Gerard Marcus
Ever since I moved to New York, CMJ has seemed pretty overwhelming. Mostly, it's because I get a little paralyzed by having to choose between so many great options. I spend hours trying to decide who I should go see, mapping out routes from one venue to another, desperately trying to figure out if there's some way I can make it to every act. By the end of the festival I've almost certainly had a great time, but there are usually a few regrettable missed opportunities that slipped through the cracks.
Adding to the frustration is the fact that I usually try to do some sort of coverage of all the shows I see, which gets increasingly difficult after I've made it through my first round or seven of beer.
This year I decided to change it up. One show for the blog. That's it. And if there was one show at CMJ that had more acts I wanted to see than any other, it was the Terrible Records X Cymbal X Pigeons & Planes showcase at Cameo Gallery in Brooklyn. I gave our wonderful photographer Brandon Bakus one simple task: take beautiful pictures. I'd say he did a good job.