CMJ Through the Lens, Day Four: Flosstradamus, Neon Indian, Grillade
By
October 27, 2010
The CMJ Music Marathon has once again descended upon New York, turning nearly a hundred venues in the city into destinations for hardy showgoers to find their next obsessions. This year, Interview is documenting the marathon photographically.
We kicked off our CMJ Friday at the former Annex space, at 152 Orchard Street, for the Green Label Sound party. The bar was open, and the sound of the DJ’s, Flosstradamus, filled the space while bands set up and broke down their equipment. By the time we arrived, Theophilus London was onstage and rapping to beats to which any crowd (really—any crowd) could relate. Neon Indian, the toast of the summer’s “chillwave” obsession (thanks for that, Carles), disappointed no one with their indie-electro show; the crowd swayed back and forth gratefully.
After the Green Label Sound party, we headed to Brooklyn to catch some of the showcase at Glasslands, where Ragen Fykes, frontwoman of Grillade, sang her heart out—we haven’t heard a set of pipes that powerful in quite some time. And when she introduced Freddie Gibbs as the evening’s special guest, the crowd went nuts. Gibbs delivered the coolness of Snoop Dogg and the storytelling of De La Soul. We downloaded some of his tracks immediately upon arriving home—and isn’t that what CMJ’s all about, anyway?
