Thoughts That Rush Through Your Head When Planning Your CMJ Music Marathon

When organising a CMJ schedule, where does one start? Do you Google recommendations from coolsie/chinstroker-ish websites other than your own (which is neither of these aforementioned descriptors, obviously)? Yeah, maybe. What about syncing up your CMJ app with Facebook likes and letting it send you recommendations? Sure, we did that while also making a mental note to 'like' more likeable bands down the track and stop 'liking' for the sake of 'liking' in case this kinda syncing takes off with festivals and such down the track. Pretty interesting to see how many artists are deemed similar to Courtney Barnett these days, though. (Out of the 23 recommendations, six were apparently RIYL - a TLA this scribe just learnt the meaning of - Barnett with a whopping 13 RIYL Parquet Courts!) 

 

Let's also aim to see artists who are showcasing multiple times the first time they play not only in case we miss it, but also so we can go to the next one (or even every time if they're everything). 

 

And we'll try to support our fellow countrymen while still catching fresh produce from across the ocean/s. 

 

Trying to get to as many CMJ venues as possible on day one is also gonna be wise to select favourite rooms and adjust scheduling of subsequent days accordingly. This is also important so that we can picture the distances between venues, realise limitations and stop just assuming everything is a stone's throw away. 

 

And what about those such as Playboy Manbaby, Diet Cig, Vomitface and Pity Sex where you just love the name?

 

To give you an idea of the scale of this thing, there are 46 artists showcasing with band names that start with the letter 'a'! The alphabetical order thing actually shines a spotlight on two bands with very similar names that are showcasing this year: CHAOS and Chaos Chaos. 

 

Will looking at the press pics help us out? But what about the artists who don't have a photo next to their name in the CMJ 

app? Who should be sacked for that? 

 

All we know for sure is that Band Without Hands actually have hands (their press shot is included.) 

 

Oh, and just one more thing: There's a venue called Cake Shop, so we're pretty sure you can (mostly) find us there.