LimeWire Music Blog

I’d managed to avoid Crash Mansion completely in my years of NYC showgoing, but Tuesday night ended my streak as I headed over to its hallowed halls in search of the Whitesmith Entertainment/CASH Music CMJ Party, happily stuffed with pumpkin schnapps, steak and potatoes. No kidding. I <3 U, Limewire. Let me tell you, it sure dulled the pain of $8 Brooklyn Lagers. Eff you, Crash Mansion.

ANYWAY, I arrived to find a lone Demander,  guitarist Dave Kurutz, when his bandmates suddenly appeared and performed a spectacular shotgun set after only a few minutes of sound checking. Formerly a straightforward three-piece of bass, drums, guitar, Demander have added a synth for a spacey, retro feel, adding a spooky, biting element to their already-powerful punch. Drummer Sivan Harlap was sequestered to the back of the stage in a strange setup, so bassist/vocalist Karen Correa sat on the edge of her drum set for company at times. They closed out the set with punk cheerleader anthem “Math,” for which they shot a video the weekend before.

Much to my delight, Margaret Cho bounded on stage with a friend and introduced them: “Hello, I’m Hag and this is Fag.” She then proceeded to lay on the braggadocio with self-penned hip hip songs, claiming “My puss won 15 Tonys /Yo’puss hang down to yo’ knees.” Ouch!

Sydney Wayser could slide into the category of easy listening if only for her silky-smooth voice, but her quirky backup band and affinity for puppets adds just the right amount of weirdness to her sound. I was charmed by “Pomegranate,” a longing, hollow song about Persephone’s journey to Hades and her eventual discovery of the light. If Thao Nguyen spent some more time with her introspective side, it would sound a lot like Sydney Wayser, Oh, and the former needs a van for tour, so drop a line if you can help her out.

My old-lady 9-5 self began to tire after Sydney, but I decided to hang tough and check out Family of the Year, who I’d read about in SPIN while waiting for a doctor’s appointment. Fate’s funny like that. While Los Angeles-based Family of the Year have certainly got cute boy/girl harmonies and flower-child outfits on lockdown, they failed to capture me, as I felt like I’d heard their brand of airy sunshine and rainbows before. Call me picky, but if you’re gonna have three guitars on stage, give ‘em more interesting things to do!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to head back out to my week of CMJ Lite (badge, schmadge) and get my nachos and prog rock on.

All images by Mark Sperry. Special thanks to Emily White.