The CMJ Music Marathon kicks off today and we’ve been resting up and drinking plenty of water in preparation for five nights of sleeplessness and perhaps one celebratory shot too many.

Over the next five days we’ll be bringing you coverage of the biggest bands and best surprises from New York City’s largest annual music festival. From highly anticipated acts like The xx and The Antlers to those with underground buzz like Boogie Boarder, ZAZA, Bodega Girls and nearly a thousand others, you’ll find complete festival coverage right here.

We’ll also be Tweeting from shows, so if you want to be in the know as we know, follow us over at our Twitter page. And hey, if you didn’t score a badge this year or just don’t have the money to fork over for a zillion shows, do it the Mogwai way.

Bear Hands, The Antlers, The xx, Múm, Broadcast, Margaret Cho, Busta Rhymes, We Are Country Mice, Suckers, Japandroids, Hockey, Pitbull, Black Whales, Poingly, Speech Debelle, School of Seven Bells, Hercules and Love Affair, The Uglysuit and several hundred others will hit various stages across New York City for this year’s CMJ Music Marathon, held October 20-24.

Artists will perform at venues all over Manhattan and Brooklyn, films will be screened at two theaters and panels will be held at NYU’s Kimmel Center. “The Messenger” starring Woody Harrelson, and “The Men Who Stare at Goats” starring George Clooney will be screened, while Rakim and Andrew W.K. are scheduled to appear as panelists.

For the full CMJ schedule, searchable by venue, date and more, click here.

And perhaps after playing this year, The xx will add the CMJ Marathon to their list of favorite music festivals.

I found myself overloaded on CMJ last week and my brain hasn’t really been able to think of much else since. Though I did day-by-day coverage over the course of the week, I thought I’d do a look-back and run some superlatives just like in high school.

Best Dressed, Male: Project Jenny, Project Jan (Wednesday @ Pianos)
I expected some stiff competition from Yip-Yip in this category, but their new costumes aren’t quite as amazing as the old ones. As a result, Jeremy Haines from Project Jenny, Project Jan easily snags this spot by donning his white suit looking sharp and stylish at Ear Farm’s party Wednesday at Pianos.

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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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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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