Brooklyn Vegan Party At R Bar
By David Callicott
Click here for more photos from CMJ at R Bar!
Good time islands, above.
If it seems we were stalking the Brooklyn Vegan at CMJ, we weren’t. It just so happens that he was booking some of the best lineups of the week—bands that we’ve been wanting to check out for some time now. The Friday show at R Bar was definitely one of the strongest bills of CMJ, at least on paper. And that, coupled with promised gratis cocktails, was enough to pull us out into the rainy afternoon and into the weird setting of the R Bar.
The R Bar is a club with an identity crisis, a red-lit lounge that looks like it wants to be swanky, while at the same time striving for street cred with portraits of every ’70s punk legend imaginable. It’s not really set up for live concerts, no matter how small. But in a pinch, it’ll suffice. Or at least it did last week.
Fans piled into the back room to hopefully catch a glimpse of the bands that invariably swung from the stripper poles on the makeshift stage. L.A.-based all-girl punk band Mika Miko
Yeasayer took the stage next. These Brooklyn musicians are getting lots of hype, and now we understand why. Yes, they’re another indie rock band from the city, but they have a unique sound, with inventive song structures and some addictive vocals. Unfortunately, we just got a tease, as their set was no more than 20 minutes long. But maybe we’ll head over to Glasslands for their CD release party Tuesday night.
Next up: Black Kids, who maybe should be called Somewhat Black Kids and Some White Kids. But Black Kids is perhaps catchier. These sons and daughters of Jacksonville were one of the most buzzed about bands of the weekend, and the back room was a claustrophobic clusterfuck during their set. The Kids raged through a set of keyboard-heavy rock that felt like it was born about the same time as The Black Kids themselves. The Robert Smith-like vocals definitely added to that early ’80s sound, which was, well, nothing special.
Saturday Looks Good To Me followed, and we couldn’t help but wonder why anyone would name their band after an entire sentence. SLGTM was another unpindownable (neologism?) sub-genre in that amorphous realm of indie rock. Boy/girl vocals, bouncy tunes, and Detroit flavor—our photographer loved them.
The Montreal-based Islands were the inadvertent finale (hip hop royalty Yo Majesty was scheduled to close, but canceled last minute—bummer). This is another band that we had heard a lot about, and we’re glad we finally saw them. Islands played a beautiful set of lush, psychedelic pop. It was all umbrellas, stripper poles, and restrained drama, and it was a perfect end to the party.
