Zambri - "W/Somebody (The Model Remix)"

If Kevin Shields produced a pop album with dueling female vocals, it'd probably sound like Zambri. For the past couple of years, the New York quintet has been creating a sound that combines equal parts funky dance pop and dark, cavernous shoegaze rock. This sounds like a musical oxymoron. Coming from complete opposite sides of the spectrum, shoegaze is defined by its dark mood and often confrontational soundscapes, while the purest pop is energetic, fun, and easy to swallow.

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Everyone has a different take on, and different approach to CMJ. The NYC-based music festival can be a smorgasbord for passionate and adventurous music fans with enough energy and curiosity to stay up to all hours of the night seeing band after band, many of which they’ve never seen before. It can be an incredible game of Russian roulette. For every great band to be discovered, there’s five mediocre ones there to drain the showgoing life out of you. Six chambers, 5 bullets—is that a chance you’re willing to take? That’s a testament to the power of music.

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Every year hundreds of good up and coming bands play the CMJ Music Marathon, and every year the media jumps on the bandwagon of the same five to 10 bands, while a load of other great bands become overlooked because of the media's inability to think for themselves. This is not to say recent festival favorites like Crystal Antlers, Passion Pit, Dan Deacon, Muslims (Soft Pack), Monotonix and Black Kids weren't good, but they were basically the only bands out of hundreds that anyone was talking about.  Today is day 1 of CMJ, and people are just picking up their badges but thanks to all of the blog hype preceding the festival, I'm already sick of hearing about these 10 "must-see" bands...

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After scouring northern Colorado by foot and air, frantically chasing a Mylar balloon for miles and repeatedly interviewing his big brother, authorities ended the search for 6-year-old Falcon Heene where it began -- at his house.

He was in a box. In the attic. The whole time. —as reported by CNN

All day today people kept up to date with the continuing saga of Falcon, a young boy who had apparently set adrift in a hot air balloon. All over the internet people were twittering, facebooking, and blogging all about "balloon boy." We found out that his family had been on Wife Swap not once but twice. We worried about his safety, and wondered why we hadn't done this as kids.

Amused by the whole spectacle, Paul & The Patients lead singer Paul Holmes wrote a song in honor of Falcon titling it "Hot Air Balloon."

Paul Holmes - "Hot Air Balloon"

Not long after, it was discovered that Falcon had actually been hiding in a cardboard box in the attic, Holmes jumped at the chance to write the follow up, "Cardboard Box."

Paul Holmes - "Cardboard Box"

Paul & The Patients will be playing multiple shows during next week's CMJ Music Marathon. Maybe they'll even play one of these 2 brand new songs.

Wednesday, October 21st @ Southpaw
Friday, October 23rd @Arlene's Grocery

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When searching for a way to describe local band The Stationary Set, I can't help but think of the word emo, but thanks to terrible whiny bands in eyeliner, the term emo—once associated with a melodic breed of bands whose song structure often shifted from soft and delicate to loud and epic, and whose lyrics took an intelligently emotional approach—may now forever be tainted.

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For Nouvelle Vague's third record, appropriately titled 3, the French music collective has added a special twist to its bossa nova covers of classic new wave and punk tunes. This time, the band has managed to recruit such legendary performers as Ian McCulloch and Martin Gore to perform re-arranged versions of their own tunes. The first single released is cover Depeche Mode's "Master & Servant" performed as a duet with Martin Gore and it kicks serious ass. Check it out.

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Back in the old days when there was money in the music industry, crazy shit was happening backstage and girls were having sex with bands a lot. Groupies stirred around backstage waiting to give blow jobs to singers and guitar players, and to a less extent drummers and bassists. Not so much the keyboard player.

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"If this is the world we helped create, then I apologize."

Those are the words of James Suptic, guitarist of The Get Up Kids, spoken in front of a crowd at a recent show, renouncing the emo genre that they were once a major part of, the emo genre that is now overflowing with total trash.

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Opening with a dramatic violin, fun’s debut record, Aim & Ignite, gives a hint of a sadder side of Nate Ruess, but before long opener “Be Calm” explodes with the type of fanfare that acts as a reminder of former singer of The Format’s gift for shedding a bright light over a cloudy day. From that moment on, Aim & Ignite is a summer record, filled with a refreshingly charming pop sensibility that draws from the ’60s with an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink aesthetic and killer harmonies. (And check out a video below!)

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"Do ears deceive or is it tongues that bleed/ Our mouths taste stale like we've been chewing on iron bars/ We sustain/ On a diet of moldy bread and gruel," sings Gavin Dunaway on the opening verse of Libel's debut album opener "We Sustain," immediately establishing a strong literary foundation, followed by "We aim to please with our symphony/ But we shan't bother to tune the instruments/ We sustain/ A note that went flat some time ago/ We sustain/ A vision we've long known is lies." But this isn't a band who doesn't tune and doesn't play flat notes. Libel is part of a much needed revival of technically proficient rock bands whose influences come from a time when bands like Jawbox, Sunny Day Real Estate and Shudder to Think were kings, or damn well should have been.

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