most of the set was slow, dirge-y songs that sounded like the slower instrumental parts on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.

LANGHORNE SLIM @ Sin-é. Man, was he good. Seeing Langhorne Slim perform makes you wonder if anything beyond a man and a guitar is really necessary. Like Seth Cohen channeling Robert Johnson, Slim's songs are at once funny, moving, and heartfelt. He talks to the audience a lot more than he did last year when I saw him at The Sidewalk Café, cracking more jokes and having a great time.

 
ROBBERS ON HIGH STREET @ Mercury Lounge. Glam is coming back, from a bunch of different directions. Robbers sound like the soundtrack to the glam rock heyday tribute Velvet Goldmine. They are well equipped with the secret weapon of any good band- a great drummer. Both The Strokes and The Clash came to mind at different points during their set.

CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH @ Mercury Lounge. The line to get in to see these guys looked like a bread line in New Orleans. With so much hype surrounding this new band, would they really be able to deliver the goods? Um, yeah. They were really great. Seeing them live made their album come together for me in a way it hadn't before... not that I didn't like it, but seeing them live made me realize that they are definitely something special. Singer Alec Ounsworth draws comparisons to David Byrne, but he sounded more like Bill Campion from The Bogmen, all slurred words and yelping.

Lee Sargent and Robbie Guertin.

Sean Greenhalgh, Alec Ounsworth, Tyler Sargent

Their setlist:

Posted at 12:15 PM
Tags: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah | CMJ

8 Comments

Nice post Jed! Interesting comment on Robbers On High Street. Haven't had chance to see them live but thought they were pretty tight and like what I've heard. Nice wrap-up!

Posted by: Johnny Appleseed at 09/18/05 1:07 PM | Reply
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I'm going to check out TMAG as soon as I get back home, CMJ or no.

Posted by: Jim at 09/18/05 1:11 PM | Reply
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that is such pretty handwriting on the setlist.

Posted by: two. at 09/18/05 2:56 PM | Reply
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The Morning After Girls *were* part of CMJ - I saw them on two other occasions during the week although the gig you saw wasn't part of the schedule. Their eps are well worth the money. I saw a lot of shows this week and aside from Singapore Sling, they were the highlight (especially a 1:45 last minute show they played at Pianos that was pure rock). They're also very, very nice people who kindly gave me a t-shirt :)

Posted by: angie at 09/18/05 5:05 PM | Reply
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"The line to get in to see these guys looked like a bread line in New Orleans."

Ooh! Aren't you a clever one! *rolls eyes*

Posted by: Annalea at 09/18/05 9:11 PM | Reply
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yes, that New Orleans line made me physically ill as well.

Posted by: samantha at 09/19/05 1:44 PM | Reply
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The Bogmen! I thought I was the only one who knew of them. Well on the west coast anyways.

Posted by: nickbahulaisdead at 09/20/05 8:16 PM | Reply
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If you're not familiar with Bill Campion's new project, Vic Thrill, I highly suggest it. www.victhrill.com Very far out and fun, like GBV + Basement Jaxx + Brian Eno or something. I know he just finished another record like a month ago. Also, Paramount Pictures is making a movie about him and a Hasidic Jew that he befriended and had a band with. He's also writing the book to be released on Random House. It all came from a radio doc on the NPR show THIS AMERICAN LIFE, very entertaining.
http://thislife.org/pages/archives/archive04.html

Posted by: Wellington Yee at 09/26/05 12:09 PM | Reply
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