Wednesday night at The Bitter End in the West Village started with the understated majesty of New York/Philadelphia quartet Second Child (pictured). Playing warm, folk-inflected songs that found notable beauty with the harmonizing of lead singer Alex DeSimine and bassist Alex Tremitiere, the band subtly moved the listener but didn’t forget to straight-up thrill; their funked-up cover of David Bowie’s "Fame" enlivened the previously focused crowd, several hoots and shouts flying out. While Dirty Projectors are probably more similar to them, it’s exciting to see that Second Child can get loose like The Thin White Duke did on some of his earlier tracks. At Le Poisson Rouge, Oakland/Chicago rocker Ezra Furman finished his set with a gloriously riotous rendition of Arcade Fire’s "Crown of Love," the gradual nature of that ‘Funeral’ standout reverting into sax-backed wildness and the green-haired Furman’s lightning-quick guitar picks. Back at the End, New York four-piece The Grasping Straws drifted into slow, drum-marched songs that, particularly with frontwoman Mallory Feuer’s drawn-out and bluesy vocals, recalled the lo-fi glory of early Cat Power. Taking their time rather than rushing towards easy shock, these tracks intrigued with their very patience and calm and, perhaps most importantly, were ultimately moving, their tumbling quality enabling the audience to both engage and reflect. Down on the Lower East Side, Brooklyn’s French Horn Rebellion sent the evening out with feel-good dance tracks full of both jittering electronics and rubbery horns. Brothers Robert Perlick-Molinari and David Perlick-Molinari wore matching Glasslands T-shirts and, with their hip sways and head bobs, they seemed to throw a party not just for that lost venue but for the institution of live music itself. – Zach Weg  

My second night of CMJ started at DROM in the East Village. The lineup consisted it three NYC-based artists: Mackenzie Shivers, Lance Breakfast, and Kenyon Phillips & The Ladies in Waiting. Shivers started the night at the piano. Her music can be classified as folk pop, but listening closely, both country and celtic influences animate her melodies. During her track, “Fourth of July,” Shivers’ voice, harmonizing with another singer, swamped the venue in a sound that was emotional and authentically beautiful. She was also the pianist for the next two acts: Lance Breakfast stepped onto the stage wearing an NYU t-shirt and strumming on a baby blue guitar – or was that an electric Ukulele? Breakfast’s music floated between genres. His voice, gruff and weighty, suggested folk, but his band’s instrumentation, which was clear, organized, and hard-hitting, leaned towards rock n’ roll and blues. Although most of his tracks were consistently up-tempo, I appreciated Breakfast’s slower, quieter, moments. It was only then I could hear his lyrics. Progressing through the night, each act amped up the volume and tempo. So, by the time Kenyon Phillips & The Ladies in Waiting hit the stage, the audience was ready for some punch. Phillips commanded the stage with wide-eyed theatricalism; while watching him sing track “Born to Be Famous” I couldn’t help but think that he made a good case for it. Towards the end the night, I headed west to The Studio at Webster Hall. Up next was Cardiknox, (pictured, who recently moved from NYC to LA) and it was the most fun set of the night. Lead singer, Lonnie Angle, bounced around the stage, and her performance energized me and the audience. Angle’s singing is ethereal and amplified by backup vocals, but there is nothing dreamy about Cardiknox. Almost midnight, Angle yelled into the microphone, “Let’s keep fucking doing this.” Their synth-driven anthems were so energetic and empowering, no one at Webster Hall was wishing they were asleep. – Isabel Rolston

Wednesday night on the Lower East Side started with unabashed energy as Sag Harbor, New York-hailing duo The Glazzies performed its guitar-stormed tracks at Pianos’ Upstairs Lounge. Along with drummer Dave Horn, whose Johnny Cash T-shirt added to the room’s ominous yet warm aura, singer Peter Landi broke into tight songs that conveyed the passionate angst of Nirvana while burning the mirror-paneled stage with its own punk fire. Just across the street at Arlene’s Grocery, New Jersey quintet Owel delivered a shinier but no less fiery sound, frontman Jay Sakong and his bandmates playing soaring, violin-girded cuts that recalled the grand-rock of Muse but glowed in a unique halo of ferocity and sonority. Fellow five-piece Controller (pictured, scheduled to play our Pianos indie show on Friday) took the bustling Arlene’s next, jumping into pop-bubbled rock pieces that almost sounded like Bruce Springsteen beside a synth station. There was also something of ’80s dance in these delightfully loud songs, as vividly seen in lead vocalist Jon Bellinger’s elastic sways and swoons, the movements of a bashful master of ceremonies. Back at Pianos, the five mustached men of Los Angeles’ Bird Dog brought things down to a somewhat calmer notch, their folk-inflected rock songs reaching particular beauty with gliding harmonies and topping the high-ceilinged hall with western sun. New York-via-Israel musician Tesha closed the evening a few blocks away at Fat Baby. Before a wall that had pictures of such hip-hop masters as Tupac, the computer-decked artist dipped into subtly moving fantasias of skipping beats and sputtering synths, almost holding time in a bewitchingly nocturnal instant and then releasing it back into the wee hours of the morning. – Zach Weg

The dimly-lit Arlene’s Grocery may have been rather empty yesterday afternoon (tough to fill up a NYC venue on an early Tuesday pm!) but it held several intriguing, strangely beautiful acts, booked by NYC promoters Siren Sounds. First up was the Brooklyn six-piece Captain Baby whose heavy guitars and warbled vocals conjured a darkly electric atmosphere, like something out of Gotham City. The Asher Rogers-led band also displayed a warmer side, though, their drum-pulsed last track (presumably from their debut album ‘Sugar Ox’) being catchy and even sexy. Next to take the disco ball-fronted stage were fellow Brooklyners Rosy Street. Down to frontman Kyle Avallone’s skinny black jeans and deep vocal rasp, the rock quartet was something out of filmmaker Jim Jarmusch’s universe, its ominous yet serene tracks of thin guitars and tumbling drums creating a spectral warmth. Afterwards came Henry Hall, a beguiling singer-songwriter whose hometown on his Facebook page amusingly states: "JFK//LAX." Along with his bassist Robby Caplan and drummer (apparently Nate Mondschein), Hall broke into the guitar-fuzzed songs (off his eponymous EP released earlier this year) that intriguingly sunk mellow R&B in hard rock, his virtuosic voice at times recalling Jack Black and at others Destiny’s Child and always commanding the room. Philadelphia-based rock trio Ron Gallo closed the afternoon with classic rock force, its thunderous guitar cuts (off a forthcoming album) fondly recalling Led Zeppelin and Cream while proving, as many of the songs from the previous groups did, that thrilling, committed music can occur at all hours of the day. – Zach Weg

Brooklyn singer/songwriter Carrie Ashley Hill just released the celestial lead single "Old Winds" and accompanying music video (playing below) off her forthcoming debut full-length ‘Orion, Low in the Sky.’ Humbly involving, the guitar-plained song sees a wandering heroine out there under the sky, reflecting on and seemingly admiring her easy-going approach to the world. As especially seen in its inventive, shape-shifting visuals (which were directed by award-winning, Texas-based, late-teen filmmakers, The Lenz Twinz), the track is the musical equivalent of a breath: vanishing yet blissful. Hill is set to release ‘Orion, Low in the Sky’ in November, and will perform on the 15th of that month at Rockwood Music Hall as part of Stories You Can’t Tell on the Radio Songs Only a Woman Can Sing: An Evening of Music and Storytelling. – Zach Weg   

CARRIE ASHLEY HILL – OLD WINDS – (Official Video) from Lenz Twinz on Vimeo.

Echo Bloom aka Brooklyn-based orchestral folk musician Kyle Evans takes a desperate yet ultimately sweet journey on his keys-sprinkled new single, "Leaving Charleston" (streaming below). With the warm vocal drawl of a country song and the drum-racing jubilance of a Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band track, "Leaving Charleston" engagingly sets a somewhat ominous tale of uncertain travelling lovers against sunny instrumentation, the hope of a bright future carrying the characters forward. The South-hailing Evans, whose Echo Bloom moniker derives from a term used to describe the offspring of baby boomers, doesn’t just intriguingly use counterpoint with "Leaving Charleston" but crafts a simply pleasant, warm cut. While he doesn’t seem to have any New York shows coming up, Kyle Evans will play at Philadelphia’s Xfinity Live this Saturday (10.10) and then go on an extensive tour of Germany from late October through all of November. – Zach Weg 

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This past Friday, New York anti-folk artist Mal Blum unveiled not just her fifth studio album ‘You Look A Lot Like Me’ but the unabashedly playful music video (streaming below) for album track "Robert Frost." Featuring the artist passing the time with her own dog (and periodically imitating it) while hanging out with friends on a sunny day, the co-directed visuals read as a thinker’s day off, Blum acknowledging the titular poet’s existential questions while enjoying some downtime. As revealed in a moving blog post, her latest release "came from a bad place, and an incessant desire to be understood and connect with people," and this bright clip is perhaps the fruit of that struggle. Mal Blum plays at The Mercury Lounge on 11.8. – Zach Weg 

Keenan O’Meara seems to hold music and life in the same palm, letting the two not just mirror each other but almost embrace in a partly painful, partly pleasant hug. A few times during a conversation on a recent morning at a Chelsea coffee shop, the Maryland-born individual spoke about his art by mentioning his general experience, reflecting outward his inner feelings. And that is just what he does with his September-released ‘Awful Creature’ EP; through searing, guitar-embered songs of troubled youths, anguished parents, and the flames that hurt but ultimately warm them, the Brooklyn-based musician looks inside and emerges with an intimately fiery work of art, a hearth from the cold. Taking time out of his tour with London musician Lianne La Havas, O’Meara talked about his background, his music, his creative process, and more.  – Read Zach Weg’s full interview with Keenan O’Meara.

Astoria rock quintet Side Saddle‘s music video (playing below) for "Legs for Days" (off its July-released EP ‘Young Professional‘) unravels piercing drama in country sun. To cascading guitars and marching drums, the Lauren Tracy-directed clip intriguingly juxtaposes a tryst and a funeral, close-ups of the smiling protagonist and his mistress intercut with those of his true lover staring out from black garb as she and his friends say their final goodbyes. It isn’t until the music-less final scene when the gravitas of the story becomes really deep as the man, awoken from this nightmare, shares a glance with his partner, the hidden infidelity now heartbreakingly revealed. With a story credited to Side Saddle frontman Ian McGuinness, the crisply-filmed piece is not just a compelling visual accompaniment to the track but a searing portrait of ruptured romance. Side Saddle has several shows coming up, including a slot at The Deli’s CMJ Roots Stage at Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2 on 10.14. – Zach Weg 

Loose Buttons are a young NYC based indie rock quartet bringing some sophistication (in the form of danceable grooves and refined guitars lines and melodies) to the gritty sound of the current local rock scene. Their latest track, released just a few weeks ago, is called "Thrill" (brand new video streaming below), and it’s a radio-ready example of the band’s talent. The guitars shift back and forth between garage-rock grit and reverb-heavy echoes, while Eric Nizgretzky’s vocals carry on in an ever-so-slightly distorted way that works well with the head-bobbing rhythms of the drums and bass. The single is the group’s first release since last year’s second EP, "Damage Gallery," but there has been no word on whether another record is in the works. Loose Buttons will be performing on October 15 – 17, at Alphabet Lounge, Fontana’s, and Rock Shop respectively, as a part of the 2015 CMJ Music Marathon. Check them out! – Patrick Wolff

Newly-formed Brooklyn rock quartet Young Cum unabashedly depicts the scary on its April-released two song debut. While the band’s guitar-scuzzed "Tradin’" (video streaming below) conveys a lost man’s vain reaches towards redemption, its similarly grainy "Bloodrage" goes downright macabre as it paints an ‘American Psycho’-like revelry in murder. Despite these dark stories, and as seen in the noirish black-and-white music video for "Tradin’," the Kate Bush-admiring group seems just eager to thrill. Young Cum plays at The Gutter on October 1st. – Zach Weg

The title track off New York/New Jersey drummer Mark Guiliana‘s August-released album ‘Family First’ demands attention. A ponderous, subtly thrilling piece of questing horns and percussive clasps, the jazz tinged track could almost be a quiet anthem for autumn. Guiliana, a widely-celebrated musician and teacher whose discography includes a collaborative LP with contemporary piano master Brad Mehldau entertaningly titled ‘Mehliana,’ isn’t just a thinker, though, as other ‘Family First’ track "One Month" conveys a looser side with ramshackle drums and an overall peripatetic pace, while repertoire from just a year ago flirts with electronic music – check out the streaming single "Flaw & Order." A deeply eclectic artist, Guiliana knows how to both provoke and entertain. He’ll be playing at The Jazz Gallery on Wednesday (9.30) and at (Le) Poisson Rouge on 10.16 – Zach Weg