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LAST DAY OF CMJ MARATHON- HALLELUJAH! NO SLEEP FOR THE WEAK!

well I got some winks, 'cause I knew my day was starting at noon, in my Williamsburg Brooklyn hood, for the annual AAM party, another great college radio promo company (thanks Schroeter!). 2 bands I had been looking forward to all month DUNGEN and AGAINST ME!, were scheduled to perform. Unfortunately, Dungen cancelled, I don't think they realized their tour took them from CMJ/NYC to Philadelphia, back to CMJ, then back to Pittsburgh. Poor tourage! Damn those Europeans AND their booking agent! My initial disappointment was soon dispelled as Against Me! took the Northsix stage...Against Me! put on one of the best shows I saw of the CMJ Marathon, although they couldn't fathom playing at 1:30 in the afternoon.

Tom Gable, singer/guitarist, is a fine throat, full of energy, angst, and good humor; he reminds me of Joe Strummer.

this is a Warren, the drummer from AM! The amusing thing about this patch from Interpunk.com, is the fact that Warren is constantly smiling. I never saw a drummer smile so much, or sing along so much. Almost retarded, so smiley.

Did I mention the guitar player? He's the quiet one, don't smile much, but he sings a mean backup, and takes a nice arty shot

The new Against Me! cd, "Searching For A Former Clarity" on Fat Wreck Chords is a phenomenal slab of wax, my favorite song "Unprotected Sex with Multiple Partners"

Key links:

Against Me!

Noise R Us. Cruised back to NYC / CMJ Music Marathon, stopped into Alice Tully Hell to watch CMJ's own Christopher R. Weingarten mediate a panel on Noise, the punk rock of the new millenium. Heard some witty remarks about Lightning Bolt, The Locust, Merzbow, etc. Not uninteresting.

Check out Johnny Chiba's review of the recent NOISEFEST PARKING LOT

6:40PM - SILVERSUN PICKUPS @ Project

Now here's a fine band who do the soft-hard thingee real well. As I missed them on Thursday at Dangerbird Records showcase, I figured a Cornerstone party was a good place to see em. Cornerstone runs The Fader mag and Tripwire.com, so they are happening folks indeed! The Silversuns were in full throttle when I walked in, the lead singer/guitarist is the focal point of these indie ruffians, At one point his distortion pedal fucked up, and he kinda stood there letting the feedback wail in time to the beat. A cool move, but when one of the photographers unplugged his pedal and plugged it back in, he was forced to play his guitar again. Cool or uncool? He ended the set playing some serious feedback chordage that brought some smiles to the not-so serious inebriated Fader folk. Good band!

8PM - THUNDERLIP at CBGB's downstairs

Yet another timing fuckup! Scheduled for 8PM, Thunderlip were forced to go on at 7:30! Why, I asked the promoter? Well, I didn't even know they were supposed to play, we have a Revelation Record showcase starting at 8! Lame O Lame!

Thunderlip are go! Think Deep Purple at their heaviest, with 2 guitars. A real fun band thanks to the antics of lead singer Chuck, who is everywhere! Can you say photogenic?

The enigmatic ThunderChuck is offstage as much as he is on. He sings his heart out, he wears his heart on his sleeve, he sings to you and me! No matter where Chuck goes, the band plays on! On the couchtrip!

These guys rock major Thundercock!

See the amazing Thunderlip video for Fire In The Hole

Don't cry Chuck! Your band kicks most serious assage!

Here Chuck does his imitation of Cousin It...

Go Chuck Go!

A little Thunderlippin animate!

Key links: Thunderlip website

8:30PM - KAYO DOT at Tonic

Got to Tonic and waited on line for 1/2 hour. WTF? What are these Tonic folks up to? oh I see, it's only 1 person handling everything, checking ID, checking badges, answering the phone, dealing with an angry band member. good move Iso-Tonic!

Guess what? Kayo Dot is 1/2 hour late going on, looks like I'm gonna miss the rest of the Robotic Empire showcase. Shite!

Kayo Dot is quite good, a 8-piece avant-metal band led by a rockin guitar playing dude, who sings a tad softly, then lays into some screamo vokes, leading the band through their soft as a snowflake moments, into some hefty chordage intensity. The 4 guitarists played other instruments as songs changed, and there was some interesting soundbits about suicide in betwixt tunes. It was like a giant KO punch transmitted onto a tiny dot. KAY-O! KAY-AY-O!

Here's a couple shots of the 8-piece Kayo Dot onstage.

Key linkage:

Robotic Empire Records

http://www.kayodot.net/

These pics look familiar, but what is the difference? Did you get it? The guitar player's wearing a funny hat! Yep!

Psychedelic Kayo Dot, courtesy of el Jefe

Animated kayo psychedotica CLICK

Robotic Empire shared the Tonic showcase with Neurot Records, MADE OUT OF BABIES, RED SPAROWES, and ENABLERS were scheduled to play. As you'll see, I missed all 3 bands, but really appreciated their mersh table.

Key link:

Made Out Of Babies arty stuff

The drummer from Made Out Of Babies, Matthew Egan, is an interesting artist.

He did the showcase poster art (left) and a cool Bear/Rhino small girlie t-shirts, that mah little woman bought. She's into art.

click for Jefe's animatory

Matt Egan's intristing art gives Jefe a buzz for animation. Click it!

10PM NIYAZ at Satalla

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Niya, Niya, Niya, Niya, Niya, Niyaz

OK, So we left Tonic, although I had really wanted to see TORCHE, but I promised the li'l woman that we'd see the one band she had her heart set on, NIYAZ, an multi-ethnic Iranian-Persian band on Six Degrees Records. We subwayed up to West 26th street to Satalla, and proceeded to wait in line for an hour while the band got their shit together. Once inside it was another 1/2 hour till the band started, and then my juice took 1/2 hour to get to me, and the triple layer mousse cake we ordered never came! Talk about a bummer, when I coulda been watching some heavy tunes! How do say shit in Persian?

At this point it was after 12, figured we'd head to the CMJ Closing Night After-Party at the Knitting Factory. We took over the 3-floor nightclub witih DJ's, Karaoke, and free vodka and Red Bull! Saw a bit of DJ Jason Forrest (aka Donna Summer), who played some very mean beats, while flailing his arms like a mental case. Kinda reminded me Black Francis on drugs... Pixie dust?

Black Francis vs Jason Forrest = Black Forrest? Separated at Birth?

Tried to catch a cab back to Tonic, to see the end of the Neurot showcase, but could NOT catch a cab!! Damn yellow taxis!!

Went back to party with the CMJ crew and a slew of drunk college radio folks. After an hour or so, decide to head over to The Delancey for the Volcom showcase, with the one and only Valient Thorr - Amazingly, and this being 2:30AM, they were just getting ready to rock... and ROCK THEY DID!!

2:30AM - VALIENT THORR

Talk about going out with a bang! Ending my CMJ Music Marathon 2005 with Valient Thorr was the happening thing to do! Bad Wizard had played earlier that night, another full-frontal rock-in-your-face band. Keeping along these hi-energy lines, the Valient dudes bring an immeasurable horsepower to the stage and to the audience, led by the valient vocalist Valient on lead reverence. He preached rock, he preached togetherness, he preached helping those down south, he PREACHED! At one point, he had the whole audience kneel down (how else could I get my pics?), bringing the music down with him. It showed a command of an audience few could conjure, and then of course, the band powersmacked back into their Hi-Voltage Valient Thorrishment. I'm glad I met these guys at Thunderlip earlier in the eve, otherwise I might not have had the wherewithall to make it. AM I GLAD I DID! My new favorite piece of the ROCK!

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Holy Moley! Grizzly Adams gets a blow job! only kidding, he's just feeling the kneeling

Everybody Rock Thorr! When I say get down, I mean it... get the fuck down and stay there!

key linkage: Valient Site

Volcom Entertainment

Valient Guitar Dude, You Rock!!!!

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CONTACT el Jefe, Johnny Chiba:

jefe (at) testpress (dot) net