28th October 2009

Video with 1 note

CMJ Report: Day Two
In Which Andrew WK Fights a Chair

After attempting to wake up early, and only succeeding in waking up early-ish, I went down to NYU to see Andrew WK do some sort of speech as part of CMJ.  I wasn’t particularly interested in this, because I’d recently heard an interview with the man in which he acted like a regular guy, and who really wants to hear that garbage?  Everyone else in the group was pretty excited to see what the guy who wrote such generational anthems as “Party Hard,” “It’s Time to Party,” and “Party til You Puke,” would have to say.  I’m glad I went along, because it was definitely fun.  He was not speaking out of character as he was in the interview I’d heard, and, after awkwardly introducing himself, he spent about eight minutes having an all-out slugfest with a chair, in which he took several hard hits, though he did come out the victor.  He spent the rest of the session taking questions from the audience, questions which ranged from “not intelligent” to “absolutely insane,” with a few uncomfortable attempts at humor thrown in from socially unskilled weirdos.  The guy ended up answering several questions multiple times, because, after answering them (quite clearly and humorously, I would say) the questers would simply ask them again.  There were a couple of other audience members who were dressed up in all white, like WK is known for, (though with out-of-character baseball caps with turned-up brims, which was BULLSHIT) and they fucking FREAKED OUT when he played “Party Hard,” on the piano.  It was pretty silly, I thought, but they got way too into it.  I could tell it was making him slightly uncomfortable at first, but you also see he was used to this kind of thing, so he dealt with it well.

After that, I went to Glasslands Gallery in Williamsburg to check out Darlings and Boogie Boarder.  Also on the bill were Ribbons, Hot Lava, Aloud, and Mussels.  The place was another pretty cool venue, one of those hidden Williamsburg spots that, without the door open, looks like the back entrance to a warehouse, but once you find it and make it inside, you see it’s a pretty sweet underground club.  The walls to the bathroom didn’t make it up to the ceiling, and the room was elevated above everything else in the building, so pooping there would be pretty uncomfortable; feels like you’re sitting on a pedestal right in the middle of the show.  But it’s cool to still be able to hear everything clearly when you’re going number one, so that’s a plus.

First up (since I arrived after Aloud performed) was Ribbons.  They were some pretty standard garage rock, with just a drummer and a singer/guitarist. Sort of shimmery lo-fi stuff. Pretty acceptable, but not something I’d ever go out of my way to see.

Next was Darlings, and, I’ve gotta say, they were better than I’d expected. I thought their new record, Yeah I Know, was a solid effort, but wasn’t fantastic or anything, and I wasn’t super excited to check them out, but was looking for a more relaxed show.  They were right in the wheelhouse.  When the guitarist wanted to make some noise, he definitely could, and did; several songs involved him smacking the butt of his guitar, creating nasty distortion, an interesting contrast to the garage-pop that makes up the rest of the compositions.  They treated the show right; they were having fun, and could get into it when needed, but, you know, it was Wednesday.  No need to go fucking crazy.  I thought it was real good.

Hot Lava followed Darlings, and, though they did have a couple tracks I liked, I thought they were a bit dull.  They came up from Virginia, and played some sort of straight forward rock tracks.  The drummer used a plastic suitcase for a bass drum, which was neat, and they did a kind of surf song that I thought was pretty great.  I’d give them a B minus.  Above average, not bad, but not great.

Finally, Boogie Boarder.  I didn’t really pick it up as much on their record, the excellently named Pizza Hero, but they rock fucking hard.  I’ve gotta say, it was one of the most energetic performances I’ve seen in a while.  Imagine Double Dagger, but with a bit more instrumentation going on, and a bit less “fuck you” going on (not to say there wasn’t any of that, just less).  They were loud, grinding post-punk stuff, and it was really nasty.  If you like it when bands kick shows asses, go see Boogie Boarder.  Bassist is fantastic.

Also, Mussels played, but why would I wanna see that?

That was it for the night.  We headed home, and I think this was probably to be the last truly relaxing night we’d have.  Stay tuned for tomorrow’s update, in which I touch Duchess Says’ singer’s butt.