CMJ is finally over. For the fifth and final day I mainly stayed at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg for AAM’s day party and then iheartcomix’s party at night. In between, I stopped by Todd P’s free day show once more, which was outside on previous day but had been moved inside to the DIY venue Monster Island due to rain.

The best performance of the day was easily from Monotonix. In hindsight, I was sort of sad I left before their performance the night before at the Knitting Factory.

Monotonix threw water and beer all over the crowd, moved their drum set all over the venue (without really missing a beat), and made a complete mess of everything.

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It’s easy to be a little tired by the time the fourth day of CMJ’s Music Marathon rolls around; however, it didn’t stop folks from getting out to some awesome parties throughout the day. After stopping by the Pirate party at Fontana’s early in the day, I stopped by the Knitting Factory for Spectre’s Portland showcase.

Performances took place on multiple stages on the three-floored venue and sometimes the artists broke some of the rules. I probably would’ve completely missed some of the singer-songwriters on the middle floor had one not barged into the upstairs bar to perform unplugged spontaneously in the middle of his set. Rob Wamart set up in an ice cream truck outside of the venue.

Of course I couldn’t make it through the day without stopping by our own Uncensored Interview party at Santos Party House. I arrived early to scope out the scene and drink some free booze from Aperol and PBR. I think we all had a few pre-party jitters, but after downing a few as the crowd started to come in, they faded away as our DJs for the evening (DJ Rekha, Aaron LaCrate, and DJ Boo) pumped up the jams.

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Maris considered the wear and tear on his car for a trip downtown to uptown to be negligible and said he would not be invoicing the company. Of course, I couldn’t keep my smart ass mouth shut. “Ya, but the gas cost these days isn’t negligible, it’s… it’s, um, downright, um, big?” I looked around and realized I was not the only confused one. “Hey, just what exactly is the opposite of negligible?”

A-ha! A quest! Anyone within earshot of cubicle city immediately recognized that whatever task was being worked on was not as important as figuring out this problem. A crowd formed comprised of various nerds, laymen and egos all intent on being the victor in this semantic competition. We were gladiators battling a linguistic lion, our weapons of intellect pressed forward upon the beast hurling spears of suggestions. “Legible,” shouted David in a humorous attempt. Now anything that sounded vaguely like negligible was on the table.

(So what’s the opposite of negligible?)

It’s almost hard to believe that yesterday marked the halfway point of CMJ. We’ve seen so much already, but it’s also unbelievable that there are two more full days left. During the day I returned to the Red Bull Artist Lounge for a haircut and Todd P’s outdoor party as well where I caught a performance from Best Friends Forever.

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As I promised in a previous post, I returned to the Red Bull Artist Lounge today to get my hair cut and styled. I present to you before and after photos of the incident (click for “more” to get the after photo…it’s worth it). The stylist kept raving about how much he loved my hair and insisted that I keep the waves (my hair has a natural curl to it). I told him he could do whatever he wanted. I think he was a little wilder earlier in the week with the stylings.

Before:

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I have a Shark boner for KaiserCartel and am slightly jealous that they weren’t my middle-school music teachers. Seriously, how cool is it that they not only make great music, but they teach it to kids as well? I had the chance to meet Courtney and Benjamin at SXSW this year and promised them I’d come check out one of their shows.

Well, tonight at 9pm, KaiserCartel–sans Ivan the Duck sadly–will be bringing their unique live stylings (trust me, their finale is worth the price of admission) to Rehab on Ave B as part of CMJ 2008. I’m so there, single-malt whiskey neat tucked under my fin, head slowly bobbing back and forth, Uncensored Interview party invites haphazardly falling out of my jacket pocket. My only question is–who’s coming with me?

Oh, and if you haven’t purchased a copy of KaiserCartel’s amazing new record March Forth, then as Sarah Palin would say, you’re not a patriotic American and probably pal around with terrorists. OK, maybe that’s taking it a little too far, but you’re definitely not a maverick in my book.

There are many great things about New York City. And there are a few things naysayers say are bad about the city. But there is one thing that no one tells you about moving to New York. The Mexican food here sucks. Now I know what you’re saying–New York is the most diverse city in America with hundreds of thousands of Mexicans. I know. There’s no sense to this. It’s just true. New Yorkers do not know the wonderful goodness that is an excellent burrito.