CMJ ‘08: Tuesday the 21st
“It’s deceptively night-ish in here right now,” remarked the bass player during the afternoon set he and his mates were performing yesterday at the Cakeshop. Women, an all-dude quartet from an Alberta, Canada, was offering, during an appreciably prompt 4:30 start time, its jagged indie updates on the work of its fore bearers, principally The Velvet Underground and The Zombies.
It was a reasonably tame show, for certain, but one crowd member spat out an emphatic “woop!” as the guitar player lead into “Black Rice” from its buzzy two-tone starting point. The set was appreciably varied, with the main vocalist singing a long stretch over a skronky and unchanging anti-chord on his guitar, and the drummer occasionally matching melodic wits with his stringed cohorts by tapping out patterns on a glockenspiel. The group shifted from molding a messy and beautiful gel (”Group Transport Hall”) to being spectacularly intricate without it ever reaching pomposity or superfluousness. Women is playing a great many times this week, and anyone doing serious CMJing is highly advised to catch an encore set.
Jens Lekman and The So So Glos each also offered exceptional shows that, unfortunately, won’t be reprised this week, and both of which carried late into the night. Lekman had promised a “singing DJ” set for the 11 slot of the Brooklyn Vegan showcase at the Music Hall Of Williamsburg. He came out to spin a good 45 minutes later than listed (a frustratingly standard occurrence at most CMJ shows). The recently-imported-to-Brooklyn Swede didn’t sing much at first, perhaps crooning a bit to Lykke Li’s “Dance Dance Dance” (even if mostly off mic) before moving on to Mariah Carey’s “Fantasy” and a track from his Gothenburg pals The Tough Alliance. Jens looked lost in his own nectar-sweetened world for most of the set, headphones over his ears as he spun from a colorfully lit back corner of the stage. He came forward to croon over renditions of his own tunes (kicking off his mini-set “Into Eternity”) before getting raptastic with some Kid Sister and a remixed-with-samples-Jens-has-used pass at R. Kelly’s and Ludacris’ verses from “Rockstar.”
Though Lekman concluded his one-off-for-CMJ set at 12:30 a.m. (the slot Brooklyn punk foursome The So So Glos were slated to play over at Santos Party House) the Glos didn’t hit the stage until 1:30, burning through a punishing take on “My Block” from their brand new Tourism / Terrorism release. The highlight of the show may have been the bridge that linked that album’s grandest cut, the isolation contemplation of “Isn’t It A Shame?” to the Glos self-titled debut’s greatest track, “We Got The Days.” As guitarist Ryan Levine slowly morphed his wah-wah strum from one song’s rhythm to the other, the in-on-it crowd seemed to suddenly be sipping on caffeine-spiked cocktails (which, maybe, come to think of it, they actually sell there—who knows what Santos chief Andrew W.K. is up to?). This was a Gloing farewell til the end of November however, so you’ll have to focus your CMJ energy elsewhere (like: see awesome suggestion directly below).
To end on a more optimistic, advice-offering note: the middle portion of CMJ Day 1 climaxed with an ecstatic set from New Zealand duo The Ruby Suns, which has several more shows coming up before the five days worth of hangovers end with a seriously late sleep-in on Sunday. See that band. It transcended the various obstacles of performing in the stuffy, shit-for-stage-visibility basement of The Delancey with sunshiney tribal rhythms and chants overlaid with a sophisticated grasp of modern harmony. Both Suns shone of their vocal duties, with Ryan McPhun tampering with boxes, samplers, looping mechanisms, percussive trigger pads and ol’ fashioned hittin’ sticks to skins, while bandmate Amee Robinson alternated between keyboards, bass, guitar and additional drumming. McPhun’s arms became blurs whenever he thwacked out a beat; in a CMJ week that may get increasingly blurry, they will remain crystal clear.
Tags: CMJ, Jens Lekman, Ruby Sons, So So Glos, Women