Highlights From CMJ '09

by Bob Boilen

I thought I did pretty well, seeing 18 bands in a handful of days. But truth be told, I saw just the smallest fraction of the more than 1,250 bands that played the CMJ Music Marathon last week in New York City.

Here are the standouts:

Patrick Watson - hands down the best performer all week. His band was stellar, and by a stroke of luck, and his good will, we have that entire concert online.

Fool's Gold - If you like African music, especially from Mali and northern Africa, don't worry about this being a Los Angeles-based band. I've already gone on about this band on a previous post. But the guitars are brilliant, and they never use a single effects pedal.

The xx - The most anticipated band at CMJ, The xx was simply fun, with all the emotion of a Kraftwerk concert, completely deadpan. After hearing the record, I'd hoped Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim would interact a good bit with the audience. They've known each other since nursery school for goodness sake and should be really comfortable together. But the truth is, interaction is precisely what they're not about -- not with the audience, nor with each other. I loved Jamie Smith's synth and drumming. I assumed the drumming on the record was simply a machine, and was happy to learn and to watch Jamie as he tapped out each snare hit and cymbal crash on tiny rubbery pads with his fingers, in real time.

Phantogram - Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter have known each other since junior high. He plays guitar, she plays keyboards and sings. This was the one band that I knew nothing about but ended up liking a lot. Nothing new going on here, and like all the bands I saw in Brooklyn Friday night, their drummer was in a box. But the songs seemed well-crafted, the sounds were rich and curious, and the projected imagery was textured and mysterious.

Bands that others loved that didn't really do anything for me:

Golden Silvers - a British band with an '80s pop sound. The crowd at the Bowery Poetry Club loved this band, but the group left me cold.

Mumford and Sons - the British Avett Brothers. If I have room in my heart for only one band like this, I'll pick the Avetts, though Mumford and Sons are a talented band.

Temper Trap - Australian band with a reach toward stadium rock. When the band played "Sweet Disposition" from the film 500 Days of Summer, the crowd at the Music Hall of Williamsburg joined in the singing and went nuts. I was glad it was over.

Other thoughts - The biggest difference between CMJ and SXSW is that CMJ is spread all over the place. The 19 bands I saw from Tuesday to Friday was a small group, compared to Austin. In Austin I could hear three or four songs by one band and go and hear three or four from another. You can't do that as easily at CMJ, and I missed that.

The sound at the CMJ venues, and I think venues in New York City in particular, is consistently great. In Austin a lot of shows are unofficial and a lot of the venues are venues just for the week. You end up with a lot of clubs that make a band sound muddy. Fanfarlo was a band I saw on a rooftop in Austin. The band rose to the occasion, but the sound was awful. In Brooklyn, the sound was always fantastic.

KEXP had a cool set up. They invited bands to a New York studio called The Cutting Room to play some songs and videotape the festivities. You can see and hear much of that over the coming weeks at KEXP, and we'll put a few of my favorites on our blog.

So how about you? Did you attend CMJ? Did you love Temper Trap or Mumford and Sons?

Pass along thoughts and turn us on to something good.

4:25 PM ET | 10-26-2009 | permalink

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