CMJ 2008, Day 1: A frenzied start to a long week of rockin’

October 21, 2008, in NYC

By Liz Schroeter
Published: October 22nd, 2008 | 5:31am

For 2008’s festival, CMJ decided to add one more stretch of fun and fatigue by starting a day earlier than usual on Tuesday, October 21. As I perused the options for Day One — would I see Goes Cube at the Crash Mansion, Project Jenny, Project Jan at Lit, or maybe the first of half a dozen Vivian Girls shows? I also asked my badge-holding friends what they were up to. “Goin’ home” or “I’m gonna take it easy tonight,” was the popular answer. Apparently one more day of CMJ was just too daunting for some.

Not for this writer. I started things off at the Delancey to see New Zealand rockers Cut Off Your Hands, recently signed to French Kiss Records in the U.S. After the band’s first stateside shows created some buzz in 2007, I checked out Cut Off Your Hands' tunes online and found the frenzied, raw sound danceable and wonderfully noisy. The small basement at the Delancey was packed tight with people, several speaking in an accent from down under. It seemed like a good sign.

Sadly, Cut Off Your Hands didn’t quite deliver. Gone were the particularly frantic songs from the group’s early recordings, in their place was a set of catchy, yet run-of-the-mill, indie pop songs. Attempts at introspective slow numbers fell flat. The band did, however, have fantastic energy, raising it an extra notch when all four members sang in unison and when singer Nick Johnston played back up drums. Everyone at the Delancey should feel lucky to have seen Cut Off Your Hands at such a small club — the liveliness easily filled the space. As the set came to a close, the host for the evening, Rhys Darby (who played the band manager on Flight of the Conchords), took the stage. Fitting.

Next it was down the street to the Bowery Ballroom for one of the festival's more buzzworthy artists, Lykke Li. I arrived early to see Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, the latest Brooklyn troubadour on the scene. Robinson (yeah, I can’t be bothered to say his full name) and his band mates appeared delighted and perhaps a little nervous to be on stage at the Bowery. Miles’ gruff voice is distinct in its wild cries and choked-back words, and while it shined through best on his more stripped-down numbers, more often he just sounded undecipherable and off key. His anthemic guitar builds and galloping drum beats peg him as a Springsteen fan, and now and then he and his band hit the mark and captured that swelling Americana vibe … only to lose it a moment later.

Following Robinson was UK indie pop group Friendly Fires. Whereas Cut Off Your Hands suffered from smoothing over its edges, Friendly Fires were expert in their slickness. Disco beats were dead-on with perfectly timed cowbell, shirts were nicely tucked a la Franz Ferdinand, and singer Ed Macfarlane’s dance moves were off the hook. Surely a song or two from Friendly Fires’ debut album will be thumping on the dance floors at indie rock DJ nights everywhere, if they aren’t already.

When black-clad blondie Lykke Li took the stage, the audience went bananas. She’s touring like nuts for her debut album and making fans with her sweet Swedish voice and exploding charisma. Her dance moves put even Friendly Fires to shame, her arms flailing, feet stomping, body jerking this way and that. She moves in a way that seems to channel directly from the music, sweeping her up in it, and still she comes off as sexy and talented rather than wild and silly. Her stomping about the stage included an attack on a spare drum, adding to the frenetic beat making. A dozen gold chains and bangles around her neck were put to work as kazoos and jingling noisemakers. She told the audience they’re supposed to jump, and they obeyed.

Li’s music is playful and full of hooks, often employing the ole oh-you-thought-the-song-was-over-but-here-comes-the-refrain-again trick that makes the crowd go crazy. There’s also just enough of a gothic industrial tinge to her songs to keep things from straying into bubblegum pop territory. Lykke Li’s performance this first night of CMJ was irresistible, even if it was midnight on a Tuesday.

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For Day 2 CMJ coverage, click here.