CMJ Update #1

A quick update on my CMJ experience so far.

Tuesday night Owen and I arrived later than expected due to a late departure, so no CMJ passes. Spent the evening exploring the lower East side though which was fun.

Wednesday we went to the Hi-Fi panel which was actually quite a good panel. The range of opinions on the board was great, with a little bit of surprise on my part about how much the Sony guy cared about sound quality in his music. Very interesting panel. Then we saw Social Networks and music which was an unfortunate amount of shameless self promotion.

After a brief visit to the Cake Shop with Owen to see a band I didn't know, I wandered off to Chinatown to explore and then went on a bar crawl with the various other radio stations, promoters, labels, etc.

Thursday was college day and it was a lot of fun. Some panels were better than other, the quality of the musical acts was generally good, and at the end of the day I ended up going on stage to present on of the college radio awards.

After a quick visit to Other Music, I hit up the first metal show of CMJ.

Ionia was universally disliked by the crowd. I thought a different vocalist could have changed opinions.

The Autumn Black was a bit better, but generic metalcore is generic metalcore...thought there was a big improvement from the first band.

This show being ended, hit up the next show and I was more eager for this showcase, as it was Metal Blade and Relapse.

This or the Apocalypse was ok. More generic metalcore.

Bison B.C. was the surprise of the night for me. I had expected a more generic Metal Blade band, but they ended up being great, and something I will definitely play on my show this week.

Left to Vanish had hardcore dancing.

Tombs was uninteresting. Talented, just not good music.

Psyopus was cool. The music is quite mindblowing to see live, all very talented musicians. The vocalist was very charismatic and, this being a bar venue, often in the audience trying to draw more people in.

Today is the metal panels, yay!