CMJ Day One: Hollerado, Mr. Dream, Delicate Steve, Chad Valley, Class Actress

Better than: Trashing a hotel room and sex acts with a shark.

In a CMJ world more than mildly dominated by moody bedroom electronica, Mediterranean sea-breezes, adolescent posse rap, and heaps of fashion-conscious twee and/or gloom, there aren't nearly enough opportunities to catch muscular, meat-and-potatoes rock music.

So when Adam Moerder, singer and guitarist of Brooklyn three-piece Mr. Dream, asked the audience at Glasslands, "Do you guys like big dumb rock songs?" it was as much hypothetical meta-debate starter as it was refreshing banter. The relatively tame crowd at the Stereogum/Popgun showcase Tuesday night needed to think about the question a bit more before getting back with an answer, but they nevertheless seemed eager to stick around—and perk up when Titus Andronicus took the stage.

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Willie Davis

Eleanor Friedberger.

4Knots Music Festival: Mr. Dream, Eleanor Friedberger
Pier 17, South Street Seaport
Saturday, July 16

Better than: Showing up late.

I have this problem—it's well known among my friends—where I arrive at things (shows, parties, etc.) on time. Usually this results in me either a) attempting to read my book through the warm-up music at whatever dimly lit venue I'm at this week or b) bankrupting myself by buying a mixed drink at the bar. So, for a person like me, it's nice when I come to something that starts at 1:00 at, well, 1:00 and find my punctuality rewarded. And when I can get a buzz going without turning to the savings account, I know it's my day.

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Archers of Loaf
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Saturday, June 25

Better than: The banging club night going on next door at Public Assembly, where outside the line stretched around the corner and a guy had passed out on the sidewalk.

Some might think it's a slight exaggeration to say that Archers of Loaf were the epitome of 1990s indie rock, but it's an arguable position. The band did what it did better than a lot of its contemporaries. Like Pavement, Archers' music was pleasingly sloppy, but it was free of formless jamming and overly cryptic lyrics. Like Superchunk, the guitars grated and swelled into massive waves of punk-rock distortion and squealing bent strings, but they rarely fell back on form-and-file pop-punk power chords. And like Built to Spill, they knew how to write a perfect indiepop tune, sometimes slowing it down and letting Eric Bachmann's scorched-throat singing carry a song, but they didn't let sweetness or sentimentality soften the deal. Since Archers' demise in 1998, only Bachmann has really continued making music via his pleasantly folksy project Crooked Fingers, although CF has never come close to the visceral slapdash of his former band. Then again, that might have been the point—at the very least, his vocal chords needed a rest.

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The first annual 4Knots Music Festival—free, at South Street Seaport—takes place on July 16; Mr. Dream will perform at the all-day show at Pier 17. In addition to the day's roster of bands—which also includes The Black Angels, Titus Andronicus, Davila 666, Oberhofer, and Eleanor Friedberger—being finalized, the DJ lineup for the 4Knots Lounge, located at 210 Front Street and open from 2 p.m. to midnight, has also been announced; artists spinning that day include Dan Deacon, Yeasayer, Finger on the Pulse, PUNCHES, and Brahms. More info at the official site.

It's one of our great regrets we were out of town the weekend SOTC pals Mr. Dream invited a bunch of people to put on ski masks and come rob their practice space while they were playing in it, but at least now we have the video evidence--shot in 1:1 security cam verité, no less. The song is "Crime," the handsome face above belongs to drummer Nick Sylvester, and you can watch the whole thing right here, via Stereogum:

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Pic via NYC Taper

Yes, we are quite fond of not-at-all-lo-fi Brooklyn rock band Mr. Dream. Yes, we know several of the dudes therein personally. And yes, there some of us were, Friday night at Glasslands, for a sold-out show capping a huge week for the band: Their debut album, Trash Hit, is out at last, well received by the rock-crit cognescenti from which several of the dudes therein originally sprung. And thus does dear friend-of-SOTC Nick Sylvester have occasion to tell L Magazine about how he used to take girls to the restaurant where Zach Braff worked at the beginning of Garden State. The Internet is magic.

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You will have your type of nostalgia, and we will have ours: to us, the debut LP from Brooklyn trio Mr. Dream (out today, at last) feels like a dazed walk back through the last 25 years of Jesus Lizard, Big Black, and Nirvana records, all arch sarcasm, drawling melodies, a peculiarly grown-up mix of frustration and amusement. But the record's fun too, and funny, knowing but unembarrassed about its influences--and made by three of this blog's friends and favorite people, so take all of the above with a grain of salt, or just listen to it yourself. We've got the whole album streaming right here (cop your very own copy from eMusic for cheap):

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Our pal Nick Sylvester passes along the info and flyer for a show he's curating with Columbia and Barnard's WBAR radio station, featuring his own band, the Best of New York-garlanded Mr. Dream, along with recent YIMBY honorees (and in-house SOTC favorites) Sweet Bulbs, the ex-Hercules and Love Affair disco outfit Midnight Magic, local punks Sleepies, and the suitably psychedelically named Amen Dunes. Friday in Columbia's Hewitt Dining Hall, doors at 8 p.m., and free to all. It's like the reincarnation of those charmingly lo-fi shows that happen all the time at colleges all across this country and hardly ever in NYC, where college bands just go ahead and become Vampire Weekend instead. Seriously though, Sweet Bulbs:

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Stereogum is already calling these guys post-"Knuckle Sandwich," which is funny--writing the next song is just what bands are supposed to do, right? Nevertheless, that site's Brandon Stosuy is indeed onto something: if "Knuckle Sandwich" was the howling, hobo-killing winter theme song for any number of surly Brooklynites, "Scarred For Life" is the terse, sweaty summer analog--too full of loathing to even get off the couch. Sung by Mr. Dream bassist Matt Morello, whose employment in a sector other than journalism we are contractually obligated to note. Never mind that drummer Nick Sylvester works for the Colbert Report, which is in fact a TV show, or that guitarist Adam Moerder's last name can and should be pronounced "Murder." Both are tarred with the Pitchfork brush. Somehow, we know the feeling.

Download: Mr. Dream, "Scarred For Life"

Alexis from Sleigh Bells, upstaging M.I.A. All photos by Rebecca Smeyne

Really, we could use a word for it, that New York area show in which a variety of factors combine--imminent album release, absurd amounts of press attention, fervent old guard musician co-signs, a sold-out room, a novel sound, maybe--to make one of the thousands of shows that take place every night in NYC into a kind of special event you can't ever really duplicate, though everyone is always trying. This was one of those: stadium-punk duo Sleigh Bells, who took the stage after midnight, and later bowed out doing "Ring Ring" (from Treats, out at long last tomorrow), with a little help from their label boss, M.I.A.; and the lo-fi murdering, Bleach-honoring, White Zombie-checking BK trio Mr. Dream, who've been due to play in front of this many people for nearly two years now. The only Brooklyn bill we can imagine liking more than this one right now would've had LCD Soundsystem on it. Photographer Rebecca Smeyne was there:

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