Brooklyn Vegan Announces Its FREE Fri. & Sat. CMJ Day Parties (with Free Booze!)

The Brooklyn Vegan CMJ day parties are back this Friday and Saturday, Oct. 16th and 17th, to send the music marathon off with a bang. Once again, BV is combining killer lineups with free booze (Bell's beer on both days, samosas on Saturday, depending on when you get there and while supplies last). Read about 2014's BV CMJ day parties.

You'll notice that a number of the bands we mentioned in our CMJ 2015 post are playing the BV day parties. (Including the popular Car Seat Headrest which, as BV notes, happens to have its new album "Teens of Style" streaming at NPR Music.) Both parties are at Baby's All Right, 184 Broadway in Brooklyn. Friday's BV show runs from Noon to 7 p.m., while Saturday's shindig stretches the day party concept by going from noontime into the night and ending at the stroke of the following morning.

Friday's set times:

12:15 Long Beard
1:00 The Album Leaf
2:00 Ezra Furman
2:45 Car Seat Headrest
3:30 Yung
4:15 Superheaven
5:15 Makthaverskan
6:00 Porches

Saturday's set times: 

11:00 a.m. - Doors
11:29 FREE SAMOSAS BEGIN
11:30 Murals
12:00 FREE KEG OF BELL's BREWERY BEER BEGINS
12:15 Petal
1:00 Martin Courtney of Real Estate
1:45 Methyl Ethel
2:30 The Gotobeds
3:15 Shopping
4:00 Dilly Dally
4:45 Stealing Sheep
5:30 The So So Glos
6:15 Wildhoney
7:00 Frankie Cosmos
7:45 Jessica Lea Mayfield
8:30 Meat Wave
9:15 The Lemon Twigs
10:00 Mothers
10:45 Lilys

2015 CMJ Music Marathon Now Underway in NYC! Ideas on Who to See

See below for recommendations on what to see at CMJ 2015.

The five-day live-music extravaganza known as CMJ is on again! The annual CMJ Music Marathon, now in its 35th year, started today and runs through this Saturday, Oct. 17th. Besides multiple official showcases each night in a range of venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn, there are day parties as well at some of the same venues, sometimes starting as early as 11 a.m. Plus there are numerous unofficial shows.

So what should you see? Begin by going to the CMJ Music Marathon website. Then download the official CMJ mobile app, available for iOS and Android. With the app, you can listen to bands, read their bios, connect with their social-media accounts, and, of course, discover where they're playing at CMJ. Wondering which bands you'll like? The app's "Recommender" feature connects with your Facebook account to suggest artists that might be right up your alley.

Speaking of recommendations, here are some suggestions from the music blogosphere on who to catch:

• CMJ staff picks
• The Oh My Rockness guide to official CMJ 2015 shows
• OMR's 15 bands to see at CMJ (with Spotify playlist)
• L.A. radio station KCRW's seven amazing bands to catch (with Spotify playlist)
• England's influential magazine NME tells you the 15 bands playing CMJ that everyone's going to be talking about

Some of the names that show up on a number of must-see acts: Protomartyr, Car Seat Headrest, Diet Cig, The Big Moon, Methyl Ethel, The Gotobeds, Dilly Dally, Perfect Pussy, and Hooton Tennis Club, to name a handful.



Among the events we're looking forward to seeing:

• The Outlaw Roadshow, put together by Ryan Spaulding (of RSLblog.com) and Adam Duritz (of Counting Crows), which runs Thursday through Saturday at Bowery Electric (doors at 6 p.m.) See what we wrote before last year's CMJ Outlaw Roadshow
• the Kiam Records showcase Wednesday at Brooklyn's Union Pool, featuring label-mates including Jennifer O'Connor, Amy Bezunartea, and Tim Foljahn, staring at 6:30 p.m. See a recent New York Times article on Amy Bezunartea
• The Unblinking Ear show with The Gotobeds, Spray Paint, and other acts, MC'd by WFMU DJ Pat Byrne, also at Union Pool, on Saturday starting at 2 p.m.

Cake Shop (on Ludlow St.) has plenty of CMJ gigs; see their full calendar. (Diet Cig plays there Wednesday; Car Seat Headrest and Hooton Tennis Club on Thursday.)

Rest up, bring your earplugs, and get ready for as much live music as you can possibly handle.

South By Southwest 2015 Music Festival: Free Downloads, Webcasts, & More

See below for details on free SXSW Music downloads and more.

Today is not just St. Patrick's Day, it's the kickoff of the music portion of the sprawling South By Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas. Here's our guide to how to take part in SXSW Music if you're not there, an annual (usually) feature of Podcast Party.

NPR Music is doing its usual extensive coverage, including song downloads and streams, live webcasts, podcasts, previews, and more.

• listen to NPR's All Songs Considered SXSW 2015 preview 
• listen to or download their hand-picked collection of 100 songs from this year's SXSW artists, the Austin 100 (you can download all or just the ones you want) 
• and read their article on how to experience SXSW Music without being there

(If you want a lot more free song downloads from SXSW 2015 artists (and we mean a lot), go to the unofficial SXSW torrent page. It features two parts containing a total of more than 8 gigabytes of tunes.)

NPR hasn't announced a webcast schedule yet, but we'll update this post when (if?) they make this info available. They also do "late-night dispatch" podcasts each night of SXSW Music, in which each of the NPR Music correspondents on hand sum up the best acts they've seen that night (sometimes recorded in random places like a parking lot).

[Update, March 18th: NPR's SXSW showcase takes place tonight and while it won't be streamed live, it will be posted online "in the days after the concert." The show features Australian Courtney Barnett (playing her new, not-yet-released album live) ... Belgian singer Stromae, who's gotten hundreds of millions of views for his video "Papaoutai" ... and TV On The Radio, playing tunes from their latest album, "Seeds."]

Santa Monica's KCRW also has great SXSW coverage. Start with this article on "Newbies to Know at SXSW 2015." And see KCRW Music during the week for more coverage.

Also, check out Podcast Party's coverage from previous years, including 2013, 2012, and 2011.

Enjoy!

Sharon Van Etten Plays New Song at Hometown Gigs

Brooklyn-based Sharon Van Etten played two shows at Warsaw in her home borough this week on the latest leg of her tour to support her most recent album, "Are We There." The fans in attendance at Wednesday's show (including various members of the New Jersey native's family) heard a lot of songs that album, and were also treated to a new song, "I Don't Want to Let You Down," which Van Etten debuted on "The Ellen Show" last month (see video below).



Van Etten has been a Podcast Party favorite for several years now, since her breakthrough album, 2012's "Tramp." Last year's "Are We There" continues her progress as a singer, songwriter, and bandleader, and despite her success she maintains her quirky, humble demeanor. (She had to re-start perhaps her best-known song, "Serpents," after realizing her guitar was in the wrong tuning.)

Her band, which includes back-up singer and multi-instrumentalist Heather Woods Broderick, is always in good form, and the heartache and emotion in Van Etten's lyrics and singing on her records are just as evident in her live performances.

She's off to the Asia-Pacific region and Europe for a bunch of shows, but will be back in the States for some festival gigs, including Boston Calling, Sasquatch, and Governors Ball in New York. (See all Sharon Van Etten tour dates.)

Sharon Van Etten with Brad Cook and Heather Woods Broderick at Warsaw Wednesday.

Warsaw, a club situated inside the Polish National Home in Greenpoint, is the only concert venue we've been to where you can get kielbasa and pierogies made by Polish ladies. Now that's a bonus you're not going to get anywhere else. (I had the kielbasa hero, a piece of the sausage on a short hoagie roll, with sauerkraut. Mmmm.)

You can grab some pierogies or kielbasa at Warsaw.

Opener Leon Bridges is an impressive newcomer, performing blues and R&B tunes in the tradition of classic artists like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. He's been playing a number of dates on Van Etten's current tour and is working on his first album.

Leon Bridges and band at Warsaw.

2014 CMJ Update: Outlaw Roadshow Begins Today; BV Saturday Lineup Announced

CMJ rolls onto its third day (and night), and here are a couple of updates (see our first CMJ 2014 post here). The Outlaw Roadshow, created by blogger Ryan Spaulding and Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz, is back this year and its three-day run of free gigs begins tonight at 7 p.m. at Bowery Electric (the venue for all three shows). Check the link, for you might still be able to RSVP for the shows (but make sure to get there early even if you do get confirmation).

The Outlaw Roadshow begins tonight at CMJ. See details below.

Tonight's Outlaw Roadshow lineup features Hollis Brown, Matt Sucich, Christian MacNeil & Seamonsters, Lily & the Parlour Tricks, Dan Blakeslee, and more. See the Bowery Electric website for more info.

Besides being free and having some good talent, the Outlaw Roadshow has this year's best CMJ poster hands down, in our opinion.

Brooklyn Vegan has now posted the lineup for its free Saturday day party. And the headliners are none other  than the NJ-based metro area punk favorites, Titus Andronicus. (See the full line-up on the poster below, and RSVP here.) Oh, and there's free beer, rum, and tattoos, BV notes. Sounds good to us. Both the Friday and Saturday shows are at Baby's All Right.

2014 CMJ Music Marathon Starts Today! Tips on What to See

See tips below on the best bands to see at CMJ 2014.

Prepare for live-music overload: the five days of the CMJ Music Marathon starts in just a few hours, Tuesday, Oct. 21st. That means hundreds of bands will be playing all over New York City. And you can see a lot of them for free (note: you may have to RSVP for many free shows, and then show up early because even with an RSVP the gigs are first come, first serve). And there are lots of unofficial shows, as well.

If you've got a flexible schedule and can make it to the daytime showcases, so much the better.

To dive into the massive number of acts, take a look at the official CMJ schedule (and download their free Oct. 2014 mixtape, featuring tunes from Purling Hiss, Young Magic, Matthew Dear, and more). For a more manageable, curated look at what's worth seeing, check these links (we've added more as we've come across them):

• The Oh My Rockness guide to official CMJ shows, list of 14 bands to see, and free shows during CMJ
• Flavorpill's "10 CMJ showcases you don't want to miss"
• NME's "16 bands you can't afford to miss at CMJ 2014"
• Time Out New York's "10 acts to see at this year's CMJ"
• Brooklyn Vegan takes a local perspective with "10 NYC artists to see at CMJ this week" (and see BV's own five shows at CMJ)

Here's a sampling of just a few of the showcases and other events going on during CMJ (which runs from the 21st to the 25th):
* No Sleep till CMJ II unofficial showcase from No Sleep Records & Brooklyn Vegan (Oct. 21st, 6 p.m.) at The Paper Box, Brooklyn with John Nolan, '68, Chris Farren, Run Forever, & more
* Bowery Presents day party (Saturday, Oct. 25th) at Piano's with The Wytches, Circa Waves, Water Liars, DMAs, & more
* Conscious Coupling showcase by Father/Daughter Records and Miscreant Records (Friday, Oct. 24th, 2 p.m.) at Silent Barn, Brooklyn with Comfy, Flagland, Girlpool, Bent Shapes, Leapling, & more
* Brooklyn Vegan free day parties (Oct. 24th & 25th, 12 Noon) at Baby's All Right, Brooklyn with Twin Peaks, Single Mothers, Protomartyr, & more (on Friday; Saturday lineup to come)

Rest up, check these lists and the CMJ website, and prepare for a great five days of live-music bingeing!