CMJ Posts for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday

I still can't get them on the group blog, but I can get them on my personal page. I'm pleased enough with them, so go visit ova heeya. Still playing Ghostland Observatory in my head, and was thinking of doing a best of CMJ next week, but I'm a little burned out with all the "new music" so we'll keep up with the old music here.

Barren Saturday

I'm down in the canyons of Wall Street this afternoon, putting my time in, and deciding when and where to go later on for the last day of CMJ. I was think of dropping by a couple of houses, and then seeing if I can get into Justice at the new Terminal 5. Amy and I (and Philip and Meredith (of Girl Robot fame) and John and lots of others) saw Ghostland Observatory at Webster Hall. I loved it. I have a write up ready (at least in my head!), but I can't post anything at the imeem site at the moment for reasons that are unclear to me. I did manage to put up some photos, and if the technical stuff sorts itself out, I'll have two nights of reports to file. I might just post them here, who knows. (You can at least see my photos here.)

In other news, Boring Liverpool were gifted a win at Everton, and Boring Bolton were gifted a loss at Arsenal. (Roll on next weekend, but I'll be watching on tape delay.) And Oklahoma is in the fourth quarter trying to beat the vaunted Iowa State Cyclones.

Mr. Rogers at Iceland Airwaves 2007

You all know Stu. He'd be here covering CMJ himself, if he weren't in Iceland covering the Iceland Airwaves festival for the second year running. This year they've really gone mega, and Stu is the official video podcast presenter for the festival. You can see and hear him here. And if you're in Iceland this weekend, you can see and hear him in person--he's scored a Saturday night DJ set!

Family ties

My Tuesday CMJ post is up now. It ain't much, basically me seeing one band plus a random song or two from about four others, then bailing out and going home. Imeem's embedding music is still pretty cool, I'm wondering if I can use it on here...

...Family names noted without further comment.

More CMJ blogging

Here. I had a lot more to say about the music, especially the two Alabama bands, but I was really boring myself, so I left it out.

We've started CMJ blogging

Our first post on the CMJ Festival for imeem is up at that group blog. Here it is. I'd say it's nothing to write home about, which is plainly contradicted by this very blog post. Anyway, it's not in our contract to gush about imeem, but embedding a playlist in one of our posts is, and I have to say, it's a pretty cool feature. Basically I just typed whatever band came to mind, and bam, it calls up any song previously uploaded by anyone else. Amy says all the kids use imeem, so there were a lot of songs to choose from.

IT NEVER ENTERED MY MIND

IT NEVER ENTERED MY MIND by The Miles Davis Quintet.

So I ended up alluding to the kitschmensch-ness of the Radiohead downloading experience, when that was really going to be the focus of today's song. No one can deny the amusement park quality of Corner Bistro, and I submit that it is a big draw of having a meal there.

This is where you go when you knock off work in the mid afternoon and talk about how good the burgers are and how cheap the beer is, but you bask in everyone's tacit agreement that yes, it is good to knock off work early, burgers are good, and beer is cheap.

It Never Entered My Mind by The Miles Davis Quintet has pride of place in the Corner Bistro jukebox (literally--it's "0001"), and for me it is the perfect song for the place. Lean and sentimental. Just like Corner Bistro, part of its appeal is that you can come across a million different versions, some better, some worse, and so it has a resonant quality. That appeal to nostalgia. And, of course, just like a bistro burger, it helps that it's really good on its own terms.

Have a good weekend, and we'll be back with a special CMJ schedule next week!

LISTEN.

Photo: Corner sign (3).

Here comes CMJ07

Every year CMJ takes over NYC for a week.

This year, it's taking the blog over too. Here's the deal: I've gotten a press badge to take in as many shows as I can over the five nights next week, and I'll be blogging it over at imeem's CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival Group. I'll probably cross-post everything here too, so that will make up for my laziness in writing about concerts lately.

I just spent a few minutes unsuccessfully googling this, but I think my first CMJ experience was seeing Elliott Smith in 1998. This year I can see just about any band in the world (for real, the roster is pretty daunting), so I've been spending hours trying to narrow down the options. If you have any suggestions, don't hesitate to send them along.

I'd like to say thanks to imeem for hooking me up. I'm on there as the fairly ominous-sounding "H. L. I. T." It's pretty fun though. And, my very first friend is Justice! [their webmaster, says Amy the spoilsport.] Which gives me an excuse to post this great youtube of D.A.N.C.E. Check it out, and check back tomorrow for Friday's tune.