I decided to start my first night of CMJ off with a local band I'd seen before and liked, but which had never really managed to garner the buzz they deserve: The Unsacred Hearts. Unfortunately, their showcase was running late so I saw Saadi instead before running off to try to catch Die! Die! Die! This band was a little too mellow for my taste but it was a pleasant, female-fronted affair with pop harmonies and a vaguely tropical flavor to some songs. Extra points for using a xylophone and a triangle. The one song that stuck in my head afterwards was the last one, a Dylan (via Joan Baez) cover, "Daddy, You Been on My Mind." Singer Saadi Al Bashra (ex-Looker) used live loops of her own voice to make pretty, haunting harmonies with herself.
Next I hoofed it over to the Red Bull Space to try to see Die! Die! Die! However, I had not accounted for the fact that I was trying to see a band in a douchey walk-in commercial with free everything, so I ended up hearing their entire set all muffled as I stood in line. Boo-urns! Once I got inside, though, I figured I should see who was next. While I waited, I succumbed to the disgusting temptation and drank a complimentary Redbull and vodka, which made me feel disgustingly, frighteningly good.
The next band turned out to be a fun rap group called Kidz in Space. They were able to get the stupid crowd at least somewhat into it, which was impressive, and I adored their refrain of "fit me on your dance card...your dance card." Finally some gentlemanly behavior in hip-hop!
I then scurried over to Santos Party House in time to catch Flexions, who were an interesting combination of angular, dramatic, tropical and surfy. They brought a girl up to sing on their last song, which dropped the weird shit and decided to just be a samba.
Upstairs, Lovvers played one of their 50 billions shows this week (or at least it felt that way with all the buzz they've gotten). Totally competent garage rock that did not stick in my head afterwards and was not quite as good as Wavves. I got the sense they know what the stakes are here; they played seriously, like they were trying hard not to fuck up their chances of CMJ-launched stardom. I feel bad for them already for all the backlash they're going to get from all the buzz they did not ask for.
Le Rug was easily my favorite act of the day. This band is 2/3 of Fiasco (Jonathan and Julian) plus singer/multi-instrumentalist Ray Weiss. They are jumpy and twitchy and punky and post-punky and faux-mathy and lo-fi: pretty much everything that makes me want to fling myself around despite being very tired. When the opening lines of "Pat Buchanan" pinged out, I got really excited. Weiss has a combo of aggression and not giving a fuck (and a little bit of screechiness) that makes for a great punk front man. Unfortunately, the back room at 107 Suffolk is not exactly the most professionally run venue and the power kept cutting out 30 seconds into their songs. They tried approximately five times before getting frustrated and giving up. Then someone figured out how to fix it and they got to play one whole song. "We're not playing in Manhattan again until we play Madison Square Garden," Weiss said to his bandmates upon leaving. I think this is a good plan, for such material is really best heard at a sweaty Brooklyn house party anyway.
