Rumblefish (Stil) At CMJ Music Festival
It’s really hard to say what the best part of yesterday was; the music, the panels, the celebrity sightings. Raber and I started off the day by grabbing one of those much-talked about “real” New York bagels, hitting the street and making our way to Pianos just in time for me to discover my new favorite band, Eagle*seagull, who apparently Raber knew that I’d end up loving. I had a chance to chat with the band afterward and, fingers crossed, we’ll be featuring them on the Zach & Whit Show soon after we are able to add them to the catalogâ??
While still basking in the glow of my new musical best friend, we headed over to the Kimmel Center to take in some of the many panels taking place this year at CMJâ??where we totally ran into Rumble-artist Rachel Sage! Among the topics of discussion on our panels were, Indie Pioneers, Bands As Brands and the evolution of Music Supervision. Each panel was incredibly informative and intriguing, with the topic of licensing coming up repeatedly, and many of the panel members continually pointed out what Rumblefish is doing as the future of the music economy, as well as the best way for independent artists to get their music heard. In a few cases during the Music Supervision panel, Rumblefish was even named dropped several times by the various music supervisors! This made Raber and I instant celebrities, and after the panel was over we were inundated with artists looking to chat about working with Rumblefish. I can’t wait to get home and start sifting through all the great music we given. It’s great to know that the music supervisors appreciate all the work we do, and it was very cool how many great new artists are interested in joining the catalog now. Also, I’ve got to say, I hurt my neck from nodding so much in agreement to what the panelists said (note to aspiring catalog members: it is ALWAYS helpful if you can submit instrumental versions of your songs to us).
Our day continued with some celebrity sightings (Ryan Adams on the street; Kevin Smith at a Q&A for his new movie), a trip to Chinatown for a late-night dinner and then a slew of experimental late-night shows. I’m not sure what I enjoyed more: the electronica of Tobacco (which was accompanied by a hypnotic video that featured everything from old Richard Simmons video to footage of the Care Bears) â??
or the organ-led psych-noise of Crystal Antlers. Actually, it might have been Texans Best Fwends, who scream/sing along with their iPod next to giant blow-up gargoylesâ??
In short, there is no lack of original music here at CMJ. And though we dragged our exhausted butts home sometime after 3 a.m., we are ready to rock and roll bright and early this morning for an all-Portland line-up at the Knitting Factory.
