I have a fun little tradition whenever CMJ rolls around: skipping CMJ entirely. Who needs to see that many up-and-comers striving to impress bloggers and record label reps? I even got an invitation to go interview a DJ as though that were some huge get for me and not a desperate appeal for any kind of press whatsoever. (You should hear how mad these people get when you tell them you’ll do a write-up for $20.) But all that aside, the thing about CMJ is it’s full of bands with eye-wateringly bad names. Which means the truly excellent ones stand out. Here are those actual groups and performers I perhaps could have brought myself to watch: 

Bertrand Burgalat

Chance The Rapper

Grape Soda

Harvey Eyeballs

Itchy Hearts

Osekre and The Lucky Bastards

Pissed Jeans

Quilt

Radical Dads

Slug Guts

Speedy Oritz

The Disappointment

The Living Kills

The Orwells

The Toothaches

The Ugly Club

Vockah Redu

We Can’t Enjoy Ourselves

You Bred Raptors?

You Won’t

Anyway: better luck next time, bands with “Young,” “Bear,” “American,” “Ghost” or “Beach” in your name! You all sort of blurred together. 

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