CMJ Music Marathon 2014 - Day 1 Recap

Photo: Lazer/Wulf @ The Acheron in New York, October 21, 2014

Ah yes, the first day of the CMJ Music Marathon in New York City. First on the agenda, walk from SoHo up to NYU to register and pick up my badge. I never get over the strange juxtaposition of the old, I guess converted, church next to a large 12 storey or so building. Oh New York, you so crazy.

After picking up a Vita Coco, I head to the Kimmel Center and up to see a panel on HD radio. I've been a believer in HD radio and college/community stations trying to get on it since I heard about it in 2003 at CMJ. From what I gleamed, I might have been the only one. The panel was interesting and the idea of having multiple channels that could be dedicated to various programming, much like that of HD TV, is an interesting one, but the problem is that college radio is supposed to embrace the idea of slamming weird things together, not continue to split them apart. Part of the beauty of college radio is that there is a chiptunes show next to a retrospective of '40s dance, and to take those two things and cut them out and put them on another channel dilutes some of the weirdness and special qualities that make college radio great. Still though, the idea does have merit, and if it can bring back some college stations who have been overtaken by all jazz programming or sports coverage radio, then HD will have done its job.

After that I sat in a panel about metal. As a bit of a back story, I've been to CMJ for something like 7 or 8 years in a row and every year, regardless of topic, the metal panel has uttered one phrase: "Who is the next <insert large band here>?" The name has changed (Metallica, Pantera, Slipknot), but every year it comes up, and every year I roll my eyes and think how dumb it is to address a question like that especially since it only happens in the metal panel. There's no indie rock discussion where people are asking, "Who's going to be the next Wilco?"

So imagine my surprise when I read that this would be the topic of conversation on the panel this year. The whole damn panel. Sure it was somewhat interesting to muse upon, but wouldn't a better topic be something like, "Where is female representation in metal?", or "What can we do to try to make metal not be a place dominated almost exclusively by white males aged 16-50?" These are things we should address in metal, not, "Well, we need another Metallica to get people to think about going to see a show in a stadium." But I guess that's the problem with metal, the hard questions go unasked and the ones that do get asked are always looking backwards on a bygone era.

After that I headed over to Webster Hall for the College Radio mixer where representatives from stations can meet and discuss their stations and what they might do to improve upon them. I met a bunch of interesting people, and events like this really showcase that no matter where you are the same problems crop up in college radio.

I then took a trip to stupid Brooklyn where I ate at Roberta's Pizza, had a pretty good (though a bit pricey) pizza, and then went to an awesome club known as The Acheron to go see the Metal Sucks / Metal Injection showcase featuring Moontooth, Lazur/Wulf, So Hideous, King Parrot, and Inter Arma. First let me say, if you go to The Acheron, do yourself the favor and get a "Phrigid", which is a frozen drink with rum. Apparently they change flavors, but this time was chocolate. I was also informed that they're normally 9 dollars, but were 10 today "because we added another bottle of rum."

First up was the not-so-impressive Moontooth. Everyone around me seemed to really like them, but the only thought that I had while watching him do very "emotional" histrionics was, "Man I really hate mewithoutyou." Next was the always fantastic, mostly instrumental Lazer/Wulf. They are so solid and super nice dudes. If you don't believe me, you can check out Grade A Explosives next week (Sunday 4-6 PM) and listen to the interview I did with them. Speaking of interviews, next up came the stupendous So Hideous. For some reason, there are people who don't know the last album, the tour de force, Last Poem / First Light. They put on an amazing show and are also good dudes who if you want to hear, you can tune in to my show next week as well. After this were the Australian grindcore boys in King Parrot, who were pretty funny in addition to being able to hammer out songs into your face. Last on the bill was Relapse artist Inter Arma, who I sadly missed a good chunk of due to doing interviews. Still, what I did see was great and I highly recommend them if you want some deathy-prog... sort of. Stay tuned for more coverage, and feel free to check out Shoeclack Radio who are also in New York City covering CMJ.

--Andrew hosts Grade A Explosives every Sunday from 4 to 6 PM EST. Side effects may include: nausea, deafness, pumping fists in the air, a feeling of awesomeness, death, and possible dry mouth.