Day 2: Wednesday October 21^st  

Andrew WK was the featured speaker today at the CMJ panels and I was super excited to hear what the man had to say since I listened to him a lot as an angsty high schooler. The scripted introduction before his entrance was promising and there was a wave of excitement throughout the room. Then Andrew himself walks out, fit, dressed all in white sans a bloody nose and begins his talk. What did he discuss? I’d like to know, because I have no fucking clue. The man bullshitted, used bigger words to bullshit more complicated ideas, ninja’ed a chair until it broke, then bullshitted some more. There was a Q&A section where individuals could come to a designated mic that sat in front of the stage and ask anything. Anything. Boy did they take advantage of that freedom. Topics that were inquired about:  

“I have been in a band for 12 years and we really fit your style, will you take us on tour with you?”

“I am in a band and here is some shwag,” he hands Andrew his album and some propaganda then continues with some lame and awkward joke about something to do with Andrew’s shadow.

“Can you tell me how to party hardy?”

“Will you tattoo my arm” (Seriously. This was asked from one out of two boys who were sitting front and center dressed exactly like Andrew was dressed. It was obvious that they are die hard fans and that Andrew’s presence has made their lives complete.)

“Life is really hard right now, what advice can you give artists who have hit rock bottom and have nowhere to go? Who feel they cannot go on? What can you tell me?” A girl bravely asks in a trembling voice.

And finally, “What is going on? I read in the CMJ booklet that you’d be talking about your perspectives and what not on the music industry and I’d really like to know what you came to speak about.”  

But Andrew does not answer anything. If each question was a puddle, Andrew merely dances around without getting his feet wet.

Finally he goes to the piano, calls up Wayne and Garth from the front row, and sings Party Hardy.  

Big. Huge. Disappointment.  

After the panel Ali, Jace, and I headed to the Cake Shop for the Terrorbird showcase and meet and greet. Spectre and Terrorbird are definitely my favorite promo companies at the moment, so meeting Eric from Spectre and Jessica Kizer from Terrorbird made me way too excited, like I was meeting celebrities.

Just around 8 o’ clock, we headed over to Brooklyn to catch Atlas Sound w/Broadcast and the guys that opened for them.

Selmanaries (the aforementioned “guys.”) underwhelmed.  But that may have been a keenly planned trap orchestrated by Broadcast.  Here’s the setup.

So there you are feeling underwhelmed after those “guys.”  All of a sudden, the heavy beats and noise rock starts, accompanied by a trippy-as-hell abstract video installation mind-game thing.

I gotta be honest.  My first thought was along the lines of “what the fuck?”  and my second thought was to flee for my life.  The second thought was supported by the earth-shaking bass.  I abandoned my friends Maura and Ali and headed to the my safety zone - the men’s room.  Are you kidding?  The bass was not only earth-shaking, but also below-the-earth-toilet shaking.  Shit, these Broadcast kids are powerful.  I returned to the show and enjoyed the band and their video which may have been outtakes from the tape in The Ring.  I was convinced I was being brainwashed.  Broadcast finished, and my paranoia aside, were pretty impressive.

Enter Bradford Cox, in what was one of the strangest and most engrossing shows I have witnessed.  He started off by tearing into some tracks off Logos, before taking a quick banter break.  I had this feeling like I was witnessing something special; he is a very sincere performer.  That’s easy to appreciate these days.  My favorite track from the new album, “Walkabout” got a fascinating treatment: slowed-down, folk-tinged, and equally impressive as the studio version, I was completely invested in the show at this point. The thing is, it’s not unique for me to be invested in a show.  It happens all the time.

But that’s where Cox really started to set himself apart.  I’ll make it quick, but reread a couple of time for effect.  After starting a Velvet Underground cover that was “worth the wait” (there had been some time between songs), he promptly stopped the band, suggesting that that were off key.  He proceeded to take requests from the audience; some Atlas Sound songs (c’mon people), Rock Around the Clock, The Monster Mash (he almost played this, but claimed to have forgotten the tab sheet for it).  Here, he made iconic rock poses for pictures, played the intro to “Hattie Carroll” and basically used a couple songs’ worth of time to hone his standup routine.  Honestly, it was pretty damn funny and a unique break from music.  He finished his set (which included the complete VU song), but the five-minute comedy break still sticks out as a memorable and enjoyable part of the show.

The set was really strong, and very different from a Deerhunter set (he is Deerhunter’s frontman if you didn’t know.)  There was some folky stuff (harmonica included!), some psychy stuff, some noisy stuff, but it all put a new face on a familiar figure.  He also wasn’t wearing a dress tonight.

The whole time, all I could think is:  Bradford Cox is almost a genius.  He’s the nerdy best friend you would think was a genius if you hadn’t seen them behave under the slight influence of alcohol.

I’ll get some pictures of him up tomorrow.

I know, I know, we skipped Day One.  It was crazy and hectic, and we’ll save those stories for another time!  Right now, we gotta talk about Tag Zwei!

Wednesday 10/21/2009

1:38 am - Karl and Jace startle their 50-year old foreign hostel-roommate by returning from Day One’s events in the wee hours.  He speaks briefly in his native tongue, laughs, and falls back asleep.

9:19 am - Karl tells Jace to wake up because complimentary breakfast ends at 10.  Jace makes it with only seconds to spare.  Karl sleeps through breakfast.

After 10, we actually started doing CMJ stuff.  Those two lightly comical anecdotes featured time-sensative plotlines, but now we’ll just do a summary.

KSCR Staff attended some decent panels today.  Jace learned a little bit about live performances and college campuses.  And how KSCR is actually pretty legit on this front.  Apparently, Stonybrook is not so great when it comes to the things…with the live…and the shows.

Ali and Jace got to see a panel on exactly what the “youth of America” think about the major v. indie label dispute.  Apparently, we LOVE major labels, but wanna be careful not to sell out.  Which is okay because selling out and selling your soul are not(?) mutually exclusive.  Those kids were pretentious.  Or maybe I am.  Someone was pretentious in that situation.

Emilie attended the creme de la creme of today’s panels:  Andrew WK speaking off the cuff about random topics.   I spoke with her afterwords, and she seemed unimpressed.  I didn’t see it but want to make a pun about his old stuff being better.  Can’t make a connection, though.

Karl may have slept through the entire day.  He’s still beating John Scott, however, who has yet to arrive.  Pssh.  John Scott.  That guy thinks he’s hot shit.

Looks like we’ve got some good panels tomorrow, and to tell you the truth, there were more informative ones today, but I just wanted to try and make the Andrew WK joke.  Next time, I guess.

Check us out tomorrow and we’ll let you know how KSCR Staff Member Maura Klosterman’s panel goes!

-Jace

KSCR has officially arrived at CMJ!

Well, 3/5 of us anyways.  How does that compromise thing work again?

After navigating a sophisticated network of planes, trains, and automatic stairs, we found our selves in the heart of New York City!  Or maybe the appendix.  We were deprived of food and sleep. Still, in typical KSCR fashion, we set out undaunted…and in the wrong direction.

After consulting with iPhone GPS, we got to check-in and picked up our stinkin’ badges.  Success!

So, here we are.  KSCR Los Angeles is taking over NYC and we’re gonna give you the play-by-play right here at Bandwidth.  Stay tuned.

It’s almost here….

HARD Haunted Mansion 2009

The dance party impresarios who’ve brought you HARD New Year’s Eve and HARD Summer Fest have heard the fans requests and announced their line-up for this year’s HARD Haunted Mansion, a massive dance party taking place this Halloween at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, located just across the street from KSCR studios. Recognizing that one day just wasn’t enough for a lineup this good, HARD Haunted Mansion has been extended into two days of the world’s most premier DJs and electronic dance artists.

Headliners Justice  & Basement Jaxx will be joined by such heavyweights such as Deadmau5, 2ManyDJs, Crookers, A-Trak, The Bloody Beetroots, Major Lazer, Classixx, Modeselektor, Buraka Som Sistema, Zombie Nation, Steve Aoki, Destructo, Don Rimini, Shinichi Osawa and many many more!

For More information including HARD Updates, visit http://www.hardfest.com

See you there!

Awesome landmark prog-rock album from the 70s.  It’s only five tracks, but you really get a little bit of everything.  I’ve posted the opening track.  It’s probably the most accessible track on the record and plus it has some really mad saxophone parts.

21st Century Schizoid Man

Buy this cuz it’s awesome and prog rock needs more love.  

Disclaimer: the same…

I just discovered this band.  They were another underlooked 70s band that played strange and dark psychedelic/progressive folk rock (or something weird like that).  Supposedly they only released two albums and this is their good one.  I haven’t quite wrapped my head around this one… although it’s good.  Unusual for its time to say the least.

Diana

Give it a few listens… it’ll start to grow on you.

Buy it!

Disclaimer: Same as before.  This is meant to be promo material only!