Hum.

So I've been staring at a blinking curser for about a half hour. last week was CMJ. I saw a bunch of music… very little of it, as it turns out, was at official sanctioned CMJ shows. CMJ, as i joked with @mrkvm last week, is the amorphous blob of music festivals. So I feel like what i should be doing is having a big tangent about eighty bands you may or may not have heard of and using the annoying language of the "buzzworthy". That just wasn't my experience.

Here is a brief summary of CMJ by Victor Cerejo from the brilliant blog Street Boners And TV Carnage. I could not have said it better or more succinctly than this tiny gem no matter how hard I try:

http://streetbonersandtvcarnage.com/blog/3-things-i-learned-at-cmj/

So yeah, really. Victor's totally right. No one knows who's playing for the most part. You better make sure they know you're coming. And I suppose it's like SXSW, but it did indeed rain most of last week… WIth temperatures in the 40's at night… So I guess not so much. 

October 19th I roamed around aimlessly for a while. I couldn't find anywhere to settle, couldn't tell you a name of a band I saw for ten minutes, there was too much confusion about places and times of the appealing possible things happening, and it was cold and rainy and I went home. I felt old and confused. 

I was more than happy to attend the Maine showcase at Sullivan Hall on October 20th. I spent a huge chunk of my life in Portland, and a few of my friends were there to play with their bands… One of these friends is one of my oldest pals from up north and I never get to see him or hang-out. It was good to see so much enthusiasm for bands from Maine. For the first half of the showcase the crowd was really huge. But like every six-to-eight hour live music marathon, people come and go and move on to see other stuff. I was also surprised that of the seven bands/artists playing the Maine showcase, I only knew three of them. Maine is cranking out bands like nobody's business these days. Maybe it's another uptick in the "next Seattle" movement of long ago. Maybe I've been away from Portland long enough now to not realize these are the bands that play out all the time. Anyways, The Toughcats, Mallet Brothers Band (fiends of mine), Billy Libby, Kurt Baker Band, Sunset Hearts (a friend in that band, via @bob_u), Spose, and The Milkman's Union (not in that order), all did a great job representing Maine at CMJ. Some bands were better than others. So I got there at 8:00-ish, and it's, you know, 2:30 in the morning because I just saw SEVEN bands, and my friend Wally (who plays ripsnort slide guitar and dobro for Mallet Brothers Band) informs me that they're playing at The National Underground the next night. Wally is my friend I never see enough of anymore, and my goofball friend Brian drums for them, and Brian's girlfriend who's lovely were all around… So I agree with great excitement to head to The National Underground to see them again the next night. They're playing at 11:00. It's this huge showcase, but NOT a sanctioned CMJ showcase and I'm just happy to see my pals and could care less about CMJ at this point. 

So on October 21st we go to The National Underground. (Gavin DeGraw is famous. This is his famous bar. I honestly have no idea who Gavin DeGraw is. Googling him did not help, except that he is cute and has some hit songs I've never heard. And he owns The National Underground NYC and The National Underground Nashville.) I expected a venue of "famous ownership". (Meaning a millionaire musician is in the venue business now, and has a really cool-ass, great-sound, expensive-drinks, nice-chairs kinda place like the other celebrity bar owners do.) The National Underground (at least the top floor venue) is pretty much a hellhole. They've added so many bands at this point, that my friends' band is now going on at 12:30… which means 1:00 and… oh who cares let's all go hang out in your van. We did see some of the other bands at The National Underground that night. Sadly in the constant state of drizzle on the chalkboard outside and the fact that no one introduced themselves… I couldn't tell you who any of them were. One of them was really great, too. Ce la vie. 

So the Mallet Brothers Band finally go on, they get a great crowd and response. It's a lot of fun. I start to realize how popular this band is, and am overjoyed for my friend Wally, who has played in many great bands over the years, and totally deserves some props. Plus the rest of these guys are all fantastic musicians. They play straight-up American alt-country… with a harder edge than most. I would honestly find them appealing if I didn't know them. So, again it's 2:30 in the morning and we're all hugging our sad goodbyes. Off we went to the subway. CMJ was still raging all around me. I was just happy to see my friends, hear some music, and snark about the odd venue that is The National Underground. Mr. DeGraw could throw another $100K at the place and it would do wonders.

CMJesuschristiamtoooldforthis.

So, if you're still reading this (congratulations) this whole thing so far is a set up. Gotcha. Yes, CMJ, yes, my pals from Maine who play great music, yes, there was so much going on, yes, I'm too old for this crap, yes I don't know who Gavin DeGraw is, yes it rained and was cold and confusing as hell, yes amorphous blob... 

WRECKACLUB IS GOING STRAIGHT-UP CLASSICAL MUSIC ON YOUR ASS. 

On October 22 we found ourselves way downtown at the (err) World Financial Center. The have a venue there called The Winter Garden. That evening, The American Composers Orchestra ended their music festival (called SONiC festival) with a show sweetly called "American Pie". It showcases classical composers under the age of 40. 

But why are you going to the symphony @leerader? That's not so much your style! And… and… CMJ... and stuff? 

AMERICAN PIE PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:

Paul Yeon Lee / "Echo Of A Dream"

Ruby Fulton / "Road Ranger Cowboy"

Ryan Gallagher / "Grindhouse"

Suzanne Farrin / "Infinite Here"

Andrew Norman / "Unstuck"

Bryce Dessner / "St. Carolyn By The Sea" (Bryce will be joined by his brother Aaron, and will be performing with the orchestra)

Oh oh oh oh oh. OKAY.

The American Composers Orchestra, as you would imagine, is magnificent. Hearing new classical music composed by people who look like your old college roommate is pretty amazing. Ruby Fulton's "Road Ranger Cowboy" had the most intense straight-up crazy timing of maybe any piece of music I have heard. It was unbelievable. When she stood up to take a bow, she looked like the barista at your coffee shop. LOVE IT. Paul Yeon Lee's piece was more what your brain creates when you think of "classical" music, but there was something very modern about it I can't quite explain. "Grindhouse" went from swooning violin-type princess movie score to almost porno soundtrack and back a million times. There were a few lulls. There were moments I couldn't believe what I was hearing and vowing to go to more orchestra shows. 

Bryce's piece "St. Carolyn By The Sea" was last, a world premiere, and commissioned. He gave a nervous interview before hand. Inspired by Kerouac's "Big Sur", wanting guitars in an orchestra setting, and writing something in 5/4 time was the best I could make of his answers. The program explains it a little more, which I was pleased to read. Also contains his resume(?). For a guy two months younger than me, it's easy to just think of The National and Clogs and… oh. Dude. Yale School of music, numerous commissions played by… holy crap that's a long list of fancy ensembles. Record label owner, artistic director and creator of Music Now, AIDS charity compilation producer… I'll stop. I feel like a champion if I eat twice in a day and don't get lost. 

So. "St. Carolyn By The Sea". The only thing I can compare it to would be Godspeed You! Black Emperor, but only as a reference point.  (Particularly looking at @mrkvm)  Here, listen to it:

Felt kind of weird taking pictures at the symphony, but everybody else was doing it, so…

So, I opted out of picklebacks and PBR's and made my own CMJ adventure. That really didn't have much to do with CMJ. I regret nothing.  Dessners, seeing old friends, not running around like a lunatic for the top secret after party > CMJ, in my opinion. Sorry CMJ, see ya next year… maybe. If you fit in with my schedule.