Wow! After my first taste of CMJ yesterday, I can see why people get so excited for it each year. For those of you unfamiliar with CMJ, it's a music and film festival that takes over most of the venues in New York for a week. The adventure began at around 1 as I left the hotel to go to CMJ headquarters. Following registration, I sprinted over to the Apple Store in Soho just in time to catch Thurston Moore's set.

Thurston Moore: 2PM, Apple Store Soho
Seeing Thurston live was quite a fortuitous event. Despite being a Sonic Youth fan since at least the beginning of high school, I have never managed to get around to seeing them live. Still, I've heard many stories about their legendary shows, and seeing Thurston play with his band gave me no doubt that these stories aren't exaggerated. Armed with only an acoustic guitar, I was expecting a stripped down performance, but Thurston dodged our expectations by filling the songs with marvelous instrumental breaks and at times, cascades of beautifully layered feedback that could only come from a member of Sonic Youth. Combine that with a very intimate performance setting at the Apple Store and the fact that Seu Jorge was standing next to me during the show and there isn't much more I could ask for.

1990's: 6:30PM, SPECTRE College Radio Party, The Village Underground
After a brief excursion over to the CMJ Film Festival, I got ready for the night ahead of me at SPECTRE's part at the Village Underground. After a Wii Table Tennis tournament, we were treated to a special performance by the 1990's. Coming into the show with just a bit of information I'd gathered from blogs, I was hoping for the best but not really knowing what to expect, and while I wasn't completely blown away, the band were just tight enough and their use of two singers allowed them to show off their impressively catchy vocal harmonies. If you like British bands like the Libertines, I think you would probably dig these guys.