Also this issue:

Tropical Impressions
Caetono Veloso tells the truth.
-A.D. Amorosi

suitespot
-Peter Burwasser on Classical

Back to Basics
Which in The Divine Comedy's case means less rock, more baroque.
-Sam Adams

Flute Awakening
-Peter Burwasser

Right On Time
-Sam Adams

Catherine Irwin
-Sam Adams

Kim Richey
-Sam Adams

Jack Johnson
-Chris Parker

November 7-13, 2002

music

The Big Con

Bee aggressive: Atom and His Package win over the rambunctious crowd at CBGBâs on Halloween with a fight song about switching to the metric system.

Why Philadelphia bands play the CMJ festival.

by Patrick Rapa

There are a number of reasons a guy would wear a big, puffy bee costume in front of an uppity crowd at New York City’s famed CBGB’s club.

For one thing, it's Halloween. For another, it's Adam Goren of Atom and His Package -- author of songs like "If You Own the Washington Redskins, You're a Cock" and "(Lord, It's Hard to be Happy When You're Not) Using the Metric System" -- and he's not afraid to mix more than a little comedy into his punk. But Atom didn't put on the bee suit because the show is part of the CMJ Music Marathon.

That's not to say the four-day festival -- the largest of its kind, featuring panels, music-related films and over a thousand bands all over the city -- isn't sort of a big deal. It's supposed to be a great chance for artists to schmooze, network, show off, hang out and, hopefully, make some new fans. But none of them, at least not the Philly bands, seem to have any delusions that the Marathon will lead to some kind of Big Break.

"We were hoping to get discovered and leave in a limo full of cocaine and high-class escorts," jokes The Bigger Lovers' singer/guitarist Bret Tobias. "Short of that, it's really just like any other New York show, only you don't get paid." The power pop band's second CD, Honey in the Hive (Yep Roc) has received pretty good press recently, most notably from Rolling Stone, which gave it four stars. There was an enthusiastic, sizable crowd gathered for their performance at the Luna Lounge, a North Star-sized venue on the Lower East Side. Counting shows with previous bands, this is Tobias' fourth or fifth CMJ appearance. He's understandably lost count.

"Any night you play in New York at any time of year has the potential to be a showcase since the place is crawling with industry types, so it's not such a big deal to be playing during CMJ," he reasons. "But what the fuck, we play the game, ya know?"

If there is such a thing as a Philadelphia draw, it was split that night as rambunctious rockers The Capitol Years went on at the same time blocks away at the brand new Pianos club. "Pro: The bathrooms were super clean -- actually I think I was the first person to deflower one of them," says drummer Kyle Lloyd. "Con: The smell of fresh paint didn't help and the sound system really wasn't broken in."

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As for the festival itself, the young band wasn't sure what to expect. "We all felt a lot of pressure for some reason. Then, after we played our set, we were like "I was nervous for that?'" says Lloyd. "We are all slowly learning that you can't control everything and it all doesn't really matter in the end. You just have to rock 'n' roll all the time!" The Capitol Years' new EP, Jewelry Store, is due out Nov. 19.

Performing a 50-minute gig in an uncomfortable bee costume his friends made and stuffed with copies of the Village Voice, Atom and his little sequencer put a lot of time and energy into the performance, CMJ or not. Part of the excitement was playing the famous punk dive. "It was certainly cool to finally see it and understand that there are more terrible places to take a shit than CBGB's," he says. "Which is weird, because it would be pretty awful to have to make a doo doo there." (He handled hecklers well; when somebody made a Blind Melon crack he shot back with, "Yeah, Blind Melon invented the bumblebee.")

Asked if he's ever heard of somebody getting their Big Break at CMJ, Atom -- whose next CD, Attention! Blah Blah Blah will come out on Hopeless Records in February -- simply replies "Nope."

"Quite honestly, I asked myself why I was playing CMJ this year," he says of his second festival performance. "It's fun to go up and see some old friends, but because I've not made one connection-ish type relationship at any of the shows -- and they're really just like any other show, except there are hundreds of other shows competing and the bands don't really get paid -- I think I've probably played my last show as part of CMJ.

"Nine bands played the show I just played. Who the hell wants to encourage that overly large number of bands playing on one bill? Not me."