We didn't have enough pull to send our interns on a sweater shopping spree with Drake while he was in town for Fashion Week, so we promised them the next-best New York experience: CMJ, with badges! While we're holding it down at the FADER FORT by FIAT, Patrick Lyons, Sam Katz, Kiran Samuel and Parker Bruce will be hitting the streets, wiggling through publicists, bands, college DJs and regular Brooklyn drunks and reporting on the entire festival as it happens. We told them to drink lots of water, sleep in and have fun—Check back here every day for wrap ups of their hopefully safe nights. Below, Parker and Kiran share their pre-fest jitters:
PARKER BRUCE: Well, this is baby’s first real CMJ. Having attended one showcase last year at Santos Party House to get my feet wet, tonight I go hard, taking on two Williamsburg showcases, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The plan is to treat this week as the Ultimate Christmas Present (Disney Channel TV movie reference intended). Light Asylum, Chelsea Wolfe, Titus Andronicus and Quilt await me with open arms, and I’m going to let them do to me what they will. I hope I survive until morning, but honestly, don’t really care if my friend’s denim jacket is all that’s left of me. As Thursday approaches, dreams of hanging out with Grimes, Bleached, and Gauntlet Hair fill my mind. Basically, I don’t plan to exist on a non-musical plane this week. What’s the point of living in the real world when good music is prostrating itself in front of me hither and thither? Isn’t that the only way to do CMJ properly? I say a vehement "Yes."
KIRAN SAMUEL: I live in central Jersey in a suburban town where the roads are filled with deer at night. New York is my escape, and CMJ is my week-long excuse to avoid my commute and Penn Station, and spend sleepless nights geeking out at shows and reporting back in the morning. Tonight, I'll be at Cameo Gallery to see festival thoroughbreds Wise Blood and Zambri at the Oh My Rockness showcase. Then I'm heading over to Afro-punk to catch Death, Ninjasonik and Cerebral Balzy. I've rocked with Wise Blood, Zambri and Ninjasonik before, but this will be my first taste of the other bands. Like a true Jersey girl, I still can't venture into Brooklyn without getting step-by-step directions from my iPhone, so I'll be experiencing these venues for the first time, too. Newb much? All I know is this: I predict a lot of dancing, some drinking and not a lot of sleep. The post-grad struggle!