Last week's four-day CMJ Music Marathon in New York took over more than 50 venues in Manhattan. Industry types know that the annual music summit hosted by College Music Journal invites hundreds of music makers, record labels and media to check out the hottest buzz bands and celebrate all that's trendy and hep in the world of tunes.
This year's CMJ Music Marathon was its usual hodgepodge, consisting of showcases by stalwarts and up-and-comers in alt-rock, roots rock and hip-hop. It also offered conversations with Yoko Ono and controversial roots rocker Steve Earle, who talked about his turbulent career, politics and the state of the music industry.
The conference's keynote address was by former MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, one of the fathers of punk rock in the late 1960s.
I footed (and cabbed) around the Big Apple, taking in as many acts as I could. Here's what I found:
BUZZ BANDS: The word on the street was loud about early 1980s goth throwbacks the Rapture (think of The Cure), raucous Mars Volta (formed from the ashes of Texas' critically acclaimed At the Drive-In), Brit-American male-female duo the Kills, singer-songwriter Josh Ritter, excellent alt-rockers the Shins, Canadian multi-instrumentalist ensemble Broken Social Scene and British Mercury Prize winner Turin Brakes.
BAND MOST DESERVING OF BUZZ: The clamor does not cease about Kentucky's awesome My Morning Jacket. And it shouldn't. The roots rock quartet, tapped to play CMJ's opening-night party, wears its influences on its sleeve but has a sound all its own. MMJ blends grand, sweeping compositions (a la Radiohead) with fuzzed-out guitar and singer Jim James' sweet, emotive voice, which sounds eerily like Neil Young's. Horns crash in, country tunes shuffle and twist into rhythm and blues; it's sprawling, dark in spots, with blasts of light, like running through the woods. Now that's music.
OVERHYPED BAND: It was bound to happen. We've been celebrating the return of no-frills garage rock ( White Stripes, the Strokes) and its scruffy stars. Make way for Jet, an Australian quartet that's described in the CMJ guide as "brash," playing "blue collar guitar riffs." Sure, Jet's first radio single, Are You Gonna Be My Girl?, is fun, but check out the rest of Get Born, the band's debut, and it quickly drifts, as did its CMJ set, into blandy-land. Jet comes across not as garage rock, but as a corporate rock marketing suit's idea of what garage rock should be. It's like manufactured scruff. (Besides, describing a guitar riff as "blue collar" - what idiot PR person came up with that? All guitar riffs are blue collar, unless you're Andres Segovia, or you're in King Crimson, or some prog rock band.)
BAND YOU CAN TAKE HOME TO MOTHER: Stars, from Canada, was my favorite CMJ discovery. The band features boy-girl vocals, keyboards, saxophone, drums and the grooviest bass ever. The music is soulful and sophisticated, like 1960s Burt Bacharach, and danceable. The lyrics are hopelessly romantic, and Torquil Campbell, the guy singer, isn't afraid to clutch his gut and contort his face, looking like a love-struck dope onstage. I LOVE THIS BAND! (Stars has two albums out, 2001's Nightsongs and this year's Heart. Psssst, perfect date music.)
BALLYHOOED REUNION BAND: Lots of folks were excited about the 25-year reunion performance by British band Echo and the Bunnymen, best known for the MTV hits Lips Like Sugar and Bring On The Dancing Horses.
MORE OLD FRIENDS: Remember these big names from the 1980s: Michelle Shocked, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Killing Joke? They all performed.
BANDS WITH TAMPA BAY AREA CONNECTIONS: Tampa's the Washdown performed at the legendary CBGB. Burnside Project played a spunky showcase at Acme Underground. Sure, the band lists New York as its home, but who's that on guitar and keyboards? Gerald Hammill, formerly of St. Petersburg. Hammill was a staple of the local music scene for more than a decade, performing with I.C.U., the Catherine Wheel, Edison Shine and Spacious International before moving to New York in 2000.
ODDEST CELEBRITY BAND: Who was that performing in a yellow jumpsuit at Warsaw? Hollywood star Juliette Lewis and her band, the Licks. Lewis isn't alone. Gina Gershon, whose new flick, Prey For Rock & Roll, aired at CMJ, has begun a rock career. Gershon has been playing gigs around New York, backed by the members of alt-rock band Girls Against Boys. (No, they didn't perform at CMJ. Maybe next year.)
LONGEST MONIKER: Everyone's favorite former Wu Tang Clan rapper with the ever-changing name had to be billed as:
Dirt McGirt
a.k.a. Big Baby Jesus
a.k.a. ODB
a.k.a. Ol' Dirty Bastard
SISTERS ARE DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES: Martha Wainwright (yes, sister of Rufus) performed at the Living Room. At Irving Plaza: Brassy, fronted by indefatigable Muffin Spencer, sister of Jon Spencer of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. (Some in our area were lucky to catch Brassy on Monday night at the Green Room in Jannus Landing. You ain't seen nothing until you've experienced funky, rappin', guitar-toting Muffin Spencer onstage, yo.)
BANDS WITH PUNNY NAMES: the Deathray Davies, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, John Wilkes Booze, and, er, Bongzilla.
BAND WITH A 9-YEAR-OLD DRUMMER: The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players are the only mom-dad-daughter trio in New York that performs while showing a slide show of other families' vacation pictures it purchases at estate sales. The Players' drummer is Rachel Pina Trachtenburg, 9.
BAND WHOSE KEYBOARDIST DATES A FINALIST FROM "AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL': Marty Crandall, keyboardist for the Shins of Albuquerque, N.M., is boyfriend to ill-tempered, Jonas Salk-worshipping Elyse Sewell, the third runner-up. (Elyse wore the band's T-shirt on several episodes.)
- Gina Vivinetto is the Times' pop music critic. E-mail her at gina@sptimes.com
