Ment’s CMJ Marathon Diary
By the time you read this, maybe we’ll know if and when the next
CMJ Marathon will hit the Big Apple.
CMJ Wed. Oct. 22 What is it about a concert hall of life broadcast
setting that makes people want to cough.? In a 5th-floor studio
at the Museum of Television and Radio this question came to me
as the KEXP simulcast disc jockey turned the airwaves over to
Mando Diao for a set being piped back to the West coast. The band’s
second so-in-to-themselves tune ran a little too long, with verrry
emotional choruses. After a brief interview they set into a bluesy
number that at least moved my feet a little. They said that not
a lot of bands that make it out of Sweden are very Swedish. O.K.
Thurs. Oct. 23 Yoko Ono said “I didn’t break up the Beatles. They
weren’t that stupid,” when an imp in the audience offered the
irrelevant question during her interview with Robert Christgau.
Ono has lent use of Lennon’s “Imagine,” to Amnesty International.
Anything that keeps the message out there is O.K. with me. FILM
The Cooler @ Lowes State Theater. I hear a Baldwin won a best
supporting for this dark little trip through the world of an old
Vegas 
superstitionthat of the like-named cooler - . The idea that a
fellow next to you could bring bad luck strikes me as too over
the top, but very believable in this William H. Macy vehicle with
a score by Mark Isham. He loses his ability to ruin the table
when a hottie (Maria Bello) apparently falls for him. That doesn’t
sit too well with the old-time casino boss Baldwin - who later
revived this sort of role for a cameo on TV’s Las Vegas. Good
popcorn at those Lowes theaters - not like the crap you can buy
at some upstate NY theaters. Anti-Flag @ B.B. Kings. Oops, too
late. Too crowded. Can’t get in. And they’re arresting kids on
42nd St. for drinking beer. Asian Nite at Siberia Bar, 356 W.
40th St., NYC Caught Spunks and the glorious Gito Gito Hustler,
who are featured on the cover of this here Rag. Riding handlebars
around the murky basement at Siberia, 
Spunks energy was undeniable. These boys like punk. Likewise Gito
Gito 
Hustler, who in the spirit of the Ramones played old Motown tunes
and originals as though there was no difference between the two.
Fri. Oct. 24 Julia Darling on the day-stage, back at the Hilton
- very beautiful, tightly crafted songs. “A warm gun is easily
sung then done. ... “ At a panel on market share, Peter Jenner,
best known to me as Billy Bragg’s manager, said we need to watch
companies like Clear Channel’s reaction to the Dixie Chicks’ unfavorable
comments about president G.W. Bush. “If you let the market place
solve these problems, they’re going to keep controlling things.”
Uh huh, you tell’em. 
KEXP/KCRW broadcast, Death Cab for Cutie, offered pop melodies
for Nic Harcourt’s “Morning Becomes Eclectic” show. It was very
sensible pop indeed. These folks enjoy what they do, playing even
after the show segment had left the air proved as much.
Girls Garage at Irving Plaza I would have likes to see Candy
Ass. - But Have I mentioned I still hate Irving Plaza? Most of
my worst memories of the musical life center around this club
- oh and that Town Hall show a few years back. I hate Irving Plaza.
Sat. Oct. 25 At the Independent Press panel, “authorities” offered
“If you love us, subscribe.” I can deal with that. Send $4 for
five issues to Urban Rag, P.O. Box 812, Tannersille, NY 12485.
- oops. Slightly smarmy bunch - these fanzine types. The Stills/Echo
at Webster Hall - heavy guitar -influenced 80s sort of sound,
influenced no doubt by the bill with Echo and the Bunnymen. The
bunny guys must have been playing their hits because the people
around me were mouthing the words. Shamefully, I recognized only
their biggest of those hits. I asked a gal if she was scheduling
a doctors’ appointment on her cell ,but she was checking the score
for game six of the world series. Yankees were losing by two,
I think. EAK’s spin: Everybody reading the Rag knows what CMJ
is the industry confab where college radio programmers come
to discover what is going to be the next grunge. There were plenty
of great musical up-and-comers such as The Stills or Death Cab
for Cutie, but CMJ also sported a host of activists this year.
Keynote 
speaker Yoko Ono, often panned for her musical outings, is nonetheless
an inspiration for her work in art and political activism. ...
The multi-talented and indefatigable women has also recently reprised
a performance piece in which gallery visitors are invited to use
scissors to cut off her clothes. I know women of all ages are
inclined to issues with body image but 
Ono is now in her 70s. More power to her. Other longtime activists
included MC5’s Wayne Kramer and rock, C&W, bluegrass great Steve
Earle. Kramer tested the first amendment and the tolerance of
cops as founding member 
in MC5 in the 70s a firebrand of rock power that imploded into
rockstar excess. Kramer has refocused his career and continues
to be a great creator as we discovered at a screening of The
Cooler the tale of Nu Vegas vs. old school Vegas that Kramer
penned and directed. Also reaching out to fans through the silver
screen instead of a music performance was Steve Earle whose
record label Artemis filmed a documentary about Earle called
“Just an American Boy.” My only complaint was that the small Two
Boots Theatre in the East Village wasn’t filled to capacity with
people who may have been surprised to learn that in addition to
his music and anti-death penalty activism, Earle is also a poet,
playwright, and the wrong person to have with you in the car if
you get pulled over in Nashville. Some CMJ stages showcased performers
who were beneficiaries of activism the showcase at Siberia Bar
(continued, page after next) mixed Japanese performers with rock
and punk acts once secreted behind the Great Wall. Bands like
Peelander Z hailing from Beijing rocked out in great style. The
CMJ lineup not only looked to the future but also gave a loving
nod to the past with appearances by 80s greats Killing Joke and
the stellar Echo and the Bunnymen. The voices may be a little
weaker but they still breath life into the soundtracks of our
youths. Sharing the opening night stage with KJ were Black Box
Recorder and Beta or VHS. Black Box Recorder is silky and smooth
and distinctly British. Like a Roxy Music with a seductive female
lead singer (Sarah Nixey), the band creates dreamy auralscapes
and embellishes them with a machine-ish drum beat and a blasee’d
approach to gloomier psychological themes. Their 1998 single,
“Child Psychology” was banned in England, where censors missed
the wry cynicism in the brilliant refrain delivered in deadpan,
“Life if unfair/Kill yourself or get over it.” Beta or VHS delivers
heavy handed, 80s style no-wave gems. I was especially impressed
by there post-modern double bass drum not a drum really at all
just two foot pedals hooked up to some sort of synth drum pickups.
The minimalist instrument is an apt metaphor for this band as
it putsa human rawness front and center while the technology that
leverages its human creations is all but hidden in a tangle of
instrument cables on the stage. -EAK