On Thursday I had to wake up pretty early in order to get to the city on time for College Radio Day! My friend Keri was in the Music Director’s panel, so I arrived around 11:30AM at NYU. The moderator was pretty horrendous. She pretty much spoke for each of her panel. When I stepped out of the room she apparently answered a question directed at a specific person on the stage with “there isn’t enough time so I will just answer it.” Also, she said everything I already knew about the position. During lunch, a band called Memphis Pencils played. I kind of felt bad for them because they played in front of the one audience that would critique them the hardest – college radio DJs. I didn’t see anything super special about them, but they did have eight guys and a lot of different instruments including a xylophone, banjo, horns, and a trash can. They reminded me of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, a band that had played a previous CMJ. Their guitarist did throw out animal crackers, and the banjo player had a giraffe shirt, complete with spots and a tail on the back which did make them unique nonetheless.
Afterwards, I left and attended two panels. The first one wasn’t too interesting although I wish it was. It was called Lifestyle Marketing. It basically dealt with different ways to market to your audience. The most interesting panel member spoke of dealing with artists by sponsoring them with wine and each year playing a festival at the winery in California. I left and went to another panel that focused on social marketing. A popular topic, especially with today’s society relying on MySpace and Facebook, I felt like it would be interesting mainly because I am currently managing a band and the market is different than when I used to play. Some of the advice was to not clutter your page with so many widgets but rather give them [the people] something to come back to, maybe something special. After the panel discussion was over I got a chance to chat with my buddy Steve of Punchline who spoke on the panel. It was nice to see him again and I spoke of that I’d be seeing his band in the coming weeks since I booked them at Vibe Lounge in Rockville Centre soon.
The major event for the day was the Knitting Factory, or the Photo Finish Records Showcase. The label has done massive things in the past year and a half since signing their first act Envy on the Coast, fellow Long Islanders and friends. They were the headlining band but I got there early to check everyone else out. The show was sold out, and was finally one worth staying for the entire thing. I also got a chance to see a ton of friends from my town and neighboring areas. I walked in to a surprise – I saw a band called Sparks the Rescue that I had worked with a couple years ago. They sounded as tight as ever. I unfortunately walked in on their last song and a half. Immediately after them was a band called Fighting with Wire from Ireland. I don’t know how they got on the show, but they were so awesome. They were a heavier punk band, a three-piece. They thanked the crowd, and America, a ton. Friday Night Boys from Maryland played directly after them. They were a lot poppier then the previous two but still catered to most of the teenage girl population. I didn’t watch them very much; I was too busy grabbing some drink specials with a bunch of friends. Recover played next, which was probably one of the bigger acts on the show. It was surprising to see they played in the middle. They are a post-hardcore band, along the lines of the Sleeping. They were solid, mainly because it was their reunion show. They announced the audience that they would be back in full force and the crowd cheered loudly. It was wild to see how the crowd changed dramatically from the last band to this one. 3OH!3, a rap-rock group, played a weird set. They played some pop-rock songs as well, and had a lot of friends on stage. Apparently, I missed this, Martin of Boys Like Girls fame, was on stage singing along. The last two acts were who most of the folks came out for – Envy on the Coast and Anthony Green (featuring Good Old War on backing band.) EOTC played a brand new song that got the crowd very pumped up for the rest of their set. Anthony Green was on way too late, I thought, so I left toward the end of his set. Another long train ride home, because tomorrow was going to be the longest day ever.
On Friday, I took an early train to NYC in order to reach some panels I wanted to get to. It basically showed me how bitter NY really is. I had a man talk in my ear for the entire train ride. Every other word was an expletive. It seemed like he was pissed off at about everyone. One of my favorite quotes that he had with another man was, “well all of my felonies expired.” However, the other man replied with “if you get arrested, we’ll see how well they expired.” I laughed discreetly. I got in at 11AM and was able to catch the panel that featured some A&R Reps, moderated by Matt Pinfield of RXP. Basically, they talked about what they did then mentioned how to get in the face of these reps. The half-full room listened with pure excitement because most were in bands themselves. The last 30 minutes featured them picking out different artists that submitted demos and critiqued them. It was reminiscent of an American Idol-style without performing live for the judges. All I thought was how these guys could tell the aspiring artists how it is to their faces without completely destroying their self esteem. I’ll be honest, I probably only heard one good demo of all of them.
Once the panel let out, over 15 minutes late, I took a subway downtown to Pianos for the Planetary party. I had a good time. The place was two floors, a live stage on the first floor and an acoustic stage on the second. I checked out some of the acoustic acts since they began first, but I really came to see Anarbor, a band from Arizona, that recently played a venue I work with. They played some pop rock that seemed pretty good, nothing different then the other couple thousand bands are playing. Keri, Christine, my friend George, and I left and went over to Fontana’s for another private party hosted by Pirate, another promoter of our radio station. I saw a ton of people I knew, most of which I met this past week, and was introduced to some new faces. We also got a ton of free drink tickets from the host of the party, our friend Doug. This was probably my favorite party because I got a whole bag of free stuff including three T-shirts and stickers. I also played Keri in pool and lost miserably. As the clock ticked, we ran out around 5:45 to head to Highline Ballroom for what I knew would be the highlight of the festival for me anyway, Saves the Day/Kevin Devine/Moneen. The bouncers at the club were a lot ruder then most – and kept the CMJ badges out a lot longer than were supposed to. Because of this, I missed Moneen, a band from Canada that I enjoy. I got inside and caught Kevin Devine who, for the first time for me, played with a full band. A Brooklynite, he sang a lot of sad songs with upbeat music and strumming on his acoustic guitar. Once he finished up I had to push to the front, which wasn’t too hard, to get as close as I could for Saves the Day. I wasn’t too impressed with the beginning of their set since they played songs mainly off of their newest album Under the Boards. I was quickly pleased when they started ripping out old songs from their fan-favorite Through Being Cool. The band also played a track off of Can’t Slow Down, which was their first record as STD. The band ended after an encore at approximately 9:30PM – probably the earliest concert I have ever been to. Perez Hilton was the reason, because he was holding an after party for his group weird followers. I knew that I wanted to end CMJ on a high note and decided to grab the next train back home. I was sad because I knew that my first-time experience was over – but I knew that only meant less than a year for CMJ to begin again.
Filed under: A&E Beat , A&E Beat, Anthony Dobrini, CMJ Festival, Music
