CMJ hits NYC, Q-Tip X Blue Scholars X Eldar, Rumored Company Flow Reunion, Sasha Frere-Jones, Spank Rock Pulled.
CMJ has descended upon New York City, plunging the East Village, Greenwich Village, LES, and Brooklyn into a frenzy of showcase-maddness. It seems every indie-label has some hot show this year… which kind of sucks because you can’t be everywhere at once! So OKP has enlisted resident writer Candace L. for some help with the coverage. Tune in for her day-by-day, play-by-play updates. Yesterday the festivities kicked off with Q-Tip, Blue Scholars, and Eldar. The Abstract performed with a live band and even included some audience participation in his show. For more Q-Tip, peep this clip from his Norva show on Oct. 8th with Common and Skillz and watch the mic get rocked!
Meanwhile, I was doing CMJ Brooklyn-style, conveniently from my local dive bar! Performing were The Tall Firs (featuring one of the sickest drummers ever, Ryan Sawyer), The Celebration (produced by Dave Sitek of TV on The Radio), and The Dragons of Zynth who just received a glowing 4 out of 5
?uesties in the Reviews. Of course can’t NO one touch Ms. Aretha, who scored a well deserved 5/5 on the latest release of rarities from her glory days.
Incidentally, this week Sasha Frere-Jones, music columnist for The New Yorker, writes about “A Paler Shade of White: How Indie-Rock Lost It’s Soul.” Read on and then take your discussion into this post. We think Frere-Jones aptly observes a common trend in indie-rock, however we’ve also got to big-up bands like TV On The Radio and Dragons of Zynth who do their part to incorporate (and re-invent and re-interpret) the origins of Rock n Roll into their music, rather than stray from them. What are your thoughts?
CMJ always comes with a few exciting surprises, and we heard a RUMOR that the Def-Jux showcase and El-P performance on Friday might feature a REUNION of Company Flow!! For reals?? We’ve been waiting for this one! We talked to El-P today who will neither confirm nor deny! Also on the bill are some of our faves including Cool Calm Pete, Hangar 18 and Activator.
We’ve gotten word from our boy Jay Electronica that he’s in Detroit working on Act 2 of his “Eternal Sunshine” Trilogy. If you still haven’t downloaded Act 1: Eternal Sunshine (the pledge) get it from Jay’s myspace page. Just Blaze was put on by Rashad Smith (producer extraordinaire, Erykah’s DJ, and Roots DJ for the VH1 HHH tour!), I was put on by OKPdan… now it’s all you.
-gingerlynn
ps. We hear Best Buy pulled Spank Rock and Benny Blanco’s EP Bangers and Cash from the shelves due to a lude image (ahheemm… partially hidden dildo) on the back cover [link] (smart to put it on the back cover though, that explains how they made it into the stores). Censorship sux. Free publicity is great though!
