CMJ Wrapup

Bands Seen
Annuals, Apples in Stereo, Asobi Seksu, Birdmonster, Bobby Bare, Jr., The Broken West (twice), Laura Cantrell, Darker My Love, De Novo Dahl, Division Day, Steve Earle, The Figgs, Forget Cassettes, Jaymay, La Rocca (twice), Alison Moorer, Elvis Perkins, Portastatic, Ra Ra Riot, Sam Champion, Silversun Pickups, Stars of Track and Field, Takka Takka, The Thermals, The Tyde, Ultra High Frequency, The Whigs, White Whale.

Bands Missed
Bound Stems, The Decemberists, Dirty on Purpose, Forward Russia!, Ferraby Lionheart, The Little Ones, Mew, O'death, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Tokyo Police Club

Best Blogger-Sponsored Show/s
All of the top NYC blogs had good shows for offer, but the best of the bunch was clearly Brooklyn Vegan's three-day marathon of bands. And that's not just the 3 free cans of Sparks I drank in the space of an hour talking. (Sparks = alcoholic Red Bull = not good but effective)

Best Use of a Smoke Machine at an Indie Show
Sam Champion @ Studio B (it distracted from their music)



Worst Crowd
The loud, drunken, rude crowd for Steve Earle.

Best Discovery of a Band I'd Never Heard of Before
Darker My Love

Best Discovery of a Band I'd Heard of But Never Heard
The Figgs

Least Essential Set
Tie, Annuals and Sam Champion

Best Show I Almost Skipped
Forget Cassettes



Most Promising Young Band
Tie, The Broken West and Ra Ra Riot




Best Facial Hair
Tie, Bobby Bare, Jr.'s guitarist Civil War-era moustache and Brent Rademaker's pornstache





Best Reason to Skip an Afternoon of Work
KEXP's daytime in-studio sessions at Gigantic Studios. Hopefully WOXY can do something like this next year too.

Best Overall Set of the Week
This was a close one. I saw a lot of great shows, and the best of the best included the Apples in Stereo, Birdmonster, Forget Cassette and Silversun Pickups. But, at the end of the day, the show that stood apart was Friday night's set from The Figgs. This is the reason I still go to rock shows.