[Night Out] OMG CMJ 2014 Day Two: Oh Cassius!, Pompeya, François Ier, The Kickdrums

Oh Cassius! @ Bowery Electric 10/22/14If I'm honest, none of the day shows really seemed worthwhile to me. I decided to try and take it somewhat easy until nightfall. While I was prepping for who I was going to check out on Wednesday I also made the decision to try to see as many bands that are super far away from NYC because duh I live here.

First show of the evening was a quick bite of Bridgeport band Oh Cassius! over at Bowery Electric. If I hadn't been so determined to make it out to Cameo Gallery by 8 I would have definitely stuck it out for their entire performance. The band is fronted by a fun little vocal duo who really play off of each others energy super well. I had to bounce about halfway through their set, but I intend to put them into my regular rotation very soon, specifically songs like, "Carpenter".

Now you may be asking me, "Kibbe, if you had been bitching about the rain so much on Twitter, WHY would you trekk all the way to Cameo Gallery in a cab when a perfectly good lineup was right before you at Bowery Electric!?"

Well I'll tell you why: I've never had a favorite band from Moscow before and now I do so stfu.

I knew the second that singer Daniiil Brod took the stage and said something to the effect of, "Hey. We're gonna play six songs and then we're gonna go" that Pompeya were the kind of dudes that I'd like to have a beer with because they're not too fussy about what they do. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, but I did ruin a few good shots because I kept involuntarily swaying and moving my hips around. I really take Sprout for granted in that regard because she normally does all the snapping and I do all the dancing.

Pompeya @ Cameo Gallery 10/22/14I wasn't familiar with their material other than their single, "Does", but you'll find their music is really easy to get on board with. The second I hit 'publish'on this post I will begin nagging for their upcoming album, Real so I can give you plenty of reasons to pick it up when it drops on February 17th of next year. For now, you can grab their Night EP over on iTunes.

I debated sticking around for Walking Shapes since they were up next, but they're Brooklyn based and that was against the rules for the day. I will probably have to check them out at their next show on October 25th at Spike Hill though.

Instead, I thought I'd outsmart the rain and train it on down to Le Baron to check out François Ier at the France Rocks Party down in Chinatown. I checked out his Neptune EP over the weekend and was thoroughly impressed so I thought I'd experience some of it live.

When I arrived François was treating a bunch of ungrateful French implants who were talking over his lush rhythms about lord only knows what because it has been over a decade now since I was in a French class. They had this poor kid shoved in the corner while they were getting things ready for the next full band that followed him. That felt a little bit disrespectful to me, but I guess I get it. At any rate, I wanted to stay longer, but after experiecning my first $14 well drink in over 3 years and realizing that with the rain that it was going to take me longer to get to Arlene's for my last show of the night, I said "Au Revoire!" and headed back towards the LES.

Nobody should be François Ier in the corner, but they did at Le Baron 10/22/14I know I had the whole, "only bands from really far from NYC" rule for the night, but after trudging through the rain back and forth from Manhattan and Brooklyn all evening, I really just needed a dose of familiarity and awesomeness. That was obviously going to be The Kickdrums at Arlene's Grocery. I've grabbed coffee with Fitts a couple of times in the past year, but it had been awhile since I had seen them perform. It was definitely before they dropped their last album, Thinking Out Loud, which came out over a year ago. Eek! So yeah, obvi long overdue but I am happy to report that the band is aging like a fine wine. They played cuts from all but one of their albums (which happens to be my favorite one, Just A Game). It was certainly a showcase of how much their sound has developed over the years.

None of us were down to party after the show, so Fitts, Jeff, and I walked over to Sugar for a tea and a chat before I wrote the majority of this blog post on my 40 minute subway ride back to Harlem. You can check out more photos from my night out in the slideshow below.

[Night Out] OMG CMJ 2014 Day One: Son Little

Day one CMJ is always a slow start for me and this year was so exception to that rule. I had to endure the day job before my 3 day vacation of bands, booze, and badge friends forever officially kicked off. All that said, you bet your sweet ass the second that 5:30pm rolled around that I was out the door running as fast I could to meet up with Sprout who was patiently waiting for me at our safe harbor that folks like to call No Fun. When the time came for us to treat our earholes we sauntered our way down to Rockwood Music Hall stage 2. The room was reasonably full, enough for Sprout to dart around fairly easily to take some snaps.

The last time I saw Aaron Livingston sing in person it was with RJD2 for their project Icebird. As much as I enjoyed The Abandoned Lullaby, there were some moments where it felt like Livingston's vocals were an afterthought to what was going on in the production. That was fortunately not the case for his new solo project, Son Little. His voice rang out loud and strong to the red velvety backdrop that are the walls of Rockwood Stage 2. His accompanyment were a keyboardist/bassist and drummer, who elevated the emotional twangs in Livingston's voice. In addition to playing cuts I had heard before like, "The River", "Cross My Heart", and the heartwrenching "Your Love Will Blow Me Away When My Heart Aches", he played some new tracks that will appear on his upcoming debut album that is coming "soon" (his words).

We should have stayed around after the show to try and pry more info from him, but between us being starving and me thinking that I was going to a French nightclub for a showcase that I ended up being a day early for, that didn't happen. Needless to say, it was the best way to start OMG CMJ 2014.

Have a listen to "Your Love Will Blow Me Away When My Heart Aches" below.

[Listen] Dillon Francis - 'Money Sucks, Friends Rule' (Full Album Stream)

NEW.

MUSIC.

TUESDAY. 

NEW. 

DILLON.

FRANICS (a week early!)! 

I am a very happy Kibbe today, let me tell you! I have been waiting for this album since the first time I heard "When We Were Young" a few months ago. MTV got the hookup on a full album stream a week before the album officially drops next week (October 29th) courtesy of Columbia Records/Mad Decent. I'm only two songs in at the moment and already I'm very upset that I am confined to my desk at work instead of blasting this in Kibbtopia and dancing around like a crazy person. 

Have a listen to Money Sucks, Friends Rule below. Be sure to pre-order the album on iTunes here if you haven't already because that is the right thing to do. I personally will probably pony up for the deluxe version, but I will be waiting on that until after the dust settles on the damage I do at CMJ this week (more on that later btw!). 

Get More: Dillon Francis,Dillon Francis videos

Be sure to catch Dillon Franics on his 'Friend Rule' tour next month starting in Nashville!

DILLON FRANCIS ‘FRIENDS RULE’ TOUR:
11/17     Nashville, TN                                   Marathon Music Works
11/19     Asheville, NC                                   Orange Peel
11/20     Charlotte, NC                                   The Fillmore
11/21     Washington, DC                               Echo Stage
11/22     Baltimore, MD                                  Ram’s Head Live
11/25     Wallingford, CT                                Dome at Oakdale
11/26     Philadelphia, PA                              Electric Factory
11/28     Boston, MA                                     House of Blues 
11/30     Montreal, QC                                   New City Gas
12/1       Toronto, ON                                    Danforth Music Hall
12/3       Royal Oak, MI                                 Royal Oak Music Hall
12/5       Chicago, IL                                     Aragon Ballroom
12/6       Minneapolis, MN                             Skyway Theatre
12/8       Milwaukee, WI                                Turner Hall Ballroom
12/9       Madison, WI                                   Orpheum Theatre
12/10     Kansas City, MO                             Arvest Bank Theatre at The Midland
12/12     Broomfield, CO                               1^st Bank Center
12/13     Salt Lake City, UT                           In The Venue
12/15     Portland, OR                                   Roseland Theater
12/18     Oakland, CA                                   Fox Theater
12/21     Los Angeles, CA                             Shrine Auditorium
1/16       Brooklyn, NY                                  Barclays Center