No Rock And Roll Fun

TOUCHING THE CMJ THROUGH THE SCREEN: A quick round-up of the huge CMJ event in New York, as seen by various websites and blogs:
Spin got rather excited by one of the showcases, which admittedly did feature the Donnas; it also played host to Dogs Die In Hot Cars who strike us as the sort of band you'd go and see on an occasion when there weren't five thousand other acts to go and sample in the same city. Besides, is it right of Spin to enthuse over its own showcase? Quite so much?



The CMJ is a time for heroes - Living The Dream, one Garage At A Time got to see Brian Wilson on a panel and, in their own words, "lost their shit"; which is kind of what Twinkle Twinkle Blah Blah Blah would be getting at when she suggested there wouldn't be a dry panty in NYC Bloggerland - her own moment came when she saw Richard Buckner. Gothamist caught Lou Barlow's solo and acoustic set: "we were nearly lulled to sleep (in a good way)"; they jerked themselves awake for the 1 am Arcade Fire Set - they were "like they had just discovered the world and were showing us what they were seeing." Stereogum were also there: "Helmets, silkscreened blazers, an accordian, blood (Win had a guitar mishap early in the set) ... these guys know how to put on a show." (They've also got the pictures to prove it).

Justin Gaynor, meanwhile, is enthusing over Straylight Run; Verbose Coma got to see Dolorean - didn't look like they were expecting; the audience was small; but sounded astonishing, by all accounts.

At the other side of the stage, Nom from Rescue was fretting before their show that they'd been a bit loose on the current tour. Anyone see them? How did they do?

Finally, we had hoped that the clamour of young girls in tight tshirts and boys with badly applied make-up might have given The Minor Fall, The Major Lift a spark to re-ignite. Nope. Not a word. But surely there's no life beyond blogging, is there?