In life, the best things are usually the ones you don’t know about, stumble upon and end up enjoying thoroughly. It’s hard to plan. The best things just fall into place. As is the case with music festivals (and CMJ is no exception to this rule) it may be the reason for the phrase. Like SXSW, CMJ is full of unofficial parties, secret shows, and all sorts of RSVP lists that open the doors to epic parties, or parties that could be epic but no one knew about them, and hence, no one showed up. Luckily, we’re going to clear the air for you, and let you in on a few secrets, some choice bands to see, and a few reasons why obtaining an official CMJ badge doesn’t really matter.

Day 1- 10/20

The Pop Tarts Suck Toasted kick off party at Cake Shop tomorrow is a great way to begin the fest. Not only is the blog bringing in Little Girls and Holiday Shores, but also Holiday Shores’ Floridian neighbors Surfer Blood, who’ve been making serious waves, no pun intended, since their trip to NYC almost two months ago. Small Black, Grooms, Sisters, Motel Motel, Dinosaur Feathers, Will Stratton and Seth Kallen round out the Free seven hour show.

Tuesday night there are a lot of options. Between the Underwater Peoples/Olde English Spelling Bee freak fest at Monkeytown and the Best Coast show at Cake Shop, it’s a real tough choice to make, especially since its the first night of the Festival. But if your looking for a way to get into exclusive shows for free, well, there’s an app for that too. It’s called the iPhone app for Going.com and it will get you into the Titus Andronicus, Beach Fossils, Woods, Here We Go Magic show at Webster Hall for free. Sorry BlackBerry users.

Day 2- 10/21

One of the biggest buzz bands in town this week is Best Coast, who’ve been tearing up the Interweb and tape hiss circles since “Sun Was High (So Was I)” hit the Web early this Summer. Throw in hypnagogic allstar Ducktails, NJ riff raff Fluffy Lumbers and the Africa high life riddims of, uh, HIGHLIFE (bka Sleepy Doug Shaw’s groove project, which may or may not feature members of Gang Gang Dance, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti and White Magic) and this is a show not to be missed. Oh yeah, didnt even mention that Alex Bleeker and the Freaks and Coasting would also be making appearances, at the Group Tightener/Todd P event at Monster Island Basement. Not gonna lie, Wednesdays at the Basement have been the jump off recently.

Day 3- 10/22

Thursday is tough. You’re starting to fade from 48 hours of excess but you must keep trudging through the trenches in order to receive either inevitable enlightenment or utter disillusionment. At this point, they are one in the same. You could rage the free DFA party at Brooklyn Bowl, with Murphy & Mahoney spinning as Special Disco Version, always choice. But I’d skip the party, especially if coming from out of town, to see The Beets, Beach Fossils, the Smith Westerns and more at Don Pedro’s. Cover is only $5 and this is a damn good lineup, and taste of the North Brooklyn scene. Beach Fossils haven’t really played outside the City much, and they are a must see, so do yourself a favor and head to Don Pedro’s. Friends at home will be envious in months when you recount the night.

Another go-to Thursday show in Brooklyn is at the infamous Market Hotel. By now, its become a staple for bands rolling through town to hit the spot above Mr. Kiwi’s and below the JMZ, and this doesn’t change during CMJ as WNYU is throwing a serious rager with Gary War, Eric Copeland of Black Dice, Amen Dunes, Expo ‘77, and Fluffy Lumbers, who are on so many good bills this week it’d be hard to miss them.

Day 4- 10/23

Back to the LES, Friday afternoon at Cake Shop might just be the place to be. The Chouette Promotions party Friday afternoon is stacked with up-and-comers who should already be household names, depending on who you talk to you. Forrest Fire, whose Survival was named #1 album of 2008 by La Blogotheque, headline the afternoon party, which also features soundstress Julianna Barwick, the Sian Alice Group, HIGHLIFE and Theo Angel. A good way to kill Thursday nights hangover while pre-gaming for Friday nights festivities.

As is usually the case with CMJ, Friday night means running around. Everyone is pulling out the stops and the lineups are stacked to the brim with blogworthy, PR pumped bands from all over. However, if your looking to chill in one spot, and devour a cohesive lineup from one of the best labels going, your best bet is to pop over to Cameo Gallery in Williamsburg for the Paw Tracks showcase. It looks a lot like last years lineup, sans Beach House, but a lot has changed since then, with Dent May touring the world and Tickley Feather on the brink of a new release. Throw in Mrs. Avey Tare, aka Kria Brekkan, the freak show that is Exceptor and Drawlings and you’ve got one of the best label showcases of the festival.

Day 5- 10/24

Got really drunk at the Paw Tracks show and fell asleep in the bathroom? All good, as the fellas from Underwater Peoples will be taking over Cameo Gallery starting at 12 noon on Saturday. It’s a brunch show for all the hungover masses still trying to figure out exactly what happened. Fortunately for us, the collective will have bands playing in the front of Lovin’ Cup and in the back room. It’s a gathering of chillers, complete with the seven man Pill Wonder arkestra, Family Portrait, Frat Dad, Alex Bleeker and the Freaks, and yes, Fluffy Lumbers, who, like I said earlier, are on a lot of choice bills this week.

By Saturday night your bones probably ache. That’s cool. You should feel like shit. And the only thing that will cure your ailing limbs is a long ride on the L train to the deepest depths of Brooklyn, to what is easily one of the coolest places in New York. If you think I’m talking about the Silent Barn, well, you’re right. Tuck a few tall boys into your coat and check out the dope lineup Pop Jew has curated for the closing nights festivities. By the end of the night, which features the likes of A Classic Education, a band from Italy which His Clancyness plays in, you’ll be searching the floor for a valium and a few bucks for a cab ride home. And that’s fine. That’s how it should end: aching, ears bleeding.

We’re mega pressed for time this week at the Singles Collection, and not wanting to shaft our good friends at Sacred Bones, we’re going to bump them back one more week (we swear this time) so we can give them their due and proper. But, on the plus side, we do have at least one SB-related artist this week, so it’s not completely a wash. Anyway, so much time and so little to do — strike that, reverse it — let’s get onto the singles.

Getting us started this week is the new one-sided 7″ from perennial favorites Gary War, “Anhedonic Man”, on the venerable Hell, Yes! imprint out of Italy. Some might say that a one-sided single is a waste of time/space, and generally we would tend to agree, but HY! always has such ripping tunes that we’re willing to let them slide. This one is certainly no different, as “Anhedonic Man” is a slip-n-slide cosmic romp through a vast netherworld of analog synths, taut drumming and sandblasted guitars that sounds like it was recorded by the spirits of Eddie Hazel and Michael Rother in Berlin in 2018 and shipped back just to show us how fantastic our future sounds will be. There’s also a special edition of this release that comes with a bonus one-sided 7″ that’s the same track, only reverse-grooved so it plays backwards. Both versions are still available at the Hell, Yes! MySpace, or if you are in the States and the standard version is ok with you, then hit up the Sacred Bones distro page.

Also this week, we’ve got the first single from Hoboken’s Personal & The Pizzas, the self-titled EP on Gooc Entertainment. We’ve been enjoying the hell out of this slab for months now, but have waited due to them being out-of-print and unavailable for anything other than collector’s prices. But now that the repress seems to be making its way to stores and distros, we figure we’d include them finally. It’s easy to be put off by their 50’s greaser aesthetic — Personal looks like he was cast out of Lenny & Squiggy’s inner circle — but the 3 songs on this EP are fantastic, all rambling along the alleyway with shambolic, Ramones-like hooks and playing that feels shabby on its best days. “I Don’t Wanna Be No Personal Pizza” sounds like it’s being held together with duct tape and some old bubblegum, and that’s more than alright by us. They’ve since released a split 7″ with Bobby Ubangi on the awesome Rob’s House imprint, and copies of this original EP should start showing up in distros (check Florida’s Dying and Rocket Reducer any day now).

It’s a short week for us (the real world has beckoned and we must heed the call), but we’ll be back up to full steam next week, you can count on that. Until then, enjoy these couple nuggets, sit outside and enjoy the ever-improving weather and have a cocktail for us.

We recently featured him in our Singles Collection, and we’ve been giving love to the crew at Sacred Bones recently, so why not give a little more love to Brooklyn’s Gary War?

The music is pyschedelic, surreal, futuristic, snyth pop. Or something like that. Despite his low profile and minimalist promotion (note the photo), he’s quite the prolific man. Gary War’s got a new live tape just released on Blank Dog Mike Sniper’s Captured Tracks, a full-length, Galactic Citizens, coming soon and new 12-inch, Horrible Parade on Woodsist as well as a new 12-inch EP on Captured Tracks and a new 7-inch on Bad Press.

While you’re waiting for all of that to come out, take a list to “Don’t Go Out Tonight”, which is the B-Side to his “Zontag” 7-inch and you can also download the entire Gary War catalog for free, 100 percent costs-no-money, on his blog.

Gary War – “Don’t Go Out Tonight”

This week on the singles collection, we get to delve into a treasure trove from one of our favorite labels — NYC’s always amazing Sacred Bones Records. They’ve just unleashed four new singles (and have another 3 coming in the next couple of weeks) and we’re going to take a look at three of them this week. The fourth, a platter of acid folk jams from Absinthe Minds member Max Elliott, is also a fantastic addition to any collection, but we’ve left it off solely due to time constraints. While it’s difficult to tell from some small cover jpegs, Sacred Bones releases always look as good as they sound, as they really go above & beyond when it comes to packaging. Anyway, enough with the senior superlatives, let’s get on with the show.

Kicking things off this week, we’ve got the first 7″ from NYC synth-destroyers Gary War, “Zontag” b/w “Don’t Go Out Tonight”, their follow up to the fantastic New Raytheonport 12″ from last year. The A-Side is a steeped in interstellar weirdness, all manner of oscillating comets and flying Clusters occupying its Kraut-rocking cosmos as it blasts its way towards pop nirvana. B-Side “Don’t Go Out Tonight” isn’t quite as surreal, but its future primitive synth deconstructions and gurgling melodies wouldn’t necessarily be out of place in A Clockwork Orange or The Andromeda Strain, either.

With batches of Sacred Bones releases, it’s always difficult to pick a favorite, but this time out, gloom ‘n’ doom San Diego troupe Spirit Photography take the honors with “Time is Racing” b/w “Into the Heart of”, a delectable two song slab of ghoulish post-punk minimalism. You’ll hear the faint, jangly echoes of Joy Division and The Chameleons in the clattering and transcendent “Time is Racing”, which is the most perfect crystallization of the late 70s/early 80s Manchurian sonic aesthetic you are likely to find on an album that wasn’t actually released by Factory Records. On the flip, “Into the Heart Of” is already a strong contender for song of the year, its dulcet opening tones slowly transmogrifying into a joyous swell of guitar/organ/melodica that blinds like a surprise lunar sunburst; hook-laden and experimental in equal measure, its shape-shifting veneer makes it one of the more intriguing songs of recent memory.

Finally this week, we’ve got the newest offering from The Pink Noise, “Gold Light” b/w “Prince Charlies Revenge”, the follow-up to a bevy of releases in 2008. The A-Side is a two-minute, fuzzed-out blast of staccato pop, rife with bongos(?) and multiple keyboard lines that sound as though the power adaptor is actually melting as they’re being played. The flipside is weirder still, coming on like Phil Spector dropping acid and falling asleep on the mixing board as an orchestra without a leader plays Rachmaninoff at half speed and everything gets run into the red and winds up looking/sounding like H.R. Puffnstuff outtakes.

All of these releases are still available from the Sacred Bones site for a mere $5 each (plus shipping), and of course, it is highly recommended that you get them all (as well as the Max Elliott). That’s it for us this week, but you can rest assured we’ll be back next week with even more platters to keep your turntable spinning at 45 and your PayPal account drained.