CMJ 2005: Bands On The Run

Musicians, Businesspeople And Indie Fans Celebrate The 25th Annual CMJ Music Marathon

(CBS) 
The Arcade Fire, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Wolf Parade were possibly the year’s biggest tickets. Montreal’s The Arcade Fire wowed small audiences and generated huge buzz at last year’s marathon, adding instrumentation such as accordion and violin to the usual rock lineup to produce wild performances of songs from the band's debut full-length, “Funeral.” Over the past year they’ve landed on the cover of Canadian Time, been the catalyst for countless articles on the scene in their city, have been joined on stage by David Byrne and collaborated at the Fashion Rocks television concert with David Bowie. Bowie sang two songs during the encore of their performance at this year’s CMJ, held before a sold-out crowd at Central Park’s Summerstage.

“This year’s Arcade Fire,” many said, is Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Having sold an estimated 25,000 copies of their self-released debut, Philadelphia-based songwriter Alec Ounsworth overcame the unconventional logistics of recording with a Brooklyn band to create an infectious set of synthesizer-heavy pop songs. Ounsworth sings lyrics such as “you look like David Bowie” with a bit of country twang and a lot of a nasal yelp that has drawn comparisons to Byrne, and both king-making Davids have been spotted in the crowd at recent Clap Your Hands Say Yeah shows. The band played a set during the indie-influential public radio station KCRW’s live coverage of CMJ, and drew throngs of label representatives and hundreds of fans with no prayer of gaining entry to their Friday night show. The next morning, it was reported that the band was making a distribution deal with Warner Music Group that will allow them to sell to a far larger audience while continuing to put out their albums themselves.

Coming to CMJ amid major buzz and chattered about because of their ties to some of the latest trivial trends was Wolf Parade. With the band's debut full-length album about to be released on Sub Pop, the label that most famously put out the first Nirvana record, theirs was the show being talked about by people in the front row at that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah radio performance.

“It would be nice if it all kind of rubs off and everything goes well,” said Wolf Parade drummer Arlen Thompson, speaking on a shaky cell phone connection from the Nevada mountains a few days before their CMJ showcase. “When you do something like CMJ that’s kind of what it is, the record labels are all taking out their new shiny band and showing off to everyone how good they are, so we’re definitely, you can feel that. We’re kind of a bit of a dog and pony show but I think it will be fun, whatever stuff happens.”

Wolf Parade has benefited from a friendship with Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock, another of Sub Pop's alumni to go Top 40, who produced the band’s new record, “Apologies To The Queen Mary.” They landed on the radar opening for Brock’s band last fall, though unfamiliar audiences had a hard time keeping straight which of the current rash of “Wolf” bands – Wolfmother, Guitar Wolf, We are Wolves, Tiger Bear Wolf, Wolf Eyes (with whom Wolf Parade shares a label) or AIDS Wolf (who share their practice space) – they were seeing. The need for a supergroup called Wolf Pack, one 2005 CMJ attendee joked, is a no-brainer.

And then there’s the fact Wolf Parade is from Montreal, the currently mythicized hometown of The Arcade Fire. “It’s kind of weird how it kind of blew up,” said Thompson, who played drums on parts of that band’s debut. “It’s just like anything else, it’s a bunch of friends, you just kind of meet everybody after a while. Most folks hang out in the same bars and do the same stuff and live in the same neighborhoods… like 10 bands lived in a four-block radius of each other, that kind of thing.”

But Thompson doesn’t see Montreal, or all of Canada, for that matter, as a big enough place for bands who want to be heard. Just touring New England, he noted, can put the band in front of as many people as if they’d criss-crossed their entire country.

Back at the The Hit Factory panel, MoRisen Records president Chuck Morrison had emphasized, “That fundamental aspect of tour development will never go away.”

And from a musician’s standpoint, Timony is in agreement. “The promotional part of music to me is the shows, and being at a point where I feel really good about the live show,” she said. “I feel that’s what beings people in, I can feel when I am connecting with people.” In the indie music world, the CMJ Marathon has been making these connections for decades.