CMJ Music Marathon
Day 1
October 16, 2007
New York, NY
Words: Cameron Cook
Photos: Abbey Braden

Full disclosure: day one of the 27th Annual CMJ Music Marathon was a total bust. After waiting in line for about 70 million years to get our badges, we ran over to the Whole Foods (glamour!) on answer emails on the fly and put together our schedule for the rest of the week. We completely missed The Deadly Syndrome at Pianos, though we heard from various sources that they rocked to a tiny afternoon crowd.

The first band of the evening was Syme (7PM at Ace of Clubs), a Norwegian five piece that confirm our theory that just about everything from Scandinavia is awesome. Half of their songs sounded like Radiohead, the other half like some sort of rocked-out Bjork. We guess it didn't help that the front man had a Sigur Ros sticker on his guitar and they basically all looked like testosterone-addled vikings, but it made for an enjoyable spectacle.

So this is where the night got fucked up. We left Syme's show early to make Miracle Fortress's 8PM performance at Bowery... only to discover that the much-acclaimed Canadian band were not on the bill. Awesome... not. After a few minutes of investigation (i.e. asking the promoter)m it turned out that Miracle weren't let into the country due to "inadequate paperwork". Nice to see Homeland Security are doing their job keeping good bands out of the country.

So we stuck around the Bowery a little to check out Shaky Hands, a Portland band that have been making waves around the blogospehre (we can't believe we just said that). While we thought the songs were well written and structured, we realized, at that exact moment, how tired we are of every single band sounding like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and/or the Arcade Fire. We're ready for some new sounds, America.

Second disappointment of the evening: after hauling ass to Arlene's Grocery for NYC disco-divas High Class Elite, it turns out that they, um... didn't show up. We DID get to see French glam rockers Neimo though, who we caught last spring when they played a string of NYC shows. They play really fun party anthems with COMPLETELY INDECIPHERABLE LYRICS. Makes for a lovely jump around though, we must say.

After Neimo, we ran over to 200 Orchard for the official 'Sup showcase with our homies The Bangers, Lauren Flax, Mr. Headphones and The Black Ghosts! We're going to be honest, much of this party is a blur, as the vodka and Sparks (...) abounded, but we vaguely remember Simon from Black Ghosts jumping into the crowd to perform their flagship single "Anyway You Choose To Give It" shortly before we blacked out in a pool of our own vomit.

We are so hungover. More CMJ to come tomorrow!