Forget D&G (Just For This Week!)

And check out Dean & Britta and The Rosebuds at this year's CMJ Marathon.

By David Callicott

Click here for more photos of Dean & Britta and the Rosebuds at CMJ!

The Rosebuds, above, well, one of them anyway.



CMJ festivities kicked off yesterday with a special screening of Todd Haynes’s I’m Not There, which we pay homage to in this month’s BlackBook magazine Music Issue (currently on the shelf at your friendly neighborhood newsstand). As we’ve already explained, BB cover girl Cate Blanchett is nothing less than amazing in the role of Jude Quinn, one of the film's several fictionalized Dylan characters. The imaginative biopic—which stars Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Richard Gere, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Christian Bale, and many others, and brings us such voices as Richie Havens, Mason Jennings, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, and the great Mr. Zimmerman himself—got us in the perfect mood for this week’s marathon music and film showcase.

Photography by Alexander Wagner

After dinner, we found ourselves at the Bowery Ballroom, where local music authority and blogger ;strong>Brooklyn Vegan was throwing a party flavored with some sweet and savory indie pop. We unfortunately missed The Most Serene Republic, but caught Dean & Britta’s set. The former Luna luminaries, who were recently profiled in the New York Times’s “A Night Out With” column and are known for scoring Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and The Whale, had the Bowery stuffed with bearded geeks and high-heeled debutantes. Backed by drums and keys, cool Dean (on guitar) and sexy Britta (on bass) reminded us of the New Pornographers on Prozac, which may sound like a left-handed compliment, but is a compliment nonetheless. Breezy n’ easy, that’s the D&B sound, and we like it.

Next came The Rosebuds, who were en fuego and having as much fun on stage as we wish all bands did (fuck the too-cool-for-school shoegazing stage presence). High-fives from the hottie blonde keyboardist Kelly Crisp, infectious smiles from the ax-wielding Ivan Howard, and melodies painted with strokes of the Strokes—the Rosebuds worked the crowd into a lathered pother. (Alluding to Howard’s hobo-hipster look, the heckle of the night goes to: “Hey man, your boxcar is double-parked outside.”)

The evening finished off with a much-anticipated set from the Austin outfit Voxtrot. Although these boys are obviously good at what they do—playing simplistic pop as catchy as herpes—they weren’t our favorites. Who cares though? The young girls loved them. And for the band, that’s probably all that matters.

Download The Rosebuds’ “Get Up Get Out” here!