Jon Pareles rounds up CMJ in the Times: The CMJ Big Break? Not Such a Big Deal: “Bands aren’t waiting for their big break anymore. Or if they are, they’re keeping mighty busy in the meantime. That was the gist of this year’s CMJ Music Marathon, the showcase for independent music that expanded to five days this year, presenting music day and night from last Tuesday through Saturday.”
This is more of a broader overview of the trends and implications of the entire festival than the detailed micro-level reviews in the blogs.
Also in the Times today, The Bowery Presents is showing that they have a good PR person, with another article about their purchase of Northsix and the club’s impending transformation into the Williamsburg Music Hall: Polishing the Grunge: “Williamsburg is not losing a rock club, then, but gaining one that may be more suited to its current state of gentrification, to the 40-story condos being planned along the East River nearby. Where Northsix has distressed, paint-caked wood floors and rudimentary high-school-style risers, the Music Hall will have balconies and a big-city gloss.”