French Horn Rebellion – Beaches and Friends (Live)
French Horn Rebellion are an outfit whose name surfaced on my radar as a result of CMJ 2010, although, I didn't get a chance to see them until afterward. As far as I have gathered, they are djs, producers, and a live act that tread largely in blood-rushing thump-thump dance party vein of indie rock. (More...)
Avalanche: Best of 2010
I generally find that the odd years are far better than the even years in music release quality. If you use the metric of a 'good' year, as I think most critics do, as the emergence of massively interesting break-through bands coming out from the ether (like say Fever Ray or The xx from last year), then you can say that 2010 is an off year in relation to 2010. 2010 largely featured the release of several good to great albums from (More...)
Atari Teenage Riot: Atari Teenage Riot (Live)
Back in the early to mid 90's, about the time Prodigy was causing a big stink about "Smack My Bitch Up" it seemed widely evident that the future of music was to become a hybrid of hard rock infused with what was then nascent techno beats and energy to create a new unholy Godzilla type rock n roll juggernaut (More...)
Dean Wareham (Galaxie 500): Cheese and Onions (Live): CMJ
Dean Wareham has played Galaxie 500 sets a few times now which have been consistently fantastic, but there also has been a fairly consistent set list, so for a repeat viewer such as myself, I appreciate a few surprises. Well this set had quite a few zingers (More...)
The Blow: True Affection (Live): CMJ 2010 Part 9/10
The Blow, as seen live at least, is Khaela Maricich singing unaccompanied other than by a pre-recorded rudimentary synth melody and drum machine beats. A girl singing to backing track sounds like a total snooze, but there is certainly nothing boring about the performance. (More...)
Matthew Dear: You Put A Smell On Me (Live): CMJ 2010 Part 8/10
I believe there is a fair amount of buzz surrounding Matthew Dear. I was pleasantly surprised that after seeing one of his CMJ performances, I didn't get where he was coming from or what his influences were. (More...)
Octant: Halo (Live): CMJ 2010 Part 7/10
The most memorable and lasting CMJ experience isn't so much hearing or seeing the next big thing but rather stumbling on to something odd or really special. This year I got a tip from TSOI's own Kevin to see Octant, a project of Matt Steinke of Satisfact/Mocket fame (More...)
Candy Claws: Catamaran (Live): CMJ 2010 Part 6/10
It was fairly hard to truly appreciated the short but excellent Candy Claws set at Glasslands, due to incessant chatter - a common CMJ liability. I become increasingly impressed by the songs buried under the fuzzed squall - like listening to a good Mercury Rev song (More...)
Crocodiles: Hearts of Love (Live): CMJ 2010 Part 5/10
Other than the slew of keyboard fronted bands, the other trend, or mini-revival if you will, is the continued return of the shoe-gaze sound. Crocodiles, Candy Claws, and Dead Leaf Echo, who all performed at CMJ2010, are making a point of keeping the shoe-gaze torch going. (More...)
Alex Winston: Choice Notes (Live): CMJ 2010 Part 4/10
Alex Winston and Savoir Adore (featured yesterday), two of the most notable CMJ 2010 bands I caught, are fairly similar bands that feature lead female vocals, have synth up front, but also fill the sound out with full bands. (More...)
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