CMJ day 4

Friday marks the last full day that I was in New York. Saturday was mainly a travel day except for seeing the Statue of Liberty from Battery Park and me getting the flu.

Panels:
Music Industry Myths, Gossip, and Predictions For The Next Five Years.
In this panel I got to hear from some record label heads including the manager of Sub Pop. I was thinking that this panel would be very helpful in seeing where music was going in the next few years. I am always interested to predict what bands are going to make it big and what style of music is going to become popular. This panel was not like this. It was more of just talking about what bands need to do to get noticed by fans and how to keep them newsworthy. Lots of focus was put on bands using Twitter and having all of their websites up to date with current information. People asked questions about if the labels make bands use things like Facebook and Twitter. A few of the panelist said yes and that if the artist is not interested then they will do it for them. When they asked Chris Jacobs from Sub Pop he had a very dead pan look on his face. He commented that they do not care if their artists do this. I can only imagine someone yelling at Band of Horses to post updates on Twitter. I just don't see guys like that doing that. The good part of the panel were some pointers to make sure and have your information on things like Reverb Nation and blogs and different things like that. They said that trying to get the information to magazines like Spin was a waste of time. If you have everything covered yourself they will end up coming to you. Even though I have resisted Twitter I'm glad that it is working out for so many artists. One manager reported that their artist will post that they are going to drink beer at a certain beach one day and they invite fans to come and hang out. That is the one cool thing about Twitter to me is that you can have that sort of interaction with artists.

In the after noon Blicker and I went to 30 Rock and got to see the NBC building. We then went to the Paley Center for Media. It was originally the Radio and Television museum but changed their name. We got to check out tv shows and watch them in little cubicles. I watched an interview that Conan O'Brian did about his show and the writers. It was really interesting to hear him talk about how they created some of the best sketches for the show.

After that we went to some shows in Brooklyn. Blicker went to the Park the Van showcase at Union Hall while I went to The Bell House. I was really excited because in the bar I got to meet Mike Kinsella from Owen and American Football. I told him that I was a big fan and excited to see Owen play with a full band. He responded by laughing and saying I could come and punch him in the chest later if I wanted. I didnt know what that meant until they played later. The first band that I saw was Motel Motel. They were a pretty good indie rock band from Brooklyn. Their songs were really long but had some nice 2nd wave emo inflence. I think I'm gonna pick up their cd. The next band was Owen. Owen was the band that I was really there to see. The full band gets going with 2 songs I don't recognize, which I thought was weird because I have heard a lot of Owen. Then Mike starts strumming the G,C,D chords to Wonderwall by Oasis. This is the point where I went "Oh, no..." I pulled out my phone and looked up the track listings for Oasis and kept listening. Owen decided to play "What's The Story Morning Glory" in its entirety and in order. I have never seen so many confused faces from a crowd. Throughout the entire performance Mike never mentions what they are doing or why but he definately did not play one original song. I was really disappointed and now understood why he gave be freedom to punch him in the chest. He left the stage and the next band Cale Parks came on. Cale is the drummer for the band Aloha. He played some cool dance music with lots of loops and drumming while singing. It was definately not my style but if you attend dance parties like TKO or Kids Got The Disco then you will like this band. James Husband came on next and was horrible. I have nothing to say about him. Finally Headlights took the stage. I had only listened to the band previously off of Blicker's ipod that week but they really impressed me live. They were a piano driven indie rock band from Chicago. All of their music is pop but it is in a way that is still relaxing to listen to. Check out their new album Wildlife. After them we left before Japandroids. I had the flu by this point and was sick of standing. CMJ had way more walking/standing than I was ready for. Overall the trip was amazing and I am so glad that I went. Hopefully Ill be able to make it back someday. But right now I already have my sights on SXSW 2010.