James, Georgia and Ira kicked off the 2010 CMJ Marathon at MOG’s Brooklyn Bowl blow out. Only the second bowling alley gig of their career, they played to an audience of appreciative fans while folks on the alleys threw “Jersey-side” strikes in their honor.
They dumped a Farfisa in front of me but I got some nice shots anyhow. Hope you dig them.
I never to miss an opening act. I learned that lesson on my first concert adventure in June of 1971 at The Fillmore East. I attended a show by headliners Bloodrock. Bloodrock you might not remember unless you’re my vintage and even then probably for one radio hit, the dirgy “DOA”. Opening for them was a scraggly batch of Arizonans who were in the process of interpreting bits of the guignol and inventing horror rock. They were called Alice Cooper (as in the band, not the man). You get the point.
Once again – just this week at MOG’s CMJ event – I was blown away by a great opening band, Screaming Females. Screaming Females are in reality one screaming female, Marissa Paternoster, who lets her guitar do most of the screaming. Michael Abbate is on Bass and Jarrett Dougherty is the drummer.
It’s about big chunky distorted riffs you’ll actually remember, sleek not ploddy, punky vox with an interesting vibrato, nimble guitar solos that are integral to their songs melodic structures. Their CMJ set featured a healthy helping of tunes from their newest album. It’s called “Castle Talk” and it was released just weeks ago on Don Giovanni Records. I bought a copy at the merch table and have been enjoying their other albums on MOG the past few days.
I’m already a big fan of MOG, so it was a treat to be invited to a special CMJ show sponsored by the music subscription service. The event was held at Brooklyn Bowl and featured The Screaming Females, DOM and much loved Yo La Tengo.
Though MOG began as an online social network to help music fans share their likes and discoveries it has in the past year expanded into a full fledged music delivery system. For the nominal fee of $5.00 a month ($10 to be mobile) you have legal access to the continuously growing ocean of music on their servers These are not 30 second snippets from which you must choose to purchase, this is fully streamed tunes and albums.
As an inveterate collector, people have been surprised to hear me espousing the virtues of a subscription routine as my current source of music. I can only say that though I still have love of the “objects” of music delivery (LP’s, Cassettes, CD’s, 45rpm’s, even 8-Tracks) one issue arises after years of collecting – space. MOG comes along at just the time I have to ask the question “Where would I put the fruits of 50 years of collecting music if the physical collection continues to grow?”
What I find most rewarding about the MOG site is the ability to experiment to my heart’s delight. MOG effectuates its social origins to offer “moggers” playlist building and sharing options, as well as Facebook style friending of those who share similar tastes should they choose to do so. The “radio slider” on its player allows expansion of artists you’re hearing based on ID tags, therefore upping the likelihood you’ll find something new to enjoy.
Most importantly MOG offers the mobile user the ability to download as much music as their device can fit for those instances when connection is impossible or impractical, like when I’m driving through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel on the way to a concert. At this moment in time that is the clincher, the “cake-and-eat-it-too” feature, that makes MOG the best choice of current subscription services.
So thanks to the MOG folks for creating a way for me to continue to feed my ravenous music appetite without welcoming a visit from the producers of “Hoarders”, thanks for turning me on to the Screaming Females (a band I love today which I did not know on Monday) and thanks to Abigail of MMN for the invitation and kind greeting. Yes, we really are considering MOG 6 month starter subscriptions as Christmas presents.