CMJ Day Five

Emanuel and the Fear @ The Delancy rooftop, Afternoon Scores

Emanuel Ayvas’ brought an ensemble of four and delivered lush scores with tabulators, and music stands in place. His poetic writing and emotionally delivered vocals, accompanied by violin, cello, and guitar, created a toned-down but perfect acoustic orchestral pop and afternoon score for a roof garden space. Their set was a smaller representation of a group.

Listening to Emanuel and the Fear recordings exemplifies the lush, ambitious arrangements full of complexities and swelling of orchestral passages with smart, lyrically emotionally delivered vocals.

Bryan Vaughan, founder of their label Paper Garden Records has a passion for music he loves and believes in, so I should have followed through and heard them sooner.

Flickr Set

                     Drink Up Buttercup @ The Delancey rooftop, Acoustic Muscle

Drink Up Buttercup is a very different band in the early afternoon. But this is not Drink Up Buttercup Lite, anything but. Although they abandoned their drums, amps, garbage cans, and kinesthetic body contortions, they highlighted the muscle of their vocal muscle. They stretched their harmonic layering of show-stopping standards, adding detailed appendages. Showing off their incredible versatility and giving the tired genre "Barbershop" a vibrato edge.

Flickr Set

Cale Parks 2 The Delaney Warmth to Techno

Cale Parks brings warmth to Techno, blending cascading dance beats and looping of original music with synth and drum machine. Live Cale Parks drumsticks twirl through the air and hit his mark. The baton twirler, soft crooner, and synth composer do it with precision and finesse. Adding two new players on guitar, bass, and keys to his live line-up. Performing as a one-man band is hard, he said as he introduced his new bandmates, saying, “how nice it was not do this alone.” The packed, dank basement at the Delancey was the perfect setting to be transformed into another place. Cale Parks and Company took me there.

Flickr Set

CMJ Day Three

                       Sgt. Dunbar and the Hobo Banned @ Zebulon, Word of Choice Amazing

Sgt. Dunbar and The Hobo Banned packed the house and the stage with eight musicians and every imaginable brass and string instrument. I love the Hobos and have seen them several times. Their instruments were in full force featuring many songs off their new EP. They played the title track, "A March Through Charles Mingus' Garbage Pile," which featured a vibrant mix of Folk and Jazz, a direction they are forging ahead with. The two new songs they debuted forecast a vital and original direction.

The musicianship is something to behold they have become a much tighter entity without losing their energy and heart, displaying the joy of playing together. What is also fascinating is the seamless exchange of instruments throughout the set. Whether blowing, singing, or strumming, everything works. This is a democratic collective where various members share the lead vocal helm adding diversity to the mix.

Sgt. Dunbar and The Hobo Banned were full of bite. All the instruments and vocals united and filled the space with joy and substance. When the set was over, I walked through the crowd, and the word choice was amazing.

Flickr Set

Pink Noise @ Zebulon Invigorating Smart Noise

Pink Noise makes lots of noise from metal shredding guitar and bass and pounding drums but could not drown out the hefty and soulful vocals of Sharon Sulami This was a set of pure intensity with incredible exchanges between instruments. The noise of exhilaration and contrast played with the force of unpredictability. Invigorating smart noise.

Flickr Set

Little Teeth form San Francisco @ Zebulon Scrabbled Experimentation

To say I was delighted to see Little Teeth is an understatement. The twosome of Sofia Bell and Dannie Murrie recently added Sean Real to their inner circle. Their original music is Folk as an art form played with a conviction of sensibility and spirit. Their all-out abandon of song structure focused on experimentation, strange but beguiling harmonies, and escalating emphasis on vocals, drumming, cello or banjo.

I was outside socializing when the band set up and was flabbergasted when I moved to the front to find the most intricate found object drum set de jour, including a small xylophone. Dani Murrie strapped on an assortment of shells and bells from ankle to knee.

During the set, they brought out some additional homemade contraptions. The traditional instruments were plucked and bowed with attitude adding to the disjointed samplings of sound that fried my brain from overdrive of the unexpected. The drummer Sean Real has a passion for playing. A joy to watch.

the music sounds like a much looser Coco Rosie or The Roaches scrabbled. They bring it on with guts, punk, and moxie. Halfway through their fifty-state tour, they stated, “We showered tonight.” Everyone cheered.

Flickr Set

I would be remiss not to mention how much I enjoyed Zebulon. I loved the music played between sets, the food, and the great staff!

CMJ Day One

                                          Blood Warrior at Piano’s, Edgy Twist to Folk

Blood Warrior's brand of Folk is weighty with thump-stomping percussion, great choral harmonies, and the vocal awesomeness of Greg Jamie. The music can soothe like a lullaby but don’t get too comfortable because these gentle warriors can bring up the volume. Their voices swell; electric guitar leads and acoustic strumming intertwine with shakers and emphasized bass drum, giving traditional Folk an edgy twist.

Flickr Set

                             Max Vernon @ Kenny's Castaways, Master of Design

Making a fashion statement at CMJ is an anomaly, but Max Vernon intends to please both visually and sonically. He walked onto the stage wearing an asymmetrical googly eye ensemble of his design.

He started the set by saying, "please excuse my unnecessary banter, I have to fill this forty-minute set," and fill he did. Max Vernon's verbal acuity does wonders for in-between songs, but that gift translates well to songwriting.

Standing confidently at 6’4 behind his keyboard and almost strutting, he played complex pop/jazz arrangements. His vocals dared go from low to falsetto, adding unexpected touches to his recorded material. What I found the most fascinating was his ability to seamlessly create the backup vocals. In between, he played three songs on the guitar.

A highlight was "Around Your Finger," with friend Emily singing the chorus / I hate to tell you / that I had more fun / When you were hooked on drugs /. "Psycho Bitch" a new one, is a song in the same vein. His second new offering had a haunting juxtaposition between an irregular chord repetition and a beautiful vocal. He ended with a Liz Phair cover, "Canary."

Flickr Set

Download a slew of songs here

Got Lots To Say CMJ soon....

Some Shot offerings from my brief schedule of events at CMJ. Hey, I got a full-time job, so this was fun but ain't easy. Almost done writing about the bands below. Check back or home, scroll

 

 

Blood Warriors at Piano's

  

Max Vernon @ Kenny's Castaway  

Sgt. Dunbar and the Hobo Banned @ Zebulon  

  

 Little Teeth at Zebulon

  

Little Teeth at Zebulon Emanuel and Fear @ The Delancey

   

Drink Up Buttercup @ The Delancey  

 

Cale Parks @ The Delancey

Catch Sgt. Dunbar and The Hobo Banned CMJ

Great set planned by the awesome eight-piece band Sgt Dunbar and the Hobo Banned. They plan to play eleven songs with one, possibly two songs never played in public, tomorrow at 9:00 @ Zebulon. All Things Considered, Blog made CMJ 09 recommendations of several bands, and the Hobos are included.

Everything Is Pt II from Tom Muro on Vimeo.

Catch Drink Up Buttercup CMJ

There are four more stops. Catch the mayhem. This latest video, Drink Up Buttercup, performs Heavy Hand live on East Village Radio for the CMJ Festival. Believe me, this is restrained.

More CMJ & Tour Dates

Max Vernon CMJ Debut Tomorrow

Photo Credit Jacqueline Zaccor

Max Vernon reached out to me about a year ago, and I've been hooked. He will perform tomorrow at Kenny's Castaway, his first CMJ debut. Max Vernon has a vocal instrument that is deep and resonating, its clear tonality has reach and depth of maturity. With a signature voice, he delivers piano-driven melodies with a broad lyrical palette of intelligence. At twenty years old, he composes music that can move in many ways, like the Woody Guthrie of Pop to make a bold comparison. OCM 2/ 09 Here Below is a sweet taste of his music in one of many homemade video entries!!!

Issue Project Courtyard Great Lineup to End Summer

The Issue Project courtyard on a beautiful afternoon was a perfect site to hear a selection of music by three different musicians. Greg Jamie's pure unadorned set was sandwiched between two experimental improvisational sets by Sacred Harp from Virginia and Honne Wells with Juan Comas.

Sacred Harp’s compositional arrangements with instruments, amplification, and accouterments created a trance, not for sleeping or contemplating but a welcome space from ear to head.

The instrumental set featured finger picking on a classical guitar, bowing of an electric, and anything but typical on a sitar. Utilizing a looping percussion of scrubbed strings was an effective background for a guitar instrumental.

Greg Jamie's solo set consisted of songs from his newly formed outfit Blood Warriors and one song off a 7” collaboration with Honne Wells. Going solo is a rare occasion for a man that fronts two bands. So his apparent shyness was charming to watch. Playing guitar, and harpsichord and hearing his straightforward vocals were delightful.

The sun was setting as Honne Wells and Juan Comas was on stage, and the quietness of the night took hold, guiding the sound to resonate off the concrete and bricks. Starting with a five-minute compositional movement that struck time like a broken clock tower. Guitar string pings applied in various measures broke up the composition and were contrasted by Honne Wells grunting low vocals.

This spectacular collaboration is something to witness. The guitar, slide guitar, banjo, mouth harp, stomping, and vocals are melded together to create unique sounds that are unfamiliar and offsetting. Familiarity is not their forte but creating dramatic and mesmerizing tension is.

Flicker Set Here

Blood Warrior from [dog]and[pony] on Vimeo.

Langhorne Slim / Crackerfarm Films it Best

Can't wait for Be Set Free by Langhorne Slim, due September 29th on Kemado Records! Here's a great clip by Crackerfarm with a brief interview, some crazy live footage, and a sweet acoustic rendition of the song "So Glad That I'm Coming Home." For personal reasons, I especially love the handsome young man with the big white specs loving the live show.

Brief Excursion To After The Jump Fest

When I say briefly it was, but I was happy to catch Get Haunted, and I’m Turning Into and the tail end of The Octagon. Get Haunted is a bit of Buddy Holly, Rockabilly, speed strum bottleneck, and a pounding drum kit. Their shoes were waxed, and a tuxedo shirt and sharp glasses set the stage for fancy footwork and great showmanship. So refreshing to not hear we’re from Brooklyn. Although the group hasn’t had many shows, they are obviously not new to music or performing. The banjo and drum were the details, but the soaring outcomes of Kevin on the slide guitar shredded the joint. The drummer Sarah kept a rudimentary beat, finesse did not apply, but enthusiastic smiles and downright pounding did! Lead singer and banjo strummer Joey Macrino had awesome dance moves and an outstanding command of the stage vocally and personally. Although all the songs were full of life, one outstanding exception was that they were dedicated to Blood Warrior. The song had levels of intrigue and several time changes that built to a frenetic beat. This made the New York debut for this three-piece from New London, Connecticut, one to remember for them and me.

I'm Turning Into is a multi-instrumentalist threesome of rotating players adept at playing and singing. Fast-paced punky rock mixed with experimental vocal loop effects and fast rhythmic drumming. They played the ultimate upbeat song, “Would It Matter.” Other songs showed off how well they could play, whether it was a long and dynamic jam excursion, “Nonlocal,” or unusual vocal arrangements with perfectly intact harmonies interspersed with yodel-like howling and human beatbox. Some performance quirks are due to instrument changes, but they have a lot to offer. Edd Chittenden, Jhon Grewell, Steve Tarkington guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. Check this out on myspace you won't be disappointed.

Got to get me some balls and learn the subway system and try to brave the night. Now that I live part-time in the city, I thought this would be easier, but it presents other difficulties. Besides seeing some music, I wanted to show my support to the Bloggers from After The Jump Fest who worked so hard to put this event together. Although some of the groups on the fest roster have garnered some press, it usually starts with one curated blog post, download, live review, or pictures. 

Although I would have loved to stay later to especially see Blood Warrior. I got to hang out, talk, and take pictures of Greg Jamie and Kristen Kellas-Jamie, two members of BW, a few hours before their 10:00 o’clock set. I have seen Greg Jamie with o’death and was lucky to catch him for Tonic's official last night doing a special guest appearance with Honne Wells. Blood Warrior finished their first small tour making their last stop after the Jump Fest. Featuring the great vocal styling of Greg Jamie with the spirited chorus, some shakers, and drunken drum beats sound like a patchwork folk collage. My Flickr Set Here Photographer Maryanne Ventrice documented the whole Fest at Prefix Day #3