Spanning five full day and nights, 80 different venues, and over 1,300 musical performances, CMJ’s Music Marathon isn’t an ironic handle or a misnomer—it really is a marathon. And though it can feel daunting, there are so many great new musical discoveries to be made this week that it would be a shame not to at least catch some of it. Thursday, the battle between metal and grunge resumes when Public Assembly hosts the three-headed hydra that is the 1,000 Knives/MetalSucks/Metal Injection Showcase while Knitting Factory hosts the Sub Pop Showcase on the same night (gasp!). It’s like West Side Story, except instead of the Sharks there’s Pig Destroyer, a deathgrind hardcore-metal pack of face melters, rep-ing the sonic invasion at Assembly, and Pissed Jeans, the working class, grunge-influenced noise rock heroes of Sub Pop, keepin’ it real cool down at Knitting Factory. If those bigger name bands might be a little too intense for your aural palate, the place for you to check out is Pete’s Candy Store for the Highline Records Showcase and final day of CMJ. Folky, melodic, and sugary sweet indie acts abound, including Correatown, whose “indie dream pop” has been featured in the super hardcore scene of the Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack.
