Back from a long, exhausting and amazing week - thus is the nature of a conference and festival like CMJ Music Marathon. For this recap, I thought I’d break it down by all of the situations and emotions that one feels working an event like this for a week in a city like NYC. And since music is an expression of every moment under the sun, I also picked a song for each emotion. Though, if I could pick just one song, I'd pick Chad Valley's "Up and Down" (stream above). Aren't I clever? Here are some more...
Excitement. Song for the moment: "421" by The Wildbirds
When you’re on your way to CMJ and New York, you get excited at all the things that are in store for you. Meeting new people, seeing old friends, great food, the schedule of all your favorite bands playing… the list of exciting things is endless. Sonicbids was also very excited to announce our partnership with Red Bull! We’ve been talking about it internally and working so hard for months and it was awesome to finally start telling others about it. Keep your eye out on RedBullMusic.com for the coolest music platform you’ve pretty much ever seen – launching soon.
Chaos. Song for the moment: “New World Order” by Art vs Science
From the second you arrive to CMJ, everything is chaotic. (I mean, it's New York, so I guess it's obvious that it's going to be a wild ride.) We had a lot to accomplish on the first day getting prepared for being at registration all week with Red Bull and also for our presence at College Day. There was a lot of stressing, lifting, pushing, pulling and even running (literally) to figure out where things need to go and how we could get it all done. But when you work a huge event like CMJ, the only thing that matters is just getting shit done. Or, as I like to put it in the wise words of Art vs Science, you just need to “use your flippers to get down.”
Disappointment. Song for the moment: “Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye.
Yes, even at a fun-filled filled music event, there was a lot of disappointment for the week. From messed up schedules to rude cab drivers - it’s not all rainbows and roses at CMJ. There were a lot of bands I really wanted to see (like Gotye) for which I just couldn't find the time. And when I did make the time, sometimes it still didn't work out: a band I’ve been dying to see for months now is San Francisco’s Geographer and I was so excited to see them on the CMJ line up. Unfortunately, when I went to Le Poisson Rouge Thursday night to see them, I was saddened to hear there was a big scheduling mistake and they weren’t playing CMJ. Talk about a major bummer.
Surprise. Song for the moment: “It’s Around You” by ANR
Even though I was wicked bummed about missing Geographer, I was beyond pleasantly surprised to see ANR instead. I heard of ANR a while ago and I just love their video for “The Endless Field of Mercury” ( a 1970s beauty pageant in slow motion, what?!) – but I’ve never gotten the chance to see them live. I gotta say, I was so impressed by the whole band and especially lead-singer Brian Robertson’s vocals. Dude. Can. Sing. I was also surprised at how friendly and helpful some totally random people can be: I'd like to give a big shout out to the Chef on the 10th floor of the NYU Kimmel Center, who gave me cookies and juice just because he saw me running up and down freight elevators moving things around all Thursday morning! As I didn’t have time to eat that morning, I probably would have died without that guy.
The randomly awesome Chef leads me to my next point: I am just so grateful to know some fabulous people. I often hear about how the music industry is so cut-throat and everyone is just in it for themselves. I couldn’t disagree more. There are so many folks that I’ve met over the years that are involved because they love music and they love helping others. And yes, that even includes promoters (it isn't always Band vs. Promoter out there!). Valerie Gurka is constantly hustling booking emerging music for The Knitting Factory, hosting panels at events like CMJ, and is even in a band herself – and Jackie Indrisano from Café 939 in Boston literally just sat at the Sonicbids/Red Bull booth for almost a half hour brainstorming ideas on how she can work with Sonicbids more to help artists. Ladies like these are fabulous, fabulous, fabulous and there were many more around all week as equally awesome.
Love. Song for the moment: "I Must Be a Lover" by Guillemots
Alright, I admit it. I’m a softie. I can’t help it. I just have so much love for the bands and people I get to work with. There are a lot of bands out there who I adore as people just as much as musicians and it was great to see many of them at CMJ – Filligar, Aunt Martha, Seth Glier, and I must have given a total of 46 hugs to the boys of Hey Marseilles alone (considering there are 7 in the band, it doesn’t seem that ridiculous). I also made some great new friends, like Bonnie from Minnow and Co., Claire from Bossy Music, Rachel from MPress Records, and Will (aka “Billium”) from Red Bull - who is my new BFF. Of course, seeing David from Bandzoogle always makes my heart happy and don’t know what on earth I would have done without my partner in crime, the lovely Kate Myers, all week.
Much love to all the people involved with CMJ, 2011. Thanks for all the laughs, high-fives, hugs and music. Check out photos from the week on our Facebook - we'll still keep our little "CMJ Sampler" for a bit longer up there, too!
