CMJ Diary 2006
Text: Cameron Cook
Photos: Abbey Braden

Day 1: Tuesday, October 31, 2006

CMJ. It seems like both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, you have the prospect of seeing loads and loads of the hottest-tipped bands of the upcoming year, parties and free booze galore, and more late-night funtimes than you can shake a Horror at. On the other hand, the tax on your physical and mental well being is nothing short of criminal. Seriously, we are ALL deathly ill. We will never, ever make fun of a celebrity for claiming "exhaustion" EVER again.

Our journey began at 11am on Tuesday, when we went to Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center to pick up our badges. First off can we say, heaviest goodie bags ever. We love us some goodies, but what one is expected to do with 900 lbs. of postcards, we're not super sure. There was a Public Enemy CD though, which is always appreciated over here at 'Sup HQ.

After spending all day at our real jobs, we were stoked to hit up some shows, and our first stop was The Cardigan's acoustic set at the Knitting Factory. We've always been huge fans of the band, and lead singer Nina Persson was looking as lovely and elvin as ever. She and guitarist Peter Svensson (the Swede-ness is almost unbearable!) only performed songs from their last two albums, Long Gone Before Daylight and Super Extra Gravity. It sort of made us long for some Life/Gran Turismo stuff, but hey, beggars can't be choosers! We were just happy to see the band in any sort of capacity at all.

After, we headed over to The Annex to hear our buddies in The Creature DJ. Most of the club-goers were in full Halloween regalia (props go out to Joe Creature for his guido costume), and it seemed fitting when our fucking favorite new electro band took the stage at 11pm: Crystal Castles. Oh God, how much do we love this band. Like a dancier version of Mommy and Daddy, or Bis on E, or DFA1979 with way more Korgs. This time next year, this band will be huge, mark our words.

Day 2: Wednesday, November 1, 2006

The big show on Wednesday night was without question, The Knife at Webster Hall. With not one but two sold-out shows, and tickets going on Craigslist for $250, everyone and their mother was lining up around the block to get the "good spots". As we all know that music industry types are spoilt, elitist fucks, this goes as a pretty strong testament to the band's critical popularity. Performing between two screens with simultaneous projections, siblings Olof and Karin Dreijer took part in a stage show that was less a concert, and more a twisted children's musical. With projected, floating heads singing along. And frog masks. The show-stopper was "Kino", a track off of the band's self-titled debut that morphed from kind-of-dancey album track to a full-on 5-minute rave. A revelation.

Day 3: Thursday, November 2, 2006
The night started early with Shy Child at Webster Hall, opening for Gang Gang Dance and Hot Chip. We've seen Shy Child many times before (most recently at Club Modular, where the frontman tried--and failed--to play a solo while balancing his keytar on the palm of his hand). Shy Child always entertain, and the few new songs they performed at Webster expanded their ghetto Daft Punk style by 100. We tried to stay at Webster a while longer to check out GGD, but had to bust out early to be at Bowery in time for CSS. While their Sub Pop Showcase performance, sandwiched between Oxford Collapse (who me missed :( ) and the Thermals, was n;t as string as the shows they put on supporting Ladytron a few weeks ago, but goddamn if 50% of CSS isn't as good as 150% of most bands. They rushed through most of their debut album, Cansei de Ser Sexy (not going to translate, you know what it means) in the allotted 30 minutes, the crown jewel of which being "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above" and song which is about as god as music can get. Singer Lovefoxxx only stage-dived once (and avoided walking on people's heads like at their Apple Store instore earlier in the week), but the crows energy was at a high. The show ended just in time for us to run down to Mercury Lounge to check out Leeds four-piece Forward, Russia!. While not as packed as their mind-altering set at the same venue last June, the Russians on a more-than-respectable show.

More to come sooooon once we have a moment!

CSS

THE KNIFE

CRYSTAL CASTLES