CMJ 2009: Thursday

Emanuel and The Fear

The NYCTaper 2009 CMJ Day Party was exactly what I wanted: reasonable crowd, bar stool, great bands. Bruar Falls is a festival venue for me, having been exactly twice since it opened. I have no idea what it is like on a regular weekend, but so far at Northside and now CMJ, I think it might be one of my favorites.

Dan from NYCTAPER put on a great show. My only complaint is that it started at noon! C'mon Dan! I wrote it in my schedule, with a couple of underlines, but no amount of will was going to get me to Unicycle Loves You at 12:30. I came directly from bed to Brooklyn, just in time for Blood Warrior at 3:30.

I see the guy from Blood Warrior everywhere. I had a nap just now, and I saw him in my dream. I don't know what to make of it, but I can't call anything "haunting" anymore without being punished for my past imprecision. Blood Warrior is classified cruelly as "indie folk." I loved it.







Emanuel and The Fear was on my radar when the fest started - I had heard their S/T EP while I was previewing bands. I also think Emanuel looks exactly like Gustavo Dudamel, a gross misconception made more poignant by the fact that he does indeed conduct his own mini-orchestra. "Mini" by Dudamel standards is still a whopping 11 indie rock players by any other measure; 11 distinct instruments, all kept together extremely well. A very impressive and movable wall of sound, with no mud at all. The Bruar Falls sound guys did a great job. I was discussing the pros and cons of old schoolbuses (rather than "old-school" buses) with their label rep; I am sure ours wasn't the first conversation he'd had about that.





As Emanuel finished up, I contemplated leaving Bruar Falls. Quickly, I realized that what I was doing / saying was no longer valid. I was in no condition to make any decisions. Luckily pure laziness kept me in my seat; I had no idea that Motel Motel were playing at all, let alone next. Hearing murmurs of this sparked me to squint the schedule (rather, I asked someone else to get up and look at if for me). Realizing that a sendentary afternoon at the same bar stool was all that was in the cards for me, I relaxed and felt good about being the sort of person who is always keen to accept the undebatable.



Kittens Ablaze. Fine. It's one of those band names. Everyone goes to at least one show based on a name that you want to add to the list purely for dimension. "I saw Sponge, Cake, Ebb, Hole, Kittens Ablaze, and Johnny Diamond." Confronted with this, your detractors cannot help but acknowledge indeed, what a well rounded human being you are. Kittens Ablaze also happens to be really good - I thought they were extremely good - so go and see them for that too.







Buy Blood Warrior's records!!
Buy Emanuel And The Fear's records!!
Buy Motel Motel's records!!
Buy Kittens Ablaze's records!!