Hipster's Delight

Last week, hordes of hipsters descended on New York City. Aside from the usual long hair, cigarettes and tight jeans, they all wore badges covered with the words "DKNY," "CMJ '06," and "SPIN." Ranging from $495 to $750 a pop, these laminated emblems provide access to a slew of rock shows at the College Music Journal's (CMJ) annual Music Marathon. Nearly all the participating artists are signed to independent "indie" labels and receive air time on college stations around the country. They performed at dozens of venues, from Hoboken's Maxwell's to Manhattan's Irving Plaza to Brooklyn's Warsaw.

The music festival began on Halloween with a series of day performances in the Avery Fisher Hall promenade at Lincoln Center. Inside, dozens of activities, such as panel discussions with top music executives and sweepstakes, made for a busy week. From day shows to night brawls, it was pretty incredible. In other words ... strap on your skinnies and Chuck Taylors, because here are just a few of last week's highlights.

One of the most outrageous occurrences at the CMJ Marathon was the on-stage brawl between British band The Horrors, and crowd members at the "Nylon" Halloween/CMJ kickoff party at Stereo, a club in Chelsea. The band, known for its dark, violent music, is notorious for its onstage antics. While not exactly a surprise, the fight certainly didn't fly with the New York audience.

Another highlight of CMJ week also transpired on Halloween, this time at the SPIN and Sparks party at Fontana's, located in the Lower East Side. Following great performances by Locksley, We Are Wolves and Mess Hall, Har Mar Superstar, who was not on the bill for the evening, surprised the audience with a rendition of his own tunes, stripping down to a tiny pair of army-print panties.

The daytime events may not have been as raucous, but they were no less interesting. On Tuesday I attended two panels, one of which was entitled "Tell Me Why You're So Hot." Music executives, including owner of Ace Fu Records Eric Spek and BMG Music's creative director Brad Aarons, welcomed any artist's demo for a public critique right then and there. While the execs approved of a couple of tracks randomly selected from the mountain of anxiously offered CDs, some of the others, notably a rap/pop song, elicited particularly amusing reactions. I gleaned from the session that for an artist, those first 30 seconds on a demo track are what matter the most.

Some of the more notable performers of the week included Architecture in Helsinki, The Apples in Stereo, Deerhoof, The Fall, The Walkmen, and Albert Hammond, Jr. of The Strokes, among many more. I ended up seeing 14 bands out of the hundreds of possibilities and left with three clear favorites: The Black Hollies, Scissors for Lefty and The Secret Machines.

The Black Hollies, led by lead singer and bassist Justin Angelo Morey, hail from Jersey City. I got to see them at both the promenade in Avery Fisher Hall and at the Cake Shop on Ludlow Street. The downtown performance on Friday was packed with people who couldn't resist dancing to the bluesy, catchy beats. The crowd went wild when they began "You've Been Gone Too Long." The space was so tiny, the guitar so fierce that I felt trapped in a smoky and entirely anachronistic speakeasy. The afternoon show was more laid-back with an acoustic set, allowing me to get some one-on-one with Morey. He told me that The Dansettes are his favorite rock group right now: "They're that rare gem that you're looking for," he said, "and then you stumble upon it."

Scissors for Lefty did not pack their venue like The Black Hollies did, but they wowed everyone who came. The entire crowd shifted toward the front of the floor-level stage in the basement of Midway, located on 4th Street and Avenue B. The main strength of the quartet is their lead singer, Bryan Garza, who flirted, through his vocals, with everyone and everything in the small room. He came out into the crowd, sang to the ladies (his trademark) and used a megaphone, which gave his voice a full, resounding quality.

The Secret Machines, my final favorite band of the music festival, nearly stopped my breath at their show. When Josh Garza laid into his bass kit, the drum beats reverberated through my body, and I checked to see if my pulse was still regular. Each of the normally four-minute tracks were turned into eight-minute pieces, turning the show into a two-hour musical odyssey. Brothers Brandon (keyboard, vocals and bass) and Benjamin Curtis (guitar and vocals) came out with Garza for a four-song encore, lasting almost 30 minutes. After the set, with the music still resounding throughout the venue, bright lights illuminated the smoky air and stunned crowd. Looking at the faces around me, I gathered a sense of both relief and sadness because CMJ was almost over. The hipsters slowly dissipated from the dark venue, walked along Driggs Avenue and caught the L train to the next show.