October 24th, 2007 | |
Posted in Chop Shop, a place to bury strangers, el jezel, gold streets, hot rocks party, live shows, man in gray, mancino, parties, photos, reviews, stereoactivenyc presents, the secret life of sofia, the vandelles, unsacred hearts, up the empire
Okay, now that CMJ is good and over, let’s take a look back at a few highlights.
Of course, Saturday night was the StereoactiveNYC/Hot Rocks Party Official CMJ Showcase, co-sponsored by DigitalFreedom.org. In case you missed our wrap-ups, here they are:
PART ONE: Chop Shop, The Secret Life Of Sofia, Gold Streets
PART TWO: Mancino, Man In Gray, A Place To Bury Strangers
PART THREE: Up The Empire, El Jezel, The Vandelles
And here’s some other coverage of the show we’ve seen so far:
Metromix New York
CMJ
EarFarm
The Culture Of Me
The Sky Report
Flickr.com – EarFarm
Flickr.com – Jenny Fireballs
Flickr.com – Subinev
Flickr.com – LPSlogan
Flickr.com – Annie Rock
Now on to some of what we managed to catch earlier in the week…
(photo by Bryan Bruchman)
On Tuesday, we checked out a good portion of the Serious Business Records showcase at Pianos. First up was Benji Cossa, who impressed us with his vocal abilities. But our ears really stood up at attention during the second half of the set, which featured a full backing band made up mostly of members of Rocketship Park (above). No surprise then that Rocketship Park’s own set immediately after that blew us away. Their country rock sound was just what we wanted to hear and the pedal steel guitar through most of set was especially gorgeous sounding. We can hardly wait to hear the album they’ve been working on over there at Serious Business.
(photo by Bryan Bruchman)
Next up was The Two Man Gentlemen Band (above). It had been much too long since we’d seen them play. Their old time, rootsy country tunes and stage antics had the place mesmerized and the duo — accompanied by Travis Harrison on percussion, so actually it was a trio — had the crowd eating out of their hands like nothing we’ve ever seen before. It was truly exceptional. Plus the new material, including a raucous song about President William Howard Taft, from their next album was really great.
(photo by Bryan Bruchman)
Then it was time for the Unsacred Hearts (above), playing for the first time since May. And speaking of raucous, the stage was basically treated like one of those inflatable moon-jump things you see at carnivals and the drumset was like a min-trampoline with frontman Joe Willie leaping on and off it at will. But while this was all entertaining, it was, of course, the music that really rocked the place, just as it would again the next night at Matchless.
Then it was on to the Industrial Park Records showcase at The Tank, where we caught Higgins (above) for the first time in a while. Their sixties styles psych-tinged indie pop was a great was a great way to end the night. Notably, the set was the fourth of the night for drummer Brian Kantor, who’d played with John Biz just before and with Rocketship Park and Benji Cossa earlier at the Serious Business showcase.
(photo by EarFarm)
Wednesday night, at the EarFarm“>EarFarm & Serious Business CMJ Party at Matchless, we caught the Unsacred Hearts again and finally caught a full set of Goes Cube (above). Their heavy, loud brand of indie rock left us wanting more, so we’ll be checking them out again very soon.
(photo by Insky)
Thursday night at the Deli Magazine/Going.com party at Galapagos, we checked out a band recommended to us by Marta DeLeon of Lariats. We’d listened to a few Beat The Devil (above) tracks online, but just weren’t prepared for the sheer ferocity of their live show and the amount of classic and garage rock sensibility mixed in with the cabaret vibe the mp3s seemed to showcase quite a lot more of. And we have to say that singer Shilpa Ray has a powerhouse voice.
On Friday, we caught a little bit of Eagle Seagull’s set at the Indaba Music/Underrated Magazine loft party and hope to see more of them soon. Then it was off to another loft party featuring Kinetic and Looker, along with Man In Gray and Up The Empire. The new wave sound of Looker was fun and great for the party vibe. And the more psyched-out indie pop of Kinetic was more great stuff we look forward to hearing more of soon.
Tags:
a place to bury strangers,
beat the devil,
chopshop,
el jezel,
goes cube,
gold streets,
Higgins,
hot rocks party,
mancino,
rocketship park,
the secret life of sofia,
the two man gentlemen band,
the vandelles,
unsacred hearts,
up the empire 
