Meet Me in the City

This year's CMJ put me about three nights behind on sleep and equally as many days behind on things I needed to get done, which is why this post is a bit late. Don't interpret that as a complaint—quite the contrary—buying that last-minute plane ticket was one of the better choices I've made in recent memory. The festival may not be the king-making hub of the independent music scene that it once was, but it's still an amazing opportunity to see a bevy of bands-on-the-rise over a very short period of time. It's also a textbook case in networking opportunities—hence my stash of homemade business cards. Perhaps most importantly, it's a chance to meet up with old friends as well as make some new ones. Oh yeah, and there's plenty of free beer and swag.

I flew in to New York Thursday morning, and given my badge-less status, I decided to head over to AAM's free showcase at Arlene's Grocery on the Lower East Side. I grabbed some of the greasy pizza that was provided and caught a set from a group called Kitten that straddled the line somewhere between being a mediocre Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover band and a bunch of Metric impersonators. Wandering the streets seemed like the better choice, so I did just that, finding my way to the absolutely amazing Toy Tokyo. Before long, it was time to head over to the Medium Rotation mixer, which packed a boatload of college radio kids and promoters into a tiny bar in the East Village. While there, I finally got the chance to meet Graham of A Man A Plan A Canal in the flesh—the guy who helped me bring the Wilco tour documentary to town a few years back and has been an invaluable resource ever since. After a couple of beers, it was off to Brooklyn with Matt and the Terrorbird crew for the CMJ pub crawl—an event that I survived thanks to my choice to abstain from an absinthe cocktail. Making my way back to Manhattan, I ended the night at the Matador/Beggars Group party pounding beers alongside the affable Steve from Team Clermont.