It’s nice to see CMJ’s annual music and film festival gaining strength again — I was particularly impressed with their premiering Oren Moverman’s worth-the-rental The Messenger starring Woody Harrelson. Here’s the partial 2010 line-up, clips of three band discoveries I made at CMJs past, plus the audience Q+A from last year’s screening of The Messenger.

School of Seven Bells had quite a buzz about them, and they’ve continued to grow, with a new album and tour in 2010. ‘Wish I’d hear more of the Seabellies these days as I thought they were a near-perfect blend of old and new as evidenced on this song…Anybody know what the mighty Seabellies are up to? ‘Really love this song, espesh the wonky sax and trumpets…Despite the guitarist from School of Seven Bells crying “Sabotage!” to the soundman at the beginning of this set, everybody got a grip and the siren songs began…

Ebony Bones’s set prompted this long bit of writing from me, in what turned out to be — for now — the final print edition of my beloved URB mag. In the video check out the guy with the glasses doing his own version of “The Rog”, as in Roger from TV sitcom “What’s Happenin’” Roger was the first person I ever saw do this very nerdy dance: look left, place your hand on your chin, look right, do same, repeat…

Last night at 205 Chrystie, just after 1 am, Nirvana’s cheerleaders got an update during Ebony Bones’s set, as one of the coolest singers and the two awesomest bandmate/back-up vocalists I’ve seen in a minute, went through alternately joyous and solemn dances in the spirit of “A small village in Africa”, per lead singer Ebony’s quip. And while their garb was tribal, they are far more steeped in subculture, namely that great tradition of conceptual British art-pop informed by a societal, political, and historical consciousness, expressed by the Bones crew to an at times harrowing and often rapturous and delirious pitch. During one moment the back-up singers vamped with a boppy, New Wave dolly coo, while asking a question pondered since time immemorial by thinkers like Morrissey, Eldridge Cleaver, et, al: “Why do we smile at the people that we hate? As Ms. Bones’s alarmed and stern tones occasionally erupted to an at times righteously guttural wail, more vengeful than plaintive, and if at times indifferent to perfect pitch, then all the better for it, the entire unit, from the Pharaoh head-garbed, shirtless guitarist to the more trad-dressing keyboardist and drummer whose dark brooding fantastical notes and tom-tom heavy on-the-third new wave stomp-friendly arrangements kept shit at a very high place for the entire set. Coming to this show after having heard a lovely set dripping with soul courtesy of Stones Throw, followed by the screening of the must-see documentary on 50-year plus traveling bluesman Andre Williams, “Agile, Mobile, Hostile”, this set from Ebony Bones capped off a brilliant night. This is one of the best bands I’ve heard in a while. You could compare ‘em to Blood Brothers, or Lene Lovitch, or Rip Rig & Panic, or The Higsons, or APB, or The Selector, or countless other groups, but these cats aren’t mercenarily derivative; what sounds Ebony Bones do carry of the past are the stuff that’s best worth remembering. — Michael Vazquez, URB Magazine

Woody Harrelson talks about hanging out with Charles Barkley, and more importantly, everyone discusses the aftermath — in human terms — of the US invasion of Iraq. I don’t love awards competitions but there were probably three missed Oscar noms here: Samantha Morton, Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson.

Raw video of The Messenger q+a which was one of the liveliest — or rather, the most earnest post-screening session at the 2009 CMJ Filmfest

Final Early Registration Discount Ends Tomorrow, 9/1 @ Midnight

DeVotchKa
Surfer Blood
Two Door Cinema Club
School of Seven Bells
Bad Books (feat. Kevin Devine and Manchester Orchestra)
Four Tet
The Drums
Ghostface Killah
Greg Dulli
Helmet
Lissie
Foreign Exchange
Katzenjammer
Kristen Schall And Friends
Dean And Britta
Bayside
Senses Fail
Jason Isbell And The 400 Unit
Salem
The Blow
Small Black
Big Freedia
Dominique Young Unique
Angus And Julia Stone
Frankie And the Heartstrings
Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr
Langhorne Slim

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