CMJ 2010: The DiS Review

The 30th anniversary of the annual CMJ Music Marathon brought plenty of surprises. Daft Punk and Phoenix jammed on a Close Encounters of the Third Kind riff at Madison Square Garden, Pitchfork set up its rival #Offline festival and got Kanye West to appear, and the hotly tipped Glasser had to endure a power cut at the Fader Fort and a raid by the cops in Greenpoint. In amongst the chaos, DiS sent Amanda Farah and Nick Neyland to investigate the five-day event in New York City.

Read full article here.

Screaming Females and JEFF the Brotherhood at Bowery Ballroom

You know you’re doing something right when fans start chanting your name before you’ve even struck a note. So it was on Saturday night when Nashville’s JEFF the Brotherhood took to the stage at the Bowery Ballroom, mid-way through a seven-band bill assembled to celebrate the mighty Don Giovanni Records.Singer Jake Orrall began the set dressed in leather and teetering on the top of a stack of amps, ending it 30 minutes later amid the sinewy limbs of sweaty stage divers and an exuberantly bludgeoned mosh pit. In between, we got bone-gnawing riffage, never-ending smiles from Jake’s brother Jamin, on drums, and a set of songs that are surely about to propel their quirky take on Neanderthal rock tropes to a wider audience. Judging from the front row here, that process is already well underway.

Read full article here.

Gang Gang Dance and DJ/Rupture at Music Hall of Williamsburg

The appearance of DJ/Rupture (AKA Jace Clayton) as a support act to Gang Gang Dance illustrated the sharp divide in the headline act’s audience. Half of the crowd was made up of tranced-out club kids who were happy to dance to a mix that includes the old (Aaliyah’s still-radiant “We Need a Resolution”) and the new (Joy Orbison’s all-encompassing “Hyph Mngo”). Meanwhile, the indie rock contingent stared blankly at the stage, feeling short-changed at having a DJ as an opening act and hoping none of the revelers spill their beer.

Read full article here.

Crystal Stilts, Grass Widow and The Beets at The Brooklyn Museum

The ornate Rubin Pavilion at the Brooklyn Museum wasn’t designed to host a bunch of scruffy indie rockers, but that’s exactly what it got for a special Todd-P-curated show on Saturday. A marching band, a group of choreographed flag wavers and an impressive baton twirler all performed in between sets, while museum workers flitted around and nervously eyed the Rodin sculptures roped off near the stage.

Read full article here.

CMJ Days 4 & 5: The Drowned in Sound Review

It’s a beautiful Friday afternoon in Brooklyn, and a few world-weary souls have headed over to the Knitting Factory for the Village Voice showcase. New Thrill Jockey signings Javelin play to a barely mobile crowd, even offering to do a Q&A if anyone gets bored. Thankfully, there’s no need, as their shrill vocals and glitchy electronica brighten up the small audience. Javelin are likely to make a far greater impact when they get a chance to play at a decent time to a bigger crowd.

Read full article here.

CMJ Days 1, 2 & 3: The Drowned in Sound Review

Our first stop is at Le Poisson Rouge to see Bradford Cox in his Atlas Sound guise. Cox straps on an acoustic guitar, occasional harmonica, and a plaid shirt, and is backed by fellow Atlanta residents The Selmanaires. Is Bradford trying out a few Neil Young moves? There’s certainly a huge Crazy Horse-style guitar solo that rips right through one of the songs in this Logos-centric set, although the downbeat tone positions him closer to Tonight’s the Night than Ragged Glory. It’s a shift away from Cox’s recorded work under the Atlas Sound moniker, which might be a surprise to anyone expecting straightforward replication, but actually provides a neat counterpoint to the recorded versions of these songs. ‘Shelia’ is one of the best pop songs of 2009, and positively burns a hole through the venue when it emerges mid-set.

Read full article here.

Sonic Youth on Jimmy Fallon: Report From the Band Bench

We cover a lot of band performances from late night talk shows here on Prefix. So I thought we should take it to the next level and actually attend one of the shows and report back from there. I scored a couple of tickets for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last week, figuring they have the best range of musical guests of all the talk shows. Last night (June 22) I made the trip to 30 Rock, where Fallon’s guests included John Leguizamo, Nick Cannon and Sonic Youth. These were ‘Band Bench’ tickets, meaning I would be ushered onto the bleachers behind the stage when Sonic Youth played, with instructions to “go crazy” from one of Fallon’s producers.

Read full article here.

Northside Festival Coverage

Sisters look great—drummer Matt has a huge afro that rocks back and forth as he pummels his drums, and the stack of amps acts like a third member of the band. It certainly causes people up front to question the validity of their decision to stand so close to the stage when singer/guitarist Aaron begins scraping great sheets of noise from his instrument. They lack the thinness that some two-piece bands discover when all the bass frequencies are stripped from their music, and have a great pop-noise thing going on. Imagine a punky My Bloody Valentine with John Bonham on drums. Sisters trigger an instant reflex to dance and sing in half the audience, and some of the widest smiles of the entire festival can be seen when two little grunge kids join the mosh pit at the end. A special moment.

Read Day One here
Read Day Two here
Read Day Three here
Read Day Four here

TV On The Radio/Dirty Projectors in Central Park: Live Review

The last time Dirty Projectors played a big outdoor show in New York was in downtown Manhattan last summer. A huge lightning storm played out in the sky behind the stage, providing the type of backdrop the members of AC/DC have spent their entire careers dreaming about. A remarkable act of synergy occurred just before the plugs were pulled on the show. Singer/guitarist Dave Longstreth jumped into the air and hit the stage at the precise moment that a huge bolt of lightning struck behind him. It may have been the most rock and roll moment of any show, ever.

Read full article here.