Familiarize Yourself

Never type something up if you do not want it to come true. I mentioned yesterday that I woke up not feeling well, and that settled into an upper-respiratory infection. I managed to get 15 hours of sleep last night, but missed most of the showcases so my partner-in-crime, Kate, will be updating you on the bands she checked out while I was sound asleep “in the city that never sleeps.”

We began our day at the panels that CMJ hosts at New York University, just off of Washington Square. The panel I wanted to catch that day was titled “Music For Good” and featured FUSE TV host Stephen Smith, To Write Love On Her Arms founder Jamie Tworkowski, Invisible Children tour coordinator Alex Collins, and Charity-Water director Phil Crosby. All these men spoke about their charitable organizations and how they have strategically alined themselves within the music industry to promote their “brand” or organization.

Music For Good

After the panel was over I was lucky enough to be able to grab a smoothie with Steven Smith from Fuse (he knows one of my professors, it was planned not random). Steven told me about his past and how he was as a theatre major, and then how that transformed into a substitute teacher job while he was also working his first major TV gig at VH1. It was really interesting to hear someone’s story who did not plan to work in the industry. Steven said he also wants to write a book about “how to work in the music industry without really trying.”

Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt (Photo by Juilet Orbach)

After the smoothie break, I was really starting to feel crummy, so I’ll let Kate take over from here about some awesome bands to check out.

“Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt has a very interesting live show.  When we walked into the back room of Pianos we found one of the members lying at our feet singing.  Soon after we walked in the door I found another one of the members of TPDR with his head in my lanyard that was around my neck.  They had tons of costumes and a guy with lights, switches and a huge backpack to make it all run.  Need less to say this show was a ton of fun and everyone seemed to have an awesome time!

After Terror Pigeon we stuck around to see Free Energy, which might be one of my favorite bands that I have seen out here at CMJ.  This show caught me by surprise because there was nothing quirky or different about this band.  They were just five dudes putting on a quality rock show. It made me feel like I was in a club somewhere watching a classic rock band, like The Rolling Stones, when they first started.  This is definitely a band that I am going to look up their recorded stuff.

So Many Dynamos has a very unique sound.  They remind me of how I felt about Motion City Soundtrack when I first saw them.  I was watching something that was familiar to me but that I had never seen before.  A one of a kind nothing else really like it kind of a band.

88 Palace was a super awesome place to see a showcase.  It’s a mall that has a Chinese restaurant that was turned into a venue.  This is the second time I have seen French Horn Rebellion while being out here at CMJ and I must say that I still enjoyed their set even though I had recently seen it.   These guys really feed off of the crowd making each show a unique experience.” – Kate