Don’t Threaten Me With A Good Time

This week has been lots of craziness as the 2009 CMJ Music Marathon has descended upon New York City! This year seems to be mostly about finding new bands and talent, since I haven’t heard of a majority of the bands that are playing this year. While it makes enthusiasm ahead of time a little low because you never know what you’re going to get with any new band, it makes new discoveries that much better when you see an act that put on a good show and has some good tunes that make you dance around!

Let’s start with Tuesday. I had to cover a showcase at the Cake Shop, and while I wrote down little snippets about each band I saw, the only band that really impressed me was the Hospital Bombers, who were much poppier than the other bands that played after. They are definitely a soundtrack to a breezy summer day laying out in a field somewhere, and I like the occasional female vocals and the violin is a cute touch as well.

Hospital Bombers @ Cake Shop

I also saw Surf City and Male Bonding later that night at Cake Shop who were both good and I did enjoy them as well, but perhaps I’d enjoy their recorded stuff more than seeing them live (without knowing their music ahead of time, anyway).

Andrew WK @ NYU Kimmel Center

On Wednesday I went to see CMJ’s keynote speaker, Andrew WK! You already know that I love Andrew WK, so of course I was going to be at his panel! He gave a brief introduction and then pretty much opened the floor to questions for anyone to ask. He still dispelled his AWK wisdom, which is to believe in yourself and do what makes you happy, something I try to live by as well! It’s always nice to hear some reinforcing positive messages when it comes to things like that. But there were definitely parts of his talk that were funny as well. You never know what you’re going to get when Andrew WK gives a talk!

Bang Bang Eche @ Studio at Webster Hall

Later that night I saw another lineup of bands, but none impressed me until Bang Bang Eche. They’re roughly about 17 years old from New Zealand, and what caught my eye first was how energetic they (especially the lead singer) are. From the bands I saw earlier that night and the night before, none of them really rocked out when appropriate. This kid was all over the stage and jumped into the audience! Their music seems pretty complex for kids of their age, so I think that adds to the appeal, plus it’s just plain good and gets you up and dancing! I’ll definitely be looking for some music by these guys.

Bodega Girls @ Crash Mansion

Moving on to Thursday where I first saw Boston’s Bodega Girls after work. Note: there is only one girl in the band, and she doesn’t do much but try to dance sexily (is that a word?) onstage. Anyway, my friend Leila had seen them the night before and liked them, and it turned out that I shared her enthusiasm! Their first song, possibly titled “I Won’t Write You A Love Song”, was super catchy and dancey and it made me think I had heard it around somewhere before. I ended up dancing through the rest of their set, and I am excited to hear more from them!!

pow wow @ Cake Shop

I was able to quickly catch a few songs of the band pow wow. I don’t know anything about them, I just thought the description of them in the CMJ booklet sounded like something I’d like, and I saw that they only seemed to be playing this one show all week. I’m glad I was able to see even the three songs I did, because I loved their cute poppy sound, and it had all the girls dancing adorably in the venue. Might I mention that everyone in the band was adorable, including the girl guitarist who wore heels and a nice classy dress, and I kinda wanted to be her! I need to find out more information on them and get some music ASAP!

Hockey @ Mercury Lounge

Finally, my night ended at Mercury Lounge where I got to see probably one of the bigger buzzed bands at CMJ at this year, Hockey. I have their album and generally enjoy it, but live they sound much much better! Plus it’s also an automatic dance party! Everyone there seemed to be super into their set and it got pretty sweaty by the end of their set. Lots of energy plus catchy songs equals a great set! I wouldn’t mind seeing them play again, and perhaps with a longer set next time.

So those were the highlights of the past three days for me. Stay tuned for CMJ 2009 – Part Deux!

Yesterday I was able to attend the first taping of Andrew WK’s upcoming TV show, How to Party with Andrew WK, set to air on Adult Swim. I’ve been a fan of Andrew’s for a while, I’ve seen him speak at NYU in 2006 and invited him to speak at Northeastern in Boston this past summer, so I am familiar with his supremely positive outlook on life. I was also a fan of his old show on MTV2, Your Friend Andrew WK, so it’s good to see that he’s getting his positive outlook back to the TV masses again.

Upon walking into the venue that he co-owns, Santo’s Party House, I admit I was somewhat giddy and had no idea what to expect. All I knew was that his show was to be a talk show but without “celebrities” and “advertisers” and I guess stripped down to be more “real.” So we get seated onstage and the first thing they did was announce Andrew WK and had him do his introduction. Of course being the intro to the show, we had to go wild clapping and yelling for Andrew. This got exhausting by the third or fourth take, but it was still fun and it’s always interesting to see someone improvising and then finally seeing what is used in the final version that airs.

Me all the way on the right

After getting the intro down, it was on to the interviews. Indeed he didn’t interview celebrities, since the first guest was someone from The Wire, a show I have never seen nor know much about. Apparently the guy plays Bubbles, a crack addict. The next guest was Dan Deacon. Definitely not a celebrity, but he’s pretty well known if you like to read indie music blogs, and I enjoyed his interview. He included some audience participation at the end of his interview which was fun, integrating something that he does at his shows. The next three interviews were just with regular people. A cool idea, except these people were pretty boring, odd (not in a good way), and not really that excited to be there. Seriously, had they picked me I would’ve had the best conversations with Andrew ranging from partying ’til I puked to telling Andrew what it’s like to be a girl (something he asked the NYU student being interviewed). So producers, if you’re looking for more INTERESTING people to interview, send me an email, I’m available at any time! After the interviews, Andrew played a quick song or two for us on the keyboard which was fun, and then came around and shook everyone’s hands and thanked them for being there. As we were getting our coats he came out and took pictures with people which was nice, so I got to talk to him for a minute, and (insert fan moment) he remembered me from when I booked him at Northeastern (”I thought you looked familiar!”), so that was cool.

I’m excited to see the show air on Adult Swim, whenever that may be. Perhaps the first taping was off to a rocky start, but it can only get better from here! Once I know more info I shall definitely post again!

(All photos but the last one from Stereogum.)