The (Very, Very Unofficial) CMJ Marathon Awards*
Jay Reatard photo by Gaelen Harlacher
-Best Dancer: Ed Macfarlane of U.K. indie-dance pop group Friendly Fires busted out the Running Man, The Roger Rabbit and several other moves favored by long-limbed, awkward white people during his band’s lockstep, intensely upbeat performance on Tuesday at the Bowery Ballroom. But even stranger than his herky-jerking was his guitarist’s decision to run a minivac across his guitar several times during the Fires set. Whether he was trying to achieve a distorted, tremolo effect or merely hoping to eradicate some pesky dusk particles was unclear.
-Best Dancer, Runner-Up: Deerhoof’s Satomi Matsuzaki busted out what I like to refer to as the “crossguard,” pointing her arms in various clockhand positions throughout her band’s spazzy performance at the Irving Plaza on Wednesday, and at one point rocking out with a replica of a lion’s head for no clear reason. It was an amusing visual aid, though the band’s rapid ping-ponging between bubblegum pop hooks and kitchen sink cacophony is intriguing enough on its merits. Hoof’s openers, Experimental Dental School, don’t have the art of noise-pop down quite so thoroughly (too much feedback-aided skronk where a hook would have worked better), but there was enough tension and chemistry between the group’s two members to suggest that that they worth keeping an eye on.
-Best Worst Dancer: Swedish popster Lykke Li’s dance moves might best be described as a combination of an Olsen Twin, Stevie Nicks and my niece after a sugar bender, all spastic moments and hilarious twirls. Fortunately, Li has the crisp songwriting, easy-going stage presence and a bell-clear voice to make up for the lack of moves, and wasn’t afraid to pander to the crowd by covering NYC heroes Vampire Weekend.
-Welcome Back, Part One: Performing at the Syndicate’s unofficial CMJ kick-off party on Monday at Rebel, the reunited alt-punk all-stars of Rival Schools sounded much tighter and more confident than should be expected of a group that disbanded six years ago, burning through crowd favorites like “Used For Glue” and a feed-back drenched cover of The Smiths’ “How Soon Is Now?” like they had something to prove. At the end of the set singer Walter Schreifels promised a new album next year. Color us excited.
-Welcome Back, Part Two: Things looked promising for Longwave in 2003. New York was basking in the post-Strokes spotlight, and guitar-effects drenched songs from their RCA debut The Strangest Things, such as “Tidal Wave,” were all over MTV2. But label problems and band membership change-ups halted the group’s momentum shortly after their follow-up. Now, regrouped with a forceful new rhythm section and a new indie deal, Longwave made up for lost time by tearing into old singles and new songs from their upcoming album Secrets Are Sinister at the Bowery Ballroom on Friday. The debt to British shoegaze bands and U2 were still apparent, but this time came with a more muscular punch and hooks as razor-sharp as ever. It’s hard to keep a good distortion pedal down, apparently.
-Most Likely To Have A Song On Gossip Girl: White Lies, Longwave’s openers at Bowery, offered up a hooky, if not terribly distinct, version of Killers/Interpol style new new wave, and looked quite dapper in all-black.
-Most Ready For His Close-Up: Following performances by a comedian that talked about flicking pickle juice on his sandwiches and Heather Lawless’ hilariously downcast monologue about her fear of ever seeing herself naked, Todd Barry, Wednesday night’s headliner of The Bitter End’s Comedy Showcase, kept to his bone-dry persona, and urged the CMJ photographer to get as many shots as possible, and even offered to write one of the audience member’s thesis papers if she would put her school work away.
-Living Up To Its Name Award: Trail Of Dead’s Monday performance at Rebel was as loud and menacing as ever (and not exactly what one would imagine appropriate for a party, but that’s beside the point) but things became particularly unhinged when co-frontman Jason Reece performed the song “Caterwaul” while walking tearing through the crowd, eventually finishing the song off inside a go-go dancer cage. (Sidenote, Reece was also kind enough to help this writer find the state in Rebel’s maze-like layout, and didn’t seem to mind that he was initially mistaken for a bouncer. Thanks Jason!)
-Audience Participation Award: After Jay Reatard tore through a lightning fast set (including several triple-speed guitar solos) at the Bowery on Friday that included enough songs to merit three discographies by most bands, Jay ended his set by pulling a random audience member on stage to take a whack at soloing, and then tackled a fan that climbed onstage, sending them both down into the super-charged pit below.
-Most Attention To Detail: Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson paused several times during the first half of his Tuesday Bowery set for imprompu soundchecking and tuning (apologizing each time), before eventually delivering a stunning set of songs that felt like twangy Neil Young jamming with Frank Black in full-on guitar freakout mode.
- Best New Band Names: (Tie) Helpfully playing back to back at the Cake Shop’s New York Noise stage on Friday, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart delivered lovely, achingly (pure) heartfelt, reverb-drenched dance-songs that sounded like would make Richard Butler proud, while New Zealand’s Cut Off Your Hands threw out with the pogo-ready beats and woo-hoo backing vocals like their lives depending on it. (Extra points for their frontman by starting the set by singing on the Cake Shop’s bar.)
(* These awards are not actual, official awards from CMJ Networks, Inc, but rather a handy way for this writer to wrap up a few days worth of shows in one post.)
-Michael Tedder
